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butterflyIsobel starts us off by making small talk. Alaric is having none of that.
"Where have you been, Isobel?"
"I don't have any reasons that are going to comfort you. I don't have any explanations that are going to satisfy you."
I was unhappy as a human, so I chased the idea of being a vampire and it kinda sucks, but I'm stuck with it so I yanked off my emotions and decided to just fuck around for a while. But then there was this whole Katherine thing and I learned that Elena might be in danger, so things got complicated. But, yeah, being back has nothing to do with you, honey.
But she boils it down to:
"I wanted this."
She wanted Alaric to get over her death (and missing body). He wasn't supposed to see anything. He wasn't supposed to be concerned. He wasn't supposed to love her that much.
"How could I not search for you?"
"Because I wasn't lost, Ric."
If someone is searching high and low for a woman on this show, it ends up that she didn't want or need to be found, rescued, etc. The sisters are doing it for themselves. One of the great things about this show is that there are multiple women in all categories - main characters, secondaries, antagonists. And the women are just as complicated as the men, with their own motives and drives. It's something that should be commonplace in all media but so often isn't.
Isobel comes from Katherine's line - she's another girl with fire who fights to save herself. But she was living a life where she didn't feel like she was getting enough out of the world. She didn't want a normal life. She wanted more. But the more that she chased came with fine print that she didn't read closely enough. Unfortunately, there are no take-backs when it comes to becoming a vampire (that reminds me - there's a post that I want to write about vertical vs horizontal transmission and why vampires are a fascinating parasite/predator hybrid in TVD universe. This post would also touch on the very different, genetic way that werewolves and witches are examined).
And now Isobel is on to business.
"I understand that you know my daughter, Elena, and I hear that she's been looking for me. So, I want for you to arrange a meeting for us."
"You want me to deliver a message."
Yeah, she's not there for Alaric - she wouldn't have come back for him. She came for Elena. Feelings ended up emerging in her again because she saw Alaric, but she wasn't there for him. Hmm, I feel another Katherine comparison coming up. Now, Katherine pretends early on that she's there for Stefan (just as Damon allows Stefan to believe that he's in Mystic Falls to ruin Stefan's life) but it was primarily about the moonstone and Elena. Katherine would have gone to Mystic Falls whether or not Stefan or Damon happened to be there.
Anyway, Alaric doesn't want to play messenger boy (and Alaric, here, is a mirror of Damon again - the transition from adoring someone and hoping to find/rescue her to actively disliking her because of the revelation that his love was being wasted on someone who didn't love him back the same way; but his relationship with Jenna is more of a mirror of pre-knowledge Stefan/Elena than anything Damon has).
Alaric walks out on Isobel, which she's not happy about. She follows him out to his car. When he still won't agree to carry her message to Elena, she chokes him for a while and gets all vamp face on him. She also threatens to start killing off the people of Mystic Falls, starting with his history class, unless he arranges that meeting.
So, from what Isobel says to John later, she wasn't originally planning on doing it this way at all. He was supposed to get the device and then kill the tomb vampires (so that Katherine could nab Elena and take over the town or whatever her original plan was). But he consistently fucked-up by being... John Gilbert and thus alienating everyone in town, so she had to step in and take over. She didn't want to contact Elena, but was forced to because John Gilbert is a big pile of uselessness.
She drops Alaric and the napkin with the info that she wants him to give Elena, and walks off.
Elena is talking on the phone, and letting the other person know her plans. She's talking to Damon, but checking in on Stefan.
"Oh, him? Ugh, he's terrible."
"What's the matter?"
"He's just back to boring, straight-laced, off the junk. You've successfully cured him of anything that was interesting about his personality."
"Don't forget who helped me."
"I hate myself."
Right after this line, Damon has this flirty little smiling moment, all to himself. Just experiencing the giddy joy of being in love, talking on the phone to the girl that he absolutely adores (I think this is the moment in the original run of the show when I realized that Damon was completely gone on Elena; not just liking her or respecting her or being attracting to her - oh, no. Boy is in love). After letting himself in indulge in that sensation for a moment, he turns back to business.
"Hey, did Uncle John say anything to you about my field trip with the history teacher?"
"No, I've still been avoiding him. Why, what's he up to?"
"I don't know, but I'd love it if you could find out for me."
"I've got to go - I'm late."
"Have fun with the Mystic Queen. I know I did."
During that last bit of conversation, Stefan comes out of his shower, into his room, where Damon's talking on Stefan's bed to the girl that Stefan is dating. On Stefan's phone. Stefan is kinda... 'huh, wha?' about it, as one might expect.
