List of Love
Jan. 28th, 2008 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaKeeping a promise...;-)
notTen Things I Love About Supernatural's Dead in the Water
I was going to waffle an introduction, but brain death has set in, so I'll just cut straight to the chase.
In no particular order, as usual.
1. I love Dean's smile. Lookit! I mean, come on – how adorable is that?
2. I love the look on Sam's face as he listens to Dean baring his soul to Lucas, not caring about the audience, focused wholly on trying to reach that traumatised and withdrawn little boy.
"Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?"
This is the episode where Sam first begins to realise that there's an awful lot he doesn't know about his brother, and I love the journey of discovery this realisation takes him on, throughout the season. He's starting out from the very typical standpoint of a younger sibling who has never really examined the motives of his elder in any way, has always just taken him very much for granted. But this is where he starts to become aware that there is actually a lot more to Dean than he's ever really given him credit for or paid any attention to.
3. I love that this episode is so much lighter and brighter than the last two. You can actually see what's going on!
4. I love how pretty both brothers look in that opening argument in the diner.
Thank you, director, for the pretty, pretty angles and close ups.
5. I love Dean's awkward but sincere attempts to reach out to young Lucas, knowing that this withdrawn little boy both desperately needs help and could be the key to solving the case before anyone else dies.
Three episodes into the show, and already we're seeing hints of how much lies beneath that cocky, macho exterior. With Sam, what you see is pretty much what you get. But with Dean, still waters run very deep indeed, and the show is a constant process of learning just how much of himself he tries to hide behind those emotional walls.
6. I just really, really love this shot of the brothers.
7. Sam's forearms are kind of scary.
8. I love pretty, pretty establishing shots.
9. "Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over."
No, and Dean never really has got over his mother's death and the fallout thereof, has he? I both love and hurt for Dean's reaction when he realises that Lucas has witnessed his father's death and been traumatised by it. The way he kind of freezes and backs away from the image on the computer screen, it's so subtle and nuanced, but you can see so clearly that his mind instantly skips back some twenty years or so to his own childhood trauma, that he can empathise enormously with Lucas's situation.
This is Dean's immediate, gut reaction to anything that packs an emotional punch, backing away like that and freezing up, instinctively preparing to protect himself, and we see it over and over throughout the show.
10. I really love that sequence of Dean surfacing from the lake with Lucas in his arms.
I also love that JA really isn't acting those huge gasps for breath, having been held underwater until the shot was right!
11. I love the miscellany of fake IDs the brothers use – and the busting thereof. They get caught out more than once, but get away with it far more often than they should!
12. Got to love Sam's grievy bitchface, which is not to be confused with his regular bitchface. Jessica's death is still fresh, and he's hurting badly, and that translates into anger and frustration. The regular variety is the one we see most often, the my brother is such a jerk bitchface. This one, though, runs more along the lines of an indignant can't you see I'm griefstricken still, how can you act normally at a time like this?
And Dean just looks so weary in response, because yeah, he totally was lusting after the waitress, thus earning himself the bitchface, but he's under pressure as well and trying to act normally is his way of dealing with things. He doesn't know what else to do that will help his brother in any way, since he can't bring Jessica back for him and they can't find their father. Just sucking it all up, burying the hurt and worry deep, and getting on with things is the only way Dean knows to cope.
13. I love the little interplay between the brothers as Andrea walks them to the motel, with Sam covertly thumping his brother's back by way of teasing him about the lame pick-up lines he's offering Andrea, then ragging on him mercilessly once she's out of earshot. It's good to see Light-hearted!Sam re-surfacing briefly from his angry, grievy funk, and I'm sure Dean thinks so, too – even if it is at his expense!
14. I love backseat surfing. When Dean does it, that is. I'm less fond of it when it is someone in real life hanging over my own shoulder.
However, if Dean were to come and hang over my shoulder while I was online, I wouldn't complain! Oh, no.
15. I love how angry Sam is when he learns about Will Carlton's drowning – it's a death on their watch, and he takes it very personally.
For all Sam's grumbling about what a waste of time it is to work random jobs instead of focusing solely on the hunt for John and the thing that killed Mary and Jessica, once he is committed to a case, he gives it 100%, and I love that about him. Plus, of course, he's got plenty of anger to spare right now.
16. I love that, after dismissing Dean completely as a random hopeless flirt when she first met him, Andrea looks at him with absolute awe when he becomes the first person to draw any kind of reaction from her withdrawn little boy since his father's death, and regards him differently from then on in.
