Supernatural - 212 - Nightshifter

[roguem]

One word for this episode: Awesome.

Supernatural - 212 - Nightshifter 

I was kind of caught off guard by the beginning, the recap getting cut off by the news segment, and then seeing Dean come out of a bank with a gun to someone’s head. It had a great impact though: extremely well done. By the recap I figured we were dealing with another shapeshifter, and part of me thought that this was a shapeshifter and not Dean that was coming out of the bank.

I also had the same thought when we were taken back in time and Dean is talking to that saleswoman. Maybe just because I thought the pickup was very simple, but then again, it is Dean. And the clerk was practically throwing herself at him.

I like it when we’re brought directly in to the investigation; we know how they work by know, so it’s cool when they skip the groundwork.

 

Dean: Friggin' cops.
Sam: They're just doing their job.
Dean: No, they're doing our job, only they don't know it so they suck at it.

 

Did Sam’s ID say Han Solo?? I kind of doubt that it did, but it does look like it says Han Solo.

I loved Ronald and his mandroid theory, and he and Dean getting kind of exited by bringing T2 into the discussion. Dean is a little geek, and I love it. I think Dean felt a little connection to Ronald, and I liked that. He is a people person, when he wants to be. J

 

I think Dean was actually disappointed that Sam didn’t tell Ronald the truth. Otherwise I suspect Dean would have tried to stop Sam when he says he’s going to tell Ronald the truth. Just the look on Dean’s face as Sam is talking to Ronald.

 

I felt Sam was very condescending towards Ronald, while Dean was kind of enthusiastic that Ronald had been able to put together as much information as he had. Usually Sam is very understanding, but he doesn’t seem to go well with geeks, while Dean seems to really enjoy a geek’s company.

 

Sam: What, are you pissed at me, or something?

Dean: No, I just think it's creepy how good of a Fed you are. I mean, come on, we could have at least thrown the guy a bone. He did some pretty good legwork here.
Sam: (laughs) Mandroid?
Dean: Well, except for the Mandroid part.

 

Sam was a little to good at the Fed act, I gotta agree with Dean there. I also agree that Ronald did do good research, he wasn’t stupid, he just didn’t have all the information. Ronald basically solved a big chunk of the mystery for the boys.

 

Yay, security uniforms. I don’t know why, but I love them.

 

Dean: I like him. He says okey-dokey.
Sam: What if he's the shifter?
Dean: Well, then we follow him home and put a silver bullet in his chest plate.

I can’t help it, but I loved that Dean liked a guy just because he said ‘okey-dokey’. And the way Dean said it, just made me go ‘awwww’.

 

Dean: Looks like Mr. Okey Dokey is okey dokey.

 

Love that Dean checks out the girl’s ass. Sam is telling him off but he was distracted too, and it was Dean after all who found the shapeshifter and spotted what Ronald was up to. He knows how to do his job, so who can really blame him for taking a little break?

 

Ronald’s reaction to seeing Dean and Sam again was great; I would probably have freaked out a bit too.

 

Ronald: Get on the floor, now!
Dean: Okay, we're doing that. Just don't shoot anybody, especially not us.
Ronald: I knew it, as soon as you two left. You ain't FBI. Who are you? Who are you working for, huh? The Men in Black? You working for the Mandroid?
Sam: We're not working for the Mandroid!
Ronald: You shut up! I ain't talking to you. I don't like you!
Sam: Fair enough.

 

Lol, Sam couldn’t really have expected Ronald to be too happy to see him again. I know, tense situation, but Ronald yelling at Sam and asking if they were with the Men in Black cracked me up.

 

Dude, if I was chosen to check someone for weapons during a robbery I probably wouldn’t have told if I found anything.

 

Dean: I'm not just gonna walk in here naked!

 

I love it, and I totally understand it. Dean’s so used to having some kind of weapon close at hand, so I wasn’t a bit surprised when it turned out he had a knife on him.

Dean did a really good job with talking Ronald down; he could have been a hostage negotiator in another life.

 

Dean: We've been monitoring the cameras in the back – we saw the bank manager, we saw his eyes.
Ron: [excited] His laser eyes?
Dean: Yes. No. No! Look, we're running out of time.

 

Lol, a mandroid with laser eyes, that’ll never get old.
I really liked the way Dean talked with Ronald, he did a great job, but then again they had connected on a level geekyness earlier, so Dean knew that Ronald wouldn’t hurt anyone unless pressured.

 

Sam is locked in the bank vault with the rest of the hostages. Dean closes the door as Ron aims the gun at his back.

Sherry: Who is that man?
Sam: He's my brother.
Sherry: He is so brave!

 

Haha, she’s like the manifestation of all the Dean fan-girls. I loved that. Sam seemed so close to telling her to shut up.

 

I was kind of grossed out when Ronald slipped in the slime. Ugh, and then he touches it with his hands: eeeewwww! That’s so gross.

I loved how Dean explained everything to Ronald, and Ronald not really questioning it, because he knows something is up, he’s just happy to get the blanks filled in. Actually finding solace in knowing the truth.

 

When the SWAT teams and the cops showed up I knew they were heading towards getting seriously screwed. I seriously could not see this ending well.

 

Ronald so happy that he’s not nuts, it was kind of sweet. I totally get his relief, he must have had so many thoughts about this up to this point, wondering if he really was nuts, and here comes this guy and tells him that he’s not, that there really is something out there.

Dean freaking out about the cops, the ‘no, no, no, no!’ was very well done. It was a natural reaction. Dean seems to know a lot about police procedure, but then again, watch enough heist movies and you pick up some things.

