Recap – “Swap Meat”
Sam only answers “yeah.” Dean, not exactly thrilled with Sam’s conversational skills, gets to his point. Does he ever think he’d want something like that, “Wife, rugrats, the whole nine.” Sam says that’s not his thing anymore. Dean ends the conversation, for he actually believes him. So what’s new about the case? The house they’re in is old and there’s a legend that the old owner, Isaiah Pickett many years back hung a woman in his backyard for witchcraft. Her name was Maggie Briggs. While Sam gives the particulars Gary is seen over at the counter in that really stupid uniform giving Sam the evil eye. Okay, that’s weird.
Sam is walking down the town street at night and is on the phone with Dean. No luck, there isn’t even record that Maggie Briggs existed, let alone where she was planted. He walks into the little park area and hangs up, then hears a noise. He looks around suspiciously then gets a huge tranquilizer dart to the neck. Hey, that looks like it’s meant for an elephant. They’re much smaller in Chuck. Then again, we are dealing with the ginormotron, so a big one is probably necessary. I do like the way Sam loses coherence in slo-mo before doing a face plant. Nicely done.
Later it’s raining (shocker!) and Sam is on the ground in that totally ludicrous uniform. If anyone found him, they probably figured he got his ass kicked for wearing it. It’s also hilarious they have something that tacky for someone that size. He really looks stupid. Too bad he didn’t have the silly hat on. That would have been icing on the cake.
Sam wakes up and doesn’t even react to the stupid uniform he’s in. I guess he’s seen enough horror in his life. He’s walking down the street and a cop car pulls up announcing on the radio they found him. He calls Sam “Gary Frankel.” Sam asks who. The cop says his family is worried sick about him and Sam goes “my brother?” He must still be out of it. The cop tells him to get in the back and he does? Huh? Sam, the guy who’s been running from the cops for years? Bazinga!
The cop pulls up to some modest looking townhome and now Sam doesn’t get it at all. Where are they? Home of course. Then his “parents” rush out and he gets a hug bear hug from this woman he doesn’t know, which startles the crap out of him. He asks what’s going on and goes “lady, who are you?” I love Sam’s bothered expressions like this. It reminds me of how good they were in “Changing Channels.” The father asks in authoritarian tone if he’s drunk. “And who are you?” Sam asks, doing awesome in freak out mode. The woman tells him to answer his father. Now Sam really doesn’t understand. He doesn’t until he sees Gary’s reflection in the cop car window. “Who the hell is that!” he shouts. The father is really angry, using the “young man, I’m very surprised at you.” “Yeah, tell me about it” one very bothered Sam replies. Hee, I liked that. Out of sorts Sam always manages to work so well.
Next “Sam” is at the motel, flexing his muscles in the mirror. “Oh yeah, bring it!” Then the camera shows a wimpy looking Gary on the other end in Sam’s grey undershirt. Dean walks in wondering where the hell Sam had been. He’s been trying to call him for hours. Gary covers by giving Dean his bacon burger turbo and a large chili cheese fries. Dean is pleased to see that but wonders how that took him two hours. Gary covers, he just lost track. Oh, and they have to leave. The maid came in and saw the guns. Dean reluctantly agrees. So, while Dean is in “the head” Gary takes Dean’s cell phone, then the ones in the car and disposes of them in the dumpster. Dean will notice instantly they’re gone, right? Right?? What’s that you say? Bazinga!
Gary waits in the car and Dean comes out. Gary, being the recluse that he is, asks Dean with excitement if he can drive. Now that I get. What teenage boy wouldn’t want a chance to drive a bitchin’ car like that? Hell, what middle aged woman wouldn’t? Dean agrees and they go through the ritual of exchanging seats. Gary sits behind the wheel, excited as can be, saying “this is so sweet” and revs the engine. This is where Dean should have figured it out. Right here! Brother went missing for two hours, cell phones are gone, and Sam’s gone giddy over driving the Impala. Bazinga! Dean isn’t amused by this behavior for some reason and watches Gary put the car in gear. He tells him “reverse.” Gary puts his foot on the gas. “Reverse!” Gary floors it and the car goes crashing into the dumpster.
First, it’s a darned good thing the Impala is made of that old American steel, for a car today would have been crumpled by the dumpster. The Impala is a tank. Second, what does Julie Siege have against the Impala? Did one Christine her when she was a kid or something? This is her third act of heinous vandalism against the Impala. She’s only written five episodes and the Impala has been in four of them. Dean, now beside himself, clarifies. “It’s in reverse!” Hee, my kids don’t listen to me either. Teenagers are so thick headed! A mortified Gary cowers as they switch positions, apologizing profusely. “Shut up,” Dean tells him. The Impala peels away unharmed.
