galathea | Review for 5x12 'Swap Meat'

I had really low expectations for this week’s episode Swap Meat by Julie Siege, because once again it is based on a pretty whimsical premise - a bodyswap in this case - and I really had enough of those in S5 to last me a lifetime. Unfortunately the episode didn’t do much to refute my expectations. Mind you, this episode would probably have worked slightly better for me in a different spot in the timeline this season, but still, there were too many problems with it for me to ignore, even under better circumstances. I can see what the writers tried to show here, in regard to the state of the brothers’ relationship – namely how damaged it really is – but it didn’t quite work for me. So, be warned, this 'review' has a slightly different format than usual and is more like one long list of why this episode missed the mark by a mile wide for me. I didn’t want to analyse this episode too deeply, because while I didn’t hate it, I also didn’t want to risk to resent this episode more than I already do.

First off, I think that it would have made a positive difference if Jared himself would have depicted Gary-as-Sam and if Colton James would have played Sam-as-Gary. The opening sequence, where we see Jared play Gary was hilarious. He really did a marvellous job, every trace of Sam was gone from his acting, and I would have enjoyed to see him in that role throughout the episode. I also think it would have been easier for the audience to follow the reactions of Dean and Gary’s family/friends, if we would have seen what those characters see, when they were looking at Sam and Gary, respectively. Especially since the illusion that Dean sees Sam instead of Gary is destroyed by the fact that Jensen has to look down to Colton where he would need to look up to Jared. Additionally, the impact of the more emotional scenes, like for example the conversation between Dean and Gary-as-Sam in the bar, would have been even greater if we could have seen Jared and Jensen act it out. They just play off of each other in scenes like that exceptionally well. So, I think the show not only missed out on giving Jared a great opportunity to flex his acting muscles here, but also undermined the little positive emotional impact the episode could have had, well, on me at least.

Dean: "Is it just me or are we actually drinking together?"
Gary: "We don't do it that often, huh?"

Swap Meat is riddled with problems of continuity, implausible characterisation and it has so many plotholes that it barely holds together, but maybe I would have rationalised most of these problems away, if the episode hadn’t also left me off-kilter emotionally. At the end of the episode it was abundantly clear that while Sam and Dean obviously still love each other and probably always will, they are not friends anymore. They haven’t been for a long time, probably not since Dean came back from hell. The show played on this very theme before, namely in Sex and Violence, where Dean bonded with the siren Nick over their love for rock music and classic cars, because he missed the friendship with his little brother. Back then it made sense to me that the changes in Sam and the effect they had on their relationship left Dean lost and vulnerable, pushing him to look for the very connection he used to share with his brother in the most unlikely of places. The theme of their lost friendship continued in Free To Be You And Me, where Dean openly acknowledged that over the years the easiness of their brotherly relationship was buried under the weight of their burdens and that they unlearned how to just have fun with each other. And that made sense to me, too, because Dean was again vulnerable, trying to come to terms with his separation from Sam.

If Swap Meat had followed immediately after the brothers’ reunion in The End, it would have made perfect sense, as it would further have deepened this particular theme. Just like Sam, Interrupted would have made more sense if it had followed more closely on the heels of Free To Be You And Me, because that episode touched in passing on the subject of Sam’s anger management issues. It seems to me that the whole structuring of the season is completely off and as a result leaves the characterisation without clear direction. In my opinion Swap Meat and Sam, Interrupted should have been episodes five and six, respectively. That way we would have had a clear progression in the brothers’ relationship: separation (Free To Be You And Me) – reunion (The End) – exposition of their damaged relationship (Swap Meat) – agreement to repress and soldier on (Sam, Interrupted). In return that episode order would positively have reflected on the brothers’ off-kilter characterisation in Fallen Idols, I Believe The Children Are Our Future and The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester. However, in between Changing Channels and Abandon All Hope the brothers returned to being more in sync with each other, personally as well as professionally, however shallowly, and while it didn’t seem to make much sense since we didn’t exactly see the brothers make an effort to consciously reconcile, the development was there.

