bratfarrar

(Prayer requests?)

(via question-meme. Some of these seem a bit ... tenuous in their connection between god and question, but eh; it's a nice batch of questions.)


Zeus: What is your favourite kind of weather?
Hera: What is the last book you read?
Poseidon: Where is your favorite place to go on a weekday afternoon when you have no plans or obligations?
Demeter: Are you spiritual or religious in any way? If so, how?
Athena: Would you rather be anxious and intelligent or carefree and simple?
Apollo: Name the last song you listened to?
Artemis: Do you believe it is vital to everyday life to know what is happening in the world around you?
Ares: Do you still remember arguments or upsets from over 5 years ago? Do they still bother you today?
Aphrodite: What did you love most about the place you grew up? What about it did you love the least?
Hephaestus: Do you have a favorite/most interesting Wikipedia page?
Hermes: What's the best nickname you've ever been called? & what's the worst?
Hestia: What is the weirdest scar you have and how did you get it?
Dionysus: If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
Hades: If you could find out the date of your death, would you want to know?
Heracles: What has been your biggest challenge in life so far?
Persephone: What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?
Asclepius: What you ever lied about being ill to avoid school or work? If so, how elaborate have your stories been?
Eros: How did you meet your best friend?

Okay, I know everyone else is still recovering from the season finale, but I'm still chugging along half-a-season back, and thoroughly enjoying myself along the way. "Breakdown" was pretty rad, folks.

...As most of you probably already know. But whatever, here are some things I loved about it:

1. I always like a title that functions on multiple levels
2. Sam mooping in bed until 10 AM is kind of sad, but also kind of ... sweet? He has a place of his own where he can just mope if he wants, and Dean's there to provide pancakes if wanted.
3. Dean making Sam pancakes--and making sure to leave him some even after it was pretty obvious he wasn't going to join Dean for breakfast.
4. The pretty strong suggestion that eating breakfast together is a regular thing for them
5. The opening setting is beautifully bleak, and Manny's is a picturesque location. I love all these little gas stations that the show has found/built over the years.
6. Donna's niece is a sketched out very neatly, despite the minimal dialog, just by her car, clothes, and posture. It's very efficiently done.
7. I was glad with the windshield-washer dude wound up being a useful witness; SPN tends to treat those sorts of characters pretty well, on the whole. Same thing with the trucker preacher--he's not really a good guy, but neither is he a hypocrite. He's honest about his faults, hasn't hidden them from his wife. In most of the procedurals I used to watch, he would've been the perp, or else he would've been turned into a symbol rather than just another side character. It's just nice to have a show where I don't need to brace myself every time a member of the clergy appears onscreen.
8. It was a fairly strong case, and a nice taste of what the show can do when it doens't have to split its attention between the monster-of-the-week case and some piece of the season arc.
9. Doug was a sweetheart in this, just wanting to be a support to Donna--I was sad when he broke up with her at the end, but not surprised. It fit with what we've seen of him in this episode and "Plush". He's the kind of person who wants to help, but also isn't naturally inquisitive, doesn't feel the need to take care of things on his own rather than trust someone else to deal with it. He doesn't have the temperament to hunt, and thise case was just about the worst way for Donna to (accidentally) introduce him to the idea. Maybe if she'd brought him in when it was just a ghost...?
10. The internal logic of the episode is fairly strong throughout, which is always nice. The FBI agent doesn't make a fuss about Sam and Dean horning in on the case because he knows exactly who he's dealing with; the niece doesn't get carved up on schedule because Sam's a higher priority than she is; etc.
11. The whole thing felt kind of old-school--a creepy cold-open, crappy motel room, Dean being creative and using the CB radio to contact potential witnesses, them hunting through empty abandoned buildings, one of the brothers going through an emotional crisis; saving the day, but it's not really a happy ending.
12. The idea of a black market for human body parts actually makes sense, and picks up on the idea first floated in "Bloodlines" of such things being for sale if you know where to look. I have a soft spot for poor "Bloodlines", so that made me happy.
13. Overall, this was just a pleasingly solid episode with a bleak atmosphere, which the show has done so well over the years. "The Memory Remains" and "Then There Were None" are two that spring to mind with similar effects, but I'm sure I'm overlooking a bunch of them. Feel free to remind me. ;)
14. This shot:

thebratfarrar.tumblr.com

Thanks to zmediaoutlet for making me rewrite the last third so it didn't suck and for the title. Set in the Evil That Walks Invisible AU, where Sam and Dean grow up in the MoL bunker in Lebanon.

---

Later, Sam will tell himself it's not like he meant to run off without telling Dean--it just sort of happens. He's splashing around with the other kids in the Rumlows' cow pond, scaring each other with the possibility of leeches, when Lena Rumlow runs up, out of breath and looking cross. "I'm supposed to take you all to the fair," she says, vaguely accusatory. "Everyone else has gone already, so unless you want to be stuck at home by yourselves, be in the van in five minutes. If you're not in it, I don't care, I'm leaving anyway."

So everyone frantically tries to dry off and locate their shoes and Sam winds up missing one of his own and clutching someone else's left sneaker--and in the rush of trying to find its owner he finds himself sandwiched in the back seat between Mary Beth Hart and Josh Blackner. There's a minute where he almost says sorry, but I need to get out, my brother's expecting me for dinner, but--

Well, he's been asking and asking and asking to go to the fair each summer for a couple of years now, ever since he first saw posters for it up at Lebanon's tiny library. He's pretty sure at this point that Dean's never going to say yes, even though he has his license now so they could just drive over, no problem. And everyone else in the van is talking about funnel cake and special displays and the moon bounce and all the different competitions their families are in--and the minute passes. Lena throws herself into the driver's seat, shouts, "Seatbelts! I'm not getting pulled over by Deputy Grassley again, and no, it's not funny, Kyle, I will honest-to-God murder you if you don't put your seatbelt on," and then they're off in a great clatter of gravel, and it's too late to( change his mindCollapse )

- Marianne Moore


Visible, invisible,
a fluctuating charm
an amber-tinctured amethyst
inhabits it, your arm
approaches and it opens
and it closes; you had meant
to catch it and it quivers;
you abandon your attempt.

(Prayer requests?)



He dies: the friend of sinners dies--
Our daughters weep around.
A solemn darkness veils the skies
And trembling shakes the ground.

Ye saints approach, the anguish view
Of Him who groans beneath your load.
He gives His precious life for you,
For you he sheds his blood,
He sheds His precious blood.

There’s love and grief beyond degree:
The Lord of glory dies.
But lo, what sudden joys we see:
Jesus revives.

The rising God forsakes the tomb,
Up to His father’s court he flies.
Cherubs, angels guard him home
And shout Him to the skies.
They welcome Him to the skies.

so close and yet so far....

unrelatedly, I'm not a big fan of green tea, but these things are so cool to watch 'bloom'.