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butterflyWe open on the Salvatore boarding house. Stefan is holding Katherine's photo and Elena's necklace and trying to reach Elena on the phone.
"I know that this picture must have confused you, but I can explain. I need to explain, so please, when you get this, call me."
It involves stalking and also, btw, you are adopted. And I saved your life. Do those two things mean you'll forgive/ignore the stalking?
Elena is not listening to his message though, since she is busy speeding down a dark country road, hitting someone, flipping her car, and then watching in horror as the someone gets back up again. Elena tries to get her seatbelt released, but it's hard when you're trapped upside down in a car. The vampire (was this 'Ben'? Maybe it was 'Noah'? Well. It's not Anna) approaches her, starts to lean over toward her, and then zips away. A moment later, Damon arrives (heard Elena scream, is my guess).
When he wants, Damon is actually pretty good at exuding a calm responsibility that leads people to follow his actions in order to achieve a common goal. I think that's part of why he ends up in charge of so much stuff. It works here, too - Elena is able to stop tensing up and put herself into a position to be pulled out of the car. It makes me think about what sort of soldier he could have been during the Civil War - he's decisive and commanding when he wants to be, he can be reckless but he has a heavy dose of charm and humor that probably helped smooth his way, as it does these days as he gets more and more into a team-based atmosphere.
He gets Elena out of the car and runs a check over her and her awareness level. He's, again, actually pretty sweet in a practical way here. Elena is woozy and out of it, and he's capable of taking care of things and he's willing to do so, as well. Elena, over the course of the last ten episodes, has gradually become more and more of a person to Damon and he treats her like one here (Recreating Damon Salvatore: first step - treating one additional non-Katherine/Stefan person like she isn't disposable (Elena; S1). second step - treating multiple people like they aren't disposable (Alaric and Liz in S2 - we're also seeing that happen with Caroline and Jeremy as well, further along in S2). possible eventual end step - no longer automatically thinking of other people, even people that are new and unknown, as disposable at all. It's a process).
Now, I'm curious about what would have happened if Elena hadn't said, "I look like her," right before passing out. Does Damon still take her with him on his trip to Atlanta or does he drop her off at her home (and/or the hospital)? Hmm. It's definitely something that catches Damon's attention.
I am going to say before I get too far into it - this episode, holy shit, I love it. This is probably the episode that shifted me over toward the Damon/Elena side of the spectrum, though I wasn't thinking of it in those terms at all when the episode aired. But I loved watching the two of them interact so much; I always had, even when Damon was being the scary type of intense. And this episode cuts them off from the rest of the cast in their road trip and so it's just the two of them, interacting and learning each other and it's awesome. "Miss Mystic Falls" is the episode that made me realize that, yes, I actually did sorta want their chemistry to go in the romantic direction, but I think that "Bloodlines" primed the pump, because the Damon-Elena interaction built so well and their relationship progressed so much and yet very naturally. Plus, it was just a joy to watch.
Over in the parts of the episode that are not about Damon and Elena, Alaric is typing in his journal. After years of research, he finally staked a vampire. Yay!
"I was right about Mystic Falls. There is evil here. I can sense it. Feel it. It's everywhere."
He stares at a picture of a dark-haired woman aka his wife Isobel aka Elena's mom Isobel aka cold-hearted vampire Isobel. We fade from the picture to a blue-tinted version of the picture (it's a flashback! Of Isobel in bed!).
Alaric leans over and kisses Isobel on the temple. He's getting ready to leave and she needs hours more sleep - ah, it's hard being in a relationship and not sharing hours. I did that, for a while. It sucks. They are sweet at each other and then Isobel hides under the covers and we flash out of the flashback.
Back to the Damon-Elena show. Damon is driving his nice blue car (Damon does seem very fond of blue - he asks Caroline to wear blue when they go to the Founders' Party and he has a blue car. Which makes it randomly interesting that Elena wears blue in MMF. She's also wearing blue a lot in S2) and Elena is waking up. Damon wishes her a cheerful 'morning'. There's a bee or something outside Elena's window. There's also some blood by her left temple.
"Where are we?"