So, having Swap Meat at this point in the season left me hollow at the status of Sam and Dean’s relationship and feels like a step back, really. At this point healing and rediscovering their bond should take the front seat in the narration, not the opposite. Now, obviously Dean still longs for that close connection with his brother, that much was clear, as he bloomed under the affectionate attention Gary-as-Sam bestowed on him, but in the end scene Dean showed nothing but regret to have his Sam back at his side. It left me with the impression that if it wasn’t for the apocalypse, Dean would not necessarily choose to stay with his brother and that really felt like a punch I didn’t expect at this stage. So, yes, their relationship isn’t much fun nowadays, heck, their life isn’t much fun, for very good reasons, as Dean very well knows, and I don’t begrudge Dean his longing for their easy companionship of the early days, but really I wished it would have shown in his reaction at the end that he was glad to have Sam back, at least on some level.

Dean: "You're not Sam. Who the hell are you?"

Let’s talk about the fact that Dean doesn’t expose Gary-as-Sam right from the start: Now, on some level I can get behind that idea. As mentioned before, Sam and Dean’s relationship has fallen apart after Dean’s return from hell, and if Dean learned anything during that time then it’s that the Sam he once knew doesn’t exist anymore. He stopped knowing who his little brother is and failed to adapt to the changes in their relationship. Dean lost the one thing he could always count on, i.e. his big brother instincts, because he and Sam had grown estranged even worse than back at the beginning of the show. So, I do find it convincing that Dean would hesitate to trust his instincts where Sam is concerned, when his brother starts to act weirder than usual, a bit more scatterbrained, a tad less uptight, a little more enthused about the hunt. Dean also just made peace with his brother and challenging Sam's behaviour would only serve to stir the trust issues between them up again. It's understandable that Dean isn't really inclined to do so without good reason.

Additionally, whenever Dean’s suspicions grow stronger – which, by the way, he clearly has his suspicions from the very beginning, it’s not as if he acts completely oblivious to the sudden change in Sam – Gary usually counteracts with something that would sound just enough like Sam to distract Dean. For example, when Dean is irritated about the fact that Sam seemed to have forgotten about the Poltergeist case, Gary surprises him with his knowledge about the witch being buried in the basement, attributing it to research. Or when Dean is baffled about Sam celebrating a job well done with him, Gary’s heartfelt speech about escaping 'the plan' just for a while, fits well enough with their situation to be convincing. So, if that had been the extent of the changes in Sam, I would have bought it. Especially since it is clear how much Dean enjoys this version of his brother. A Sam who eases his burdens a little, just by giving Dean a good time over a beer and burgers, a Sam who appreciates him for who he is and expresses his admiration for Dean. Of course the real Sam did that many times as well, at least before Dean’s trip to hell, but since Sam did nothing but belittle Dean in the past year, it’s no surprise that on some level Dean wanted to believe in this version of his brother, because it was much closer to the little brother Dean has lost.

So, yeah, there are reasons why I think Dean wouldn’t necessarily confront Sam about acting a bit off right from the start, unless he is absolutely sure that something is up. However, there were just too many incidents that pointed towards a complete personality change, rather than towards just a little weirdness, to ignore. I simply cannot believe that Dean would overlook the fact that Sam suddenly seems to have forgotten how to drive a car or has completely different speech patterns or changed his tastes in music and food so drastically. Not to mention that he doesn’t seem to have noticed that all of his cell phones have suspiciously disappeared. So, to not draw from all those events that Sam might not be Sam, or at least that something fishy is going on, makes Dean look stupid. He might not know his brother very well anymore, but that kind of ignorance just takes it way too far to be convincing. And if I, as a viewer, cannot suspend disbelief for this particular plot device, the whole story falls together like a house of cards.