Damon is also never one to avoid making jokes in very poor taste. Here, he makes light of what he did to Caroline in the early episodes - Elena's minimal reaction really speaks to how much her brand of morality has shifted since she first met the Salvatores. Back when she first was discovering what was going on with Caroline, she was horrified. Now, she's slightly huffy about Damon mentioning it, but that's all.
But he also isn't interested in people forgetting about all the bad things that he's done. He likes Elena and he wants her to like him back, but he wants her to like him - the Damon that did all those things (and, yes, the Damon that's in the process of getting better, back-slide-y as it may be at times). I think that... well, everything that people process goes through the matrix (matrices?) of their own particular life experiences. My family history is so full of people playing nice and playing pretend for the sake of looking okay to the outside world that I would rather root for a 'bad guy' like Damon who is getting better but I can see all the steps, than a 'nice guy' like Stefan who is constantly lying to himself and the world around him about how perfect he is. I don't need Stefan to be perfect. I just want him to be honest.
Alaric is handing out specs for the Founders' Day float. He's made Tyler head of production design, because he's a talented artist.
"Just pick your team, be creative and... don't screw up."
Ha. I'm sure Alaric would have been a better mentor there if he hadn't been distracted by Stefan and Elena arriving at that moment. Tyler wants Matt to be on his team. But Matt is still pissed off at him on account of how Tyler made out with Matt's mom and all. Alaric asks Stefan and Elena to come talk to him.
Meanwhile, Caroline is having Bonnie help her with the Miss Mystic float. Bonnie guesses that Caroline wants to go for a 'Gone with the Wind' vibe for the float. Caroline is frustrated that Elena isn't there to help, too. She notices that Bonnie isn't exactly enthusiastic about Elena, so she tries to find out what that's about. Caroline doesn't like that people are fighting - she wanted them all to work on the float as a friendship deal and all the fights are screwing that up. She also doesn't like feeling helpless about being able to fix the problems. She wants all her friends to stop fighting and to get along again! Awww. I love Caroline.
Damon makes his way to the meeting. Damon starts to make a joke, but he seems to actually take in the serious atmosphere of the group and trails off.
"What's with all the furrowed brows?"
"I saw Isobel last night."
"Isobel's here? In town?"
Damon immediately looks over at Elena to check in on how she's feeling. He's concerned! About her emotional well-being! It's sweet. Shut up. I'm a sucker for him. I admit it.
John pulls up to a very nice and very foreclosed house.
I won't run when the sky turns to flame
I sure won't budge when the earth does shake
when the flood comes up, I will dance in the rain
cause it's all the same to me
somebody care, somebody care, somebody care for me
John comes up through the house and walks in on a guy and girl dancing - there's a bite mark on the man's outer thigh and his arm. There's also a bite mark on the girl's inner thigh. John isn't impressed. Isobel is leaning back, her arms stretched on the bed.
"You're late," she tells him.
"I didn't realize there was a schedule. What's with the sideshow?"
They're two pretty people that she picked up and decided to keep as her own personal blood and sex toys - we have a reminder of how overriding compulsion is when we find out that the man is gay but "not right now. He's very good to me." She gives them orders in French, because she's teaching it to them. Just for the hell of it.
"Ooo. I can smell the judgment coming off you."
"They're people, Isobel, and you're treating them like they're dolls."
"If we're gonna be partners, you're really going to have to stop being such a hater."
"We're in a partnership together because we share a mutual goal. Don't ever confuse that for an acceptance of your lifestyle."
It's hard for a predator to respect the food that it eats. That's just... a common-sense way for their mental chemistry to work, when you think about it. Having an 'emotional off-switch' while they adjust to their new lives makes so much sense given the particular complexities of this specific parasite/predator-prey relationship (because vampires are definitely parasites as well as being predators) where the 'best' food source is also the one that looks like you.
Sorry, I'm just trying to control my urge to write a treatise on how much vampires in this universe actually make sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Seriously, never have vampires made more natural (as opposed to supernatural) sense. I mean... they're still impossible, but in a way that makes sense (if that makes sense to anyone else).
I blame all the evolutionary biology texts that I've been consuming over the last few years (seriously, though, it's an awesome subject and one that will probably continue to provide me with amazing reading material for the rest of my life). But, yes. Vampires in TVD make a fucking lot of sense. The only part that's really odd is the part where they require an invitation, but that's probably some enterprising witch's fault (I secretly hope that this is a part of the moonstone cure that hasn't been mentioned yet and that will serve as a big reveal as to why the Originals want to lift the curse - open invitation time).
