Catching Up, Season 2
Chapter 17 – Nightshifter
"Alright," Dean consulted the DVD case. "What's up next? Episode 12, Nightshifter. Sam and Dean investigate a string of robberies with a disturbing pattern: In each incident, a trusted employee holds up a bank and then commits suicide. When autopsy reports show the employees' actual time of death as several days before the robberies, Sam and Dean realize that a shape-shifter they have encountered before has returned. Dun, dun, dun!"
"I haven't thought about that case in years," Sam commented. "But then," the show began on his brother's crappy flirting, "maybe there was a reason."
TV!Sam was speaking to a manager of some sort, they were interviewing witnesses regarding a robbery committed by an employee who apparently took her own life after. TV!Dean also managed to get the saleswoman's number. "Interesting set up, I'll give the shifter that," Mary remarked. "Never seen one motivated by material gain. They're mainly predators, hunting for food."
"It's different but not unheard of, not for us at least," Dean replied.
Next the boys interviewed Ronald, the former security guard of a bank that was robbed in a similar fashion. Except he is a massive conspiracy theorist and was convinced that there is a 'man-droid' ala Doctor Who's Cybermen running around Milwaukee. The TV!Winchesters are about to dismiss him as a witness when he shows them a tape of the night of his bank's robbery. He'd let in the perpetrator, a friend, but when they panned to his eyes, they glowed.
"Laser eyes," Mary bobbed her head. "Catchier than tapetum lucidum I suppose."
Rowena massaged a temple, "This man is so stupid, he looped around and became brilliant."
"Samuel must you be so cruel?" Crowley crooned as TV!Sam shut down Ronald hard and confiscated the tapes.
"I know it was cold. I just wanted him to be safe," Sam shrugged. "He didn't stand a chance against a shifter."
In the show, the boys determine the next heist location and infiltrate as repairmen. Reviewing the CCTV footage, they spot the shifter but before they could move, Ronald came in, locked the doors and began firing off a loaded rifle wildly. "Good lord," Mary commented over the pandemonium. "Who gave this man a gun?"
"The Second Amendment," Dean cracked. "In its defence, I don't think the founding fathers had foreseen Ronald." TV!Dean managed to talk down Ronald and he put the bank's employees plus TV!Sam in the vault until they could find the shifter. Unfortunately, upon searching, they found the remnants of a corpse meaning the shifter had already changed. In the meantime, policeI had gathered outside the bank and cut power to the building. They also found more bank personnel and escorted them to the vault, taking TV!Sam out. They decide to split up, TV!Sam and Ronald with the hostages and TV!Dean searching the other floors. Things quickly become chaotic when the security guard appears to be having a heart attack while Ronald foolishly answers the call from the police.
Wow what a cinnamon sugar frosted dumbass! "Never heard that one before," Sam whispered. I'm creative.
Meanwhile, TV!Dean manages to ID the shifter and they try to corner it but it flees, drawing Ronald into the sightline of a SWAT sniper. "Damn the ridiculous die quick," Crowley said heartlessly.
"Oh come on, we ragged him a bit but he was only trying to do the right thing," Dean reasoned.
"Maybe if I was nicer, he might've actually stayed out of it," Sam sighed. Hey now, don't do that.
"You couldn't have known sweetheart," Mary said reassuringly.
"Question Dean," Cas interjected.
"Yeah buddy?"
"Why didn't you use the silver knives to test the hostages? Have them nick their fingers or something, if there's no reaction then you could let them go?"
"You know what? I - uh - well - " Dean scratched his head. "It was a high pressure situation and we were completely thrown for a loop. It's difficult to strategize under those circum-"
"You forgot."
"Totally."
Matters didn't improve for the TV!Winchesters as the FBI had entered the scene. The agent in charge already knew everything about TV!Dean and TV!Sam. He even knew to talk smack about John in order to get under TV!Dean's skin. "Classic tactic," Mary groused. "It's like the Fed handbook hasn't been updated since 1908."
"Mom, how many times have you gone up against the Feds?" Sam asked mildly.
"Enough times to be sick of this tired crap."
Really gonna need to hang out in her brain for a bit Sammy. "Stay right where you are."
Onscreen, it looks like they'd finally identified the shifter only for the girl to faint right next to her apparently dead doppelganger, leaving the brothers unsure which is which. Then the corpse comes alive, confirming the shifter only for the Feds to break in and cause them to scatter. TV!Dean fights the shifter, TV!Sam takes on two SWAT agents, and the girl is freed. TV!Dean manages to kill the shifter just as a flashlight descends on him and the scene cuts. Nice callback.
When the show returns, Feds have flooded the building finding all the bodies, implying they would be attributed to the Winchesters, even the shifter corpse. "Seriously, they couldn't just check to see if the girl had a sister or something." Mary scoffed. "I mean the threads were sitting right in front of them. Clever getaway," she tacked on, referring to their escape using the SWAT uniforms. The show ends on the TV!Winchesters climbing inside Baby and taking off.
"Okie dokie, next round," Dean grabbed the case. "Oh Cas buddy, saddle up. Houses of the Holy.