list of love
Jul. 12th, 2008 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaQuiet all week, and then two posts in one day. I've had another List of Love on the go for ages, without ever getting very far because...well, Home just isn't a standout episode for me. It's one I always feel I should love, but can never summon up much enthusiasm for. Having said all that, it does contain all kinds of fun, poignant and mytharc-ally important moments. So, here 'tis:
Things I love about Home
…and other standout moments
In something approaching chronological order this time, just because I was in that kind of mood.
1. Mytharc! Now that the show is almost half a season old and the central characters and the universe they inhabit have been well established, we start to get some meat on the bones with the introduction of Sam's premonitions. These were previously alluded to very obliquely, with his nightmares and guilt over Jessica's death, but are now presented to us as a highly troubling fact. Two and a half seasons later we still haven't got to the bottom of what all this means!
2. Dean + coffee = OPT
3. Sketch-artist Sam
4. Alongside Sam's visions as a means of delving deeper into the characters and mytharc, we now start to see the chinks in Dean's armour for almost the first time, as he freaks out at the thought of revisiting the scene of his greatest childhood trauma. That house represents everything he once had, everything that was snatched away from him: mother, security, stability, comfort, safety - you name it, Dean lost it that night. Of course the thought of going back is traumatic. But this is almost the first hint in the show of just how deep those scars run.
5. Bless him, Sam is so tentative when he comes clean to Dean about his premonitions. And bless him, Dean double takes so cutely, and just has no idea how to react.
6. I love that picture of the family Winchester in happier times. Nice job, props department.
7. Having insisted on making the trip, when the brothers finally arrive outside their old home, Sam's first thought is to ask how his brother is doing, and I like that. His premonition was too disturbing to ignore, but he was listening to Dean earlier and now knows how upsetting this is for his brother, being made to come back here like this.
8. Oh, man. Sam's face when he first sees the woman from his premonition, live and in the flesh and living in their old family home, just like he dreamed. He wasn't sure, right up to that moment, but now there can be no doubt whatsoever that his premonitions are real. And he already blamed himself for Jessica's death before this confirmation.
9. For once, no false identities are necessary – although Dean goes to use one automatically, before Sam cuts him off and makes a far simpler introduction. On this occasion, the truth is more than adequate and they get to just be themselves: two brothers who spent their early childhood living in that house, are in town, and would like to see it again.
10. Oh, how both brothers freak out at the mention of a figure on fire in their old house, both automatically suspecting it might be the same creature that killed their mother, the same creature that killed Jessica – the creature they have been trying to find for over 20 years now. Dean is so troubled about Sam's premonitions being real and what this might mean, and Sam just keeps yelling at him, like he expects Dean to have all the answers and be able to fix this for him, but Dean just doesn't know what to do.
11. If this were any other job, what would they do? That question forces Dean to relive the moment of his greatest childhood trauma for maybe the first time since it happened – this scene again makes it clear that the events surrounding Mary's death are not something the Winchesters have ever really talked about, as a family.
12. I really like this shot of the brothers.
13. "Does this feel like just another job to you?"
No, it doesn't, and Dean can't quite manage to hold it together any more, although he manages to make it out of eyeshot of Sam before he crumbles. Sam keeps looking to Dean to hold things together and take a lead on this, ever the baby automatically trusting his big brother to take care of things, but it is too big, too crushing a weight for Dean to deal with – this is his Dad's fight, the thing that has driven John forward all these years. The reason for everything they have been through these last 20 years or so, everything for they do, everything they are. And Dean needs his father to be here to deal with it. But he isn't – the boys are on their own with their fears.
14. Okay, this toy providing the soundtrack to the plumber's hand getting chomped by the waste disposal? Creepy! As for the waste disposal chomping itself...I can't even look at it, still, never mind comment on it!
15. I kinda love the way John's old business partner describes him: loved Mary, doted on his kids, hated to lose. Yeah. That sounds like the John we will come to know over the course of the show. And the guy never suspects for a moment that the young men he is talking to are John Winchester's children all grown up.
