Recap – “Swap Meat”
The father gives an “excuse me” so Sam changes the subject. “Have I seemed moody lately, withdrawn, any occult fixations?” The mother is surprised but Sam doesn’t stop. “Let me guess, I’m amazing at Latin.” Oh yes. Well that’s one thing both Sam and Gary have in common. “Any of the neighborhood pets go missing recently?” Okay, I’m howling here. If my son started asking me this sort of stuff out of the blue I’d be throwing holy water on him. These poor clueless parents. Nah, forget poor. I really love how Sam doesn’t seem to care. Then he asks if anyone has seen him with a book, an old book, big and leather bound. Judging by the alarmed look by the sister, she has. Sam sees the blank look on the parents and figures out he’s probably hiding it. Then he eats a piece of his mother’s toast. Oops, he’s allergic to wheat gluten. Sure enough, Sam comes out of the bathroom looking mighty green. He’s that sensitive? I’ll skip the code word for now, but that’s suspicious. He runs into sister who wonders if he’s crazy for bringing up that book in front of mom and dad. If they knew about it he’d be grounded for a decade. Naturally, Sam wants to know where he keeps that book.
Dean and Gary are at Fisherman’s Wharf and Dean mentions they’re working today. They have to go scour tombstones for Maggie Briggs’ body since Sam couldn’t find out where she was buried. Oh, but Gary knows exactly where she’s buried. In the basement at Isaiah Pickett’s house. He’s spent a lot of time researching that legend. The real truth is she was carrying his illegitimate child so he killed her and buried her in the basement. What do you know, that’s the house they’re trying to get rid of the poltergeist. Wouldn’t the basement be the first place they checked?? At least the second place after the attic? Bazinga! They climb into the car and Bob Seger’s “Rock and Roll Never Forgets,” comes on. I’m shocked this show doesn’t do more Bob Seger since Kripke is from Toledo and Phil Sgriccia is from Michigan. The guy is legend in those parts. Gary loves the song and wants him to turn it up. Dean probably knows something is up now. The look says it all! His look isn’t “cool.” It’s “what have you done with my brother?”
Sam is at high school now leaving new messages for Dean. He’s also now wearing an ugly down vest to go with his awful striped hoodie. Anyone want to speculate how much Jared was laughing when he went into wardrobe and saw that outfit? He runs into two friends asking if he’s alright. They heard about last night. First Sam says he’s Gary and then goes “Gary is okay.” They instantly notice he’s talking about himself in the third person. Don’t you hate it when people do that? Sam goes for the quick, “Got drunk, no big thing,” and wants to know his locker number. His friend asks if he’s still drunk. “Yeah, I see like three of you now,” Sam says. “Now what’s my locker number?” I love teenage Sam.
Sam goes to the locker, easily breaks into it and finds the giant witchcraft book. He notices this is a very bad book. This is where I’ve read some criticism over why did Sam stay in Gary’s house and go to school? It’s my guess that since he had no idea where Dean was, looking for that book was the better option. It would at least tell him what was happening.
Dean and Gary go down to the basement and Gary is all smiles with his gun, again acting all goofy. Dean looks at him with worry now and asks “Are you alright?” Yeah, he’s onto something. What do you know, they go down to the basement and see an area that looks like a body is buried there. It’s covered in Willow Moss, which grows on WITCHES GRAVES. No one noticed that before? Bazinga! Dean gets out a shovel and starts digging the fresh dirt with ease. Yeah, no settling of the ground there over the years. Gary stands in the back holding the gun. Except he’s pointing it at Dean and looking nervous. After much hesitation he says “Hey man, I’m really sorry about this.” Dean asks for what but doesn’t look. Come one Dean, look! No matter, for Gary goes flying just as he’s about to shoot.
Dean rushes over to help him, calling out “Sam!” Aw, he still cares despite the nutty behavior. Gary is spooked now and wants to get out of there but Dean reminds him they have to burn the body. Then Dean goes flying. The ghost of Maggie Briggs appears and she’s pissed! She stares down Dean and rushes at him before disappearing in a burst of flames just as she gets to him. A stunned Dean looks over at Gary, who’s standing over the burning body with a huge grin on his face. “Dude, that was sweet.” Do kids even say that anymore? Dean fakes enthusiasm and it’s priceless!
Sam is walking away from the high school with the book in his hands. He’s so getting out of there. Except the two dweebs from earlier, Trevor and Nora, try to stop him. “I’m just not feeling like myself, okay?” Sam says. That’s an understatement. So Trevor plays up the “talk to me friend” stuff but Sam tells them he’s got to go. Trevor calls out to him and “zap!” there’s a dart in Sam’s neck! Whoa, something finally got interesting! Nora is horrified and Trevor asks what else was he supposed to do? Of course I’m wondering how outside of a crowded high school no one notices a kid getting hit with a tranquilizer gun and dragged away, but for this one case since I’m curious I’ll dismiss. Sasquatch falls to the ground again and man, how does this sort of shit always happen to Sam?
Dean and Gary are in a bar and the waitress is serving them both shots of whiskey. This must be a dream for a 17 year old! Dean orders a cheeseburger with extra bacon, oh, and a fried egg on top. That on The Simpsons is called the “good morning burger.” Homer Simpson would be drooling. Gary then says he wants one too. Dean should have pulled his gun right there. Instead, he does ask the proper question, “Who are you and what have you done with Sam?” Gary covers nicely, claiming that they are celebrating. Good thing Dean figures it out here or I would have had to apply hints with a sledgehammer.
Dean plays along, toasting too and telling him nice work today. Gary admits he had a really awesome day. Dean is really suspicious now. As Gary tries to recover from the punch of the liquor, Dean questions the “really awesome day” part. It was a random, boring ghost hunt. For you maybe Deano! So Gary asks the question, “I can’t be in a good mood?” NO YOU CAN’T! You’re Sam Winchester! You’re always brooding. Come on Dean, shoot him!
Dean at first does an “I guess ” and then he realizes who is he kidding. “No, actually, that’s really not your style Sam.” So Gary says the one thing that disturbs Dean the most. This is where I really really wish Jared was doing this scene instead, for I would have loved to have seen him say this. “Well then, it’s a new me. Come on, why shouldn’t I be happy. I’ve got a gun, I’m getting drunk, and I look like this.” He motions circles around his face with his fingers, and Dean is now really bothered.

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 🙂