S1 E6 - Skin
Why this episode pushed all my happy buttons:
● The beginning with the S.W.A.T. team surrounding the house and Dean getting caught was an excellent way to start this.
● It introduced a new cool monster, the shapeshifter, which I found thoroughly fascinating.
● Oh, the gore, the ugliness, the things too revolting to look at. I'm talking 'bout the scene where the shapeshifter-Dean rips his skin off. Holy fucking shit, I loved the way it was shot and adored the make-up job. It was truly disgusting, and I loved every second of it.
● In the very same scene there played an absolutely amazing song that fit the whole thing perfectly. (I wrote down the lyrics, dug up the name of the song from the internet, and went and bought my very first Filter album.)
● The new aspects of Dean that we found out while the shifter looked like him and talked to Sam:
Shapeshifter: "He's sure got issues with you. You got to go to college, he had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home. With Dad. You don't think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you? -- See, deep down, I'm just jealous. You got friends, you could have a life. Me? I know I'm a freak. And sooner or later everybody's gonna leave me. -- You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to and he ditched me too. No explanation, nothing, just... left me with your sorry ass."
● A sketched picture of Dean's face appearing on the news. A Wanted Criminal. (Bad boys are so much fun.)
● Dean shooting the shifter while it looked like him. If that isn't some brilliantly fucked up twisted shit then I don't know what is.
● Monsters, gore, two Deans (I think I may have a twin kink), S.W.A.T. teams, getting to know Dean's insecurities, awesome songs... Yep, I think that sums it up nicely.
Dean with the dead shifter
The shifter shedding his skin off (links to YouTube)
(The barely losing runner-ups were S2E9 - Croatoan and S4E16 - On the Head of a Pin.)