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Vampire Diaries: 2x01 - The Return (spoilers through 2x14)
Because it's the beginning of a new season, it's helpful to review what the PTB thought important that people know going into S2:
a. Stefan has lived in secret for over a century, but he has to know 'her' (Elena).
b. Stefan is a vampire.
c. Damon is his big brother.
d. Katherine broke Stefan's heart a long time ago, and Elena looks like her.
e. Stefan says that his and Damon's love for Katherine wasn't real; Damon says that his love for Katherine was, thanks very much.
f. Bonnie is a witch.
g. Tyler heard a weird noise and crashed his car (with Matt and Caroline in it) and had weird irises. Caroline might be in danger from injuries from the crash.
h. Tyler's dad is dead.
i. Damon wants to thank Elena for making him think that she thinks that he's worth saving. He also wants to kiss her. The previously doesn't reveal that Elena was really Katherine at this point.
j. Anna gives Jeremy a vial of his blood and tells him that if he dies with it in his system, he'll become a vampire. Damon tells Jeremy that Anna was killed. Jeremy drinks the blood and tries to kill himself using pills.
So, that was all the news that was fit to print.
2x01 - The Return
This time, when we replay the kitchen scene, we get a little more - Jenna is out of the house (gone to talk to someone about the fire downtown) and Katherine can hear Elena coming home (I wonder if she'd planned on playing around with John more but changed her plans when she heard Elena's voice). Them adding the extra (unseen) conversation in helps explain why Damon was too far away to hear what was going on at Elena's house when Katherine reveals herself.
Again, I have to note that Nina has a completely gorgeous curve to her body. She has the shape that women attempted to use corsets to force - tucked in waist that curves out both below and above to form that 'hourglass'. It's really visible when Elena is heading toward the kitchen. Shallow, but as a girl who goes for girls... yeah, I notice it.
Elena walks into the kitchen to find John bleeding on the floor. So, I will note that Katherine knew that Elena was about to arrive and chose not to give John a fatal wound. She could have easily stabbed him somewhere that would make him die instantly, if that's what she'd wanted. She wanted to cause trauma and damage. I doubt she would have shed any tears if the ambulance hadn't gotten there quickly enough and John had died, but she was also obviously fine with the idea of him living.
Elena, of course, immediately grabs a towel to try to stem John's bleeding and she calls 911. John can see that Katherine is lurking around, getting a look in at Elena. He lets Elena know but by the time she turns around, Katherine is gone. Elena turns around, picking up the bloody knife so that she can defend herself if necessary, and scouts the house for Katherine, who plays the zippy-vampire stalking game, takes a look at Elena's profile, and then zips out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Katherine was taking a moment to check and see if Elena really was a doppelgänger, probably, or just close-but-not-close-enough. Pictures (and I'm sure that Katherine has seen pictures) don't always tell the full story.
Elena gets concerned about Jeremy and races upstairs, finding him on the bed and he wakes up with a start when she shakes him (and the first time through, I definitely wondered if he'd turned).
When we get back from the title card, John is being wheeled out of the house and into an ambulance. Stefan arrives (I'm guessing that Elena called him, because before everything happened, they were planning to meet at the hospital). Elena greets him and they go upstairs together to see Jeremy. She wants to know if Jeremy is in transition. Stefan says that Jeremy is fine.
Jeremy: "You mean, I'm not a vampire? Damn it."
Elena: "Don't say that. Jeremy... Jeremy, why would you want that?"
Jeremy: "Did you hear about Anna - what happened to her tonight? She's dead."
I wonder how it felt for Stefan to see Elena's immediate but why? about the idea of Jeremy becoming a vampire. It reminds me of 1x21, where she tells Isobel that she's never thought about the reasons why someone would choose to become a vampire - why it would be appealing. Now, in 2x14, she side-steps the 'future' conversation (after teasingly bringing it up) because she doesn't see herself as having a future to even speak of, because she signed her life away to Elijah. But it's interesting that she explicitly doesn't want to think about it even before then - Lexi is instrumental in bringing Elena and Stefan back together and it's obvious from "Bloodlines" that Lexi is a firm believer in vamping the ones you love. If Lexi had lived, I imagine that she would have encouraged Elena to think seriously about living 'forever' for/with Stefan, because you don't 'walk away' from love. Because of Lexi and her boyfriend, Elena has actually had a very vivid picture of why someone would choose to become a vampire so, again, it's interesting that in 1x21, she denies having considered the possibility.
Stefan puts his hands all over Jeremy in order to try to tell him that killing himself is bad and that Anna's blood is probably going to leave his system soon, so it would be suicide, too. Also, since he didn't take enough pills to straight-up die, Anna's blood would have cured him of any damage that they might have caused.
Elena heads off to the hospital while Stefan stays to babysit Jeremy and make sure that he doesn't try to kill himself again. Ha, again, I suspect that Jeremy felt a weird sense of delight/frustration when he basically helped do the same thing to Elena in 2x11 (babysit her because she might rush off to get herself killed). Ah, Gilberts.
At the hospital, Matt calls Bonnie 'Bon'. He's big on the one-syllable nicknames, actually - he calls Caroline 'Care' frequently. I think I've heard him say 'Ty', too. Real reason that Damon doesn't want to be friendly with Matt - he doesn't want to be called 'Dame' all the time.
Matt is informing Bonnie of Caroline's condition (bad). He tells her what happened and how Tyler lost control of the car, and you can see the guilt hit Bonnie as she realizes that it was her failing to turn off the device that led to this happening.
Meanwhile, Damon is at the hospital to comfort Liz because he heard that Caroline was hurt. At this point, Damon is wide-open to his emotions - he went to Jeremy for Jeremy's sake and actually interacted with him like he was a person, (someone he thought was) Elena listened to Damon and kissed him back and that's probably giving him the greatest buzz ever, and now he's being a good friend for Liz.
"I need your help, Damon."
"Sure. Anything, Liz."
Damon says to Stefan, last season, that Elena is his only friend - by 2x05, he's willing to admit that Liz is his friend, too. I'm not sure he's ever called Alaric his friend, but that they have a genuine friendship becomes obvious, too. Like Rose said in 2x12 - Damon has built something here, in this town, whether he wants to admit it or not. He doesn't just care about Elena - he cares about Liz and Alaric and, of course, Stefan. He comes to care about Jeremy and Caroline over the course of S2 and he and Bonnie have managed to forge a working relationship by 2x14 (including sharing information like allies). Damon is also involved in every piece of the puzzle - there's not much that happens in Mystic Falls that isn't affected by Damon in some way.
Damon has roots here, in Mystic Falls, and they're taking hold again. This is his town and he'll fight to protect it. But he hasn't admitted that to himself yet - none of what he's doing is something that he's consciously doing. He's acting on instinct. I suspect that his current journey on the show is the one that will make his actions/changes a conscious choice, rather than something that he drifted into because of his affection for Stefan and Elena (and others).
Liz is asking Damon to investigate the way that Mayor Lockwood reacted to the device, because she's not in an emotional place where she can deal with it right now. All she can think about is Caroline. She tears up and Damon gives her a supportive and comforting hug.
Elena has found Bonnie at the hospital and she asks after Caroline. Bonnie tells her that the doctors don't know if Caroline will make it - Damon turns the corner in time to hear that part of the conversation and see Bonnie giving Elena a hug. Elena wants to know if Bonnie can do anything to help. Damon chimes in that Bonnie doesn't know any spells like that, and Bonnie has to agree. He taunts her a little about her lack of experience and she taunts him with her ability to give him aneurysms (only verbally, this time), and then Damon turns his attention to Elena and offers to give Caroline some of his blood.
She immediately turns him down. Elena doesn't want to risk it, but Bonnie does.
Damon: "I do this... you and me, we call a truce?"
Bonnie: "No, but you'll do it anyway. For Elena."
Elena shoots Bonnie a 'wtf?' look, before nodding. Man, I almost want to start another list: times that people use Elena as leverage to make Damon do something. It's pretty long.
Bonnie leaves and Damon wants to talk about something personal.
"I know this is probably the last thing you want to do right now but we should probably talk about what happened tonight."
"Yeah. One of the tomb vampires got into the house and almost killed John."
"What? What... when? What are you talking about? After I left?"
"You were there?"
"Oh, come on, Elena. You know I was."
"When were you at the house?"
"Really? Earlier... on the porch... we were talking. All cathartic, feelings exposed. Come on, we kissed, Elena."
"Okay. I don't have time for this, Damon."
"If you want to forget what happened, fine. But I can't."
Jenna arrives and in the ensuing conversation (Jenna talked to Elena earlier but Elena is firm that that didn't happen, either), Damon has an epiphany.
"You have got to be kidding me."
It wasn't real. His cathartic moment was wasted on Katherine. He'd believed - for an hour or so - that Elena had heard him confess his desire to be worthy and his admiration of people who choose to do the good thing even when they have no reason to, and that she had accepted it and him. That she had kissed him back. And it was all a lie. It wasn't real.
This informs everything that happens in the rest of the episode (and a lot of the rest of the season - look at him engineering his future cathartic moments with people not-Elena; people that he can control and have power over, where it's on his terms and not theirs). This is what starts his tailspin that's going to lead to snapping Jeremy's neck. But if this had been the only thing, it wouldn't have caused everything. The rest of the episode pretty much tears down all the pieces of what Damon had thought had been built between the two of them recently (that she would never kiss him (someone like him) back; that it would always be (perfect, golden) Stefan - that no matter what Damon does, it will never matter enough; that there isn't something between the two of them that's been cracking and sizzling), so Damon tries to tear down what she was willing to offer him (her friendship) himself, in a gloriously horrible act of impulsive self(and other) destruction.
Also, check Jenna's brief glare at Damon and Damon's guilty turning away from her. It's subtle, but Jenna and Damon's actors do play the awareness of Jenna having seen Damon and Elena kissing on the porch.
Katherine arrives back at the Gilbert place and Stefan comes down to talk to 'Elena'. She snags a hug from Stefan and he twigs to the fact that it's Katherine, reacting with a vampire face and throwing her away from him. He slams her up against the wall a few times and she lets him. When they hear a sound at the door, she casually yanks his hand off her and zips away.
So, Stefan - kinda has a huge reaction to the realization that he's with Katherine. It's interesting, because he should know that she's much stronger than he is, so if she's being yanked around by him, it's because she wants to be. Then again, he didn't look like he was doing much thinking.
Elena and Damon have arrived and while Elena takes a moment to wonder why Stefan is on the floor, Damon explains, "Katherine happened."
Damon lets them know that Katherine pretended to be Elena for him earlier, after Elena gets back from informing Jeremy (about Katherine, I assume). Elena is pretty unhappy that, even with the tomb vampires dead, she still has hostile vampires to worry about.
Elena: "Katherine's been in this house. That means that she was invited in - what are we going to do?"
Damon: "Move."
Elena chides him for being snarky, but he's right, really - Katherine is stronger than they are and she's been invited in. It's an incredibly dangerous situation. Man, if only there were some place that they could go where Katherine hasn't been invited in. It sucks that they don't have anywhere like that.