"Georgia." (I love the way Damon draws out his words at times)
"Georgia? No. No, we're not. Seriously, Damon, where are we?"
"Seriously. We're- we're in Georgia."
Elena is now catching up on what happened - Damon checked her for broken bones, so she's good on that score. She's remembering about that guy she hit and she and Damon both want to know just who that was.
What it takes to 'force' Damon to pull over the car for Elena: she asks him three times. And lets him know that she's serious. When she opens the door, she's aching and doubles over - Damon zips around the car, vampire speed, to help her stand. Now that the seriousness of 'car accident' has settled in, Elena starts dealing with the seriousness of 'Georgia'.
When Damon points out that she's with him and without her necklace, well, a) that's confirmation outside of Stefan that the necklace actually does something, b) an attempt at a threat that c) Elena doesn't take that seriously. ("What are you trying to prove?")
Her phone starts ringing in Damon's pocket and, once she mentions it, he pulls it out. It's Stefan and, when Elena turns away from the offered phone, not ready to talk, Damon answers.
"Elena's phone."
"Where is she? Why do you have her phone? Is she okay?"
"Elena? She's right here. And, yes, she's... fine."
"Where are you? Let me speak to her."
Damon offers Elena the phone again, but she rejects it again.
"Yeah, I don't think she really wants to talk to you right now."
"Damon, I swear to god, if you touch her-"
"You have a good day. Bye now."
With that, Damon hangs up. Stefan throws his phone to the side and picks up Elena's vervain necklace, probably imagining so many different horrible possibilities. Back with Damon and Elena, she's trying to talk him into going back. Mind you, if she'd really wanted people to know where she was, she could have - if not talk to Stefan herself - told Damon to tell Stefan where she was. Or, she could have taken her phone from Damon one of the times that he offered it, hung up on Stefan, and called Jenna or Jeremy.
"Come on, Elena, you don't want to go back right now, do you? What's the rush?"
Elena huffs out this little breath that does imply to me that, yeah, she doesn't really want to go back. She thinks that she should go back. Entirely different. She doesn't really want to be in Mystic Falls (where Stefan is) right now, I'm guessing, any more than she wanted to talk to Stefan.
"Time-out. Trust me. Problem's still going to be there when you home."
(you can totally see her being tempted)
"Look. Step away from your life for five minutes. Five minutes."
Elena takes a moment to think about it (and I think it's very interesting that Damon is interested in talking her into it, rather than compelling her - like he says in a later episode, he wants it to be real. He wanted to spend some actual, real time with Elena. Two people, hanging out. Like friends do).
"Am I going to be safe with you?"
"Yes."
"Will you promise not to do that mind-control thing with me?"
"Yes."
"Can I trust you?"
"Get in the car."
Trust, kept and broken, is such an important theme of the Elena-Damon relationship (it matters in all relationships, but none of the other relationships linger on it so much and on what it means). Damon trusts Elena - that trust gets broken and it has to be rebuilt again (lying re: getting Katherine out of the tomb). Elena trusts Damon - that trust is broken and must be rebuilt (Damon killing Jeremy). Elena proves herself worthy of Damon's trust a second time by making herself vulnerable to him by taking off her necklace; Damon starts to rebuild her trust in him by treating non-Elena people like real people, too (not killing Liz was the first step that made Elena willing to reach back out to Damon in S2 - "That's the Damon that was my friend").
Back over in the non-road trip portion of the show, Jeremy and Alaric are talking about Jeremy's project. Jeremy has decided to do the Civil War-era of Mystic Falls. He's going to write about his family in that time period. Alaric gives the idea a gold star.
Meanwhile, Stefan is catching up with Bonnie. He asks Bonnie how she's doing with that whole 'vampire' bombshell. Huh, seeing these sections reminds me that it's only been two days since Elena saw Damon attacking Bonnie. Bonnie asks Stefan if he's come back to school, but Stefan just wanted to talk to her. He wants her help with a spell.
"I need your help. It's Elena. She's with Damon."