I think this may be part of why I can't respond to this set of vampires as if they were humans. They aren't. They are a parasitic predator that derives from humans and focuses on humans as their primary prey and as the key part of their reproductive cycle. The vampires in the Jossverse are metaphors. The vampires in TVD are their own coherent animal (there are ant queens that can send a pheromone that will make another queen's own daughter-workers turn on her and kill her so that the foreign queen can take over the nest. What is that if not compulsion? Nature is hard-core). But they do have the intelligence and independent thought that a human does, so they can also choose to overrule their natures if they decide, as we've seen with other vampires.
"I assume that you still don't have the invention," Isobel says. She is disappointed but not surprised.
"I'll get it. I said I would."
"Uh, you threatened to expose Damon Salvatore. That didn't work. You killed that Pearl lady, still no invention. I really don't think that your plan is working, John."
"Well, you being here isn't going to help anything."
And she totally (literally) smacks his ass down. She basically calls him a big failure and says that she's taking over. John is so not thrilled with this arrangement.
Over at the meeting of Our Heroes, Damon is asking questions.
D: "Did you ask her about Uncle John? Are they working together?" (randomly, it cracks me up that Damon calls him that)
A: "No."
D: "No, they're not?"
A: "No, I didn't ask."
D: "What about the invention?"
A: "Didn't ask."
D: "Does she know about the tomb vampires?"
A: "I don't know."
D: "Did words completely escape you?"
A: "I was a little too distracted by my dead vampire wife to ask any questions."
Oh, Alaric, now Damon is disappointed in you. He had such high hopes. Well, moderate hopes. Don't you know that you're supposed to interrogate people no matter how surprised you might be? Hee, I tease. It's a great back-and-forth, with Damon getting progressively closer to Alaric with each exchange. I really hope we get more Damon-Alaric scenes in the back half of S2. They are awesome together.
D: "What's she want?"
E: "She wants to see me, Damon."
S: "Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting. We don't know why or what she wants."
D: "You don't have to see her if you don't want to."
E: "I don't really have a choice."
A: "She's threatening to go on a killing spree."
D: "Oh. I take it that's... not okay with you guys."
E: "I wanna do it. I want to meet her. If I don't, I know I'll regret it."
This is one of the things that Damon needs to learn and process in order to be a better non-living living person (ie if he wants to rejoin the parts of society that, well, aren't like Katherine). Vampires nowadays have choices that vampires didn't used to have - before, the only way to avoid eating on live humans was to drink animal blood, which weakens all the things that makes being a vampire in TVD universe so fantastic. But now we have blood banks and anti-coagulant and they really can choose to, well, be the vampire equivalent of being vegetarian (not vegan, though). New vampires lack control and finesse. They are going to feed to the point of killing if they feed on a human. They don't have the ability to pull back in time - we've seen that even with Caroline, our sympathetic protagonist newbie vampire. Blood bags are a solution that Katherine didn't have back in the day - the alternative was finding multiple people to snack on but not kill (and almost certainly compelling them, as most humans aren't willing to let someone snack on them every now and then). Either way, a human was either being violated or killed - no way around that if you wanted to live (and even Stefan's friend Lexi couldn't hack an animal diet). And the survival instinct is incredibly strong and it requires quite a lot to work around it.
Now, Damon didn't care to rejoin human society for the last hundred and forty-five years. He was waiting for Katherine, to rejoin her, and he was well-aware that she viewed herself as an animal, a predator. Now, though, he has reasons to want to be a part of a group that has stricter rules than the ones that he's been following for himself for the last century+. Quite an adjustment. Whenever I actually think about the time that's passed, I'm shocked that Damon has come so far in such a short period of time. But when watching the show, it feels organic and natural - he has a reason to want to change, which he's never had before, and he's smart and flexible, so he's figuring it out. Still has a lot of issues (impulse control issues being huge among those) but getting better considerably faster than I would expect if thinking about it objectively.
Elena waits for Isobel at the Grill. Stefan is hanging out on the raised floor, keeping an eye on the situation. Elena talks quietly, double-checking that Stefan can hear her (yes) and that she's glad he's there and that she loves him. Isobel sits down across from Elena, and she didn't need to guess or assume that Stefan was in the bar, Elena, honey - all she had to do was hear you talking to him, which wasn't subtle, even if you were trying to be quiet.
Isobel has her own moment of 'wtf, wow, Elena looks like Katherine'.
"It's eerie," is her opinion on the whole thing.
"You've met Katherine?"
"She found me, after I turned. Genetic curiosity, I suppose. She would be fascinated by you."
"Is that how you can walk in the day?"
"Katherine helped me obtain it."
Katherine, of course, being the best vampire ever at saving witches' lives and putting them into her debt. She has to be setting them up - but she's doing it in a way that they can't find out about (by touching her and reading her). Man, that woman is tricky.
Elena wants to know about her dad, but Isobel dismisses the subject (and John) as a 'waste of space'. Ah, young love.
