You know what's fantastic? The abrupt cut from Amy's daydream to the memorial service. No transitions to ease us from fantasy to reality, just the stark truth: Amy's dreaming. Colin's dead. I think there's something I also love about the fact that we drop in on the service as some random kid who didn't know Colin all that well is speaking. A little against dramatic expectations, which is cool, and also means all the drama of that opening is saved for the Browns' entrance.
Also fantastic: the
original musical selections! (Hallelujah for having taped the eps, hee.) I'm not particularly keen on Robbie Williams' "One Fine Day," but the lyrics just telegraph what's happening in that teaser: "I like to reminisce about a time I've never had / [...] / One fine day / In the middle of the night / You'll wake up in it..."
I'm also not a huge fan of "The Things We Do For Love" (prefer 10cc's one other well-known song), but holy catfish do I love how that serves as the score for Delia and company's efforts to be rescued by Bright. And "Oh Girl" doesn't have much to do with anything, really, but I just lurve that song in and of itself.
Non-editing-related things:
The Harts. Ugh. On the one hand, the pain they're going through would have to be tremendous, and I'm not going to criticize (fictional) people for having difficulty coping through the grief. But at the same time, the way Mrs. Hart just seems to dump the responsibility for Colin's memorial on Amy is kind of awful. To me, at least. Though, at the same time, I'm not sure it was necessarily the Harts' duty to tell Amy about Colin's wishes, the way Amy thinks it was. But then, it's ultimately better that she
does know that he basically died in peace, in accordance with his wishes, so... Wow, you'd think I'd have a set opinion by now on something that happened in an episode that aired 6 years ago, heh.
Whatever happened to Planet California?
Also, best thing about Bright's "burn my nuts" line -- everyone's non-reaction except for Harold's, who gives him a sidelong glare, even as Bright's statement is technically perfectly innocuous. Harold reacts so wonderfully to dinnertime vulgarities.
In a strange reversal of my feelings regarding "Home," at the moment, with this episode, I'm more interested in the Abbotts than the Browns. I think it's because, with the Browns, we have the story -- which we'll see again -- of Everwood's small town mob mentality, turning against Andy for 'killing' Colin, and of Andy coping with his decision, and discussing the matter with Delia and Ephram, all of which is very well-written, and great, but...not as dramatically compelling to me as, say, Amy's discovery and the painful-to-watch blow-up at Andy, or Bright and Harold's conversation about Bright's hand in Colin's fate, maybe just because of the rawer nature of the Abbott angle versus the Brown.
But then, ask me tomorrow and I might call the Brown material more moving. It's just that kind of an episode, heh.
(Next episode's an easier call, though. It's all about the Abbotts then, every time.)