Sic Itur Ad Astra

cloudlessnights @ 2008-11-26T18:15:00

2008-11-26T17:16:15Z

1. Er. I already knew that today's episode would be longer than usual, but I do hope that's not because it's all in slow-motion? ;-)

2. Is it really appropriate to talk to your colleague about her health situation in a waiting room stuffed full of patients?

3. *g* Love House's casual "What seems to be the problem?" after the PotW-to-be comes in with the hostages.

4. Er, did the PotW a. know he'd be treated by House (he said he 'wanted the best doctor in the hospital', he didn't ask for House specifically), and b. research his diagnosing habits, given how he's prepared his flat for the doctors to search it? Or is searching through patients' accommodations some fixed part of any medical diagnosis that I'm not aware of?

5. I kinda wonder where Chase ran off to.

6. The truth is out there?

7. The group-of-people-tied-together walking scene amuses me. And reminds me of an old Garfield comic where Garfield, Jon, Odie, Random Guy and Little Old Lady and eventually also a lamppost end up trapped together by a - window blind, I think? – that somehow wrapped around them.

8. You know, teen hostage boy is an idiot to hang around crazy hostage taker for a second longer than he had to.

8b. But I guess he didn't expect the brilliant doctor to be even more of an idiot and hand the loaded gun back to the crazy guy.

8c. And I do hope House is aware of the fact that Thirteen and teen hostage boy are should by all rights kill him once this is over. Giving the crazy guy back the gun, seriously? If House wants to risk his life that's his own business, but for heaven's sake at least send everyone else out before doing something this phenomenally stupid!

8d. That doesn't mean that I want to hear Thirteen psychoanalysing about it, though.

9. "Her kidneys are shutting down because of the drugs you made her take."

No, House. He may have made her take the drugs, but he could only do so because you handed him back his gun while other people were still in the room. Everything that happens afterwards is just as much on your head as it is on his.

10. Seriously, stop the psychoanalysing. Making the slightly crazy PotW commiserate with oh-so-tragic poor heroine Thirteen isn't going to make me like her any better.

11. Okay, and now for a rant.

Overall, the episode had its moments, though far too much Thirteen and too little… well, everyone else for ma taste, really, but the ending had me come close to yelling at the screen.

So in the end, the police walk off with the now-healed or at least diagnosed hostage taker, and… that's it. Er. Shouldn't they have a little chat with House as well, seeing as he's the one who gave the guy back his gun? I don't see how the police could not know – even if Thirteen was somehow messed up enough in the head to neglect to mention that her boss just almost got her killed, there's still teen hostage boy, and I see no reason why he wouldn't tell the cops about the madman who voluntarily handed the gun back to the hostage taker and put them all back in mortal danger again. So why, exactly, is House not getting arrested on the spot? Didn't that make him an accomplice?

See, when I watch a TV show or read a book, in order for me to stay interested in the story I've got to be able to feel at least some empathy with the protagonist(s) – doesn't mean I have to like their actions and behaviour or even their personalities (because liking a character =/= liking a person). I'm not expecting the characters I read about/watch to be saints (because where's the fun in that?), but I do want their rather less-than-saintly actions to have consequences, and when I'm getting the impression that the entire universe surrounding a character is bending over backwards to let them get away with anything because they're the star of the show/book, it annoys me to no end. House, in fact, has already gotten away with a lot over the course of the series, to the point that one has to wonder how the guy still has a job, let alone a license to practice medicine, but this week's episode takes the cake. This isn't him being his typical jerkass self and being rude to patients, colleagues and the world in general just on principle, or even him pretending to have cancer to get his hands on narcotics, or stealing his best friend's prescription pads, forging his signature and jeopardising his career. He hands a loaded weapon back to an obviously unstable and stressed-out man who has already shot one person and forced another to take drugs that are highly dangerous to her, putting the lives of the two other people in the room with him in grave danger and making him directly responsible for any kind of damage the last drug did to Thirteen's health, and for what - to satisfy his curiosity? And the fallout from this is… nothing?

In short, at the end of the episode, he should have left the hospital in the back of a police car right next to hostage taker guy - not stand in Cuddy's office chatting with her about whether or not it's a good idea for them to go to the prom together and walk off grinning to himself because he managed to pull her pigtails.

/end rant

Thinky Thoughts on Shows with Monsters

2008-11-15T09:40:29Z

I’ve been sick with the flu about two weeks back, and spent a couple of days in bed sniffling a lot and watching about half of my entire collection of Buffy, Supernatural and House episodes – for a while at least, before I switched to Friends because at that point that was about the highest level of complexity my feverish brain could handle.

Anyway, something occurred to me while watching the episodes of the later seasons of Buffy (I'm less fond of the earlier ones, because the whole high school-related stuff tends to get on my nerves), and I've asked myself if anyone else ever wondered what exactly happened in season 6? Did the writers have some sort of competition to see who could mess up the lives of the entire cast the most in the shortest possible time? (And if so, who won?) I mean, I get it that you have to make life difficult for your main characters – because where's the fun for the viewers otherwise? – but it seems that in season 6 they were determined to make everyone's life go down the drain more of less at once.