"You ask a lot of questions," Isobel notes. That's our Elena. She wants to know why Isobel had that man kill himself, and Isobel lets her know that it was just about sending the message in as effective way as possible.
"Human life means that little to you?"
"Means nothing to me. It's just part of being what I am."
"No. It's not. I know other vampires. That's not true."
"You mean, your boyfriend over there by the pool table? Stefan Salvatore. Why Stefan? Why didn't you go for Damon? Or do you enjoy them both, like Katherine did?"
Elena is sitting there go - woah, awkward topic that normal people don't seriously bring up in conversation (one of the reasons that Caroline as a vampire is not so different from Caroline as a human is that, even as a human, Caroline doesn't observe the customary social tactful way of speaking as often as most of the people around her ). Have you no boundaries, woman? Which, well, no. Isobel is curious, so she asks. The social niceties that would have stopped her before are something that she no longer feels any inner urge to cling to, so she just asks. Human life means nothing to her and neither do human social norms. She's flipped the switch because her emotions were too overwhelming, so she's current an emotional blank.
Outside, Damon is really hating being stuck outside.
"We should be in there."
"No. Isobel made it clear that we're not to step foot inside."
"I'm not going to kill her in a crowded restaurant."
"You're not gonna kill her, period."
"She ruined your life - you still want to protect her?"
"She's my wife. Was. Was my wife. I looked for the woman I married but she wasn't there. Whoever that is is... cold and detached."
"Yeah. She's given up her humanity."
"See, I don't get that. Stefan has his humanity. He's a good guy. Hell, you're a dick and you kill people and I still see something human in you, but, with her, there was... there was nothing."
"You can turn it off. Like a button you can press. I mean, Stefan's different. He wants the whole human experience. He wants to feel every episode of How I Met Your Mother, so he shoves his feelings out. The problem is, as a vampire, your instinct is not to feel. Isobel chose the easier road. No guilt and shame. No regret. I mean, come on, if you could turn it off, wouldn't you?"
"You haven't."
"Of course, I have, Ric. That's why I'm so fun to be around."
I love this because, well, a) it's Damon and Alaric and they are gold together, b) Damon is both right and wrong, and c) aw, he hates that there's a vampire that he doesn't trust around Elena and that he's basically helpless at this moment to do anything about it.
The important issue is b - Damon is both right and wrong. He's right that the easier road is to shut off the emotions so that you can get on with being a vampire without hating yourself for it. He did it and Isobel did it. Stefan did it at first (he's the one who told Damon about it). But Damon doesn't know that it wears off, that ability to flip the switch. That as a vampire gets older, they get their full range of emotions back with no way to turn them off. I think that might be related to Damon's arc here - he's begun to reach the point where the switch isn't working like it should. Even when he wants to stop caring ("The Return") and he tries his hardest to force the switch off, it doesn't work. He's leaving vampire childhood and entering adolescence/adulthood.
Damon is done with their little moment and he begins his worried pacing again. Because of, you know, how much he doesn't care.
Elena wants to know why Isobel wanted to see her.
"It can't be just to catch up."
"Because I'm curious about you, but the real reason is... I want what your uncle wants. Jonathan Gilbert's invention."
"How do you know my uncle?"
John had a crush on her, back when she visited Mystic Falls in her teens. He let slip to the secret of vampires.
"So, what made you want to be one?"
"It's a very long list of reasons, Elena, all of which I'm sure you've thought about."
Elena shakes her head. Isobel calls Elena a liar.
"It's inevitable that you're going to get old. Stefan won't. Forever doesn't last very long when you're human."
Elena does not want to talk about this with Isobel. Or Stefan. Or anyone, really. This is something that she and Stefan have kept completely out of their relationship. No thoughts of forever or of longer than her human lifespan. Their relationship is based on pretending to be human and 'forever' doesn't work well with that. Elena tells Isobel that she doesn't have the device. Isobel won't let her walk away.
"I want the invention."
"I don't have it."
"I know that. But Damon does. And you're going to get it for me."
"He's not going to give it to me."
"And the blood will be on your hands."
After Isobel has gone, Bonnie spots Elena at the table alone, Elena stands, and it looks like they're about to reconcile. But then Bonnie sees Stefan and she turns and walks away.
At the Gilbert place, Jeremy is leaving Anna a voicemail. Jenna asks how Anna's doing - she liked her. Jeremy doesn't know - she's not returning his calls. John walks in and disrupts the moment. John wants to know the last time that Jeremy saw Anna. Jeremy gets a little suspicious, but John says that it's just because Jeremy is the only person in the house who likes him. John wants Jeremy to know that he is there for him. Anytime that he wants to talk. Door always open, etc. Jeremy remains suspicious and John goes for the "it's what your dad would want" card, melting the ice a bit but not enough.
