![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyIt's a dark and stormy night. And not just because that's pretty - the rain brings all sorts of things to light and creates opportunities that hadn't existed before; it's not just atmospheric rain. This storm matters.
The wind blows Elena's window open, waking her up. Anna is still in Jeremy's room. She's telling him that she loves storms. He wonders about whether or not vampires are vulnerable to running water - she teases him about it a little, but then tells him not to believe anything that he's read on the subject. She still doesn't want to turn him and asks him to give her a good reason why she should. Elena knocks on the door and Anna is gone before she finishes opening it. She asks him to help her make sure that the windows are all closed.
At the vampire house, Frederick is whittling. He mentions to Pearl that they're running low on blood and when Pearl says she'll send Anna to the hospital, he offers to go along - "Storm keeps it dark enough, I might be able to go out during the day."
Which confirms that not all of the tomb vampires got the benefit of Emily's magic rings.
People we know got rings:
a. Katherine
b. Stefan
c. Damon
d. Pearl
e. Anna
f. Harper
g. Beth-Anne
Anyone else to add to the list? Bonnie is able to make Caroline a ring using Emily's spellbook, but I wonder if it was a spell that Emily invented/re-invented (which might explain vampires like Rose or Lexi, both much older than the Salvatores, did not have rings). I can understand Katherine thinking it best not to ask Emily to give Frederick a ring - he's a loose canon (Elijah has a ring or the ability to daywalk, but I'm going to wait and see if they explain that another way).
Pearl confirms that this is the same night that "There Goes the Neighborhood" ended on - "Not after your stunt at the Savatore house tonight." Frederick, however, isn't at all put off by her reminder ("He and his brother deserved it"). That should have been her sign that he hadn't taken her warning. She should have killed him right then and there. Instead, she only reminds him that Beth-Anne got killed and, if he did care about Beth-Anne at all, that would only fuel his desire for revenge. "We can't live our lives out of revenge. We have to have better control of our emotions." Frederick claims that he understands her point, he just wants to know her plan.
And so she tells him.
I'll just be over here, being sad. Do not trust Frederick! He's trying to determine where his window to sneak around you might lie! Stop telling him! But she's used to being a peacemaker, likely, being Katherine's best friend and thus the person who probably cleaned up after a lot of Katherine's messes. She's extolling the virtues of patience to a man who really doesn't show much evidence of having any.
I like Pearl, but she's not a good judge of character and that makes it hard for her to be a good leader.
After Pearl leaves, about three vampires come out of another room to group behind Frederick. And he's pretty obviously not planning on actually listening to Pearl.
At the Salvatore place, Damon is boarding up the window that Frederick broke. Damon wants to go over to Pearl's so that they can kill Frederick. Stefan thinks that's a dumb plan. Elena, who probably called this morning so that she could find out whatever Stefan wanted to wait to tell her on account of her 'normal' day, doesn't get why Damon made a deal with Pearl. I wonder if Damon left out the part about his eyes getting gouged out.
He sums it up as "It's not like I had a choice. She's... scary."
Interestingly enough, Damon makes the choice to taunt Elena (and Stefan) with the idea that Pearl is going to help him get Katherine back. Not mentioning that he turned down that offer. Elena snarks back at him over that and, yeah, them not knowing that Damon actually turned down Pearl's offer to help him find Katherine might inform why both Stefan and Elena didn't understand in 2x01 that Katherine wasn't Damon's primary emotional driver anymore. Hmm.
Elena says that she's snarky because of the tomb vampires, but Damon thinks she's still mad at him because of the Isobel thing. Elena, obviously mad at him, says that she's not blaming him - she's just accepted that he's a "self-serving psychopath with no redeeming qualities". Stefan plays peacemaker and tries to get his two important people back on the same productive page, instead of sniping at each other. Stefan tries to get Damon started on a plan, but Damon just stalks out of the room. Elena apologizes to Stefan for snapping at Damon - "He just makes me so cranky."
"What are we going to do?" Elena asks.
"Damon and I are going to handle everything. I promise."
"Well, what about me? I can't just sit here and do nothing."
"That's exactly what you're going to do because that's what's going to keep you safe."
"Which means nothing if you're not safe, too."
"What do you mean? I'm perfectly safe. I have Damon, the self-serving psychopath, on my side."
"Well, that's comforting."