I mean, there's Xander leaving Anya at the altar, which kinda puts a damper on their relationship and makes her go back to her vengeance demon ways, Dawn becomes kleptomaniac, Spike gets into this whole completely messed up and destructive affair with Buffy, Willow gets addicted to magic and messes with her girlfriend's memories, causing her to break up the relationship (can't blame her, really), and just as they've made up, Tara gets shot and dies, and Willow goes evil and tries to destroy the world.

And Buffy spends half her screentime angsting about how life was so much better when she was dead.

I mean, huh? Personally, I can understand why Giles took off for England during the season – he probably figured that if he didn't get out now, who knew what the PTB might have come up for him? ;-)

And while I'm at it, spending I spent an hour on a train yesterday rewatching the latest Supernatural episode, and stumbled upon another question which I didn't think of when I posted my initial comments, concerning the matter of Ruby's motives and trustworthiness:

In one of the flashback scenes in I Know What You Did Last Summer, which takes place six months before the actual episode, Sam willingly agrees to let Ruby teach him how to use his powers in order to get revenge on Lilith. We then see another flashback of Sam trying - and failing - to exorcise a trapped demon with his powers.

In a flashback that says five months before the current episode, so about one month after the first scenes, Sam believes he has found Lilith, and wants to go after her. Ruby, however, declares him “not ready” and says that he hasn’t been “too successful”, and that his attempt would be suicide. And true enough, Sam exorcises even the common black-eyed demon he encounters only with difficulties, and so we can assume that he would have indeed failed against the presumably far more powerful Lilith – after more or less thirty days of Ruby’s training.

So… anyone still remember that when Ruby first told Sam that he could take out Lilith, she promised that she could teach him how in just thirty hours?

Here’s the crucial part of the scene from No Rest for the Wicked:

Ruby: I know how to save your brother, Sam.
Sam: No, you don’t! You told Dean you couldn’t, you’ve been lying to me all along! So just give me your damn knife!
Ruby: You’re not the one that I’ve been lying to.
Sam: Oh, so you can save him?
Ruby: No! But you can.
[…]
Ruby: If you want it, you can wipe her off the map without moving a muscle.
Sam: I don’t believe you.
Ruby: It’s the truth.
Sam. And you decided to tell me this just now.
Ruby: Erm… demon? Manipulative's kinda in the job description. Fact is that you never would have considered it. Not until you were…
Sam: …desperate enough.
[…]
Ruby: We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and we gotta do it fast, but we can do it. Look, call me a bitch, hate me all you want, but I have never lied to you, Sam. Not ever. And I'm telling you, you can save your brother. And I can show you how.

So at this point, Ruby flat-out promises Sam that she can teach him enough to take out Lilith before the expiration of Dean’s deadline in about thirty hours, but in the flashbacks from the episodes we see that she hadn’t yet managed to do so in thirty days.

The way I see it, there are two possible explanations here, depending on whether you believe in good!Ruby or evil!Ruby:

a. Assuming that Ruby is indeed the one sincere and truly trustworthy friendly demon, as it’s been claimed repeatedly in the latest episode, and that she was equally honest about being willing to help Sam save Dean, this would mean that she had completely miscalculated the time that Sam would need to get a firm enough grasp on his powers to succeed against Lilith, and not just by a few hours of a few days, but by about one month. Which in turn would either mean that, as demonic mentors go, she’s not nearly as knowledgeable and reliable as she pretends to be – or that Sam's claim to be a "crappy student" is the understatement of the century, if it's taken him weeks to learn to exorcise even common low-level demons when Ruby expected him to learn how to defeat the new Big Bad Lilith in only little more than one day.

b. The other alternative, of course, is that Ruby knew right from the start that Sam could not learn to use his powers in such a short time. She wanted to get him to start using them (for as of yet undisclosed reasons), so she waited until he'd run out of other options and would therefore listen to her, but she never planned to actually save Dean. He’s been in her way right from the start – he mistrusts her, hates her guts and has been doing everything in his power to keep Sam away from her influence. Starting to teach Sam how to use his powers in a desperate last-minute attempt that was bound to fail would be doubly beneficial to her – it would rid her of Dean’s interference and leave Sam under her influence alone, and would probably reinforce his determination to learn full control over his powers so he could get revenge on Lilith – which is exactly what we’ve seen happen in the flashbacks in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

I guess we’ll have to wait until we learn what Ruby’s agenda really is before we get an answer. As I’ve said in my initial comments on the episode, I’m rather allergic to the idea of Saint!Ruby, so I’d personally prefer option b. here – though I must say, it'd make the scene in the I Know What You Did Last Summer, in which Dean actually thanks Ruby and apologises to her while Sam watches with a benevolent smile not just slightly nauseating to me, but disturbing on so many levels.

I have no thinky thoughts to offer on House, however. Except that I've been taking screenshots of the latest episodes to make icons, and for the record? Hugh Laurie = best facial expressions ever. Though that's hardly news, I guess.

cloudlessnights @ 2008-11-14T19:09:00

2008-11-14T18:09:57Z

1. Apparently the mental institution Anna is staying in is buying the garments for its patients from the same shop the hospital in In My Time of Dying did, because I’m pretty sure Anna is wearing the exact same type of white shirt and light blue pants which Dean and pretending-to-be-a-dying-girl Reaper Tessa wore.

