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

Hey, that time Baltar strangled a Six to shut her up was HI-larious.

It's ep 9. There are some details in the Spoilers thread.

I *loved* Torn, btw (even if the Tivo font made the title look like Tom instead). The whole Cylon base star storyline makes me giddily happy. (I mean, naked space robots! SUPERCRAXXXY PARANOID BALTAR! What's not to love?)

And um, Starbuck? You were also getting "three squares a day." Granted, they were served with a hefty side portion of psychological torture, but to compare your imprisonment with Tigh's...nuh uh. Not even close. Poor Tigh.

isn't well known for its light touch

Even the comedy is heavy-handed. Really, except for the glimpses of nudity, it's like an hour of oat bran.

I did notice the hard cast on Sam in this most recent episode. And am recalling other instances of that kind of awkward reality-intrudes-into-TV problem, and how it's been handled. Way back on Bablyon 5, the actor playing Garibaldi broke his wrist on set, doing an action sequence, and they'd already shot the end of the episode with him obviously not wearing a cast. I think they just bullied on through, though, and pretended he'd been wearing a really small cast that had been hidden by his sleeve. Or something.

Soaps handle this kind of problem all the time. Your intrepid detective breaks his leg? Well by gum, he'll be investigating clues in the snow with his crutches!

I *loved* Torn, btw

I did, too! The Cylons stuff was fantastic. And I want that piece of the piano music played during the basestar scenes, like, yesterday. And the random naked Boomer made me laugh and laugh.

I have ventured into the hardcore spoiler thread! Hmmm. You do wonder if JE will be a good fit for BSG. I kind of wanted for JE to come write for my *other* favourite show, The Office, but this should be interesting at least.

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

Mmm. Yes. Those ARE happy-making places. I am calmly and reasonably waiting for fandom to go there as often as humanly possible, else I'll have to, damn it.

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.

One of the best things about SPN fandom for me has been the earnest discussion I read on Does Dean Know How to Work a Coffee Maker? My vote would be yes, for the record.

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

I feel mildly out of step. You'd think, given my fannish history, that I'd be all over the potential Flowers in the Attic aspects, but no.

I rewatched Bugs and Home last night.

On Bugs: I think the theme of my Serious Rewatch is really going to have to be what each family says about the Winchesters. Which I knew going in, but which was hammered home by the part where what was set to right was the family dynamic of Clan VotW, in typical anvil fashion. I think I can tie it to IMToD without stretching too much.

And I should know better than to open my eyes when the bad things are on screen. Ugh.

On Home: Oh, DEAN. I still think Missouri was fudging the truth about Mary's spirit there, esp. given what Tessa told Dean during IMToD. SA, if you're on IM today, ping me. I want to mull over some stuff with you.