Stefan underestimates Elena's deep and burning desire to be involved. She gets itchy when the people she cares about are in harm's way and she's not right there with them. Being kept in a glass bottle away from all danger doesn't make her happy. Sometimes, this is a good thing (if she hadn't burst into the "Masquerade" plan, she might have died at home if Stefan and Damon had actually killed Katherine) and sometimes it isn't such a good idea. But she hates being left out of things. Even if she actually requested to be left out, she hates it and tends to get herself involved anyway.
Jeremy and Anna have met up at the Mystic Grill. Anna mentions meeting her mom and Jeremy asks if her mom knows that she's a vampire. Anna says, "The fact that you think that it's even possible to keep something like that a secret from your own family is just further proof that you're not ready." Oh, Anna, you only say that because you aren't familiar enough with the truly dysfunctional families of Mystic Falls. They've got more secrets than you've got strands of hair.
Anna admires his bracelet and Jeremy says that Elena gave it to him - aw, everyone wears the stuff that Elena gives them. They ♥ her (so, question: did Matt not get anything or did Katherine get it away from him before she compelled him? We know that Katherine worked Jenna off the vervain before compelling her) and the stuff she gives them. Anna double-checks that Elena doesn't know that Jeremy is there with her, and he says that she doesn't but there's no need to worry - it's not like she knows that Anna's a vampire, after all. Anna, who knows better, asks Jeremy to keep their meetings secret and he agrees. He takes off his bracelet and gives it to Anna - "because you like it and I like you" - but she gives it back and tells him that it looks better on him. Aw, Anna.
Matt is telling Caroline about what happened with his mom last night - he yelled at her and it made him feel like he was the parent. I feel so bad for Matt because I recognize him. My parents weren't as bad as Kelly, but they are both alcoholics and, in certain ways, have been unreliable in the past. My mom has gotten better; my dad hasn't. And I have no control over it either way, which is the frustrating part. So, yes, I feel so much sympathy for Matt during this arc. "I wish she would just try a little," he says. Then he waters it down even more, "If she would just try to try, that would be okay." He hopes for so little from his mom and still can't get it. Caroline has to leave in order to try to make her dad's boyfriend's daughter's birthday party and she's not sure how much longer the roads will be clear, so she's heading out now. Matt gives her a kiss goodbye.
At the Salvatore house, Damon is winding the clock. Stefan is off to go hunting - he needs to get his strength back up after the fight last night. Damon offers some human blood that's in the fridge, but Stefan isn't interested. He tells Damon that they'll talk when he gets back and then he's off.
Stefan is running in the rain when he senses something - he turns to see two vampires in raincoats, watching him - distracting him for Frederick to come up to him and stab him with a stake. Frederick doesn't want a quick kill, though, he wants revenge.
Elena's phone is ringing. She glances at it - Damon - and hits ignore. There's a knock at the door and when she opens it, Damon slinks in.
"You're ignoring me."
"The six missed calls? Sorry, my phone's dead."
"Stefan here?"
"No. Why? Something wrong?"
"Went out in the woods, didn't come back. Couldn't get him on his phone, figured he was here with you."
So, Damon noticed that his brother didn't get back in a timely manner and got worried. His heart is clearly made of stone. Elena asks Damon if he knows where Stefan might be - Damon has an idea, but he doesn't think Elena's going to like it.
Damon has gone to do reconnaissance - he knocks on the farmhouse door, yelling for Pearl. Frederick answers. He tells Damon that Pearl isn't home and he remarks on the lack of sunshine due to the rain.
"Where's my brother?" Damon asks. Frederick swings the door open and calls out to one of his minions (Billy), and two vampires haul Stefan into sight of the door. Stefan is in pain, his eyes a little teary, and Damon is not happy. Damon makes a lunge for the door, but is stopped by the invitation seal. Frederick calls Miss Gibbons over and instructs her to never invite Damon in.
"One hundred and forty-five years left starving in a tomb, thanks to Katherine's infatuation with you and your brother. The first few weeks, every nerve in your body screams with fire. Kind of pain that could drive a person mad. Well, I thought your brother might want to get a taste of that before I killed him." He calls out to Billy, who stabs Stefan in the stomach with a stake. Stefan falls to his knees in pain while Damon watches and then Frederick closes the door on him.
