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butterflyCurrently working on a fic for TVD called "The Problem With Heroes" (it starts out with canonical pairings and tensions). We'll see if that goes anywhere.
1x18 - Under Control
We open on Stefan trying to work out his urges by exercising. Not shirtless, though. Someone should tell him that purging works better when he's shirtless. Damon comes in to complain about the noise and to ask Stefan when he's going back to school. He's being all... guardian-like. Weird.
*pokes at him*
But then he moves on to taunting Stefan with his cup of blood and the world rights itself.
"How long did it take you to wean yourself off it the last time you indulged?"
You're not the only one who wants to know, Damon! But Stefan is so bad at sharing things that might possibly dim his halo. The only way we'll ever find out is if Elena discovers something and confronts him with it (as that's generally the only way we ever get information out of Stefan). Which seems unlikely.
"I haven't hunted a human in... god, way too long."
Depending on how 'hunting' is being defined:
a. the last time he fed on a human that we're aware of were the college women from "A Few Good Men" (1x15). Doubt there was hunting involved.
b. the last time he killed a human during feeding was "162 Candles" (1x08), and that was partly/primarily to set Lexi up.
c. the group slaughter of Vicki's friends was in "Lost Girls" (1x06).
Statistics! They come in handy. So, depending on how you count, it's been between three to twelve episodes since Damon went 'hunting' on-screen.
Damon is trying to get the town to stop looking for vampires (hence the low-profile), so he's annoyed that the tomb vampires are around, causing trouble. Well, at least you don't have to worry about Frederick and his faction anymore, Damon.
Stefan wants to know what "we" are going to be doing about the tomb vampires. Damon says that Stefan isn't going to be of much help without the strength he gets from human blood - oh, hello, Stefan's argument for drinking human blood in S2! What an unexpected and all-together shocking surprise to see you here in S1 and in Damon's mouth!
Theory: as Stefan lets Damon more and more into his life and Damon picks up the tricks of being nicer, Stefan is influenced by Damon as well. Potentially more dangerously, because Stefan doesn't seem to realize that he's tarnishing up that halo of his that he was so proud of in S1 and early S2 (whereas Damon seems very aware, if annoyed, by Stefan and Elena's positive influence on him).
"There's nothing wrong with partaking in a healthy diet of blood from a blood bank. You're not actually killing anyone."
"I have my reasons."
"What are those holier-than-thou reasons? You know, we've never actually discussed that. You know, I'd love to hear this story."
*waves hand*
ME TOO, DAMON! I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HEAR THIS STORY.
Fat chance, though. Unless, as previously mentioned, Elena uncovers whatever the reason was and confronts Stefan with it. Then we might find out.
Stefan claims that he has the blood addiction thing 'under complete control'. Damon seems a touch disappointed by that and leaves... without taking his cup of blood with him. Stefan stares at the blood, transfixed (I have to say, this arc was the hottest that I ever found Stefan. Paul Wesley has never stared at anything with the deep intensity that he has Stefan give to blood in this episode and "Miss Mystic Falls", and it's... yeah).
Damon comes back in and Stefan startles and looks away from the blood that Damon reclaims (and takes a sip of with a satisfied "Mmmm". You are so mean to your brother sometimes, Damon).
Elena is headed out to school and just opening the door when - bam, it's Uncle-Daddy John (currently just Uncle John). No one in the Gilbert family is excited to see him. Aw, John's smile on seeing Elena does seem very genuine; it gets less sincere when he turns to Jenna. Elena and Jeremy head off to school. Jenna totally hates Uncle John. It's kinda hilarious. She wants to know how long he plans to be in town. He's sad that his entire family hates him, you can tell (well, who wouldn't be?). John is the trustee of the Gilbert estate and he came back home to block the sale of the Gilbert doctor's office to Pearl. Also, probably because Isobel contacted him about Elena looking for her. I'm going to see exactly what John says in this episode to tease out what he knows. Because he attempts to give the impression of knowing everything, which he obviously doesn't.
At school, Elena is telling Matt about Uncle John being back for an open-ended visit. Matt doesn't like him either. He offers himself as Elena's moral support and he thanks her for being there for him during his grief over the discovery of his sister's death (that Elena knew about and has been covering up for... oh, a couple of months by now, possibly). We learn that Caroline has been baking, which Kelly has been absolutely hating, and that she's currently over at her dad's.
Tyler offers Jeremy a smoke, which Jeremy refuses. They're fairly companionable here, sitting and thinking about Vicki. Tyler tells us that the party line is that Vicki OD'd. Jeremy is under the impression that Vicki was doing 'okay' which, well, she was a functional druggie, but she was pretty focused on getting high basically any time she had free time. So... mileage might vary on that one, Jer. Jeremy also wonders if her fellow drug addicts would bother to bury her in the woods if she'd OD'd. Tyler wonders if "she saw something" - maybe thinking that someone killed her after her friends got killed and that maybe she'd seen the killer? He doesn't follow that train of thought, though, but there's an element of truth in it.
Damon has gone to the Founders' Hall to join the big meeting. Sheriff Forbes is briefing the council members on the official party line for Vicki's death. There are several people in this room that I'm not sure we've seen before or again - we need them back in the later half of S2! Damon is running the council now, basically. We should get to see him taking charge! Or something.
Now that Liz has given her report (and she and Damon share smiles when she goes to the back of the group to join him), it's Mayor Lockwood's turn to speak. He welcomes John Gilbert back to say a few words - Damon is immediately interested by the name 'Gilbert'. John is here to report distressing news. Liz and Damon are here to gossip about him ("Elena's uncle. His name is 'John' but I call him 'Jackass'."). We get a run-down of the recent vampire damage (in the last two weeks) within a 75 mile radius of Mystic Falls:
a. a blood bank in a neighboring county has been broken into several times
b. 7 hunters
c. 4 campers
d. 2 state employees
Mayor Lockwood doesn't want people to get alarmed (or cancel the Founders' Day kick-off party). But John is here to say that nothing has been solved. Still trouble, right here in River City. Damon isn't thrilled at this very vocal evidence that the council isn't cooling down.
Alaric is showing Elena Jeremy's paper on vampires. She hopes that Jeremy doesn't believe vampires are real: "Because I have done so much to protect him from all of this." Hiding information for other people's protection never goes well on this show. Papa Salvatore didn't want to tell his sons about vampires until it was nearly time to attack them. That didn't go well. Elena hid this stuff from Jeremy and Jenna, which has resulted in tons of dangerous vampires being invited into the house and Jenna getting stabbed (or, going back, Stefan not telling Elena led to her casually inviting Damon into the house and, going forward, poor Matt gets compelled by Katherine and almost dies trying to attack Tyler).
Alaric wants to know how Elena deals with the lies and secrets of dating a vampire.
"You have to lie to everyone that's important to you."
"It's not safe for them to know the truth. So, yes, I keep it from them, but it's only because I love them."
Oh, Elena. Do you think you would be one tiny bit safer if Stefan had been able to keep pulling the wool over your eyes?
"I think Stefan's a good guy, but at the end of the day, he's still a vampire."
"I know it's hard to understand, but Stefan's different. He would never do anything to hurt me."
Because he's a vampire with a soul.
...wait, wrong canon.
Jeremy doesn't get the point of going to the Founders' Day Kick-Off Party. You and me both, kid. John tells him that it's "tradition". No singing, though. Tradition is easier to swallow when it's sung. Jenna snarks about tradition while she snacks. John is all about the founding family stuff. "And with that distinction comes certain obligations." Like a stranglehold on the town that prevents anyone not from a founding family from ever holding a position of note.
Jenna snarks about the 'Gilbert family legacy' and how no one ever told her what it was because she wasn't a Gilbert. Well, Jenna, I'm sure your sister thought she was protecting you. Jeremy hates Uncle John significantly less than the rest of the family does. John says that he used to sleep with Jenna - she throws something at him. I'm not sure whether or not he's supposed to be on the level here or he was snarking.
Elena is telling Stefan about Jeremy's report.
"Do you think he's starting to remember?"
"Damon... took away those memories for good. You don't have to worry about that."
(Stefan's big brother is the most capable person ever! Have you heard?)
Stefan suggests that Elena just talk to Jeremy (ie subtly fish for information on how much he knows and, thus, how much Elena might have to reveal. Ah, that's very Stefan of him). Elena doesn't know how to talk to her brother anymore - she hasn't even told him about the adoption yet. There are so many secrets! Piling up! Stefan suggests a moderate opening up. "I'm not saying tell him everything, but at least find out what he does know. Be prepared for it." Seriously, is that not Stefan's MO? Discover what the person already knows and tell them about that specific subject as much as they like, while completely ignoring the related things that it might be helpful for them to know.
Elena has been worried about Stefan. She misses him. She's attempting to give him a massage. "It's only been a few days," he says, but he's missed her, too. And they kiss, which turns into making out. They roll over so that Elena is on top, until Stefan gets a little overcome and flips them back over hard, and there's more kissing until Elena starts to feel weirded out. She asks Stefan if something's wrong and his face is vamping out on us. He throws himself backwards against the wall (... I'm not sure about the physics of that move, but okay), knocking Elena's lamp off her dresser. He gets it under control, but both he and Elena are upset.
