Quick Reaction: 10x11 There's No Place Like Home

[hells_half_acre]

WOO!

So, I had a very full night with filming my friends comedy show and then coming back home and frantically downloading SPN and then watching it, and yet, I'm probably still going to be posting this quick reaction at the same time as I usually do. Crazy! You guys wouldn't even have been able to tell that I had a crazy busy night if I hadn't just told you!

Anyway, let's talk about this f*cker
(woo - reference to Felicia Day's youtube channel...)

We begin at the beginning - this time, it's a guy who is frantically running away from his house. Thanks to the previews, I already suspected it was Charlie, but still, I liked the reveal.

God, can I just break with my narration of the episode right now to tell you how happy I am that Charlie is back!! I love Charlie SO MUCH!!! And I was absolutely terrified that she was going to die this episode, but then I kept thinking "Robbie wouldn't do that to me..." and I was right! So, Robbie keeps his place at the top of my "Favourite current writers of SPN." (He and Adam Glass keep elbowing each other for the top spot... in my head, anyway...Adam gets his rebuttle next week.)

Meanwhile, back at the Bunker, Sam and Dean are trying to get rid of the mark, and Dean is trying to live as healthy a lifestyle as possible in the hopes that being a clean-living modern hippie will somehow solve his problems. So, he's quite drinking, and he's making egg-white omelettes... which Sam loves! I thought that was so adorable. Also, as someone who is allergic to egg yolk, I found myself falling just a little bit more in love with Dean JUST because he made an egg-white omelette...which is ridiculous, I know. But hey, Sam loves it, so it's gotta be good too!

I loved the montage of them working, and we also see Dean making those really gross green smoothies - listen guys, I love salads, but green things should never be in liquid form unless it is melted mint icecream.

Then Sam looks at the news and discovers that a crazy person is making their way through Topeka beating people up... and someone caught them on video, and it's Charlie!!

Both Dean and Sam are like - NOT OUR CHARLIE! THIS CAN'T BE! SHE IS SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS AND ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD! ... seriously, that's pretty much what they say. And it's ADORABLE and I love it. Because they love her SO MUCH. I just really love love, you guys... like, I don't actually love people as much as I love other people loving people. This is why I can both be happily forever alone AND a hopeless romantic.

So, they go to find out what's what. The whole time, Dean is trying to not be evil... and Sam is really nervous about Dean losing it again and being evil.

Also, their alias are Gabriel and Collins, and I was like "are their alias' a shout-out to the ships that I don't like?!" but nope, apparently it's a Genesis (the band) reference. Learn something new everyday.

Anyway, it soon becomes apparent that Charlie is trying to track down the bastard who killed her parents (accidentally, but still manslaughter). Dean threatens the final name out of the dude, and I like how this scene is played, with the tension really high (both done with the camera and also Sam's body-language) about just where on the mood-scale Dean is.

It's off to the third name - who is a judge, who doesn't seem to understand that she might be in mortal peril.

Oh, Also, we totally find out that Charlie's name is Celeste! Celeste Middleton. I like Charlie better... (fun fact, my cousin just gave birth to a little girl two days ago and named her Charlie... well, Charlotte, but they're going to call her Charlie.)

Throughout all of this, we also find out that Dean never told Sam about Charlie's tragic backstory - or at least, it doesn't appear that he did. I think that's nice, that Dean kept that between himself and Charlie, since he wasn't necessarily supposed to find out either.

Charlie attacks! Gets what she wants, says mean things to Dean and Sam, and then runs away...and just as they're about to chase after her, Charlie pulls up in her yellow car! WHAT?!?!

Up until this point, I was thinking maybe she was possessed or something... but nope! She's evil-twinned!!! Or rather, she's been divided into good and bad versions of herself, but they're both still her. Fascinating! Also, of course, a direct parallel to poor Dean's storyline, where he is basically having his bad qualities amplified to the point where they drown out his goodness.

Charlie fills them in - apparently to win the war in Oz, Charlie let the Wizard unlook her "inner darkness", so that Charlie could be a big enough bad-ass to do what needed to be done. And it worked! Only then her goodside didn't want her darkside back, and her darkside took off on a path of revenge...

