Nightshifter



Summary
Sam, Dean, a shapeshifter and hostages are locked in a bank, surrounded by a SWAT team. It all begins when the brothers, on the trail of a shifter, run into a portly paranoiac who's seen T2 once too often.

Recap
Full Synopsis

Opening Teaser - The episode opens with a break news story. A bank in downtown Milwaukee is being held up. Police squat cars are surrounding the building, paramedics are on the scene, helicopters flying overhead, as this is now the third hour of the hold up. The SWAT team is ready to enter, as we see the front door of the bank open up and we see a man being escorted out of the building by Dean, looking frantically at the sight of all the cameras and police cars outside.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (One Day Earlier) - Sam and Dean disguised as FBI agents question two employees at the local jewelry shop about the most recent robbery. Helena had been an employee for years and the previous night she cleaned all the display cases and wiped the safe clean. Edgar the night watcher caught her in the act, but she managed to grab his gun and shot him in the face. She then went home and killed herself by throwing a hairdryer in the bathtub. There’s no motive as to why she would do this. The cops got a hold of the security camera before any of the employees could take a look at them. Franny, one of the employees Sam and Dean interview, tries to hit on Dean and he manages to get her phone number.

Ron’s House- Later that Night Sam and Dean pay a visit to Ronald Reznick’s house. He’s a security guard at the Milwaukee National Trust. About a month ago, a similar incident to the one at the jewelry store occurred at the bank. Same mo (long term employee, inside job, never in a million years type). The guy robs the bank and then goes home and apparently commits suicide. Ron asks to see the boys’ IDs. Looking at their badges and still a little suspicious, he invites them in to tell them what really happened that night at the bank. Ron starts right off by saying Juan Morales never robbed the bank. He said that the thing he let in the bank wasn’t Juan. However, it had his exact physical features. Ron continues on ranting about how this is the work of a man-droid living in the sewer system. He shows the boys the copies of the security tapes at the bank and Juan is seen with his eyes flaring into the camera (a.k.a. laser eyes as Ron called it). Trying to steer Ron away from this case, Sam gives Ron a reality check saying there’s no such thing as man-droids and that the “laser eyes” is just a camera flare.

Motel - Sam and Dean manage to grab hold of the tapes at Ron’s house and clearly recognize by the creature’s retinal reaction to the video that they are hunting another shape-shifter just like in St. Louis. Dean questions Sam about why he threw Ron off the case and Sam’s response is that Ron is not a hunted and that he’s just a person who stumbled across something real. If he were to go up against the shapeshifter, he’d get himself killed. Looking at a map of the sewer main, Dean points out that there’s one more bank on that line that the shapeshifter might target next.

City Bank of Milwaukee - The boys disguise themselves as worker from the security system company in order to gain access to the surveillance camera, so they can find the shapeshifter. Several hours pass and still no sign of the shifter until they get a close-up shot of the bank manager and see his eyes flare at the camera. They also happen to capture Ron locking up the front door to the bank with a chain. He then runs into the lobby, pulls out his rifle and orders everyone to the ground.

Sam and Dean walk into the lobby and try to negotiate with Ron. Realizing they aren’t FBI agents, Ron orders the two of them to the ground. Finding no other option, Dean comes out and tells Ron the truth about this case, that there really is something in this bank but it’s not a man-droid. Dean says they need to find the bank manager because the shapeshifter is in him. Ron allows Dean to come with him, but locks everyone else in the vault.

Bank Manager’s Office (A Few Minutes Later) - Dean and Ron burst into the bank manager’s office only to find a layer of shed skin behind the desk. Dean explains to Ron that when a shapeshifter changes its form, it sheds the skin and now it could be anybody.

Outside the Bank - Squat cars are surrounding the building, helicopters are flying overhead, and the SWAT team is ready to enter at any minute.

Bank - The police cut the powers off to the bank. Sam and Dean are discussing what their next move will be. Since the cops cut the power off, they have no access to the cameras, so there’s no way to tell who the shapeshifter is. It could be in the halls or the vault. But either way, they’ve got to find a way out of the building because Dean is wanted by the cops. Dean decides to take a sweep of the building to try and find the shapeshifter. Back in the vault, one of the security guards is having a heart attack. Sam sees no other option, but to phone the cops are ask for a paramedic. In one of the offices in the bank, Dean notices a crack in the ceiling. He breaks it open with the coat in the room and a dead body falls to the floor. Turning the body over, Dean realizes that the shapeshifter is the African American guy in the vault. Dean rushes back to the vault and he and Sam bring the security guard out to lure the shapeshifter into a trap. However, the shapeshifter manages to escape with Ron running after it. Ron unknowingly falls right into the sniper trap by the cops outside and is shot in the back, falling to the ground dead.

Dean escorts the security guard out of the building while Sam goes after the shapeshifter. Sam discovers more shed skin and phones Dean saying it could be anyone again. Dean heads back to the vault to round up all the employees. Outside the building, the FEDS arrive on the scene. After getting everyone back in the vault, the phone rings. Dean picks it up and it’s Special Agent Henricksen, who immediately recognizes Dean’s voice on the phone. He demands for him and Sam to come out of the building immediately. He says it’s become his job to know about the Winchesters and that he’s been tracking the two of them for weeks. He knows about the murders in St. Louis and the slip up in Baltimore, and about the cheap motels and thefts. He gives Dean one hour to make a decision or the SWAT team will storm in full force.

Inside one of the offices, Sam finds Sheri’s dead body in the closet. Sam and Dean bring Sheri out of the vault and show her the dead body. When she sees it, she starts screaming and faints. Trying to decide which one is the shape-shifter, they hear glass shatter out front. The SWAT team has entered. As Dean turns around, the shapeshifter grabs him by the throat. The shapeshifter then head butts him twice and escapes. Dean manages to catch up with it and rams it up against the walls stabbing a silver knife right through its heart.

Now it’s trying to find a way out of the bank without being arrested. Two SWAT team members order Sam to freeze in the hall, but he throws them a couple rounds of punches knocking them out. The boys get into their uniforms and leave the building. By the time Agent Hendrickson arrives, all that remains are the bodies of the two SWAT team members. They walk down a back alley to a parking garage a couple blocks down the road where the Impala is parked. As soon as they get in the Impala, Dean sighs with some relief, “We are so screwed.” and they drive off.

Featured Supernatural Being

 * Shape-shifer

Featured Music
"Renegade" by Styx

Quotes
Dean: "I like him, he says okie dokie."

Trivia

 * The picture of the "man-droid" is actually a popular Cyberman creature from the British television series "Doctor Who".
 * "Man-droid" is a term previously used in The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space".

International Titles

 * Finnish: Yön silmät (The Eyes of the Night)


 * French: Le Polymorphe (The Polymorph)


 * German: Der Mandroid (The Man-droid)