We cut to Elena opening the door for Damon - she's called him over to her house (presumably after Stefan was out of earshot).
"Oh, good. You're here."
"You ask, I come. I'm easy like that."
Ha! Delightful because Damon is being both mocking and honest. He did come just because she asked him to and she is honestly relieved to see him there when something's wrong with Stefan. They have come so far from the early days on the show (they are not back to this level of comfort with each other again, post-"The Return" but I think they'll get back there. It was a hell of a set-back but not insurmountable for this pair of characters in this universe under this set of circumstances).
She tries to shush him so that Jeremy won't know he's there. He, of course, immediately makes his presence and intentions very loudly known: "No, Elena, I will not go to your bedroom with you." Jeremy glances over but is amusingly disinterested and not surprised. Seriously, again, no wonder Jeremy was so shocked by Damon killing him. It's not something that fits into the way he was introduced to Damon at all.
"Ah, just like I remembered," Damon says when he gets in Elena's room (with permission this time, too). He picks up her teddy bear and makes himself comfortable on her bed. He also randomly and spontaneously shares information that is of interest to Elena without her needing to pry it out of him and/or discover it on her own first.
I know, after so much of Stefan's closed-mouth nature, this kind of rampant information sharing might well go to a person's head. But Damon is of the opinion that he and Elena are allies now, which means that they share information. He's so wacky.
"You know, did you know that your uncle's been kicking it with the founders' council?"
"What?"
"Yep."
"Perfect. We'll just add it to the growing list of how everything's falling apart."
As she speaks, Damon takes note of the damage Stefan left, like the broken lamp. He asks about it and Elena dodges. "Nothing," she says, which is... obviously a lie. Damon gives her a disbelieving look.
"Look, Damon, I'm worried about Stefan. He says that everything's okay but he's clearly struggling. How long is he going to take before he's back to normal?"
Damon, being capable of basic math, can add "nothing + worried about Stefan" and reach "= broken lamp". Hmm. Damon gets up and hands the teddy bear over to Elena, and distracts Elena by messing with her things (inspecting her bras and photos).
"The Stefan you know is 'good behavior' Stefan. 'Rein it in' Stefan. 'Fight against his nature to an annoyingly obsessive level'... Stefan. But if you think there's not another part to this then you have not been paying attention."
"He's not you. Not even close."
"Well, he doesn't want to be me. Doesn't mean deep down that he's not."
At the Salvatore place, Stefan is pacing around distracted. He goes over to Damon's big table of alcohol and pours himself a glass.
Elena goes to Jeremy's room to try that 'talking' thing. They go for a walk by the river and she tells him about the adoption. Elena was afraid that Jeremy might find it weird - btw, I really appreciate that Jeremy never throws any kind of 'not my real sister' BS in Elena's face when he finds out that she's been lying to him (at least, I don't think he does). Elena then tries to subtly grill her brother about his vampire paper. They tease each other and it's cute and then you remember how much they're lying to each other at this point and it's sad.
That night, we have the Founders' Kick-Off Party. Okay, here, the prop people remember that it should be "Founders' Day" (since there were multiple founders), so why is the final episode of the season called "Founder's Day"?
Lots of people partying it up in the Lockwood mansion. Stefan and Damon arrive at the party together. Stefan doesn't think he should be there, Damon thinks it's super-appropriate that they're there, considering that they were actually alive when the town was founded.
"I really liked you a whole lot better when you hated everybody."
"Oh, I still do. I just love that they love me."
Ha. Also, Stefan's attitude here is interesting - Damon is becoming involved in the community, not killing people, in general becoming a better person all around. Now, Stefan later says that he feels like it doesn't count because Damon is doing it for the 'wrong reasons', but doing a thing, even for the wrong reasons, can help ingrain that into our operating systems. Positive feedback loop.
Damon asks after Stefan's urges and notes that he's been drinking all day.
"Nothing would make you happier than to just see me give in, huh, Damon?"
"Whatever. It's inevitable."
And, looking at S2 - maybe. Stefan found a way (borrowed Damon's excuse; whatever) to give himself a reason to get back on the human blood. And he even has Elena actively supporting it! So, basically... Damon was right all along and Stefan did just need to get over his desire not to drink human blood? Is that the lesson we're meant to learn in the long run? I mean, currently, it seems like Damon was completely and totally right about the human blood issue on all counts. Unless we get more out of the latter half of S2 about it, I'm basically left with 'Damon was right all along'.
Stefan goes off to find Elena, downing a drink along the way.
Mayor Lockwood is paying his respects to Kelly and Matt for losing Vicki. Kelly goes off to find a drink. She left too early, because Tyler pops around to offer an entire bottle to Matt, and they go off together. We cut from Matt swigging from his bottle to Stefan drinking another glass down. He spots Elena and waves to her and she makes her way over to him. She notices right away that he's acting kinda drunk. She wonders if she should be worried; he says that she shouldn't at all. He's just drinking until the cravings go away. He tells her to enjoy the drunk!Stefan and invites her to dance with him. Elena points out that the dance floor is empty, so Stefan offers to change the music.
Kelly warns Elena that it won't work; she already tried. No worries, though, Stefan is just going to compel the guy. Then Stefan goes out to dance with Kelly (enthusiastically) while Damon sidles up next to Elena, who is concerned.
D: "Have I entered an alternate universe where Stefan is fun?"
E: "Is he going to be okay?"
D: "Eventually. One way or another."
The dancing is in full swing. Elena is currently talking to Jenna and still not dancing with Stefan. Took her a little while to get around to that. Elena spots Alaric. Alaric is happy to see Jenna - she hasn't seen him around much recently. They go off for drinks together. Now, Matt comes up to Elena, and he's pretty surprised that the party actually appears to be fun now. He asks her to dance and pulls her into his arms over her protests.
Damon spots Liz at the party, all dressed up, and he smiles and pays her a compliment: "Ah, you know I love a woman in uniform, but I have to side with this look. You look... you look smashing." She thanks him and they tap glasses. She says that she'd needed it - and, yeah, she looked lonely, standing there by herself.
"It's really nice how welcoming the council's been. I like my life here in Mystic Falls. It's starting to feel like home again."
And I'm going to say that this is absolutely true. Like I said back in "There Goes the Neighborhood" - he likes what he has going on with this town and these people and he doesn't want to hand it over to Pearl. He's invested quite a bit into Mystic Falls since he's come back to town and that only increases as time passes.scy and I have been talking about about Damon and his interactions as being very wolf-like - very social pack animal-like, to make it broader. For years, Damon was operating as a lone agent, but now that he's reconciled with his brother and settled in Mystic Falls, he's begun treating the town like a personal territory (Stefan gets in, of course, under Damon's protection, but other major forces are people that Damon needs to negotiate with and mostly would prefer just stay out of 'his town'). And he doesn't like anything that disturbs that territory.
Liz lets Damon know that Uncle John's story checks out - looks like there are still vampires around. While Damon is trying to think of something to say, Jeremy comes up to Liz to talk to her in her capacity as Sheriff. He wants to talk about Vicki. He's curious, asking questions and whatnot. Liz gives him the official "can't tell you anything" police line, but it's obvious that he doesn't like it.
Elena twirls away from Matt and Stefan is there, asking her to dance. She does, but he spins her right into a major league jerk. "I'm sorry, my fault. I'm clumsy," Elena says, but the guy is, I'm guessing, also drunk like half the main characters, because he just gets belligerent (I saw reviews in other places of people going "no guy would ever treat anyone as hot as Nina like that, no matter how hard she bumped him!" and just have to say... they haven't seen enough ugly drunks). Stefan gets pissed and compels the guy to apologize to Elena. But it's not good enough, so Stefan grabs him again and compels him to apologize a second time "like you mean it". Stefan checks on Elena, not realizing that his behavior has freaked her more than rude drunk guy did.
Damon is at the bar getting a drink when Elena comes up to him. It's time for an information-sharing session!
"Have you noticed what your brother's been up to?"
"Nope. Been too preoccupied with yours. Jeremy's been asking questions about Vicki Donovan's death."
"He knows that her death was ruled an overdose."
"Oh, but Sheriff! Someone buried her. Who would do that? I know, I know! Me! I mean, I could compel him, but he's wearing vervain."
"No. No, I don't want you to compel him."
"If he keeps asking questions..."
"Damon, no. I'm serious. I'm not going to do that to him again. I'll handle it."
"Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Damon plucks a rose from a nearby arrangement, smells it to make sure it has a nice scent, and hands it to Elena. Jeremy is Elena's brother, so Damon gives her the final call about whether or not he should be compelled - if she doesn't want it and she's serious about it, he won't do it. Which is, of course, yet another reason why Elena is so shocked and horrified by what Damon does in "The Return" - he's not respecting her relationship with Jeremy. All up through that point on the show, all the ways that Damon relates to Jeremy are through his relationship with Elena. Whether like in the beginning, when he sends Vicki after Jeremy because he's "Elena's brother", to compelling him for Elena's sake, to telling him to knock off being a jerk to his sister. With the neck-snapping moment, Damon chooses his own desire to release his violently painful emotions over his respect for Elena's relationship with her brother. He violates that boundary line that both of them drew when Elena had let Damon know that, when it comes to Jeremy, she has the final call. Interestingly enough, it's that violation that leads to Jeremy seeking Damon out (to kill him but not be able to go through with it) and now they're developing some kind of relationship that isn't about Elena (though Damon tries to lob it back to her; Jeremy is damned persistent, though).