2. “It’s the same bottom line”? I’d say so – I mean, how many possible bottom lines for the apocalypse are there? ;-)

3. Okay, who designed the seal system to keep Lucifer locked in? Because whoever they are, it really wasn't the smartest of moves, putting up that many seals if only about one tenth of them need to be broken, since it means you'll have to spread your defences if you want to cover them all, while Lilith can just pick and choose which ones will be easiest for her to tackle. Really, that system kinda sucks.

4. After three and a half seasons, we finally get to see a pool hustling scene!

5. And it’s being cut short by Ruby. Grrr. That doesn’t make me like her any better, really.

5a. You know, I wonder if part of my severe dislike of Ruby in her current form is the fact that I’m having such a hard time just understanding what she’s saying half of the time. I recently rewatched Lazarus Rising, and I swear, if I hadn’t read the sides before and known that she actually said “The sky bleeds” at one point, I’d have heard “This guy bleeds” and would probably still be wondering who this mysterious bleeding guy was. Enunciate, please.

7b. And yes, I still don’t like the actress’s performance in general. In fact, I liked both secretary!Ruby and maid!Ruby from this episode far better…

6. Flashback time. Well, I did say I wanted to know what Sam had been up to those four months, except… well, more on that later.

7. Anyway, this is the first time we see a male crossroads demon, isn’t it? And it gives an answer to what I’ve been wondering – whether there was actually more than one CRD, meaning if there was still one around after Sam shot the original one in Bedtime Stories. Because I do think that the one we’ve seen in Crossroads Blues, All Hell Breaks Loose II and Bedtime Stories was always supposed to be the same demon in different bodies?

8. *g* I love Dean’s expression in reaction to Anna's doctor saying, "It's not uncommon for patients to believe that monsters are real."

9. Er. That sign next to the door of Anna’s parents’ house? It says "The Milton’s”. The Milton's what? And besides, who or what is “The Milton”?

Good grammar, I can has some? ;-)

10. I’ve been wondering – why is there always sulphur (as in the actual yellow stuff) lying around whenever a demon’s been somewhere? Do they shed or something…?

11. *g* Times have changed indeed if Dean’s entire reaction to “The Dean?” is limited to just a hint of a smirk and nothing more. And poor Sam, being told once again that the angels (or some of them at least) don’t like him…

12. Er. They’re in a church. Why is Ruby here? Hallowed ground and all that? I know Meg had no problem walking inside a church in Salvation, but then she says that it only works in the "minor leagues”, and so far I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Ruby wasn’t just some minor league demon? And for that matter, I still want to know how she was able to get out of that devil’s trap in No Rest for the Wicked. Something doesn’t seem right here…

Part of me - the part of my brain that loves convoluted and complicated twists – would absolutely love it if Ruby turned out to be Meg who was trying some new weird scheme for revenge after failing in Born Under a Bad Sign. I’ve been thinking so since Ruby II made her appearance including a brand new personality, and seeing her being able to enter a church as well reminded me again. Not that I actually expect it to happen, but a girl can dream, right?

13. From the little we see of him in this episode, Alistair seems interesting. I assume he'll be back next week, so I'm looking forward to more of him.

14. So the knife doesn't work on Alistair - or at least, not enough to actually kill him, because he does seem in pain and starts to sizzle a bit. It's getting a bit hard to keep track of which weapon works or doesn’t work on what, and which demon is immune to what, so I’m somewhat tempted to draw up a chart just to get a proper overview ;-)

15. Great, now they’ve managed to lose both the colt and the knife and leave them in the hands of powerful evil demons. One magic weapon lost per season, I guess? ;-)

16. I’m not sure that Sam's claim that they can’t go looking for Ruby and Anna because Alistair would follow them there really makes sense - if he can follow them from the church, couldn’t he just have followed Ruby with Anna in tow in the first place?

17. I still don’t see why Ruby saving Sam’s life is suddenly supposed to be proof that she’s really on their side. She’s saved both their lives before; all that means is that she needs them (or Sam, I guess) around for some reason.

18. Er, I really think that Sam from the flashback scene of meeting secretary!Ruby for the first time is not in proper condition to drive.

19. So maybe the reason that Ruby II’s performance always seems so flat to me is because her host's in a coma? ;-)

20. If Sam had sex with Ruby, why is she still alive? Does the curse not work on demons? ;-)

21. So, after we’ve seen Sam all set on Ruby getting herself a “morally acceptable” body (and, by the way, while it’s definitely better that possessing someone who’s aware of what’s going on, just the fact that someone’s comatose and their spirit or whatever is gone does still not mean that it's okay for anyone to just stroll by and take their body and do whatever they want with it in my book), but then during the scene where he first tries his magic exorcising mojo and fails? Ruby stabs the guy, thus ends up killing the host, and no comment from Sam. Hello? Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned exorcisms? You know, fifty words of Latin, as spirit!Meg put it? The demon is caught in a devil’s trap and therefore no threat; there would be all the time in the world to exorcise him, so there’s absolutely no need to kill the poor guy he was possessing.

22. I’m not really sure why Lilith would need Ruby to have Sam killed anyway. Doesn’t she have henchdemons like a proper Big Bad? Especially since they could have killed him easily in the trap with the little girl if demon guy had just brought a gun and shot him the moment he entered the room.