Frederick, I notice, doesn't go outside. He's fought with Damon once and apparently doesn't like his odds of facing off with him again, even with his sidekicks around. He runs away from Damon later, too.
Damon runs out to where he left Elena with the car - she sees him coming and opens an umbrella and goes to meet him. Elena asks what happened and Damon explains about not being able to get inside.
"I can get in," Elena says, and Damon grabs her shoulders to stop her from walking off to the house filled with vampires.
"You're not going in there."
"I'm going!"
"You're not going in there."
"Why are they doing this? What do they want with him?"
"Revenge. They want revenge."
"We've got to do something."
"I know."
"We can't let them hurt him. We've got to get him out of there."
"I know, Elena. I know. But I don't know how to get him out."
I love this scene so much. I love the 'we's from Elena - we have to do something, we can't let them hurt him, we have to get him out. I love how Damon doesn't back away from the fact that he doesn't have the answers. He's not making promises that he can't keep. I love the atmosphere - the rain and Elena holding her umbrella over the both of them and the way he touches her face when he tells her that he knows - that he wants to save Stefan just as much as she does. So much love.
Stefan has been stripped shirtless and he's tied up, slightly suspended (on the toes of his feet), with ropes soaked in vervain. Frederick has an eyedropper full of vervain and, yeah, Stefan's eye is going to be hurting now. In the middle of the torture, Harper bursts in. He's not happy. Frederick tells him that Stefan would kill him as easily as he killed Beth-Anne (yeah, if Harper decided to break into his house to attack him, sure) and that, no matter what Pearl says, they are here for revenge. Harper still doesn't agree and tries to stop Frederick from continuing. Frederick orders his minions to stake Harper down and tie him up, declaring that Pearl isn't in charge anymore.
At the school, Damon walks out into the hall and intercepts Alaric. There's some posturing going on at first, and then Elena walks out behind Damon, tells Alaric that they need his help.
The three of them retreat to Alaric's classroom, where Elena is explaining the problem to Alaric.
"Stefan is in the house. Damon's a vampire, he can't get in. We need you. I would go, but-"
"But your life is valuable."
Elena's point, actually, was about Alaric's ring - Stefan told her and Damon about how it brought Alaric back to life. Alaric and Damon verbally snap at each other again and, when Alaric gets up and heads toward Damon, Elena puts herself in the middle.
"Please, it's Stefan."
"I'm sorry, Elena, it's not my problem."
'But the magic words always work for Stefan when he says 'it's Elena'! Damn!' Elena thinks. Damon however was not counting on Alaric to give a damn about Stefan and he has a carrot. I wonder if he would have thought about it without Pearl taunting him re: the idea of finding out about Katherine - as he said when he killed Alaric, they have a lot in common. He says that the head vampire could help Alaric find his wife. Alaric doesn't really believe that, but he also can't not take the chance if it exists, so he agrees, after a hesitation and after Damon gets Elena to go along with a 'walk off and wait for him to give in' tactic. Good backing of the play, Elena!
At the Mystic Grill, Jeremy thinks he's figured out a reason for Anna to turn him. Jeremy has a hole in his life - he's 'okay' but there's something missing. He doesn't fit. From what he says later, after he learns about the compelled memory, that's the place where his grief for Vicki should be and, instead, it's this hole marked 'be okay'. Anna tells him that she's not going to turn him because she feels bad for him.
"Do you even know why we turn other people? It's not to give someone a one-way ticket out of lonerhood, okay. One, we need someone to do our dirty work. Two, revenge. Three, boredom, but you know that never turns out well. And then... you know, there's the obvious one. You love someone so much that you would do anything to spend all of eternity with them."
We've seen a lot of examples of the first one, some of the second. Vicki was our example of the third and, yeah, didn't turn out well. And then there's the obvious one. Katherine wanted to keep the Salvatore boys. Especially Stefan, but she liked playing with Damon. There might have been an element of revenge in making Damon so thoroughly vampiric even before the turning, considering who their father was. And Stefan, of course, convinced Damon to go through the transition because of that fourth reason. If he was going to spend eternity alive, he wanted to spend it with his brother. No wonder he bends so easily back into Damon's camp once Damon starts to show his own hints of bending and letting his emotions back in. This is what Stefan wants, what he's wanted - his brother, right beside him, forever. He wants it so much that if he sees that it's happening, he's willing to let other things slide.