And the timing of him giving her the rose is interesting - it happens when she makes a request of him and draws a boundary line (no compelling Jeremy), and he agrees to go along with it. It further emphasizes that this is something that he's doing because he likes and respects Elena, rather than for any other reason. And, of course, the red rose is the lovers' rose - passion, love, respect, etc. He's attracted to her; he likes her; he respects her.
Kelly is drinking some more (people actually drink a whole lot on this show, some responsibly and some very much not so). She puts her empty glass in a potted plant (so random - seriously, all the tables were too far to walk to?) and Tyler sees what she did there. He escorts her to the ladies' room and she snags his glass, thrilled when it's vodka and not soda.
Damon is out on the balcony and smiles when he hears the crunch of Uncle John's feet walking up behind him.
"Damon, right?"
"John."
"We didn't get a chance to meet at the council meeting."
"Yeah, it's a pleasure. You enjoying the kick-off?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot how much fun these small-town celebrations can be."
"Yeah, yeah. When's the last time you were here?"
"Hasn't been that long. My brother's funeral. How long have you been in town?"
"Oh, not long at all."
"So, what do you think, Damon - you know this vampire problem is real, right? Potential bloodbath."
"Well, I wouldn't overreact, John."
"Oh, I think it's like 1864 all over again. Vampires running amuck. I guess we're just going to have to hunt them down, throw them in a church, and burn them to ash."
"That is the story, huh?"
"Part of the story."
"Oh, there's... there's more?"
Two men meet on a lonely balcony, each evaluating the potential threat that the other one might be. John confronting Damon with the knowledge that he already knows some of what's up reminds me a bit of Katherine confronting George (I believe) Lockwood, just in the format that it takes.
John believes that he has the upper hand because of his nifty supernatural no-kill ring, but all the enemy has to do is get the ring off the finger and then it's useless - Damon illustrates the danger of that kind of thinking to Jeremy in "Brave New World". John also believes that he has one-up on Damon because he has information from Isobel (and thus Katherine) - he probably also has the Gilbert journals. So, he does have several sources of information. But he also thinks that he's more important than he is - in the end, he's just a pawn to Katherine, and none of his attempted 'protection' of Elena does anything to make her pull away from the vampires in her life.
Damon attempts to take care of the potential threat of Uncle John by snapping his neck and throwing him off the balcony. Damon really does react predictably to powerful new people that he doesn't trust - he tries to kill them. He wants to get rid of a potential danger in the most final way possible. This is probably another thing that it would be good for him to moderate - as Stefan suggests re: Mason, possibly trying diplomacy first might be a neat thing to try sometime. Just to see how it goes.
Jeremy is staring listlessly into the Lockwood fireplace, all alone, when Elena sees him and comes in to sit beside him. He's upset that no one is looking into Vicki's death (note: my aunt died of a probable drug overdose. My grandma found her. Not pleasant stuff). Jeremy wants to know if Elena believes the party line about Vicki OD'ing, because he thinks that Vicki was murdered.
"They're just doing what they can to move on."
"The truth is the only thing that's going to help people move on."
And, of course, Elena does want the truth for herself - but she wants the pretty packaged lies for the rest of her family. It's not an uncommon hypocrisy (I'm sure that she'll be upset about Damon compelling her when that comes out and I won't blame her for that, any more than I blame Jeremy for being pissed off at her). She wants to be able to know the truth, but she also hates knowing the truth (she admits to this back in "Haunted"), so she alternates between embracing it and hiding from it.
Jeremy has noticed the odd phrasing that Elena used ("whatever it was that killed Vicki") and she fumbles when he confronts her, which makes him pretty suspicious. He flat-out asks her if there are things she's not telling him, and she lies to him.
Tyler and Kelly are wandering around and drinking. Kelly doesn't want to think about Vicki and what happened to her. Even thinking about thinking about it is a little too overwhelming. Tyler hates that he was so horrible to Vicki when she was alive and now he can't fix any of it and he feels like he doesn't even have the right to grieve over her loss because of what a jerk he was to her. This confession apparently turns Kelly on, because she latches onto Tyler's coat and makes flirty eyes at him while she tells him that it's nice to talk to someone.
Matt runs into Elena in the hallway - he's surprised that the Founders' Party is enjoyable; Elena lets him know that most years, it really isn't. Matt wants to know if he should feel guilty over having fun and Elena reassures him that it's okay, and they hug. He invites her outside for some air. She takes a look over at Stefan - drinking and not doing much of anything - and agrees to go with Matt. After a couple more concerned looks at Stefan, she and Matt head out.
They immediately see Kelly and Tyler making out. Matt yanks Tyler away and asks what's going on. Matt punches Tyler and Tyler punches back and when Matt falls backward, he accidentally rams into Kelly, who falls down against a table (brings it down as well). Matt is on the ground and Tyler can't stop punching him. Alaric sees the fight and runs over to yank Tyler off Matt, and Elena goes to Matt's side to check on him. Mayor Lockwood comes in and takes charge of his son, herding him off. Matt asks Elena about his mom, but she's wandered off.
Stefan grabs another drink as Damon catches up to him.
"Do you want to hear the bad news or the really bad news?"
"Actually, I don't want any news, Damon."
"All right, let me re-phrase. Do you want to hear how the council's back in vampire mode or how I just killed Uncle John Gilbert?"
"What?"
"Great party, by the way, huh?"
Damon tries to flit off and Stefan starts to follow him when he gets... distracted. He can hear Kelly sobbing and smell her bleeding. He find her, asks her if she's all right (she isn't). Kelly is upset that she's screwed everything up again, but Stefan isn't really listening. He sinks down to be on a level with her, his eyes fixed on her forehead, where she's bleeding. He reaches out and traces his finger over the drops of blood, smearing them over her forehead as she starts to get a creeped out vibe. He snaps out of his trance and pulls his fingers away, apologizing and abruptly leaving.
He rushes outside and looks down at his fingers, coated in Kelly's blood. He tries to fight it, but he gives in eventually, sucking her blood off his fingers.
Back inside the party, Damon is having a good time... until the door opens and Uncle John walks back inside, no longer dead. Mayor Lockwood is officially welcoming everyone to the party and talking about how special this year's Founders' Day is - 150 year anniversary. John Gilbert gets called up to ring the original charter bell as a special honor.
"One hundred and fifty years of community, prosperity, family. We take care of each other. We look after each other. We protect each other. It's good to be home."
Damon sidles over to Alaric to tell him to look at John's right hand. Alaric notes that, yes, it looks just like his.
"Well, and that would be a big coincidence if he hadn't just come back from the dead five minutes ago. Where the hell did you get that ring?"
"Isobel, my wife."
Okay, thing that I kinda love in a hilarious way - does Alaric think to himself, 'hmm, Damon has killed another person with a no-kill ring. perhaps I should ally myself with this new potential vampire hunter?' No. He doesn't. Instead, he continues to confab with Damon, allowing Damon to encroach on his personal bubble. It's somewhat impressive how so many people don't even seem to realize that they've put themselves on Damon's side pretty much by accident.
"Who gave birth to Elena, under the esteemed medical care of Doctor Grayson Gilbert - John's brother."
"Do you think John knew Isobel?"
"I think John knows a lot of things."
Stefan is trying to walk off his urges after his shiny taste of Kelly's blood, when he runs into the jerk from earlier. The guy is still belligerent (I wonder if he's a Lockwood and has the werewolf temper gene? Or he could just be a jerk.) and deliberately puts himself in Stefan's way. Stefan tries to warn the guy off, but drunk guy is spoiling for a fight. When he goes for a punch, Stefan grabs his fist and squeezes until there are these disgusting little noises, eventually driving the man to his knees. The guy is pretty freaked out, plus he's seen Stefan's vamped out face.
Jeremy has gotten home to the Gilbert house and listens to hear if anyone else is home. Then he sneaks up to his sister's room and starts searching it for her journal. He's a pretty thorough investigator, finally finding the journal behind the painting over her bed.
Words I can make out easily:
but how can I deny it
Bodies drained of blood
protect my brother?
take away Jeremy's pain...
without Vicki
that Vicki was a monster?
Elena comes out to the front lawn, looking for Stefan. He turns and sees her, and zips away. She seems to catch the movement, at least, and heads in the direction he'd been, coming across the man lying on the ground. Elena asks the guy if he's okay, trying to find out what happened to him.
"My arm... I lost my balance and fell. I'm clumsy."
Elena looks around for Stefan, her mind not at ease.
