A new type of shapeshifter was introduced in the form of Sam’s new love interest Luna.
Regular shapeshifters are unable to shift into another human, but Luna confesses that she transformed herself into her mother who died giving birth to her and, according to Navajo legends, that makes her a Skinwalker.
Luna is Navajo on her father’s side and she was raised by him and her grandparents in the old Navajo tradition; her bedtime story was the Legend of the Skinwalkers.
According to the Navajo Skinwalkers were horrible, evil witches whose powers allowed them to transform into any animal on earth, including other people. But the Skinwalker can gain this power in one way only: they would have to kill another shifter, a member of their own family.
Internet research provides a few more interesting things about Skinwalkers. The Navajo believe that if you lock eyes with a Skinwalker they can absorb themselves into your body and they have the power to read human thoughts.
Skinwalkers use charms to instill fear and control in their victims. Such charms include human bone beads launched by blowguns, which embed themselves beneath the surface of the skin without leaving a mark, and human bone dust which can cause paralysis and heart failure.
According to Navajo myth, the only way to successfully shoot a Skinwalker is to dip bullets into white ash, but that might cause your riffle to jam. It is said that if a Navajo was to know the person behind the Skinwalker they had to pronounce the full name, and about three days later that person would either get sick or die for the wrong that they have committed.
Luna seems like a nice girl, but Sam should know by now that nice girls don’t always turn out to be so nice. She has confessed her skinwalker ability, but it makes me wonder what other skeletons she is hiding in her closet and what consequences they will have for Sam’s safety.
Another interesting side to the whole Skinwalker plotline is of course Sam and Tommy: the only two related shapeshifters in the True Blood saga at the moment. Did Tommy listen in on the campfire conversation about how a shifter could become a Skinwalker by killing a relative? Sam already shot his brother once, will he try again? And they do really want to try and be brothers, try to not trust each other a little less every day? Sam better shift into two collies, so he can watch his own back.