Pearl walks in and Anna switches gears, pretending that they were talking about a paper. As she walks off, she texts Jeremy that her mom just arrived. Anna lets her mom know that she grabbed the needed blood. Pearl and Anna are about to leave and Mayor Lockwood (who just walked in with his son) stops her and asks if she's really planning to go out in the rain. Pearl is planning on leaving anyway, but then she hears the hostess call him 'Mayor Lockwood' and she gets real interested, real fast. She decides to introduce herself and Anna as people new to town. Lockwood introduces himself as Richard and also his son, Tyler, and invites Pearl and Anna to eat with him and she accepts. Tyler isn't thrilled.
"Be more creepy, dad. Not like your son is standing right here."
"Grow up. Elections are coming. She's a constituent. And a rich one, from the looks of it."
"And you can tell all that by looking at her ass? Awesome. I'm going to go shoot some pool."
At the school classroom, Damon is admiring/mocking Alaric's weapon collection. Damon's plan is for Alaric to get him in and then he'll do the rest. Elena doesn't find this to be much of a plan. She pulls out a vervain dart to inspect and Alaric asks what she's doing. This sparks an intense Damon-Elena conversation.
"I'm going with you guys."
"No. No, no, no. No way."
"You need me. I'll get in, you can distract them, and I'll get Stefan out."
"You'll get yourself killed. You're not going in there."
"I'm going."
Damon ignores her and talks to Alaric: "So, when you get me in, get out as quickly as you can. Because I know how to sneak around to where they can't hear me. You'll basically just... be in the way."
E: "Damon, now is not the time to be the lone ranger."
"Fine, Elena... you can drive the getaway car, hmm? You're not going in the house."
"You can't stop me. It's Stefan we're talking about here. You don't understand."
"Oh, I understand. I understand. He's the reason you live. His love lifts you up where you belong. I get it."
"Can you just not joke around for two seconds?"
"I can't protect you, Elena. I don't know how many vampires there are in there." *snaps fingers* "That's how long it takes you to get your head ripped off. I have to be able to get in and get out; can't be distracted with your safety or this will end up a bloodbath that none of us walk away from. Including Stefan. I know. I get it. I understand."
And, all of this, Alaric is watching and taking it all in - the tension and the love that both of them obviously have for Stefan. The vampire that he's been hunting and hating does have a heart of his own and that is something that Alaric needs to process ("You're a dick and you kill people, but I still see something human in you."). Not only that, but Damon cares about Elena's safety as well. Alaric has actually had a front-seat to a lot of interesting Damon-Elena moments - he sees this and he sees the dance and he's there for every minute of the uncomfortable threesome roadtrip. Should Damon and Elena hook up for real on the show, I don't think Alaric will be shocked. And Damon even cares to let Elena know that he gets it - he does understand how much she hates not being the person doing something, but he doesn't understand how she can be anything but a distraction to him (she'll teach him that he's wrong about that).
And before they all leave, Damon reaches out and rubs a comforting hand along Elena's arm.
Caroline has called Matt - he's still working at the Grill and she's making her way along a back road to her dad's house. I remember, the first time watching the episode, I was terrified that Caroline would end up running into Frederick's vampires. That was so stressful.
The signal starts breaking up and Matt recommends that she turn around and come home. But when she tries to turn, her car gets stuck in the mud. She picks up her phone again, but can't get a signal.
At the house of vampires, Alaric is doing his part - he knocks on the door and asks if he can use the phone. Frederick lets him in without inviting him in and instructs Billy to show Alaric the phone. Billy is eyeing Alaric up like a piece of meat - or a tall pitcher of blood, as the case may be. As he passes the pool room, we can see two other male vampires and one female (in addition to Billy and Frederick).
Miss Gibbons is chopping cucumber in the kitchen. Alaric gets his stake prepared and, when Billy lunges for him, Alaric is ready, staking him. Alaric turns on the water and the food processor to add some chaotic noise, and opens the back door for Damon. Alaric tries to get Miss Gibbons to invite Damon in, but he refuses. Damon tells Alaric to get her out of the house and she goes. He asks her if she has any relations who live on the property. When she tells him 'no', he snaps her neck and walks inside the house.
"You were supposed to compel her."
"It doesn't work that way."
"She's human-"
"And I'm not, so I don't care. Now get out of here. And get rid of the body."