16. The shot is a little blurry, but I love when Sam pulls this face. He does it a lot. Plus, his hair is really cute in this episode.
17. Dean immediately recognises Missouri's name from John's journal. I guess it is safe to say both brothers have read that journal many times since the show began – but different bits of it would stick more for each of them, of course.
18. Waiting to see Missouri, Sam looks like he's about to vibrate right out of his skin, while Dean looks like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Bless them.
19. Meh. The appearance of Missouri Mosely is the moment this episode stops focusing on how traumatic it is for Dean to be forced to relive the childhood trauma he has kept buried for over 20 years and fixes Sam and his mysterious psychic abilities. Both hugely important storylines, of course. It's just such a shame a better balance between the two sub-plots couldn't have been achieved.
20. The way Missouri so relentlessly picks on Dean is meant to provide comic relief, I suppose, and it certainly amuses Sam. But it is completely uncalled for, jarringly at odds with how distressed we've seen Dean to be up till this point, and doesn't set Missouri's character in a good light, especially since Dean in return treats her with nothing but the utmost of respect. And, frankly, it isn't funny.
21. Dean is so vehement in his insistence that no one is going to die in that house, ever again. Having his own family torn apart by what happened there 22 years ago was bad enough – he isn't going to let it happen to anyone else. That pretty much sums up Dean's entire raison d'etre. It's why he does what he does.
22. For all Missouri keeps picking on Dean and coddling Sam, it is Dean who does all the work putting together the little mojo pouches that will be used to try to cleanse the house.
23. Yikes @ Dean's near miss with the knives. Good thing he has such quick reflexes – he's the only one of the three to successfully defend himself against the poltergeist's attack.
24. Poor Sam gets choked so very often.
25. Dean saves Sam from death by poltergeist, and provides us with the only brother-brother hug we will catch so much as a glimpse of between now and the season two finale.
26. See Dean helping Missouri down the steps, in spite of the way she has treated him throughout the episode. Gentleman.
27. Sam's persistence does save lives, but must be incredibly frustrating to have to live with! He might not have been confident enough in his gut feeling to say to Missouri that he wasn't convinced the case was over, but he is confident enough to keep Dean sitting in the car outside Jenny's house with him for the rest of the night. I hope he appreciates how much his brother trusts and indulges him!
28. "Take your brother outside as fast as you can. Don't look back." Ah, Sam. He doesn't even know that he is echoing the words his father spoke in that very house, so many years ago.
29. I love how very focused and practical Dean becomes when Sam is in danger – he doesn't waste time with any blind panic, instead swinging into action at speed. The door doesn't appreciate his efforts quite so much, however, and is highly uncooperative!
30. Oh, the way Dean's hand shakes holding the shotgun, as the fiery spirit becomes his long-dead mother. It's nice to revisit the subplot of Dean's childhood trauma from earlier in the episode, having had it buried by Missouri's not-so-comic harshness for so much of the episode. Clever Sam to figure it out – or was that insight provided by his mysterious psychic mojo? Maybe a little of both. It's a huge moment for Sam, too, finally getting to 'meet' the mother he never knew.
31. Mary destroying herself along with the poltergeist is another example in a long line throughout the show of spirits cancelling one another out. It's also just another instance of the self-sacrificial habits of the Winchesters!
32. I really like that quiet moment of Dean looking through the family photos Jenny found in her basement – especially the snap of his four-year-old self looking so proud as he sits with baby Sammy in his lap.
33. I like that Missouri apologises to Sam for being so completely wrong when she said that the spirits were gone from the house earlier. And I like that Sam feels able to confide in her his fears about what his premonitions might mean – given what their family does, it figures that he'd be hesitant to discuss the matter with Dean, especially at this early stage in the show, when the brothers are still getting used to being together again and what lies ahead of them is so uncertain.
34. "John Winchester I could just slap you. Why don't you go talk to your children?"