Damon points out that Elena isn't dead - that means that Katherine doesn't want her dead.
Damon: "That means she has other plans."
Stefan: "And that means we need to find out what her other plans are and not provoke her in the process."
I'm sorry, Stefan - who was it exactly who flat-out attacked Katherine tonight the second that he realized who he was dealing with? Oh, it was you? Thanks. In your moment of self-righteousness directed at Damon, I'd almost forgotten.
Stefan wants to know what happened when Damon thought Katherine was Elena earlier. After a moment, Damon lets them know about the kiss (well, he already kinda told Elena - you can see her remember and sorta brace for it).
Damon: "We... kissed."
Elena: "And you thought it was me?"
Stefan: "What do you mean... you kissed?"
Damon: "Well, you know, when two lips pucker and they-" *makes smacking noises*
And Stefan zips at Damon, who zips around to stand where Stefan used to be standing behind Elena's chair. So... yeah. Stefan is interesting here. Because everyone knows that it wasn't Elena. Is he's pissed off entirely because it feels like Damon betrayed him? It's just such a strong reaction. Is there still an element of jealousy over Katherine herself? We've never gotten to see Stefan dealing with his Katherine issues - he claims to be over her, but he kept her picture, considered it a memory worth keeping. And then he reacts so strongly and so violently to realizing that Katherine is the person hugging him.
When Stefan starts to go for Damon again, Elena puts herself in the middle, holding up a hand to hold Stefan back.
"He kissed Katherine, not me," she points out. She turns to Damon. "I wouldn't do that," she tells him, firmly (after all, she had only just told him earlier that night that he needed to stop being so flirty with her, for Stefan's sake).
Elena's reminder does not deter either brother from wanting to 'deal' with this. It's not about Damon kissing Elena; it's about Damon kissing the person he thought was Stefan's girlfriend. It's about Damon being willing to betray Stefan, which is what Stefan was afraid of last season (and he was also afraid that it would work, but now he has actual evidence that Damon would go there).
"It's Katherine! She loves to play games and you're fooling yourself if you think you'll find out what she's up to before she wants you."
Damon is very bitter and aware in this scene. I think it really helps that he had a full awareness of who Katherine was as a person, even while he loved her. So, when his love started dropping away, that awareness helped him realize how dangerous and untrustworthy she was.
Over at the hospital the next morning, Bonnie 'casually' hears from Matt that Damon stopped by last night to see Caroline. She's doing a lot better thanks to the vampire blood. Bonnie is so relieved to see Caroline getting well that she tears up a little. Caroline is so adorable and sweet here. Bundle of sunshine, that girl. Love her.
At the Lockwood place, Carol is talking with Damon and Liz. Damon tries to keep the peace between the two women, both of whom have legitimate grievances. He finally gets through to them with an inspiration little pep talk: "But we have to stick together. Trust each other. We'll get through this."
Both of the women might have reason to be less than thrilled, but both of them completely trust and like Damon Salvatore (of course, with all that they know about him, they would be crazy not to - he came in and took over from Zach - who they have probably completely forgotten by now, as Damon has made himself indispensable - and he's staked vampires and he's willing to pitch in and help out when they need him, and he's emotionally-supportive of both of them as well. Man, laying all that out reminds me that we need more Damon-Carol scenes in S2).
Oh, hey, guess what?
It's Mason-time!
Yep, Mason Lockwood has returned to his family home so that he can grieve for his brother's death. I'm sure that his arrival has nothing to do with Katherine's arrival and I'm sure he's not going to start looking around for a mysterious moonstone.
So, hmm. Did Katherine know that the Gilbert device would go off on Richard? Because Richard certainly wouldn't have just handed the stone over to Mason. Was the tomb-vampire killing plan actually a way of killing Richard so that Mason could swoop in and grab the moonstone? And killing off the tomb vamps was just a bonus? Using John's hatred of vampires and John and Isobel's desire to protect Elena as a way to achieve her own ends?
Anyway, we learn in this scene that Mason hasn't been back home for seven or eight years (since Tyler appears to be in the Elena-Matt-Caroline-Bonnie age group), and he and Tyler hug.
Stefan and Elena arrive at the hospital to talk to John. They want to know what he knows about what Katherine wants. Elena gives John back his ring of not dying and asks again. John hates Stefan and wants him to die. Stefan isn't too fond of John, either.
John says that he and Katherine never spoke directly, only through Isobel. So, he doesn't know her plans.
John: "Either kill me or get out, because I can't stand the sight of you with my daughter."
Elena is not impressed with John's vampire-hate. She says that it'll get John killed. Hating something much stronger and faster than you that actually can hunt and eat you does carry hazards with it. She can't stand the sight of John's stupid vampire-hating face, and leaves.
Stefan has thought of something - he feds John some of his blood and then threatens to kill him; turn him into a vampire. Yeah, I can't imagine why John would dislike vampires. It's such a mystery. Anyway, he tells John to leave town. Firmly.
Over at the party, Damon immediately notices the new face (Mason) talking to Carol. He asks Liz for the 411 - it's Richard's younger brother, took off when he found out about the council stuff, and has been living in a surfer in Florida. There's clearly something that bugs him about the guy, though. Makes me wonder if vampires can't sense werewolves, too, it's just that they don't know enough about the signs to realize that it's going on. Or he could just be thinking that if something was weird about Richard, something might be weird about Mason, too.
'Elena' comes up to the house and Tyler invites her in. Katherine smirks a bit as she steps into the Lockwood house. Her plan is coming together. She's got a wolf, she's got the doppelgänger within reach, she can make a vampire any time that she wants, she's got a witch on call. All she needs to do is locate one pesky moonstone. And have some fun playing around with the Salvatores, since they're all in town anyway, and they've been annoying and gotten crushes on said doppelgänger. They need to be punished, especially Stefan, who shouldn't get to enjoy with Elena what he refused to do with Katherine.
Stefan and Elena are headed out of the hospital.
"How did you leave it in there, with John?"
"I, uh... I asked him to leave town."
"Asked? You threatened him."
"Yeah, I threatened."
"Good. I want him gone, Stefan. I know that I shouldn't feel that way but I don't want someone like that in my life. Or Jeremy's life."
Elena has chosen her side - "vampires are people, too" - and she doesn't want to hang out with anyone who isn't willing to agree with that premise. Stefan wants to go find Damon.
"Stefan, please don't fight with him." (I wonder if part of her concern is about the fact that, with Stefan off the human blood, Damon would easily kick his ass in a fair fight)
"No, Elena, he tried to kiss you. I'm not okay with that."
"That's not the problem. Katherine is. She's already messing with both of your heads and Damon's not stable when it comes to her. The last thing we need is to make things worse."
Stefan actually fully takes this on board and, when the moment arises for him to talk to Damon, he does refuse to fight. This is actually the point that Stefan takes and pushes forward later, though it's broader than Katherine - 'we can't protect Elena if we're fighting each other'. I'm also glad to see here that Elena realizes that Katherine being around is messing with Stefan, too, not just Damon. In fact, she overestimates how great Katherine's impact on Damon is, because she's underestimated her own impact.
She doesn't want to admit to how much power she has over Damon (which is quite the reversal from Katherine, who reveled in her power - in things like pushing Damon into tasting human blood while still human). Even now, she doesn't like to admit to herself that she has great influence over him - her reaction to him calling her out on using her power in 2x13 being telling. Isobel said, only days ago, that Damon is in love with her, but Elena doesn't want to think about that. Elena very much doesn't want to be Katherine (though, amusingly/ironically, in loving Stefan and not loving Damon, she's actually closer to Katherine than if she genuinely loved Damon, too).
Despite the fact that Damon is far more obsessive over the kiss that didn't happen than he is over Katherine's return, Elena continues to believe that Katherine holds the key to Damon's sanity. She wants it to be about Katherine because she doesn't want to be 'another Katherine' to the Salvatore brothers.
Bonnie has come up behind Damon to talk to him about the Gilbert device and the Lockwoods. She mentions that it affected Tyler and he returns that it's what took the Mayor down, too. Ah, yes, Damon is very aware that Bonnie 'let' the Gilbert device keep working and he's pretty snarky about it, too.
"No good deed goes unpunished with you, does it?"
"Doesn't undo the bad. I know what you are, Damon. You might have Elena and the sheriff and everybody else fooled, but not me. One more move and I'm going to take you out."
"Now, you need to stop with witch's brew. You're starting to believe your own press."
Which is enough to provoke Bonnie to cause horrible pain to Damon. The guy who just probably saved Caroline's life. Bonnie clearly doesn't understand that the whole point of verbal banter is so that both sides can take shots without any physical damage being done. Bonnie, I think, takes Damon's words far too seriously. Salvatore vampires are made of about 30% blood and 70% fast-talking BS.
Anyway, so Bonnie does this here but after Damon kills Jeremy, she does nothing. Only to snap and turn on him in 2x02 for something that isn't his fault, unlike the whole 'killing Jeremy' thing. Elena, you were talking about someone being unstable - I think you might want to check on Bonnie. Girl is on the edge. She's full of guilt and regret and uncertainty and apt to act violently on impulse (she and Damon do have a lot in common - but mostly in the unhelpful way that would feed and escalate - makes me think of "Love the Way You Lie" (awesome song that I dearly hope no one would ever attempt to use as a 'how-to' manual for a relationship). If they ever got together, I'm pretty sure that the first big fight would end with one of them dead).
Bonnie gives Damon an 'I'm hot shit' look and stomps off. She stops 'Elena' and immediately starts going off about how much Damon annoys her and how everything is his fault, etc, blah, and so forth. She also incidentally spills that Damon helped with Caroline.
"I'm sorry," 'Elena' tells her. "What Damon's done is just awful."
Bonnie laughs a little, feeling relieved just for having vented. She touches 'Elena' and then probably feels death and cold and etc, and she freezes. She tries to brush it off so that Katherine won't get suspicious and attempts to make her escape. But Katherine has known witches and, also, Bonnie is really obvious when she gets hit with a vision.
Bonnie calls Elena and, yeah, Elena is... not there yet. Bonnie turns around and there Katherine is. Katherine taunts Bonnie with how much of Elena's life she's already got figured out and when Bonnie tries to hit her with the pain-magic, she plays along for a second before revealing that it isn't affecting her enough to matter. She slams Bonnie up against a wall, and Bonnie uses magic to open the doors, hoping that Katherine wants to stay low-key, as she indeed does.
Stefan is there, telling Katherine to leave Bonnie alone. Katherine agrees, releasing Bonnie and brushing past Stefan, trailing her fingers along his chest.
He follows her out into the party, asking why she's there. Oh, she wants to talk to him. Stefan wants to know why she's there - she spots Matt and goes over to offer him her best wishes and gladness over Caroline's recovery. After he's gone, Katherine takes a moment to take in how blue his eyes are. Stefan wants her to leave.