Sam is in Gary’s room calling Dean’s “other other” cell. One thing I do love in this episode is how they pulled off showing one person on one side of the mirror and a different one in the reflection. The way Jared and Colton James pull this off is brilliant, not to mention how they were shot by Robert Singer. Sam leaves a frantic message, telling Dean “I think I’m in the wrong body. And I think I’ve got asthma.” The disconcerted tone is quite clever. He’s wearing a loser’s Star Wars shirt. At least it’s the original movies. He calls the motel and is told those “guys” checked out in the middle of the night. “One leather jacket, one sasquatch.” I’ll never tire of Sam being called that. So Sam stares in the mirror, staring down Gary, and asks “who are you?” What’s really interesting is they sold this despite being so different in size. 
Sam looks through Gary’s stuff. He’s in Advanced Chemistry so obviously smart. Clueless but smart. He sees more Star Wars t-shirts and figures out Gary is a virgin. Were you at 17 Sam? I demand a random conversation in a future episode where Sam and Dean mention the ages they lost their virginity. And with whom. Sam pulls a box out from under the bed and it’s another sighting of “Busty Asian Beauties”! To me, that gag never gets old. “Frustrated virgin,” Sam says. Oh, the kid also has some witchcraft items in there. “You little satanic bastard,” Sam says. Ha! Takes one to know one. Sam wants to look more, but frustratingly is called to breakfast.
Sam’s wardrobe choice is interesting and he so is not a stripped hoodie kind of guy. It zaps all the prettiness right out of him. Ditto for the sneakers. He sits down and the father already has a stick up his ass. He wants to know what happened last night. “So do I, believe me,” Sam answers. If this is what Sam was like as a teenager, I want to see more. What a great attitude. Dad is talking about the plan. SATs, MIT, a full ride, that sort of thing. How does getting drunk fit with the plan? Sam, attitude in check, looks at the guy and says, “Listen buddy, no offense, but at the moment I couldn’t give a rats ass about your plan.” That amuses the sister to no end. That amuses me to no end.
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Great review! I laughed as much here as I did when when Sam was telling Gary’s dad to cram it (or whatever he said).
I too wish that we had seen Jared as Sam doing the scenes with Dean and the lady at the bar…that first scene was GREAT and it’s sad we didn’t see more of Jared’s comedy acting! (no matter what Jared says, he is good at comedy!!)
I have to say, for me, this ep just pushed Bugs out of the number one spot for worst episode! Sooooo many holes in the plot I actually cringed in a couple of spots. And like you, I think they really missed the boat with not having Jared portray Gary in his body. Every time Dean or anybody for that matter looked DOWN at Sam it was just so wrong.
I watched it again this afternoon but it was actually worse because I kept picking out more holes in the plot. Seriously, enough with the sophomoric scripts!
I haven’t seen The Song Remains The Same yet since we don’t get it until Wed in Canada on Space but I hear it’s miles better! Here’s hoping…
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Great recap. All the goofy face Sam pics are awesome. I did enjoy this episode. Honestly I don’t really care about plot holes in this type of episode. If it was one of the big myth (or whatever you want to call it) like this weeks I would but this was just entertainment. I did wonder why Dean wasn’t checking his phone but that was really the only one that jumped out at me besides Sam sounding like Sam on the phone. Maybe I was just missing Castiel too much to notice the others. lol I do agree that there wasn’t nearly enough Sam as Gary in it. He was hilarious.
Oh, Alice, that’s a load of rich, creamery butter. Randal hates when people talk in the third person.
When watching this, I noticed the holes (the worst for me: The Yes tied to body alone? Oh, Plato), but the funny parts, even if awkwardly done in spots, made me chuckle enough to suspend even more disbelief. Now that they’re listed out, all I’m going to notice in the future are the plot holes. So yeah, thanks. 😎
Re: black smoke. What’s funny is that we didn’t see any way back in Devil’s Trap when the mailman (I think it was a mailman) got possessed in the crowd, then zapped a fireman. It’s Kripke’s fault!
Teenage wasteland: to be an advocate in a devilish sort of way, the Winchesters were fighting monsters whereas Gary’s dad looks like a CPA.