Because whatever Charlie says, I don't think her darkside actually wanted to get back together, I think she just wanted to kill the bastard that murdered her parents, but being a darkside, she knows how to emotionally manipulate people to get what she wants.

I loved Charlie's line about how being good sucked - that instead of hitting on the bartender, she wanted to send her to college. Hilarious. One of my favourite Hawksley Workman songs is about strippers, but it's not your typical song, because the chorus is "And you wanna feel bad for them, wanna cook a meal for them, dial up their mother's who can hardly wait to see them/going out the door back to college or university, supposedly."

They find out who it is that DarkCharlie is going to try to kill - as in, they find out who killed Charlie's parents - and then Dean appoints himself in charge of makin sure that guy doesn't get killed, while Sam and Charlie head to the bunker to try to find out how to put Charlie back together, since DarkCharlie broke the key to Oz.

Sam's not so sure sending Dean on protection deal is a good idea... and I'm not so sure either!

And it's not really, but only because Dean falls for DarkCharlie's lies. :(

Meanwhile, Sam and Charlie time!!! I love it when Sam has friends - and I think I especially love the fact that Charlie is FAIRLY equal friends with both Sam and Dean, though she's had more bro-time with Dean in past episodes... so it was nice for her and Sam to go on an adventure together. At first, it's just a research adventure - but they find out that there's a Man of Letter's that retired and may still be alive, since he's had access to the magic of Oz.

So, Sam and Charlie head over to see him and Sam fills Charlie in on everything that's been happening with Dean. And MAN, I said this in LARP and the Real Girl and I'll say it again, I love the fact that they just TELL Charlie things... like there's no shoving things under the rug and pretending things are fine when they aren't (which the boys sometimes do with Jody and other friends), but with Charlie, they actually just tell her... and I don't know if that's a Robbie Thompson writing thing or a Charlie thing, since no one but Robbie has ever written Charlie before, but WHATEVER the reason, I love it.

While Sam and Charlie are off tracking down Oz-dude, Dean is falling for Dark!Charlie's lies... and she convinces him that she's not looking for revenge, but rather just wants the guy to face his crimes... but, yeah...LIE. Charlie kills him. And I'm kind of glad that SPN is a universe where the police forces are all inept with short-memories, because DUDES it was DEAN who was last seen with that guy, so Charlie could have easily just completely set him up to take the fall for that.

Anyway, Dean goes to a bar after calling Sam and Charlie and breaking the news, because he is depressed about his failures, I guess? And he's doing the whole alcoholic thing of ordering the drink but not drinking it...or warring with himself about drinking it... and that's when Dark!Charlie catches up with him and tries to be like "we're the same" and whatnot...in general, she's just creepy. Dean tells her that Sam and Charlie are going to fix things, but he smartly gives her the wrong town name... and then Dark!Charlie pretends she's going to go hit on the bartender, but then leaves out the back.

AND THEN SHE STEALS BABY!! She joins the very short list of guest stars who have gotten a chance to drive the Impala.

Dean hotwires a car to get to Sam and Charlie...

Meanwhile, Sam and Charlie discover that the Oz-dude had the exact same thing happen to him, and he was never put back together - more than that, his darkside became the Wizard of Oz! Charlie is therefore super worried about Dorothy, who is ruling Oz with the Wizard... who is apparently evil.

Clive (that's Oz-dude) comes up with the idea that if he's mortally wounded, his other half will come back from Oz in order to try to save him - since they share physical damage (but apparently not aging - weird!)

It works! He shoots himself just as Dean arrives outside - but that's also when Dark!Charlie arrives... and she and Dean get into a fist-fight, which is NOT GOOD, because she's Charlie too, so Dean also hurts Good!Charlie every time he punches Dark!Charlie. And I think at the beginning of the fight he's conscious of that - but as the fight goes on, I think Dean gets more and more lost in the adrenaline and the violence.