"You're hurting my feelings, Stefan. Damon was much happier to see me. Then again, he thought I was your girlfriend, so..."
Stefan isn't interested in playing games. He never really was - that's probably why Katherine wants so much to coax him into them.
"Just tell me what you're doing here."
"Maybe I missed you. Is that an acceptable reason?"
"What game are you playing?"
"Why - do you want to play with me?"
"I don't know. How can I play if I don't know the rules?"
"No rules, Stefan. Don't you remember? No rules."
Katherine is trying to play an old favorite of many - 'divide and conquer'. It's Elena who tries to quench that fire when she tells Stefan not to fight with Damon. And it's Elena, not Katherine, who is shown to have the most emotional power when it comes to both Salvatore brothers. It's Elena's influence that carries the day, with both Stefan and (more tragically) with Damon.
Katherine has been supplanted by her doppelgänger and has yet to realize it.
They go off to talk alone - and just in time, as Elena, Jenna, and Jeremy have all just arrived. Jenna is impressed at the turn-out. As they head inside, planning to just drop off food and go, Elena spots Damon standing on the porch. Elena asks them to go ahead without her and Jenna's smile drops when she realizes that Elena is going over to talk to Damon, but she does what Elena asks (guessing that Damon is not likely to try to kiss Elena in such a public party where Stefan is also probably in attendance?).
"How are you doing?"
"Great, Elena. Walking on sunshine. Thanks for asking."
"Damon."
"Elena."
"We should be able to talk about this. Damon, we're close enough now. I really want to know how you're doing."
"I kissed you. Thought you kissed me back. Doppelgänger hi-jinks ensued. How do you think I'm doing?"
"I think you're hurt."
"Mmm, no, I don't get hurt, Elena."
"No, you don't admit that you get hurt. You get angry and cover it up and then do something stupid."
Both Elena and Damon are people who can't help pushing at boundaries. Here, Elena pushes at boundaries of trust - she wants Damon to trust her and rely on her, so she gently pokes at his emotional wounds, trying to work herself underneath, into his bones (she does similar things with Stefan, too). We're close enough now she tells him, but then we have the second half of the conversation, coming up.
"You're scared. You think Katherine's going to send me off the deep end, don't you? I don't need her for that."
If Elena has most of Damon's number (she has his emotional responses down pat, she just underestimates her own influence and, correspondingly, overestimates Katherine's - it's obvious that Damon is starting to spiral over something and it would be so much easier for Elena if that something is Katherine), he has hers, too. He realizes that she's talking partly because she's afraid he's going to act rashly because of Katherine and he's aware that she doesn't know that Katherine isn't the person holding onto his heartstrings anymore.
"Why is it such a surprise that I would kiss you?"
"That's not a surprise. I'm surprised that you thought I would kiss you back."
"Now I'm hurt."
He doesn't even bother covering it up in sarcasm. It's real and raw and Elena sees it. But then Bonnie arrives, all flustered from Katherine, so the conversation ends up being put on hold.
The conversation that Elena and Damon are having is skewed, a bit. Elena is trying to say "I can't believe you thought I would cheat on Stefan" and Damon is hearing "I can't believe you thought I cared enough about you to want to kiss you". For Damon, nothing in this conversation is about Stefan. It's just about him and Elena and the thing that they have between them.
In another room of the house, Jeremy runs into Tyler, who is drinking. Ah, the Jeremy-Tyler thing kinda got lost in the rest of S2, which is a shame, because it was an interesting dynamic in S1. Anyway, they begin to bond over both having dead fathers, but Mason interrupts the moment so that he can steal the Jeremy-Tyler bonding time for his own.
Outside, Katherine and Stefan are taking a stroll. He wonders why she killed off the tomb vampires ("you turned most of them") and she basically gives a shrug as an answer. She tells him that he's changed:
"You're stronger. Meaner. Sexy."
"Don't flirt with me, Katherine. I'm not Damon. I haven't spent a hundred and forty-five years obsessed with you."
"Yeah, based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise. Though, I admit, it does bother me that you've fallen in love with someone else."
"I was never in love with you, Katherine. You compelled me, so none of my feelings were real."
"Believe what you want, Stefan, but I know the truth. And, deep down, so do you."
"The truth? Well, the truth is you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch that you've always been. So, whatever it is that brought you here, just get on with it, and then leave town. Because if you don't, I will hunt you down and I will rip your heart out."
"You want to know why I'm here, Stefan? I came back for you."
"Well, the problem, Katherine, is that I hate you."
"You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one."
Also, she stabs him in the stomach with a metal candle/light holder that was in the ground. Not fun, I imagine. Katherine, I think, does care about Stefan more than she cares about most people. He's more than just an amusement to her - when he declared his feelings to her (in the flashback in 2x04), she was genuinely touched. However, she doesn't care enough about him to go to him after her 'death' in the church - her own safety means much more to her than her feelings for Stefan. That's Katherine, though. Her priority in times of crisis is Katherine, and no one else (another huge contrast with Elena - and with the Salvatores, who are both willing to die in the service of love, if necessary).
Elena has come out to sop the blood up off Stefan's stomach. Damon comes back - in order to report that he can't find Katherine and also to taunt a little, since he's there already.
Damon: "We've got a crazy ex on the loose. Better watch out, looks like she's trying to steal your guy."
Stefan: "That's not what's happening."
Damon: "Isn't it? I mean, it's only fair, since I... went after your girl."
Elena doesn't want to get involved in this, so she excuses herself, though not without giving Stefan a speaking look. Damon wants to get in a little rumble with Stefan; work off some steam. Also, I think, he wants some level of validation. If he can't get any from Elena ("I'm surprised that you thought I would kiss you back"), maybe he can get some from Stefan in the form of jealousy. Something that would make his feelings for Elena (and that kiss) actually mean something and for them to matter to someone, even if it can't be what he'd thought/hoped that it was.
"As much as I would like to kill you, I'm not going to fight you."
"I kissed Elena."
"Because you feel something for her. Because you actually care. And I'm not going to let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that is finally, after all this time, willing to feel something. She'll try to break you. She'll try to break us. And how we respond to that will define us. It's our choice. So, no. I'm not going to fight you."
Stefan really does stand by the implicit promise that he makes here - that he's going to back Damon up. That he's not going to abandon Damon as Damon goes through all this emotional stress. Which... this actually is something that Stefan probably does understand - the shock of dealing with emotions against the backdrop of being a killer and needing to process that. He might be able to understand that Damon will backslide but that doesn't mean that it's time to give up, because Stefan probably did backslide himself. If Damon is going there and opening himself up to emotions, then that means that Stefan really does have his brother back - that he's finally getting what he wanted back in "Blood Brothers" - that if he has to have eternity, he wants it with his brother. And we have definitely seen Stefan playing along with Damon more in S2 (like with the great werewolf hunt).
So, yes, great moment for the Stefan-Damon relationship, probably a defining one. But it did absolutely nothing to help release the pressure that's building up inside Damon.
John is packing and getting ready to leave, when Jeremy comes down the stairs. John tells Jeremy that he was taught to hate vampires - so was Jeremy's father. John lets us (and Jer) know that the ring of not dying is only a ring of not dying from supernatural causes (which is anything caused by a supernatural).
The river has run wild tonight
We're at the Lockwood place. Tyler is pacing.
it hurts to see you burning - burning oh-so bright
He smashes a picture of his family (his father) and Carol comes in, concerned. When Tyler gets a little too angry with his mom, Mason comes in and wrestles Tyler to the ground. Gets him to calm down.
you come undone, one by one
We go to the Salvatore place, where Damon has just arrived. He pours himself a drink.
let's start a riot
He starts to head off, but then he senses something.
the river has run wild tonight
He knows that it's Katherine even before he turns his head.
"It's very brave of you to come here."
"I wanted to say goodbye."
it hurts to see you burning, oh, so bright
"Leaving so soon?"
"I know where I'm not wanting."
"Don't pout. It's not attractive on a woman your age."
"Ouch."
Damon finishes his drink and then turns to leave. Katherine blocks him.
"What, no goodbye kiss?"
"Why don't I kill you instead? What are you doing here?"
"Nostalgia. Curiosity. Et cetera."
"I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. What are you up to?"
"Trust me, Damon, when I'm up to something, you'll know it. Come on - kiss me. Or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know you're only capable of one."
Again, he turns to walk away from her and she's in front of him, but slamming him down on the ground this time, feeling up his chest.
"My sweet, innocent Damon."
And Damon flips her and then kisses her. Twice, he tries to walk away from her and she won't let him. What is Katherine to Damon here? Given the rest of the episode, I would say that she's serving as 'an Elena that he can kiss'. He loved her once, when he was 'sweet, innocent' Damon (human Damon; the person that he isn't anymore - the person that he feels like he can never be again). He's sweet when he wants to be, these days, but he's not innocent.
They make out, shirts get ripped off, but it isn't enough for Damon. He wants to talk about their feelings and stuff. Katherine does not look pleased when Damon calls a pause to the action.
"I have a question. Answer it and it's back to fireworks and rocket's red glare. Answer it right and I'll forget the last hundred and forty-five years that I've spent missing you. I'll forget... how much I loved you. I'll forget everything and we'll start over. This can be our defining moment, because we have the time - that's the beauty of eternity. I just need the truth... just once."
"The truth is... I've never loved you. It was always Stefan."
I do think that Katherine was being honest here. It's the one time in the episode where she seems serious and where she genuinely seems to have a bit of empathy for someone. In some ways, snapping that last thread that connected Damon to her was actually kind to him. And there was a bonus in it for her, too - because, holy fuck, Damon Salvatore is a persistent guy. He spent a hundred and forty-five years waiting for her. He made a deal with Emily in order to protect her. Persistent and intense. And Damon just isn't... for Katherine, he was fun. He was fun enough that she wanted to play with him for a while. He's pretty and enjoyable and he made a nice toy.
And that was about it, for her. Stefan says that she made most of the tomb vampires, so it actually isn't all that special that she was feeding him her blood, either. She likes to have her entourage to satisfy her whims.
I think she may have second thoughts about this bit of empathy later, since I think she tries to play at the Damon card a little later on. But, you know... too late! Thread officially snapped.
We cut to the Gilbert house. Elena is getting ready for bed.
I get lost in the beauty of everything I see
the world ain't half as bad as they paint it to be
for the sons or the daughters
She comes out into her bedroom and is startled to see Damon sitting at the edge of her bed.
"You scared me."
"Just doing my part in the neighborhood watch."
hopefully the hate subsides and the love can begin
"Thanks. For looking out for us. For me."
"That's me. Trusty body-guard. Calm in a crisis."
Elena twigs to the fact that Damon has been drinking.
come home, come home
"And you're upset. That's not a good combination."
"No, I'm not upset. Upset is an emotion specific to those who care."
"Come on, Damon, that's a lie. You care."
there's a war between the vanities, but all I see is you and me
This sets Damon off because this is the thing that's tearing him up - that Elena wants him to care, wants him to show her his heart, and then tells him that she doesn't want it. She pushes closer and closer and then pushes him away again.
