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Vampire Diaries: 3x05 - additional squee and thoughtfulness
I have now rewatched the episode twice and gotta say, it beats out 3x03 as favorite episode of the season. Everything in this episode was just perfect for me on the rewatch.
I will expand into additional speculative thoughts, divided by plotline.
a. Klaus finally loses patience with Stefan:
We got to see no-holds-barred Klaus this episode and it was amazing. He was intelligent (doesn't kill Elena straight off, because he wants to check to make sure that killing her will get him what he wants), vicious (poor Dana and Chad), and intense. He was also very well-rounded in this episode - his interactions with Rebekah were so natural and sibling-like, and the practical (yet fun-loving) cruelty of how he behaved with everyone else contrasted with how emotional he was with Stefan. He is incredibly invested in his relationship with Stefan (who made quite an impact on Klaus, that month back in the 1920s!). He's so disappointed by Stefan's lies that he spends an entire afternoon breaking Stefan's neck, over and over. He gives Stefan chance after chance to prove that Stefan has chosen Klaus's side. And he's so (murderously) hurt and angry when Stefan lies to him (again and again). He's angrier than Rebekah, who is pretty pissed off herself.
b. Elena finally loses hope about Stefan:
Yes, it's because Klaus compelled him, but Elena had just heard of someone fighting off compulsion in 3x04. Which means that she saw Klaus's compulsion work on Stefan right after she learned that compulsion is not impossible to fight. And she tries so hard and so does Stefan. And, in the end, it doesn't matter. All the love in the world doesn't matter if you don't have self-control. Stefan never learned how to control his bloodlust, only how to repress it. And that just meant that it was all waiting for him behind a dam that he kept building up higher and higher.
c. Mikael/Michael - the vampire vampire-hunter:
So, who else bets that waking him up is going to cause more problems than it solves? He was sealed away in the '90s by a witch and/or group of witches. From what Anna said, he appears to have a hate-on for all vampires (except himself? Or does he plan to kill himself after he kills the rest of the vampires?). Klaus, who can kick everyone else's ass, is scared to death of him. Well, I guess we'll find out!
ETA: Word of actor says the spelling of the hunter's name is "Mikael" (source: http://twitter.com/#!/sebroche/status/124854706353868800).
d. The ghosts plotlines are finally kicking into high gear:
Matt killing himself so that he could speak with Vicki was so well-done. I got chills. And then when Bonnie was telling him how reckless it was and his eyes lighten up as he says, "but it worked"... oh, Matt. I really love that Vicki is talking to Matt now. His smile when she said "Hi, Matty," just plucked at my heartstrings so hard.
And that means that the Anna-Jeremy stuff is more concentrated, which I loved. I do think that this episode showed that Anna and Vicki are there, though I think there's more to it than just them. Also, Vicki contrasted against Anna - Anna declared that she was 'all alone', while Vicki passed along a message from the original witch. Are the other ghosts shunning Anna or is she lying to Jeremy?
So, my general theory re: the way the ghosts work is the Bonnie opened a doorway with Jeremy last season. But the more the doorway gets used, the wider the wedge becomes. First, Jeremy was the point of contact. Now, a ghost that we've already seen contacts someone else. Will this continue to expand outward?
Bonnie didn't get to do any magic this episode, but she got to be a great friend, use practical skills to save someone's life, and generally was used terrifically. She got to be empathetic and emotionally strong.
e. Katherine underestimates Damon (again):
Which is really a continuation of their relationship arc. She didn't expect Damon to actually free 'her' from the tomb. And then, once she processed that he'd been obsessed with her for over a hundred years, didn't expect for him to get over her. Basically, for all that she created a lot (though not all) of what Damon is, she consistently underestimates him. It amuses me. Partly because she seems to have Stefan's number a bit better - she knows that he's a horrible planner and, yep, last episode Katherine had to save him from his own bad plan.
f. I really am looking forward to the upcoming Stefan-plots so much:
And not just because we all know that Paul Wesley will be having the time of his life. Once I adjusted to them taking a short-cut to get to the awesome, I'm content enough. Because, oh, ripper!Stefan is just so much fun. I don't know if he's going to re-establish his relationship with Rebekah or not (though, the part of me that adored them in "The End of the Affair" hopes so!) but it's going to be lots of fun watching him.