I'm with Missouri on that one! One thing I really regret about the show is how little insight we are ever given into what goes on inside John Winchester's head. Why was it so important to him to completely sever all contact with his sons? How much did he know at this stage? So many questions, and never any real answers.
…and other standout moments
In something approaching chronological order this time, just because I was in that kind of mood.
1. Mytharc! Now that the show is almost half a season old and the central characters and the universe they inhabit have been well established, we start to get some meat on the bones with the introduction of Sam's premonitions. These were previously alluded to very obliquely, with his nightmares and guilt over Jessica's death, but are now presented to us as a highly troubling fact. Two and a half seasons later we still haven't got to the bottom of what all this means!
2. Dean + coffee = OPT
3. Sketch-artist Sam
4. Alongside Sam's visions as a means of delving deeper into the characters and mytharc, we now start to see the chinks in Dean's armour for almost the first time, as he freaks out at the thought of revisiting the scene of his greatest childhood trauma. That house represents everything he once had, everything that was snatched away from him: mother, security, stability, comfort, safety - you name it, Dean lost it that night. Of course the thought of going back is traumatic. But this is almost the first hint in the show of just how deep those scars run.
5. Bless him, Sam is so tentative when he comes clean to Dean about his premonitions. And bless him, Dean double takes so cutely, and just has no idea how to react.
6. I love that picture of the family Winchester in happier times. Nice job, props department.
7. Having insisted on making the trip, when the brothers finally arrive outside their old home, Sam's first thought is to ask how his brother is doing, and I like that. His premonition was too disturbing to ignore, but he was listening to Dean earlier and now knows how upsetting this is for his brother, being made to come back here like this.
8. Oh, man. Sam's face when he first sees the woman from his premonition, live and in the flesh and living in their old family home, just like he dreamed. He wasn't sure, right up to that moment, but now there can be no doubt whatsoever that his premonitions are real. And he already blamed himself for Jessica's death before this confirmation.
9. For once, no false identities are necessary – although Dean goes to use one automatically, before Sam cuts him off and makes a far simpler introduction. On this occasion, the truth is more than adequate and they get to just be themselves: two brothers who spent their early childhood living in that house, are in town, and would like to see it again.
10. Oh, how both brothers freak out at the mention of a figure on fire in their old house, both automatically suspecting it might be the same creature that killed their mother, the same creature that killed Jessica – the creature they have been trying to find for over 20 years now. Dean is so troubled about Sam's premonitions being real and what this might mean, and Sam just keeps yelling at him, like he expects Dean to have all the answers and be able to fix this for him, but Dean just doesn't know what to do.
11. If this were any other job, what would they do? That question forces Dean to relive the moment of his greatest childhood trauma for maybe the first time since it happened – this scene again makes it clear that the events surrounding Mary's death are not something the Winchesters have ever really talked about, as a family.
12. I really like this shot of the brothers.
13. "Does this feel like just another job to you?"
No, it doesn't, and Dean can't quite manage to hold it together any more, although he manages to make it out of eyeshot of Sam before he crumbles. Sam keeps looking to Dean to hold things together and take a lead on this, ever the baby automatically trusting his big brother to take care of things, but it is too big, too crushing a weight for Dean to deal with – this is his Dad's fight, the thing that has driven John forward all these years. The reason for everything they have been through these last 20 years or so, everything for they do, everything they are. And Dean needs his father to be here to deal with it. But he isn't – the boys are on their own with their fears.
14. Okay, this toy providing the soundtrack to the plumber's hand getting chomped by the waste disposal? Creepy! As for the waste disposal chomping itself...I can't even look at it, still, never mind comment on it!
15. I kinda love the way John's old business partner describes him: loved Mary, doted on his kids, hated to lose. Yeah. That sounds like the John we will come to know over the course of the show. And the guy never suspects for a moment that the young men he is talking to are John Winchester's children all grown up.
16. The shot is a little blurry, but I love when Sam pulls this face. He does it a lot. Plus, his hair is really cute in this episode.