"You're surprised that I thought you'd kiss me back. You can't imagine that I'd believe that you'd want to."
"Damon-"
"Does what we've been doing here mean something? You're the liar, Elena. There's something going on between the two of us and you know it. And you're lying to me. And you're lying to Stefan. But most of all, you're lying to yourself. I can prove it."
"No."
He tries to kiss her and she pushes him away.
Everything I can't be is everything you should be
"Damon, don't. What's wrong with you?"
"Lie about this."
"Stop. You're better than this. Come on."
"That's where you're wrong."
"No. No! Damon, I care about you. Listen to me, I care about you but... I love Stefan. It's always going to be Stefan!"
That's why I need you here
You can actually watch Damon go from a flicker of hope ("I care about you") to dead-eyed pain. What he's doing here... he's going about things all wrong. But he wasn't planning on saying anything to her about any of this. She wants honesty from him but she wants that honesty to be different than the actual truth. "I care about you," she says here, before he destroys it. In 2x10, she admits it again, listing Damon among the people that she cares about. Like Stefan, Elena tries to hate Damon. Like happens with Stefan, Damon creeps back into her heart anyway.
Jeremy comes in at the worst possible time. He wants to know if everything is okay. Elena tries to play things off, but Damon can't. It's not okay. Everything he's feeling - all that emotion that he opened his heart to - has turned to agony and all he wants is to make the pain go away.
"You want to shut off the pain? It's the easiest thing in the world. The part of you that cares - it just goes away. All you have to do is do flip the switch and snap."
And he snaps Jeremy's neck. Damn it, Damon (I think that every time that I watch this scene. Damn it, Damon). Damon backs away from the body and Elena rushes over to Jeremy. Damon watches as Elena is in horrified shock. He waits until she looks up and he sees her reaction in her eyes - sees her hating him in that moment - and only then does he turn and leave.
After he's left, Elena sees the ring on Jeremy's finger. Her brother isn't dead. She clutches his body to her and waits.
Tyler and Mason bond more over the 'curse of being a Lockwood'. Extreme bursts of anger come with the territory.
Stefan has arrived to be with Elena while she waits for Jeremy to revive. He's taking this time to start attempting to justify Damon's actions. Well, no time like the present, I assume. I wonder how much Elena told him about what happened in the room.
"He saw the ring - that's why he did it. He knew."
"He didn't see the ring."
"It's Katherine. She got under his skin - she undid everything that was good about him."
"There's nothing good about him, Stefan, not anymore. He's decided what he wants. He doesn't want to feel - he wants to be hated, because it's easier that way. He got his wish. I hate him, Stefan."
"I know. I know."
As Elena talks, we see Damon arrive back at the Salvatore place. His emotional switch clearly hasn't been turned off, because he's a wreck. There are two basic kinds of tragedies - the first is the kind that's external, caused by circumstances. The other is internal, caused by flaws and choices of the person involved. But out of ashes, sometimes there is a phoenix. Here, Damon tries to burn his emotions to ash, tries to root it all out. And it doesn't work. He can't stop loving Elena. He can't stop caring about Stefan or Liz or Alaric or this town. When he kills Jessica in 2x12, he cares. And he hates it - and himself.
"You have no idea what it's like to have done the things that I've done... and to care." Angel says (in the "Angel" episode of BtVS).
In the Jossverse, that was something special, for a vampire to care. In TVD universe, that is what every vampire who lives long enough eventually faces up to, when that handy emotion switch wears off. Damon can't run from himself anymore.
Jeremy takes a gasping breath, coming back to life. Shocked and shaking in Elena's arms. "He killed me. Damon killed me."
Caroline wakes up to find 'Elena' in her room. Katherine soon clears up the mix-up. She wants Caroline to give the Salvatore brothers a message - "game on". Then she takes a pillow and holds it over Caroline's face until she's dead. This was totally devastating the first time that I saw it, but Caroline has been so awesome as a vampire. Best choice the writers ever made.
For S2, everyone gets to start off with a clean slate (totals for Season 1). At the end of the season, I will do both a S2 totals and a 'series totals' round-up, I think.
Deaths:
For deaths, it's about intent and/or action. Purposefully vamping someone does not count as a kill.
1. Damon kills Jeremy and does not realize that Jeremy is wearing the no supernatural death ring.
Damon: 1
Vamp Bites:
No vampire bites this episode, unless you want to count Stefan biting his own wrist and feeding his blood to John (and Damon possibly doing the same to Caroline - or maybe he brought her a cup of coffee laced with blood. We really don't know).
Compels:
No one gets compelled, either.
Bechdel:
1. Elena and Bonnie talk about Caroline's condition.
Stefan/Elena Relationship:
2nd Reunion: "The Turning Point" - (at least 16 episodes, at least five weeks)
Timeline:
We start on the night of Founders' Day, overlapping a little bit with the last events of last season.
The next day, Bonnie stops by to see Caroline in the hospital - she's much better. The episode is set that day and night.
Time covered: 2 nights; 1 day.
Shirtless shots:
Damon is emotionally naked, but no. He does get almost shirtless (buttons ripped off).
Bonnie's Visions:
Katherine is a vampire.
a. Stefan has lived in secret for over a century, but he has to know 'her' (Elena).
b. Stefan is a vampire.
c. Damon is his big brother.
d. Katherine broke Stefan's heart a long time ago, and Elena looks like her.
e. Stefan says that his and Damon's love for Katherine wasn't real; Damon says that his love for Katherine was, thanks very much.
f. Bonnie is a witch.
g. Tyler heard a weird noise and crashed his car (with Matt and Caroline in it) and had weird irises. Caroline might be in danger from injuries from the crash.
h. Tyler's dad is dead.
i. Damon wants to thank Elena for making him think that she thinks that he's worth saving. He also wants to kiss her. The previously doesn't reveal that Elena was really Katherine at this point.
j. Anna gives Jeremy a vial of his blood and tells him that if he dies with it in his system, he'll become a vampire. Damon tells Jeremy that Anna was killed. Jeremy drinks the blood and tries to kill himself using pills.
So, that was all the news that was fit to print.
This time, when we replay the kitchen scene, we get a little more - Jenna is out of the house (gone to talk to someone about the fire downtown) and Katherine can hear Elena coming home (I wonder if she'd planned on playing around with John more but changed her plans when she heard Elena's voice). Them adding the extra (unseen) conversation in helps explain why Damon was too far away to hear what was going on at Elena's house when Katherine reveals herself.
Again, I have to note that Nina has a completely gorgeous curve to her body. She has the shape that women attempted to use corsets to force - tucked in waist that curves out both below and above to form that 'hourglass'. It's really visible when Elena is heading toward the kitchen. Shallow, but as a girl who goes for girls... yeah, I notice it.
Elena walks into the kitchen to find John bleeding on the floor. So, I will note that Katherine knew that Elena was about to arrive and chose not to give John a fatal wound. She could have easily stabbed him somewhere that would make him die instantly, if that's what she'd wanted. She wanted to cause trauma and damage. I doubt she would have shed any tears if the ambulance hadn't gotten there quickly enough and John had died, but she was also obviously fine with the idea of him living.
Elena, of course, immediately grabs a towel to try to stem John's bleeding and she calls 911. John can see that Katherine is lurking around, getting a look in at Elena. He lets Elena know but by the time she turns around, Katherine is gone. Elena turns around, picking up the bloody knife so that she can defend herself if necessary, and scouts the house for Katherine, who plays the zippy-vampire stalking game, takes a look at Elena's profile, and then zips out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Katherine was taking a moment to check and see if Elena really was a doppelgänger, probably, or just close-but-not-close-enough. Pictures (and I'm sure that Katherine has seen pictures) don't always tell the full story.
Elena gets concerned about Jeremy and races upstairs, finding him on the bed and he wakes up with a start when she shakes him (and the first time through, I definitely wondered if he'd turned).
When we get back from the title card, John is being wheeled out of the house and into an ambulance. Stefan arrives (I'm guessing that Elena called him, because before everything happened, they were planning to meet at the hospital). Elena greets him and they go upstairs together to see Jeremy. She wants to know if Jeremy is in transition. Stefan says that Jeremy is fine.
Jeremy: "You mean, I'm not a vampire? Damn it."
Elena: "Don't say that. Jeremy... Jeremy, why would you want that?"
Jeremy: "Did you hear about Anna - what happened to her tonight? She's dead."
I wonder how it felt for Stefan to see Elena's immediate but why? about the idea of Jeremy becoming a vampire. It reminds me of 1x21, where she tells Isobel that she's never thought about the reasons why someone would choose to become a vampire - why it would be appealing. Now, in 2x14, she side-steps the 'future' conversation (after teasingly bringing it up) because she doesn't see herself as having a future to even speak of, because she signed her life away to Elijah. But it's interesting that she explicitly doesn't want to think about it even before then - Lexi is instrumental in bringing Elena and Stefan back together and it's obvious from "Bloodlines" that Lexi is a firm believer in vamping the ones you love. If Lexi had lived, I imagine that she would have encouraged Elena to think seriously about living 'forever' for/with Stefan, because you don't 'walk away' from love. Because of Lexi and her boyfriend, Elena has actually had a very vivid picture of why someone would choose to become a vampire so, again, it's interesting that in 1x21, she denies having considered the possibility.
Stefan puts his hands all over Jeremy in order to try to tell him that killing himself is bad and that Anna's blood is probably going to leave his system soon, so it would be suicide, too. Also, since he didn't take enough pills to straight-up die, Anna's blood would have cured him of any damage that they might have caused.
Elena heads off to the hospital while Stefan stays to babysit Jeremy and make sure that he doesn't try to kill himself again. Ha, again, I suspect that Jeremy felt a weird sense of delight/frustration when he basically helped do the same thing to Elena in 2x11 (babysit her because she might rush off to get herself killed). Ah, Gilberts.
At the hospital, Matt calls Bonnie 'Bon'. He's big on the one-syllable nicknames, actually - he calls Caroline 'Care' frequently. I think I've heard him say 'Ty', too. Real reason that Damon doesn't want to be friendly with Matt - he doesn't want to be called 'Dame' all the time.
Matt is informing Bonnie of Caroline's condition (bad). He tells her what happened and how Tyler lost control of the car, and you can see the guilt hit Bonnie as she realizes that it was her failing to turn off the device that led to this happening.
Meanwhile, Damon is at the hospital to comfort Liz because he heard that Caroline was hurt. At this point, Damon is wide-open to his emotions - he went to Jeremy for Jeremy's sake and actually interacted with him like he was a person, (someone he thought was) Elena listened to Damon and kissed him back and that's probably giving him the greatest buzz ever, and now he's being a good friend for Liz.
"I need your help, Damon."
"Sure. Anything, Liz."