23. Okay, we’ve seen both angels appear soundlessly without anyone noticing before they actually saw them – why now the big dramatic entrance with the special effects? Are they just such drama queens? ;-)

24. Yes, there’s a stain. If one of you guys had a moment, do you think you could maybe do a little smiting…?

23a. And in connection to that, what’s bothered me about this episode is the whole Ruby thing. I was never too thrilled about the original version, but could live with her, and I really don’t like the new one. My main complaint about the episode is that as I’ve said above, I’ve wanted to know about Sam’s four months alone since the season began, and now I’ve feel that most of it has been spent shoving the idea of how wonderful a demon Ruby is down the viewer’s throat, and it annoys me.

For one, I don’t buy it – we know she’s spent a year speaking half-truths and mysterious and manipulating comments (even said so herself with her “manipulative’s kinda in the job description), she still has given no concrete reason why she'd want to help Sam (she wants Lilith dead - why?), and there's all the stuff I mentioned above - her getting out of the devil's trap, presumably without outside help, her inside the church, Lilith allegedly letting her go so she could kill Sam etc. – it’s all rather fishy.

And her claim that she somehow remembers her humanity bothers me – her own words to Dean in Malleus Maleficiarium were that hell burned away your humanity, she even says to him that he can count on it happening to him too – and yet she's somehow immune? And if for some reason it didn’t happen to her, how can she be so sure that it will to everyone else?

If it turns out in the end that Ruby had her own ulterior motives and was playing her own game all along, I’ll be mollified – and so far there has been nothing that would have convinced me that she’s not lying through poor coma girl's teeth every time she opens her mouth., but if she really turns out to be Saint Ruby, the one good demon with a human soul I’ll be annoyed (and will want a really good explanation for how it would be possible). Her entire personality transplant she’s gotten this season (going from snarky in season 3 to sugar-sweet and "I remember what it’s like to lose someone” now) strikes me as very odd. And what they’ve done in this episode – the “Ruby’s not like other demons!” and Dean actually apologising to her in a way (though I find it somewhat comforting that he couldn’t get the actual words out) really don’t do anything to make me like her more – in fact, it’s only made me somewhat nauseous.

Well. Overall, I really like season 4 so far, and while the whole Ruby issue definitely is a "stain" to me, we'll see what'll happen next week, I guess. Personally, I'm still hoping for some smiting ;-)

cloudlessnights @ 2008-11-12T17:54:00

2008-11-12T16:54:36Z

1. Didn't we start the last episode with a shot of some random plants as well? At least those flowers haven't been desaturated…

1a. Speaking of last episode – I didn't miss anything; there was no House last Tuesday, right? I guess because no one would have paid any attention anyway…?

2. Is it just my imagination, or was that an unusually short teaser?

3. Concerning House's "She's definitely not trying to work her way back on the team and steal your jobs or anything" – let's just say I wouldn't mind if she did. And brought Chase with her ;-)

4. *g* "You were hiding it from me!" Seriously, Wilson? It's not even 24 hours later - what, you were expecting a phone call right after? ;-)

5. What's this – after many episodes with little or no Chase and Cameron in them, we're now going to squeeze in as much as possible of their lives into five minutes? ;-)

6. Did Wilson get a haircut?

7. Yeah, telling the guy whose phobia is so strong that he no longer sets a single toe outside his house that "It's okay" repeatedly is sure going to help when he wakes up panicking in the hospital *rolls eyes*

8. "Every relationship that doesn't end in a breakup ends in death." That's an… interesting way to put it, I guess.

9. Er. Is Chase now officially the only surgeon of the hospital? Or is it just that all the others are running away screaming if they so much as hear House's name?

10. I don't get the "Get the patient miserable enough so he'll consent to being taken back to the hospital". Is House planning to keep him unconscious the entire time he's there? Or does he honestly think that just because he's in enough pain he wouldn't freak out once he's actually there? And that being said, wouldn't it maybe be a good idea to get a psychiatrist in on the case?

11. House does have some rather weird dreams.

12. I wonder if Cuddy is in any way bothered by the fact that even though she told everyone they're off the case, none of her subordinates basically give a damn about it.

13. I do believe setting the patient on fire is a new record even in comparison to the usual craziness that goes on in this hospital.

14. I think Cameron's blonde hair is starting to grow on me.

14a. Er. Meaning I'm starting to like it, of course, not that her hair is now suddenly growing on my head...

15. There was very little Thirteen in this episode; she didn't even manage to annoy me a single time ;-)

16. I'm not sure what to think of this whole House/Cuddy thing, really…

17. So now that Chase and Cameron's relationship has progressed to him getting his very own drawer, I suppose we can expect them to start calling each other by their first names any day now? ;-)

18. The last scene with the PotW bothers me, really. Like I said in 10., the guy's so agoraphobic that he's locked himself in his house for years, and all it takes is a thirty seconds "Get over it already" speech from House and he manages to step outside for the first tome again? It's just that easy, really?

cloudlessnights @ 2008-10-15T16:46:00

2008-10-15T14:46:51Z

1. For starters, might I just say that when someone is writhing on the floor in pain, "Are you alright?" is probably the most stupid question ever to ask?

2. When the PotW complains about her parents going through her apartment– my first thought was, honey, you're in House's hands now. Better get used to having people snoop through your personal stuff. But there was no flat-searching at all in this episode, or did I miss it?