As mentioned before, on top of not buying the premise of the plot, there was an abundance of continuity and characterisation problems, not to mention gaping plotholes, that made it difficult to take this episode as canonical. I don’t really feel like summarising them in a particular order, so I just made a list of the points that bothered me the most:

If Swap Meat had been a fanfiction story, I would have stopped reading it, the moment Dean asks Sam if he ever thought about having a family and children. I mean, what? Did Dean suddenly forget that Sam went to Stanford, because he wanted to live a normal life and was about to ask Jessica to marry him? It would have made sense if Dean inquired if Sam still sees the white picket fence life in his future some day – although it would have been redundant, because he asked his brother the very thing in Wishful Thinking already – but he should know that Sam once wanted that. While I guess the intent here was to show Dean's own wistfulness, the scene was handled very clumsily.

I had a really hard time buying that a 10/11 year old Sam would repeatedly try to reveal the family secret to his babysitter. According to Sam "We do what we do and we shut up about it”, has been the family rule number one, and he didn’t exactly react sympathetic to the fact that Dean had told Cassie about the family business. He clearly conveyed that John enforced that rule pretty adamantly. While I can see that Sam would push the boundaries – like when he writes about werewolf hunting in an essay about family activities, knowing that nobody will take him seriously (After School Special) – I doubt he would have gone as far as drawing attention to them by randomly trying to tell someone who knows nothing about hunting. Not to mention that Dean would never have stood for it.

Talking about the babysitter: We know that John frequently left Dean and Sam alone to care for themselves when Sam was just five years old, and that he only trusted a few hunters to protect his sons, like Bobby and Pastor Jim, but suddenly they had a babysitter when Dean was already 14/15 and more than capable of looking after them? Why have we never even remotely heard of her or other babysitters before? Yes, I know that Dean mentions it in I Believe The Children Are Our Future, when he interrogates Jimmy, but I thought at the time that he simply wanted to find an angle to get the kid to talk. Up to this point the show has been very consistent with the depiction of the brothers’ childhood experiences. Why change it now?

Why didn’t Sam try to call Bobby, once it was clear that he couldn’t reach Dean? That’s their standard procedure. Also, Sam knew that even though Dean might have left the motel, his next stop would be their old babysitter’s house in order to take care of the Poltergeist, so why didn’t he try to get there in order to intercept Dean? It wouldn’t have been that hard to sneak out of Gary’s house and we know that Sam can hotwire a car.

Are we seriously to believe that Sam, whom we have seen close to breaking under the burdens of his issues just last episode, would feel that Gary’s 'apple pie life' sucks and that he prefers their life to his? It’s one thing to not allow himself to dream of these things anymore, but another entirely to state that someone like Gary is worse off than they are. Also, while I liked Sam’s fake speech about rebelling and finding his own way and actually felt that it was absolutely something that Sam would say in this situation, I think they left Gary off the hook too easily. He and his friends tried to commit a murder! For money and silly love spells. And while for all we know Trevor was the driving force behind the original plan and Gary couldn’t go through with it in the end, I don’t think a pat on the back cuts it. I know Dean tried to intimidate him earlier by threatening to kill him, but still, I felt the severity of the situation wasn’t done justice.

And plot-wise: Why didn’t anybody notice two teenagers shooting another teenager with a tranquilliser gun in broad daylight and then dragging the unconscious body around? We even see lots of people passing just behind Trevor and Nora, before they shoot Sam. Also, at the end of the episode there’s a dead kid in the basement of his parents’ house that nobody really seems to care about, not his 'friends', one of which has her fingerprints all over the room and the dead body, and not Sam and Dean either.

However, having said all this, there have also been a couple of scenes/insights in this episode that I enjoyed, and that showed that if the writing overall had been stronger and more consistent, this episode could have actually been decent:

I really loved that Dean unhesitatingly swapped places when Gary/Sam asked him if he can drive. He might still automatically take the driver’s seat, but he holds to his promise from Fallen Idols of equality in all matters between him and Sam. ♥

I thought Dean’s wistful streak in this episode was touching. He has come a very long way from the Dean who stated back in Bugs that he’d rather blow his brains out than live the apple pie life. Of course we have seen pretty early on that this was always a defensive stance that Dean took to protect himself, and that he did in fact always appreciate a normal life. Still, that he is now so open about it, stating that maybe they simply don’t know what they are missing, when they automatically dismiss that lifestyle, shows just how much his job wore him down. He wants some peace and rest now, and who could blame him? I like the sentiment that while Sam now seems to have turned his back on a normal life and looks for satisfaction in hunting, Dean is the one more likely to just lay his weapons down, once the fight is over. They have swapped places completely.

