![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Vampire Diaries: 1x09 - History Repeating (spoilers through 2x11)
Bonnie is in class, yawning. She turns her head and sees a form pass by the door. Curious, she gets up and slips out of the classroom - I'd already guessed at this point in the first viewing that it had to be a dream, because the teacher doesn't notice her leaving. When she gets out to the hallway, it's dark and she sees that figure (it's Emily Bennett) pass again, and she follows.
Emily is waiting for her past a bank of lockers. Their eyes meet and then Emily turns and walks outside. When Bonnie follows her, they're in the woods. Emily leads her to the site of the old church (from 1864).
"This is where it started. And this is where it has to end."
First, she appears to wake and is back in the classroom, but then she wakes again and she's in the forest, at the site of the old Salvatore crypt, in her pjs and bare feet. Pretty freaky for poor Bonnie.
So, let's talk about Emily. Katherine saved her life - in return, Emily helped her out with the daywalker rings, and she put a plan in place to save Katherine & the others as per Damon's wishes (though she didn't tell him she's succeeded until after he'd made it through the transition). It's interesting... Emily saves the tomb vampires; Lucy helps Katherine get the moonstone, but they're quite good at working out the other side - Emily destroyed the crystal rather than let the tomb vamps out; Lucy worked something into the moonstone to incapacitate Katherine. And, of course, all the time that Emily was helping Katherine, she was also helping John Gilbert with his inventions. Making the best out of bad situations? Playing both sides (in order to protect the family line)?
Elena and Caroline are talking about how Caroline is mad at Bonnie. Elena suggests that Caroline make the first move and Caroline is all, 'yeah, whatever', at that idea. Caroline calls Bonnie 'a thief' and is still mad about the necklace. They finish that conversation and move on to Elena's relationship with Stefan, who is avoiding her.
Matt and Caroline say 'hey' to each other. Caroline is disappointed that this is the extent of their conversation. Elena and then Bonnie hurry into class and take their seats and it's the introduction of Alaric! Hey, Alaric!
Bonnie looks exhausted and Elena is obviously worried about her. She's very sweet.
He's their new history teacher and they have permission to call him 'Ric'. I'm glad he's here! I missed him. I hope we get more Alaric in the back half of S2. He hasn't gotten to do much recently.
"Rise and shine! You're late for school!"
Damon wakes Stefan up with cheerfulness and coffee (a 'peace offering'). He tells Stefan that he's sorry about killing Lexi (but that it was 'for the greater good' of getting the town of their backs) but he'll atone for it by going without human blood for a week.
S: "Because I realize that killing your closest and oldest friend is beyond evil, yet somehow... it's worthy of humor."
D: "Are you mimicking me?"
S: "Yes, Stefan, now that the secret society of vampire hunters is off our back, I can go back to my routine of 'how can I destroy Stefan's life this week'."
D: "And I can go back to sulking and Elena-longing and forehead-brooding. This is fun; I like this."
S: "And I will finally reveal the ulterior motive behind my evil and diabolical return to Mystic Falls."
D: "Yeah, I'm done. This is just like you, Damon. Always have to have the last word."
This is probably one of my favorite Stefan-Damon scenes. Just... Stefan's frustration and exasperation and yet he's still unable to treat Damon the way that Damon deserves to be treated for killing Lexi. Because he loved Lexi, but Damon is his brother. You know, I think that a large part of my affection for the brothers Salvatore is just that - they really do have this incredible bond that's lasted through them having periods of hating each other, through loving (and being, in some sense betrayed by) the same woman, and through personally feeling betrayed by each other. Despite that, each of them has this immediate 'that is my brother, don't you touch him' reaction when the other one is being threatened.
Bonnie and Elena are talking at school about Bonnie's dreams of Emily and the woods. Bonnie doesn't know what to do - she doesn't want to talk to her Grams about it because she feels like her Grams will encourage her to embrace it and she's not having fun with it at all. Bonnie just wants it to stop.
Also during lunch, Jeremy meets with Alaric, who gives him a chance to fix his grades in this class by doing some extra credit with a paper on local history. We learn here that we're 'half-way through a semester', so we should be in the early part of November (probably when the episode aired). Jeremy has a week to do the paper.