3. Why would the father ask House all those questions about his daughter's condition and what to tell her if he supposedly believes that House was in fact a technician and not one of her treating physicians?

4. Can someone please buy Cuddy clothes that actually fit? There's really nothing wrong with that woman's figure, but half of the time she ends up looking as if her skirt was one size too small around her belly.

5. *g* When House collapsed after they're talking about SARS, my first though was, what the hell did Cuddy give him? My second thought was - apparently I'm quite a suspicious person. Though as it turns out, I'm a suspicious person who's right.

6. Hi Wilson! Did you enjoy your time off last episode?

7. I like House's little grin at the beginning of the scene in the car.

7a. Actually, I really like the entire bit where they're driving.

8. I thing Chase has a point about what House would send. Also, no surgical mask!

9. Er. Even if the cops arrested Wilson for some broken mirror ages ago, on what grounds did they arrest House and deny him access to his phone? He didn't do anything.

(Or actually, he did, what with pressing down the accelerator with his cane, but cops don't know that, so...)

10. Apparently I'm not the only one who misses the old ducklings. When Foreman gets frustrated with his new colleagues' efforts to solve the case ("This is a waste of time!"), what does he do? Runs straight home to discuss the case with Chase and Cameron. Heh. I approve.

11. *g* Okay, I'm not exactly a fan of Thirteen, but I have to give her credit for taking House's typical House-comments in stride and not letting him throw her off when she's taking about the patient, as seen in the "bubbles" scene. And also last week when House christened the one of the test drug "Bisexadrine".

12. For the record, I thought that House – again in typical House fashion—was an idiot for keeping refusing to go to the funeral (so he's had problems with his father, but from the one episode where his parents visited I didn't get the impression that he was at odds with his mother as well, so for heaven's sake, suck it up and go for her), but as for his mum, on the other hand – if he doesn’t want to give a speech, just let it be! Guess stubbornness runs in the family...

13. Er… is there a random dead woman in an open coffin in the room with the buffet where Wilson confronts House?

14. The patient was born in 83, really? She looks rather older than 25.

15. Also, welcome back Wilson. I missed you ;-)

Overall, I think this was my favourite episode in the new season so far, and not just because Wilson is back and Private Investigator Guy was nowhere to be seen ;-)

I still owe some people answers to comments; will try to catch up soon!

cloudlessnights @ 2008-10-03T10:17:00

2008-10-03T08:19:37Z

1. Wow, we haven't had the recap with the baby Sammy scene in ages, haven't we? *gets all nostalgic*

2. Sam's sneaking out with Ruby II again? Apparently he decided he wanted a day off, given that he was not seen again for the rest of the episode…

3. Dean's short flashbacks to hell are creepy – and apparently the poor guy now can't even get a good night's sleep any more. But does he usually sleep fully clothed on top of the covers, I wonder?

4. *g* Some people may pray for guardian angels, but Dean, with typical Winchester luck, gets himself a stalker angel instead (because apparently, there'll be no perching on shoulders, but perching on people's beds while they're sleeping is okay). Seriously, Castiel just sitting beside him and his entire demeanour with his, "And what did you dream about?" is majorly creepy.

Me likes.

5. Would it kill the guy to give at least something resembling a clear answer before throwing someone into the past, though?

6. Yay for the Back to the Future homage with the diner scene!

6a. You know, I'm having a hard time believing that Dean wouldn't recognise John, though. Even if he's never seen a single picture of his father as a young man, John's supposed to be nineteen here (and my second quibble would be that he looks rather older than that, though that might be because the actor is actually 26…), and people don't change that much after that age.

6b. Young John's voice is also very different from his older version…

7. *g* Apparently Dean has picked up the stalking habit from Castiel now.

8. Hi Metallicar!

8b. I might wonder how John ever bought the Impala in the first place before Dean went back in time to talk him into it, but that would probably give me a headache, so I won't. Whoever it was that said that time travel messes with your brain, they were right.

9. Heh – love that line: "Mom's a babe. – I'm going to hell. Again."

10. Didn't Dean know his own grandparents' names?

11. Oh, hi YED! I miss Fred Lehne in that role. I mean, obviously it couldn't have been him in this episode, so I'm not complaining or anything, but I just miss him. *needs to go rewatch the season 2 premiere and finale*

12. The entire conversation between young Mary and Dean, about her hopes for the future, and her "the worst thing I can image is for my children to be raised into this life," is heartbreaking. Remember Sam's "You think mom would have wanted this for us?" from the pilot? Ouch.

13. You know, there's been a lot of talk about how Sam and Dean are often withholding information from each other and just not talking to each other, but given that we saw in the earlier season that John wasn't exactly one for sharing crucial information either, and now we learn what Mary knew without ever telling her husband, I guess they were pretty much genetically doomed right from the start in this regard, what with having inherited this absolute inability to share information from both parents.

14. Dear Castiel, you know you could make people crash their cars if you just pop up in the seat next to them like that, right?

15. I wonder what exactly Elkins was planning to do with the Colt if all he ever did was keep it locked up in his house.

16. Is the YED that bad at maths? Dean told him his year of birth, so he should have known right away that he couldn't have been one of his special kids.

16a. I'm a bit confused about how the whole choosing the kids worked out, by the way – we've seen now that the YED chose them for their parents, but how could he know whether the people he chose and made deals with would have had kids born in the right year? Or were there actually quite a lot more people he chose who either had their children born in other years or had no kids at all?