A couple of chuckles but basically crap. The brothers switching bodies would be funnier and involve fewer weedy spotties and their toast rack torsos clogging up the screen … Enough of the fluff, now bring on the gloom, doom and buckets of blood. We’re here for the Apocalypse, not Sam and Dean’s Bogus Journeys! :roll::
Bazinga’? – you rock, woman! Loved this! The way you pointed out the holes (yeah, unfortunately there were some, but, hey what the hell?) made me die from laughter, so here’s a ghost talking to you (no, no, don’t send them after me… moment of thought…. Oh, do send them after me!)
Don’t mind me, I’m dead tired, that biz trip I had to take was exhausting. I’m not good at professional politics and small talk…
This episode was fun, nevertheless (and just like you I would have loved to see Jared in that scene with wannabe-domina). I loved how Jared played with his handsome appearance here, making a nice fool of himself. Loved that.
Thanks for an ever fun-to-read recap and the screencaps!!!
Cheers, Jas
Randal… watched Kate & Leopold a bit much?
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Alice, I agree that Sammy looks older than his 26, but in a positive way. I mean, he looks more manly than ever. Can you believe that the lanky and cute college boy from Season 1 turned into this “stunning looking man”? Dean was manly from the beginning, but it’s as though “darling little Sammy” just grew up.
Here I am, being very shallow again. I apologize to the gentlemen on this board. 😉
Hi Alice
Loved the recap…all the Bazinga’s had me laughing.
Although this episode could have been better, ok a lot better, it still had some good moments. I could be wrong,but I get the feeling you took great enjoyment in being able to use “Bazinga” as many times as you did.:lol:
I’m starting to think that maybe Julie Siege really doesn’t know or understand Sam and Dean’s characters as well as she should. I found both this and Fallen Idol had some real continuity issues.
Funny Recap Alice. Thank you for not completely blowing this one away. I liked it, but I know many didn’t.
Yea…the episode has holes, but it was so funny they can be overlooked. And when people are looking to be uplifted from a show, ‘holes’ get pushed to the background. I much prefer this episode over the sad ones we’ve seen lately. The fans need some light stuff once in a while. Maybe they just wanted the fun stuff and really didn’t care much about continuity. Really I laughed so much at some of the Sam/Gary parts I was crying! I really LOVED Gary backing the impala in to the can. I laughed so hard!!! It would have been fun to see Jared in that scene instead of Gary…AND of course the bedroom scene
The sad part is that a lot of those ‘holes’ could have been addressed easily in the script and without much extra dialog. Yea…the throwing away of ALL cell phones was a story flaw…in fact Gary even through away John’s phone from the glove compartment. SO BAD!!! I guess we can hope the boys went back and recovered them. So much is done off screen in the series because of the low budget
As for Sam going to school as Gary, I didn’t know others thought that weird. Gary was the only link he had so I can see why has would have to follow Gary’s life. No other choice. And as for teenagers being that moronic…..I REALLY hope not.
As for Dean, I think at first he just let some things go because he is more into his own sympathy world right now. He is still reeling from the guilt of Jo and Ellen and feeling very sorry about everything. But when he did realize it, I agree with you, he REALLY needs his brother to play the little brother role right now. (No matter how old Sam is, and no matter that they both agree Dean needs to let Sam do his thing, to Dean, Sam will always be a ‘little’ brother, and I really wish Sam would play that role for Dean for a while, it would really help his brother cope, and that, in turn, would help Sam) So it was nice for him to have his brother like he wanted for a while and he just let it go…and that was disturbing to me. In their world, that kind of indulgence can be dangerous, and indeed it turned into that.
I also found it disturbing when Dean was being beaten by Nora!demon that he looked to Gary. He already knew it wasn’t his brother, but, I think, that just brought back to Dean the reality, that the fun he had with this ‘Sam’ wasn’t real, and how much he missed.
Wow! I really agree with what Sablegreen said. Especially about Sam being Dean’s little brother again for a while. It looked like Dean really enjoyed for a while having his little brother back even if it wasn’t him. I thought Dean was really hoping that Sam was really Sam there for a bit.
I enjoyed the episode for what it was and the only thing I would have changed would have been for Jared to have played the part of Gary. I keep thinking how much fun that would have been to see.
I am also one of those “It didn’t suck” -people. Kinda for the same reasons that Sablegreen above pointed out. It was a really funny eppie and the plot holes didn’t bother me, ’cause I was enjoying myself. Bugs is a perfect example of a eppie that doesn’t work (for me atleast) in practically any level ’cause the whole package was ruined. This one had a few hiccups but that won’t stop me watching it again 🙂