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butterflyWe open on what appears to be a creepy scene in Elena's house, where she sees an eerie news spot about how she was killed by the 'mysterious animal' stalking Mystic Falls. Damon is there, in the house, stalking her. She gets a bit whimpery and generally acts much more like a stereotypical victim than Elena ever actually acts, so it isn't too much of a surprise when the reveal comes that it's a Damon-influenced dream of Stefan's.
We find out that Stefan's dreams aren't hard for Damon to influence because the animal blood diet that he's on makes him weak. Damon snarkily refers back to his murder of Tanner, and gets a knife in the chest for it (he doesn't even flinch). Damon is also there to announce to Stefan that he set up a mountain lion to take the fall for the 'animal attack' deaths, which is a sideways way of announcing that he doesn't plan on killing the way that he's been since the start of the series (this makes me wonder if his attack on Caroline at the end was just impulsive or if he was never planning on draining her all the way - or if he hadn't been sure he'd be able to get the crystal that night, but once he had it, he didn't care about keeping a low-profile anymore).
Damon says that it's because he's planning on staying in Mystic Falls for a while, for the purpose of bothering Stefan and Elena. Damon taunts Stefan about the possibility of him seducing Elena the old-fashioned, non-compelled way, and then returns Stefan's knife. By way of stabbing him with it. We can really see how much weaker Stefan is than Damon, here, because Stefan immediately and painfully responds to being stabbed.
Damon calls Stefan 'dude'. It makes me wonder if he's been watching movies with Caroline (I don't know; she just seems like someone who would watch movies where people are called 'dude'. and we know that he's been reading her books). Stefan frets over what to do about Damon.
Meanwhile, over at the Gilbert house, Jenna is watching the news and commenting on the reporter, Logan 'Scum' Fell, who is the reason that she moved away from Mystic Falls in the first place. Elena has taken out some family heirlooms and is polishing them up so that they can be loaned to the Founders' Council for the Heritage display. Jeremy objects because, for him, they're the family stuff and shouldn't be leaving the Gilberts and what's this stupid 'loan' stuff anyway? This points out another place where Jenna gets left out - she's not a member of a founding family. She doesn't get to know the secret stuff. With Jeremy and Elena, I think that the implication is that they would have been told when they got old enough (like Mason Lockwood did), but Jenna is shut out. There's a focus on family lines in general - witch and werewolf traits appear to be genetic, and the vampire hunting information is passed down from parent to child (and the whole Petrova doppelgänger thing is also genetically linked). I think it's interesting that there's no indication so far that werewolfism is contagious the way that vampirism is (in many canons, the werewolf condition is also passed along by the bite). Vampires are the big, bloody exception in TVD universe. They create their own new 'blood lines'.
Stefan shows up at Elena's doorstep and she pulls him into the house for some kissing. And then they go upstairs. So, I'm going to guess that it isn't a school day. They actually do start to get hot and heavy, but then Stefan looks up into her mirror and realizing that getting that close to Elena is making him go all veiny in the eye-region, so he backs off. After a moment of reflection, Elena suggests a pause (thinking, I guess, that it was all too overwhelming for Stefan. Which is true, but not for the reason that she might think). Elena asks Stefan to be her date to the Founders' Party (not to be confused with the entire month of celebrations leading up to Founders' Day that we'll have later).
"They still do that?"
"Have you been before?"
"No... the Salvatores don't get invited anymore."
After the whole vampire incident in 1864, I wouldn't be surprised if the people involved were very down on informally inviting anyone anywhere. Just in case.
Elena mentions that her mom was "really involved in the Founders' Council". Which, as we learn later, was also something of a 'watch out for potential vampire activity' council. Man, I would love a flashback to Elena's mom on the council. Even if they didn't really need to do anything useful at that time, because there wasn't vampire activity.
Anyway, Stefan accepts her invitation with a slip back into his 1864-era manners and Elena accepts, with an amused smile at his formality.
Over at Caroline's place... where her mom is the sheriff and on the Founders' Council and hasn't realized that her daughter has been compelled into having a vampire over. Oh, Caroline's mom. Give her some damn vervain.
Anyway, Caroline is modeling a dress for Damon. It's this weird shoulderless yellow thing that makes her look like a cake decoration. Damon just objects to the color. No yellow, he says, he prefers blue. Caroline says that she isn't even planning on taking him - her mom is a 'proud gun owner' (who is apparently never home). Damon, having figured out that this party is where he can get the crystal, compels Caroline into taking him.
"What's so special about this Bella girl? Everyone's so whipped."
"You gotta read the first book first. It won't make sense if you don't."
