Recap of Supernatural
Season 2, Episode 12:
Nightshifter
Yes, yes, we see the magazine cover too.
- Dean: [about the bank security guard] I like him. He says "okey dokey."Sam: What if he's the shifter?Dean: We follow him home, put a silver bullet in his chest.
Written by Ben Edlund.
Directed by Philip Sgriccia.
Airdate: April 19, 2007.
Dean and Sam end up trapped in a hostage situation in a bank in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
with a former bank security guard who believes a half-man, half-robot is responsible for a string of robberies.
Sam and Dean are investigating robberies of a jewelry store and a bank in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which appear to be committed by long-term, trusted employees who then killed themselves right after the robberies. The brothers question Ronald Resnick, a security guard who was beaten unconscious by the teller who robbed the bank. They find out that Ron believes a "half-man, half-robot", which he terms "mandroid", is taking other people's forms, killing them, and committing the robberies. He points out glowing eyes on the bank security tapes, which he believes are laser eyes, as evidence that the robber was a "mandroid".
The Winchester brothers realize that Ron has accidentally discovered a shapeshifter and that the City Bank of Milwaukee is located on the sewer between the two prior robberies. The brothers infiltrate the bank disguised as repairmen for the surveillance cameras just as Ron, on his own, enters the bank with a rifle and holds everyone hostage to try and flush the shapeshifter out, starting a police siege of the bank. After Dean is identified by the police and the FBI are called in, it's revealed that a detail led by Agent Victor Henriksen has been charged with apprehending Dean and have been chasing him since the incident with the shapeshifter the year previously. During the siege, Ron wanders into the sights of a police sniper and is killed. Just as the brothers manage to track down and kill the shapeshifter, SWAT storms the building. Sam and Dean escape by stealing SWAT uniforms and slipping away in the chaos.
Body count
For this episode = 3 humans and 1 shapeshifter.For the series so far = At least 173 humans; 11 ghosts; 5 vampires; 2 shapeshifters; 1 demon; 1 god; 1 rakshasa; 1 rawhead; 1 shtriga; 1 wendigo; 1 zombie.
Tropes appearing in this episode:
- Alien Abduction: One of the titles on the cover of the Fortean Times Ron shows Sam is "Alien Exchange Program: The Planet Serpo Project".
- Alien Autopsy: Another of the titles on the cover of the Fortean Times Ron shows Sam is "Alien Autopsy: Real ET caught on camera".
- All Men Are Perverts: Dean uses the security camera to zoom in on a woman's behind as she leans over.
- Bait-and-Switch: After Sam finds Sherry's corpse, he and Dean pull her out of the vault and take her to the corpse, believing she's the shapeshifter. Sherry, in turn... faints. As it happens, the corpse was the shapeshifter playing dead.
- After killing the shapeshifter, a man in a SWAT getup walks in on Dean. It's actually Sam in the getup.
- Bald of Authority: Agent Victor Henriksen.
- Bank Robbery: While the Shapeshifter perpetrated one bank robbery and was casing the City Bank of Milwaukee, Ron was very clear when he entered the bank with the rifle that "This is not a robbery!"
- Blood from the Mouth: Ron.
- Body Horror: For some reason, the skin comes off the shapeshifter's arm while it is in a fight.
- Boom, Headshot!: Helena shot Edgar, the night watchman, in the face.
- China Takes Over the World/Make the Bear Angry Again: Ron is worried that China and Russia are ahead in "mandroid" technology.Ron: Chinese have been working on 'em for years. And the Russians before that.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Ron, who seemed obsessed by a connection between Cheeseheads and aliens before he decides to start hunting "mandroids".Ron: I knew it, as soon as you two left. You aren'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!
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Ron may be paranoid and unreasonable in his claims that a "mandroid" is responsible for the robberies, but he is onto something with seeing the pattern of attacks and spotting the flared eyes of the shapeshifter's forms on camera.
- Curse Cut Short: Dean doesn't quite finish his Catchphrase, when Ron answers his door.Dean: Son of a b-
- Dies Wide Open: Ron Resnick.
- Dressing as the Enemy/Mugged for Disguise: Sam and Dean escape dressed as SWAT team members.
- Eye Beams: Ron thinks the glowing eyes of the shapeshifter are "laser eyes", which prove he is a "mandroid".
- Faint in Shock: Sheri faints when Sam and Dean confront her with what appears to be her own corpse.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus / Rewatch Bonus: Pay close attention to the SWAT officer who clears the room for Agent Henriksen and stands in the doorway. There's a brief closeup as he lowers his weapon, and you can see it's Dean's eyes.
- Glamour Failure: The Shapeshifter's glowing eyes on film.
- Groin Attack: The shifter delivers one to Dean.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: The shed skin of the shifter.
- Hidden Weapons: When frisked, Dean is found to have a knife hidden in his boot.Dean: I'm not just gonna walk in here naked!
- Hollywood Heart Attack: The "okey-dokey" security guard.
- Hostage Situation: Ron is surprised when the police call and ask for his demands.Ronald: [on the phone to the police negotiater] What? What do you mean, demands?
- Humanshifting
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The shifter experiences this when the Winchesters appear, and the Winchesters experience this when Agent Henricksen shows up.
- Idiot Ball: Sam and Dean big time in their initial dealing with Ron. Instead of a succinct "we believe you, but let us handle it", they blatantly tell Ron that he's imagining things, which drives him to believe that, as the only one who really knows what's going on, it's up to him to stop the shifter. This gets him killed.
