Shapeshifters

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There are all kinds of lore concerning creatures that can shapeshift. It is the ability to change form, whether animal to man, man to animal, or man to man as common in the Supernatural universe. Animals can sense a shapeshifter. If the eyes are a mirror to the soul, the shapeshifter's eyes reflect silver. I can be called shapeshifting, transmogrification, or skinwalking. There are shapeshifters and dopplegangers. Werewolves and skinwalkers are types of shapeshifter, but they have their own specific lore. The shapeshifter lore bears strong similarities to werewolf lore, and occaisionally vampire lore. Shapeshifters are born, and there are no curses or infections that will change one into a shapeshifter, unlike a werewolf or a vampire.

Season 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10 Mentioned in 3, 7, 8 Species Shapeshifter Affiliation Alpha Shapeshifter (father) Eve (grandmother)

Powers and Abilities

• Copies the physical characteristics of a person. (Skin, Nightshifter, Monster Movie, Two and a Half Men, Ask Jeeves)
• Downloads the thoughts of the person it is copying. (Skin)
• Sheds it’s skin to become a new person, including clothes. (Only time it can’t copy clothes is in Skin; it had to grab clothes.)
• Can take on physical characteristics of a person from a picture or film. (Monster Movie)
• Can impregnate human women to have shapeshifter offspring. (Two and a Half Men, Ask Jeeves)

Weaknesses

• Identified with retinal flares, most often on video. (Seen without video only on Skin) (Nightshifter, Two and a Half Men)
• Silver burns the skin, so the common way to prove a person is not a shapeshifter is to touch silver or be cut with silver. (Lazarus Rising, Exile on Main St., We Need to Talk About Kevin, Ask Jeeves)
• Silver in the heart will kill, either bullet or knife. (Skin, Nightshifter, Monster Movie)
• Crowley found that iridium hurts the Alpha. It is assumed it hurts other shapeshifters. (Caged Heat)
• Decapitation killed the Alpha. It is assumed it will kill other shapeshifters. (Caged Heat)
• Vamptonite - According to Edgar, the Leviathan additive kills shapeshifters. (There Will Be Blood)

Types of Shapeshifters

• Dopplegangers
• Shapeshifters
• Shapeshifter, Mutated
• Skinwalkers
• Werewolves

Trivia

• Skin is the only episode in which the shapeshifter’s eyes flash silver without being on a video. Instances: Shapeshifter Zach’s eyes when he looks at Lindsay; Shapeshifter Alex’s eyes when he hits Alex over the head with a baseball bat; Shapeshifter Dean’s eyes reflected in the car’s headlights, while he talks with Rebecca in her home, and when he talks with Sam in Rebecca’s house; Shapeshifter Rebecca’s eyes after she hits Sam over the head.
• At the Paley Festival in 2006, John Shiban spoke about the gratification he got from coming up with scary concepts and effects.
  "A fan was watching the show and giving her impressions as she watched it, 'Oh my god, Dean’s taking his shirt off!' And followed immediately by, 'Oh my god, he’s taking his skin off!' I knew then that we had it. I was very pleased with that."
• Skin is the only time the shapeshifter needed to steal the person’s clothes in order to impersonate them. Rebecca mentions that Zach’s house was broken into and some of his clothes were stolen the week before. However, there is no way it could have stolen Dean’s clothes because Shapeshifter Dean shows up with Sam dressed in Dean’s clothes, yet when Dean is shown tied up he still has his clothes on.
• Dogs can sense the supernatural, and the neighbor’s dog went nuts after the Shapeshifter Zach showed up to kill his girlfriend. (Skin)
• The fight scene in which Sam fights Shapeshifter Dean was mainly done by the actors themselves. There are just a few edits that uses the stunt actors, the rest of the fight scene was done all by Jared and Jensen. (Skin)
• It seems the shapeshifter needs to keep the victim alive in order to download the memories. (Skin)
• It also seems that the shapeshifter goes through pain when it sheds, as evidenced when Shapeshifter Dean is in the sewer shedding its skin in Skin.
• Depending on the shapeshifter itself, it can transform faster or slower. This could possibly be due to the age of the shifter itself. Another theory is generational - how many generations it is from the original Alpha Shapeshifter.
• The Alpha shapeshifter does not shed its skin when it changes. It is more of a rippling effect as it switches forms. (Two and a Half Men)
• Shapeshifters seem to reproduce by having sexual intercourse with a human, with the offspring as another shapeshifter. (Two and a Half Men, Ask Jeeves)

Appearances

Season 1 Skin	Season 2 Nightshifter Born Under a Bad Sign (mentioned)	Season 4 Lazarus Rising (mentioned) Monster Movie
Season 6 Exile on Main St. (mentioned) Two and a Half Men Caged Heat Mommy Dearest (mutation)	Season 7 There Will Be Blood (mentioned)	Season 8 We Need to Talk About Kevin (mentioned)
Season 9 Dog Dean Afternoon Blade Runners Bloodlines	Season 10 Ask Jeeves