He is a hopeless flirt, of course, but there's a lot more to Dean than that, and I always enjoy it when random guest characters notice that. I also really appreciate the irony embedded in the plotting of the episode, since this is the same point at which Dean's interest in Andrea changes direction completely, because before she had simply been a pretty woman that he randomly encountered while working, and flirting with her was sheer habit. But now that he knows she has recently lost her husband, and with her son turning out to be so central to the case, the focus of Dean's attention shifts to Lucas and stays there. He barely even looks sideways at Andrea again. And I love that about him, that he is so very dedicated to what he does, to the essence of that 'helping people' credo he spouted in Wendigo, and that takes precedence over everything. He draws a very definite line between women who are and aren't on the menu, and his behaviour toward them varies accordingly.
17. I love watching Dean pull his boots on. Random, I know.
Of the two actors, JA is the one who is most often given props to work with alongside his dialogue, and it's a division that really suits the personalities of the characters. Sam is the academic, the more sedentary of the two, the one who can easily bury himself in his research and not move for hours. But Dean is more physical, more restless, needs to keep moving, to keep busy. And that translates into this subtle character trait wherein we often see Sam just sitting around during a conversation, while Dean moves about and keeps busy while he talks.
18. The scene where Lucas latches onto Dean's arm in desperation always gets to me, because he knows that his mother is going to be attacked next, that she is going to die, but he just can't verbalise it, can't manage to get the words out even to save her life. He's just so broken and desperate and, as Andrea takes him home to her doom, keeps staring at Dean, the one person he's forged any connection with since his father's accident, so distressed, trying so hopelessly to communicate the urgency he feels. And Dean can feel it, knows the boy is trying to tell him something important, but doesn't know what. And I love that it niggles at him until he has to do something about it, which is what saves Andrea's life.
19. I love when Sam is all earnest.
20. "Oh God, we're not going to have to hug, are we?"
Communication, guy style.
21. Man, I love watching the boys run. It kind of kills me that although Sam is faster, having longer legs, and all, Dean cuts the corner and gets there first anyway.
Plus, check out that flash of skin there. *G*
22. How awkward must it have been to film the scene of Sam hauling Andrea out of the bath!
23. I kind of love it when Jake is being all stern, telling the brothers to get the hell out of his town, because he's actually being extremely lenient, having busted their fake IDs. He's a good guy, really. Just one with rather a nasty skeleton in the closet.
24. I love that Dean develops such a bond with Lucas come the end of the episode, has saved him in more ways than one. For all Sam's scathing remarks earlier, he really is good with children, and we've seen it often enough since this episode to know that it isn't a fluke.
25. If I were Andrea, I'd snog him too – long before the end of the episode! I love how embarrassed Dean is by her gratitude.
I was going to waffle an introduction, but brain death has set in, so I'll just cut straight to the chase.
In no particular order, as usual.
1. I love Dean's smile. Lookit! I mean, come on – how adorable is that?
2. I love the look on Sam's face as he listens to Dean baring his soul to Lucas, not caring about the audience, focused wholly on trying to reach that traumatised and withdrawn little boy.
"Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?"
This is the episode where Sam first begins to realise that there's an awful lot he doesn't know about his brother, and I love the journey of discovery this realisation takes him on, throughout the season. He's starting out from the very typical standpoint of a younger sibling who has never really examined the motives of his elder in any way, has always just taken him very much for granted. But this is where he starts to become aware that there is actually a lot more to Dean than he's ever really given him credit for or paid any attention to.
3. I love that this episode is so much lighter and brighter than the last two. You can actually see what's going on!
4. I love how pretty both brothers look in that opening argument in the diner.
Thank you, director, for the pretty, pretty angles and close ups.
5. I love Dean's awkward but sincere attempts to reach out to young Lucas, knowing that this withdrawn little boy both desperately needs help and could be the key to solving the case before anyone else dies.
Three episodes into the show, and already we're seeing hints of how much lies beneath that cocky, macho exterior. With Sam, what you see is pretty much what you get. But with Dean, still waters run very deep indeed, and the show is a constant process of learning just how much of himself he tries to hide behind those emotional walls.
6. I just really, really love this shot of the brothers.
7. Sam's forearms are kind of scary.
8. I love pretty, pretty establishing shots.
9. "Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over."
No, and Dean never really has got over his mother's death and the fallout thereof, has he? I both love and hurt for Dean's reaction when he realises that Lucas has witnessed his father's death and been traumatised by it. The way he kind of freezes and backs away from the image on the computer screen, it's so subtle and nuanced, but you can see so clearly that his mind instantly skips back some twenty years or so to his own childhood trauma, that he can empathise enormously with Lucas's situation.
