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barkley asked, I talk about Don.
This episode is all about the relationship between Don and Charlie.
It starts with Charlie telling Larry about the predictions he did to help the FBI in the bank robber case. He seems awfully proud when he tells Larry, but I think it's more the FBI part, helping his big brother in the "real" world than the actual math part that he is proud of. I come from an academic background myself, and of course I can ony judge by my own experiences, but seeing that there are real dangers out there and people who protect us from them can be oddly attractive to people who grew up protected from that kind of thing. The intellectual knowledge that it exists and seeing it for real are two very different things.
Larry of course, wise man that he is, reminds Charlie that predicting isn't controling, and with that prepares us not only for the realization that Charlie may not always be able to cope with the hars reality, but also for the terrible FBI! screaming that follows. There is something so very annoying about the way they scream FBI!, and then scream it again a bit slower, F!B!I!, as if it was really hard to understand and needed repeating. I so wish they'd stop that.
The first we see of Don in this ep is him with a big gun, his vest and gloves. The vest and the big gun are obviously meant to show the difference to Charlie, who is innocently sitting in the garden feeding fish. The gloves are just an added bonus meant to kill me.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Charlie gets to see the shooting and his first hard realization of what Don's work really is about on TV, a medium that is 99% about things that aren't real. Don is btw just asking to be shot, so it is no wonder that Charlie panics. I paniced a little, and I knew he was going to survive. First the explosion:
- OMG he was so close to the car he almost died! -
then the shooting
- OMG the guy shot him he almost died OMG! -
Had to catch my breath a little after that. Actually, I don't know how that guy managed not too shot Don. Who misses from a 4 feet distance?
Poor Charlie now wanders out into the real world and walks through the crime scene as if he were walking through a nightmare. After the conversation with Larry, I was convinced that Charlie needed to learn a bit more about the world behind his numbers, but this is a bit too harsh. Terry doesn't wuite know how to react to Charlie, she lets him walk and he gets to see the dea agent. Not a good thing. I like Terry, but I think it's safe to say that Meghan would have known what to do, and she'd have prevented Charlie from seeing the blood and the dead body. Don also knows what to do: the first thing he does is reassure Charlie that he is alright. And the next thing is "Don't say anything to dad, I'll take care of it." Oh, I wonder how often he has said that sentence before. What secrets do they share from their childhood?
Next we learn that it is Don who will talk to the parents of the dead agent, and funny, as much as they try to establish that Don is the "older" one of the two brothers, I really can't see him do that. Don always seems a bit distant with his emotions, and to be able to tell someone that someone they loved died... well, I hope I'll never be in that situation, but I can only guess that you'd have to be able to accept their grief, and I think Don isn't very good at that. Don is the kind of person who deals with his problems himself and only asks others for help if there is no other way: I think he'd deal with grief the same way, and it would be hard for him to react to people who show their grief openly in front of strangers. (I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me)
Charlie looks incredibly miserable in front of his calculations, and Don looks incredibly worried. Terry tries to reassure Charlie, tells him that they all feel like that on days like this, and Don immediately intervenes. It's as if he is saying "Charlieis my little brother, thanks for trying, but I'm the only one who knows what he needs now." I'm not sure if being sent home and letting Don take care of the real world in the office is what Charlie really needs, but I am sure that this is not the first time they had this conversation.
Random Don:
So, this is the ep where Charlie sets up his study room in the garage. I didn't remember this. But then, I didn't remember that we are shown the morgue again, I was sure we never saw the morgue again after the pilot. Anyway, Charlie looks every little bit the little boy genious lost in the wonder that is the world of numbers. Very nice shot.
And then he gets interrupted by the real world again, only this time it's Charlie's real world, in the form of Larry. How much do I love Larry? I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Larry.
"I heard you won't be coming to work for a while? Surely you remember you are giving a lecture, abut the upcoming exams?" = Hello??? You work! They pay you for that! It's okay to e eccentric, but this is taking things a bit too far!. Only he doesn't say it like that, because he is Larry and we all love him.
Random observation: They gave Don the biggest car they could short of giving him a hummer (which they couldn't because of CSI Miami). Charlie doesn't even have a driver's license, I'm just saying.
Don arrives at home in his big car and is greeted by his father, who immediately finds out that Don got shot (cause that's what parents do, you can't keep anything secret from them). Now we see Alan Eppes really angry, because Don brings not only himself into danger, but also Charlie. And while Daddy Eppes seems to have accepted that Don has chosen this life for himself, he isn't willing to let him do the same to Charlie. And I bet this kind of things has always been an issue between Don and his father. I really need to start reading Numb3rs fic.