Damon is playing strip poker with Sherri, the female half of Isobel's compelled people. Now, Damon, he knows how to play pretend. All throughout this scene, he is simmering with the desire to make the threat that Isobel is to Elena to go away and Isobel doesn't pick up on the slightest hint of it until he has her by the throat. He's better at playing along and testing the lay of the land than any other character we have on the show, as long as he's thinking instead of just reacting. When Damon's just reacting, it leads to very-bad, no-good things like the Jeremy neck-snap.
Here, though, he's had time to think. He thought about where Isobel would hole up and he thought about exactly what he wanted to tell her in order to let her know that he would not allow her to threaten Elena.
Isobel comes back to see Damon about to strip out of his pants. She tells him not to stop but, alas, he re-zips them. Isobel instructs Sherri to leave and Damon waves her goodbye with an admiring look.
"It's good to see you, Isobel," he says as he puts his shirt back on. The reverse strip tease is so cruel. "Just having fun with your naughty little minion."
"Mmm, how'd you find me?"
"Searched all the neighborhood bank-owned foreclosures and found the most expensive one."
"Oh, I should have known. You were the one that taught me that."
I find that tidbit interesting because Damon didn't leave her on her own after he turned her (and he didn't abandon Vicki, either, though he was willing enough to let Stefan adopt her). He turned her, so he also took the time to show her the ropes.
"What are you really doing here?"
"You caused quite a stir. You blew into town... saw everyone except the man who made you. I'm a little hurt."
"I'm so sorry. Did you bring the device?"
Both of them have other things on their mind - Damon counters by asking her about John Gilbert. Isobel confirms that they dated when she was young and if he'd had any doubts about John being Elena's dad, I'm sure that confirmed it for him. He asks her what she wants with the invention.
"Oh, me, personally? I don't want anything with it. I'm just doing what I'm told. You know, Damon, we're on the same side."
"Oh, yeah? What side is that?"
"Katherine's. She wants John Gilbert to have the device and I think that you know that she's not happy when she doesn't get what she wants."
"Why are you doing her dirty work?"
"Don't kill the messenger. We both know that you can't control Katherine. She does what she wants."
"So do I."
"Oh, really, Damon? You do?"
There ain't no rest for the wicked.
Damon kisses her and they fall back on the couch, still kissing, until he flips them while she's off-guard, grabbing Isobel by the throat and holding her to the ground. Isobel had no idea what she was walking into. Katherine had no idea what she was sending Isobel into - this is Damon with a new life's purpose. Katherine didn't want him and he's been letting her go, piece by piece. First, he chooses to stay in Mystic Falls instead of chase after her. Here, he explicitly chooses not to be on Katherine's side because he doesn't like that her side is trying to go through Elena (and a bit of Alaric, too, though he remains unnamed - Damon's semi-adopted him by this point) to get to him.
"Now that I have your attention, listen up. You do not come into my town and threaten people I care about. Going after Elena - bad move. You leave her alone or I will rip you to bit because I do believe in killing the messenger. You know why? Because it sends a message. Katherine wants something from me, you tell the little bitch to come get it herself."
You can totally see Isobel going - 'abort! abort! not working as planned!' Isobel met Katherine and Katherine found out about John's plan to kill the tomb vampires (that couldn't have happened until after the tomb vampire escaped, so this was after Katherine herself had already found out about the resemblance between herself and Elena - hmm. Because Katherine was putting the pieces together before Stefan knew that Elena existed, so she knew first, but she wanted to get the other hard parts of the curse together, the witch and the moonstone. She told Mason that she would fix the wolf-half of the curse, probably planning to double-cross him. Maybe. Maybe not - maybe she was looking for a way to permanently keep other vampires from breaking the curse because, hey, she already walks in the sun, so maybe finding a way to put werewolves on her good side is something that someone who is being hunted by Originals would find really useful. She might have actually meant to keep her deal with Mason. Having someone by your side that can kill your enemies at any time of the month is more useful than someone who can only kill them by the light of the full moon).
But that's for a later time. Here, Damon freaks Isobel out by not acting according to how he's supposed to be acting. Instead of responding to the word 'Katherine' as he should have, his focus is getting danger away from Elena. Damon is not automatically on Katherine's side just because it's Katherine's side.
There's a knock at Elena's door and Bonnie has come to see her. Bonnie couldn't sleep because she'd seen how upset Elena was yesterday, but she walked away from her. Bonnie doesn't want to be a person who walks away from an upset friend. "That's not me. That can't be us." I believe that Elena repeats those words (or very similar ones) back to Bonnie when she's trying to convince not to turn Damon into a fireball in 2x02. Elena listens and registers the words that other people use and then uses that same vocabulary to reach them - she does it with Stefan in 1x19 ("believe in you") and she does it with Bonnie. "You're my friend, Elena. If you need me, I'm here for you. And I'm sorry that I couldn't show you that yesterday."