This is Dean's immediate, gut reaction to anything that packs an emotional punch, backing away like that and freezing up, instinctively preparing to protect himself, and we see it over and over throughout the show.
10. I really love that sequence of Dean surfacing from the lake with Lucas in his arms.
I also love that JA really isn't acting those huge gasps for breath, having been held underwater until the shot was right!
11. I love the miscellany of fake IDs the brothers use – and the busting thereof. They get caught out more than once, but get away with it far more often than they should!
12. Got to love Sam's grievy bitchface, which is not to be confused with his regular bitchface. Jessica's death is still fresh, and he's hurting badly, and that translates into anger and frustration. The regular variety is the one we see most often, the my brother is such a jerk bitchface. This one, though, runs more along the lines of an indignant can't you see I'm griefstricken still, how can you act normally at a time like this?
And Dean just looks so weary in response, because yeah, he totally was lusting after the waitress, thus earning himself the bitchface, but he's under pressure as well and trying to act normally is his way of dealing with things. He doesn't know what else to do that will help his brother in any way, since he can't bring Jessica back for him and they can't find their father. Just sucking it all up, burying the hurt and worry deep, and getting on with things is the only way Dean knows to cope.
13. I love the little interplay between the brothers as Andrea walks them to the motel, with Sam covertly thumping his brother's back by way of teasing him about the lame pick-up lines he's offering Andrea, then ragging on him mercilessly once she's out of earshot. It's good to see Light-hearted!Sam re-surfacing briefly from his angry, grievy funk, and I'm sure Dean thinks so, too – even if it is at his expense!
14. I love backseat surfing. When Dean does it, that is. I'm less fond of it when it is someone in real life hanging over my own shoulder.
However, if Dean were to come and hang over my shoulder while I was online, I wouldn't complain! Oh, no.
15. I love how angry Sam is when he learns about Will Carlton's drowning – it's a death on their watch, and he takes it very personally.
For all Sam's grumbling about what a waste of time it is to work random jobs instead of focusing solely on the hunt for John and the thing that killed Mary and Jessica, once he is committed to a case, he gives it 100%, and I love that about him. Plus, of course, he's got plenty of anger to spare right now.
16. I love that, after dismissing Dean completely as a random hopeless flirt when she first met him, Andrea looks at him with absolute awe when he becomes the first person to draw any kind of reaction from her withdrawn little boy since his father's death, and regards him differently from then on in.
He is a hopeless flirt, of course, but there's a lot more to Dean than that, and I always enjoy it when random guest characters notice that. I also really appreciate the irony embedded in the plotting of the episode, since this is the same point at which Dean's interest in Andrea changes direction completely, because before she had simply been a pretty woman that he randomly encountered while working, and flirting with her was sheer habit. But now that he knows she has recently lost her husband, and with her son turning out to be so central to the case, the focus of Dean's attention shifts to Lucas and stays there. He barely even looks sideways at Andrea again. And I love that about him, that he is so very dedicated to what he does, to the essence of that 'helping people' credo he spouted in Wendigo, and that takes precedence over everything. He draws a very definite line between women who are and aren't on the menu, and his behaviour toward them varies accordingly.
17. I love watching Dean pull his boots on. Random, I know.
Of the two actors, JA is the one who is most often given props to work with alongside his dialogue, and it's a division that really suits the personalities of the characters. Sam is the academic, the more sedentary of the two, the one who can easily bury himself in his research and not move for hours. But Dean is more physical, more restless, needs to keep moving, to keep busy. And that translates into this subtle character trait wherein we often see Sam just sitting around during a conversation, while Dean moves about and keeps busy while he talks.
18. The scene where Lucas latches onto Dean's arm in desperation always gets to me, because he knows that his mother is going to be attacked next, that she is going to die, but he just can't verbalise it, can't manage to get the words out even to save her life. He's just so broken and desperate and, as Andrea takes him home to her doom, keeps staring at Dean, the one person he's forged any connection with since his father's accident, so distressed, trying so hopelessly to communicate the urgency he feels. And Dean can feel it, knows the boy is trying to tell him something important, but doesn't know what. And I love that it niggles at him until he has to do something about it, which is what saves Andrea's life.
19. I love when Sam is all earnest.
20. "Oh God, we're not going to have to hug, are we?"
Communication, guy style.
21. Man, I love watching the boys run. It kind of kills me that although Sam is faster, having longer legs, and all, Dean cuts the corner and gets there first anyway.