Sherry: Has your brother always been so, um... wonderful? I mean, staring down that gun? And the way he played right into that psycho's crazy head, telling him what he wanted to hear? He's like a real hero or something…
Sam: Yeah.
[Dean opens the bank vault door]
Sherry: Oh, god! You saved us! You saved us!
Dean: Actually I just found a few more. Come on everybody, let's go.

 

Sherry's fan-girl crush dies, but ours never will. I would have been more than a little confused if I was in her shoes though.

Sam and Dean discussing what to do, and how they’re going to get out, how to handle Ronald. Sam still in disbelief over Ronald’s actions and not to happy about the prospect of having to babysit the guy. Loved Dean’s little wink, and ‘okay’ signs to Ronald while he was talking to Sam. 

I wouldn’t have done a much better job if I were Ronald, though storming into a bank with a gun isn’t exactly the first thing I would have done.

Hehe, Sam’s ‘Hey, Ronald’, oh, he’s so uncomfortable.

 

Ronald talking to the cops, lol, aww, proclaiming so proudly that he’s a crime fighter, while Sam is trying to get him off the phone, and dealing with the guard having an attack. Sam is doing the best he can to keep things as calm as possible, but it’s not exactly easy.

Then Dean comes back with info about who the shapeshifter is, and they can let the poor guard go. It was a sneaky shapeshifter, knocking out Dean like that. Considering all it wants to do is stay alive you can’t blame it.

 

I was so sad when Ronald was shot. I really liked him; I wanted to see him again. He quickly became one of my fave guest characters. Dean looked so sad, and I felt so bad for him when he apologized to Ron, and gave him credit for doing a good job.

 

And we’re back to the beginning of the episode. Now knowing that it was in fact Dean, and that now the boys are truly screwed.

 

The hostages must have been so confused by Sam and Dean: if they only knew the truth. What the boys did for them.

 

More slime, yuck! And more trouble, introducing our new hate-object: Special Agent Victor Hendrickson. I didn’t like him from the first second he showed up.

 

I liked Dean and Sherri’s little talk, introducing each other. It was a very nice little moment. I am incredibly curious about what her statement to the police will be, how she’ll describe everything.

(Talking to Dean on the phone)
Hendrickson: This is special agent Victor Hendrickson.
Dean: Yeah, listen, I'm not really in the negotiating mood right now.
Hendrickson: Good, me neither. It's my job to bring you in, alive's a bonus but not necessary.
Dean: Whoa, kinda harsh for a federal agent, don't you think?
Hendrickson: Well, you're not the typical suspect, are you Dean?

[Dean gets an "oh, crap!" look on his face.]

Hendrickson: I want you and Sam out here, unarmed, or we come in. And yes, I know about Sam, too, Bonnie to your Clyde.
Dean: Yeah, well, that part's true, but how'd you even know we were here?

I think I’m really going to hate this guy. Hell, I already do. It’s a new Operative, and he’s vicious, and focused on taking down the boys.

I felt so sorry for Dean during this conversation; it must have felt like the walls were closing in on him, and then the guy starts talking crap about John, which is the same as pushing the big red button.

Dean’s little punch to the head at the end of the conversation was perfect, such a wonderful little detail.

 

The dead Sherri copy in the closet, I was thrown for a moment. The boys trying to get the other Sherri out of the vault, she must have been so freaked at that point.

I loved her reaction to her dead copy. Fainting, perfect response. The second she started freaking out I figured it was the supposedly dead Sherri that was the shapeshifter. It might not have been intentional, but I didn’t feel they tried to hide that she was breathing.

I liked Dean crouching over the real Sherri, shrug and then raise the knife for the kill before Sam stops him.  A funny little moment intertwined in the suspense.

I jumped when the shapeshifter attacked Dean, Sherrie will need a shrink when she gets out of that bank.

 

The SWAT men moving in to the bank, me at the edge of my seat, and Dean has followed the shapeshifter down to a boiler-room or something.

When Sam was discovered by the SWAT men, damn! Dean getting attacked, Sam attacking the SWAT men. Dean and the shapeshifter fighting. High suspense! So gross when he pulled off a piece of her flesh! Nasty! Then he finally manages to kill her.

She kind of looked like Leelee Sobieski when Dean stabbed her.

Dean seemed kind of contemplative, looking at her body. When what we thought was a SWAT guy comes he didn’t look like he was going to run, he motioned to put his hands over his head. Part of me thinks Dean would have gone quietly if they’d taken him.

 

I loved that the SWAT guys found the shapeshifter, and commented on Sherri. Seriously I’m grasping to every tiny straw I can find that will work as an advantage for the boys in a police investigation.

 

Hendrickson, urgh!

The man is desperate, wanting to tear the bank apart to find the boys, but knowing they’re gone when the SWAT men are found tied up in the closet

 

The end scene was beautifully done, Sam and Dean running up the stairs in their newly acquired SWAT uniforms to ‘Renegade’. It was a purely perfect mix of what was happening on screen, what probably was going through the boy’s minds and the lyrics to the song. Deans hand on Sam’s shoulder for a second before they get into the car. Pausing slightly so the boys could take off the gear, and Dean vocalises what we’ve all been thinking.

Dean: We are so screwed.

 

[]-[]-[]

They always say about shows like this that it’s a little movie every week. Which is true in some parts, but I’ve always been very aware that this has been a series. This episode, totally felt like a movie. I couldn’t believe how much was crammed into 40 minutes, without feeling rushed at all!I was at the edge of my seat for the majority of this episode, I’m not really sure if another episode has had me this stressed and worked up, besides, maybe ‘Devil’s Trap’. It was just such a solid and well-crafted episode; no words can do it justice.

 

For another great review, head over to beluga and read her thoughts.