O Brother Where Art Thou?
Swap Meat. That’s the title for Supernatural Season 5, Episode 12.
I should’ve known that it’s literally about… well, swapping meatsuits. It’s starting to feel like a good thing, staying completely spoiler-free until the episode itself. I’ve literally seen or read nothing about this episode beforehand. It feels nice to be surprised.
The opening cracks me up because Sam was acting like a total dork loser, and Jared Padalecki nailed it so perfectly that I honestly thought Sam was undercover and the cougar was actually a demonette (who, in this end of times, oddly doesn’t know what Sam Winchester looks like? Yeah, I should’ve known).
But all through the episode I was mostly annoyed, because of two main things:
One.
Few minutes in, the episode already felt like a monster-of-the-week filler. Come on, two months ago we were left with the screen going black when Lucifer said hello to Death. So, where is the continuation of the big arc? It’s been two episodes in since the return from the two month hiatus, but none of it has been touched. Does the apocalypse have a pause button that the boys can push so they can take a short break and hunt their average joe monsters of the week?
Two.
Halfway through the episode, and Dean still hasn’t realized that the “Sam” next to him isn’t really his little brother Sam. What’s up with that? ALL THE TELL-TALE SIGNS WERE THERE. Sloppy with the motel housekeeping, reversing Metallicar’s ass straight into a dumpster (Good Lord! I’m still surprised Dean didn’t shoot his head off right then and there for hurting his baby!), all the awkwardness, the chirpiness, loving Dean’s music, HEL-LO? Frankly, it feels like they reduced Dean into a total dumbass in this episode, and he’s so much better than that.
It does make me wonder, though, when exactly did Dean realize that “Sam” isn’t really Sam? I’d like to believe that he was suspicious all along, but was finally sure when Sam ordered that bacon cheeseburger, or somewhere along that “Today was awesome!” conversation, because “Sam” was just oozing loser vibe to the max in that whole scene. But Dean kept it on the down low to figure out what’s going on. After all, he can’t just shoot to kill “Sam”, it is his brother’s body after all (and sadly, Lucifer’s meatsuit).
The episode redeemed itself in the last 10 minutes when they revealed that the demons are actually using humans to hunt Dean down. That was smart. The demons are quite helpless at this point and probably scared shitless of the angels protecting Michael’s vessel, so what better to do than to get humans to do their dirty work? That is a brilliant little detail to add into the apocalypse mix. Also, the last part where Gary and Dean performed a tag-team exorcism on the demonette was made of all kinds of awesome. And, hold up there, since when does Dean memorized his exorcism incantations? Sam had practically always been the resident exorcist, so I guess Dean has no other choice to learn his rituals during that time when he and Sam “were on a break.”
What interests me about the episode was that how they only showed the meatsuits mostly in mirror reflections. Why not have Jared Padalecki act out “Sam” the whole entire time with Dean? I guess it made more sense to show an entirely different dynamics between Jensen and another actor, but I can’t help to wonder if it would’ve been better the other way around though? Another thing is, if Sam had been in Gary’s meatsuit the whole time, shouldn’t he leave voice messages to Dean in Gary’s voice? I know we were seeing the image of Sam when he was leaving the voice messages, but in reality, when Dean was listening to them later in the episode, shouldn’t have they been in Gary’s voice? Trying to be consistent, but it ended up feeling like a goof instead.
All in all, it’s an acceptable episode. The part in the end where Sam finally shows that he’s in the hunting zone, where family life in a house with picket fences no longer appeals to him, is a nice touch. But what makes me wonder is when Sam said, “Trust me, we’re not missing anything,” Dean replied with a, “Or we don’t know what we’re missing.” Is Dean swapping mindsets with Sam now? Because it sure as hell sounded like he actually kinda wanted to have all that stuff way deep down inside. Interesting bit.
Well, I’m ready for more nitty gritty apocalypse stuff next episode. Come on, Lucifer. BRING. IT.