Plus, check out that flash of skin there. *G*
22. How awkward must it have been to film the scene of Sam hauling Andrea out of the bath!
23. I kind of love it when Jake is being all stern, telling the brothers to get the hell out of his town, because he's actually being extremely lenient, having busted their fake IDs. He's a good guy, really. Just one with rather a nasty skeleton in the closet.
24. I love that Dean develops such a bond with Lucas come the end of the episode, has saved him in more ways than one. For all Sam's scathing remarks earlier, he really is good with children, and we've seen it often enough since this episode to know that it isn't a fluke.
25. If I were Andrea, I'd snog him too – long before the end of the episode! I love how embarrassed Dean is by her gratitude.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-28 10:00 pm (UTC)Man, I love this episode, I love how much we get to see of what runs beneath Dean's surface. Manners said that by the time of Scarecrow both JA and JP knew who those characters were, but I always think that DitW shows how fine-tuned JA has been to his character even back then. The whole Dean-Lucas-Andrea interaction is just beautiful.
My favourite moment in the episode is the look Sam gives Dean when he stands in the doorframe, watching Dean taking to Lucas about his mother. That moment of dawning on Sam's face, suddenly seeing his brother with completely new eyes .. that always gets to me.
And yeah, I love the the swing in Dean's approach to Andrea as soon as he realises the tragedy that hit her. He does the exact same thing in The Kids Are Alright, where he switches from flirting with Lisa to caring concern the instance he meets her as a mother, all thoughts of 'gumby girl' gone. I really love that about Dean.
Heh, good distinction between Sam's bitchfaces! *g*
no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 09:47 am (UTC)Mmmm. JA has Dean down, right from the start.
My favourite moment in the episode is the look Sam gives Dean when he stands in the doorframe, watching Dean taking to Lucas about his mother. That moment of dawning on Sam's face, suddenly seeing his brother with completely new eyes ... that always gets to me.
Me too. I think
I love the the swing in Dean's approach to Andrea as soon as he realises the tragedy that hit her. He does the exact same thing in The Kids Are Alright, where he switches from flirting with Lisa to caring concern the instance he meets her as a mother, all thoughts of 'gumby girl' gone. I really love that about Dean.
So do I. Why do we even talk? We always agree on almost everything! He draws such a definite distinction between women who are and aren't available for casual flirtation (or more). It's funny - I was trying to think of an occasion when Dean has got involved with a woman who has had anything to do with a case (Cassie aside, because of the history) and I'm coming up blank. He's encouraged Sam to get involved more than once. But he keeps his own dalliances as far away from the job as he possibly can. I wondered if that might be a Cassie thing, because he told her the truth and she rejected him, but someone involved with a case would have that much more of an open mind, so no. But I do think Cassie feeds into that inclination. He's such a mass of contradictions, craving human connection at the same time as being terrified of it. Is afraid of letting people get too close, because the people he is close to have a bad habit of running out on him. And I think that has a lot to do with why he likes to keep business and pleasure strictly separate. With girls he picks up in a bar it's very clear cut, and they all know where they stand from the start. One night, no strings. Get involved with someone on a job, someone who knows the truth, and you're already introducing a greater element of intimacy and complication right from the start, and he simply won't go there. That's my current reading of it, anyway.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 11:02 am (UTC)Exactly. Which is why it's so harsh when Sam accuses Dean of not being able to understand what Sam is going through in Scarecrow. At that point he really should know better than dismissing Dean's grief at the loss of Mary only because it's not as immediate as Jessica's.
Why do we even talk?
Must be some kind of inherent human thing, wanting to express something in words even if one knows that it's basically only affirming the other's opinion. *g* Besides that's the fun, right? Fangirling together .. so much more relaxing than arguing! :D
Oh, and I watched the episode yesterday, because this post motivated me to and for the first time I noticed the amount of bitchfaces and eyerolling Sam is displaying in the background when Dean asks Andrea to show them to the motel. It's hilarious! :D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 11:49 am (UTC)Sam does tend to lash out when he's angry, and is very good at hitting below the belt. Especially since in that scene Dean isn't even talking about Jessica when he says he knows how Sam feels - he's talking about Sam's fierce desire to find John. But Sam is angry and not willing to even consider Dean's point of view, and just lashes out.
Fangirling with like minds is a helluva lot more fun than arguing! *hug*
for the first time I noticed the amount of bitchfaces and eyerolling Sam is displaying in the background when Dean asks Andrea to show them to the motel. It's hilarious! :D
I love that side of Sam in this episode - he's spent so much time lately being angry and grievy, it's nice to see him relaxing a little. It's the first time we've seen Sam being so very much the kid brother, laughing his head off at his brother's interactions with a woman and making fun of him.