Magic words, of course. Since Damon had just attacked Bonnie. Two days ago. Anyway, Stefan thinks that Bonnie can use Elena's necklace to connect with her and see if she's okay. She's got nothing, though. It's not working. She tries to her do magic floating trick and that doesn't work either. She can't help.
Road trip time!
Damon is listening to music and Elena is still trying to get all the facts straight (apparently Damon went back and pulled her car off the road - possibly this is after he checked her for broken bones). And we establish that Damon didn't know the vampire that she hit.
"It's not like we all hang out together at the Vamp Bar and Grill."
They end up at Bree's Bar. Elena doubts that they'll let her in, but Damon is all confidence. Bree (Gina Torres!) spots him. This time, I notice that her face is blank for a moment before she becomes all welcoming. She boosts herself up and over the counter and lays one on him. Elena watches in wide-eyed surprise.
Bree pours a round of shots (for "the man that broke my heart, crushed my soul, destroyed my life, and ruined any and all chances at happiness"). Damon drinks Elena's shot for her while Bree isn't looking. Bree met Damon while she was at college - 20 years ago. She fell in love with him and finding out that he was a vampire made it easier for her to confess to him that she was a witch. Also, she mentions that Damon is good at sex and really good at walking away (she doesn't manage to share that last part with as much casualness as she would like).
Back in Mystic Falls, Jeremy has made his way to the library. Mystic Falls has a nice, two-story library, by the wall. Anna steals a trick from Stefan and stages herself a 'meet cute' with Jeremy. She knocks some books over on him and then comes around to apologize and bump foreheads with him and generally set herself up as cute but mildly hapless. I really loved Anna - she had a strong character arc and it was really painful when she was killed.
Bonnie is at her Grams' place, going through book after book in an attempt to find out what's wrong with her. When Grams asks for more details, Bonnie can't give them. Grams can give her general help - if a witch's powers are blocked, it's because she's blocking them herself and she has to work through her emotional issues and deal with those in order to have her powers back.
Elena has her cell phone and is outside calling Jenna, apologizing for not being around and lying by saying that she fell asleep at Bonnie's and then went straight to school.
Inside the bar, Damon is talking to Bree, trying to figure out another way to get Katherine out.
"After all these years, it's still only Katherine."
Bree is firm on that crystal having been the only way to get Katherine out. "Emily's spell is absolute." Which is a lie, we learn later - you just need Emily's spellbook.
Bonnie is out wandering near the old ruins, trying to face her fears. She doesn't manage to make the leaf float, but she does manage to fall through the ground, right down near the entrance of the tomb.
Stefan tries calling Elena again - this time, she picks up (and we can see Damon listening in on her conversation from inside the bar).
"Elena, is that you?"
"I'm here."
"Where are you?"
"You lied."
"Not until I explain, please."
"So... you didn't lie?"
"Just tell me where you are so that I can come get you."
"How am I connected to Katherine, Stefan?"
"I honestly don't know."
"And I'm supposed to believe that?"
"It's the truth. I... listen."
And she hangs up on him. Okay, hey, wait. Isn't this is a flat-out, blatant lie from Stefan? I mean, I guess he's hedging a little - he guesses that she's biologically related to Katherine because he's pretty sure that she's adopted - but it's damn close to a lie. He may not 'know' but he has some good suspicions.
She turns around - there a dramatic strike of music as Damon is there! To ask her if she's okay. She accuses him of not really caring.
(and while this is happening, Bree is calling Lexi's ex about Damon being in the bar - more on that later)
Down in the hole near the tomb, Bonnie is very banged up, especially her knee. Meanwhile, Stefan is calling on Bonnie's Grams. He shakes her hand and Grams is able to sense that Stefan will know where Bonnie went - he'll know the location of her fear. She tells him that she'll trust him to keep Bonnie safe... but she's not inviting him in. Her trust is conditional.
Anna leads Jeremy around the aisles of the library, pointing out the helpful sections. She gets him to be specific about what he wants and, when he still won't say the word, provides it for him - 'the vampires'.
Back to Georgia! Elena and Damon have retreated to the inside of the bar in order to chat.
"Let's just say that I'm descended from Katherine... does that make me part vampire?"