17. *g* The YED's complaint about red tape amuses me; nice call-back to AHBL2.

18. And speaking of amusing lines - "Demon blood makes you big and strong"? So that's why Sam ended up so extremely tall? (Didn't work on Andy, though…;-)

19.Okay, I like the actress who played young Mary for the most part, but her "You son of a bitch!" to the YED after he killed John didn't sound very convincing to me – in fact, it reminded me a bit of the (purposefully) bad delivery of the same lines by the starlet from Hollywood Babylon.

20. Those Winchester men just can't stay dead, can they? ;-)

21. I wonder what Mary told John afterwards to explain why her father was lying next to them stabbed to death? And about her mother's death as well?

22. For the record, Castiel is officially a manipulating bastard. Sending Dean back, telling him "you have to stop it" when he knows right away that he couldn't in fact do anything but watch the entire chain of events that pretty much doomed his family unfold just to - what, drive home his point? Because the guy didn't have enough angst and guilt issues already?

Me still likes, though.

23. While Castiel did appear earlier in the episode this time, apparently the deep meaningful conversations in the last five minutes are really becoming a regular thing ;-)

24. And speaking of said portent conversations, does this mean we're now back to "save him or kill him?" Although it rather seems to be "save him or we will kill him" this time…

25. I did not expect the "To be continued". I've seen some general spoilers for the next episode, and it rather seemed to me like a stand-alone episode from that. Huh. Guess I'll have to wait for next week to see what's up with that.

And a few general end notes…

26. I'm glad they picked up the plot thread with the YED and the psykids again... I always thought that had been left at a rather loose end after they killed him off at the end of season two, and it's been bothering me quite a bit. Now, if they could at any point maybe also get to the bottom of how the whole virus thing from Croatoan, which has remained unsolved and never mentioned again so far, figured into all of this, I'll be forever grateful.

27. So we know now why Mary apologised to Sam at the end of Home, but I'm still not sure why all her friends and relatives were being killed off (and by whom?), as Ruby I told Sam in – what was it, 3.02?

28. I really, really liked the look at young Mary. There's a significant trend in fandoms of any kinds to put dead mothers – especially if they died in a situation where they were trying to protect their kids – on a pedestal as perfect paragons of virtue and pretty much canonise them on the spot. I know how much Saint Lily Potter of the HP series has always annoyed me, for example. So all I can say for this backstory of Mary, in which we see her make the same messed-up, emotional, selfish and plain human choices that you just know won't end well and which we've seen her husband and sons make over the course of the entire series is - thank you.

We give you a message of universal peace and cosmic harmony an' suchlike

2008-10-02T07:45:16Z

I've got a quick question for all those of you who've read Pratchett's Good Omens - I've recently reread it (though perhaps this is a poor choice of words given that I pretty much do know the entire thing by heart by now), and as much as I love the book, I've stumbled upon one nitpicky detail that's been bothering me:

In the first section of the book, which takes place eleven years before the core part of the story, we also get a short glimpse of Anathema and Newt as kids. In that section, Anathema is said to be eight and a half, and Newt is said to be twelve.

Which, according to basic math, would make her nineteen and a half and him twenty-three during the main part of the book.

The thing is, though, that then we're told that Newt had "quite a good memory, perhaps because in his twenty-six years very little had happened to fill it up", and while Anathema's age is never mentioned, I'd say she does act and sound older than nineteen, plus she claims to have a Ph.D., which would be rather an unusual achievement at that age.

Either I'm missing something, or something quite literally does not add up here.

View Poll: #2408

cloudlessnights @ 2008-10-01T18:08:00

2008-10-01T16:09:12Z

1. In the very first scene, I wonder why painter guy said he needed more light on the model's hips when all he then did to complete the painting was a few brush strokes to her shoulder?

2. So is that how abstract art got invented? ;-)

3. Uh. First cast member to appear besides House is private investigator guy? That does not make me happy - I still don't like the guy. I take it he's here to stay, then? *grumbles*

4. The ducklings playing art critics amuses me.

5. You know, with House figuring out exactly what painter guy has been up to and what he's been hiding, why exactly does he need a private investigator anyway? Seems to me he's pretty good at poking his nose into the secrets of other people's lives without hired help.

6. Love that quote: "Couldn't even if I cared enough to want to." I've got to remember that one.

7. You know, I think I figured why House now has four ducklings instead of three - it makes for a more symmetrical marching formation (with one each to his left and right and two behind him) when he's walking down random corridors with them in tow ;-)

8. I really don't think breaking into someone's office is usually considered an acceptable way to ask someone for a drink.

9. "I'm not a creep." Yes, he is. Or at least he gives me the creeps...

10. I like the scenes with House prying into all the ducklings' private lives, as I find them amusing, but I also like Taub basically telling him to go away and mind his own business, because it's what you'd expect pretty much any sane person who hasn't been overexposed to House to react.

11. House's admonition that while heart and head both start with the same three letters, you have to read all the way to the end made me laugh, because my Latin teacher always used to say the exact same thing.

12. So I take it that Hadley is officially Thirteen's last name, but do we have a confirmed first name for her? Last I heard, public opinion was split between Remy and Rema...