(it's a vampire show, which means that I enjoy watching the vampires be vampires. If it were a vampire hunter show (like Buffy), I would have vastly different expectations for it; though I should perhaps note that I did enjoy watching Angelus be a cheerfully horrible person. Sometimes horrible people make for awesome characters. I also adored Victoria on due South. It's a thing.)
g. There are some show-specific tropes that TVD has established and I actually really enjoy them:
h. Caroline, Rebekah, Tyler, and Klaus:
Just things to make me go 'hmm'. Rebekah spent a lot of time babysitting Caroline. She only spent a moment or two with Elena (though they were priceless moments of petty jealous vampireness). She had an actual conversation with Caroline. And Klaus was somewhat gentle with post-neck-snap Tyler, when he was coaxing him to drink Elena's blood. Tyler feels so good afterwards, which makes Caroline nervous. Tyler now has the 'good parts' of being a werewolf and a vampire, possibly without the bad parts. Depending on how you look at things.
i. Damon as a classic romantic hero:
Devotion, tenderness, selflessness, ruthlessness in service of those that he loves... man, Katherine really threw away a goldmine, just saying. Damon is one of those larger-than-life characters who would be way too much in reality but in fiction - especially supernatural fiction - you need a larger-than-life hero because you have larger-than-life problems.
Not everyone likes the romantic hero tropes, but I am a total sucker for them.
j. I loved how the symbol of the necklace was used in this episode:
Damon offering it to Elena and her showing no interest in having it back.
And I loved the words Elena used - "after everything that we went through to get- to help him" - because at first, the 'everything we went through' sounds like she's talking about her and Stefan as the 'we', but as the sentence continues, it becomes clear that the 'we' is her and Damon - after everything they went through as a team to try to recover Stefan, they failed and he's lost to both of them for now. This is part of why her question to him - "where were you, Damon?" - feels so natural to me in that scene. They're a team, they were in this together, and he wasn't there when Stefan was finally lost to them. She had to go through that alone and it was so much more painful and scary because of that.
Now that Elena has abandoned the necklace, I wonder if we're going to see Rebekah re-claiming it.
I will expand into additional speculative thoughts, divided by plotline.
a. Klaus finally loses patience with Stefan:
We got to see no-holds-barred Klaus this episode and it was amazing. He was intelligent (doesn't kill Elena straight off, because he wants to check to make sure that killing her will get him what he wants), vicious (poor Dana and Chad), and intense. He was also very well-rounded in this episode - his interactions with Rebekah were so natural and sibling-like, and the practical (yet fun-loving) cruelty of how he behaved with everyone else contrasted with how emotional he was with Stefan. He is incredibly invested in his relationship with Stefan (who made quite an impact on Klaus, that month back in the 1920s!). He's so disappointed by Stefan's lies that he spends an entire afternoon breaking Stefan's neck, over and over. He gives Stefan chance after chance to prove that Stefan has chosen Klaus's side. And he's so (murderously) hurt and angry when Stefan lies to him (again and again). He's angrier than Rebekah, who is pretty pissed off herself.
b. Elena finally loses hope about Stefan:
Yes, it's because Klaus compelled him, but Elena had just heard of someone fighting off compulsion in 3x04. Which means that she saw Klaus's compulsion work on Stefan right after she learned that compulsion is not impossible to fight. And she tries so hard and so does Stefan. And, in the end, it doesn't matter. All the love in the world doesn't matter if you don't have self-control. Stefan never learned how to control his bloodlust, only how to repress it. And that just meant that it was all waiting for him behind a dam that he kept building up higher and higher.
c. Mikael/Michael - the vampire vampire-hunter:
So, who else bets that waking him up is going to cause more problems than it solves? He was sealed away in the '90s by a witch and/or group of witches. From what Anna said, he appears to have a hate-on for all vampires (except himself? Or does he plan to kill himself after he kills the rest of the vampires?). Klaus, who can kick everyone else's ass, is scared to death of him. Well, I guess we'll find out!
ETA: Word of actor says the spelling of the hunter's name is "Mikael" (source: http://twitter.com/#!/sebroche/status/124854706353868800).
d. The ghosts plotlines are finally kicking into high gear:
Matt killing himself so that he could speak with Vicki was so well-done. I got chills. And then when Bonnie was telling him how reckless it was and his eyes lighten up as he says, "but it worked"... oh, Matt. I really love that Vicki is talking to Matt now. His smile when she said "Hi, Matty," just plucked at my heartstrings so hard.
And that means that the Anna-Jeremy stuff is more concentrated, which I loved. I do think that this episode showed that Anna and Vicki are there, though I think there's more to it than just them. Also, Vicki contrasted against Anna - Anna declared that she was 'all alone', while Vicki passed along a message from the original witch. Are the other ghosts shunning Anna or is she lying to Jeremy?
So, my general theory re: the way the ghosts work is the Bonnie opened a doorway with Jeremy last season. But the more the doorway gets used, the wider the wedge becomes. First, Jeremy was the point of contact. Now, a ghost that we've already seen contacts someone else. Will this continue to expand outward?