Caroline has a casual awareness of Damon as a vampire here. I'm guessing Damon did something similar to the compulsion that Stefan puts on Amber in "Miss Mystic Falls" not to be afraid of him (and what Katherine did to Stefan). The behavior of the compelled person seems pretty similar to me, accounting for the personality differences of the people in question.
Because of the murder of Tanner, the football is also screwed (which means that Matt's chances of getting out of the town via a scholarship have been sunk).
Tyler is eating at the Mystic Grill with his parents. This is the scene where we find out that his father is the Mayor. We also see the way he behaves with Vicky when his parents are around - he's barely willing to meet her eyes.
Bonnie and Caroline come into the Grill, with Bonnie a bit miffed that Caroline asked Damon to the Founders' Party - she thought Caroline was going to ask her. Bonnie calls Damon 'older, sexy danger guy', which makes me laugh. But Caroline's real point in this conversation is to spread the 'inside info' from Damon about Stefan - in the hopes that Bonnie will relay said info to Elena, thus disrupting the Stefan/Elena relationship.
Back in the Salvatore mansion, Zach comes across Damon, who is critiquing the low bar expected of Stefan's homework. Hey, Damon, at least that means he should be getting straight As. Perhaps you can post some essays of his up on the refrigerator door! We learn that in the '70s, Stefan went to Harvard. I wonder what he majored in.
Zach tries to confront Damon about why he's there. Damon speeds over and grabs Zach by the throat. Zach backs down ("I didn't mean to upset you.") as many people certainly would if being held up by the throat by a known killer. Damon drops him when Stefan comes into the room, and Damon leaves after one last quip. Zach isn't too happy about the fact that Stefan isn't doing anything to stop Damon from being... Damon all over the place.
Stefan: "Are you all right?"
Zach: "No. I'm not. And neither are you. How many more people have to die before you see that?"
"I see it, Zach. I see it."
"Then why aren't you doing anything about it?"
"I can't, Zach. I can't. It would take human blood... that's the only way I could stop him. But I won't do that."
But what Stefan doesn't know (and that Zach now reveals to him) is Zach (and the Salvatore line before him) has been growing vervain in secret for years. So, I'm kinda curious about the Salvatore line. Who were the surviving Salvatores? Cousins to Stefan and Damon?
"Blood only runs so deep when you're related to vampires."
Zach wants to get rid of Damon very badly, enough so that he's willing to trust his other vampire relative with the secret of the hidden vervain in order that Stefan might be able to use it to weaken Damon enough to 'stop' him.
Tyler comes to pick up the items from Elena's for the Heritage display - he and Jeremy snap and each other and Elena warns them both to cool it down.
"Delicate flower versus Naughty Vixen?"
"Tough call. Can we mix them?"
Bonnie is over at Elena's to help her get ready for the party - and to help pass along the information that Damon told Caroline to tell Bonnie so that she would tell Elena (it's like we're playing a game of telephone). The main thrust of the point Bonnie makes is that Elena doesn't know Stefan well enough to trust him.
Stefan and Damon are getting ready for the Founders' Party - Stefan is very obviously drinking and Damon finds it so out of character that he remarks on it. Damon goes over to get a drink and checks out Katherine's picture, laying around on top of the table in Stefan's room. Things like this make it hard for me to believe that Stefan has, at this point, separated from his feelings for Katherine. I feel like it's a case of tell vs show. With Damon, we are being shown all his steps through his emotional (and moral) journey, painful and ugly as some of them might be. With Stefan, we're mostly being told that it happened. Showing is more emotionally powerful than telling.
Anyway, Damon had caught on to Stefan's obvious 'vervain in his booze' ruse, but he didn't catch on to Stefan wanting him to catch on, so Stefan is still a step ahead.
At the party (which is at the Lockwood house), the Lockwoods feel secure enough in the fact that it's daylight that they're inviting people in (we actually learn than that they used the fact that people came to the party during the day in order to check them off the 'potential vampire' list). It's interesting that they made that mistake, considering that the original 1864 vampires were able to walk around in the day, yet they don't know that.
When Tyler spots Vicky, he quickly breaks away from his parents so that he can take her around the back. Ouch. He really is basically treating her like she's an embarrassment.
At the party, Damon sees Elena and Stefan share a casually affectionate moment and he looks away. This night, I do think that he was thinking back to Katherine and 1864, and how it felt to have Stefan be her escort. He knows that what he's doing tonight is bringing him a significant step closer to Katherine - I wonder if he's worried at all about Katherine wanting Stefan, too, or if he thinks being her white knight and 'saving' her from the tomb will earn him her exclusive love.
Elena finds the original guest registry for the first Founders' Ball hanging up on the wall and reads the names. It's interesting how it betrays a classism and a hereditary nature to the town - the original mayor was a Lockwood and the original sheriff was a Forbes, just like now. Then she notices Damon's name and, right above his, Stefan's.
