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butterflyWe open on Caroline's freaked-out morning after. I think this is the first time that we get a good look at the aftermath of a non-fatal vampire bite and it's not a pretty sight - there's some scabbing and you can really see the gouges left by Damon's teeth. When she sits up, we can see the smear of blood that her wound left on her pillow.
Damon is still sleeping under the covers next to her. I like the way this was filmed - they keep flipping between shooting through the mirror to the bed and shooting the actual bed and it helps add to the creeped-out, disoriented feeling. It's a very effective scene.
When she reaches for the door, she glances back and Damon is no longer in the bed (he's right behind her, instead). She backs away, reaches for a lamp, and hits him across the face with it (it's about as effective as Elena slapping him later will be, in terms of how little it hurts him). The last object she throws at him is the pillow with her blood on it; Damon smells the blood, which inspires him to bite Caroline. Again. Ouch.
So, "This could have gone a completely different way."
I do think that he meant that, if it was possible - that they could have been, well, not exactly not him and Katherine, but that he would have liked it if she'd gone along with the whole vampire thing. She liked him last night before he bit her. This makes me wonder if he was biting Bree while they were having sex, twenty years ago.
Man, though, this arc is painful for Caroline. I'm so glad that she's a vampire these days and can no longer be pushed around so easily.
Elena is baffled that Bonnie, who was telling her just yesterday that she should go for Stefan, is now telling her to take things slowly. Elena can tell that there's something Bonnie isn't telling her, so Bonnie fesses up that touching Stefan gave her a bad vibe. Elena tells Bonnie that Stefan is 'a big part' of things feeling like they're getting 'back to normal'.
Poor Elena. Though, even if Stefan hadn't saved her and even if Damon hadn't made the deal or he'd gotten killed before he could come to Mystic Falls, she would be in trouble right now anyway. Katherine is working her personal mojo on Mason and that was a year before we met him, so she must have already known about Elena at that point. Plus, her best friend is a witch, either way. And her biological father and her adoptive father are both Gilberts - legacy vampire hunters. And her biological mother decided to become a vampire.
Normal just wasn't ever in the cards for Elena.
Elena plans a dinner so that she can get Stefan and Bonnie into the same room with her and ease over this new-found tension coming from Bonnie's direction. Meanwhile, Matt is tossing a football around with some guy while Tyler taunts him about Stefan and Elena's relationship. Okay, so, Tyler - how would giving Stefan a head injury show Elena that she 'made the wrong choice'? It seems like it pretty much would just show her that you're being a jerk.
Instead, of course, Stefan catches the football with his vampire reflexes and Elena is just more impressed. But it was a stupid plan either way, Tyler.
Elena tells Stefan that he should be a joiner (for the football team); he teases her about spending her time writing in the cemetery.
"There's more to me than gloomy graveyard girl. There's a whole other Elena that you have yet to meet. She was into everything. Very busy."
"Well, I look forward to meeting her. And when will that be?"
"Soon. She's working on it."
Stefan shows up Tanner again when it comes to dates. Stefan tells Elena that he knows all those dates from 'years and years of crossword puzzles'. I guess he's implying that he knows it from the hints like "what battle happened in the year 1863?" because otherwise, it doesn't make much sense.
So, Stefan joins the football team. He wants to fit into Elena's world - but, more specifically, he kinda wants to fit into Elena's old world. Her normal world. Her world was always destined to be something other than normal, unfortunately. She's a Petrova doppelgänger.
It actually turns out that Elena is a much better fit for Stefan's world, once she starts getting into it.
I've gotten say, I'm so glad that this is the only episode that really ever does anything with the football stuff. I cannot get into it at all.
Anyway, while Stefan is deciding that he wants to be on the football, Elena is trying to go back to her old, cheerleading world.
"The only way to get things back to the way they were is to do things that were."
Caroline arrives with Damon. She's back to happiness over Damon - obviously compelled to overlook the whole vampire biting thing (like Katherine did with Stefan). Before Damon drives off, he and Elena share a look. I'm pretty impressed actually, that Damon picked up from just those few seconds how 'blah' Elena was to be doing the cheerleading stuff.
Elena isn't up to speed on the cheer moves and Caroline tells her to just observe. She's not that into it, though, and looks away, noticing Stefan in his new football gear.
I'm sorry, I just cannot find football drama interesting. Anyway, the interesting part is that Elena wanders away from practice in order to watch Stefan. Stefan decides, I think, that he has to let Matt and Tyler take him down so that he'll fit in better and not get hassled. And it works a bit, at least with Matt. At the price of a broken finger that Stefan can fix quickly.