At the party, Tyler apologizes to his dad. While Tyler tries to explain how out-of-control he felt to his dad, his dad smacks him across the face and warns him never to embarrass his family again. I really hope that Tyler manages to break the cycle of violence. I think he has a good chance, with Caroline in his corner.
Back at the Donovan place, Matt is packing his mother's things into a suitcase.
"I'm not leaving you."
"Don't you get it? I'm better off without you."
"No! Tonight was a... I'm so sorry. I know I failed you and I failed Vicki but I won't do it to you again. I promise I'll get it together."
"I want you out of the house... and my life by morning."
And he walks away.
We know that Matt's been paying the bills (as much as he can) for a while. He's given his mother so many chances. And she always promises the same thing (because they always do). But... it never works. It never really does. Change has to come from the inside to stick. And people can only be strong for so long, yeah? If she would just try to try, Matt said a couple of episodes ago. But she doesn't. She apologizes - after the fact - but never actually changes her behavior. She goes to the Grill to interview for a job and ends up getting drunk in front of her kid instead. Her entire life is a thousand apologies that don't mean anything and, yes, I do feel sorry for her. I do. But Matt shouldn't be forced to give up his life in service of her addiction. And that's what he would be doing.
I don't try to change my dad anymore. He gets drunk and sometimes he yells and if it gets bad enough, I leave. I'll probably never stop going to see him, because I do love him, but I can't change him. I tried for years and it was just heartbreak after heartbreak. He's a grown-up. If he wants to get help, he can.
So, yeah. And Matt has it worse off than I did, growing up. My parents have always been able to hold down jobs (though my mom had to leave a job once because my dad hit on her boss's wife at an office party), so they aren't as badly off as Kelly. But it's a crappy situation and it's made worse because, as the kid, you are completely helpless to make anything better. But Matt has a job and he's paying the bills and so if he is in a position to tell Kelly that he doesn't need her in his life... I think it's healthy of him to do that.
Okay, and now we end the Al-Anon portion of tonight's recap (people might ask - hey, what about Damon? Isn't giving him a bunch of chances similar to giving them to Kelly but worse because of the whole 'killer' thing? He was even drunk the night that he snapped Jeremy's neck. But a difference for me is that I actually do see a clear and demonstrable change occurring in Damon. He also doesn't have a pattern of false positives, like Kelly does. There's more (such as fantasy vs reality and also that Damon does show an ability to be responsible), but this side note is too long already).
Damon and Alaric follow John out of the party.
D: "Going somewhere?"
J: "Never liked to be the last one to leave a party. It's too desperate. You here to kill me again? Or are you going to let Mr. Saltzman do your dirty work?"
A: "Okay, you obviously know who I am."
J: "I do. Alaric Saltzman, a high school history teacher with a secret."
D: "Sure know a lot for someone who just got to town."
J: "More than you can imagine, Damon. My knowledge of this town goes beyond anything that you or you or the council knows. So, if you were planning on some clever high-speed snatch-ring vamp-kill move, know that if I die, everything I know goes to the council. Including the fascinating little tale of the original Salvatore brothers and their present day return to Mystic Falls."
A: "How'd you get that ring?"
J: "I inherited one. My brother, Gray, the other. This was his. I wouldn't have given mine to Isobel had I known she'd hand it over to another guy."
D: "So, you did know her."
J: "Who do you think sent her your way when she wanted to become a vampire?"
D: "You sent her?"
J: "Guilty. Why, did you think someone else sent her? Maybe Katherine Pierce."
D: "How do you know about Katherine?"
J: "How do I know anything, Damon?"
D: "What do you want?"
J: "So many questions. It's a pleasure meeting you, Ric. I've heard so much about you."
And now both Damon and Alaric are creeped out and annoyed by this man's knowledge of their personal affairs. Again, I think that John overplayed his hand. He was trying to be overpowering and 'masterful', no doubt, but ended up being overbearing. Plus, he's working with outdated information. He got his information from Isobel, who got what she knew about the Salvatore brothers from Katherine. Isobel and Katherine could certainly tell him some things about Damon, Stefan, and Alaric, but Damon has spent a lot of time not anywhere near either of them. Plus, neither Isobel nor Katherine have been around to see the aftermath of Damon realizing that Katherine didn't give a shit about him or at least not enough of one to seek him out (which he does verify in "The Return").
Jenna and Elena get home, complaining about the idea of a whole month more of Founders' Day events. Elena checks in on Jeremy, who says that he's fine. Aw, poor Jeremy. His whole world has shifted. Elena goes in her room and takes her jacket off, only to be startled by seeing Stefan in her mirror. He looks rough. She asks him if everything is okay and he confesses that it is not. Elena closes the connecting door to the bathroom and tries to get Stefan to talk to her. Haltingly, he confesses about almost feeding on the guy in the park and having Kelly's blood on his hands (he doesn't actually mention licking it off, and I'm not sure whether or not Elena assumes that he did). The hunger is worse than it's ever been before in his life (seriously, I am so curious about why he didn't get this kind of reaction going on in S2 - is it because his body hadn't fully re-adjusted back to animal blood anyway?). He tells her that he's telling her because he promised he would never keep anything from her. Well, that lasted for... um, a couple of hours? However long after this that it is that he drinks that glass of blood and doesn't fess up. I'm kinda sad that Stefan's uncharacteristic openness is so short-lived.
Elena is glad that he's telling her this kind of thing, but Stefan hates that she's seeing him this way. "I don't want you to know that this side of me exists." Again, it seems that Damon was right.
"Stefan, you're going to get through this. I'm going to help you pull through. It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."
But it's too hard for him to be close to her right now, with the blood-lust so close to the surface. "I'm afraid of what I could do to you," he tells her.
"I'm not," she says. She goes to him and kisses him and tells him again that she's not afraid.
Stefan arrives back at the house, where Damon is staring into the fire.
"We have a problem, Stefan. And when I say problem, I mean global crisis. Seems Uncle John has a-"
But then Damon notices the way that Stefan is circling, staring at the glass of blood in Damon's hand. "You don't look so good. It's different this time, isn't it? The need is too strong. Of course, it would be after all these years." Damon puts his glass down on the table and approaches Stefan, stroking his shoulder. "Have a good night, brother." And he walks out, without the glass. And this time it isn't a tease.
Stefan picks up the glass, stares down into it, and gives in.
Deaths:
1. Damon snaps John's neck and throws him off the balcony. It doesn't stick, but John was killed.
Damon's current kill count: 18
Stefan's current kill count: 5
Alaric's current kill count: 3
Katherine's current kill count: 2
Harper: 1
Isobel: 2
Vamp Bites:
No vampire bites this episode!
Damon's current bite count: 22
Katherine's current bite count: 4
Stefan's current bite count: 1
Anna/Pearl: 2
Harper: 1
Compelled:
1. Stefan compels the DJ to play more dance-y music.
2. Stefan twice compels the jerk to apologize to Elena.
3. Stefan compels the jerk to explain his injured hand by calling himself 'clumsy'.
Stefan's current compelling count: 5
Damon's current compelling count: 16
Katherine's current compelling count: 1
Isobel: 1
Pearl: 1
Bechdel:
We need more Bonnie and Caroline up in these episodes! But Elena and Jenna do briefly bond over the horror of another month of Founders' Day events.
Stefan/Elena Relationship:
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 10 episodes, at least three weeks)
Timeline:
We open on a day that's definitely a few days after "Let the Right One In", time enough for Vicki to have had a funeral/memorial. That day, John arrives in town.
The Founders' Kick-Off is that night. And "Founder's Day" happens one month later, we're told, so that's how long UC-FD last as an episode set. One month.
Time covered: 1 day/1 night
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-LTROI: 2 days/2 nights
Time jump for Vicki's funeral and memorial. John mentions a time period of 'two weeks' - but that might be from the tomb opening and the vampires getting out.
Total time; UC: 1 day/1 night
Shirtless shots:
None.
Bonnie's Visions:
No Bonnie this episode.
We open on Stefan trying to work out his urges by exercising. Not shirtless, though. Someone should tell him that purging works better when he's shirtless. Damon comes in to complain about the noise and to ask Stefan when he's going back to school. He's being all... guardian-like. Weird.
*pokes at him*
But then he moves on to taunting Stefan with his cup of blood and the world rights itself.
"How long did it take you to wean yourself off it the last time you indulged?"
You're not the only one who wants to know, Damon! But Stefan is so bad at sharing things that might possibly dim his halo. The only way we'll ever find out is if Elena discovers something and confronts him with it (as that's generally the only way we ever get information out of Stefan). Which seems unlikely.
"I haven't hunted a human in... god, way too long."
Depending on how 'hunting' is being defined:
a. the last time he fed on a human that we're aware of were the college women from "A Few Good Men" (1x15). Doubt there was hunting involved.
b. the last time he killed a human during feeding was "162 Candles" (1x08), and that was partly/primarily to set Lexi up.
c. the group slaughter of Vicki's friends was in "Lost Girls" (1x06).
Statistics! They come in handy. So, depending on how you count, it's been between three to twelve episodes since Damon went 'hunting' on-screen.