Elena tells Bonnie that she met her birth mother and, when she's obviously upset over it, Bonnie hugs her tightly.
The floats are being made for the parade that we'll see next episode. Caroline has been talking to Tyler and trying to get him to reconcile with Matt. We learn that it's been two weeks since Kelly left. Tyler asks if Matt is okay, but Matt is still pissed off.
Bonnie is leafing through Emily's grimoire when Elena comes into the classroom. She's discovering that Jonathan Gilbert never invented anything that worked - what made the devices work was Emily's magic. Also, we learn here that the Don't Die rings were also supposed to be Gilbert 'inventions' that Emily secretly spelled. They learn that the device is a weapon meant to be used against vampires. And Pearl stole one of the important pieces, so it couldn't be used during the anti-vampire raid. How much easier would the 1864 townsfolk's job have been if all the vampires had fallen to the ground in pain all at once?
Jeremy catches up with Elena at the float-building, but she's trying to find Stefan. Jeremy is worried about Anna - Elena hadn't realized that Jeremy and Anna had actually remained in contact throughout everything (assumed that Anna's interest in Jeremy ended after her mother was released?). He confronts her with her lies but she still doesn't know where Anna might be, so Jeremy leaves. Elena calls after him but doesn't follow, presumably because finding Stefan is still objective #1 (so, is Stefan's cell phone not working?). Anyway, Elena turns out and is face-to-face with Isobel.
Isobel is here to let Elena know that she's figured out the important people in Elena's life, especially the vulnerable ones that are here right now, and she proves it by pointing them out. And then she has Frank (the male compelled minion) 'accidentally' make the float break so that Matt's arm will get crushed under it. Elena tries to go to him, but Isobel has him by the arm. Tyler and the other guys are trying to lift up the trailer, but it's not until Stefan joins the lifting crew that they can pull it up enough to Matt to get out.
Because Isobel did not take the meaning from Damon's warning that he was hoping. Instead of leaving Elena alone, she realizes that Elena is exactly the way to get the device from Damon. Apply pressure to Elena and then let Elena apply the pressure to Damon. Leverage.
To make her point further, Isobel has Jeremy snatched.
At her place, Isobel totally thinks she has everything figured out. She's all packed up, so that she can get out of town the second she hands the missing piece of the device over to John. I kinda feel like this is all a set-piece for Jeremy's benefit, so I'm not going to expend much effort into the specifics (especially since they are also play-acting "You can't trust those rotten vampires", which is a lesson that John would want to try to hammer into Jeremy's head). Isobel takes away John's ring and then leaves the room, John and Jeremy guarded by Sherri and Frank.
Bonnie, Stefan, and Elena are in a classroom. Bonnie wonders where the device is - Stefan tells her that Damon has it.
"I'll talk to him," Elena says.
"He's not just going to hand it over, especially if it's harmful to vampires."
But Elena has an idea and they go to Damon.
"Absolutely not."
"Just hear me out."
"I'm not going to give the device to Isobel so that she can give it to John so that he can turn around and kill me. I like being a living... dead person."
"But it'll be useless. Bonnie can take its power away."
"I don't trust her."
As we find out, for very good reason. I'm trying to remember if Damon actually realizes that Bonnie double-crossed him in 1x22 or if he just assumes that her magic failed. I'm not sure at what point Bonnie realizes that she wasn't willing to do what Elena wanted, but she should have backed out. The problem, of course, is that that would leave Jeremy in danger. So, she lies to save Jeremy's life and because she isn't willing to turn off someone that can hurt vampires, and the change of events from that leads to Caroline getting hurt, which Bonnie feels guilty about, which is likely part of what makes her agree with Damon that he should give Caroline his blood and then, of course, Katherine uses that to turn Caroline into a vampire. It's actually got a twisted poetic justice to it. Her hatred for vampires indirectly leads to one of her best friends becoming one.
Damon doesn't like the plan. He thinks that a better plan would be him attempting to rescue Jeremy himself. Stefan likes Elena's plan better than Damon's. Stefan trusts Bonnie. Damon challenges Bonnie's abilities, so she plucks a book of his choosing from the shelves - "Call of the Wild". It's an apt choice, if not a subtle one. Domesticated dog goes feral.
"We're doing this, Damon," Elena tells him. "And we're doing it my way. Now give me the device. We're wasting time."
"I don't trust you," Damon says to Bonnie. "I tried to kill you."
B: "Right. You can't trust me"
E: "But you can trust me."