Damon says to Stefan, last season, that Elena is his only friend - by 2x05, he's willing to admit that Liz is his friend, too. I'm not sure he's ever called Alaric his friend, but that they have a genuine friendship becomes obvious, too. Like Rose said in 2x12 - Damon has built something here, in this town, whether he wants to admit it or not. He doesn't just care about Elena - he cares about Liz and Alaric and, of course, Stefan. He comes to care about Jeremy and Caroline over the course of S2 and he and Bonnie have managed to forge a working relationship by 2x14 (including sharing information like allies). Damon is also involved in every piece of the puzzle - there's not much that happens in Mystic Falls that isn't affected by Damon in some way.
Damon has roots here, in Mystic Falls, and they're taking hold again. This is his town and he'll fight to protect it. But he hasn't admitted that to himself yet - none of what he's doing is something that he's consciously doing. He's acting on instinct. I suspect that his current journey on the show is the one that will make his actions/changes a conscious choice, rather than something that he drifted into because of his affection for Stefan and Elena (and others).
Liz is asking Damon to investigate the way that Mayor Lockwood reacted to the device, because she's not in an emotional place where she can deal with it right now. All she can think about is Caroline. She tears up and Damon gives her a supportive and comforting hug.
Elena has found Bonnie at the hospital and she asks after Caroline. Bonnie tells her that the doctors don't know if Caroline will make it - Damon turns the corner in time to hear that part of the conversation and see Bonnie giving Elena a hug. Elena wants to know if Bonnie can do anything to help. Damon chimes in that Bonnie doesn't know any spells like that, and Bonnie has to agree. He taunts her a little about her lack of experience and she taunts him with her ability to give him aneurysms (only verbally, this time), and then Damon turns his attention to Elena and offers to give Caroline some of his blood.
She immediately turns him down. Elena doesn't want to risk it, but Bonnie does.
Damon: "I do this... you and me, we call a truce?"
Bonnie: "No, but you'll do it anyway. For Elena."
Elena shoots Bonnie a 'wtf?' look, before nodding. Man, I almost want to start another list: times that people use Elena as leverage to make Damon do something. It's pretty long.
Bonnie leaves and Damon wants to talk about something personal.
"I know this is probably the last thing you want to do right now but we should probably talk about what happened tonight."
"Yeah. One of the tomb vampires got into the house and almost killed John."
"What? What... when? What are you talking about? After I left?"
"You were there?"
"Oh, come on, Elena. You know I was."
"When were you at the house?"
"Really? Earlier... on the porch... we were talking. All cathartic, feelings exposed. Come on, we kissed, Elena."
"Okay. I don't have time for this, Damon."
"If you want to forget what happened, fine. But I can't."
Jenna arrives and in the ensuing conversation (Jenna talked to Elena earlier but Elena is firm that that didn't happen, either), Damon has an epiphany.
"You have got to be kidding me."
It wasn't real. His cathartic moment was wasted on Katherine. He'd believed - for an hour or so - that Elena had heard him confess his desire to be worthy and his admiration of people who choose to do the good thing even when they have no reason to, and that she had accepted it and him. That she had kissed him back. And it was all a lie. It wasn't real.
This informs everything that happens in the rest of the episode (and a lot of the rest of the season - look at him engineering his future cathartic moments with people not-Elena; people that he can control and have power over, where it's on his terms and not theirs). This is what starts his tailspin that's going to lead to snapping Jeremy's neck. But if this had been the only thing, it wouldn't have caused everything. The rest of the episode pretty much tears down all the pieces of what Damon had thought had been built between the two of them recently (that she would never kiss him (someone like him) back; that it would always be (perfect, golden) Stefan - that no matter what Damon does, it will never matter enough; that there isn't something between the two of them that's been cracking and sizzling), so Damon tries to tear down what she was willing to offer him (her friendship) himself, in a gloriously horrible act of impulsive self(and other) destruction.
Also, check Jenna's brief glare at Damon and Damon's guilty turning away from her. It's subtle, but Jenna and Damon's actors do play the awareness of Jenna having seen Damon and Elena kissing on the porch.
Katherine arrives back at the Gilbert place and Stefan comes down to talk to 'Elena'. She snags a hug from Stefan and he twigs to the fact that it's Katherine, reacting with a vampire face and throwing her away from him. He slams her up against the wall a few times and she lets him. When they hear a sound at the door, she casually yanks his hand off her and zips away.
So, Stefan - kinda has a huge reaction to the realization that he's with Katherine. It's interesting, because he should know that she's much stronger than he is, so if she's being yanked around by him, it's because she wants to be. Then again, he didn't look like he was doing much thinking.
Elena and Damon have arrived and while Elena takes a moment to wonder why Stefan is on the floor, Damon explains, "Katherine happened."
Damon lets them know that Katherine pretended to be Elena for him earlier, after Elena gets back from informing Jeremy (about Katherine, I assume). Elena is pretty unhappy that, even with the tomb vampires dead, she still has hostile vampires to worry about.
Elena: "Katherine's been in this house. That means that she was invited in - what are we going to do?"
Damon: "Move."
Elena chides him for being snarky, but he's right, really - Katherine is stronger than they are and she's been invited in. It's an incredibly dangerous situation. Man, if only there were some place that they could go where Katherine hasn't been invited in. It sucks that they don't have anywhere like that.
Damon points out that Elena isn't dead - that means that Katherine doesn't want her dead.
Damon: "That means she has other plans."
Stefan: "And that means we need to find out what her other plans are and not provoke her in the process."
I'm sorry, Stefan - who was it exactly who flat-out attacked Katherine tonight the second that he realized who he was dealing with? Oh, it was you? Thanks. In your moment of self-righteousness directed at Damon, I'd almost forgotten.
Stefan wants to know what happened when Damon thought Katherine was Elena earlier. After a moment, Damon lets them know about the kiss (well, he already kinda told Elena - you can see her remember and sorta brace for it).
Damon: "We... kissed."
Elena: "And you thought it was me?"
Stefan: "What do you mean... you kissed?"
Damon: "Well, you know, when two lips pucker and they-" *makes smacking noises*
And Stefan zips at Damon, who zips around to stand where Stefan used to be standing behind Elena's chair. So... yeah. Stefan is interesting here. Because everyone knows that it wasn't Elena. Is he's pissed off entirely because it feels like Damon betrayed him? It's just such a strong reaction. Is there still an element of jealousy over Katherine herself? We've never gotten to see Stefan dealing with his Katherine issues - he claims to be over her, but he kept her picture, considered it a memory worth keeping. And then he reacts so strongly and so violently to realizing that Katherine is the person hugging him.
When Stefan starts to go for Damon again, Elena puts herself in the middle, holding up a hand to hold Stefan back.
"He kissed Katherine, not me," she points out. She turns to Damon. "I wouldn't do that," she tells him, firmly (after all, she had only just told him earlier that night that he needed to stop being so flirty with her, for Stefan's sake).
Elena's reminder does not deter either brother from wanting to 'deal' with this. It's not about Damon kissing Elena; it's about Damon kissing the person he thought was Stefan's girlfriend. It's about Damon being willing to betray Stefan, which is what Stefan was afraid of last season (and he was also afraid that it would work, but now he has actual evidence that Damon would go there).
"It's Katherine! She loves to play games and you're fooling yourself if you think you'll find out what she's up to before she wants you."
Damon is very bitter and aware in this scene. I think it really helps that he had a full awareness of who Katherine was as a person, even while he loved her. So, when his love started dropping away, that awareness helped him realize how dangerous and untrustworthy she was.
Over at the hospital the next morning, Bonnie 'casually' hears from Matt that Damon stopped by last night to see Caroline. She's doing a lot better thanks to the vampire blood. Bonnie is so relieved to see Caroline getting well that she tears up a little. Caroline is so adorable and sweet here. Bundle of sunshine, that girl. Love her.
At the Lockwood place, Carol is talking with Damon and Liz. Damon tries to keep the peace between the two women, both of whom have legitimate grievances. He finally gets through to them with an inspiration little pep talk: "But we have to stick together. Trust each other. We'll get through this."
Both of the women might have reason to be less than thrilled, but both of them completely trust and like Damon Salvatore (of course, with all that they know about him, they would be crazy not to - he came in and took over from Zach - who they have probably completely forgotten by now, as Damon has made himself indispensable - and he's staked vampires and he's willing to pitch in and help out when they need him, and he's emotionally-supportive of both of them as well. Man, laying all that out reminds me that we need more Damon-Carol scenes in S2).
Oh, hey, guess what?
It's Mason-time!
Yep, Mason Lockwood has returned to his family home so that he can grieve for his brother's death. I'm sure that his arrival has nothing to do with Katherine's arrival and I'm sure he's not going to start looking around for a mysterious moonstone.
So, hmm. Did Katherine know that the Gilbert device would go off on Richard? Because Richard certainly wouldn't have just handed the stone over to Mason. Was the tomb-vampire killing plan actually a way of killing Richard so that Mason could swoop in and grab the moonstone? And killing off the tomb vamps was just a bonus? Using John's hatred of vampires and John and Isobel's desire to protect Elena as a way to achieve her own ends?
Anyway, we learn in this scene that Mason hasn't been back home for seven or eight years (since Tyler appears to be in the Elena-Matt-Caroline-Bonnie age group), and he and Tyler hug.
Stefan and Elena arrive at the hospital to talk to John. They want to know what he knows about what Katherine wants. Elena gives John back his ring of not dying and asks again. John hates Stefan and wants him to die. Stefan isn't too fond of John, either.
John says that he and Katherine never spoke directly, only through Isobel. So, he doesn't know her plans.
John: "Either kill me or get out, because I can't stand the sight of you with my daughter."
Elena is not impressed with John's vampire-hate. She says that it'll get John killed. Hating something much stronger and faster than you that actually can hunt and eat you does carry hazards with it. She can't stand the sight of John's stupid vampire-hating face, and leaves.
Stefan has thought of something - he feds John some of his blood and then threatens to kill him; turn him into a vampire. Yeah, I can't imagine why John would dislike vampires. It's such a mystery. Anyway, he tells John to leave town. Firmly.
Over at the party, Damon immediately notices the new face (Mason) talking to Carol. He asks Liz for the 411 - it's Richard's younger brother, took off when he found out about the council stuff, and has been living in a surfer in Florida. There's clearly something that bugs him about the guy, though. Makes me wonder if vampires can't sense werewolves, too, it's just that they don't know enough about the signs to realize that it's going on. Or he could just be thinking that if something was weird about Richard, something might be weird about Mason, too.
'Elena' comes up to the house and Tyler invites her in. Katherine smirks a bit as she steps into the Lockwood house. Her plan is coming together. She's got a wolf, she's got the doppelgänger within reach, she can make a vampire any time that she wants, she's got a witch on call. All she needs to do is locate one pesky moonstone. And have some fun playing around with the Salvatores, since they're all in town anyway, and they've been annoying and gotten crushes on said doppelgänger. They need to be punished, especially Stefan, who shouldn't get to enjoy with Elena what he refused to do with Katherine.
Stefan and Elena are headed out of the hospital.
"How did you leave it in there, with John?"
"I, uh... I asked him to leave town."
"Asked? You threatened him."
"Yeah, I threatened."