"The original Salvatore brothers. Our ancestors. A tragic story, really."
"We don't need to bore them with the past."
"It's not boring, Stefan. I'd love to hear more about your family."
Caroline gets Stefan out of the way by asking him to dance and refusing to take 'no' for an answer. I suspect a specific compulsion, because it's exactly what Damon would want her to do. Stefan is fine with it, because it gives him the chance to give Caroline a glass spiked with vervain.
The first thing that Damon does when he has Elena alone is apologize for the attempted kiss. Then he gives her a somewhat modified history of what happened in the church, mostly in a way to showcase his own romantic sensibilities and to come across as a more sympathetic party.
"Look, I'm sorry that you and Stefan have this thing between you, but I can't get in the middle of it, Damon. I just... I hope you two can work it out."
"I hope so, too."
After that, Damon and Elena head back out and meet up with Stefan and Caroline, and it's Elena and Stefan's turn to dance. Damon watches them - Katherine is definitely on his mind tonight (because of the crystal and because of what night it is), and seeing Stefan dancing with a girl that does look just like her is, I'm sure, somewhat painful for him.
While Stefan and Elena are dancing, he tries to feel out what Damon wanted to talk to her about - she says that he was 'on good behavior'. Elena tells Stefan that he can tell her about Katherine, that it would be okay. Elena wants Stefan to open up and share with her. Stefan immediately shifts the blame to Damon 'playing games' and... yes, Damon is trying to get Elena to ask questions. But Elena is the person who is interested in knowing the answers. If she weren't curious on her own account, then it wouldn't matter what sort of hints Damon left lying around.
"This isn't about Damon. This is about me trying to know you."
I don't know how long Elena and Stefan have been dating at this point. We may have just had a time jump; can't be entirely sure. However there's a lot of stuff that Stefan could tell her without even touching the vampire issue. But he's guarding himself very closely and secretly and Elena can tell. Would she have gotten annoyed with it if Damon hadn't guided the issue? I don't know. He might have just accelerated the process.
Bonnie and Elena are both feeling guilty - Bonnie for planting doubt, and Elena for jumping on Stefan. Damon finally retrieves his crystal. Bonnie learns that she can make fire with her mind.
Elena and Caroline are in the restroom together, at the mirror. Caroline tries to figure out how things are going with Elena and Stefan when Elena notices the marks showing under Caroline's scarf. She tugs the scarf down and finds the bite mark - then she finds another one on Caroline's back, under her shawl and leaps to the (correct) conclusion that Damon left them.
She immediately goes to Damon, pushes him back, and warns him away from Caroline. Fierce, I tell you.
After that, she finds Stefan and apologizes to him, says that he was right about Damon, but then she's taken back when he isn't surprised at what Damon's done to Caroline. Stefan tells Elena that there's a lot he wants to tell her, but he may never be able to, and she just needs to trust him. I love her response - "Trust is earned. I can't just magically hand it over."
But before they can continue their conversation, Stefan sees Damon hustling Caroline away from the main party and he walks away (and doesn't give her a reason why).
This conversation with Caroline and Damon is also very chilling. She's scared and apologetic and he's just... he's scary because he's being smooth and almost sweet and yet preparing to kill her. And the music ("I'm a believer now") adds another element of creepiness.
Luckily for Caroline, Stefan spiked her drink with vervain, so it's Damon who gets the nasty surprise. Caroline wakes up on the lawn alone and finds the crystal. She doesn't know what it's for, but it was important to Damon, so she keeps it. Elena finds her and asks her if she's okay. Caroline says that she's fine, but she's shaking and sounds near tears and Elena hugs her.
Stefan locks Damon up in the prison cell filled with vervain plants while Zach watches and the episode ends on the vampire hunters meeting, but both of those things are explored in more detail in later episodes, so I'm going to share my thoughts then.
No death in this episode.
Damon's current kill count: 5
1. Damon bites Caroline - her drink was spiked with vervain, so he doesn't get much.
Damon's current bite count: 9
1. Damon compels Caroline into taking him to the Founders' Ball. He probably also compels her at some point to ask Stefan to dance so that Damon can speak to Elena alone, but I'm not sure if that should count as a separate compulsion. It's all related to the same event/purpose.
Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 5
1. Mrs. Lockwood asks Elena about the pocketwatch and Elena lies and says that it must still be packed away.
2. Elena gives Caroline a shoulder to cry on at the end of the episode.
We have a potential time leap. No cliffhanger at the end of the last episode, so it's possible that this takes place several days after "Friday Night Bites" (that might be why Damon decided to set up the mountain lion - if he's been in town a while and has yet to find a way to get the box with the crystal).