Damon is trying to get the town to stop looking for vampires (hence the low-profile), so he's annoyed that the tomb vampires are around, causing trouble. Well, at least you don't have to worry about Frederick and his faction anymore, Damon.
Stefan wants to know what "we" are going to be doing about the tomb vampires. Damon says that Stefan isn't going to be of much help without the strength he gets from human blood - oh, hello, Stefan's argument for drinking human blood in S2! What an unexpected and all-together shocking surprise to see you here in S1 and in Damon's mouth!
Theory: as Stefan lets Damon more and more into his life and Damon picks up the tricks of being nicer, Stefan is influenced by Damon as well. Potentially more dangerously, because Stefan doesn't seem to realize that he's tarnishing up that halo of his that he was so proud of in S1 and early S2 (whereas Damon seems very aware, if annoyed, by Stefan and Elena's positive influence on him).
"There's nothing wrong with partaking in a healthy diet of blood from a blood bank. You're not actually killing anyone."
"I have my reasons."
"What are those holier-than-thou reasons? You know, we've never actually discussed that. You know, I'd love to hear this story."
*waves hand*
ME TOO, DAMON! I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HEAR THIS STORY.
Fat chance, though. Unless, as previously mentioned, Elena uncovers whatever the reason was and confronts Stefan with it. Then we might find out.
Stefan claims that he has the blood addiction thing 'under complete control'. Damon seems a touch disappointed by that and leaves... without taking his cup of blood with him. Stefan stares at the blood, transfixed (I have to say, this arc was the hottest that I ever found Stefan. Paul Wesley has never stared at anything with the deep intensity that he has Stefan give to blood in this episode and "Miss Mystic Falls", and it's... yeah).
Damon comes back in and Stefan startles and looks away from the blood that Damon reclaims (and takes a sip of with a satisfied "Mmmm". You are so mean to your brother sometimes, Damon).
Elena is headed out to school and just opening the door when - bam, it's Uncle-Daddy John (currently just Uncle John). No one in the Gilbert family is excited to see him. Aw, John's smile on seeing Elena does seem very genuine; it gets less sincere when he turns to Jenna. Elena and Jeremy head off to school. Jenna totally hates Uncle John. It's kinda hilarious. She wants to know how long he plans to be in town. He's sad that his entire family hates him, you can tell (well, who wouldn't be?). John is the trustee of the Gilbert estate and he came back home to block the sale of the Gilbert doctor's office to Pearl. Also, probably because Isobel contacted him about Elena looking for her. I'm going to see exactly what John says in this episode to tease out what he knows. Because he attempts to give the impression of knowing everything, which he obviously doesn't.
At school, Elena is telling Matt about Uncle John being back for an open-ended visit. Matt doesn't like him either. He offers himself as Elena's moral support and he thanks her for being there for him during his grief over the discovery of his sister's death (that Elena knew about and has been covering up for... oh, a couple of months by now, possibly). We learn that Caroline has been baking, which Kelly has been absolutely hating, and that she's currently over at her dad's.
Tyler offers Jeremy a smoke, which Jeremy refuses. They're fairly companionable here, sitting and thinking about Vicki. Tyler tells us that the party line is that Vicki OD'd. Jeremy is under the impression that Vicki was doing 'okay' which, well, she was a functional druggie, but she was pretty focused on getting high basically any time she had free time. So... mileage might vary on that one, Jer. Jeremy also wonders if her fellow drug addicts would bother to bury her in the woods if she'd OD'd. Tyler wonders if "she saw something" - maybe thinking that someone killed her after her friends got killed and that maybe she'd seen the killer? He doesn't follow that train of thought, though, but there's an element of truth in it.
Damon has gone to the Founders' Hall to join the big meeting. Sheriff Forbes is briefing the council members on the official party line for Vicki's death. There are several people in this room that I'm not sure we've seen before or again - we need them back in the later half of S2! Damon is running the council now, basically. We should get to see him taking charge! Or something.
Now that Liz has given her report (and she and Damon share smiles when she goes to the back of the group to join him), it's Mayor Lockwood's turn to speak. He welcomes John Gilbert back to say a few words - Damon is immediately interested by the name 'Gilbert'. John is here to report distressing news. Liz and Damon are here to gossip about him ("Elena's uncle. His name is 'John' but I call him 'Jackass'."). We get a run-down of the recent vampire damage (in the last two weeks) within a 75 mile radius of Mystic Falls:
a. a blood bank in a neighboring county has been broken into several times
b. 7 hunters
c. 4 campers
d. 2 state employees
Mayor Lockwood doesn't want people to get alarmed (or cancel the Founders' Day kick-off party). But John is here to say that nothing has been solved. Still trouble, right here in River City. Damon isn't thrilled at this very vocal evidence that the council isn't cooling down.
Alaric is showing Elena Jeremy's paper on vampires. She hopes that Jeremy doesn't believe vampires are real: "Because I have done so much to protect him from all of this." Hiding information for other people's protection never goes well on this show. Papa Salvatore didn't want to tell his sons about vampires until it was nearly time to attack them. That didn't go well. Elena hid this stuff from Jeremy and Jenna, which has resulted in tons of dangerous vampires being invited into the house and Jenna getting stabbed (or, going back, Stefan not telling Elena led to her casually inviting Damon into the house and, going forward, poor Matt gets compelled by Katherine and almost dies trying to attack Tyler).
Alaric wants to know how Elena deals with the lies and secrets of dating a vampire.
"You have to lie to everyone that's important to you."
"It's not safe for them to know the truth. So, yes, I keep it from them, but it's only because I love them."
Oh, Elena. Do you think you would be one tiny bit safer if Stefan had been able to keep pulling the wool over your eyes?
"I think Stefan's a good guy, but at the end of the day, he's still a vampire."
"I know it's hard to understand, but Stefan's different. He would never do anything to hurt me."
Because he's a vampire with a soul.
...wait, wrong canon.
Jeremy doesn't get the point of going to the Founders' Day Kick-Off Party. You and me both, kid. John tells him that it's "tradition". No singing, though. Tradition is easier to swallow when it's sung. Jenna snarks about tradition while she snacks. John is all about the founding family stuff. "And with that distinction comes certain obligations." Like a stranglehold on the town that prevents anyone not from a founding family from ever holding a position of note.
Jenna snarks about the 'Gilbert family legacy' and how no one ever told her what it was because she wasn't a Gilbert. Well, Jenna, I'm sure your sister thought she was protecting you. Jeremy hates Uncle John significantly less than the rest of the family does. John says that he used to sleep with Jenna - she throws something at him. I'm not sure whether or not he's supposed to be on the level here or he was snarking.
Elena is telling Stefan about Jeremy's report.
"Do you think he's starting to remember?"
"Damon... took away those memories for good. You don't have to worry about that."
(Stefan's big brother is the most capable person ever! Have you heard?)
Stefan suggests that Elena just talk to Jeremy (ie subtly fish for information on how much he knows and, thus, how much Elena might have to reveal. Ah, that's very Stefan of him). Elena doesn't know how to talk to her brother anymore - she hasn't even told him about the adoption yet. There are so many secrets! Piling up! Stefan suggests a moderate opening up. "I'm not saying tell him everything, but at least find out what he does know. Be prepared for it." Seriously, is that not Stefan's MO? Discover what the person already knows and tell them about that specific subject as much as they like, while completely ignoring the related things that it might be helpful for them to know.
Elena has been worried about Stefan. She misses him. She's attempting to give him a massage. "It's only been a few days," he says, but he's missed her, too. And they kiss, which turns into making out. They roll over so that Elena is on top, until Stefan gets a little overcome and flips them back over hard, and there's more kissing until Elena starts to feel weirded out. She asks Stefan if something's wrong and his face is vamping out on us. He throws himself backwards against the wall (... I'm not sure about the physics of that move, but okay), knocking Elena's lamp off her dresser. He gets it under control, but both he and Elena are upset.
We cut to Elena opening the door for Damon - she's called him over to her house (presumably after Stefan was out of earshot).
"Oh, good. You're here."
"You ask, I come. I'm easy like that."
Ha! Delightful because Damon is being both mocking and honest. He did come just because she asked him to and she is honestly relieved to see him there when something's wrong with Stefan. They have come so far from the early days on the show (they are not back to this level of comfort with each other again, post-"The Return" but I think they'll get back there. It was a hell of a set-back but not insurmountable for this pair of characters in this universe under this set of circumstances).
She tries to shush him so that Jeremy won't know he's there. He, of course, immediately makes his presence and intentions very loudly known: "No, Elena, I will not go to your bedroom with you." Jeremy glances over but is amusingly disinterested and not surprised. Seriously, again, no wonder Jeremy was so shocked by Damon killing him. It's not something that fits into the way he was introduced to Damon at all.
"Ah, just like I remembered," Damon says when he gets in Elena's room (with permission this time, too). He picks up her teddy bear and makes himself comfortable on her bed. He also randomly and spontaneously shares information that is of interest to Elena without her needing to pry it out of him and/or discover it on her own first.
I know, after so much of Stefan's closed-mouth nature, this kind of rampant information sharing might well go to a person's head. But Damon is of the opinion that he and Elena are allies now, which means that they share information. He's so wacky.