Damon gives her the piece, folding his hand around hers as he does it. Stefan watches, a bit concerned at this evidence of how much Damon does trust Elena.
Jeremy and John enjoy some 'bonding' time. John wants the tomb vampires dead and he's trying to convince Jeremy that there are no good vampires. John thinks that Jeremy should blindly believe what his father did. Has he never actually met the Gilbert siblings. Blindly following tradition isn't really their thing.
Bonnie pretends to deactivate the device. All she really does is play with her favorite witch toys - the flames dance, the object floats, the lights flicker. But she lets Elena believe that she's taken away the spell (again, there's a certain poetic justice in that the same thing is being done to her currently in S2 - doesn't feel so good when other people are lying to you and betraying you, does it, Bonnie?).
Elena goes to meet Isobel in the public park. Isobel says that it's not a negotiation, not knowing Elena well enough to know that everything is a negotiation with Elena. If there is an ultimatum being given, Elena will look around the corners to try a want to negotiate. Isobel points out that she has two compelled humans on her side. Elena points out that she has two vampires on her side. Isobel tells Elena to 'call home', where Jeremy answers the phone. He's there and he's fine.
"Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me. I don't have any."
"But you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was going to give it to me?"
"Because he's in love with you."
Awkward moment of awkwardness. Damon glances over at Stefan, who is looking at the ground, thanks. Elena puts the device in Isobel's hand and thanks her.
"For what?"
"For being such a monumental disappointment. It keeps the memory of my real mother perfectly intact."
"Goodbye, Elena. As long as you have a Salvatore on each arm, you're doomed. Katherine was smart. She got out. But we all know that you're not Katherine."
Isobel and her minions leave. Stefan walks over and hugs Elena. Over his shoulder, she meets Damon's eyes for a moment, then she looks away, burying her face in Stefan's chest. Then Stefan looks over at Damon, who turns to leave.
Ha, I wonder what exactly Katherine told her about the Salvatores. And if she's already talked to Katherine about Damon's new loyalties. Katherine got annoyed at how much Damon cared for her when it was putting her in danger, and she wasn't interested in coming to find either of the Salvatores just for their own sake (though she stalked Stefan a bit, from time to time).
Jeremy still can't get a hold of Anna. Elena, having returned home, goes to talk to him. She assumes that he found out about vampires because of Anna. He lets her know that he actually found out from her journal.
"Save me the speech about invasion of privacy because I read a part in there about Damon erasing my memory about what happened to Vicki."
"Jer, please, you don't understand. The night that Vicki died-" justification time. She apologizes and says that she just wanted to take away his pain, and he tells her to leave. He shuts on the door in her face.
At the school, Alaric is heading out when Isobel is there. She wanted to see him one last time before she left Mystic Falls.
"You act like you don't care, but you cared enough to protect me after you left."
"I was a different person back then."
"Right, right. And that person is gone. The woman I married... the woman I loved... she's gone."
He yanks off his ring and tosses it to Isobel. He doesn't believe her. Like Elena, he's seen too much evidence that the person is still there (and Damon actually explained things to him, so he knows that it's not wishful thinking. Isobel's emotions are there, if she chooses to tap into them). Then he throws away his sprig of vervain, and tells her that she should just kill him or compel him if she's going to.
She pushes him up against the wall:
"I wanted this. I needed this. And I'm going to regret it forever. This was my mistake, not yours."
Then she compels him to forget this conversation and for his heart to be free of her. She tells him goodbye and puts his ring back on his finger, touches his face one last time, and is gone.
And that's why Isobel has to turn the switch off - because if she doesn't, she feels this painful regret and it hurts. So, she flips the switch and makes the pain go away. Stefan did the same thing after he ate his father. As Damon said, it's the easier road (again, I really do want to know what made Stefan flip the switch back over and start on his animal blood diet).
Anna shows up in Jeremy's bedroom. She tells him that Pearl was killed. They hug and he tries to comfort her.
Damon is pouring himself some alcohol to drink. He can tell that Stefan wants to talk and he tells Stefan just to get it out.
"It's about what Isobel said."
"What about?"
"Well, I know that you and Elena have bonded and I know that she cares about you and, uh, I know that you care about her."
"Well, this is going in an interesting direction."
"I'm just concerned about Elena being hurt. She considers you a friend."
"Same here. Elena's a very good friend. Actually, she might qualify as my only... friend. Is that a problem?"
"So, at the risk of sounding like a... like a jealous boyfriend."
"Oh, there's no risk. You do."
"History will not be repeating itself where Elena's concerned. You understand what I'm saying?"
"Sure. Sure."
"Do you understand?"
"Whatever you say, man. I mean, honestly, we're just friends. As a friend, I wasn't looking forward to telling her the truth anyway. So, I'll let you do it."