13. Regarding the bit about how Cuddy knew that the photo of House wasn't real, I'd say that it's because it's so obviously and badly photoshopped. And therefore I really don't buy the revelation at the end according to which it was real after all ;-)

14. I like the "distorted" versions of Taub and Thirteen painter guy sees - they look different, but still similar enough in some ways to their originals to make for a startling effect.

15. So when Taub suggests that the toxins may have been stored in the patient's fat cells, he proves that he obviously watched the earlier seasons as preparation when he got the job because I'm pretty sure we actually once had a patient with exactly that condition. Which of course means that this time it'll have to be something else, otherwise where's the fun in it? ;-)

16. You know, given that House tells Taub that the patient could drop dead from… something any minute, is this really the time for a heart-to-heart and deep revelation with his girlfriend? Her "When I look at you, all I see is you," may be touching, but I would think that at the moment they'd be more concerned with the fact that every other month, when he looks at her all he sees is a Picasso.

17. Are we ever going to see Chase again without a surgical mask covering half his face?

18. This isn't really specific to this episode, but Chase's "That's why I won't let Cameron get a cat," reminded me of something that has been slightly bothering me for some time – this is the show were No One Ever Has A First Name. We haven't seen Chase and Cameron a lot lately, but I assume they're still together (otherwise there'd be no reason for him to get a say in whether she got a cat or not), yet he uses her last name when talking about her instead of her first name. House and Wilson have known each other for ages and always address each other by their last names. CTB, when she was still alive, used Wilson's last name when talking about him to House.

The only exception I can think of off the top of my head is Wilson using Amber's first name when talking to House about her. Though I guess that might just be because her last name rarely ever got mentioned so people might not recognise it, and calling your girlfriend Cut-throat Bitch would probably be considered bad manners.

19. Speaking of Wilson… where is he? If they replace him with private investigator guy, I'll be upset. I still want that guy to go away.

Icons: House 5.02/Supernatural 4.02

2008-09-30T15:31:39Z

I'm still firmly in the thrall of Photoshop, so I've again made some icons from last week's episodes of House and Supernatural. And while I'm at it, I would like to point out that House offers a true cornucopia of weird facial expressions, of the very kind that kids all over the world get warned their faces might get stuck in some day ;-)

25 icons from House 5.02 Not Cancer

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

25 icons from Supernatural 4.02 Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

Standard stuff:
All icons are free for the taking, just credit in comments or keywords please. For some of the icons, textures or brushes from Absolute trouble were used. Screenshots were either taken from Oxoniensis Screencaps or house_md_caps or taken by me. Comments are always appreciated ♥

cloudlessnights @ 2008-09-26T11:22:00

2008-09-26T09:22:35Z

Supernatural 4.02 Comments and questions

1. Okay, since they already appear in the recaps for the first time, I should probably get this out of my system right from the start and say…
Meg!!!! Henriksen!!!! Ron!!! Hi!!!! *waves excitedly*

*takes a deep breath*

Alright, I'm done. Seriously though, I loved all three of those guys (though in all fairness, in Meg's case the character I really loved was demon!Meg, because we only ever saw one short glimpse of real!Meg before she died), so I was quite excited when I heard that they'd be back for this episode.

2. Er, I thought the title was rather weird when I first read it, and... I actually still kinda think so. I know where they got it from and all, but still... I don't know. Just sounds strange to me ;-)

3. Hah! In my comments on the premiere, I said I was confused about their pronunciation of Castiel's name, because the way they put the stress on the last syllable made it sound like a female name to me, and apparently Sam agrees with me, because he definitely says CAS-tiel with the emphasis on the first syllable here. I fell all vindicated now ;-)

4. *g* Bobby's way of interrupting Sam and Dean's argument in the beginning amuses me – part of me was half-expecting him to send them to their rooms until they were willing to behave themselves ;-)

5. Random question – when Sam gets out of the Impala and goes to talk to Ruby II, I'm pretty sure he leaves the window open. Do they ever actually lock that car?

6. I'm still far from impressed with Ruby II's acting skills, I'm afraid.

7. You know, I'd really like to see more of Bobby's network of hunter friends and acquaintances when they aren't either dying or getting their eyes burned out about five minutes later. Just saying.

8. Hi Victor! Guess that puts an end to all theories whether he might have survived the attack on the police station after all, though :-(

9. And more creepy little girls. Seriously, I'm well aware of the horror trope of creepy child, but the way scary little girls keep popping up left and right in this show makes me wonder if Kripke has some deep underlying trauma he's channelling into his show ;-)

10. Heh. The explanation they threw in for Meg looking rather different amuses me, though I must admit that when I first saw a picture of her from this episode, I probably wouldn't have recognised her either if I hadn't known she'd be in it. And my first thought was exactly the explanation she gave in the episode - apparently demon!Meg thinks the right haircut is very important.

10a. And speaking of which, I really would love to see demon!Meg again at some point. She already came back once after being exorcised, so who's to say she can't do it again?

11. I'm rather impressed with Sam's visual memory, what with him drawing this rather complex symbol he can't have seen for more than a few heartbeats.