"You know, did you know that your uncle's been kicking it with the founders' council?"
"What?"
"Yep."
"Perfect. We'll just add it to the growing list of how everything's falling apart."
As she speaks, Damon takes note of the damage Stefan left, like the broken lamp. He asks about it and Elena dodges. "Nothing," she says, which is... obviously a lie. Damon gives her a disbelieving look.
"Look, Damon, I'm worried about Stefan. He says that everything's okay but he's clearly struggling. How long is he going to take before he's back to normal?"
Damon, being capable of basic math, can add "nothing + worried about Stefan" and reach "= broken lamp". Hmm. Damon gets up and hands the teddy bear over to Elena, and distracts Elena by messing with her things (inspecting her bras and photos).
"The Stefan you know is 'good behavior' Stefan. 'Rein it in' Stefan. 'Fight against his nature to an annoyingly obsessive level'... Stefan. But if you think there's not another part to this then you have not been paying attention."
"He's not you. Not even close."
"Well, he doesn't want to be me. Doesn't mean deep down that he's not."
At the Salvatore place, Stefan is pacing around distracted. He goes over to Damon's big table of alcohol and pours himself a glass.
Elena goes to Jeremy's room to try that 'talking' thing. They go for a walk by the river and she tells him about the adoption. Elena was afraid that Jeremy might find it weird - btw, I really appreciate that Jeremy never throws any kind of 'not my real sister' BS in Elena's face when he finds out that she's been lying to him (at least, I don't think he does). Elena then tries to subtly grill her brother about his vampire paper. They tease each other and it's cute and then you remember how much they're lying to each other at this point and it's sad.
That night, we have the Founders' Kick-Off Party. Okay, here, the prop people remember that it should be "Founders' Day" (since there were multiple founders), so why is the final episode of the season called "Founder's Day"?
Lots of people partying it up in the Lockwood mansion. Stefan and Damon arrive at the party together. Stefan doesn't think he should be there, Damon thinks it's super-appropriate that they're there, considering that they were actually alive when the town was founded.
"I really liked you a whole lot better when you hated everybody."
"Oh, I still do. I just love that they love me."
Ha. Also, Stefan's attitude here is interesting - Damon is becoming involved in the community, not killing people, in general becoming a better person all around. Now, Stefan later says that he feels like it doesn't count because Damon is doing it for the 'wrong reasons', but doing a thing, even for the wrong reasons, can help ingrain that into our operating systems. Positive feedback loop.
Damon asks after Stefan's urges and notes that he's been drinking all day.
"Nothing would make you happier than to just see me give in, huh, Damon?"
"Whatever. It's inevitable."
And, looking at S2 - maybe. Stefan found a way (borrowed Damon's excuse; whatever) to give himself a reason to get back on the human blood. And he even has Elena actively supporting it! So, basically... Damon was right all along and Stefan did just need to get over his desire not to drink human blood? Is that the lesson we're meant to learn in the long run? I mean, currently, it seems like Damon was completely and totally right about the human blood issue on all counts. Unless we get more out of the latter half of S2 about it, I'm basically left with 'Damon was right all along'.
Stefan goes off to find Elena, downing a drink along the way.
Mayor Lockwood is paying his respects to Kelly and Matt for losing Vicki. Kelly goes off to find a drink. She left too early, because Tyler pops around to offer an entire bottle to Matt, and they go off together. We cut from Matt swigging from his bottle to Stefan drinking another glass down. He spots Elena and waves to her and she makes her way over to him. She notices right away that he's acting kinda drunk. She wonders if she should be worried; he says that she shouldn't at all. He's just drinking until the cravings go away. He tells her to enjoy the drunk!Stefan and invites her to dance with him. Elena points out that the dance floor is empty, so Stefan offers to change the music.
Kelly warns Elena that it won't work; she already tried. No worries, though, Stefan is just going to compel the guy. Then Stefan goes out to dance with Kelly (enthusiastically) while Damon sidles up next to Elena, who is concerned.
D: "Have I entered an alternate universe where Stefan is fun?"
E: "Is he going to be okay?"
D: "Eventually. One way or another."
The dancing is in full swing. Elena is currently talking to Jenna and still not dancing with Stefan. Took her a little while to get around to that. Elena spots Alaric. Alaric is happy to see Jenna - she hasn't seen him around much recently. They go off for drinks together. Now, Matt comes up to Elena, and he's pretty surprised that the party actually appears to be fun now. He asks her to dance and pulls her into his arms over her protests.
Damon spots Liz at the party, all dressed up, and he smiles and pays her a compliment: "Ah, you know I love a woman in uniform, but I have to side with this look. You look... you look smashing." She thanks him and they tap glasses. She says that she'd needed it - and, yeah, she looked lonely, standing there by herself.
"It's really nice how welcoming the council's been. I like my life here in Mystic Falls. It's starting to feel like home again."
And I'm going to say that this is absolutely true. Like I said back in "There Goes the Neighborhood" - he likes what he has going on with this town and these people and he doesn't want to hand it over to Pearl. He's invested quite a bit into Mystic Falls since he's come back to town and that only increases as time passes.
scy and I have been talking about about Damon and his interactions as being very wolf-like - very social pack animal-like, to make it broader. For years, Damon was operating as a lone agent, but now that he's reconciled with his brother and settled in Mystic Falls, he's begun treating the town like a personal territory (Stefan gets in, of course, under Damon's protection, but other major forces are people that Damon needs to negotiate with and mostly would prefer just stay out of 'his town'). And he doesn't like anything that disturbs that territory.Liz lets Damon know that Uncle John's story checks out - looks like there are still vampires around. While Damon is trying to think of something to say, Jeremy comes up to Liz to talk to her in her capacity as Sheriff. He wants to talk about Vicki. He's curious, asking questions and whatnot. Liz gives him the official "can't tell you anything" police line, but it's obvious that he doesn't like it.
Elena twirls away from Matt and Stefan is there, asking her to dance. She does, but he spins her right into a major league jerk. "I'm sorry, my fault. I'm clumsy," Elena says, but the guy is, I'm guessing, also drunk like half the main characters, because he just gets belligerent (I saw reviews in other places of people going "no guy would ever treat anyone as hot as Nina like that, no matter how hard she bumped him!" and just have to say... they haven't seen enough ugly drunks). Stefan gets pissed and compels the guy to apologize to Elena. But it's not good enough, so Stefan grabs him again and compels him to apologize a second time "like you mean it". Stefan checks on Elena, not realizing that his behavior has freaked her more than rude drunk guy did.
Damon is at the bar getting a drink when Elena comes up to him. It's time for an information-sharing session!
"Have you noticed what your brother's been up to?"
"Nope. Been too preoccupied with yours. Jeremy's been asking questions about Vicki Donovan's death."
"He knows that her death was ruled an overdose."
"Oh, but Sheriff! Someone buried her. Who would do that? I know, I know! Me! I mean, I could compel him, but he's wearing vervain."
"No. No, I don't want you to compel him."
"If he keeps asking questions..."
"Damon, no. I'm serious. I'm not going to do that to him again. I'll handle it."
"Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Damon plucks a rose from a nearby arrangement, smells it to make sure it has a nice scent, and hands it to Elena. Jeremy is Elena's brother, so Damon gives her the final call about whether or not he should be compelled - if she doesn't want it and she's serious about it, he won't do it. Which is, of course, yet another reason why Elena is so shocked and horrified by what Damon does in "The Return" - he's not respecting her relationship with Jeremy. All up through that point on the show, all the ways that Damon relates to Jeremy are through his relationship with Elena. Whether like in the beginning, when he sends Vicki after Jeremy because he's "Elena's brother", to compelling him for Elena's sake, to telling him to knock off being a jerk to his sister. With the neck-snapping moment, Damon chooses his own desire to release his violently painful emotions over his respect for Elena's relationship with her brother. He violates that boundary line that both of them drew when Elena had let Damon know that, when it comes to Jeremy, she has the final call. Interestingly enough, it's that violation that leads to Jeremy seeking Damon out (to kill him but not be able to go through with it) and now they're developing some kind of relationship that isn't about Elena (though Damon tries to lob it back to her; Jeremy is damned persistent, though).
And the timing of him giving her the rose is interesting - it happens when she makes a request of him and draws a boundary line (no compelling Jeremy), and he agrees to go along with it. It further emphasizes that this is something that he's doing because he likes and respects Elena, rather than for any other reason. And, of course, the red rose is the lovers' rose - passion, love, respect, etc. He's attracted to her; he likes her; he respects her.
Kelly is drinking some more (people actually drink a whole lot on this show, some responsibly and some very much not so). She puts her empty glass in a potted plant (so random - seriously, all the tables were too far to walk to?) and Tyler sees what she did there. He escorts her to the ladies' room and she snags his glass, thrilled when it's vodka and not soda.
Damon is out on the balcony and smiles when he hears the crunch of Uncle John's feet walking up behind him.
"Damon, right?"
"John."
"We didn't get a chance to meet at the council meeting."
"Yeah, it's a pleasure. You enjoying the kick-off?"