Meanwhile, inside, Old Clive has the idea that if Charlie kills him, then the Wizard dies too, and then Charlie can get the Wizard's key - and put herself back together. Charlie can't do it at first, because it's BAD to kill people... but then the Wizard starts killing Sam, and I think that's what does it - because while it's bad to kill people, it's also good to save people... and sometimes you have to do one to do the other, which is the balance that Sam and Dean have lived their whole lives.

Charlie saves Sam, even with a dislocated shoulder, but outside, Dean is lost in punching the crap out of Dark!Charlie, and only stops when Sam calls his name, while carrying the now bloody and unconscius GoodCharlie... and Dean is like "Oh crap, I LOVE CHARLIE WHAT AM I DOING?!" Only, he doesn't actually say anything, because he is in shock.

Charlie gets put back together again... and then Sam runs forward and hugs Charlie like a madman while Dean continues down his shame spiral... and everything is sad.

Back at the bunker, Dean is still really upset (obviously, I mean, he accidentally beat up his good friend who is sunshine and rainbows)... Charlie is packed up and ready to go, and we find out it's been two days since she was beaten up. Her and Dean are both still looking pretty rough.

Oh! I forgot to mention that Sam's been on the phone to Cas in this episode too! SAM AND CAS TIME! Seriously, I just like it when Sam has friends.

Anyway, Charlie asks about the MoC and if Sam has any leads - and he shows her a print-out of a library listen he found for a book currently in Tuscany (and for some reason, I did not think of Italy, and I was wondering where in the states there was a place named after the place in Italy, and why Sam couldn't just use interlibrary loan or something... I'm a dorkus.) Charlie offers to go check it out.

I love the fact that Sam and Dean have friends helping them!

And then Charlie talks to Dean... and we get feelings all over the place... because UGH, Dean hates himself so much, but Charlie forgives him... and he doesn't forgive himself, and Charlie says that she knows, because that's "your move" and that he SHOULD forgive himself... and Charlie telling Dean that he's a Winchester and therefore he'll beat the MoC....and FEELINGS! And then HUGS!!!

(And kind of weird directorial choice on the filming of the final hug, in my opinion... and this is Phil Sgricca who directs a LOT of SPN... so, bizarre.... I mean, it was kind of cool because it emphasized how TINY Charlie is in comparison to the Winchesters...but, still, kind of weird to have such a tight shot for a hug.)

And more hugs!! And then Charlie leaves... and... Sam and Dean say something? I honestly forget what's said when Charlie leaves, but it is also touching and wonderful, I'm sure. No brother hug though - that'd be too much. Oh, I think they mention something about getting back to work.

All in all, a great episode, full of feelings... and Charlie is back in our dimension! YAY!

Okay, so this IS a little later than usual, because I got completely distracted by twitter... but WHATEVER, it's only like 45 minutes late, which is pretty good, considering.

As per usual, please let me know what you thought in comments and tell me about the important bits that I forgot to talk about!!

Comments

[missyjack.livejournal.com]

IT WAS AWESOME! I love how the boys realise Charlie is basically them - seeking vengeance for dead parents, has sacrificed her very self to help good triumph etc. I think for Dean she's both a cautionary tale, and also a tantalizing reminder on how awesome it feels to give into the Mark.

I love Sam being all concerned and research and caring. And Dean barely holdingh it together. SALAD WILL NOT SAVE YOU DEAN.

And Charlie? At the end she forgives Dean, promises to help the boys, NAD WALKS OFF INTO THE WORLD TOTALLY ALONE. Freaking hero.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

And yeah, when Charlie walked off at the end to go research and hopefully find the knowledge to help Dean, I couldn't help but think of her line in LARP where she says "I rescue the damsels around here!" Definitely the hero. :)

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this episode...but I kind of felt I just barely missed being flattened by the anvil from "Hunter Heroici" over the good Charlie/bad Charlie parallel to Dean right now...

When the two Charlies were laying next to each other outside the house after the Wizard is killed, I was horrified that Charlie was going to die then...whew, incredibly relieved she didn't, but they totally freaked me out for a moment!

