Wow. Faith has some pretty important character study aspects considering where we are now. It's fun seeing the boys and their views. The years are really showing on the characters and that is satisfying to me.

eta: Oh, and I watched the deleted scenes from Home and that first one was pretty important. John's former partner at the garage called SRS about the boys. And John sold his half of the garage to buy guns before he disappeared. There is so much story in those early years right after Mary's death.

Someone, in ...some...article or other, which I can't find to cite, sorry, said that Kripke had managed to let his characters grow, develop, and age, while remaining true to their core personalities.

I think that's pretty high praise, considering the usual tv norm of cast-in-concrete characters, most of whom start out as caricatures anyway, and then, if the show runs long enough, take on aspects of their actors. But something resembling lifelike growth is fairly rare.

I rewatched Houses of the Holy post-Lazarus Rising and it's touching how much Sam wants to believe in Angels.

I need to re-watch Home.

Also - I also love Missouri and wish that she wasn't involved in that other 8 pm Thursday show and could appear on SPN again. (And yes, people hate her because she's "mean" to Dean. Whatever, people. These are no doubt some of the same people who think that Dean was abusing Sam when he punched him this week.)

Which 8pm show is she involved in? GA?

Amusing thing discovered while doing fic research: I was visiting my favorite site for retroactively figuring out conception dates (don't ask why I have one), and when I plugged in January 24 (not changing the cycle variables from the standard), the date it gave me for conception? May 2.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. (My mental math made late April/early May probable enough for the possible story, but I wasn't quite expecting it to show up with *that exact date* when I plugged in the numbers.)

Yes, she's the chief's wife. . .at least she was. Or did they get back together?

Someone, in ...some...article or other, which I can't find to cite, sorry, said that Kripke had managed to let his characters grow, develop, and age, while remaining true to their core personalities.

I wish I knew how much of this is Kripke. I guess I'll have to wait for his next series to see if everything coming together so nicely was a fluke.

Late night ponderings led me the theory that Mary greeted Dean in Home as a friend with recognition of the stranger that had appeared to her all those years ago.

Dean never told Mary that he was her son. In fact, he went out of his way to protect her from that knowledge (Dean: I'm counting on it. Mary: What? Dean: Nevermind. ) And although she may have had that day/s imprinted on her mind from the trauma, and I concede it's possible, I don't think it's probable that Mary recognized him as the mysterious handsome stranger when she saw him in Home. Try and think of the most intriguing, eccentric, or even beautiful person that you met for one day twenty five years ago and I would posit that you have a hard time recalling their face. Shown a photograph, you might say, "sure, that is him, but a tiny doubt would be there. Someone very similar would probably get the same reaction.

Mary didn't know when she named her son Dean that he was the same human being that appeared to her during those horrible events. How could she? He didn't tell her. The look of guilt and shame on her face when Dean saw her kissing YED in ITB, can be explained by being caught by someone you respect, not someone you love.

Her spirit was around the house in Lawrence when the boys were introducing themselves to the current owner and doing their investigation. If Mary's spirit was listening at all, she would have known which one was Sam, and which one was Dean. When I hear her say their names, I hear a mother's voice, not the recognition of an old friend. I don't think Mary ever knew that Dean was the one that tried to come back in time to help her. She looked at him with a transcendent mother/child bond. Just my theory and I could be completely wrong.

I think her spirit would have put two and two together, though, with the weirdness where he'd known the date of her death, the name, and seeing him when he came back. I think it would have jostled memory loose by the time she appeared from the flames. But it can be read either way.

(There's amusing mother/daughter ghost crackfic in here somewhere, of course, because Deanna did hear enough to know. Actually, now I want someone who is not me to write the Campbell family post-mort reunion.)

Austin, I'm battling a migraine and migraine meds, so my confusion can be blamed on them. But I'm not sure if I follow your argument. You say that Mary greeted Dean in Home as a friend with recognition of the stranger that had appeared to her all those years ago, which I interpreted to mean that you think spirit!Mary didn't realize that Home!Dean is her son, but she may possibly recognize him as the handsome stranger who rode through town in a Ford Pinto lo, those many years ago. But then you say If Mary's spirit was listening at all, she would have known which one was Sam, and which one was Dean. When I hear her say their names, I hear a mother's voice, not the recognition of an old friend, so I interpret that to mean that you think spirit!Mary does indeed realize that Home!Dean is her son.

I think you were saying that Mary recognizes Dean, but she isn't making the connection that ITB!Dean was her son. But I got lost in whether or not you thought spirit!Mary thought Dean was ITB!Dean or son!Dean.

This rambling brought to you courtesy of Maxalt-MLT and Darvocet.

My recap of "Metamorphosis," episode 4-4 is up. [link]