Matt and Caroline say 'hey' to each other again and Caroline can't take it anymore. She and Matt have an angsty confrontation - she's uncomfortable that he snuck out and now he's just saying 'hey' and he's pretty sure that he's said 'hey' to her lots before and, also, her mom is the sheriff and he doesn't want to get caught in Caroline's room.
"I do not let guys mess with my head anymore!"
Ah, Matt and Caroline - they were also cute. But I really don't know if they can work out as long as Matt doesn't know the truth. And Caroline and Tyler have this connection now in S2 and it's getting really intense. Well, I guess we'll see where that goes (I kinda want Matt to learn the truth).
"A simple 'I didn't kill my brother' text would have sufficed."
"I didn't kill my brother. As much as he... deserved it. He has you to thank for that."
Anyway, he wants to tell her that he's quitting school - backing off and keeping his distance.
"You're angry. That's good. It'll be easier if you hate me."
Sometimes, those Salvatores are more alike than they realize.
Damon is confronting Bonnie. He wants the necklace and she doesn't want to give it to him.
"Believe it or not, Bonnie, I want to protect you." Ha! True and yet...
When he straightens up, Bonnie takes a step back. He's got one hand blocking her escape on one side, while he touches her hair with the other.
"See how scared you are? And you should be. Because I will get that crystal even if I have to wait for Emily to give it to me herself. So, next time she comes out to play, you tell her that a deal's a deal."
And he holds her car door open for her.
"He is bad news, Elena. He really scared me."
"You need to stay as far away from Damon as possible."
And so Elena invites Bonnie to spend the night over at her place. Where Damon has an open invitation. Oh, Elena, I love you, but is there maybe a chance you can see the flaw in your logic there?
Bonnie can't take it - she pulls the car over, yanks the necklace off and tosses it into a field as hard as she can throw.
Over at the Mystic Grill, Jenna is casting an admiring eye over on Alaric and his 'quiet strength' that he shows by having dinner by himself. Jeremy offers to introduce her to him, but she's not ready. They start talking about Jeremy's paper and once he mentions that it's got to be local, Jenna mentions that his dad, and the Gilbert family history, could work very well (I don't take Jenna saying the "Gilberts came over on the Mayflower" all that literally, since it's not like history is her thing; the Mayflower is the just famous first ship that everyone knows). Anyway, she mentions that it's all boxed up in the closet at home. Alaric comes over to say 'hi' to Jeremy and gets introduced to Jenna.
Meanwhile, Stefan shows up at Elena's - Elena called him so that they could talk about Damon threatening Bonnie. When Elena goes into more detail about the history of the necklace, the light clicks on for both of them - it belonged to someone from Civil War times, Stefan and Damon's time, and she was a witch. Oh, and Stefan's known that Bonnie was a Bennett witch from way back in "Friday Night Bites". Stefan figured out that it was a necklace that Emily gave to Katherine, so he tells Elena that he will ask Damon about it.
Stefan finds Damon at the bar and Stefan decides to go ahead and keep playing the mimic game, since Damon was into it that morning.
S: "So, Stefan, you know, I've been thinking. I think we should start over, give this brother thing another chance. We used to do it oh-so-well once upon a time." And Stefan does an imitation of that thing that Damon does with his eyes and it's pretty hilarious.
D: "I don't, Damon. I can't trust you to be a nice guy, you kill everybody and you're so mean. You're so mean. ... You're really hard to imitate and then I have to go to that lesser place."
Hee. Stefan orders a coffee and notices how much Damon is drinking (because Damon is not doing human blood for a week). He also suggests again, if things are tough for Damon, that he should leave town. Again, Damon isn't interested.
Over at Elena's, she's invited Caroline over to join her and Bonnie. Caroline's brought dinner and Elena signals with her eyes that Caroline is meant to talk to Bonnie. Caroline's annoyed when Bonnie tells her that she threw the necklace away and then pissed off when she finds it in Bonnie's bag (looking for her manicure kit). Bonnie confesses being a witch to Caroline (without the floating feathers though - you should have done the floaty feathers again!) and Caroline doesn't take it seriously, so Bonnie storms off.