"Good. I want him gone, Stefan. I know that I shouldn't feel that way but I don't want someone like that in my life. Or Jeremy's life."
Elena has chosen her side - "vampires are people, too" - and she doesn't want to hang out with anyone who isn't willing to agree with that premise. Stefan wants to go find Damon.
"Stefan, please don't fight with him." (I wonder if part of her concern is about the fact that, with Stefan off the human blood, Damon would easily kick his ass in a fair fight)
"No, Elena, he tried to kiss you. I'm not okay with that."
"That's not the problem. Katherine is. She's already messing with both of your heads and Damon's not stable when it comes to her. The last thing we need is to make things worse."
Stefan actually fully takes this on board and, when the moment arises for him to talk to Damon, he does refuse to fight. This is actually the point that Stefan takes and pushes forward later, though it's broader than Katherine - 'we can't protect Elena if we're fighting each other'. I'm also glad to see here that Elena realizes that Katherine being around is messing with Stefan, too, not just Damon. In fact, she overestimates how great Katherine's impact on Damon is, because she's underestimated her own impact.
She doesn't want to admit to how much power she has over Damon (which is quite the reversal from Katherine, who reveled in her power - in things like pushing Damon into tasting human blood while still human). Even now, she doesn't like to admit to herself that she has great influence over him - her reaction to him calling her out on using her power in 2x13 being telling. Isobel said, only days ago, that Damon is in love with her, but Elena doesn't want to think about that. Elena very much doesn't want to be Katherine (though, amusingly/ironically, in loving Stefan and not loving Damon, she's actually closer to Katherine than if she genuinely loved Damon, too).
Despite the fact that Damon is far more obsessive over the kiss that didn't happen than he is over Katherine's return, Elena continues to believe that Katherine holds the key to Damon's sanity. She wants it to be about Katherine because she doesn't want to be 'another Katherine' to the Salvatore brothers.
Bonnie has come up behind Damon to talk to him about the Gilbert device and the Lockwoods. She mentions that it affected Tyler and he returns that it's what took the Mayor down, too. Ah, yes, Damon is very aware that Bonnie 'let' the Gilbert device keep working and he's pretty snarky about it, too.
"No good deed goes unpunished with you, does it?"
"Doesn't undo the bad. I know what you are, Damon. You might have Elena and the sheriff and everybody else fooled, but not me. One more move and I'm going to take you out."
"Now, you need to stop with witch's brew. You're starting to believe your own press."
Which is enough to provoke Bonnie to cause horrible pain to Damon. The guy who just probably saved Caroline's life. Bonnie clearly doesn't understand that the whole point of verbal banter is so that both sides can take shots without any physical damage being done. Bonnie, I think, takes Damon's words far too seriously. Salvatore vampires are made of about 30% blood and 70% fast-talking BS.
Anyway, so Bonnie does this here but after Damon kills Jeremy, she does nothing. Only to snap and turn on him in 2x02 for something that isn't his fault, unlike the whole 'killing Jeremy' thing. Elena, you were talking about someone being unstable - I think you might want to check on Bonnie. Girl is on the edge. She's full of guilt and regret and uncertainty and apt to act violently on impulse (she and Damon do have a lot in common - but mostly in the unhelpful way that would feed and escalate - makes me think of "Love the Way You Lie" (awesome song that I dearly hope no one would ever attempt to use as a 'how-to' manual for a relationship). If they ever got together, I'm pretty sure that the first big fight would end with one of them dead).
Bonnie gives Damon an 'I'm hot shit' look and stomps off. She stops 'Elena' and immediately starts going off about how much Damon annoys her and how everything is his fault, etc, blah, and so forth. She also incidentally spills that Damon helped with Caroline.
"I'm sorry," 'Elena' tells her. "What Damon's done is just awful."
Bonnie laughs a little, feeling relieved just for having vented. She touches 'Elena' and then probably feels death and cold and etc, and she freezes. She tries to brush it off so that Katherine won't get suspicious and attempts to make her escape. But Katherine has known witches and, also, Bonnie is really obvious when she gets hit with a vision.
Bonnie calls Elena and, yeah, Elena is... not there yet. Bonnie turns around and there Katherine is. Katherine taunts Bonnie with how much of Elena's life she's already got figured out and when Bonnie tries to hit her with the pain-magic, she plays along for a second before revealing that it isn't affecting her enough to matter. She slams Bonnie up against a wall, and Bonnie uses magic to open the doors, hoping that Katherine wants to stay low-key, as she indeed does.
Stefan is there, telling Katherine to leave Bonnie alone. Katherine agrees, releasing Bonnie and brushing past Stefan, trailing her fingers along his chest.
He follows her out into the party, asking why she's there. Oh, she wants to talk to him. Stefan wants to know why she's there - she spots Matt and goes over to offer him her best wishes and gladness over Caroline's recovery. After he's gone, Katherine takes a moment to take in how blue his eyes are. Stefan wants her to leave.
"You're hurting my feelings, Stefan. Damon was much happier to see me. Then again, he thought I was your girlfriend, so..."
Stefan isn't interested in playing games. He never really was - that's probably why Katherine wants so much to coax him into them.
"Just tell me what you're doing here."
"Maybe I missed you. Is that an acceptable reason?"
"What game are you playing?"
"Why - do you want to play with me?"
"I don't know. How can I play if I don't know the rules?"
"No rules, Stefan. Don't you remember? No rules."
Katherine is trying to play an old favorite of many - 'divide and conquer'. It's Elena who tries to quench that fire when she tells Stefan not to fight with Damon. And it's Elena, not Katherine, who is shown to have the most emotional power when it comes to both Salvatore brothers. It's Elena's influence that carries the day, with both Stefan and (more tragically) with Damon.
Katherine has been supplanted by her doppelgänger and has yet to realize it.
They go off to talk alone - and just in time, as Elena, Jenna, and Jeremy have all just arrived. Jenna is impressed at the turn-out. As they head inside, planning to just drop off food and go, Elena spots Damon standing on the porch. Elena asks them to go ahead without her and Jenna's smile drops when she realizes that Elena is going over to talk to Damon, but she does what Elena asks (guessing that Damon is not likely to try to kiss Elena in such a public party where Stefan is also probably in attendance?).
"How are you doing?"
"Great, Elena. Walking on sunshine. Thanks for asking."
"Damon."
"Elena."
"We should be able to talk about this. Damon, we're close enough now. I really want to know how you're doing."
"I kissed you. Thought you kissed me back. Doppelgänger hi-jinks ensued. How do you think I'm doing?"
"I think you're hurt."
"Mmm, no, I don't get hurt, Elena."
"No, you don't admit that you get hurt. You get angry and cover it up and then do something stupid."
Both Elena and Damon are people who can't help pushing at boundaries. Here, Elena pushes at boundaries of trust - she wants Damon to trust her and rely on her, so she gently pokes at his emotional wounds, trying to work herself underneath, into his bones (she does similar things with Stefan, too). We're close enough now she tells him, but then we have the second half of the conversation, coming up.
"You're scared. You think Katherine's going to send me off the deep end, don't you? I don't need her for that."
If Elena has most of Damon's number (she has his emotional responses down pat, she just underestimates her own influence and, correspondingly, overestimates Katherine's - it's obvious that Damon is starting to spiral over something and it would be so much easier for Elena if that something is Katherine), he has hers, too. He realizes that she's talking partly because she's afraid he's going to act rashly because of Katherine and he's aware that she doesn't know that Katherine isn't the person holding onto his heartstrings anymore.
"Why is it such a surprise that I would kiss you?"
"That's not a surprise. I'm surprised that you thought I would kiss you back."
"Now I'm hurt."
He doesn't even bother covering it up in sarcasm. It's real and raw and Elena sees it. But then Bonnie arrives, all flustered from Katherine, so the conversation ends up being put on hold.
The conversation that Elena and Damon are having is skewed, a bit. Elena is trying to say "I can't believe you thought I would cheat on Stefan" and Damon is hearing "I can't believe you thought I cared enough about you to want to kiss you". For Damon, nothing in this conversation is about Stefan. It's just about him and Elena and the thing that they have between them.
In another room of the house, Jeremy runs into Tyler, who is drinking. Ah, the Jeremy-Tyler thing kinda got lost in the rest of S2, which is a shame, because it was an interesting dynamic in S1. Anyway, they begin to bond over both having dead fathers, but Mason interrupts the moment so that he can steal the Jeremy-Tyler bonding time for his own.
Outside, Katherine and Stefan are taking a stroll. He wonders why she killed off the tomb vampires ("you turned most of them") and she basically gives a shrug as an answer. She tells him that he's changed:
"You're stronger. Meaner. Sexy."
"Don't flirt with me, Katherine. I'm not Damon. I haven't spent a hundred and forty-five years obsessed with you."
"Yeah, based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise. Though, I admit, it does bother me that you've fallen in love with someone else."
"I was never in love with you, Katherine. You compelled me, so none of my feelings were real."
"Believe what you want, Stefan, but I know the truth. And, deep down, so do you."
"The truth? Well, the truth is you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch that you've always been. So, whatever it is that brought you here, just get on with it, and then leave town. Because if you don't, I will hunt you down and I will rip your heart out."
"You want to know why I'm here, Stefan? I came back for you."
"Well, the problem, Katherine, is that I hate you."
"You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one."
Also, she stabs him in the stomach with a metal candle/light holder that was in the ground. Not fun, I imagine. Katherine, I think, does care about Stefan more than she cares about most people. He's more than just an amusement to her - when he declared his feelings to her (in the flashback in 2x04), she was genuinely touched. However, she doesn't care enough about him to go to him after her 'death' in the church - her own safety means much more to her than her feelings for Stefan. That's Katherine, though. Her priority in times of crisis is Katherine, and no one else (another huge contrast with Elena - and with the Salvatores, who are both willing to die in the service of love, if necessary).
Elena has come out to sop the blood up off Stefan's stomach. Damon comes back - in order to report that he can't find Katherine and also to taunt a little, since he's there already.
Damon: "We've got a crazy ex on the loose. Better watch out, looks like she's trying to steal your guy."
Stefan: "That's not what's happening."
Damon: "Isn't it? I mean, it's only fair, since I... went after your girl."
Elena doesn't want to get involved in this, so she excuses herself, though not without giving Stefan a speaking look. Damon wants to get in a little rumble with Stefan; work off some steam. Also, I think, he wants some level of validation. If he can't get any from Elena ("I'm surprised that you thought I would kiss you back"), maybe he can get some from Stefan in the form of jealousy. Something that would make his feelings for Elena (and that kiss) actually mean something and for them to matter to someone, even if it can't be what he'd thought/hoped that it was.
"As much as I would like to kill you, I'm not going to fight you."
"I kissed Elena."
"Because you feel something for her. Because you actually care. And I'm not going to let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that is finally, after all this time, willing to feel something. She'll try to break you. She'll try to break us. And how we respond to that will define us. It's our choice. So, no. I'm not going to fight you."
