Episode six – Skin (Questione di pelle) – Saint Louis, Missouri

Supernatural Idioms – Season One, Episode six.

Sam receives a message from Rebecca, an old friend from college. Her brother Zach is in trouble, charged with a murder which he has actually been seen committing, but, on the other hand, he was with her at the same time. Dean is not keen on going, but we have confirmation once again that sweet as he is, Sam is also strong-willed and determined (and even more so when his friends are involved) and will not take no for an answer.

Roger that

message received

I figure we hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south…

I think we’ll reach T. by lunch, and then we continue in the southern direction

You still keep in touch with your college buddies?

Dean has cut all ties (or rather, never had any), and he can’t believe Sam is still in contact with his college friends. A job like this, you can’t get close to people, Dean says, mainly because you can’t tell them the truth. But of course, Sam gets attached to people much more than Dean. As the seasons go on, we’ll also see that Sam tries to be honest, as far as he can be, and this usually pays off (although not always).

It sounds like the cops have a pretty good case

have evidence enough to charge Zach with murder

Dude, what kind of people you hanging out with?

What kind of people do you know / spend your time with/ socialize with? (che gente frequenti?).

I was just crashing here for the weekend when everything happened

crash at a place = stay at someone else’s house for the night, especially without having planned it in advance. Rebecca was at her parents’ home when Zach got into trouble.

I’m off duty now

a police officer who is not working at the moment

You’re a real straight shooter with your friends     

an honest and forthright person. Dean, who is much more at ease than Sam in telling all sorts of lies, is giving him hard time, first because he is annoyed at his brother for having forced him to make a deviation, but also because he knows how difficult it is to maintain relationships in their job. Truth is, Sam is not at all sure he’ll go on hunting, and Dean knows that, and is jealous of all people his brother knows from outside the family.

There’s no sign of a break-in

there’s no sign that someone entered the house by force.

The lawyers, they’re already talking of a plea-bargain

plea-bargain is an arrangement between prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence or an agreement to drop other charges. In Italy we have the so-called “patteggiamento”, which is subject to different rules, though.

I’ll make it up to you

Alex is telling Lindsay: “I’ll do something good for you as I know you’re upset because I have to go away now”.

What you think this is, Hooters?

Do you think this is a restaurant? (Hooters is a restaurant chain).

Like a Doppelgänger

a spirit that looks exactly like a living person, or someone who looks exactly like someone else (same as a “dark double” used immediately before)

A trail the police would never pursue

A line of investigation the police do not intend to follow.

When a shapeshifter changes shape, maybe it sheds         

to shed = to lose a covering, such as leaves, hair, or skin, because it falls off or because you get rid of it: in this case, the shapeshifter gets rid of the skin it was “temporarily using” when it impersonated someone.

This whole gig, it ain’t without perks

this job has its advantages, there are some extras that come with it

Who knows how many murders he’s gotten away with

how may times he’s escaped punishment for or the consequences of other murders he’s committed.

He sure got issues with you

the shapeshifter has a way to learn the past of the persons he takes the shape of, Dean in this case, and he tells Sam that his brother has problems connected with him, reasons to be angry.

He ditched me. Left me with your sorry ass,

Your sorry ass = your worthless self.        Dad went away (although I always did everything he asked me to) and I had to look after you. This isn’t the first time that a demon, a spirit or another “monster” chased by the two brothers reveals a deep feeling of or a truth about either or both of them. Dean’s inner thoughts were transparent enough; the shapeshifter just makes them more explicit.

A genetic freak, a freak of nature

This word, “freak”, occurs frequently in the show, not so much to refer to someone with a physical abnormality, as to someone who for some reason does not “fit in” with ordinary people. In fact, the brothers often use it in a self-deprecating way, and here the somehow moving speech of the shapeshifter could have easily covered the unexpressed but real feeling of Dean himself. With the difference that Dean would never talk like that, especially to a girl he’s just met (and hopes to sleep with).

You mean like the Vulcan Mind Meld?

This is a reference to Star Trek; it was a telepathic link between two individuals. It allowed for an intimate exchange of thoughts.

You’re gonna put an APB out on me

An all-points bulletin (APB) is a broadcast issued from a law enforcement agency: it typically contains information about a wanted suspect who is to be arrested or investigated. Dean is telling Sam if he calls the police, they will go after him (i.e. Dean).

An anonymous tip led the police to a home… where a SWAT team discovered…

A SWAT team is a group of elite police marksmen who specialize in high-risk tasks such as hostage rescue.

First I’m gonna find out that handsome devil and kick the crap out of him

Kick the crap out of someone means to beat him very violently      Dean uses the expression “handsome devil” in a curious way here. Apart from being the title of a song of the Smiths (and we already know there are numberless musical references in the show), it usually indicates a very handsome man who is well aware of his own attractiveness (well, like Dean, in fact), but here, the fact that the shapeshifter took his own shape seems to infuriate Dean and yet to flatter him somehow. It’s a sort of cheeky self-irony.

That’s killing me

(the fact that he may be driving my car) makes me mad. This seems to hurt Dean even more than the fact the shapeshifter is “walking around with his face” and has caused him to be charged with a few serious crimes!

Everything went white

(Rebecca says): I fainted, or however, I was shocked to the point of (almost) fainting

I wound up here

I found myself here (without knowing how)

Murder in the first

short for “murder in the first degree”: a particularly serious murder, especially one that is deliberate and premeditated (i.e. planned), and/or a murder committed against certain types of people (such as a child or, as in this case, a close relative).

“You and your brother, you hunt down these kinds of things?” “Yeah, Pretty much”.

Pretty much = nearly, more or less, almost completely.

This post is part of the English Language category and of the Nerdy Passions category.

This is all for Supernatural Idioms – Season One, Episode Six. The seventh one, tomorrow!