Thursday, January 28, 2010

...Set: Supernatural 5x12 "Swap Meat"

SPN fans, are you satisfied? After much clamoring for a body swap episode throughout Supernatural's run, tonight's episode finally went there. Although, probably not the way people had wanted. No, Sam and Dean did not swap bodies with each other! Blast! I know, I would've liked to see it too, even just briefly. Oh well, it was a quality episode nonetheless, and personally, I think, one of the better ones of this season. I have a theory about why - most of this season has been kind of a back and forth between stand alone and mytharc episodes, whereas back in season 2 (arguably the best one), things from the mytharc were mixed in to each episode more often. This one did the whole stand alone thing, but then went straight back to the themes of the season by the end, to which I say: bravo! Yay!

So how did this whole body swap thing go down, exactly? While Sam and Dean are working a run of the mill ghost case for a former babysitter of theirs, one Gary Frankel spots them in the diner/eatery place he works and does some intense staring at Sam. Later, Sam gets a tranquilizer dart to the neck and afterward, wakes up in the middle of the woods, eventually figuring out, after being picked up by the cops and taken back to Gary's house that he's, yep, in Gary's body! He tries to get a hold of Dean, but Gary has conveniently gotten rid of all of their cell phones. Which Dean doesn't notice? I guess when "Sam" is there, he doesn't need to check his phone? Moving on!

While Gary has a grand old time playing around as Sam, including asking to drive the Impala, then promptly backing it up into some garbage cans, Sam is trying to figure out who Gary is and how this all happened, while dodging parents and sisters and friends. I really enjoyed the way he was like "leave me alone" and "ugh, I'm coming!" when the parents were calling for him. Ha, sounded just like those troublesome teens do. Actually, Jared Padalecki did a great job throughout the episode. And he thinks he's not good at being funny! Silly. Anyway, it turns out Gary's been working some very dark magics. But before Sam can go find him and Dean, he gets sidelined by Gary's friends, Nora (guest star Sarah Drew! Everwood shout out!) and Trevor. And gets tranqed again!

Gary has, meanwhile, tried to kill Dean while they were getting rid of the ghost, but couldn't go through with it. They go out to a bar to drink and celebrate the vanquishing of the ghost, and this is when Dean finally starts to figure out that he's not really Sam, thanks to his positive attitude, and him going off with the cougar. Took you long enough, Dean! At least he did figure it out, though. It would have been kind of ridiculous if he never did.

But! Nora and the Trev-meister have Sam tied up, and we find out what the dealio is. Turns out, the demons have put a bounty on Dean's head and are sending the word out to all of the witches and Satan worshippers of the world. They plan to kill Dean and get rewarded in return. But, because Gary is having second thoughts about going through with actually killing Dean, Trevor decides they've got to call in some big guns - a demon - despite Sam trying to warn them how stupid they are. And stupid he is, because once the demon takes over Nora, she kills Trevor, of course. Duh! Stupid Trevor.

Things could get very bad, however, because she also figures out that Sam isn't in his body. Which means his meat suit is up for grabs! Uh oh. She goes to find them, right when Dean is confronting Gary about who in the hell he is and what he's done with Sam. After Nora-demon beats on Dean for a while, Gary comes through with some Latinating, with help from Dean, to exorcise her. Is it just me, or has exorcising demons gotten a lot easier than it used to be? In any case, the demon smokes out of there.

Afterward, Gary switches with Sam back to their proper bodies, then whines a bit about his life. Sam tells him to grow a pair before he and Dean take off. And here I will note how much Sam and Dean have changed perspectives over the course of the show. In season 1, Sam was pissed about the way they were raised; that they didn't get to have a normal life. Here, he seemed to be at peace with it and actually kind of happy they didn't have the normal suburban lifestyle. Dean, on the other hand, used to think the way they grew up was awesome and cool, but now realizes they were really missing something. Granted, that's been going on for a while with him, but it's interesting anyway how they've kind of turned 180s on the matter. Something they have not turned 180s on? Their taste in music and food, which was nicely featured in this episode as well.

And now, for a smattering of some of my favorite lines of the night, though there were quite a few...

"I would love to have the sex with you." - Gary, in Sam's body, to the cougar woman, after she has had to be pretty explicit about her sexual intentions

"Oh, you shake it up baby." - Dean, about Sam and his shakeable salad

Sam is looking through Gary's stuff... "Smart kid." Sees a bunch of Star Wars t-shirts. "Virgin." Sees a copy of Busty Asian Beauties. "Frustrated virgin."

"You satanic little bastard." - Sam re: Gary and his witchy ways

"Why shouldn't I be happy? I've got a gun, I'm getting drunk. I look like this." - Gary, in Sam's body of course

"That was a nice thing to say." - Dean, after Sam has told Gary he wishes he had his life

"Totally lied. His life sucked ass." - Sam

Next week looks exciting! The boys travel back in time to stop Anna from killing their parents before they were born!

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