12. I'm also impressed with Bobby's ghost-proof bomb shelter.

13. Concerning Dean's "Bobby, you're awesome," – haven't we always said so? ;-)

14. Uh. A sign of the apocalypse? *blinks* There's raising the stakes and then there's… that.

*grabs some popcorn*

*remembers she doesn't actually like popcorn*

*grabs some potato chips instead*

15. Again with Dean's "As in, apocalypse apocalypse? Four horsemen? Pestilence?"
- well, not quite. Pestilence retired in 1936, muttering something about penicillin. It's Pollution now. And the four ~~horsemen~~ horsepersons actually ride motorcycles.

…what? I do enjoy a nice crossover from time to time ;-)

16. I wonder if they actually really ever get to the Grand Canyon.

17. Hi Ron! I think his hair is just a bit shorter than it was when we saw him in Nightshifter. But I guess there's no reason why Meg should be the only one to get a post-mortem makeover.

18. Er, Meg does have a point about the distinctive lack of concern for Ruby's hosts, really.

19. You know, I wonder if the stories the ghosts tell Dean (about Meg's little sister and Lilith torturing the people at the police station) are actually true or just something they made up to mess even more with him.

19a. And by the way, this whole really isn't going to help his eternal self-worth issues, methinks.

20. So, is Castiel dropping by for a quick visit and some deep conversation in the last five minutes of the episode going to be a regular thing now? ;-)

20a. It seems he got himself a new coat. Or fixed the old one.

21. Is it just me, or does Castiel's voice sound different in this episode than it did in the last? Somewhat deeper and more hoarse?

22. In fact, his whole demeanour has changed quite a bit – going from all soulful eyes and soft-spoken voice and "good things do happen" in the premiere to appearing a lot harder in his attitude and expression in this episode, demanding respect and even threatening. Because if "I dragged you out of hell, I can throw you back in," is not a threat, then I don't know.

Anyway, all this looks like it should be interesting.

*grabs more ~~popcorn~~ potato chips*

cloudlessnights @ 2008-09-24T11:49:00

2008-09-24T09:49:25Z

1. The tennis ball flying right at the camera scares me a bit.

2. Er, does the opening sequence mean we'll be getting multiple patients of the week? Is House getting bored?

3. Erm, Thirteen, you think maybe you could ask teacher lady to either step outside or dismiss the class before discussing her medical details? I'm sure the extra ten second wouldn't have mattered that much.

4. Er. Thirteen said that teacher lady got her cornea transplanted five years ago, but a little later they say the donor died four years ago. So if he actually donated his corneas a year before he died, it'd say the industrial accident that killed him really wasn't that much of a surprise.

5. House getting Random Doctor to pay his food amuses me.

6. "The problem's not in her eye, it's in her head." Er, unless the poor lady has some rather unfortunate anatomical problems, I'd say her eye is in her head ;-)

7. Random Doctor's slightly scared expression after House takes off also amuses me.

8. So private investigator guy is going to be the new recurring character this season? Figures – he's only been on screen five minutes, and he already annoys the hell out of me.

9. This hospital doesn't have any concern for patient's privacy, does it? Seriously, talking to the old guy's wife about performing a potential fatal brain biopsy while the other patient is within earshot so she can barge in on the conversation and guilt-trip the woman at her leisure? Seriously?

10. Going back to what I said in no. 8, can private investigator guy please go away now?

11. The placebo effect conversation slightly confuses me.

12. "Are you following me?"
"No."
"Are you lying?"
"No." "Yes."
Heh. This exchange amuses me.

13. Er. Private investigator guy has bugged Wilson's apartment and car? This is getting rather creepy.

14. "Let me describe the symptoms, problems, issues, and you say whatever you feel like saying until something triggers an idea in my head."
"That's not the way it works."
Acutally, on this show, more often than not it does. You'd think that after four years Wilson would have realised his role as random-stroke-of-inspiration-inducing guy ;-)

14b. Unless of course that job now falls to private investigator guy. But I still want him to go away.

15. Heh. In my comments on the last episode I wondered when the incredibly fake-looking animations of patients' inner organs and blood vessels had gone away, and now they're back? I wonder if that works for other stuff too... ;-)

16. And speaking of going away, when did they stop having House do clinic duty? I liked the little subplots they had with the various clinic patients; they usually were fun.

16b. And if they're now back next week, I'll officially be scared.

17. Guards at the patient's door? Seems Cuddy has learned a thing or two over the last few years ;-)

18. Do you think that any patient treated by House should be warned beforehand that no matter what they have, they'll have to have at least one surgery because they need to create screen time for Chase? ;-)

18b. Where's Cameron, though? House too busy for a quick visit to the ER this time? ;-)

19. And as an end note - seriously, private investigator guy? Go away.

Icons: House 5.01/Supernatural 4.01

2008-09-23T18:59:28Z

I'm still in icon-making mood, so here's a bunch of news ones made from screenshots of last week's season premieres of House (including some of the crazy faces) and Supernatural:

25 icons from House 5.01 - Dying Changes Everything

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

25 icons from Supernatural 4.01 - Lazarus Rising

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Created with angelamaria's Icon Table Generator @ Bauble

As usual, feel free to use any you like, just credit in comments or keywords please. For some of the icons, textures or brushes from Absolute troube were used. Screenshots are either taken from Oxoniensis Screencaps or taken by me. Comments are always appreciated ♥

PS: Dear CW, please stop plastering your stupid Gossip Girl/90210 adverts all over your actors' faces or other relevant body parts. Thank you.