"Swap Meat" was generally a solid episode of Supernatural, funny in all the right places with just a little bit of drama and the on-going storyline of season 5.  While watching it, my main problem was with Dean.

Once Gary, the nerdy teenage boy, swapped bodies with Sam, it should've taken Dean a matter of minutes to figure out something was wrong with his brother.  Instead, it took forever.  At first, I chalked it up to bad writing.  Dean couldn't figure it out too soon because, if he did, there wouldn't be an episode, so it could've been an obvious plot device.

But after sleeping on it, I came up with another theory.  Dean didn't realize Sam wasn't really his brother because he didn't want to.  As much as Dean loves his brother and would sacrifice his own life to save him, the truth is that he really doesn't like Sam that much.

The two brothers have nothing in common.  Dean loves bacon cheeseburgers, Sam eats stupid salads in a cup.  Dean loves booze and women, Sam loves research.  Dean loves loud classic rock, Sam likes chick music.

The ironic thing is that Gary, a super smart 17-year-old Star Wars fan, has more in common with Dean.  In my psychological evaluation of Dean last week, I pointed out that he never got to be a kid and grew up too fast.  Since he never got to mature naturally, he, like Gary, is kind of like a little boy stuck in a man's body.

Much like the male siren from last season's "Sex and Violence," Gary offered Dean a different brother, one he has a lot in common with, and rather than try to find fault with it, he just surrendered and went along for the ride.

When Gary crashed the Impala, freaked out over a ghost, drank, and ordered a bacon cheeseburger, there's no way Dean wouldn't have realized the truth unless he didn't want to.  Dean really doesn't like his brother very much, he just loves him.



(Image courtesy of the CW)