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butterflyIt's morning and Stefan is checking in on Damon, who has regained consciousness. Stefan took away Damon's daywalker ring because he "won't be needing it any more" and probably also as a bit of insurance, just in case. Damon's been knocked out for three days.
Damon wants to know why Stefan is doing this. Stefan decides to give a speech about vampires in the Middle Ages and how they punished vampires that were planning to 'expose or destroy the entire race' and... Stefan, honey, not sure how this is relevant. Given that Damon had actually provided an excuse for the killings in the last episode and didn't seem poised to try to expose anyone. Stop bs'ing with history lessons and just tell him that you're pissed off he's killing people and you want to teach him a lesson (he sort of sidles into that point at the very end "you won't be able to hurt anyone" but the history lesson really isn't to that point, Stefan).
You know, Damon mentioned last week that Stefan went to Harvard in the '70s. Does Harvard have a major in history?
"Once your circulation stops" Stefan mentions, while he's describing the dessication that Damon is going to go through as a result of not drinking blood, so there is an implication of a heartbeat/pulse even as far back as this, though I don't know if anyone says flat-out that vampires have heartbeats until Katherine in S2.
"In fifty years, we can re-evaluate."
"I'm stronger than you think."
"You always have been, but you're not stronger than the vervain and we both know it."
Wrong, Stefan! Underestimating him even when you think that you're accounting for all the factors.
Stefan doesn't mean to underestimate his brother but he does do it consistently. Damon underestimates Stefan on occasion, too, but not as often, I don't think. Stefan thinks that Damon is still caught up on Katherine by the time we've gotten to 2x06 when Damon lit that emotional corpse on fire in 2x01. He underestimates the strength of Damon's feelings for Elena, too (being surprised that Damon is joining him to save Elena in 2x08). It's part of the way that he never quite seems to be able to understand Damon.
In this case, he underestimates Damon's persistence and will-to-live and also underestimates Damon's hold on Caroline. Part of that might stem from the fact that he doesn't know that Damon has a goal beyond tormenting him - he doesn't know how close Damon thinks he is to getting Katherine back. Love fuels Damon - whether it's love for Katherine pushing him to desperate measures to free her, love for Stefan turning to hate and pain making him want to punish his brother, or his love for Elena, which has taken him all over the spectrum and is currently making him his 'best self' (to steal a quote of his completely out of context).
We don't know why Stefan went off the human blood (he gives his reason to Caroline as basically being 'I was the most empathetic and awesome person ever, so being a vampire magnified my magnificence and I decided to drink animal blood instead of human because that is just how great a person I am, was, and will ever be' but... I find that explanation somewhat biased, though it did amuse me). We don't know what precipitated his current streak of animal blood only, just that it obviously wasn't Elena (Stefan talking in... Blood Brothers?... about how he found something else to live for makes me want to go on screen and ask him - what? What was it? This is an essential key to your character, Stefan, and I want to know the answer!) since it happened years before he met her. I really want Stefan to talk about the catalyst(s) that led to him deciding not to drink human blood. With flashbacks. I don't think this is an unreasonable desire. Again, we have Damon making his choices right in front of us, while Stefan has already made his choices back in the past where we can't see them.
I just wish that I had as much insight into Stefan's inner workings as I do Damon's.
Elena thinks about writing in her diary, but ultimately doesn't. When she goes to the bathroom, she finds Vicky there, brushing her teeth. So, Vicky and Jeremy have been together for three days and she's spending some nights over. Elena closes the bathroom door again, and Vicky goes back out to Jeremy's bedroom, where she and Jeremy roll around in bed some more. Elena is wearing this really cute dress with a moss-green top and a dark blue skirt and I just really like the way it looks on her. Elena goes to check Jenna on the situation but Jenna already knows and is just amused by it. Jenna herself has a date with Logan - I feel bad for her about this because I think he was... somewhat honest about wanting to try things out with her again, but when the Gilbert pocketwatch wasn't in the Heritage stuff, it was easy for him to betray those feelings and be willing to use Jenna as a way to get into the Gilbert house to look for the watch. Poor Jenna. So many supernatural undercurrents all around her at all times, but no one is willing to clue her in on them.
Stefan left Elena a message, but she hasn't seen him. So... I guess Stefan was hanging around the boarding house, giving Damon vervain every few hours until he decided that Damon was weak enough to trust Zach with the locked door (as it turns out, he probably should have kept that up until Damon was actually beginning to dessicate). Elena's impersonation of Stefan is very amusing.
"I'm not going to be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy."
