Vampire Diaries (yes, still squeeing)
May. 14th, 2011 08:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyI mentioned in my 2x03 rewatch/review that I suspected that 2x22 would be a bookend to 2x01. Which, yes.
1. In 2x01, Damon attacks Jeremy and 'kills' him. In 2x22, Damon is the reason that Jeremy dies, but it's because Jeremy is trying to save him and through accident. In both cases, Jeremy is resurrected by supernatural means.
2. In both episodes, Bonnie makes a call that saves a life but will have major supernatural consequences (giving Caroline Damon's blood v. saving Jeremy's life). Because she's stronger and more willing to accept the consequences of her actions at the end of S2, she's doing it on her own power rather than needing Damon (and I think Damon might even mention in 2x01 that there are resurrection spells but that Bonnie wouldn't be experienced enough to know/perform them).
3. In 2x01, Carol and Liz have brief confrontation/power struggle; another one happens in 2x22.
4. In 2x01, Elena tells John that his hate for vampires will get him killed. In a way, that's true - he so desperately did not want Elena to become a vampire that he was willing to sacrifice his life to keep her from that. Though his prejudices had gotten a little weaker by then.
5. 2x01: Stefan feeds John blood and threatens to turn him into what he hates most. 2x22: Klaus feeds Stefan blood, turning him into what he hates most, but Stefan takes it on willingly, for love.
6. In 2x01, Bonnie tells Damon that 'one more wrong move' and she'll take him out. In 2x22, she's actively trying to save his life, despite him being a danger to all of them.
7. In 2x01, Katherine tells Damon she never loved him, only Stefan. In 2x22, she tells Elena - in front of Damon - that she loved them both.
8. We have, in 2x01, the horribly-heartbreaking scene of Damon going to Elena. About how she would never kiss him and it'll always be Stefan, and Damon forces a kiss on her to get her to admit that they have something real. Then, in 2x22, we have the gorgeous scene with Damon starting out with an apology and wishing that Elena could have known him the way he was before he became a monster. He's the one to say that it'll always be Stefan and Elena's only answer to that is to cuddle Damon. And she gives him a kiss. Full-circle from saying that there's no way he should ever be able to believe that she would kiss him.
At the end of 2x01, Damon is in so much emotional pain that he just wants to tear everything down and destroy it. He doesn't want to feel, to be human, to have this horrible pain. By the end of 2x22, he says that, much as his choices along the road were wrong, he can't regret them, because they led him to Elena. Because in 2x01, he's fighting his humanity, because it hurts. By 2x22, he's accepted that pain and decided that it's worth it anyway. The love is worth the pain, even if she never loves him back.
The corollary is that, by 2x22, Elena isn't lying anymore. She's not trying to pretend to herself that there isn't something there - not for the man that he could be or the man that he was when he was human, but for the man that he is right now - who fails and who sometimes hurts the people he loves without wanting to, and who is still making mistakes (sometimes huge ones) and figuring things out... but who is fierce and loyal and has so much love to offer. "I like you now. Just the way you are."
9. In 2x01, Damon is the person who is going off the rails, because he needs to deal with his humanity and his desperate love for Elena. In 2x22, Stefan goes off the rails, and he needs to deal with his vampire nature and his desperate love for his brother. I'm so excited for S3. I adored "Let the Right One In" and the whole human-blood arc, both places where Damon and Elena teamed up to save Stefan, and I suspect S3 will be very awesome that way.
Because of course they will forgive him and still love him, even after he's gone off the rails. Of course they will try to save him. With the team! That is finally a very good team.
1. In 2x01, Damon attacks Jeremy and 'kills' him. In 2x22, Damon is the reason that Jeremy dies, but it's because Jeremy is trying to save him and through accident. In both cases, Jeremy is resurrected by supernatural means.
2. In both episodes, Bonnie makes a call that saves a life but will have major supernatural consequences (giving Caroline Damon's blood v. saving Jeremy's life). Because she's stronger and more willing to accept the consequences of her actions at the end of S2, she's doing it on her own power rather than needing Damon (and I think Damon might even mention in 2x01 that there are resurrection spells but that Bonnie wouldn't be experienced enough to know/perform them).
3. In 2x01, Carol and Liz have brief confrontation/power struggle; another one happens in 2x22.
4. In 2x01, Elena tells John that his hate for vampires will get him killed. In a way, that's true - he so desperately did not want Elena to become a vampire that he was willing to sacrifice his life to keep her from that. Though his prejudices had gotten a little weaker by then.