Despite his snarky dismissal of Alaric's life earlier, he actually does show himself to be valuing it here - if only as a potential future ally. Miss Gibbons was worth nothing to Damon alive and worth his brother's life to him if she was dead - an easy calculation for Damon to make, given that he places no specific intrinsic value on human life in general, any more than most humans place on the animals that turn into the food that they eat. Specific humans make an impact on him, at this moment in time, but he doesn't consider a specific person valuable just because they're human. Humanity holds no value in and of itself to Damon.
This is an idea that Alaric and Elena object to on principle, of course.
Out in the car, Elena is getting impatient. She is totally in 'getaway driver' position, though, which is amusing and kinda cute. She pulls out a vervain dart from Alaric's kit and considers it. The storm breaks a branch off a tree and it hits the car, startling her.
Pearl talks with Richard Lockwood about property ownership. Tyler watches from afar, disgusted with his dad and sharing that disgust with Matt. Anna and Jeremy send each other longing looks and she stops him from coming over to her - texting him that they need to stay a secret. They, however, suck at actually pretending that they aren't interacting, and Pearl notices it. She asks Mayor Lockwood who 'that boy over there' is and Lockwood tells her that it's "Jeremy Gilbert".
Frederick is getting impatient waiting for Billy to come back from the kitchen. He sends one of his minions to go check out the situation and the vampire is soon handily staked by Damon.
Alaric returns to the car to find Elena no longer there. He grabs his vampire killing kit and heads back to the house. Elena is sneaking along the backside of the house, she can hear Frederick ordering his men back to him (that'll be a long wait). Then she notices the outside stairs that lead down into the cellar/basement area and gets an idea. She goes down the stairs and breaks open the window to the door to the basement, unlocking it and letting herself in. Action!Elena.
The vampire on guard outside where Stefan is being held is listening to an iPod. He senses Elena's presence and as he heads her way, Damon jabs him (possibly with a vervain dart? Possibly with a stake. Can't tell). "Are you insane?" he asks Elena.
Caroline is stuck in her car. It's dark. She has no signal. And she's getting bored. She takes her phone and gets out of the car, looking around for a signal. She slides down the hill, heading in the direction of the falls, but slows and stops before she gets too far. As she's pulling her way back up, she grabs something that draws her attention - mostly because it's Vicki's hand. It freaks her out, as you might expect.
In the bathroom at the Grill, Pearl wants to talk to Anna about Jeremy. Pearl is pretty pissed off that Anna is getting emotionally attached to a Gilbert, descendant of the guy who got Pearl put into the tomb. Anna defends Jeremy. Pearl tries to order Anna to stop seeing Jeremy, but Anna won't play that game - she's been on her own for a hundred and forty-five years, she can make her own choices. Pearl is certain that Jeremy will turn on Anna if he finds out the truth, like Jonathan Gilbert turned on her. When Anna tells her mother that Jeremy already knows and he still likes her anyway, Pearl slaps her.
As she leaves with her mother, Anna texts Jeremy a message - "I'll do it."
So, adding to violence not working to quell either Damon or Frederick, we can add that it doesn't work on Anna, either. Pearl is shooting 0/3 here.
At the vampire house of torture, Stefan takes a moment out of his pain to thank Harper for trying to help him out. Harper knows that Frederick and the others were looking for a scapegoat to take their rage out on. Elena bursts into the room - Stefan tells her that she shouldn't be there.
Damon slides in and says, "She was supposed to stay in the car." He's about to stake Harper when Stefan tells him to stop. Good enough for Damon. He's going for the ropes and Stefan mentions vervain, so Damon delegates that job to Elena and he delegates himself the job of easing Stefan's fall. Damon really wants to get this done - he tells Stefan to put his clothes on so that they can leave. Before Stefan leaves, he yanks out one of the stakes that Frederick's men had put through Harper's legs, asking Elena to get the other one. Damon tells Elena to get Stefan to the car - "You rescue, I'll distract."
It looks like we have four vampires left, all in the pool room. Frederick asks one of his minions to turn the music down, getting suspicious of Billy and Jacob's absences. The female vampire gets staked (by Damon?). Ah, Frederick still has four male minions to send out to investigate things.
Outside, Elena is trying to help Stefan along. He's struggling. They take a tumble to the ground and her hand gets scratched. It's bleeding. Stefan notices. She picks him back up and they stumble along.