I do wonder exactly how much Elena told Jenna. She obviously knows that Elena and Stefan broke up (hmm, a new potential statistic. I'm going to add that one). Does she know about Damon's mistreatment of Caroline? I don't think she's ever said anything that implied that she knows about that (you'd think she would mention it when she saw the Damon/'Elena' kiss if that were the case - 'what if he hurts you like he did Caroline?').
Stefan puts Zach in charge of Damon-sitting, making sure to warn him to stay out of the basement. Zach is baffled that Stefan is going to school at a time like this. As this episode shows, Zach was right to worry when Stefan isn't there. If Stefan had stayed in the boarding house until Damon had dessicated, Zach might not have died. And Damon might have stayed locked up. The whole series would be different!
"Why haven't you called her?"
"What am I supposed to do, feed her another lie?"
Well, you could say that you're dealing with your brother so that he hopefully won't be a problem for Caroline anymore. That would actually be the truth. And it's what gets said anyway.
"I hate lying to her, Zach. She already thinks I'm hiding something."
Stefan. Sweetie. You are hiding something. Elena is exhibiting 'perceptiveness'. Zach reminds Stefan that if he genuinely does want to live a 'normal' life, it will involve lying.
Caroline and Bonnie are talking about Damon and him possibly biting Caroline and maybe she let him but she's having a hard time remembering. Caroline announces that she doesn't want to talk about Damon anymore - she wants things to go back to normal. During the conversation, Bonnie is staring at a candle wick, trying to light it with her mind. She notices the crystal and picks up the chain, asking Caroline about it. Caroline can't quite remember if Damon gave it to her or not, but says that it's hers now.
Caroline is throwing herself into the latest school event - the 'sexy suds' car wash - while Bonnie and Elena watch her and marvel/boggle over how she appears to be 'over' her trauma already. Stefan comes up and says 'hi' and Bonnie makes herself scare so that Elena can talk to him.
And now he tells Elena that the reason he was MIA was because he was 'dealing with Damon'. See? Could have told her that over the phone days ago and saved yourself a bit of grief.
"You have every right to be upset with me but can I explain it all to you, please?"
This is one of the other things that bothers me about Stefan. He keeps telling Elena that he's going to explain 'everything' but it turns out that he translates 'everything' to 'as little as possible'. Stefan makes a plan with Elena to meet her at the Grill.
Caroline comes up to ask Stefan about Damon and it is such a sad little moment.
"Stefan, where's Damon? He has some serious apologizing to do."
"He's gone, Caroline."
"When's he coming back?"
"He's not coming back. I'm sorry."
After school, Elena is looking for Stefan. Matt is there, playing pool, and he invites her to join him while she waits.
Over at the Salvatore place, Zach hears Damon coughing and... gets concerned and goes to check on him? Zach! Come on! Damon is dangerous. Zach warns Damon that he's full of vervain and it won't help Damon to feed on Zach. Damon seems moderately impressed by the news that Zach's been secretly growing vervain.
"Family only runs so deep."
"We're not family, Damon. Only in the most dysfunctional sense. In fact, I've avoided having a living, breathing, loving family because of you."
"I don't guess I could talk you into bringing me a rabbit or something. I'd settle for Stefan's diet at this point."
"You know I can't do that."
"You succeeded, Zach. I'm shutting down. You're like your grandfather. He didn't like it when I came to visit, either."
"But you don't visit, Damon. You appear. Unannounced. Reminding me that this isn't my house, that you're just... permitting me to live here. Hell, that you're permitting me to live."
"Someone had to mow the lawn."
"I came to say goodbye, Damon."
I love this whole scene. Zach's bitterness and resignation over his decision not to have a family or a life. The way that Damon can keep cracking jokes (though there was probably an element of truth in there). The casual way Damon talks about Zach's grandfather, showing his age in a very natural way. It's interesting, though because... Zach didn't have to stay in Mystic Falls and let his life be dictated to by Damon's whims. He could have moved away. He chose to stay, chose to keep up the house.
Damon zooms over to the window in the door to grab Zach by the throat, not anywhere near as weak as he's been pretending to be. Luckily for Zach, Stefan arrives in time to save him (this time).
Elena and Matt are chatting about how Vicky and Jeremy are hooking up. "It's weird," says Matt. It's been an hour since Stefan said he would be there. Seriously, why not set up a later time, Stefan? Four o'clock seemed to be cutting it close, even just for zipping back home and then zipping over. Six or seven would have been a better idea. Elena doesn't initially want to talk about her Stefan issues with Matt, but he guilts her into it. Matt's advice to Elena is that she should talk to Stefan.
And guess who appears just then! How convenient. Matt leaves Stefan and Elena alone to talk. When Elena tries asking him questions, he stonewalls her. Must be even more annoying after he told her that he would tell her 'everything'.
