Quick SPN question ...

[apocalypsos]

... seeing as my friend from work STILL has my SPN DVDs. *sigh*

They said back in "Skin" that the shapeshifter left behind the same DNA and fingerprints as the person it was impersonating, right? Or am I just imagining that?

Comments

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

a friend stole mine months ago and it is now in the hands of another of my friends who keeps QUOTE-UN-QUOTE FORGETTING to bring them to me even though we see each other weekly.

jerks.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. I mean, I haven't seen her in a week and a half because she took a vacation to see her niece, but ... but ... I miss my Winchesters, damn it. *Whimpers*

(You, er, wouldn't happen to know about the DNA thing, would you? 'Cause I'm at that part of the story and ... yeah. *bats eyelashes*)

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

fingerprints i remember is a definite yes, but the DNA thing. hmm. *thinkface*

i don't remember, rar! i'll check back later when i get home - if you don't have the answer, i have all eps on my computer, so. <333

oh, hey, why don't you check the supernatural wiki? they have transcripts for most eps. :)

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he copied their fingerprints, DNA, memories, etc. He was a very good clone. Except for that whole "evil" thing.

The emphasis placed on DNA in the show bugs me though because legally fingerprints are more damning. No two people on Earth have the same fingerprints but identical twins have identical DNA and therefor DNA is less trustworthy in court.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

No two people on Earth have the same fingerprints but identical twins have identical DNA and therefor DNA is less trustworthy in court.

Heh. That's what I'm going for. :)

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's what I'm going for. :)

I figured as much. One day I'm gonna put something up in praise of how much SPN actually gets right in police procedurals. Because they don't screw up half as much as you'd think they would.

[unperfectwolf.livejournal.com]

And while the DNA and the finger prints were instanteous, the shapeshifters have the "download" memroies. That, and genetically we can assume from Not!Dean's talking that they're human, or born of humans, and I guess are about what the other hunter's see Sam as.

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

And while the DNA and the finger prints were instanteous, the shapeshifters have the "download" memroies.

Oh yes, I loved that little touch with the "downloading." It was just an extra bit of yay that they gave us a reason why he knew everything well enough to play the people he was playing.

[unperfectwolf.livejournal.com]

I really liked the scene where dean is crouched down by Not!Dean. And hey, did they ever say how Not!Dean was killed (how the cops think he is, whatever it says offically?) because if Dean killed him at beccas, would she get the blame? (obviously it's understandable, but still - who is legally recorded as the killer?)

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

We never find out who was marked down as "Dean"'s killer. But if she would have taken the blame it would've been easycakes. There's more than enough to prove self-defense on her part. And not just because they caught him mid-torture of her just a little while before that.

[tabaqui]

Where'd it say that? I know the fingerprint thing 'cause they tracked him/linked him through that, but i don't remember anybody mentioning DNA...

*is curious*

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

Aw man, of course I get this the next day.

Uhm? It said it... I'll put the ep back on after class and pinpoint it. I think it was actually mentioned in TUS but I'm not sure. I kinda speed-watched the eps. :P

[tabaqui]

Heeeee!
Cool, okay.
:)

[lunardreamed.livejournal.com]

That also didn't make much sense, because once he acquires the DNA of the other person, how does he change anymore? Presumably, the person he's mimicking doesn't have a shape-shifting gene.

[cocombat.livejournal.com]

I figured it was just the other person's DNA on their outer layer.
Y'know, the skin, and hair, and teeth that they then shed. Plenty enough to tie them to a crime scene.

I'm not sure what their 'core' would be made up of, but I figure if someone really went hunting (autopsy/forensic-y), surely there'd be something odd.

[cocombat.livejournal.com]

And uh,
even if they did have different DNA through their body, it wouldn't be the sort of thing that someone would go, holy shit, that's impossible!, because they could easily assume the sample's been contaminated, that they've received a blood donation, or even more unlikely, they're a mosaic or chimera (in the genetic sense - when two, fraternal zygotes/embryos fuse to form a single fetus, and then human), or something like that...
If someone dug deep enough, they'd probably figure that a genetically unrelated chimera would be impossible/unlikely, but for an otherwise usual homicide? Totally something you could overlook.

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

You know that's actually a good point.

We know so very little about DNA though (Barely anything at all really) that for all we know he might actually only mimic that tiny bit of it that the world today knows about and knows how to test.