Stefan really does stand by the implicit promise that he makes here - that he's going to back Damon up. That he's not going to abandon Damon as Damon goes through all this emotional stress. Which... this actually is something that Stefan probably does understand - the shock of dealing with emotions against the backdrop of being a killer and needing to process that. He might be able to understand that Damon will backslide but that doesn't mean that it's time to give up, because Stefan probably did backslide himself. If Damon is going there and opening himself up to emotions, then that means that Stefan really does have his brother back - that he's finally getting what he wanted back in "Blood Brothers" - that if he has to have eternity, he wants it with his brother. And we have definitely seen Stefan playing along with Damon more in S2 (like with the great werewolf hunt).
So, yes, great moment for the Stefan-Damon relationship, probably a defining one. But it did absolutely nothing to help release the pressure that's building up inside Damon.
John is packing and getting ready to leave, when Jeremy comes down the stairs. John tells Jeremy that he was taught to hate vampires - so was Jeremy's father. John lets us (and Jer) know that the ring of not dying is only a ring of not dying from supernatural causes (which is anything caused by a supernatural).
The river has run wild tonight
We're at the Lockwood place. Tyler is pacing.
it hurts to see you burning - burning oh-so bright
He smashes a picture of his family (his father) and Carol comes in, concerned. When Tyler gets a little too angry with his mom, Mason comes in and wrestles Tyler to the ground. Gets him to calm down.
you come undone, one by one
We go to the Salvatore place, where Damon has just arrived. He pours himself a drink.
let's start a riot
He starts to head off, but then he senses something.
the river has run wild tonight
He knows that it's Katherine even before he turns his head.
"It's very brave of you to come here."
"I wanted to say goodbye."
it hurts to see you burning, oh, so bright
"Leaving so soon?"
"I know where I'm not wanting."
"Don't pout. It's not attractive on a woman your age."
"Ouch."
Damon finishes his drink and then turns to leave. Katherine blocks him.
"What, no goodbye kiss?"
"Why don't I kill you instead? What are you doing here?"
"Nostalgia. Curiosity. Et cetera."
"I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. What are you up to?"
"Trust me, Damon, when I'm up to something, you'll know it. Come on - kiss me. Or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know you're only capable of one."
Again, he turns to walk away from her and she's in front of him, but slamming him down on the ground this time, feeling up his chest.
"My sweet, innocent Damon."
And Damon flips her and then kisses her. Twice, he tries to walk away from her and she won't let him. What is Katherine to Damon here? Given the rest of the episode, I would say that she's serving as 'an Elena that he can kiss'. He loved her once, when he was 'sweet, innocent' Damon (human Damon; the person that he isn't anymore - the person that he feels like he can never be again). He's sweet when he wants to be, these days, but he's not innocent.
They make out, shirts get ripped off, but it isn't enough for Damon. He wants to talk about their feelings and stuff. Katherine does not look pleased when Damon calls a pause to the action.
"I have a question. Answer it and it's back to fireworks and rocket's red glare. Answer it right and I'll forget the last hundred and forty-five years that I've spent missing you. I'll forget... how much I loved you. I'll forget everything and we'll start over. This can be our defining moment, because we have the time - that's the beauty of eternity. I just need the truth... just once."
"The truth is... I've never loved you. It was always Stefan."
I do think that Katherine was being honest here. It's the one time in the episode where she seems serious and where she genuinely seems to have a bit of empathy for someone. In some ways, snapping that last thread that connected Damon to her was actually kind to him. And there was a bonus in it for her, too - because, holy fuck, Damon Salvatore is a persistent guy. He spent a hundred and forty-five years waiting for her. He made a deal with Emily in order to protect her. Persistent and intense. And Damon just isn't... for Katherine, he was fun. He was fun enough that she wanted to play with him for a while. He's pretty and enjoyable and he made a nice toy.
And that was about it, for her. Stefan says that she made most of the tomb vampires, so it actually isn't all that special that she was feeding him her blood, either. She likes to have her entourage to satisfy her whims.
I think she may have second thoughts about this bit of empathy later, since I think she tries to play at the Damon card a little later on. But, you know... too late! Thread officially snapped.
We cut to the Gilbert house. Elena is getting ready for bed.
I get lost in the beauty of everything I see
the world ain't half as bad as they paint it to be
for the sons or the daughters
She comes out into her bedroom and is startled to see Damon sitting at the edge of her bed.
"You scared me."
"Just doing my part in the neighborhood watch."
hopefully the hate subsides and the love can begin
"Thanks. For looking out for us. For me."
"That's me. Trusty body-guard. Calm in a crisis."
Elena twigs to the fact that Damon has been drinking.
come home, come home
"And you're upset. That's not a good combination."
"No, I'm not upset. Upset is an emotion specific to those who care."
"Come on, Damon, that's a lie. You care."
there's a war between the vanities, but all I see is you and me
This sets Damon off because this is the thing that's tearing him up - that Elena wants him to care, wants him to show her his heart, and then tells him that she doesn't want it. She pushes closer and closer and then pushes him away again.
"You're surprised that I thought you'd kiss me back. You can't imagine that I'd believe that you'd want to."
"Damon-"
"Does what we've been doing here mean something? You're the liar, Elena. There's something going on between the two of us and you know it. And you're lying to me. And you're lying to Stefan. But most of all, you're lying to yourself. I can prove it."
"No."
He tries to kiss her and she pushes him away.
Everything I can't be is everything you should be
"Damon, don't. What's wrong with you?"
"Lie about this."
"Stop. You're better than this. Come on."
"That's where you're wrong."
"No. No! Damon, I care about you. Listen to me, I care about you but... I love Stefan. It's always going to be Stefan!"
That's why I need you here
You can actually watch Damon go from a flicker of hope ("I care about you") to dead-eyed pain. What he's doing here... he's going about things all wrong. But he wasn't planning on saying anything to her about any of this. She wants honesty from him but she wants that honesty to be different than the actual truth. "I care about you," she says here, before he destroys it. In 2x10, she admits it again, listing Damon among the people that she cares about. Like Stefan, Elena tries to hate Damon. Like happens with Stefan, Damon creeps back into her heart anyway.
Jeremy comes in at the worst possible time. He wants to know if everything is okay. Elena tries to play things off, but Damon can't. It's not okay. Everything he's feeling - all that emotion that he opened his heart to - has turned to agony and all he wants is to make the pain go away.
"You want to shut off the pain? It's the easiest thing in the world. The part of you that cares - it just goes away. All you have to do is do flip the switch and snap."
And he snaps Jeremy's neck. Damn it, Damon (I think that every time that I watch this scene. Damn it, Damon). Damon backs away from the body and Elena rushes over to Jeremy. Damon watches as Elena is in horrified shock. He waits until she looks up and he sees her reaction in her eyes - sees her hating him in that moment - and only then does he turn and leave.
After he's left, Elena sees the ring on Jeremy's finger. Her brother isn't dead. She clutches his body to her and waits.
Tyler and Mason bond more over the 'curse of being a Lockwood'. Extreme bursts of anger come with the territory.
Stefan has arrived to be with Elena while she waits for Jeremy to revive. He's taking this time to start attempting to justify Damon's actions. Well, no time like the present, I assume. I wonder how much Elena told him about what happened in the room.
"He saw the ring - that's why he did it. He knew."
"He didn't see the ring."
"It's Katherine. She got under his skin - she undid everything that was good about him."
"There's nothing good about him, Stefan, not anymore. He's decided what he wants. He doesn't want to feel - he wants to be hated, because it's easier that way. He got his wish. I hate him, Stefan."
"I know. I know."
As Elena talks, we see Damon arrive back at the Salvatore place. His emotional switch clearly hasn't been turned off, because he's a wreck. There are two basic kinds of tragedies - the first is the kind that's external, caused by circumstances. The other is internal, caused by flaws and choices of the person involved. But out of ashes, sometimes there is a phoenix. Here, Damon tries to burn his emotions to ash, tries to root it all out. And it doesn't work. He can't stop loving Elena. He can't stop caring about Stefan or Liz or Alaric or this town. When he kills Jessica in 2x12, he cares. And he hates it - and himself.
"You have no idea what it's like to have done the things that I've done... and to care." Angel says (in the "Angel" episode of BtVS).
In the Jossverse, that was something special, for a vampire to care. In TVD universe, that is what every vampire who lives long enough eventually faces up to, when that handy emotion switch wears off. Damon can't run from himself anymore.
Jeremy takes a gasping breath, coming back to life. Shocked and shaking in Elena's arms. "He killed me. Damon killed me."
Caroline wakes up to find 'Elena' in her room. Katherine soon clears up the mix-up. She wants Caroline to give the Salvatore brothers a message - "game on". Then she takes a pillow and holds it over Caroline's face until she's dead. This was totally devastating the first time that I saw it, but Caroline has been so awesome as a vampire. Best choice the writers ever made.
For S2, everyone gets to start off with a clean slate (totals for Season 1). At the end of the season, I will do both a S2 totals and a 'series totals' round-up, I think.
For deaths, it's about intent and/or action. Purposefully vamping someone does not count as a kill.
1. Damon kills Jeremy and does not realize that Jeremy is wearing the no supernatural death ring.
Damon: 1
No vampire bites this episode, unless you want to count Stefan biting his own wrist and feeding his blood to John (and Damon possibly doing the same to Caroline - or maybe he brought her a cup of coffee laced with blood. We really don't know).
No one gets compelled, either.
1. Elena and Bonnie talk about Caroline's condition.
2nd Reunion: "The Turning Point" - (at least 16 episodes, at least five weeks)
We start on the night of Founders' Day, overlapping a little bit with the last events of last season.
The next day, Bonnie stops by to see Caroline in the hospital - she's much better. The episode is set that day and night.
Time covered: 2 nights; 1 day.
Damon is emotionally naked, but no. He does get almost shirtless (buttons ripped off).
Katherine is a vampire.
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But in the episode Damon is raw and bleeding and nobody can get to him in time.
For him it is always the fact that NOBODY wanted him over Stefan. And that is one thing that eats at him although Damon loves his brother with the sort of terrifying intensity that is his way of loving people. He can be conflicted too - Salvatores are good at it.
I think that Damon and Bonnie in the long run will be very interesting - Damon has to stop killing people when he gets upset - perhaps he should take up boxing? And Bonnie needs to find her footing and not blame Damon because it's raining, etc.
You know, they could all stay at Alaric's place. *g* Or Caroline's - or Bonnie's - Katherine hasn't been invited in there. Or somebody human could live at the boarding house, that would make it harder to break into all the time.
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Or Alaric or somebody could move into the boarding house. Seriously, it's big enough. And Bonnie needs to look into some security spells.
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For sure. He'd been getting over her for a while, but there was still nostalgia and a trace of hope. Katherine killed those things in 2x01.
But in the episode Damon is raw and bleeding and nobody can get to him in time.
I wish that the Damon-Elena conversation could have continued (no Jeremy interruption). Damon was breaking, but he wouldn't have hurt Elena and I think there's a chance that she might have gotten through to him and made him realize that he doesn't want to lose her friendship, not really. But then Jeremy appeared and Damon does something stupidly impulsive because he's hurt.