"Oh, yeah. I forgot how much fun these small-town celebrations can be."
"Yeah, yeah. When's the last time you were here?"
"Hasn't been that long. My brother's funeral. How long have you been in town?"
"Oh, not long at all."
"So, what do you think, Damon - you know this vampire problem is real, right? Potential bloodbath."
"Well, I wouldn't overreact, John."
"Oh, I think it's like 1864 all over again. Vampires running amuck. I guess we're just going to have to hunt them down, throw them in a church, and burn them to ash."
"That is the story, huh?"
"Part of the story."
"Oh, there's... there's more?"
Two men meet on a lonely balcony, each evaluating the potential threat that the other one might be. John confronting Damon with the knowledge that he already knows some of what's up reminds me a bit of Katherine confronting George (I believe) Lockwood, just in the format that it takes.
John believes that he has the upper hand because of his nifty supernatural no-kill ring, but all the enemy has to do is get the ring off the finger and then it's useless - Damon illustrates the danger of that kind of thinking to Jeremy in "Brave New World". John also believes that he has one-up on Damon because he has information from Isobel (and thus Katherine) - he probably also has the Gilbert journals. So, he does have several sources of information. But he also thinks that he's more important than he is - in the end, he's just a pawn to Katherine, and none of his attempted 'protection' of Elena does anything to make her pull away from the vampires in her life.
Damon attempts to take care of the potential threat of Uncle John by snapping his neck and throwing him off the balcony. Damon really does react predictably to powerful new people that he doesn't trust - he tries to kill them. He wants to get rid of a potential danger in the most final way possible. This is probably another thing that it would be good for him to moderate - as Stefan suggests re: Mason, possibly trying diplomacy first might be a neat thing to try sometime. Just to see how it goes.
Jeremy is staring listlessly into the Lockwood fireplace, all alone, when Elena sees him and comes in to sit beside him. He's upset that no one is looking into Vicki's death (note: my aunt died of a probable drug overdose. My grandma found her. Not pleasant stuff). Jeremy wants to know if Elena believes the party line about Vicki OD'ing, because he thinks that Vicki was murdered.
"They're just doing what they can to move on."
"The truth is the only thing that's going to help people move on."
And, of course, Elena does want the truth for herself - but she wants the pretty packaged lies for the rest of her family. It's not an uncommon hypocrisy (I'm sure that she'll be upset about Damon compelling her when that comes out and I won't blame her for that, any more than I blame Jeremy for being pissed off at her). She wants to be able to know the truth, but she also hates knowing the truth (she admits to this back in "Haunted"), so she alternates between embracing it and hiding from it.
Jeremy has noticed the odd phrasing that Elena used ("whatever it was that killed Vicki") and she fumbles when he confronts her, which makes him pretty suspicious. He flat-out asks her if there are things she's not telling him, and she lies to him.
Tyler and Kelly are wandering around and drinking. Kelly doesn't want to think about Vicki and what happened to her. Even thinking about thinking about it is a little too overwhelming. Tyler hates that he was so horrible to Vicki when she was alive and now he can't fix any of it and he feels like he doesn't even have the right to grieve over her loss because of what a jerk he was to her. This confession apparently turns Kelly on, because she latches onto Tyler's coat and makes flirty eyes at him while she tells him that it's nice to talk to someone.
Matt runs into Elena in the hallway - he's surprised that the Founders' Party is enjoyable; Elena lets him know that most years, it really isn't. Matt wants to know if he should feel guilty over having fun and Elena reassures him that it's okay, and they hug. He invites her outside for some air. She takes a look over at Stefan - drinking and not doing much of anything - and agrees to go with Matt. After a couple more concerned looks at Stefan, she and Matt head out.
They immediately see Kelly and Tyler making out. Matt yanks Tyler away and asks what's going on. Matt punches Tyler and Tyler punches back and when Matt falls backward, he accidentally rams into Kelly, who falls down against a table (brings it down as well). Matt is on the ground and Tyler can't stop punching him. Alaric sees the fight and runs over to yank Tyler off Matt, and Elena goes to Matt's side to check on him. Mayor Lockwood comes in and takes charge of his son, herding him off. Matt asks Elena about his mom, but she's wandered off.
Stefan grabs another drink as Damon catches up to him.
"Do you want to hear the bad news or the really bad news?"
"Actually, I don't want any news, Damon."
"All right, let me re-phrase. Do you want to hear how the council's back in vampire mode or how I just killed Uncle John Gilbert?"
"What?"
"Great party, by the way, huh?"
Damon tries to flit off and Stefan starts to follow him when he gets... distracted. He can hear Kelly sobbing and smell her bleeding. He find her, asks her if she's all right (she isn't). Kelly is upset that she's screwed everything up again, but Stefan isn't really listening. He sinks down to be on a level with her, his eyes fixed on her forehead, where she's bleeding. He reaches out and traces his finger over the drops of blood, smearing them over her forehead as she starts to get a creeped out vibe. He snaps out of his trance and pulls his fingers away, apologizing and abruptly leaving.
He rushes outside and looks down at his fingers, coated in Kelly's blood. He tries to fight it, but he gives in eventually, sucking her blood off his fingers.
Back inside the party, Damon is having a good time... until the door opens and Uncle John walks back inside, no longer dead. Mayor Lockwood is officially welcoming everyone to the party and talking about how special this year's Founders' Day is - 150 year anniversary. John Gilbert gets called up to ring the original charter bell as a special honor.
"One hundred and fifty years of community, prosperity, family. We take care of each other. We look after each other. We protect each other. It's good to be home."
Damon sidles over to Alaric to tell him to look at John's right hand. Alaric notes that, yes, it looks just like his.
"Well, and that would be a big coincidence if he hadn't just come back from the dead five minutes ago. Where the hell did you get that ring?"
"Isobel, my wife."
Okay, thing that I kinda love in a hilarious way - does Alaric think to himself, 'hmm, Damon has killed another person with a no-kill ring. perhaps I should ally myself with this new potential vampire hunter?' No. He doesn't. Instead, he continues to confab with Damon, allowing Damon to encroach on his personal bubble. It's somewhat impressive how so many people don't even seem to realize that they've put themselves on Damon's side pretty much by accident.
"Who gave birth to Elena, under the esteemed medical care of Doctor Grayson Gilbert - John's brother."
"Do you think John knew Isobel?"
"I think John knows a lot of things."
Stefan is trying to walk off his urges after his shiny taste of Kelly's blood, when he runs into the jerk from earlier. The guy is still belligerent (I wonder if he's a Lockwood and has the werewolf temper gene? Or he could just be a jerk.) and deliberately puts himself in Stefan's way. Stefan tries to warn the guy off, but drunk guy is spoiling for a fight. When he goes for a punch, Stefan grabs his fist and squeezes until there are these disgusting little noises, eventually driving the man to his knees. The guy is pretty freaked out, plus he's seen Stefan's vamped out face.
Jeremy has gotten home to the Gilbert house and listens to hear if anyone else is home. Then he sneaks up to his sister's room and starts searching it for her journal. He's a pretty thorough investigator, finally finding the journal behind the painting over her bed.
Words I can make out easily:
but how can I deny it
Bodies drained of blood
protect my brother?
take away Jeremy's pain...
without Vicki
that Vicki was a monster?
Elena comes out to the front lawn, looking for Stefan. He turns and sees her, and zips away. She seems to catch the movement, at least, and heads in the direction he'd been, coming across the man lying on the ground. Elena asks the guy if he's okay, trying to find out what happened to him.
"My arm... I lost my balance and fell. I'm clumsy."
Elena looks around for Stefan, her mind not at ease.
At the party, Tyler apologizes to his dad. While Tyler tries to explain how out-of-control he felt to his dad, his dad smacks him across the face and warns him never to embarrass his family again. I really hope that Tyler manages to break the cycle of violence. I think he has a good chance, with Caroline in his corner.
Back at the Donovan place, Matt is packing his mother's things into a suitcase.
"I'm not leaving you."
"Don't you get it? I'm better off without you."
"No! Tonight was a... I'm so sorry. I know I failed you and I failed Vicki but I won't do it to you again. I promise I'll get it together."
"I want you out of the house... and my life by morning."
And he walks away.
We know that Matt's been paying the bills (as much as he can) for a while. He's given his mother so many chances. And she always promises the same thing (because they always do). But... it never works. It never really does. Change has to come from the inside to stick. And people can only be strong for so long, yeah? If she would just try to try, Matt said a couple of episodes ago. But she doesn't. She apologizes - after the fact - but never actually changes her behavior. She goes to the Grill to interview for a job and ends up getting drunk in front of her kid instead. Her entire life is a thousand apologies that don't mean anything and, yes, I do feel sorry for her. I do. But Matt shouldn't be forced to give up his life in service of her addiction. And that's what he would be doing.
I don't try to change my dad anymore. He gets drunk and sometimes he yells and if it gets bad enough, I leave. I'll probably never stop going to see him, because I do love him, but I can't change him. I tried for years and it was just heartbreak after heartbreak. He's a grown-up. If he wants to get help, he can.