17. Dean immediately recognises Missouri's name from John's journal. I guess it is safe to say both brothers have read that journal many times since the show began – but different bits of it would stick more for each of them, of course.
18. Waiting to see Missouri, Sam looks like he's about to vibrate right out of his skin, while Dean looks like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders. Bless them.
19. Meh. The appearance of Missouri Mosely is the moment this episode stops focusing on how traumatic it is for Dean to be forced to relive the childhood trauma he has kept buried for over 20 years and fixes Sam and his mysterious psychic abilities. Both hugely important storylines, of course. It's just such a shame a better balance between the two sub-plots couldn't have been achieved.
20. The way Missouri so relentlessly picks on Dean is meant to provide comic relief, I suppose, and it certainly amuses Sam. But it is completely uncalled for, jarringly at odds with how distressed we've seen Dean to be up till this point, and doesn't set Missouri's character in a good light, especially since Dean in return treats her with nothing but the utmost of respect. And, frankly, it isn't funny.
21. Dean is so vehement in his insistence that no one is going to die in that house, ever again. Having his own family torn apart by what happened there 22 years ago was bad enough – he isn't going to let it happen to anyone else. That pretty much sums up Dean's entire raison d'etre. It's why he does what he does.
22. For all Missouri keeps picking on Dean and coddling Sam, it is Dean who does all the work putting together the little mojo pouches that will be used to try to cleanse the house.
23. Yikes @ Dean's near miss with the knives. Good thing he has such quick reflexes – he's the only one of the three to successfully defend himself against the poltergeist's attack.
24. Poor Sam gets choked so very often.
25. Dean saves Sam from death by poltergeist, and provides us with the only brother-brother hug we will catch so much as a glimpse of between now and the season two finale.
26. See Dean helping Missouri down the steps, in spite of the way she has treated him throughout the episode. Gentleman.
27. Sam's persistence does save lives, but must be incredibly frustrating to have to live with! He might not have been confident enough in his gut feeling to say to Missouri that he wasn't convinced the case was over, but he is confident enough to keep Dean sitting in the car outside Jenny's house with him for the rest of the night. I hope he appreciates how much his brother trusts and indulges him!
28. "Take your brother outside as fast as you can. Don't look back." Ah, Sam. He doesn't even know that he is echoing the words his father spoke in that very house, so many years ago.
29. I love how very focused and practical Dean becomes when Sam is in danger – he doesn't waste time with any blind panic, instead swinging into action at speed. The door doesn't appreciate his efforts quite so much, however, and is highly uncooperative!
30. Oh, the way Dean's hand shakes holding the shotgun, as the fiery spirit becomes his long-dead mother. It's nice to revisit the subplot of Dean's childhood trauma from earlier in the episode, having had it buried by Missouri's not-so-comic harshness for so much of the episode. Clever Sam to figure it out – or was that insight provided by his mysterious psychic mojo? Maybe a little of both. It's a huge moment for Sam, too, finally getting to 'meet' the mother he never knew.
31. Mary destroying herself along with the poltergeist is another example in a long line throughout the show of spirits cancelling one another out. It's also just another instance of the self-sacrificial habits of the Winchesters!
32. I really like that quiet moment of Dean looking through the family photos Jenny found in her basement – especially the snap of his four-year-old self looking so proud as he sits with baby Sammy in his lap.
33. I like that Missouri apologises to Sam for being so completely wrong when she said that the spirits were gone from the house earlier. And I like that Sam feels able to confide in her his fears about what his premonitions might mean – given what their family does, it figures that he'd be hesitant to discuss the matter with Dean, especially at this early stage in the show, when the brothers are still getting used to being together again and what lies ahead of them is so uncertain.
34. "John Winchester I could just slap you. Why don't you go talk to your children?"
I'm with Missouri on that one! One thing I really regret about the show is how little insight we are ever given into what goes on inside John Winchester's head. Why was it so important to him to completely sever all contact with his sons? How much did he know at this stage? So many questions, and never any real answers.
