Sorry -- I'm not fully caffeinated yet. And yes, I know what time it is on the East Coast.

Sorry ita ! Must go back and read again. Very weird and strangely wonderful week, so I'm not all here. ;-)

And I'm still steamed that it appears there's no new show for another three weeks.

I surprised myself by liking Garth this ep. Competence (and competence that doesn't come at the expense of the Winchester's intelligence) is key. And his sock puppet was awesome (even though I was a little irked because Dean was the go-to little kid guy!).

The end was weird, the way Dean let himself be convinced that it wasn't Bobby's ghost. Those were weak arguments. At the least, maybe they should be freaking out that Dean has developed powers, because the idea that the shojo, who was standing in another direction, moved the sword accidentally into her opponents grasp? Stretch.

I did read scaramouche's new story. Almost didn't, the summary and warnings made me askeered. But it was good, and intense and different, and because the characters were the way they were, made the existence of the warnings seem neglible, when all was said and read.

Just skimmed a bad fic based on some story called Hush Hush. It seemed not only to be English as a Second Language, but lacking in any knowledge of sentence structure, and the use of the thesaurus for EVERY WORD.

My favourite line:

The consecutive scamper of integers being smacked onto the cordless phone peeved Dean.

because the characters were the way they were, made the existence of the warnings seem neglible, when all was said and read

Yeah, pretty much. BDSM with no safe words. Non con, with the understanding that it's the only either of them will get off, so it had better be as non con as possible with no explicit understanding that this is actually con for them.

Very intense. And, because of the tight non-omniscient PoV with a pretty unreliable Castiel there (could he have more goggles on?), I didn't feel bothered by the slavery set up, since there wasn't enough reality there to disturb me, as it might otherwise have.

I really liked that tight focus, and the feeling with which information was doled out that took what I'm sure was intended to be PWPish (it's a kink meme fill) and made it more interesting, if not ultimately substantive.

If nothing else, Garth has entered a song onto the SPN soundtrack that I *never* saw coming, and its mere existence (and replay, AND replay) made me laugh to tears. I love how completely assured he is for being the visible opposite of everything Sam and Dean appear to be--and he's no doubt more healthy and happy too.

However, I can't wrap my brain around how tiny he is. He's got little sparrow bones. How do they not break every encounter out? Like throw him into anything, Garth's party is off.

I'd be curious to meet the actor in real life. I have an actor/comedian friend (Scott Faulconbridge) who grumpily made peace with the fact that the best he was ever going to do onscreen was wacky next door neighboor. With the Apatowesque surge of movies, well, he's too old for that, but he might have been able exploit something like that, but when you're coming up around Colin and John Moore, no one singles you our for the romantic lead and asks you to take your shirt off.

But DJ Qualls had a modelling stint. I need to make more than that. Matthew Gray Gubler's startled me for a hot second, but he's standing next to Shemar Moore and Thomas Gibson for a living. It didn't take much context shifting to see not only as attractive (which I always had), but as clothes-horse, manipulable, exploitable beauty.

Still not seeing that for DJ. Talk about dressing your model in clothes the average shopper cannot possibly wear. I mean, I look at a picture like this, which in MGG-land would explain precisely why--it's gently lit, distractions are stripped away, and there's a quiet and intimate expression on his face. Also, likely makeup. But I'm not getting the urge to do more than art shots. Not modelling modelling.

Back to the topic at hand--I can see that the idea Dean has powers is furthest from their minds. He's *so* not that, it'd be way more of a revelation than being haunted by someone who'd had a hunter's wake, not to mention rejected even more violently than Dean himself. Sometimes you lend credence to weak explanations because you're scared of the reality, and I think Dean is terrified here, and Sam actually feels he researched it, because he's approaching-it-head-on-guy, even while he was there's-not-room-up-here-for-both-of-us guy.

It would have been interesting if Lucifer had said anything about it. Make it creepy, make us wonder if he's actually an entity with his own knowledge, or he's just re-presenting Sam's knowledge from a different angle so he could fuck with him more. But, that's back on the infinite budget and unlimited availability for all cast plan, and I don't have enough signatures on it yet.

Soon, though. Soon. At least by season 11.

Maybe Dean is the go-to-kid guy for boys? Have we seen him girl-whispering? I can see him having little experience with them, not having been one, related to one where it counted, and being anywhere long enough to build up a varied group of social peers. Also, I imagine he sees (continued...)

( continues...) his pain or the potential for his pain in every little boy's eyes, and he hones right in on that fear and makes them feel safer.