Don and Charlie get into a fight (again), because, as Charlie says: "Statistically you are dead now." I don't think Don has realized how close he came to dying yet, and I don't think he will let himself think about it. He will ury himself in work until the shooting is almost forgotten. Well, Charlir sure is freaking enough for the two of them.
The next interesting thing we learn is that Charlie was hiding in the garage when their mother died and that he hasn't forgiven himself for that. But he can't help it, liek he says: he can't always think about thigns because he has to, he has to follow his train ofthough where it leads him. Charlie's way of escaping his emotions is so different from Don's, but in the end they both run away from dealing with things that could hurt. But the things they are afraid to be hurt by are different as well.
Then we have an interesting conversation between Alan Eppes and Terry. Of course it is only a tool to let us know more about Don and Charlie, but I don't care, it works very well. Don and Charlie graduated from highschool together (any more questions about Don's choices in his work?) and Charlie has been "exceptional" (to use Terry's word) pretty much all his life. That means he was always getting special attention. Not necessarily more attention, but try to explain that to the little kid that Don was at the time.
Alan Eppes says that Don has learned to take care of himself, and Terry replies that he isn't as good at it as he thinks. Avery accurate observation that shows how well Terry knows Don (and makes me even more convinced that they should only be friends. If they know each other that well and aren't together yet, they aren't meant to be). I'm guessing taht Don took care of himself from an early age on, because Charlie was the one who got all the special attention. That's why even when he is in trouble now, he doesn't ask for help. Asking for help is - in his mind - a weakness, and he more than anyone else isn'tallowed to have that kind of weakness. Charlie has his special skills that make him stand out, Don needs to be perfect at what he does to make up for this. And more often than not, being perfect didn not include is family. Maybe part of it is that he sees asking someone for help as burdening them with his problems, and if he saw how much his parents had to do with Charlie, he probably tried to avoid that they'd have to deal with Don's problems as well. (I'm sure his parents would have done everything for Don, but maybe Don didn't want them to do these things)
That's why it is so hard for him to ask Charlie for help, and it is telling that he'd use such a defensive way of asking him. By telling Charlie that he'd pout Don and his team at risk by not helping, he uses the one thing that is sure to get to Charlie - but it isn't fair, especially after the shooting of the day before. Nor is the "Snap out of your precious bubble for once" comment. I think he snapped out of it so fast yesterday that he is still feeling sick from he trip, don't you Don? But that's so typical for someone who is afraid of showing weaknesses (and of big brothers in particular, says the little sister): attack before they notice the weakness.
The way they fight in the garden... that's one of the things that is so appealing about this brothers thing (I DON'T mean the slash, just the attraction of two brothers in a TV show like this). We have two grwon up men, but they interact with each other in a way that won't let us forget that they were children once.
1) This makes them vulnerable, and I have yet to meet someone in fandom who doesn't like to see a strong men who lets himself be vulnerable
2) we constantly wonder about their history together, what they've seen and done. And I for one, want to know more about this history.
Charlie has no problem asking for help. He comes to his father and tells him that he wants to lose himself in math. Let me shortly explain that Charlie isn't my type at all, and that I'm much more likely to fall for someone like Don. But I cannot resits Charlie. It's not only his intelligence, which is always a turn-on in a man, it's his passion. He loves what he does and he never gets tired of talking about it. Even now, when math has seemingly failed him, he turns to even more insolvable mathematical problems. Oh, I can understand the lure of getting lost in an intellectual problem with no care for the outside world. Boy, can I ever.
Random observation: Don, upon watching the security tape of the next bank robbery: "That's the guy that took my gun." Dear Don, that is also the guy who almost shot you DEAD, in case you forgot. Not dealing so well, are we?
Another random observation: David gives Charlie a cute little smile after the Heisenberg conversaion with Don in the truck.
There are also some really cool shots in the last scenes, like these two:
Final Shot (after the shot of the house that is exactly the same as the one in the pilot)
The Eppes family having dinner together. My heart gets all warm and tingly when I see them together like that. Oh no, now it happened. I have fallen in love with the show.
Sure, I like Numb3rs, I know that, but just now, right this moment, when Don gave Charlie that smile and looked at him like that, I have fallen in love with the show. Really, I can tell. My heart did that little leap it does when it falls in love.
Uh oh, I wonder where this will lead me.
And if no one wants to talk Numb3rs with me, will you at least point me to a community where I could advertise my posts? It seems as if I have to turn to strangers to share my fannish love.