Weirdly, there was a snippet in the preview of Charlie reacting to Sam telling her about the MoC while in the car with Sam that never showed up in the episode!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

It's true. SPN is the most anvil-y show to every throw anvils. I've made peace with the fact that sometimes those anvils are quite heavy. :P

Yeah, I was super concerned that Charlie was going to die - but, much like last week, when my friend was worried that Dean would kill Claire, I realized that having Dean beat Charlie to death was TOO dark for the show (even if she died because of the spell, the fact that Dean had beaten her right before would be too dark), so I wasn't THAT worried. I mean, I could have been wrong, but I wasn't, yay!

According to Robbie and Felicia, there was a scene in the car between Charlie and Sam that was cut. :( Hopefully it makes it to the DVD, but in the scene, Sam tells her about the MoC and Charlie tells Sam about her relationship with Dorothy in Oz... but I guess since it was exposition on things that the audience either didn't know, or didn't matter to the plot of the episode, it was the first to go when they needed to trim the episode.

[khek.livejournal.com]

I love Charlie. :)

Who were the other guest stars that drove Baby? Bobby. And..?

I thought that the wizard didn't age because...he's a wizard. In Oz, anyway. I would think that would be one of the first spells an evil wizard would accomplish; to live forever to enjoy the fruits of his evilness.

What I didn't understand was how Charlie got back to this dimension. I mean, did she come back through the bunker while the boys were out, and she just didn't tell them? Or did she show up somewhere else? Maybe they mentioned it, but if they did, I didn't notice.

I love your reviews. Sometimes I miss the beginning of the episode due to working until 9:00, so you help me catch up!

[liliaeth]

But isn't the point of the Wizard of Oz that he wasn't a wizard, aka that he was a regular guy who used technology to pretend he was a wizard. Or is that one of those things that Dorothy's father made up when he wrote those books?

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I think that's the "trick" with how they've written Oz into the show - the fact that they can change facts about Oz and then claim that "Dorothy's father made that bit up" when they want to change something for the sake of the plot.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Andy from way back in S2 was the only ever person who successfully stole Baby - as far as I can remember anyway. So, he'd be another guest star... and then Matt Cohen has also driven her, of course. Though, I can't remember now if we ever see him drive, or if all his driving scenes were on the stationary car on set for interior-driving shots, so Matt might not count.

Charlie doesn't need to come through the Bunker when she returns from Oz. The key can make ANY door a door to Oz. So, I'm guessing that DarkCharlie could also show up anywhere on earth using the key (or another way to travel between Oz and Earth). So, you were right that they just didn't mention it.

I'm glad you like the reviews!!

[liliaeth]

I think the age difference between the wizard and Clive is because as they mentioned in the episode, time moves different in Oz, than it does on earth. Well that and the whole alternate dimension thing, which probably affects aging in some way or another.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I'm just thinking about how the bodies share physical damage - aging is actually physical damage. That's what it is. So, it doesn't make sense to me that one body could age and the other body could stay young. In my opinion, winkles, arthritis, liver-spots, grey hair...they're all the same as that scar on the guy's face.

So, it's not that I believe that the wizard should have aged - but whatever magic/time-dimension-thing that was keeping him young, should have also kept Clive young.

But, it's a really stupid thing to be nitpicky about, so it's not a big deal. :P

[thursdaysisters.livejournal.com]

Charlie is clearly the marriage counselor the Boys never had, I love how she was constantly calling them out on their bad habits.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yes! I forgot to mention that, but I loved the "secrets are bad" line!! Where has she been all their lives?!

[aec1990.livejournal.com]

and he shows her a print-out of a library listen he found for a book currently in Tuscany (and for some reason, I did not think of Italy, and I was wondering where in the states there was a place named after the place in Italy, and why Sam couldn't just use interlibrary loan or something... I'm a dorkus.)

At first, I didn't think to question rare books Sam and Dean can't get easily, but I just checked WorldCat, and unless they won't settle for less than a first edition, there are several copies in the States, and at least one in Lawrence, KS.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ha! Well, obviously, in the SPN universe, books are harder to come by than in our universe. Law-enforcement is stupider and suffers amnesia, and it's hard to find books... other than that, COMPLETELY THE SAME UNIVERSE. :P

Also, WOW, but that sentence I wrote doesn't make sense unless you realize that by "listen", I meant "listing"!