Frederick sees another staked vampire and then Damon jumps him. They tussle and Damon is getting the better of Frederick when two of the remaining minions show up and grab him. Frederick darts away while Damon fights them. He's about to be attacked from behind by one of them when Alaric shoots his stake gun at the vampire and gets him. Damon gets up and heads out after Frederick.
Elena and Stefan have reached the car and she helps him into the passenger seat, but when she gets into the front seat, the keys are broken off. The window on Stefan's side smashes and Frederick hauls him out of the car. He starts beating Stefan up and kicking him around. When Frederick's about to stake Stefan (after non-fatally staking him once already), Elena manages to sneak up behind him and jab him with the dart of vervain. Stefan is looking pretty weak and Elena is getting worried.
In the house, Alaric gets jumped by a vampire. He manages to subdue the vampire with a vervain dart but not before getting a little bitten. Damon comes back into the room. Can't find Frederick. They head out of the house, Damon annoyed that he hasn't gotten to kill Frederick and they see some vampires approaching, so they retreat back into the house.
At Matt's house, Kelly has made dinner. Matt is somewhat surprised. Kelly promises Matt that, this time, she's really going to try. It's going to be different. Matt, still hopeful, agrees to try again. The doorbell rings and Matt goes to answer. Caroline is at the door and she's looking so serious that Matt asks her what happened - but then Sheriff Forbes comes in view, wanting to talk to Kelly, and Matt can tell that it's something very serious indeed.
Mayor Lockwood has gotten the call about Vicki's body and he tries to collect his son and leave. When Tyler protests, Richard lets him know that Vicki was found. Both Tyler and Jeremy are having an obvious moment of hope, that Richard coldly squelches by making it clear that it was a grave that was unearthed and that Vicki's body has been taken to the morgue. It hits Tyler and Jeremy hard.
Frederick is starting to recover from the dart, but Stefan isn't conscious. Desperate, Elena notices the cut on her hand and she makes a choice. She smears her blood over his lips. He tells her to run and she tells him to bite her hand. She tells him that she trusts him and offers her wrist again. This time, he bites down. Looks pretty painful.
Back in the house, Alaric wants to know if Damon was lying to him about being able to get info about Isobel because of this trip. Damon admits that he was. They're preparing for the end when they hear Pearl's voice talking to the other vampires. And she's not happy. Pearl opens the door and she and Anna enter.
"What did you do?"
"Me? Your merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my brother."
"Trust me, the parties responsible for this will be dealt with."
"Well, our little arrangement doesn't work unless you learn to control them."
"This wasn't supposed to happen."
"Well, it did. If I had a good side, not a way to get on it."
Damon leaves and Alaric follows him out. Pearl is left standing in the middle of a mess that she didn't want but that she didn't know how to prevent.
Frederick gets up and heads over to stake Stefan, but Stefan is strong enough to fight him on even terms now. Elena watches from behind a tree as Stefan stakes Frederick... and then keeps staking him, the rage overwhelming him. Elena gets kinda creeped out and grabs Stefan's arm. He turns toward her and growls, taking a moment to return to himself. His hand is covered in blood and he's horrified at himself.
Back at the Salvatore place, Stefan and Elena have a stilted and uncomfortable conversation. She has a hard time looking at him.
"What you did today, coming to help me... you could have been killed."
"I know."
"And what I did... I'm sorry that I... I'm sorry that you had to see it."
"I've just never... you were like this other person. And it's my fault. I made you-"
"No. You didn't make me do anything. You were saving my life. And I was saving yours."
He reaches out and strokes her cheek and she lets him. He promises that everything will be okay. Her phone rings and she brushes past him to pick it up. It's Jeremy, letting her know that Vicki's body was found.
At Matt's house, Caroline pours coffee for Kelly and her mom. Jeremy and Tyler are hanging out at a table together, while Matt sits alone in Vicki's room. Caroline brings him a cup. She asks if there's anything she can do and he tells her that he needs to be alone. The doorbell rings - Elena. When she comes up and sees Matt, she goes to him and hugs him tightly and he clings to her.
At the Mystic Grill, Damon slides into a seat at the bar next to Alaric.
"That was fun. Oh, don't look at me like that. I know you hate me. Guess what - everyone hates me. But you can't deny, we were bad-ass."