"What is so awful that you're afraid to tell me?" Elena asks, and then their conversation is interrupted by an older man recognizing Stefan. Stefan quickly offers to take Elena home so that they can avoid the person saying that Stefan "hasn't aged a day". Elena gets annoyed by all of Stefan's evasions and leaves without him.
Sheriff Forbes reports to Logan Fell that the vampire(s) do not appear to be in a cavern by the west side of the lake, or an abandoned building or warehouse. The only place the vampire could be staying is in a public residence, which will make him/her hard to find. Logan reports back that he's working on getting the watch but no joy yet. She tells him that Jeremy might be the key to finding the watch (knowing that it was passed down along the male line).
Jeremy lets Stefan in to cook dinner for Elena because his own currently successful romance with Vicky has made him want to help along his sister's love life as well.
"I figure if you're going to dump me, you should at least know who you're dumping."
Ah, another promise of disclosure and honesty.
Stefan's description of Katherine: "She was... the most beautiful girl that I had ever met. She had this perfect olive skin and she had this laugh. It was... ridiculous. I mean, her laugh made you laugh. And she was fun. She knew how to have a good time. But Katherine was also very impatient, entitled, and selfish and... impulsive. As for Damon... he claims he was with her first. I don't know. I do know that I did some things that I'm not proud of and my biggest regret is not being able to make it right before she died. I miss her but... I'm no longer crippled by her loss."
Those are not the words of someone who never genuinely loved Katherine. Stefan was lying so hard in S2 when he told Katherine that he never loved her. Are they ever going to deal with that or does the show consider it irrelevant? Again, we didn't get to see Stefan's process. And, again, stalking the girl who looks like Katherine and deciding to build a life with her before you've ever actually met her face-to-face does not go along very well with Katherine not being a driving emotional force. Also again, Stefan is leaving out some incredibly vital information here - Elena looks like Katherine. That is 'game changing' information that he knows is going to potentially freak Elena out, so he skips it. And I understand why he does, but it's horribly unfair to Elena.
Jeremy is happy - Vicky is with him and that's awesome! And when one of her concerns is getting high, he's not as into as he was when he was using the drugs to cope with his grief. Vicky warns him not to be one of those guys who tries to change her and he accepts that, but you can see him thinking.
So, I'd thought that the 'epic' Stefan/Elena talk might have been about books or something, but Stefan is letting her know his preferences now. And now I'm at a loss. What did they talk about for hours that managed to give Elena no info on Stefan at all? What about this conversation was 'epic'? I hate being asked to accept things without evidence.
Stefan loves "The Great Gatsby" (I'm not a fan), Grisham, Seinfeld ('best American television show for the last fifty years' Stefan says. 'Overrated', I say), I Love Lucy (best American television show 'of all time'. I enjoyed it when it had reruns but would not go that far), Scorsese (namechecks 'Taxi Driver'), Dylan, Hendrix, Patsy, Kayne, and one Miley Cyrus song. We also learn that garlic doesn't bother TVD vampires.
Elena cuts her hand while chopping the garlic - Stefan gets a little of her blood on his hand and it makes him go veiny - which Elena catches a glimpse of in his reflection from the window. After he finally turns back to her, face normal, Elena decides to kiss him. That was a short-lived breakup. He dished about Katherine and told her a few of his favorite things (and 'took care of Damon'), so Elena decides to trust him again.
Damon, in the cell, begins to call out to Caroline. A vision of him even appears to her in her room (she's talking on the phone about the 'sexy suds' car wash). But she manages to dismiss it.
Stefan goes to check on Damon in the cell.
"You won. You got the bad guy. Now nothing can come between you and Elena. Except the truth. The lies will catch up to you, Stefan, long as you keep lying to yourself about what you are."
"The beauty of you in there and me out here is that I can walk away."
This reminds me a little of what Damon says to Elena in "The Return" - "And worst of all, you're lying to yourself."
Stefan being able to tame himself into being a house vampire doesn't take away any of the predator instincts that he has. Though it seems like he may be integrating those into his personality in S2 (maybe post-"Miss Mystic Falls"). That's something that I want to think about some more.
It's the day of the 'sexy suds' car wash and Elena is taking money. Stefan walks up and he and Elena all 'hey' to each other, Stefan rubbing her arm. Caroline tells them that they need to strip a bit more for the Sexy Suds car wash. Stefan does not go shirtless. Elena takes off one shirt but leaves the other one on. They kiss and entwine fingers and Bonnie chides Matt for staring. "None of that tortured pining stuff," she instructs.
One of the other girls (Tiki) is rude to a customer and Bonnie gets offended on his behalf. Her powers let her soak Tiki in soapy water.