So, yeah. And Matt has it worse off than I did, growing up. My parents have always been able to hold down jobs (though my mom had to leave a job once because my dad hit on her boss's wife at an office party), so they aren't as badly off as Kelly. But it's a crappy situation and it's made worse because, as the kid, you are completely helpless to make anything better. But Matt has a job and he's paying the bills and so if he is in a position to tell Kelly that he doesn't need her in his life... I think it's healthy of him to do that.
Okay, and now we end the Al-Anon portion of tonight's recap (people might ask - hey, what about Damon? Isn't giving him a bunch of chances similar to giving them to Kelly but worse because of the whole 'killer' thing? He was even drunk the night that he snapped Jeremy's neck. But a difference for me is that I actually do see a clear and demonstrable change occurring in Damon. He also doesn't have a pattern of false positives, like Kelly does. There's more (such as fantasy vs reality and also that Damon does show an ability to be responsible), but this side note is too long already).
Damon and Alaric follow John out of the party.
D: "Going somewhere?"
J: "Never liked to be the last one to leave a party. It's too desperate. You here to kill me again? Or are you going to let Mr. Saltzman do your dirty work?"
A: "Okay, you obviously know who I am."
J: "I do. Alaric Saltzman, a high school history teacher with a secret."
D: "Sure know a lot for someone who just got to town."
J: "More than you can imagine, Damon. My knowledge of this town goes beyond anything that you or you or the council knows. So, if you were planning on some clever high-speed snatch-ring vamp-kill move, know that if I die, everything I know goes to the council. Including the fascinating little tale of the original Salvatore brothers and their present day return to Mystic Falls."
A: "How'd you get that ring?"
J: "I inherited one. My brother, Gray, the other. This was his. I wouldn't have given mine to Isobel had I known she'd hand it over to another guy."
D: "So, you did know her."
J: "Who do you think sent her your way when she wanted to become a vampire?"
D: "You sent her?"
J: "Guilty. Why, did you think someone else sent her? Maybe Katherine Pierce."
D: "How do you know about Katherine?"
J: "How do I know anything, Damon?"
D: "What do you want?"
J: "So many questions. It's a pleasure meeting you, Ric. I've heard so much about you."
And now both Damon and Alaric are creeped out and annoyed by this man's knowledge of their personal affairs. Again, I think that John overplayed his hand. He was trying to be overpowering and 'masterful', no doubt, but ended up being overbearing. Plus, he's working with outdated information. He got his information from Isobel, who got what she knew about the Salvatore brothers from Katherine. Isobel and Katherine could certainly tell him some things about Damon, Stefan, and Alaric, but Damon has spent a lot of time not anywhere near either of them. Plus, neither Isobel nor Katherine have been around to see the aftermath of Damon realizing that Katherine didn't give a shit about him or at least not enough of one to seek him out (which he does verify in "The Return").
Jenna and Elena get home, complaining about the idea of a whole month more of Founders' Day events. Elena checks in on Jeremy, who says that he's fine. Aw, poor Jeremy. His whole world has shifted. Elena goes in her room and takes her jacket off, only to be startled by seeing Stefan in her mirror. He looks rough. She asks him if everything is okay and he confesses that it is not. Elena closes the connecting door to the bathroom and tries to get Stefan to talk to her. Haltingly, he confesses about almost feeding on the guy in the park and having Kelly's blood on his hands (he doesn't actually mention licking it off, and I'm not sure whether or not Elena assumes that he did). The hunger is worse than it's ever been before in his life (seriously, I am so curious about why he didn't get this kind of reaction going on in S2 - is it because his body hadn't fully re-adjusted back to animal blood anyway?). He tells her that he's telling her because he promised he would never keep anything from her. Well, that lasted for... um, a couple of hours? However long after this that it is that he drinks that glass of blood and doesn't fess up. I'm kinda sad that Stefan's uncharacteristic openness is so short-lived.
Elena is glad that he's telling her this kind of thing, but Stefan hates that she's seeing him this way. "I don't want you to know that this side of me exists." Again, it seems that Damon was right.
"Stefan, you're going to get through this. I'm going to help you pull through. It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."
But it's too hard for him to be close to her right now, with the blood-lust so close to the surface. "I'm afraid of what I could do to you," he tells her.
"I'm not," she says. She goes to him and kisses him and tells him again that she's not afraid.
Stefan arrives back at the house, where Damon is staring into the fire.
"We have a problem, Stefan. And when I say problem, I mean global crisis. Seems Uncle John has a-"
But then Damon notices the way that Stefan is circling, staring at the glass of blood in Damon's hand. "You don't look so good. It's different this time, isn't it? The need is too strong. Of course, it would be after all these years." Damon puts his glass down on the table and approaches Stefan, stroking his shoulder. "Have a good night, brother." And he walks out, without the glass. And this time it isn't a tease.
Stefan picks up the glass, stares down into it, and gives in.
1. Damon snaps John's neck and throws him off the balcony. It doesn't stick, but John was killed.
Damon's current kill count: 18
Stefan's current kill count: 5
Alaric's current kill count: 3
Katherine's current kill count: 2
Harper: 1
Isobel: 2
No vampire bites this episode!
Damon's current bite count: 22
Katherine's current bite count: 4
Stefan's current bite count: 1
Anna/Pearl: 2
Harper: 1
1. Stefan compels the DJ to play more dance-y music.
2. Stefan twice compels the jerk to apologize to Elena.
3. Stefan compels the jerk to explain his injured hand by calling himself 'clumsy'.
Stefan's current compelling count: 5
Damon's current compelling count: 16
Katherine's current compelling count: 1
Isobel: 1
Pearl: 1
We need more Bonnie and Caroline up in these episodes! But Elena and Jenna do briefly bond over the horror of another month of Founders' Day events.
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 10 episodes, at least three weeks)
We open on a day that's definitely a few days after "Let the Right One In", time enough for Vicki to have had a funeral/memorial. That day, John arrives in town.
The Founders' Kick-Off is that night. And "Founder's Day" happens one month later, we're told, so that's how long UC-FD last as an episode set. One month.
Time covered: 1 day/1 night
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-LTROI: 2 days/2 nights
Time jump for Vicki's funeral and memorial. John mentions a time period of 'two weeks' - but that might be from the tomb opening and the vampires getting out.
Total time; UC: 1 day/1 night
None.
No Bonnie this episode.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 05:45 am (UTC)Therefore, Damon has already begun grooming Alaric, and goes to him - somebody who has an investment in things like Isobel and Katherine, and who won't take kindly to some new guy sauntering in and trying to take over.
It's Damon recruiting another beta, and one who demonstrates repeatedly that he has GOT DAMON'S BACK. We see it right here where Alaric is immediately on board with Damon's plans and ready to help, and this only continues as Alaric becomes more of a member of the pack.
This nicely complements the way in which Elena and Damon operate: they share (Damon more than Elena, interesting, that) and they work together.
It's rather funny the way that John postures and tries to lord it over Damon and Alaric (and anybody else he deems unworthy, read everyone ever) because he thinks that he is a predator and one that is worth note, but to Damon, a threat is assessed, eliminated and life goes on. He's not one to say 'THIS IS MY DIABOLICAL PLAN, LET ME GIVE YOU DETAILS.'
*shakes head at John* Silly silly man. You are dealing with wolves, not puppies. More than that, he doesn't understand the rules.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 02:25 pm (UTC)Yeah, Stefan is completely out of it at the party. And Damon notices and, when he needs him, he doesn't go find Stefan as back-up but goes to Alaric instead.
It really does crack me up that Alaric goes with Damon's read of the situation and back-up him without arguing. Of course, then John screws up any chance he had of getting Alaric on his side by trying to play big scary dog.
It's rather funny the way that John postures and tries to lord it over Damon and Alaric (and anybody else he deems unworthy, read everyone ever) because he thinks that he is a predator and one that is worth note, but to Damon, a threat is assessed, eliminated and life goes on. He's not one to say 'THIS IS MY DIABOLICAL PLAN, LET ME GIVE YOU DETAILS.'
Yeah, John thinks that he's a lot tougher than he really is.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 07:11 pm (UTC)Yep, Alaric doesn't even REALIZE how deep he's in with Damon until later, but he's a very good addition to the group. He's smart, will stand up to b.s. and is just bitchy enough that he will argue with Damon on two levels - sensible and YET they can be such BOYS.
Plus, he will punch Damon in a bar.
Sure way to Damon's heart, stand up to him, and then back him up. HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.
John can't even deal with Isobel without pissing her off, and they once dated, which says a lot about how bad he is with people. He thinks he knows more than he does and can't help trying to shove it in the face of everyone else.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 09:57 pm (UTC)John seems to have the ability to piss off everyone. It's almost a gift.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 11:41 pm (UTC)I am still hoping for karaoke or Alaric pulling Damon into some school stuff. Oh, given Damon's disdain for how students are doing, I imagine he would write HELLISH exams. *cracks up*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 03:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-22 04:16 pm (UTC)Katherine herself has been basically the same person for five hundred years. I'm not sure she realized until "Isobel" and then Damon's speech to 'Elena' that Damon is more flexible in that regard than she is.