"Vampires can't procreate... but we love to try. Heh, no. If you were related, it would mean that Katherine had a child before she was turned."
"Did Stefan think that he could use me to replace her?"
"It's kinda creepy if you ask me."
And then Damon steals Elena's pickles.
"How can you even eat? If, technically, you're supposed to be..."
"Dead?" (Damon says in a stage whisper) "It's not such a bad word. As long as I keep a healthy diet of blood in my system, my body functions pretty normally."
"This nice act... is any of it real?"
He shoots her a side-long look but doesn't answer - not here and now. He'll answer later, though - yes, it was real. He was being real with her and was honestly enjoying hanging out and being her friend. When Damon gets another beer, Elena decides to get one, too. Time-out.
In the Mystic Falls library, Jeremy and Anna are arguing over whether the vampires of Civil War Mystic Falls were really vampires or were allegorical representations of the Union soldiers. "A country at war doesn't want realism, it wants fantasy. Thus, vampire fiction." ... is this show doing meta? *pokes at show*
Bonnie is trying to get a signal in her tomb in the middle of the woods. Shockingly enough, she doesn't. Luckily, her friendly neighborhood vampire is there but not before Bonnie really creeps herself out by hearing/sensing the vampires that are sealed up in the tomb. Stefan leaps them both up out of the tomb - and it's now night. Bonnie worries about the vampires, and Stefan reassures her - with the crystal destroyed, all should be well.
Back at the bar, Elena is getting a bit drunk (and impressing the other patrons with how much she's putting away) and jumping around cheerily. In the background, a man enters and Bree notices him, smoothly edges over there and subtly indicates Damon and Elena to him.
At the Mystic Grill, Anna and Jeremy are playing games and still arguing over the reality of vampires and the history. She flirts and he gently rejects her and she pretends she was going for friendship all along. Now, she's playing Jeremy at this point, but I wonder when things became more real for her. I'll see if I can figure it out.
Over at Bree's bar, Elena is now kicking ass at pool. Her phone rings and it's Jenna. She goes outside so that she can hear Jenna better and trips on the railing, dropping the phone. Just as she picks herself up and goes back to the phone, she gets nabbed by Lexi's boyfriend.
Inside the bar, Bree remarks on Elena's absence and, after Damon confirms that for himself, he goes on alert and heads out to look for her. He finds her phone and his worry is actually pretty obvious at this point. Elena has been placed up on a ladder by Lexi's boyfriend and she tries to warn Damon away, but he's being attacked pretty much straight-away. Bashed with... looks like a length of pipe, and then the guy is pouring what's possibly gasoline over him. Elena is not in favor of this 'beat Damon up and burn him alive' plan.
Damon: "Who are you?"
Lexi's BF: "This is perfect. You have no idea."
Elena: "What are you talking about? What did he do?"
Lexi's BF: "He killed my girlfriend."
Elena looks over at Damon, who sorta shrugs as if to say, 'yeah, probably'.
Lexi's BF: "What did she do to you? What did she do to you?"
Damon: "Nothing."
Elena: "I don't understand."
Lexi's BF: "My girlfriend went to visit Stefan and Damon killed her. Got it?"
Elena: "Lexi? Lexi was your girlfriend? She told me about you. She said you were human."
Lexi's BF: "I was."
Elena: "Lexi turned you?"
Lexi's BF: "If you want to be with someone forever, you have to live forever."
I'm really curious about whether this attack is based on a reasonable guess - Lexi went to visit Stefan, never came home - safe assumption to make is that Damon killed her. Or if Stefan told Lexi's BF about her death - but if he had, wouldn't Lexi's BF have come for him in Mystic Falls? Or did Lexi not mention that the place she was visiting Stefan at was Mystic Falls? Hmm. Questions that will never be answered. Both the BF and Bree are sure of Damon's guilt - though maybe Bree got confirmation of it when she kissed him earlier? Hmm.
Moving on to another thing - Bree and also Lexi's boyfriend have both assumed that Elena is there with Damon; that she's involved with Damon. She makes a half-hearted attempt to tell Bree the truth at the beginning but kinda gives it up after that. Her situation with Damon and Lexi's BF is a little too immediate and pressing to try playing the "he's my boyfriend's brother" game, and she doesn't even try.
