Review - Supernatural Season 5 Episode 12 Swap Meat

Is this what Supernatural has become? This season, Supernatural seems more like a self-parody progressively making more fun of itself. There's nothing wrong with being silly and having fun, but there's an apocalypse going on, and too many random episodes dampens the significance.

"Swap Meat" took every teenager cliché imaginable and just ran with it. Gary is a nerd, he has Star Wars shirts, is a virgin, has a gluten allergy, thinks his life sucks... The other teenagers were complete idiots, and tried to make a deal with a demon. I could go on and on, but think of something a teenager would say and it probably happened. When he goes into Sam's body, life sees awesome and for a while it is. At first there is no clear reason why he swaps bodies with Sam, but we learn it is because Hell has a bounty on Dean and Gary is going in as a Trojan horse. There's something about a poltergeist and a Meg-ish demon, but that didn't matter much. The result was Gary helping Dean and accepting his life for what it is.

Sam deals with Gary's parents and it isn't too bad--except Sam isn't a regular person or a teenager. It gave a chance for Jared Padalecki and that was fun. Sam confirms in the end that he likes his life way better than Gary's, but that isn't the whole truth. We know Sam is struggling with himself and from "Sam, Interrupted," is really, really mad all the time.

Score: 8.7/10