That sock puppet might haunt my dreams. Genderbending pieces of clothes is one thing to come to terms with, but that mouth really does make me wonder if Mr. Frizzles is Garth's special friend. Me and Dean entirely on the same page there.

I know show's not supposed to be a PSA or anything, but I did like that they had one explicit instance of avoiding drinking and driving. I'm not entirely sure how the alcohol hit and unhit quickly enough to make all the timeframes possible, but there you go. I also have no clear memory of how easy it is for Tess to get drunk off of a mouthful, or Garth that fast out of a bottle he didn't even seem to open his mouth for.

I was so worried about how they'd treat drinking and drunkenness in this episode, since I've been more than vocal about my feelings on Dean's drinking. Which I had actually taken his word on stopping after Slice Girls, but I think unreliable has come up before in this very tl/dr post. I'd imagine he's picking up a bit few chicks now, and in my fanon, now that Cas is officially clear, he can't keep it up for anyone.

Though he wonders how Daphne is doing, and maybe he should say something to her, but what can you say to another devout woman whose husband you stole from her? I sense sympathy sex might be in order here.

But anyway, back to booze. I liked Dean's flip "It's not food. It's whatever water is." and Sam's later "Isn't this like a vitamin to you?" while Sam knows full well it's the breakfast of champion hunters, even though Dean is being excessive. Homeslice drinks his fair amount.

But mostly, I liked the definitive way they showed Dean would have to go to new and further steps to get properly hammered, and that they were impaired and slow on their game, but they weren't weaving back and forth and slurring unintelligibly and guffawing at private jokes until they passed out in a pool of their own aromatic stomach contents.

Of all of the "please, don't go there, you'll highly offend me when you go wrong" potential (and actuality--cf one random Japanese waiter), I think they've handled the substance abuse and PTSD pretty well.

Oh! I also loved that they explicitly processed their feelings by the car. It's not even the car, but Sam took advantage of the familiar set up to push Dean for information. And, lo! Dean shared! Two more sphincters with a little less skull wedged up them. Sam and Dean are talking about their issues, even if it's months later.

Okay, I may end up c/p much of this to IO9. I can't have all those thinks again in new words, and I'm out of thinks for the next ten, fifteen mins.

I just love that they were driving a Pacer. There's no way Jared could be comfortable behind the wheel of that thing. And Garth's car was awesome, too -- El Camino! With wood panels, no less!

The drinking was not entirely believable, but I don't care. With the kid, I think she was a child actor trying hard to show she felt a little funny, but I don't think she was supposed to be *drunk*. A big gulp would have gone to her head, though.

Garth is so thin, and as proclaimed non-drinker, I could absolutely see one beer, gulped, making him drunk. I can't really imagine what it would take to get Dean stumbling and incoherent, with his tolerance, and Sam is a redwood, so even though he doesn't drink as much, it can't be easy for him to get there either. Now, anyway. I bought his total drunkenness in Playthings, though.

I can't really imagine what it would take to get Dean stumbling and incoherent, with his tolerance

Yeah, which is why I dislike it in fic so much, unless the author is making a point about him being on a mind-destroying bender. The idea that your average night out at a bar gets Dean fucked up surprises me. Too drunk to drive? Absolutely. Too likely to pick a fight with the wrong guy and other dubious life choices? Without a doubt. But not the mashed slurred speech where he admits everything he's been hiding all this time--not unless he got drunk precisely because of that...and even then!

He drank his way through the first year back from Hell, and there was obviously no ethanol-enhanced caring and sharing, besides the comfort of the beer bottle in their hands, as far as I can tell. I don't see a canon implication of him being the same sort of drunk as Sam.

So now it's on my list with the vertigo.

Frankly I see Dean as more the get-increasingly-quiet-drink-until-he-passes-out type than a sloppy drunk. That's my impression of how high-functioning alcoholics do it. I'd imagine alcohol poisoning would rear its head before touchy-feely oversharing.

Speaking of the characters being drunk (I am so happy that they didn't use this ep to make the characters be stupid drunk, and that Dean went uncommented as being sober at the climax within the ep, although the other in-ep comments speak to a worrying state of being), I loved how glassy-eyed Dean was when he and Sam were liquoring it up in the brewery office. Just that perfect edge of red-rimmed and silly. "I miss these conversations". So good that I wondered if they didn't actually film that with Jensen downing one or two highballs.

I can't believe we have to wait three weeks!

So, it's been Bobby this whole time. Why didn't Bobby give Dean a sign in the brewery after pushing the sword? Why couldn't he signal him in the motel at the end? I'm curious about Bobby's limitations and the reasons behind them.