I also loved the conversation between Gary-as-Sam and Dean in the bar. Dean’s visible surprise and subsequent genuine gratitude when 'Sam' quietly points out that he thinks that Dean is a good guy, really teared me up. I think Dean really, really wants that – his little brother looking up to him and thinking well of him. This is the first time Sam actually voices this sentiment to him, soberly and in earnest, ever since their relationship fell apart, and I think Dean needs for the real Sam to express those feelings in order for their relationship to really heal. The scene touched me and at the same time I resented that it didn’t play out between Sam and Dean itself. Sam is at the moment too preoccupied with his own guilt and anger to fulfil that need within his brother, but I really hope that we’ll get to see something akin to that scene between them sooner rather than later as part of their reconciliation.

I really loved the little moment where the ex-babysitter mentions that Sam used to sign off his own reading lists and Dean fondly remembers that little quirk of Sam's as well. It's always heartwarming how much Dean savours their childhood memories. It also fit well with the theme of the episode and the sentiment that Dean used to know his little brother so very well.

The shared exorcism between Dean and Gary was fabulous. It's very good to see that Dean, too, finally memorised the exorcism. I'd really like to see that kind of teamwork between Sam and Dean more often. It was a nice touch and didn't even require for them to have the demon trapped in a devil's trap. It was a very effective strategy, and I am surprised the boys didn't use it earlier.

What else was noteworthy:

(1) Two episodes ago Lucifer raised Death and apparently nothing noteworthy really happened ever since! War insinuated back in Good God, Y’all that once the four horsemen are united, the consequences would be catastrophic and we have yet to see that happen. This season constantly emphasises how much Sam and Dean suffer from the fact that they started the apocalypse, how the guilt crushes them and how the need to redeem themselves by saving the world is the one thing that keeps them going, but apart from Abandon All Hope the show neglects to really put any substance to that psychological dilemma of the brothers. Is it really so hard to weave at least some signs that the apocalypse is actually happening somewhere into the story – via radio news or TV reports – to illustrate the dire situation? Why don’t we see the brothers scout for apocalyptic omens, trying to limit the damage wherever they can, or heck, at least mention that they have no leads and no clue what to do? This is the apocalypse that isn’t, and really that does neither the plot nor the characters any favours.

(2) We know that the demons are gunning for Dean, Meg stated as much in Sympathy For The Devil, when she tried to use Bobby to eliminate Dean, and the demon in I Believe The Children Are The Our Future affirmed that while Lucifer commanded that nobody touches Sam, Dean is fair game. Which makes a lot of sense, because if Dean were dead, it would give Lucifer the absolute tactical advantage over Michael. So, I was waiting for an episode that would actually address that problem for the brothers for a while now. Since Sam and Dean are hidden from demons via hexbags, they are obviously hard to track down, and I actually like that the demons started to recruit humans to look for them. Not unlike Zachariah utilised Jehova’s witnesses to find Dean in The End. However, it’s painfully obvious that Lucifer could simply have killed Dean in Abandon All Hope instead of knocking him out. He could have snuffed Dean’s life out without breaking sweat, and he didn’t. So, what is it? Lucifer wants him dead or he doesn’t? They should really take a more definitive line here.

(3) It was interesting that Lucifer only needs Sam’s body, no matter who inhabits it, and that Sam’s consent to the possession is not really necessary, if he isn’t present. It works well with the fact that the vessel capacity is bound to a hereditary characteristic of the blood, as stated in The Rapture. Although overall I really find that a disappointing prospect, as it seems to devaluate the actual character tremendously.

In conclusion: Swap Meat really makes me want to throw the towel, when it comes to the structuring of the current season. The lack of a clear direction results in the fact that the characterisation is all over the place and the finer details of canon seem to elude the writers at the moment. And it saddens me, that all this wouldn't have been necessary, with a bit more of careful planning and some adjustments in the episodes here and there.