Alaric punches Damon in the face and then walks off.
"Happens," Damon says, downing the rest of his drink.
For Damon, Alaric proved himself to be practical, useful, and not a bad person to have on your side in a fight. He proved himself worthy of respect. And Alaric is probably having very complicated feelings of hating Damon, while grudgingly respecting the effort that he went to in order to save his brother and the way he did care about Elena's safety. The evil vampire that was so simple to Alaric before tonight has become a little more complicated.
Jeremy and Elena get home. She asks if he's okay and he just says that he's going off to get some sleep - also, obviously upset and not okay. Elena slides down the wall and props her foot up against the edge of the stairway. Jeremy shuts himself in his room, and Vicki is dead and he has to feel that suffering all over again. He goes to his desk and rips up the articles that he had about the mysterious animal attacks. And then Anna is there, asking him what's going on.
"My friend, Vicki. She's... she's dead."
"Vicki. The one you thought was a..."
"Yeah. Turns out she's been dead all along."
"She's the reason you wanted to turn. You wanted to be with her."
Jeremy has to look away, still crying, and when he looks back, an apology on his lips, Anna is gone.
At the Salvatore place, Damon walks in a room to find an empty blood bag and Stefan sitting on the floor, mouth messy, draining another one.
1. Alaric stakes Billy.
2. Damon snaps Miss Gibbons' neck.
3. Damon kills Jacob, a vampire.
4. I'm going to guess that Damon kills the guard, just... because it seems likely.
5. Damon kills the female vampire in residence.
6. Another of the vampires is dead on the pool table, killed by Damon.
7. Alaric takes out a vampire that was going for Damon.
8. Stefan stakes Frederick.
Damon's current kill count: 17
Stefan's current kill count: 5
Alaric's current kill count: 3
Katherine's current kill count: 2
Harper: 1
Isobel: 2
Alaric is bitten by a vampire that is nameless and won't matter for long.
1. Stefan bites Elena's wrist after she tells him to.
Damon's current bite count: 22
Katherine's current bite count: 4
Stefan's current bite count: 1
Anna/Pearl: 2
Harper: 1
Frederick: 1
Not sure whether or not Damon was compelling Miss Gibbons to tell the truth, so I won't count it.
Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 16
Katherine's current compelling count: 1
Isobel: 1
Pearl: 1
Frederick: 1
1. Anna talks to her mom about successfully grabbing the blood from the blood bank.
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 8 episodes, at least 9 days)
We start on a dark and stormy night in Elena's bedroom - it's the same night we ended on in the last episode. We travel on to the next day, when Stefan gets kidnapped. That night, Caroline finds Vicki's body and Elena, Damon, and Alaric rescue Stefan.
Time covered: 2 nights (one the same as last time)/1 day
Total time; pilot-FNB: 6 days/7 nights
I think that the biggest time jump - roughly 1 1/2 months, rests in between these two.
Total time; FT-Haunted: 9 days/9 nights
Total time; 162C: 2 nights/1 day
Total time; HR-Bloodlines: 4 days/3 nights
Total time; Unpleasantville: 3 days/3 nights
Total time; CotD-FMO: 2 days/2 nights
Time jump here, enough time for a funeral and for Bonnie to go off to stay with her aunt.
Total time; AFGM: 1 day/1 night
Time jump of unknown duration - however long it took for Frederick to get bored of being cooped up.
Total time; TGTN-: 2 days/2 nights
1. Stefan is shirtless for his torture.
No Bonnie; no visions.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-19 04:25 am (UTC)Pearl and Anna's troubles, Jeremy, Elena, Stefan, and Alaric all of them find out something new.
And Damon too - he finds another individual who he does not think is useless.
Basically, everybody needs a hug in this episode - except Pearl, who might not have died if she didn't TRY TO TALK EVERYONE OUT OF STUFF. OMG. She doesn't learn time and again and it's what gets her killed.
Well, and Damon doesn't need a hug, he got to kill some vampires, made a friend, and told Pearl who's in charge.
:)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-19 05:57 pm (UTC)And Damon's humanity is revealed to Alaric.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-19 06:34 pm (UTC)*giggles*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-20 04:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-20 04:55 am (UTC)(ah - I think that Stefan tells Lexi "It doesn't work like that" when she offers to exchange his ring for her mood ring)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-20 04:59 am (UTC)