Stefan comes home to find Damon in his room, feet up on the desk, ready to tease him about football. Damon has been reading Stefan's diary. He teases him about that as well. He pretends to be supportive of Stefan's 'wanting to act human' thing but can only hold his laughter in for so long before he breaks out of his 'sincerity'.
"I say Elena today, btw - that means 'by the way' - she was at cheerleading practice. She looked so perky in her little short-shorts. She's just-" And he sneaks a look at Stefan here, to get his reaction. At this point, his interest in Elena pretty much entirely is about tweaking his brother.
Bonnie is at Elena's house, helping her get ready for the dinner while they chat about Bonnie's power. Bonnie is freaking herself out a little. Bonnie's new power is the power of finding things, which is pretty useful.
The dinner conversation between Bonnie-Elena-Stefan is stilted and awkward. Stefan finally gets into her good graces by praising the Salem witches. The doorbell rings and it's Caroline and Damon, with dessert.
Stefan tries to keep her from letting Damon in, but Elena is polite and she doesn't have any reason not to like Damon at this point, so she casually invites him in. And now he can come in any time that he wants to - there doesn't seem a way to 'de-invite' vampires in this universe like there is in the Jossverse. Damon smirks at his brother, while Elena gives Stefan a 'wtf, why are you so rude to your brother?' look.
All five of them retreat to the living room for coffee and dessert (so, where is Jenna tonight? Out working late on her thesis?). Elena and Stefan are on the couch, Bonnie is in a chair by herself, and Damon and Caroline are sitting in an armchair together, her hand on his leg.
They talk about football and cheerleading. Damon mentions that Elena doesn't seem like the cheerleading type and Caroline attributes that to the death of Elena's parents, saying that Elena used to be 'way more fun'. Ouch. Very classic tactless Caroline, though, especially her realizing a second later that she sounds like a jerk.
Damon takes the subject of dead parents and runs with it, letting Elena know that his and Stefan's parents are dead and so is almost everyone they care about, and he tries to play naive about not meaning to bring 'her' up.
Damon brings Elena one last glass to put in the dishwasher - shows off a little bit of his speed by 'dropping' it and then catching it before it hits the floor. Makes Elena smiles.
"I like you. You know how to laugh. And you make Stefan smile, which is something that I haven't seen in a very long time."
Elena asks about Katherine, just like Damon wanted her to. As they talk, Damon helps her put the dishes into the dishwasher. Damon actually has quite the domestic edge to him, more so than Stefan, at least. Here Damon does lie to Elena - he says that Katherine died in a fire - but it's the lie that Stefan knows, too.
"She was beautiful. A lot like you in that department. She was also very complicated and... selfish. At times not very kind, but very sexy and seductive." Elena figures out from his description of Katherine that Damon also dated her. He's impressed by her perceptiveness. So, he has to go and be perceptive right back at her.
"I'd quit cheerleading if I were you."
"Why do you say that?"
"Oh, I saw you at practice. You looked miserable."
"You saw that?"
"Am I wrong?"
"I used to love it. It was fun, but things are different this year. Everything that used to matter doesn't anymore."
"So, don't let it. Quit. Move on. Problem solved. Ta-da."
"Some things could matter again."
"Maybe, but it seems a little unrealistic to me."
Elena takes that in, thinks about it, and probably thinking about the fact that Damon (and Stefan) has been through the same kind of grief himself.
"I'm sorry - about Katherine. You lost her, too."
Damon is surprised and, I think, a bit touched by her sympathy. I love this conversation so much - especially starting from the part where Elena first takes Damon off-guard by figuring out that both Stefan and Damon loved Katherine. It seems to take the whole conversation to a more genuine, honest place, where Elena and Damon are just two people interacting and there are no games being played, especially that moment at the end, where Elena extends her sympathies to Damon about Katherine's death. It's the scene where Damon begins to get interested in Elena as a specific Elena person - this is Elena in contrast to Katherine; she's empathetic and gracious and kind.
This is one of the things that I miss not having about the Stefan-Elena relationship. Stefan's moment like that is supposed to have happened off-screen, before the show even starts (during his stalking of her). It means that I'm just supposed to believe it about Stefan, whereas I can actually watch it happening with Damon - I can see the change. And being able to actually watch him look at her and have those moments of genuine surprise about who she is as a person... it's really useful in seeing how clearly Damon realizes what the differences are between Elena and Katherine.
Stefan tries to test the edges of what Damon's done to Caroline, I think, by asking her about her scarf and if she'll take it off. Damon comes in, and compels Caroline to leave the room.
"They are people, Damon. She's not a puppet. She doesn't exist for your amusement, for you to feed on whenever you want to."
"Sure, she does. They all do. They're whatever I want them to be. They're mine for the taking."