5. 2x01: Stefan feeds John blood and threatens to turn him into what he hates most. 2x22: Klaus feeds Stefan blood, turning him into what he hates most, but Stefan takes it on willingly, for love.
6. In 2x01, Bonnie tells Damon that 'one more wrong move' and she'll take him out. In 2x22, she's actively trying to save his life, despite him being a danger to all of them.
7. In 2x01, Katherine tells Damon she never loved him, only Stefan. In 2x22, she tells Elena - in front of Damon - that she loved them both.
8. We have, in 2x01, the horribly-heartbreaking scene of Damon going to Elena. About how she would never kiss him and it'll always be Stefan, and Damon forces a kiss on her to get her to admit that they have something real. Then, in 2x22, we have the gorgeous scene with Damon starting out with an apology and wishing that Elena could have known him the way he was before he became a monster. He's the one to say that it'll always be Stefan and Elena's only answer to that is to cuddle Damon. And she gives him a kiss. Full-circle from saying that there's no way he should ever be able to believe that she would kiss him.
At the end of 2x01, Damon is in so much emotional pain that he just wants to tear everything down and destroy it. He doesn't want to feel, to be human, to have this horrible pain. By the end of 2x22, he says that, much as his choices along the road were wrong, he can't regret them, because they led him to Elena. Because in 2x01, he's fighting his humanity, because it hurts. By 2x22, he's accepted that pain and decided that it's worth it anyway. The love is worth the pain, even if she never loves him back.
The corollary is that, by 2x22, Elena isn't lying anymore. She's not trying to pretend to herself that there isn't something there - not for the man that he could be or the man that he was when he was human, but for the man that he is right now - who fails and who sometimes hurts the people he loves without wanting to, and who is still making mistakes (sometimes huge ones) and figuring things out... but who is fierce and loyal and has so much love to offer. "I like you now. Just the way you are."
9. In 2x01, Damon is the person who is going off the rails, because he needs to deal with his humanity and his desperate love for Elena. In 2x22, Stefan goes off the rails, and he needs to deal with his vampire nature and his desperate love for his brother. I'm so excited for S3. I adored "Let the Right One In" and the whole human-blood arc, both places where Damon and Elena teamed up to save Stefan, and I suspect S3 will be very awesome that way.
Because of course they will forgive him and still love him, even after he's gone off the rails. Of course they will try to save him. With the team! That is finally a very good team.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-14 05:39 pm (UTC)Stefan is going to have to confront a lot of things about himself that he likes to ignore, and it will be brutal (I suspect) and of course Damon will always love Stefan, but Stefan is worried that Elena won't - and he knows that Damon is with her, etc, and that will be its own host of issues.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-14 05:42 pm (UTC)I mean, you'd think he'd realize that his two premises contradict each other:
a) Elena might end up with Damon (who has committed bad actions)
b) Elena might never forgive Stefan for his bad actions
But lots of people hold contradictory premises like that in real life.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-14 07:11 pm (UTC)*hands*
And, yes, Elena MIGHT end up with Damon, but I don't think the show, at this point wants to end there? They are still enjoying Elena and Stefan too much. It's also nice to see a threesome where there is knowledge of emotions, but the third person isn't saying 'AND NOW I WILL RUIN THEIR LIVES' with mustache twirling. For all that Damon can and will do horrible things, he won't screw up your love life - he wants the people he cares about to be happy. No matter how many people he has to bury for it to be that way.
:)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-14 07:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-14 07:18 pm (UTC)But now, at least a few people have chosen Damon. Alaric. Full stop. He is Damon's friend first. Jeremy. Chose Damon. Sought him out for guidance. And sticks by him. This after Damon killed both of them. Caroline, Bonnie, and so on. To varying degrees, but as family, they have come together.
Elena - who likes him 'as is'. <3s.
So there has definitely been some growth in that area of Damon's life. And it's ongoing and it's never going to end with him being 'the good brother' because as much as he is loyal and true, etc, he is quite simply broken and unbalanced. It's part of who he is, and frankly, he was already a bit that way before he was turned.
Stefan, on the other hand has decades of denial.. *starts humming Lion King songs* to work through, and get himself to a place where he can say 'yes, I am a vampire, and I do crappy things, and maybe I should not try to protect people from them all the time because they can actually handle it.'