Sam and Jo sitting in the back of the car and the faces Jo was making at Sam and the utter sympathy on Sam's face.

Which would make Ellen and Dean the mom and dad, and thus leads me to happy-making Dean/Ellen places.

Why do the SPN fans call Padalecki Paddywhack? I've been curious for a while.

I gather that Padalecki actually broke his wrist after shooting for the 2nd season began? Because I missed an episode in the middle there, and I was suddenly like, if you wanted him to have a broken wrist, why didn't you do it when he had the Spectacular Car Accident of T-Boning?

Yeah, I sort of wish they'd at least had a throwaway line explaining the in-character reason because it just kept distracting me, wondering if I'd missed something that had happened to Sam.

I gather that Padalecki actually broke his wrist after shooting for the 2nd season began?

They wrote in the scene for the zombie episode ("Children Shouldn't Play With Death Things", right?) at the end, so they could explain it. And that was four episodes in.

I sort of wish they'd at least had a throwaway line explaining the in-character reason because it just kept distracting me

x-posty.

Uh, they did. I'm pretty sure it was at the end of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. After his fight with the chickzombie, Sam says that he thinks she broke his hand/wrist. I disremember the exact wording.

Which would make Ellen and Dean the mom and dad, and thus leads me to happy-making Dean/Ellen places.

I read a startlingly good meta essay whose thesis was that, within the enclosed nuclear family of the Winchesters after Mary's death, Dean took on the mother role. Very compelling, though it was being used as an argument for why Wincest didn't work and thus I took it with some circumspection.

Why do the SPN fans call Padalecki Paddywhack?

one of the early BNF-type fangirls in SPN could never spell Padalecki's last name right, so she started calling him Paddywhack, which fit in nicely with the portmanteau for the rapidly growing section of fandom that was slashing Jared and Jensen Ackles, making Paddywhackles. Our own amyth and smonster were pretty instrumental in keeping the Paddywhack thing going.

After his fight with the chickzombie, Sam says that he thinks she broke his hand/wrist. I disremember the exact wording.

That's pretty much it--Sam is being used as bait to lure her to her grave so she can be pinned there with an iron rod, and falls on his hand; of course, then he continues to shovel all the dirt back into the grave, which makes the extent of the break on his hand a little suspect; but as they're walking towards the car he says "I think she broke my hand!" and favors it for the rest of the episode, and Dean says "We'll get it set in the next town over." It isn't set, however, as they're speeding out of town the next morning, and when they sit on the hood of the metallicar and talk about Dean's Manly Pain, he carefully favors it, sans cast. That was probably when he was in the soft cast, and could take it off for shooting, and before he had to get it re-set and it was put into a plaster cast.

Uh, they did. I'm pretty sure it was at the end of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. After his fight with the chickzombie, Sam says that he thinks she broke his hand/wrist.

Aha, thanks. I didn't remember that.

I read a startlingly good meta essay whose thesis was that, within the enclosed nuclear family of the Winchesters after Mary's death, Dean took on the mother role.

I've seen that argument before, and to a certain degree I buy it. From all that we've learned, Dean was the one who did the cooking and the babysitting of the Sammy,and I'll bet he knew how to get rid of bloodstains before he was tall enough to see over the washing machine.

(And if Dean was the mom and Ellen was the dad, dude, hey, I'd watch that show. Um.)

I still feel incredibly out of step with the fandom due to my total lack of investment in Sam/Dean.

making Paddywhackles.

Urgh. Portmanteau. Thanks for the info, SA.

On a different note, I am apparently out of the fannish loop re. BSG, for I did not know Jane Espensen is writing an episode this season. It's either ep. 9 or 10 or something. One wonders whether JE could insert some of her sense of humour to the show, which, much as I love it, isn't well known for its light touch. t /understatement of the century