"All right, you've had your fun. You used Caroline; you got to me and Elena. Good for you. Now it's time for you to go."
"That's not a problem. Because... I've been invited in. And I will come back tomorrow night and the following night and I will do with your little cheerleader whatever I want to do. Because that is normal to me."
Chilling words from Damon, delivered in a friendly, matter-of-fact way (which really only makes them more chilling).
Stefan stayed after the others left, and he and Elena are in her room. She's telling him that she had fun and his brother isn't that bad and he (understandably) doesn't want to hear it. So, he goes for distraction-by-kissing.
Or so we think.
In reality, it's even later than that, and Elena is dreaming of making out with Stefan on her bed. It's funny, because that was actually a pretty good, passionate kiss (Elena wants to be on top, apparently), but it was actually a dream that was being influenced by Damon (as we see when 'Stefan' takes off his shirt and reveals Damon).
The next morning, Elena wanders out of her shower to stare at her cheerleading outfit, all set out. She does not look into it.
Stefan writes in his journal about Damon and hoping that there is a 'shred of humanity' left. He wants to try to get Damon to find it again. This is the reason that he gives, later on, for (on some level) being glad of Damon's feelings for Elena. They are a touchstone to the humanity that Stefan was afraid Damon had lost. So, right now, Stefan has two main urges - help Damon regain his humanity, and protecting Elena (from Damon, is the implication).
Elena tells Stefan that she quit the team.
Stefan gives her the vervain necklace. So, at this point, he thinks that what he has in there is probably the only vervain around for quite a while. So... why did he have that, anyway? Why keep a necklace filled with vervain around? Hmm.
"We're a work in progress."
Why does that feel echo-y to me? I think Damon calls himself a work in progress in S2 (while in a room with Elena).
All the cheering. People standing around in uniforms. My freshman year in HS, I was on the volleyball team, but I don't think I went to a single sports-related thing after I decided not to continue sophomore year. Not my scene. Anyway, Tanner praises Stefan, Tyler gets bored, Tyler and Jeremy get in a fight. Stefan breaks it up, gets cut on his hand (which Elena sees) but it heals quickly and Stefan tries to pass it off as him not getting cut at all. It's important mostly as another piece of the 'vampire' puzzle that Elena puts together later.
It makes her suspicious enough to go to Bonnie and ask about the 'bad mojo' she spotted around Stefan. What Bonnie says about Stefan's vibe: "It vibrated through me and it was cold and... it was death. It's what I imagine death to be like."
Elena goes to put something away in her car and is surprised by Damon right behind her. Damon and Elena talk about Caroline for a while and when Damon says that he thinks Caroline would 'drive me crazy', Elena lets him know that he's crossing a line. He notes her loyalty. She also calls him on trying to make her feel uncomfortable.
Damon tries to compel Elena into kissing him, but gets a slap instead (ah, yay for vervain).
"What the hell! I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play with Stefan, but I don't want to be part of it. And I don't know what happened in the past, but let's get one thing straight: I am not Katherine."
(this episode could almost be subtitled: Damon learns how Elena isn't like Katherine)
Elena stalks off, rightfully pissed off at Damon. Damon touches his jaw thoughtfully and watches her leave. Not like Katherine, but she's got fire and Damon always seems to like people more if they're willing and able to stand up to him.
Matt apologizes to Stefan and wishes him a good game. After he leaves, Damon reveals his lurking presence by clapping. He also lets Stefan know that he tries compelling Elena and figured out about the vervain in the necklace.
"Guess I could just seduce her the old fashion. Or just eat her."
"No. You're not going to hurt her, Damon."
"No?"
"Because deep down inside, there is a part of you that feels for her. I was worried that you had no humanity left inside of you, that you may have actually become the monster that you pretend to be."
"Who's pretending?"
"Then kill me."
"Well... I'm tempted."
"No. You're not. You've had lifetimes to do it and yet here I am. I'm still alive. And... there you are. You're still haunting me. After one hundred and forty-five years. Katherine is dead. And you hate me because you loved her. And you torture me because you still do. And that, my brother, that is your humanity."
I kinda love Stefan's speeches, because they are always so big and grand but there's always something... wrong about them, in some way. In this case, he's wrong because Katherine isn't dead and Damon knows it, so Stefan is basing his beliefs of his brother on the wrong information. It's interesting, because he starts off being pretty perceptive - he's noticed that Damon has been treating Elena with some measure of sympathy (he could probably overhear the talk in the kitchen).
Damon, annoyed at Stefan, takes Mr. Tanner's entrance as a sign to lash out and bite the guy. It's very reminiscent to me of what he does in "The Return" - experiencing emotions that you don't want to deal with? Attack the first person to show up who isn't on the very short 'people Damon loves' list. After he's killed Tanner, he turns to Stefan with a bloody mouth, showing Stefan what he least wants to see, probably.