- Inspector Javert: Agent Henricksen.Agent Henricksen: It's become my job to know about you, Dean. I've been looking for you for weeks now. I know about the murder in St. Louis, I know about the Houdini act you pulled in Baltimore. I know about the desecrations and the thefts.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Ron explains he is not a bank robber.Ronald: [on the phone to the police] No, I—I'm not a bank robber, I'm—kind of a crime fighter, I guess.
- Impersonating an Officer: Sam and Dean pose as FBI Agents yet again.
- Dean adds some melodrama to his portrayal, when talking to Frannie at the jewelry store.
Dean: Well, it's dangerous. And the secrets we've gotta keep, oh. God, the secrets. But mostly it's—it's lonely.Frannie: I so know what you mean.- Despite Sam's non-academy hair style, he was convincing enough to remand the security tapes from Ron.
Dean: I just think it's a little 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: "Mandroid"?Dean: Except for the mandroid part. - In Medias Res: The teaser shows Dean involved in a hostage situation, holding a gun on a security guard as he exits a bank. The next scene goes back a day to explain what happened.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Local cops vs. FBI.Detective Robards: Let me guess. You're lead dog now, but you would just love my full cooperation.Agent Henriksen: I don't give a rat's ass what you do, you can go get a doughnut and bang your wife for all I care. What I do need is your SWAT team locked and loaded.
- Laser Sight: Sam sees the laser sight on Ron's back before he is shot.
- Locked in a Freezer: The hostages locked in the vault start to suffer from lack of fresh air.
- Lyrical Cold Open:
"Renegade" by the Styx, which plays during the last scene. - Never Suicide:
- Helena, the employee at the jewelry store, appears to kill herself by dropping a hairdryer in the bath.
- Juan Morales, the teller at Milwaukee National Trust, also appears to commit suicide.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Downplayed, but it's pretty clear by now to the viewer that Sam isn't going to be able to simply go back to school.Dean: We are so screwed.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Dean thinks this of Ron.Dean: I liked him. He's not that different from you or me. People think we're crazy.
- Playing Possum: Shifter Sheri.
- Police Are Useless: Discussed Trope.Dean: Friggin' cops.Sam: They're just doing their job, Dean.Dean: No, they're doing our job, only they don't know it, so they suck at it.
- Portmanteau: Mandroid = Man + Android.
- Properly Paranoid: Ronald turns on a flood light when Sam and Dean knock at his front door. He then asks to see their badges. Ron also made copies of all the security tapes from the bank because he thought the police would bury them.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Robarts. Unfortunately he loses jurisdiction to Henriksen.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Ron believes the employees were replaced by "mandroids" who committed the robberies.Ron: The thing I let into the bank...wasn't Juan. I mean, it had his face, but it wasn't his face. Uh, every detail was perfect, but too perfect, like, you know, like if a dollmaker made it, like I was talking to a big Juan-doll.
- Room Full of Crazy: The drawings, news-clippings, and pictures of aliens and Greenbay Packers on the walls of Ron's home. Among these is a wooden plaque that says, "God's peace be in our house", and a painting of a sailing ship.
- Shell-Shock Silence: When Ron is shot.
- Shout-Out:
- When Sam and Dean present their fake FBI badges for Ronald to inspect, Sam's badge has the name Han Solo, and Dean's reads Jack Ryan. Harrison Ford has played both characters.
- Ron has a hand-drawn poster on his wall with pictures of people wearing cheesehead hats with yellow lines leading to a hovering mothership that says, "They are among us in Wisconsin (See Chart)" and "
Cheeseheads are potent mandroid spies". - The "mandroid" on the cover of the issue of Fortean Times Ron shows Sam is actually a Cyberman from Doctor Who. The headline at the bottom of the cover reads "BIRTH OF THE CYBERMEN".
- One of the headlines on the cover of Fortean Times is "The Da Vinci Code on Trial: Exclusive Report".
- Another headline on the cover of Fortean Times is "The World's Hairiest People: Jo-Jo the Dogfaced Boy and other Hirsute Humans".
- Ron compares the "mandroid" to the Terminator.
Ron: Part men, part machine. Like the Terminator. But the kind that can change itself, make itself look like other people.Dean: Like the one from T2.- Ron thinks Sam and Dean may be working for the Men in Black.
- Dean tells Ron he was not a "Smooth Criminal".
- Dean refers to Sam as Agent Johnson.
- Agent Henricksen compares Sam and Dean to Bonnie and Clyde.
Agent Henricksen: I want you and Sam out here, unarmed, or we come in. And yes, I know about Sam, too. Bonnie to your Clyde.- Agent Henricksen compares John Winchester to Timothy McVeigh.
- Show Within a Show: The Breaking News 8 segment in the teaser interrupts The Road So Far, as it might if it was Real Life breaking news.
- Silver Has Mystic Powers: Dean finds a silver letter opener to use as a weapon against the shifter.
- Slashed Throat: The shifter as Sheri.
- Slippery Skid: Ron falls on the shed skin of the Shapeshifter.
- Slow-Motion Fall: Ron falls forward after being shot through the back.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Zig-Zagged Trope: "Renegade" playing (specifically the slow, quiet opening of it) over Dean and Sam sneaking back to the Impala in the SWAT outfits actually is thematically appropriate, but after a pause:Dean: ...we are so screwed.