Damon really doesn't want to go through all the 'jealous boyfriend' stuff that Stefan is doing - and he's getting all serious about it, zooming right up in Damon's face and all. So, Damon pulls out a distraction. A true distraction but one that will get Stefan to talk about something other than What Isobel Said.
Also, Stefan is acting like a jealous boyfriend. He will continue to do so at various points, despite Elena not giving him any reason to act that way. He both likes and dislikes that Elena trusts Damon at this point (pre-"The Return"), and he likes and dislikes even more that this trust goes both ways. It may have actually been emotionally easier for Stefan in S2 than it is here, because he can have his girlfriend and his brother, without any mixing of the lines. He gets the best of both worlds, without feeling that worry that the two worlds might decide that they like each other better than him (and yet, even then, Damon is his first thought when Elena's gone off somewhere without wanting Stefan to know about it - he doesn't think that Jeremy's murder was a sticking point for Elena caring about Damon; maybe because nothing Damon's done has ever made Stefan able to stop giving him chances, maybe because he's all-too-aware of Elena's forgiving nature).
"What truth?"
"About John. Because I know that you guys don't like to keep secrets from each other."
"What are you talking about?"
"Am I the only one around here that has the ability to put two and two together? Isobel. Hello? She dated John when she was fifteen. She gets pregnant and ends up at the doctor's office of John's brother. Now, what do you think John's role is in all this? I mean, come on, think about it. Wait, you get it - you there yet?"
"So, you think that John is... Elena's father?"
Stefan asks if Damon has proof and Damon is basically... yeah, whatever, dude. It's obvious. He leaves it to Stefan to tell her the truth, with the obvious elephant lurking that, if Stefan doesn't, Damon can.
Back at the house, John gets a call from Isobel. Their conversation confirms Damon's supposition and also that John was playing along with Isobel that day. She left him the device and his ring, and she wants him to add the Salvatore brothers to the list of vampires to kill. He was already planning on adding those names. Neither of them want Elena to stay mixed up in the affairs of vampires.
At the Grill, Bonnie has a guilty heart, that she is attempting to spill to Caroline.
"I did something bad, Caroline. And I lied about it."
"To who?"
"To Elena. I pretended to do something I didn't really do."
"What are you talking about?"
"I couldn't do what she wanted me to do. It wasn't right. Grams would have never done it, so I couldn't either. But when Elena finds out, she's never going to forgive me."
I like that Bonnie is struggling with her deception. This is the second time that Elena has gotten Damon to do something because he trusts her, and the people that she trusted to follow through have betrayed them both. And it never ends well, which is something that I wish that the Bennett witches would pick up at some point (I have confidence that Bonnie is figuring this out). Screwing Damon over has yet to actually reap a positive result, yet this is the third time this specific lineage of people has done it (Emily breaks the crystal to prevent the tomb spell - Damon opens it anyway; Grams tries to seal him in - he and all the tomb vampires get out; Bonnie doesn't de-spell the device - Tyler, Caroline, and Matt nearly die and Caroline becomes a vampire, plus she then actively save Damon's life anyway. Seriously, people, it never leads to anything good). If a strategy consistently fails to work, maybe it's a bad strategy. If you aren't willing to help someone, maybe be honest about it next time.
No deaths in this episode.
Damon's current kill count: 19
Stefan's current kill count: 6
Alaric: 3
Katherine: 2
John: 2
Isobel: 2
1 & 2. Isobel has bitten and compelled a man and woman to be her toys.
Damon's current bite count: 23
Katherine's current bite count: 4
Stefan's current bite count: 4
Anna: 2
Isobel: 2
1 & 2. Isobel has bitten and compelled a man and woman to be her toys.
3. Isobel compels Alaric to get over her.
Stefan's current compelling count: 7
Damon's current compelling count: 17
Katherine: 1
Isobel: 4
1. Caroline strategizes with Bonnie about this year's Miss Mystic Float and they also talk about Bonnie's friendship with Elena.
2. Bonnie go to talk to Elena, feeling bad that she'd walked away from her the other day.
3. Bonnie confesses to Caroline that she did something (or failed to do something) that Elena might not forgive.
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 14 episodes, at least four weeks)
This episode picks up at the end of the last one, with Isobel surprising Alaric at the Mystic Grill. We go to the next day, where Alaric tells Elena about Isobel's request and Damon warns Isobel off.
The next day, Bonnie goes to talk to Elena because she feels horrible for walking away from her. It's been two weeks since Kelly left. Bonnie pretends to help and Elena gives the device to Isobel.
Total time covered is 2 days and 2 nights.
1. Damon is shirtless while playing poker.
No visions.