Matt is the person who discovers Tanner's body. In the aftermath of his body being picked up, Bonnie notices the numbers that she's been seeing - 8, 14, 22 - in various places around the murder scene. She quietly freaks out.
When Stefan angsts that there is 'nothing human, no good, no kindness, no love' left in Damon, we get to see Damon in Elena's room, watching her sleep (looks like she fell asleep while writing in her journal). Damon touches Elena's cheek softly and studies her face, and is gone before she wakes up. He has joined his brother in the ranks of Elena-stalkers, at least for this moment.
It's funny (odd-funny) that Stefan chooses to believe that Damon's act here was a sign of him having 'no humanity' when Damon was, pretty obviously, acting out of emotion. I mean, acting horribly, but out of emotion. And he doesn't go for Stefan, doesn't try to kill him. He kills someone who, to him, is just a random guy. It actually doesn't do anything to refute Stefan's speech, but Stefan acts like it does.
1. Mr. Tanner, killed by Damon in a fit of 'fuck you, Stefan'.
Damon's current kill count: 5
1. Caroline, again, by Damon.
2. Mr. Tanner, by Damon.
Damon's current bite count: 8
1. We don't see it happen, but Caroline is obviously compelled when she arrives at cheerleading practice with Damon. All of her freak-out from the morning is completely gone and she kisses him happily (and wears a scarf to cover her bite mark).
2. Damon compels Caroline to go see if Elena (and Bonnie) need help in the kitchen, so that he can talk to Stefan alone.
Damon attempts another compel with Elena, but it fails.
Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 4
1. Bonnie and Elena talk about Bonnie's powers some more; Bonnie is predicting phone commercials now and she shares the numbers that keep popping up for her - 8, 14, 22.
We start with the morning after with Caroline and Damon, so going right from the end of the last episode again. This is also the night of the dinner with Bonnie, Stefan, and Elena (that Caroline and Damon crash).
Game day, Elena is taking Damon's advice and has quit cheerleading, there is a football game, and Damon kills Tanner.
What I'm not sure about is if these days are supposed to follow each other. Later, Matt says 'this week at practice', which kinda implies more than one day to me, but the rest of the episode reads like it's two days following each other.
Time covered: 2 days and 2 nights but they may or may not follow each other.
Total time covered: Possibly 6 days/7 nights.
1. We open with Damon and Caroline in bed and Damon is shirtless.
2. Stefan pulls on a shirt as we open his post-football practice scene.
3. Stefan/Damon in Elena's dream where she also removes her shirt.
Bonnie sees the numbers - 8, 14, and 22, obsesses over them while she's in Tanner's class. It turns out that they're scattered around the scene where Tanner's body is found at the end of the episode.
Clarification on her Stefan vision: Cold and like death.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-05 09:24 pm (UTC)And from what we've heard, Bree was very EXCITED about her powers and wanted to share this information with somebody. Enter Damon, cute guy, good in bed, and a vampire.
Stefan can be very perceptive when it comes to Damon and then TOTALLY miss the mark, which is interesting. Yes, Damon is dangerous, but he DOES have feelings, it's just that he doesn't express them the way Stefan might like. Well, that and he shuts them off a lot of the time because he'd rather not deal with them.
I like that this show does show the aftermath of a vampire attack, both the body count and the survivors. It's not pretty and they have never shied away from that.
Another thing you point out that I agree with is the moment where Damon begins to see Elena as more than somebody he could seduce and play with to annoy Stefan. He has already been noticing things about her, but when she shows compassion for somebody she barely knows and is honest about it, you *see* it hit Damon. Then we get that lovely moment where he is watching her sleep, and remember this is after she slapped him.
Damon really does think that standing up to him is a sign of worthiness, see Alaric later, and Jeremy to some degree - although Jeremy is still a puppy to be swatted most of the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 07:20 pm (UTC)It's a little frustrating, because I'm going, "Man, Stefan, you are so close to understanding Damon! So close."
I like that this show does show the aftermath of a vampire attack, both the body count and the survivors. It's not pretty and they have never shied away from that.
Yeah, I definitely enjoy that about the show.
Damon really does think that standing up to him is a sign of worthiness, see Alaric later, and Jeremy to some degree - although Jeremy is still a puppy to be swatted most of the time.
He really does. I think he needs that in order to respect someone - they have to be someone that he can't intimidate to back down.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 09:05 pm (UTC)In Damon's case, he doesn't care about gender, it's whether or not a person is able to handle themselves. If they can't, then they aren't worth his time.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 02:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 07:21 pm (UTC)