Third thing - 'if you want to be with someone forever, you have to live forever'. Which echoes with Stefan telling Katherine that he'll love her forever ('a very long time'). I'm trying to remember... have Stefan and Elena even slightly edged toward the 'do you want to turn someday?' conversation? I'm not sure that they have. I actually... don't think that Stefan would want Elena to turn. But does he want to watch her grow old and die (well, for the weak sense of 'want')? And now I'm having Doctor Who flashbacks again (the solution in that series was to make a clone of the Doctor who had a human lifespan and could live out a human life with Rose in an alternate universe while the 'could live potentially forever' Doctor went on his lonely way). Hmm. I think I read that in the books that Elena was turned... and then she was unturned? And possibly became an angel?
Elena: "She loved you. She said that when it's real, you can't walk away."
Lexi's BF: "Well, that's a choice you're not going to have to make."
Elena: "Don't. Don't! Please don't hurt him!"
Lexi's BF: "I'm doing you a favor!"
Elena: "Lexi loved you. And she was good and that means you're good, too. Be better than him. Don't do this. I'm begging you. Please."
And instead of lighting Damon on fire, Lexi's BF just picks him up and throws him into the wall. Elena thanks him, very sincerely, and he says, "it wasn't for you," and runs off. I wonder if we'll ever see him again or if he went and committed vampire suicide or something. He never did get a name.
Elena runs to Damon's side. Yeah, that's something that's going to make an impression on a guy. She stood up for him, begged for his life, saved him.
They both got to be the hero for each other in this episode. I think that's something else I really love about it - how balanced it is. He saves her and she saves him. And, along the way, they had fun and they learned things about each other. Seriously, I would totally watch a show where Elena and Damon traveled the countryside in his pretty blue car and were awesome together. I mean, I love "The Vampire Diaries" but I would definitely watch "The Elena and Damon Road Show", too.
Also, this does remind me of why Stefan might have assumed that Elena had disappeared off with Damon for a while in S2 - after all, it happened in S1, at a time when Elena should have still been mistrusting Damon for almost killing one of her best friends only two days prior.
Speaking of Stefan, he is delivering Bonnie to her Grams. After Bonnie goes in, Stefan reveals to Sheila (Grams) that he recognized her from years ago (1969). So, both Stefan and Damon re-meet with women they knew in the past in this episode. Grams learns that Bonnie, too, knows about vampires now.
"Please understand that our loyalty can only extend so far. This town won't be easy on any of us if they figure it out and I'll protect my own before anybody else."
So, Bree takes a drink, turns around, and Damon is waiting for her. I wonder what he said to Elena - probably just that he was saying goodbye to Bree. Elena might not have guessed that Bree had betrayed him, after all. And this would be how Damon treats most people who betray him at this point in time: no quarter, no second chances. You can see on Bree's face that she knows that things aren't going to go well for her if Damon is still alive.
"Good to see you again, Damon."
"No kiss?"
"I'm full of vervain. I put it in everything I drink."
"And you're telling me this why?"
"Lexi was my friend. How could you?"
She turns around and Damon is right there in front of her and she starts trying to bargain for her life: "The tomb can be opened."
"You're lying."
"Emily's grimoire! Her spellbook. If you know how she closed the tomb... the reversal process will be in her book. You can open that tomb!"
"And where is this book?"
"I- I don't-"
"You have no idea."
"I am telling you the truth."
"And I believe you, my dear, sweet Bree. That's why I'm almost sorry."
Then he rips her heart out. Literally. Then he washes his hands, grabs his coat, and walks out. The contrast that I'm going to go to is in S2 - "You're my friend," he says to Liz, when he doesn't kill her. She was ready to kill him and she's betrayed him and he doesn't react by tearing her heart out. Character growth!
"So, why did you bring me with you?"
"Well, you're not the worst company in the world, Elena. You should give yourself more credit."
"Seriously?"
"I don't know. You were there in the road, all damsel-in-distress-like, and I knew it'd piss off Stefan, and... you're not the worst company in the world, Elena."
