Quick Reaction: 5x12 Swap Meat
Well, that was entertaining, but it got considerably less entertaining the longer it went on. Sadly, I will have to give this one a mixed review. Still let's start at the beginning...
I loved the opening scene with Sam at the bar! It was so well done. Jared was hilarious. My only nitpick was the continuity of banana daiquiri levels.
Then we actually meet an old babysitter of Sam and Dean's! Cool! My television was accidentally muted for the first few sentences of the scene, but I heard something about Sam setting his own reading lists and thought that was cute...I always find it somewhat cool when the boys get called in by a non-hunter who knows about the supernatural.
The salad-shake was also hilarious. I love how embarrassed Dean is by it.
As for the rest of the episode - ok, it was funny. I loved seeing Dean's reactions to "Sam" saying and doing things out of the ordinary. The big problem was that Dean should have flipped out IMMEDIATELY. Dean knew immediately when his Dad was possessed, just because his Dad wasn't mad at him when he should be. Dean would have known immediately that Sam wasn't Sam. I was hoping that they would play it up like he knew the whole time but was playing along so that he could find out what happened to Sam - only they never did that. So, we'll call that Disappointment #2.
Disappointment #1 was the lack of Jared. That opening scene was SO GOOD and then they don't give us anymore of it. I mean, Jared didn't have to do the whole thing, but even just to have him do the driving-the-Impala scene or the punchline of "We're going to have sex!" as he left the bar would have brought the hilarity levels up ten-notches. So, I don't know if that's a director call or a writing call or a Jared-is-really-busy-this-week-and-we-need-to-have-someone-fill-in call, but I didn't think it was a good call.
It was funny seeing Sam go through the kids room and talk to the kids parents...and the bit at the end when he tells the kid that he wished he had the kids life, and then tells Dean he was lying through his teeth because the kids life sucked was hilarious as well.
Was there a THEN? Huh, there wasn't I don't think. See, that's because this is very much a stand-alone. I guess that's disappointment #3 - as much as I love amusing stand-alones, after Ellen and Jo kick the bucket and the Colt fails to kill Lucifer, I wanted ONE scene where the boys were all "What the hell are we going to do now?" and we haven't gotten that...we've just gotten "let's do some run-of-the-mill jobs."
Anyway, the reason THEN springs to mind is the true Swap-Meat that this episode is pointing out: Dean and Sam have switched places. Remember back in S1 when Sam wanted his "apple-pie life" and Dean was all "hunting is awesome!" Well, now we have the opposite - Dean quietly pining for a different life, and Sam is all like "I'm a badass hunter now, baby!"
It's true, one could argue that Dean has always craved the settled-life deep down, even back in S1 (and I would fully support you in that argument, I really think he craved it back then too - he just hid it better)...but he's much more vocal about what he wants these days, maybe because it's been 3.5 years since his Dad died so Dean's had more than enough time to separate himself from the be-what-your-father-wants self of his past.
Anyway, yeah...entertaining episode, but it could have been better if:
1)More Jared as Gary!Sam
2)Dean realizing right away that it's not Sam (even if he then pretended that he didn't notice and later when he caught Gary!Sam trying to kill him said something like "I was wondering what you were doing in my brother's body, and now I know - you were planning on killing me, well, you really suck at your job" or you know SOMETHING like that.
3)Maybe had some mention of the whole "we're doomed and we don't have a plan" thing BEFORE they brought out the funny.
4) Ok, I'm sneaking this one in: It would have been really cool if they had thrown in a body-swap between Dean and Sam...I mean come-on! I know it's a fandom cliche, but it's because it'd be HILARIOUS and I know Jensen and Jared (or at least Jensen as video-evidence shows us) would have a ball with it.
Of course, now I'm depressed because if I found fault with the episode, that means everyone else is going to be SUPER negative about it...and I hate it when people are super negative. So, I'm probably going to have to avoid other people's reviews. Ah well.
Those be my thoughts!
Until next week....