High school nerd Gary (guest star Colton James) conjures up a body-switching spell and changes bodies with Sam (Jared Padalecki). Thrilled by his new handsome and well-built body Gary (now Sam) investigates a case with Dean (Jensen Ackles) and takes advantage of Sam’s good looks and age by hitting on women and getting drunk. Meanwhile, the real Sam is stuck inside Gary’s teenage body, dealing with intrusive parents and high school.
Before we get into the commentary about Supernatural S5.12 Swap Meat and why I feel that this episode suffered from a lack of a certain necessary continuity, I want to talk about the big Supernatural news that happened this past weekend.
I’m talking about the big party they had up in Vancouver, B.C. on Saturday to celebrate the filming of Supernatural’s 100th episode. Yes Supernatural is 100 episodes old and still going strong and that is quite an accomplishment for the offbeat genre show on a struggling netlet that everyone thought wouldn’t last more than two seasons. Of course we here at Eclipsemagazine.com have always known that Supernatural had what it takes to be a success; great writing, directing, producing and most of all two very talented lead actors in Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles who have made Sam and Dean Winchester two of the most compelling characters on television today. So a big CONGRATULATIONS to Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Eric Kripke, Sera Gamble and the rest of the Supernatural creative team (the late Kim Manners most definitely included) on this milestone success and here’s to more success to come. ‘Kick it in the Ass!’
Now, let’s move on to my commentary about Supernatural S5.12 Swap Meat.
First off I would like to make it clear that overall I enjoyed this episode and I was happy to see one that had a focus on Sam Winchester as a character, it’s just that I wish Eric Kripke hadn’t made statements about it that were misleading to viewers like myself and most especially to the fans who took him to his word when he said that this was going to be the ‘body swap episode fans were clamoring for.’
This was so not the episode of that nature that the fans that went to conventions have mentioned time and time again to lead actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Because it wasn’t, I think that maybe any disappointment those fans felt because it wasn’t what the they have been wanting to see: ie Sam and Dean swapping bodies- most likely led to the episode not being as appreciated as it might have been if nothing had been alluded to regarding that. I know as a viewer while I understand that the production team and the writers shouldn’t cater too specifically to what certain fans or viewers want to see, I was mildly disappointed to not see Padalecki and Ackles get the chance to play each other’s characters.
What I am more disappointed in about Supernatural S5.12 Swap Meat as a viewer is the fact that the writers and creative team chose to go the ‘Quantum Leap’ route in presenting the body swap rather than let Jared Padalecki loose as an actor and allow him to showcase the incredible talent he has. When the episode first opened on Not!Sam sitting at the bar yet being played by Jared Padalecki I as a viewer had high hopes that we were going to continue to see Padalecki being allowed to play it this way and see Colton James doing an imitation of Sam Winchester trapped in another body. So I was pretty much let down when, from that sequence on, they chose to go the route where the audience still sees Jared Padalecki as Sam while the other characters in the episode see him as Gary. So instead of seeing a very talented actor get a chance to cut loose and do something else in a role, we just saw him being the same as usual. Not that seeing Sam Winchester isn’t a good thing, but I would have liked Padalecki to have had something new to do that allowed him to stretch his talents a bit more. It would have been a challenge for him and fun for the viewers and for the fans to see.
Well I titled this commentary to talk about the subject of continuity and that is my biggest issue with this episode; a lack of continuity in several keys ways the really made this episode lose something when it could have been a great episode. Last week I was talking about how I appreciated that the creative writing team of Dabb/Loflin had stuck with continuing certain things about Sam and Dean Winchester from episode to episode that they have written. While I’m still not sure why they are bringing forth the character aspects they are consistent with, I do appreciate that continuity. In Supernatural S5.12 Swap Meat, written by Julie Siege and directed by Robert Singer, there was two things that to me were a serious lack of important continuity and both of them have to do with how Dean interacted with Sam and how Jensen Ackles interacted with Colton James.
It seemed very jarring that Dean didn’t notice right away that something was different about Sam and pick up on the fact that it was not Sam he was interacting with. I could have bought the interaction and the slow to pick on things on Dean’s part if this had been a first season episode when the brothers were still getting to know each other again. But this episode was taking place in season 5 and long after the guys have gotten to know each other again. I just couldn’t buy into that suspension of disbelief that Dean Winchester wouldn’t immediately know that this was not his brother Sam he was dealing with. What’s even worse is it took Sam saying something nice to Dean for Dean to suddenly realize this couldn’t be his brother Sam.