"I used to be more fun."
"You did okay."
"I saved your life."
"I know."
"And don't you forget it."
somewhere along the way, that excitement turned pleasure
somewhere along the way, that pleasure turned to madness
I could totally draw little hearts all around this conversation. It's cute and honest and... nice. Damon's motives weren't entirely pure but he admits to that and he enjoyed being around her and it was actually probably really helpful for her to be somewhere that Stefan couldn't get to her, so that she could think things through without him muddying up the issue.
Back at the Salvatore place, Elena has come in to talk to Stefan.
"You could have told me."
"I wanted to tell you."
"You said 'no more lies, only the truth'. I can handle the truth, Stefan. As crazy as it is, I can handle the fact that you are a vampire and you have... a vampire brother and that my best friend is a witch. I can accept the fact that the world is a much more mysterious place than I ever thought possible but this... this lie I cannot take. What am I to you? Who am I to you?"
"You are not Katherine. You are the opposite of everything that she was."
"And when did you figure that out? Before you kissed me? Before we slept together?"
"Before I met you."
And this is what I was pointing out in those other reviews - Stefan's moment of epiphany is supposed to happen before we ever meet him. Which means that the audience never gets to see it. Except that we do get to see him staring at Katherine's picture and leaving it out all the time, which argues against his premise (plus, he couldn't kill her in "Memory Lane" - what was that hesitation about?).
May 23rd, 2009 is the hard date for her parents' car crash. Anyway, Stefan confesses to her that he heard the accident, went to the scene and was able to save her but not her parents.
"When I pulled you out, I looked at your face and you looked like Katherine. I couldn't believe the resemblance. After that, I spent months making sure you weren't her. I watched you. I learned everything I could about you. And I saw that you were nothing like Katherine and I... wanted to leave town but Elena, I couldn't... I couldn't leave without knowing you."
When Elena asks this time why she looks like Katherine, he tries to brush it off but Elena can tell that he's (still!) not telling her everything. He reveals the 'adoption' bomb that he was hiding the last time she asked him about the resemblance.
Over at the Mystic Falls library, it's another day and another stack of books for Anna and Jeremy. She's brought him all the info on the rashes of 'animal attacks' that the town suffers from every now and again.
Elena is dealing with her new information, asking Stefan how he knows and he notices some weird discrepancies with the birth certificate vs hospital records and whatnot. Anyway, Stefan moves on to: "It doesn't matter. You are the woman that I love. I love you." The emotion offense works - Elena kisses him.
Elena finally gets home. Jenna is pissed. But Elena is pretty pissed, too, and when Jenna tries to nail Elena for lying to her, Elena fires back with the adoption news (which Jenna confirms, first with her silence and then by saying "they asked me not to [tell you]"). Which means that Jenna will probably assume that her missing day was about Elena discovering that info out, so Elena's off the hook for that.
Over at the Mystic Grill, Damon is ordering a bourbon. He nods at Alaric, who recognizes him as the vampire that bit Isobel (we helpfully get a flashback).
1. Damon rips out Bree's heart.
Damon's current kill count: 12
Stefan's current kill count: 1
Alaric's current kill count: 1
1. Damon bites Isobel (in Alaric's flashback).
Damon's current bite count: 18
Katherine's current bite count: 1
No one is compelled in this episode, though Damon threatens to compel Elena.
Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 12
Katherine's current compelling count: 1
1. Bonnie tells her Grams that her powers are gone and asks for advice.
2. Jenna confronts Elena about missing school and Elena counters with Jenna not telling her that she was adopted.
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" - "The Turning Point" (3 episodes; exact time uncertain, at least 3 days)
2nd Reunion: "The Turning Point" - (at least 2 days)
We start on the same night we left off on - Elena gets in a car crash and Damon saves her.
The next day, Elena and Damon are in Georgia, driving to a bar in Atlanta. They stay there all day and into the night.
The next morning, they're driving back into Virginia, Elena talks to Stefan and finds out the adoption news.
This episode covers 2 nights (one is the same night we left off on)/2 days.
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-: 4 days/3 nights
None.
None.