*sniff*
More screencaps from this ep are here.
barkley asked, I talk about Don.This episode is all about the relationship between Don and Charlie.
It starts with Charlie telling Larry about the predictions he did to help the FBI in the bank robber case. He seems awfully proud when he tells Larry, but I think it's more the FBI part, helping his big brother in the "real" world than the actual math part that he is proud of. I come from an academic background myself, and of course I can ony judge by my own experiences, but seeing that there are real dangers out there and people who protect us from them can be oddly attractive to people who grew up protected from that kind of thing. The intellectual knowledge that it exists and seeing it for real are two very different things.
Larry of course, wise man that he is, reminds Charlie that predicting isn't controling, and with that prepares us not only for the realization that Charlie may not always be able to cope with the hars reality, but also for the terrible FBI! screaming that follows. There is something so very annoying about the way they scream FBI!, and then scream it again a bit slower, F!B!I!, as if it was really hard to understand and needed repeating. I so wish they'd stop that.
The first we see of Don in this ep is him with a big gun, his vest and gloves. The vest and the big gun are obviously meant to show the difference to Charlie, who is innocently sitting in the garden feeding fish. The gloves are just an added bonus meant to kill me.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Charlie gets to see the shooting and his first hard realization of what Don's work really is about on TV, a medium that is 99% about things that aren't real. Don is btw just asking to be shot, so it is no wonder that Charlie panics. I paniced a little, and I knew he was going to survive. First the explosion:
- OMG he was so close to the car he almost died! -
then the shooting
- OMG the guy shot him he almost died OMG! -
Had to catch my breath a little after that. Actually, I don't know how that guy managed not too shot Don. Who misses from a 4 feet distance?
Poor Charlie now wanders out into the real world and walks through the crime scene as if he were walking through a nightmare. After the conversation with Larry, I was convinced that Charlie needed to learn a bit more about the world behind his numbers, but this is a bit too harsh. Terry doesn't wuite know how to react to Charlie, she lets him walk and he gets to see the dea agent. Not a good thing. I like Terry, but I think it's safe to say that Meghan would have known what to do, and she'd have prevented Charlie from seeing the blood and the dead body. Don also knows what to do: the first thing he does is reassure Charlie that he is alright. And the next thing is "Don't say anything to dad, I'll take care of it." Oh, I wonder how often he has said that sentence before. What secrets do they share from their childhood?
Next we learn that it is Don who will talk to the parents of the dead agent, and funny, as much as they try to establish that Don is the "older" one of the two brothers, I really can't see him do that. Don always seems a bit distant with his emotions, and to be able to tell someone that someone they loved died... well, I hope I'll never be in that situation, but I can only guess that you'd have to be able to accept their grief, and I think Don isn't very good at that. Don is the kind of person who deals with his problems himself and only asks others for help if there is no other way: I think he'd deal with grief the same way, and it would be hard for him to react to people who show their grief openly in front of strangers. (I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me)
Charlie looks incredibly miserable in front of his calculations, and Don looks incredibly worried. Terry tries to reassure Charlie, tells him that they all feel like that on days like this, and Don immediately intervenes. It's as if he is saying "Charlieis my little brother, thanks for trying, but I'm the only one who knows what he needs now." I'm not sure if being sent home and letting Don take care of the real world in the office is what Charlie really needs, but I am sure that this is not the first time they had this conversation.
Random Don:
So, this is the ep where Charlie sets up his study room in the garage. I didn't remember this. But then, I didn't remember that we are shown the morgue again, I was sure we never saw the morgue again after the pilot. Anyway, Charlie looks every little bit the little boy genious lost in the wonder that is the world of numbers. Very nice shot.
And then he gets interrupted by the real world again, only this time it's Charlie's real world, in the form of Larry. How much do I love Larry? I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Larry.
"I heard you won't be coming to work for a while? Surely you remember you are giving a lecture, abut the upcoming exams?" = Hello??? You work! They pay you for that! It's okay to e eccentric, but this is taking things a bit too far!. Only he doesn't say it like that, because he is Larry and we all love him.
Random observation: They gave Don the biggest car they could short of giving him a hummer (which they couldn't because of CSI Miami). Charlie doesn't even have a driver's license, I'm just saying.
Don arrives at home in his big car and is greeted by his father, who immediately finds out that Don got shot (cause that's what parents do, you can't keep anything secret from them). Now we see Alan Eppes really angry, because Don brings not only himself into danger, but also Charlie. And while Daddy Eppes seems to have accepted that Don has chosen this life for himself, he isn't willing to let him do the same to Charlie. And I bet this kind of things has always been an issue between Don and his father. I really need to start reading Numb3rs fic.