Damon wakes Stefan up, Elena invites Stefan to the Founders' Party the next night.
Day/Night of the Founders' Party.
Time covered: 2 days/2 nights
Total time; pilot-FNB: 6 days/7 nights
Total time; FT-: 2 days/2night
1. Damon, while getting ready for the Founders' Party.
None.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-06 11:55 pm (UTC)Yes, there were vampires, and what worked last time? SPIKING THE WATER/PERFUME. Not checking to see 'who can walk around during the day.' Surely there are people on the council whose ancestors kept better records - or those records were destroyed by Katherine and/or Damon after the fact, as Damon made sure that there wasn't any vervain growing openly in Mystic Falls.
With Caroline Damon managed to be very terrifying, and a lot of that was due to the fact that he was be so gentle with her. *shivers* He really is a predator, even if people forget about it at times.
I thought it was interesting that Stefan chose to spike Caroline's drink, as that was what his father did in order to catch Katherine, and he had to know EXACTLY what memories that would bring back for Damon.
There was a music vid done to the 'Back in Time' song which is also very fitting for Caroline and Damon.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-07 12:41 am (UTC)That's an interesting idea. We know that Damon would have needed to come back to check on the Bennett line from time to time because of his promise to Emily, so he may have also checked on their current level of vampire-knowledge. The main players are all from the same families as back then, so it might not be too hard. Memory passed down through the generations might get distorted, but Damon's is going to remain clear. Especially if the founding families were all keeping secrets from each other - Papa Salvatore asked Gilbert to fudge the records to keep his boys from looking like traitors, if I recall correctly, so the true story (as much as they knew it) might have only been in Gilbert's secret journals that were passed down along the Gilbert line. And the Lockwoods weren't telling anyone they were werewolves.
With Caroline Damon managed to be very terrifying, and a lot of that was due to the fact that he was be so gentle with her. *shivers* He really is a predator, even if people forget about it at times.
Yeah, he doesn't kill anyone in this episode, but it contains some of his most chilling moments.
I thought it was interesting that Stefan chose to spike Caroline's drink, as that was what his father did in order to catch Katherine, and he had to know EXACTLY what memories that would bring back for Damon.
Stefan following the footsteps of their father - not something likely to endear Damon to him.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-07 01:55 am (UTC)And we see a few episodes later EXACTLY what he thinks the townspeople deserve - the bit about them lying and saying it was a 'war battle'? Just the way he phrases it speaks not only to his bitterness and anger about what happened to Katherine, but also the others, and he is a veteran of that war and is entitled to have opinions about the way history (or the people of Mystic Falls) choose to pass down history.
Damon knows better and he'd rather somebody know a hard truth than lie to themselves. (Although he'd rather that Katherine actually cared, he was able to recover fairly quickly - he adjusts to changes and survives, it's part of what makes him who he is.)
And the Founding Families kept things from each other - which to Damon would mean that they deserve whatever happens to them. Ignorance isn't bliss, it leaves you vulnerable, and I can definitely see Damon checking up on the Bennetts and also ensuring that the Founding Families stayed as ignorant as he could make them.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-07 05:59 pm (UTC)And while I'm at it, aren't they celebrating the 150th anniversary of the town's founding, which would put it at 1860 (or 59, I guess.) But doesn't Stefan say he was born in Mystic Falls? I think I'm going to have to rewatch S1 again. Oh, noes.
Also, I love that you're counting Bechdel moments, but does this one count: Elena gives Caroline a shoulder to cry on at the end of the episode since she's crying over being mistreated by a man? Or almost killed, but still, because of a man?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-07 08:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's like the most stratified class-system in all of America - you can't just not move up or down, you can't even move sideways.
And while I'm at it, aren't they celebrating the 150th anniversary of the town's founding, which would put it at 1860 (or 59, I guess.) But doesn't Stefan say he was born in Mystic Falls? I think I'm going to have to rewatch S1 again. Oh, noes.
Oh, I can answer that - it wasn't an official town before, probably. It wasn't legal, with all the forms and whatnot.
Also, I love that you're counting Bechdel moments, but does this one count: Elena gives Caroline a shoulder to cry on at the end of the episode since she's crying over being mistreated by a man? Or almost killed, but still, because of a man?
Yeah, that moment is probably debatable. They don't talk about Damon but he's the reason that Caroline is so upset.The discussion is all about Caroline's emotional state without delving into the reasons why, so I counted it, but I can see why others wouldn't.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-07 08:56 pm (UTC)I guess that makes sense. It would have to be something like that, because there's no way a town that populated and developed was only recently established.