When Caroline goes alone into the empty school building, Damon starts calling to her again.
Elena sees the man from yesterday (who we learn is Tiki's grandfather) and he tells her about seeing Stefan - early June, 1953. I wonder if the 'Uncle Joseph' who was killed by a wild animal attack is Zach's grandfather, the one that Damon said he was like. In which case, it sounds like Damon killed him.
Vicky takes Jeremy to meet her other friends (3 of them), who like to hang out in the old part of the cemetery and get high.
Elena has figured out a potential way to get the info she needs, so she asks Logan to help her find old news stories - he gives her permission and takes her down to the station in exchange for dinner at the Gilbert house.
Caroline, under Damon's power now, makes her way into the Salvatore boarding house. She unlocks the door before Zach can stop her, and he tells her to run while he tries to hold the door shut with just his own strength. Damon yanks the door open and breaks Zach's neck. His blood is full of vervain, so Damon can't drink him - he chases after Caroline, but he's weak enough not to have his super-speed and she makes it out into the sunlight, where she's safe.
Bonnie tries evaporating some water with her mind, but she ends up lighting it on fire instead. She seems almost in a trance until Stefan shakes her out of it. She asks Stefan to keep the secret of her powers, quietly freaks a little, and runs off.
Jeremy is getting used to the 'stoned in a cemetery' thing but when Vicky reveals that she snagged his sister's old pain meds, he gets pissed, takes them back, and walks off. Vicky follows him and they fight about her future - she can't see herself ever being more than a 'waste of space small-town lifer'. She goes back to her friends and he leaves.
Matt gives Stefan some advice about Elena: "She's big on trust so, whatever you're holding back from her, the more you try to hide it, the more she won't stop until she figures it out."
Indeed, Elena is investigating even as we speak - she's found the old b&w news spot from 1953, where Stefan is visible in the background.
Liz Forbes comes home to find her daughter, Caroline, lying miserable on her bed in the dark. Liz tries to reach out and Caroline rebuffs her. Caroline gives Damon's crystal one last look before going to bed. The audience can see that the moon shining through the crystal shows a pentagram.
Stefan go back to the boarding house and finds Damon's crow on the carpet, drained. He calls for Zach, rushes downstairs, and finds Zach's body.
Bonnie goes to her Grandma's house to confess that she doesn't know what's happening (with her powers), and her Grams welcomes her in with a hug.
At the Gilbert house, Logan is finding and taking the pocketwatch from Jeremy's room.
The stoner group is still hanging out at the cemetery, drinking. Vicky goes to put the music back on and Damon is there, coughing and leaning heavily onto the truck. He asks her to come over and she does and when she gets close enough, he bites her.
Elena is working through her normal view of the world and coming to terms with the fact that she's in a universe where something seriously hinky is going on. "No magic, no mysticism, no immortality." Except, in her universe, those things all exist. "Someone who never grows old. Never gets hurt. Someone who changes in ways that can't be explained. Girls bitten. Bodies drained of blood."
Stefan grabs a stake, possibly actually prepared to kill Damon (eh, I don't think he'd have managed it - emotionally speaking. He's really pissed off, though), but when he opens his front door, Elena is there.
1. Damon breaks Zach's neck.
Damon's current kill count: 6
I'm not counting Damon's crow.
1. Vicky. Again. By Damon.
Damon's current bite count: 10
1. Damon does a long-distance thing with Caroline to get her to free him. I don't think we've seen anyone do it since.
Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 6
1. Bonnie and Elena share a moment of confusion over how quickly Caroline has returned to normal.
2. Caroline instructs Elena on taking money for the 'sexy suds' carwash.
3. Elena tells Caroline that they're out of towels, Caroline leaves the money with her and goes off to find more.
4. Tiki instructs Bonnie to clean up the pavement, post-car wash.
5. Bonnie goes to her Grams to try to find answers.
Together: "Night of the Comet" - "Family Ties" (3 episodes; less than a week)
1st Breakup: "Family Ties" - "You're Undead to Me" (4 days)
1st Reunion: "You're Undead to Me" - (1 day-)
Stefan tells us at the beginning of the episode that Damon has been locked up for three days.
I think it's the next day that Stefan goes to the school, because Elena snarks about him 'dealing with Damon' for four days. Damon tries to escape via Zach, and Elena and Stefan get back together.
The next day is the 'sexy suds' car wash, and the night that Elena goes to confront Stefen re: being a vampire.
Time covered: 5 days/5 nights
Total time; pilot-FNB: 6 days/7 nights
Total time; FT-: 7 days/7 nights
Only random background people during the 'sexy suds' car wash.
None.