Don and Charlie get into a fight (again), because, as Charlie says: "Statistically you are dead now." I don't think Don has realized how close he came to dying yet, and I don't think he will let himself think about it. He will ury himself in work until the shooting is almost forgotten. Well, Charlir sure is freaking enough for the two of them.
The next interesting thing we learn is that Charlie was hiding in the garage when their mother died and that he hasn't forgiven himself for that. But he can't help it, liek he says: he can't always think about thigns because he has to, he has to follow his train ofthough where it leads him. Charlie's way of escaping his emotions is so different from Don's, but in the end they both run away from dealing with things that could hurt. But the things they are afraid to be hurt by are different as well.
Then we have an interesting conversation between Alan Eppes and Terry. Of course it is only a tool to let us know more about Don and Charlie, but I don't care, it works very well. Don and Charlie graduated from highschool together (any more questions about Don's choices in his work?) and Charlie has been "exceptional" (to use Terry's word) pretty much all his life. That means he was always getting special attention. Not necessarily more attention, but try to explain that to the little kid that Don was at the time.
Alan Eppes says that Don has learned to take care of himself, and Terry replies that he isn't as good at it as he thinks. Avery accurate observation that shows how well Terry knows Don (and makes me even more convinced that they should only be friends. If they know each other that well and aren't together yet, they aren't meant to be). I'm guessing taht Don took care of himself from an early age on, because Charlie was the one who got all the special attention. That's why even when he is in trouble now, he doesn't ask for help. Asking for help is - in his mind - a weakness, and he more than anyone else isn'tallowed to have that kind of weakness. Charlie has his special skills that make him stand out, Don needs to be perfect at what he does to make up for this. And more often than not, being perfect didn not include is family. Maybe part of it is that he sees asking someone for help as burdening them with his problems, and if he saw how much his parents had to do with Charlie, he probably tried to avoid that they'd have to deal with Don's problems as well. (I'm sure his parents would have done everything for Don, but maybe Don didn't want them to do these things)
That's why it is so hard for him to ask Charlie for help, and it is telling that he'd use such a defensive way of asking him. By telling Charlie that he'd pout Don and his team at risk by not helping, he uses the one thing that is sure to get to Charlie - but it isn't fair, especially after the shooting of the day before. Nor is the "Snap out of your precious bubble for once" comment. I think he snapped out of it so fast yesterday that he is still feeling sick from he trip, don't you Don? But that's so typical for someone who is afraid of showing weaknesses (and of big brothers in particular, says the little sister): attack before they notice the weakness.
The way they fight in the garden... that's one of the things that is so appealing about this brothers thing (I DON'T mean the slash, just the attraction of two brothers in a TV show like this). We have two grwon up men, but they interact with each other in a way that won't let us forget that they were children once.
1) This makes them vulnerable, and I have yet to meet someone in fandom who doesn't like to see a strong men who lets himself be vulnerable
2) we constantly wonder about their history together, what they've seen and done. And I for one, want to know more about this history.
Charlie has no problem asking for help. He comes to his father and tells him that he wants to lose himself in math. Let me shortly explain that Charlie isn't my type at all, and that I'm much more likely to fall for someone like Don. But I cannot resits Charlie. It's not only his intelligence, which is always a turn-on in a man, it's his passion. He loves what he does and he never gets tired of talking about it. Even now, when math has seemingly failed him, he turns to even more insolvable mathematical problems. Oh, I can understand the lure of getting lost in an intellectual problem with no care for the outside world. Boy, can I ever.
Random observation: Don, upon watching the security tape of the next bank robbery: "That's the guy that took my gun." Dear Don, that is also the guy who almost shot you DEAD, in case you forgot. Not dealing so well, are we?
Another random observation: David gives Charlie a cute little smile after the Heisenberg conversaion with Don in the truck.
There are also some really cool shots in the last scenes, like these two:
Final Shot (after the shot of the house that is exactly the same as the one in the pilot)
The Eppes family having dinner together. My heart gets all warm and tingly when I see them together like that. Oh no, now it happened. I have fallen in love with the show.
Sure, I like Numb3rs, I know that, but just now, right this moment, when Don gave Charlie that smile and looked at him like that, I have fallen in love with the show. Really, I can tell. My heart did that little leap it does when it falls in love.
Uh oh, I wonder where this will lead me.
And if no one wants to talk Numb3rs with me, will you at least point me to a community where I could advertise my posts? It seems as if I have to turn to strangers to share my fannish love.
*sniff*
More screencaps from this ep are here.
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