At the Mystic Grill, Jenna has gone over to sit with Alaric (Jeremy has abandoned her to go home). They share sad relationship stories. Alaric's is... somewhat incomplete, if true. Claims he moved to Mystic Falls for its 'rich history'. Again, true but incomplete.
Stefan and Damon are playing darts. Stefan is winning.
Caroline comes to find Bonnie. If Bonnie really believes this magic stuff, Caroline is all in for her, because she considers Bonnie her best friend. She gives Bonnie back the crystal and invites Elena back out to join them. Caroline then gets the idea of having a séance to make Emily explain herself. Oh, Caroline. I ♥ you.
The three girls sit in a circle, holding around, with lit candles placed in the middle of their group, and Bonnie tries calling on Emily. The flames leap and everyone gets startled. The window bursts open and Bonnie freaks, ripping her necklace off and tossing it down on the floor. The candles blow out. When Elena turns on the light in her room, the necklace is gone. Also, Elena has been burning candles directly on her hardwood floor. Has she never heard of candle holders?
Stefan continues his front against Damon by taking him out to the field to play football with him. When Damon starts playing with a little superspeed, Stefan tackles him and they both end up on the ground.
S: "Downside of my diet - when you get hit, it actually hurts a little bit."
D: "I'm impressed, Stefan. Fun with booze and darts... sentimental with football and now... starry night. What do you want, Stefan?"
S: "It wasn't real, Damon. Our love for Katherine."
D: "Oh, god."
S: "She compelled us. We didn't have a choice. Took me years to sort that out, to truly understand what she did to us."
And yet, Stefan, you still keep Katherine's picture. And when you saw a girl that looked like her, you had to investigate her and stalk her.
Damon wonders how Stefan even knows that Katherine had the crystal - Emily gave it to her the last night before the end. Stefan reveals that he was with Katherine again after that (I guess this would be the time she got vervain'd - but wouldn't Damon already know about that? Now I'm trying to remember if they remembered to have Katherine wearing the crystal in that flashback) and that he doesn't know what it does because 'they had other things on their mind' - Damon's pained reaction to each of Stefan's revelations is subtle but clear.
D: "I could rip your heart out and not think twice about it."
S: "Yeah, I've heard that before."
D: "I have a bigger surprise, Stefan. I'm going to bring her back."
Goal of diabolical plan: finally revealed!
Bonnie is looking for the crystal and she thinks she sees it lying on the rug in the bathroom, so she goes in to grab it. When she picks it up, the door slams in her face, shutting her away from Caroline and Elena while Emily possesses her. It doesn't sound like much fun. There's quite a lot of screaming and the lights flicker and flash. Then everything quiets down and the door opens.
'Bonnie' says that she's fine and the audience can see Emily in the mirror where Bonnie should be.
Stefan has followed Damon and is trying to get more information on the 'bring Katherine back' front.
D: "Before Katherine and the others were killed in the church, remember what it was like in this town?"
S: "I remember the fear and the hysteria."
D: "Townspeople were killing vampires one by one. When they came for Katherine, I went straight to Emily. Said I'll do anything, name your price. Just protect her. She did."
S: "How?"
D: "She did some kind of spell with the crystal. While the church was burning and we thought Katherine was burning in it, she wasn't."
S: "But I saw her go inside."
Continuity error? In "Blood Brothers", doesn't Stefan miss the church burning and not wake up until after?
Damon tells Stefan about the tomb under the church, and how Katherine should be under there, starving but 'alive'. And Damon protected Emily's children (and that's why he hasn't killed Bonnie yet - I do wonder if he considers that particular deal null and void once Emily broke her half of it. I would, if I were him, but I've seen other people talking (in forums and stuff) as if they think that Damon still considers his half of the deal binding. Personally, I'm of the opinion that respect for her witchy powers and her friendship with Elena are the two important things post-HR).
Emily runs out of Elena's place, magically locking the door behind her to give Emily enough time to get away and then it bursts open when Jeremy opens it from the other side. Caroline, still freaked out, heads home. Elena calls Stefan to tell him what's happening - and Damon is able to hear her side of the conversation and hear where Emily is going.
Damon catches up to Emily.
"We had a deal."
"Things are different now. I need to protect my family."
"I protected your family. You owe me."
"I know. I'm sorry."