Now while this might be a good continuity back to Supernatural S1.22 Devil’s Trap when Dean realizes that their dad John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) was taken over by a demon because Dean knew his dad wouldn’t be proud of him for wasting a bullet and he wouldn’t be saying nice things to Dean, it’s a complete lack of continuity for the relationship of Sam and Dean in season five. Has Dean gone that far backward in his growth as a character and person that he wouldn’t know it was Sam unless Sam was saying nice things to him? To this viewer, that just doesn’t make sense. Dean and Sam might not have the best of relationships at this point in the story and their journey, but Sam not saying supportive things to Dean is not part of that discord between them.
The other continuity issue I had with Supernatural S5.12 Swap Meat was one that really was the finally straw for taking away any suspension of disbelieve I might have been able to fall into for this episode.
Colton James appears to be almost a foot shorter than Jared Padalecki and a good four inches shorter than Jensen Ackles. I understand that it is polite to look someone in the eye when you are talking to him or her and I know from personal experience that Jensen Ackles is a very polite man and will look you in the eye when he talks to you. Normally seeing Jensen having his character of Dean Winchester looking other actors in the eye when doing scenes with them adds to the dramatic effect of the scenes. Except for Swap Meat. In every scene that he had with Colton James, Jensen Ackles was making eye contact with him. All well and good except that means that Ackles was constantly looking down at “Gary” when he should have been looking up at “Sam”. Jensen Ackles made his point of focus the other actor’s eyes, which means that Dean’s point of focus was “Sam’s” chest. Why one earth would Dean be staring at Sam’s chest when he is talking to him?
I don’t blame all of this on Jensen Ackles though for not being aware of where his line sight of should have been. Like I said, it’s second nature to look the other person in the eye and normally that is the correct thing to do, except in this instance Ackles was looking the other actor in the eyes instead of making sure Dean was looking “Sam” in the eyes. It seems to me that blame is also to be laid on the director and the continuity people for not keeping a better watch on this and helping Jensen Ackles to remember that Dean thinks he is talking to Sam and Dean is suppose to “see” Sam. No one kept track of the fact that Dean’s visual focus should have been where Sam’s eyes would have been so as to convey that Dean “sees” Sam. Unfortunately, all we saw was Jensen Ackles looking down when he talked to the other, much shorter actor and that blew the whole thing out of the water for me. I saw what Jensen saw on screen, not what Dean was supposed to see. Jensen Ackles did not convey that Dean was “seeing Sam”.
Those two glaring issues of discontinuity aside, this was a good episode and it had some interesting moments of revelation about the brothers Winchester. We find that Dean is getting more and more wistful about having a ‘normal life’ while Sam has finally let all of that go and realizes his life as a hunter is what he’s been born to do. When Sam tells Gary to “rebel a little” it made me suddenly wonder if Sam really wanted that normal life in the first place or if pretending he wanted it was the only way he could rebel against John Winchester and make his own decisions about his life. Seeing Dean at that table in the bar talking to “not!Sam” and seeming to not notice there was something not right about his brother’s behavior made me wonder if Dean is so desperate to have a little brother he can relate more to and “hang out with” blinded him to seeing the wrongness in “Sam”. I also liked the “wanted man” issue that is surrounding Dean and all the demons out to put a bounty on his head. I also thought that the angels tracking he and Sam through the fringe religious zealots and now the demon tracking them through the satanic wannabes was an interesting and creative touch to add into the mix of the trouble the Winchester brothers already have to deal with.
Colton James was well chosen to play Gary. He was able to capture just the right amount of sleazy, self-serving nerd and genuinely nice, smart kid who just wanted something more out of his life. Sarah Drew as Nora the high school girl who gets possessed by the demon did a magnificent turn as an utterly ruthless and cunning demon. She almost seemed to be channeling or was possibly possessed by Meg. Would like to see her come back as the demon possessed Nora, she was awesome.
Like I said, overall this is decent episode, it’s just that it could have been so much better if they had not gone the ‘Quantum Leap’ route with the body swap thing and had let Jared do more of the work but one thing I think I figured out about this episode that might explain why they chose to go the route they did; it was most likely geared around giving Padalecki and Ackles time off from the heavy workload they fall under as the two main leads of Supernatural. Also would have been better if Dean had been looking at “Sam” instead of Jensen Ackles looking at Colton James.
Next up on Supernatural is the S5.13 episode, The Song Remains the Same (fka Back To the Future II) and it’s time for Sam and Dean Winchester to “meet the parents”. Take a look at the sneak peeks and then tune into Supernatural next this Thursday at 9PM EST to catch the all-new episode