For him it is always the fact that NOBODY wanted him over Stefan. And that is one thing that eats at him although Damon loves his brother with the sort of terrifying intensity that is his way of loving people. He can be conflicted too - Salvatores are good at it.
Indeed. Always being second-best can eat at you (there's a potential conversation-topic for Damon and Caroline, though Caroline has been able to get out from under Elena's shadow).
I think that Damon and Bonnie in the long run will be very interesting - Damon has to stop killing people when he gets upset - perhaps he should take up boxing? And Bonnie needs to find her footing and not blame Damon because it's raining, etc.
Vampire boxing! Weapons are allowed as long as they are not made of wood!
You know, they could all stay at Alaric's place. *g* Or Caroline's - or Bonnie's - Katherine hasn't been invited in there. Or somebody human could live at the boarding house, that would make it harder to break into all the time.
Yeah, if Damon officially made a human person co-owner of the boarding house, things would be easier. I mean, I'm sure that's part of why he allowed the Salvatore line to live there.
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So, I will note that Katherine knew that Elena was about to arrive and chose not to give John a fatal wound. She could have easily stabbed him somewhere that would make him die instantly, if that's what she'd wanted.
Since John's reappearance I've thought back to this scene many a time, wondering what was going on in Katherine's head. I think for now I've decided that it was a display of power and a punishment for including the Salvatores (or perhaps just Stefan) in their mass vampire take down. I don't think Stefan was on the menu, and she was pissed and vengeful about the plan alteration and wanted to prove she is fucking SERIOUS BUSINESS. (and dude, John, HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THAT?) Since he's still useful, and Isobel might get squirrely, Katherine decides to just horribly maim.
Man, I almost want to start another list: times that people use Elena as leverage to make Damon do something. It's pretty long.
I know, right? Even Stefan gets in on it, hilariously. (actually, I think Stefan might be the first person to go there. I've always found it fascinating that for such a supposed "Dread Triangle", from the start Stefan's relied on his belief that Damon ~feels for Elena. It's a boundary he quickly begins taking for granted. The few moments when he lose sight of that are basically a sign from the show that Stefan's irrational or full of shit (one of my biggest arguments that Stefan didn't really WANT to put Damon out of the picture in 1x5/1x6 is not just how he doesn't act until pushed to it by Zack (like he couldn't have just gone out and acquired enough vervain to dose Damon before) or that he spends days lurking around Damon's cage, but also how freakin' easily he gave to in returning the ring. oh yeah, Damon threatened to go kill Elena. RIGHT LIKE THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. In all other cases, Stefan never seems really convinced of that being a viable threat, instead of just Damon trash talking like an asshole.)
so Damon tries to tear down what she was willing to offer him (her friendship) himself, in a gloriously horrible act of impulsive self(and other) destruction.
Absolutely! It was SO self-destructive. And I completely agree that that false moment of emotional catharsis has very much informed Damon's actions throughout the season. "I wanted it to be real." --> that is a key telling Damon statement for me. And everything in this episode is about destroying that for Damon.
I find it interesting that the relationship that comes out of this episode without damage is his with Stefan, and I think that's because Stefan ultimately 'gets real' with Damon, making that implicit promise you mention, and thus showing him that what's been having for the last couple months & happened that previous night (Stefan coming through for Damon) WAS real. That was the ONE THING that wasn't a lie. And so that also informs Damon's relationship with his brother this season, and makes him more receptive to finding a balance with him and finally hearing Stefan's apology.
Elena's reminder does not deter either brother from wanting to 'deal' with this.
I love how gungho Damon is here. He's pretty much going out of his way to set off Stefan, because I think the self-destructiveness is already starting. He WANTS to push away Stefan, to "prove" any new trust was a lie, to tear it down before he gets anything else taken away. And because Stefan is Stefan, he totally takes the bait at first.
Stefan has this thing where he'll go completely unhinged at Damon for like 20 minutes and then calm down and be over it. Elena's request helps, but I don't think it's just that. (wonder if the initial reactions are supposed to be just Stefan, or vamp instincts? we certainly see both Caroline and Damon have extreme reactions to stimuli) And, yeah, the unhinging factor here was probably some Katherine + Damon + Elena. A complicated picture...
So, hmm. Did Katherine know that the Gilbert device would go off on Richard?
I LOVE THIS THEORY.
The conversation that Elena and Damon are having is skewed, a bit. Elena is trying to say "I can't believe you thought I would cheat on Stefan" and Damon is hearing "I can't believe you thought I cared enough about you to want to kiss you". For Damon, nothing in this conversation is about Stefan. It's just about him and Elena and the thing that they have between them.
Good insight into that whole conversation. Everything you've said rings true.
Here, Damon tries to burn his emotions to ash, tries to root it all out. And it doesn't work. He can't stop loving Elena. He can't stop caring about Stefan or Liz or Alaric or this town.
Absolutely. That that's something that both Stefan and Elena underestimate again, when they first assume he might be going off completely the rails (oh, what dastardly things could Damon be up to?! cut to: Damon fishing for information about new potential supernatural threat to the town). I'm bemused that Damon's immediate reaction could be seen as: go be a hero. I don't think he consciously decides this at all, but he basically goes on a crusade after the Lockwoods and will not give up the idea that Mason is a threat to be neutralized. I've long wondered if this is guilt about Jeremy seeping in -- Damon subconsciously wants to redeem that action, and throws himself into protect/attack mode. It's an easy fix -- point me in the direction of something I can kill. Hey, helping to go after Logan and then Noah in S1 was what started Stelana depending on him.
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♥
Since John's reappearance I've thought back to this scene many a time, wondering what was going on in Katherine's head. I think for now I've decided that it was a display of power and a punishment for including the Salvatores (or perhaps just Stefan) in their mass vampire take down. I don't think Stefan was on the menu, and she was pissed and vengeful about the plan alteration and wanted to prove she is fucking SERIOUS BUSINESS. (and dude, John, HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THAT?) Since he's still useful, and Isobel might get squirrely, Katherine decides to just horribly maim.
Yeah, Katherine was making a point to him. Actually, hmm. I wonder if Pearl got her ideas about how to deal with threats from Katherine (Pearl tries the 'stab you in the stomach to show you how serious I am' thing with Frederick) but doesn't understand that whether or not you do that is based on the personality of the person you're dealing with.
I know, right? Even Stefan gets in on it, hilariously. (actually, I think Stefan might be the first person to go there. I've always found it fascinating that for such a supposed "Dread Triangle", from the start Stefan's relied on his belief that Damon ~feels for Elena. It's a boundary he quickly begins taking for granted. The few moments when he lose sight of that are basically a sign from the show that Stefan's irrational or full of shit (one of my biggest arguments that Stefan didn't really WANT to put Damon out of the picture in 1x5/1x6 is not just how he doesn't act until pushed to it by Zack (like he couldn't have just gone out and acquired enough vervain to dose Damon before) or that he spends days lurking around Damon's cage, but also how freakin' easily he gave to in returning the ring. oh yeah, Damon threatened to go kill Elena. RIGHT LIKE THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. In all other cases, Stefan never seems really convinced of that being a viable threat, instead of just Damon trash talking like an asshole.)
Stefan totally is - he's arguing that Damon won't hurt Elena as far back as 1x03. And, yeah, I don't think he's ever honestly thought Elena was in physical danger from Damon or in danger of being terrorized - he doesn't think to give vervain to Elena to give to her family and friends until there's a new vampire in town. He did worry about Damon compelling Elena at first (valid worry), but that's a different story and more rooted in Stefan's relationship stuff.
Absolutely! It was SO self-destructive. And I completely agree that that false moment of emotional catharsis has very much informed Damon's actions throughout the season. "I wanted it to be real." --> that is a key telling Damon statement for me. And everything in this episode is about destroying that for Damon.
Sort of 'If I can't have what I want, then I don't want anything'. Destructive and immature and very, very hurt. He wanted it to be real and when Elena made him feel like none of it was, it was very much a breaking point. And he obviously still hasn't recovered from 2x01 (which is almost... funny, because the people that he hurt have - Jeremy and Elena have both reconciled to him).
I find it interesting that the relationship that comes out of this episode without damage is his with Stefan, and I think that's because Stefan ultimately 'gets real' with Damon, making that implicit promise you mention, and thus showing him that what's been having for the last couple months & happened that previous night (Stefan coming through for Damon) WAS real. That was the ONE THING that wasn't a lie. And so that also informs Damon's relationship with his brother this season, and makes him more receptive to finding a balance with him and finally hearing Stefan's apology.
Yeah, Stefan drops the pretense of 'I can barely stand you' that he's been putting up at various points in S1. Stefan is willing to be open and honest. Their relationship does some beautiful things in S2.
Stefan has this thing where he'll go completely unhinged at Damon for like 20 minutes and then calm down and be over it. Elena's request helps, but I don't think it's just that. (wonder if the initial reactions are supposed to be just Stefan, or vamp instincts? we certainly see both Caroline and Damon have extreme reactions to stimuli) And, yeah, the unhinging factor here was probably some Katherine + Damon + Elena. A complicated picture...
Very complicated.
So, hmm. Did Katherine know that the Gilbert device would go off on Richard?
I LOVE THIS THEORY.
It makes a lot of sense when I think about it.
Absolutely. That that's something that both Stefan and Elena underestimate again, when they first assume he might be going off completely the rails (oh, what dastardly things could Damon be up to?! cut to: Damon fishing for information about new potential supernatural threat to the town). I'm bemused that Damon's immediate reaction could be seen as: go be a hero. I don't think he consciously decides this at all, but he basically goes on a crusade after the Lockwoods and will not give up the idea that Mason is a threat to be neutralized. I've long wondered if this is guilt about Jeremy seeping in -- Damon subconsciously wants to redeem that action, and throws himself into protect/attack mode. It's an easy fix -- point me in the direction of something I can kill. Hey, helping to go after Logan and then Noah in S1 was what started Stelana depending on him.
lol, yes. That was hilarious.
And, yeah, it makes sense. Especially in light of what Damon says in 2x03 - "you hated me before and we became friends", so he's trying to repeat what he thinks caused that to happen before (consciously or unconsciously).
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"The truth is... I've never loved you. It was always Stefan."
I do think that Katherine was being honest here.
You know, I'm still not sure about that. I mean, ok, Katherine obviously isn't in love with Damon now, but I'm not sure she's really in love with Stefan either. She is totally self-focused. She may want Stefan, and find him a challenge, and be jealous about Elena, but I don't really think she's capable of love. Not right now.
But I have to wonder what made her play with both the brothers in 1864 and turn them both if she didn't have any feelings for Damon. She must have liked him and liked having him around. And she certainly seemed to intend the three of them to live together after they were turned. So I wonder if she isn't lying to herself here for some reason.
This is totally the kind of thing I would have to resolve with fic, but yeah, I don't think that's happening anytime soon.