When he goes for her, she uses magic to hurl him onto the branches of a tree (though not fatally) and continues on her way.
At the Gilbert house, Jeremy has found those old boxes and started going through them. Just then, Jenna and Alaric get home and flirt at the door about how pathetic they are. She doesn't invite him in (not with Jeremy there) and he wishes her a good night. Jeremy teases her a bit about Logan and then Alaric, and then he finds the old Gilbert journal.
Stefan finds Damon in the woods and immediately takes him down off the tree. Emily tells Stefan about the other vampires that are locked in the tomb with Katherine. When Damon says that he doesn't give a damn about the other vampires, just Katherine, Stefan doesn't believe him.
Stefan: "This isn't about love, is it? It's about revenge."
Damon: "The two aren't mutually exclusive."
Stefan: "Damon, you can't do this."
Damon: "Why not? They killed twenty-seven people and they called it a 'war battle'. They deserve whatever they get."
Stefan: "Twenty-seven vampires, Damon. They were vampires. You can't just bring them back!"
Damon: "This town deserves this."
Stefan: "You're blaming innocent people for something that happened a hundred and forty-five years ago."
Damon: "There's nothing innocent about these people! And don't think for a second that it won't happen again. They already know too much and they'll burn your little grandwitch right next to us when they find out. Trust me."
Emily: "Things are different now."
Damon: "Don't do this."
Emily: "I can't free them. I won't."
Damon knows how to hold a grudge. You definitely can't say that he doesn't (which is why Katherine should not expect to find herself taken off his 'hate' list any time in the near future). He's been holding one against Stefan for over a century - not such a surprise that he's also holding one against the town. Stefan is wrong when he says that it's not about love - the reason that Damon wants revenge is based partly on love. This town tried to kill Katherine. It also tried to kill 'twenty-seven people' - and the difference between Damon and Stefan in this moment, is that Stefan doesn't think that vampires should be counted as people.
Now, who is on the right and wrong sides? It's hard to call wrong or right because it's more a case of species collision than morals, especially during the times before such things as blood banks and blood that can be stored. This is more about wolves living among sheep and the sheep banding together to fight them off. It's about the dynamics of the hunters and the hunted and when the hunters become the hunted.
But Damon had already bought into vampire morality before he was killed (sort of like Elena has, though there are still quite large distinctions, since Stefan was her first exposure to vamp morality and Katherine was Damon's). For Damon, what happened that night was premeditated murder. When Stefan talks about a vibe of fear, he means among the humans - Damon means it among the vampires.
Emily starts her spell, as Stefan holds Damon back (and if Damon hadn't started that animal diet in atonement for his killing of Lexi, Stefan wouldn't be strong enough to hold him back). Elena finally arrives (man, I bet she wishes she had that vampire superspeed sometimes) and Stefan goes over to hold her, while Damon pleads with Emily not to finish the spell. She throws the crystal up and it bursts into sparks, and the spell dies down and Emily leaves Bonnie.
As the smoke dies down, Damon lunges for Bonnie, burying his teeth in her throat until Stefan grabs him and yanks him off. Damon doesn't seem inclined to go for her again, so I think it was mostly an impulsive and violent reaction to his overwhelming emotions (like killing Tanner and snapping Jeremy's neck). Stefan checks Bonnie for a heartbeat and, when he finds one, bites open his own wrist to give her blood (so... Bonnie has had Stefan's blood and Caroline and Elena have both had Damon's). Elena gives Damon a disgusted look; he doesn't notice. Bonnie's neck wound heals.
Damon is still standing in a daze. He looks so lost.
At Caroline's house, Matt has climbed in the window, surprising her. He confesses that he lied earlier that day - the cuddle did change things. Matt says things really hilariously poorly here and accidentally insults Caroline half a dozen times in his attempt to tell her that he liked being with her that night and he understands being lonely.
Stefan walks up to Damon at the ruins - Bonnie and Elena are gone.
D: "Katherine never compelled me. I knew everything. Every step of the way. It was real for me."
He volunteers to leave because, without Katherine, there's no reason to stay.