[shadowsong26.livejournal.com]

HURRAY FOR CHARLIE \o/

Also, quick aside--maybe it's because I watched a couple S6 episodes lately, but while I was watching, I kept thinking about Soulless!Sam. I know it's not the parallel I was supposed to be drawing, but there it is.

I, too, was worried she was going to die and then so very relieved when she didn't.

Yesssss the Sam and Dean working/just being together montage made me so happy.

Totally agreed on the 'sunshine and rainbows' and their responses and yes.

...yeah, I don't have a lot of substantive commentary about this episode. It just made me happy.

I thought she was possessed too, based on the previews. I'm actually really glad that she didn't turn out to be, although it would be a nice stop on the road to 'vessels and hosts matter again' that we seem to be drifting back towards. Between Caroline, and Claire...if Charlie had been possessed, too, that might've been a clue (since the last host they knew was Linda, and they didn't know her well enough at the time for it to have the same kind of serious impact possessed!Charlie would).

Also, the Sam and Charlie bonding time made me so happy. And probably didn't help with my unintended parallel-drawing...

I do love how casual the boys are about stealing cars. Like back in Pac Man Fever when Sam just casually told Charlie he'd stolen her car to follow her and Dean, and in this episode where they're just...I love these two and their casual non-violent felonies XD

About Clive's aging not matching up--I think Charlie had a line about time flowing differently in Oz? Though it wasn't super clear, it does at least acknowledge it? And they've acknowledged that time flows differently in other dimensions before...I think the only one it hasn't explicitly come up for was Purgatory.

Re: the Cas calls...this was such a happy 'Sam has friends' episode OMG.

But, yay! Happy-making episode because Charlie is happy-making. ...now I want Charlie and Jody to have an episode together because (with the exception of Jody's first episode back in S5), their episodes always leave me happy/content/super-satisfied so just imagine how happy/awesome/satisfying BOTH of them in an episode would be!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely think that there's a parallel there between Dark!Charlie and Soulless!Sam... though, I guess it's more of a soul-divided, then it is about an absence of a soul.

I also love how casual they are about stealing cars too - I loved it back in S1 too, when Sam stole a car for the first time (in series) and Dean's reaction was to say "That's my boy!" Because it just said so much about their childhood, and mainly that Dean saw it as a sign of Sam being a hunter.

Yeah, Charlie said the thing about time passing differently in Oz - but the thing is that the bodies are physically connected and damage to one damages the other - and what is aging? I mean, I'm not a scientist or a doctor, but I thought that aging was basically physical damage to the body...sun exposure aging the skin, the skin losing elasticity, the joints wearing, the hair greying - they're all physical changes, so therefore they should be experienced by both bodies.

I want Charlie to meet EVERYONE...Jody, Cas... bring Kevin back from the dead and have her meet him... but yeah, Jody and Charlie would be cool to have in an episode together for sure.

I thought it was horrible

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Query: What happened to her girlfriend Dorothy? I thought that was love for eternity, no?
I must say, love Charlie as I do, this was about the dumbest premise of Supernatural of late. I mean, there have been a lot of dumb premises and bad episodes (hello, Bugs and Wendigo) but the Wizard of Oz? Really? I was willing to accept the Oz thing for the initial Oz episode because it just teetered on the edge of ridiculous, and it had both Charlie and a kick ass Dorothy. But this whole thing -- seriously, I rolled my eyes so hard during this episode I think I sprained them. Charlie deserves better, and it was just the same old same old tortured Dean-with-the-Mark of Cain storyline, but felt like filler until they move on with that plot.

Re: I thought it was horrible

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Sorry you didn't like it!

To be fair, Dorothy was never explicitly her girlfriend (as in romantic partner) - they just went on an adventure together. According to Felicia Day's and Robbie Thompson's twitter feeds though, there WAS a scene where she explained what happened with her and Dorothy to Sam, but it was cut for time.