Recap – “Swap Meat”
“So what’d you call me for here Skippy.” Great nickname! I use it all the time for clueless morons. She looks like she’s going to eat him but he points out they have Dean Winchester. She’s interested. Sam tells him to keep his mouth shut but this kid wants to die and tells her he’s at the Cloverleaf motel. She then turns around and with glee sees that it’s Sam in a Gary suit. She laughs and pinches his cheeks. “Well aren’t you just 98 pounds of nothing.” Sam points out the kid is a moron. Yeah, like she hasn’t figured this out.
She isn’t a moron though, wondering if Sam’s in this body then who’s in Sam’s. Trevor tries to say a dangerous warlock named Gary and from the name alone everyone knows better. Heck, my cat’s name is Gary and he’s more menacing. She’s delighted because she gets Dean and Sam’s meatsuit, an empty vessel waiting to be filled. She’s impressed. I must admit, I love the way this actress, Sarah Drew, is selling this demon act. She does evil much better than her goody two shoes counterpart. So, Trevor asks about his reward. Sure, he gets her undying gratitude. Trevor, being the moron he is, doesn’t take this well. Dude, this is a real demon who can rip your heart out with one grab! “Be quiet you idiot!” Sam says. She says he should consider himself lucky. Trevor is just that stupid though, and gets demanding. “We worked our asses off here and I want my reward!”
Nora!demon freezes with a huge look of ire, then turns around with a menacing glare. Trevor backs off and says please. Oh, you’re way too late now buddy. She bats her eyelids and gives him that malevolent smile, asking what he wants. Man, he’s even stupid with his request. He wants a million dollars. Sam tells him to run. Stop trying Sam, just let the idiot get what he deserves. She points out he should have ten million, since a million isn’t enough these days. So he agrees, but he also wants Mindy Schwartz to fall in love with him. I’m hoping Mindy Schwartz hasn’t so far because she sees he’s a moron. Sam just rolls his eyes, accepting this kid probably does deserve what’s coming to him. “Love, money, sticking to the basics. I can respect that,” Nora!demon says in such a delicious way. She is so leading him on it’s great. She then chooses to give him her counter. Bam! Her fist goes through his heart. Trevor flinches, Sam flinches. Trevor quivers and collapses and Nora!demon with absolute delight licks her bloody hand. “Yep, tastes like moron.” Bye bye stupid red shirt!
So now, ONLY now, Dean decides to check his voice mail messages through the motel phone. There are 38 of them. Gary is tied to a chair while Dean listens to SAM’s voice (huh??) tell him he’s in the wrong body and the guy right next to him is not him. “Check your friggin voice mail dammit!” Sorry, I can’t let this mistake pass. Bazinga! “Alright pal, either you start talking or I start waterboarding.” Listen to him Gary, Dean is an expert in this sort of thing. Gary pleads for his life and doesn’t want to die. Hey dude, you should have thought of that before switching bodies so you could kill someone! Geez, are teenagers really this clueless?
Dean wants to know where Sam is. He’s in his friend’s basement. His parents are out of town. Oh, and his friend is now dead in said basement, but no one seems to care about that. Dean catches onto the word parents and wants to know how old this kid is. 17. Dean can’t take time to absorb that, for he’s flung into the mirror on the wall and knocked unconscious. Gary looks and there’s Nora!demon all evil. Her black eyes flash letting him know it’s not really her. Meanwhile, back at the basement, Sam still can’t break loose. Of course the reason why can be told in the mirror. He’s a 98 pound weakling. He looks at his reflection and gives a frustrated “dammit.”
Back at the motel, and Nora cuts Gary loose while Dean is still out on the floor. She plays the reward card, asking him what he wants. He can have anything. Of course Gary smiles and buys into it. He wants to be a witch for real, and really powerful. Hello, stupid, you kind of already are. You don’t need a demon deal for that. Kids and their low self esteem! She understands his motivation, but points out there’s one small formality first. He’s gotta meet the boss. “You know, your satanic majesty or whatever the kids are calling it these days.” Yeah, satanic majesty was circa 1967. She’s a little behind the times. Gary so doesn’t want to meet the boss. Now he’s FINALLY seeing this is serious shit. Honest, are kids really that dumb these days?
Gary doesn’t want to bother Satan, but Nora!demon insists he’s going to want to meet him. It’ll be easy. He’s going to ask you one question and all you have to say is yes. HUH????? How can that be??? I thought Sam had to be in there to say yes. All it takes is one punk kid with a spell and Lucifer has his vessel? Bazinga! Bazinga! Bazinga! No, no, this can’t be right. Nora’s diabolical plot is interrupted by Dean charging after her with a knife. She of course beats him to the punch and shoves him away, kicking the crap out of him.
Gary, who must be book smart but totally lack common sense, starts reciting in Latin the demon exorcism. She turns away from Dean and now turns her wrath toward Gary, choking him and lifting him off the ground like what normally happens with Sam. Except I wish I was watching it actually happen with Sam’s body. Jared does funnier faces when choking. No, I’m not bitter, why do you ask? Dean hops up and continues the exorcism. Dean winces in pain so when she charges him, Gary continues. So it goes back and forth. Gary, Dean, Gary, Dean, Gary, Dean…and he ends with “Adios bitch.” Gary corrects him though, saying its “Adinos.” Black smoke repels from her. Yeah, that’s what we’re supposed to see. There must have only been enough budget for one black smoke visual effect.
Next Gary and Sam are sitting in front of a cauldron and Gary is reciting the spell. Nora and Dean watch in the background with nervous anticipation. A wave of golden light swirls all around and Gary and Sam switch places. Sam looks in the mirror and sees it’s him. He’s all relieved, Gary’s all disappointed. Listen here you little brat, you’re due for an ass kicking! So now that everything’s back to normal, it’s time for Dean to give Gary the what for. Gary gives a casual “my bad” but Dean isn’t going to let him off that easy. “My bad?” Dean says. “Kid, my bad ain’t going to cut it. See, if you were of voting age, you’d be dead. Because we would kill you. So you either straighten up and fly right or we will kill you. Are we clear?” Then he and Sam take turns kicking Gary’s ass. No, instead Gary just says it’s crystal clear.

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 🙂