Back at the car, Bonnie is trying to figure things out. She saw Damon's face, felt him attack her, and she's bloody but not hurt. When Bonnie asks Elena what's going on, Elena promises to 'explain everything' (unlike Stefan, Elena, from what I can tell, actually means it). She tells Stefan that she's going to tell Bonnie the truth - in part because Elena needs to have someone, a friend, who understands. Because Stefan saved Bonnie's life, Elena realizes that she can, indeed, be with him. I'm not actually sure what led her to this epiphany - maybe she just feels like she can handle it now that she has a non-Salvatore to confide in. Stefan can't, though. In fact, he's decided to leave Mystic Falls.
Hmm. Right after his brother has had a horribly emotionally damaging experience and has decided to leave town, Stefan also decides to leave town? Because, okay, the reason he gives is that too many people have died. But those people were killed by Damon. If Damon's leaving, so is the messy, bloody death. Stands to reason (as far as Stefan knows). Elena asks him not to leave - not to walk away ("When it's real, you can't walk away," Lexi said) - but he kisses her on the hand and then he tells her goodbye.
Jenna is cleaning up in the kitchen and runs across that old photo of her and Logan that Jeremy was teasing her with earlier. She rips it up. For some reason, I'd actually transferred that action to Stefan and believed that he'd ripped up Katherine's picture after 1x10, but then he still had it in S2 to burn up so, nope. Just Jenna.
Matt and Caroline are having a laugh-filled junk food sleep-over. It's cute.
Damon is still sitting on the ruins, broken. wake up and dream once more
Stefan stares down at the blank pages of his journal, then he throws it against the wall and cries - because of Elena? Because of his brother? Because of Katherine, who he'd thought was dead and now knows is alive and suffering? Some mixture of all three, perhaps. come back, when you can. you've done nothing at all to make me love you less
Elena is talking to Bonnie - telling her 'everything'. As Elena keeps talking, Bonnie folds her into a hug. all you wanted was me and I gave you nothing less
The doorbell rings at the Gilbert house and when Jenna answers the door, Logan awaits.
No deaths this episode.
Damon's current kill count: 11
Stefan's current kill count: 1
1. Damon bites Bonnie.
Damon's current bite count: 17
Katherine's current bite count: 1
No one was compelled this episode - unless you count Emily possessing Bonnie.
Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 11
Katherine's current compelling count: 1
1. Emily asks Bonnie for help, in somewhat cryptic terms.
2. Elena and Caroline talk about Caroline and Bonnie's friendship.
3. Bonnie and Elena talk about how Emily is haunting Bonnie and it turns into a conversation about Bonnie and Caroline's friendship.
4. Caroline goes to Bonnie to heal the breach in their friendship.
5. Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie conduct a séance to contact Emily.
6. Emily possesses Bonnie while Caroline and Elena try to get to her; they talk unknowingly to Emily afterwards.
Together: "Night of the Comet" - "Family Ties" (3 episodes; exact time uncertain, at least a week)
1st Breakup: "Family Ties" - "You're Undead to Me" (2 episodes; 4 days)
1st Reunion: "You're Undead to Me" - "Lost Girls" (2 episodes; 2 days)
2nd Breakup: "Lost Girls" - (3 episodes; exact time uncertain, at least 3 days)
We start with Bonnie waking up in the woods, Elena and Caroline walking to school together. We do not know how long it's been since "162 Candles". Another potential time jump. At one point, Elena says "two weeks ago, I would say no [I don't believe in ghosts" but she may have just been pulling that number out of air. It's supposed to be roughly two months since Elena met Stefan (it's halfway through the semester and they met on the first day of school).
Of course, then Caroline and Matt, and Stefan and Elena, both act like the party was just last night. Either that or the party was on Friday and it's now Monday, but it's hard to believe that Elena wouldn't have gone over to the Salvatore place to see if murder had happened, since Damon not being killed is the first thing she asks Stefan about. So, I think I have to go with this leading off directly from "162 Candles" and with the time jump mostly taking place during the period where Stefan and Elena were dating and she still thought he was human.
This episode covers 1 day/1 night.
Total time; pilot-FNB: 6 days/7 nights
Total time; FT-Haunted: 9 days/9 nights
Total time; 162C: 2 nights/1 day
Total time; HR-: 1 day/1 night
1. Stefan is shirtless when Damon wakes him up.
She dreams of Emily and is eventually possessed by Emily for a time in this episode.