Posted via web from nefretiriii's posterous
I should’ve known that it’s literally about… well, swapping meatsuits. It’s starting to feel like a good thing, staying completely spoiler-free until the episode itself. I’ve literally seen or read nothing about this episode beforehand. It feels nice to be surprised.
The opening cracks me up because Sam was acting like a total dork loser, and Jared Padalecki nailed it so perfectly that I honestly thought Sam was undercover and the cougar was actually a demonette (who, in this end of times, oddly doesn’t know what Sam Winchester looks like? Yeah, I should’ve known).
But all through the episode I was mostly annoyed, because of two main things:
One.
Few minutes in, the episode already felt like a monster-of-the-week filler. Come on, two months ago we were left with the screen going black when Lucifer said hello to Death. So, where is the continuation of the big arc? It’s been two episodes in since the return from the two month hiatus, but none of it has been touched. Does the apocalypse have a pause button that the boys can push so they can take a short break and hunt their average joe monsters of the week?
Two.
Halfway through the episode, and Dean still hasn’t realized that the “Sam” next to him isn’t really his little brother Sam. What’s up with that? ALL THE TELL-TALE SIGNS WERE THERE. Sloppy with the motel housekeeping, reversing Metallicar’s ass straight into a dumpster (Good Lord! I’m still surprised Dean didn’t shoot his head off right then and there for hurting his baby!), all the awkwardness, the chirpiness, loving Dean’s music, HEL-LO? Frankly, it feels like they reduced Dean into a total dumbass in this episode, and he’s so much better than that.
It does make me wonder, though, when exactly did Dean realize that “Sam” isn’t really Sam? I’d like to believe that he was suspicious all along, but was finally sure when Sam ordered that bacon cheeseburger, or somewhere along that “Today was awesome!” conversation, because “Sam” was just oozing loser vibe to the max in that whole scene. But Dean kept it on the down low to figure out what’s going on. After all, he can’t just shoot to kill “Sam”, it is his brother’s body after all (and sadly, Lucifer’s meatsuit).
The episode redeemed itself in the last 10 minutes when they revealed that the demons are actually using humans to hunt Dean down. That was smart. The demons are quite helpless at this point and probably scared shitless of the angels protecting Michael’s vessel, so what better to do than to get humans to do their dirty work? That is a brilliant little detail to add into the apocalypse mix. Also, the last part where Gary and Dean performed a tag-team exorcism on the demonette was made of all kinds of awesome. And, hold up there, since when does Dean memorized his exorcism incantations? Sam had practically always been the resident exorcist, so I guess Dean has no other choice to learn his rituals during that time when he and Sam “were on a break.”
What interests me about the episode was that how they only showed the meatsuits mostly in mirror reflections. Why not have Jared Padalecki act out “Sam” the whole entire time with Dean? I guess it made more sense to show an entirely different dynamics between Jensen and another actor, but I can’t help to wonder if it would’ve been better the other way around though? Another thing is, if Sam had been in Gary’s meatsuit the whole time, shouldn’t he leave voice messages to Dean in Gary’s voice? I know we were seeing the image of Sam when he was leaving the voice messages, but in reality, when Dean was listening to them later in the episode, shouldn’t have they been in Gary’s voice? Trying to be consistent, but it ended up feeling like a goof instead.
All in all, it’s an acceptable episode. The part in the end where Sam finally shows that he’s in the hunting zone, where family life in a house with picket fences no longer appeals to him, is a nice touch. But what makes me wonder is when Sam said, “Trust me, we’re not missing anything,” Dean replied with a, “Or we don’t know what we’re missing.” Is Dean swapping mindsets with Sam now? Because it sure as hell sounded like he actually kinda wanted to have all that stuff way deep down inside. Interesting bit.
Well, I’m ready for more nitty gritty apocalypse stuff next episode. Come on, Lucifer. BRING. IT.
Posted via web from nefretiriii's posterous