Bonnie didn't get to do any magic this episode, but she got to be a great friend, use practical skills to save someone's life, and generally was used terrifically. She got to be empathetic and emotionally strong.
e. Katherine underestimates Damon (again):
Which is really a continuation of their relationship arc. She didn't expect Damon to actually free 'her' from the tomb. And then, once she processed that he'd been obsessed with her for over a hundred years, didn't expect for him to get over her. Basically, for all that she created a lot (though not all) of what Damon is, she consistently underestimates him. It amuses me. Partly because she seems to have Stefan's number a bit better - she knows that he's a horrible planner and, yep, last episode Katherine had to save him from his own bad plan.
f. I really am looking forward to the upcoming Stefan-plots so much:
And not just because we all know that Paul Wesley will be having the time of his life. Once I adjusted to them taking a short-cut to get to the awesome, I'm content enough. Because, oh, ripper!Stefan is just so much fun. I don't know if he's going to re-establish his relationship with Rebekah or not (though, the part of me that adored them in "The End of the Affair" hopes so!) but it's going to be lots of fun watching him.
(it's a vampire show, which means that I enjoy watching the vampires be vampires. If it were a vampire hunter show (like Buffy), I would have vastly different expectations for it; though I should perhaps note that I did enjoy watching Angelus be a cheerfully horrible person. Sometimes horrible people make for awesome characters. I also adored Victoria on due South. It's a thing.)
g. There are some show-specific tropes that TVD has established and I actually really enjoy them:
1) If a woman is proclaimed 'lost'/'trapped' by some guy who loves her... she probably isn't.
2) Oh, there will be town-sponsored events. There will be events every week.
3) Elena's enemies inevitably end up on 'her side' in some fashion (though not necessarily in a way she'd like!) - think about it. The big bad of the first half of S1, Damon, fell in love with her. The BBs of the second half of the season, John/Isobel, ended up being her biological parents who actually wanted what they believed to be 'the best' for her (lol). The BB of the first half of S2, Katherine, wanted her alive as leverage against Klaus and has teamed up with her on occasion. The BB of the middle of S2, Elijah, ended up working with her to try to defeat Klaus. And now Klaus also wants to keep Elena alive, because her blood is the key to him making more hybrids.
h. Caroline, Rebekah, Tyler, and Klaus:
Just things to make me go 'hmm'. Rebekah spent a lot of time babysitting Caroline. She only spent a moment or two with Elena (though they were priceless moments of petty jealous vampireness). She had an actual conversation with Caroline. And Klaus was somewhat gentle with post-neck-snap Tyler, when he was coaxing him to drink Elena's blood. Tyler feels so good afterwards, which makes Caroline nervous. Tyler now has the 'good parts' of being a werewolf and a vampire, possibly without the bad parts. Depending on how you look at things.
i. Damon as a classic romantic hero:
1.When he hears that Elena's in danger, he immediately turns his back on the plan to help Katherine kill Klaus. It doesn't matter to him that he could very well die in the process of returning to Elena. If Elena is in danger, he must go to her. It's not even a choice.
2. He holds no real cards, but manages to bluff his way past the villain.
3. The music coming up as he enters the hospital to rescue her. And, yes, he didn't manage to get there in time to stop any of the horror from happening, but he got there in time to stop it from continuing - he scared Klaus off for at least enough time for them to try to think up more plans (because Klaus was originally planning on taking Elena and Tyler with him when he left).
4. I believe that is the fourth time that Damon has done the 'romantic hero carry' of Elena in his arms.
5. He promises that he'll never leave her again.
6. He does it all with no expectation for himself and his own desires.
Devotion, tenderness, selflessness, ruthlessness in service of those that he loves... man, Katherine really threw away a goldmine, just saying. Damon is one of those larger-than-life characters who would be way too much in reality but in fiction - especially supernatural fiction - you need a larger-than-life hero because you have larger-than-life problems.
Not everyone likes the romantic hero tropes, but I am a total sucker for them.
j. I loved how the symbol of the necklace was used in this episode:
Damon offering it to Elena and her showing no interest in having it back.
And I loved the words Elena used - "after everything that we went through to get- to help him" - because at first, the 'everything we went through' sounds like she's talking about her and Stefan as the 'we', but as the sentence continues, it becomes clear that the 'we' is her and Damon - after everything they went through as a team to try to recover Stefan, they failed and he's lost to both of them for now. This is part of why her question to him - "where were you, Damon?" - feels so natural to me in that scene. They're a team, they were in this together, and he wasn't there when Stefan was finally lost to them. She had to go through that alone and it was so much more painful and scary because of that.
Now that Elena has abandoned the necklace, I wonder if we're going to see Rebekah re-claiming it.
no subject
This is really what gets me. My buttons, they are PUSHED. My key pairing buttons are [a] selfless love, wanting the object of their affections to be happy without expectation for themselves and [b] willingness to toss away all mores and morality in service of the people they love. So, pretty much Damon/Elena and the OT3 are like ping ping ping ping to me. lol.
(god, like that scene with Pacey/Joey from the Dawson's Creek finale where he's like, I'm letting you go, don't feel any obligation to me, it's fulfilling enough just to be in love with you and I want you to go out and be happy even if it's not with me. aaaaaaaaaaaah SO MUCH LOVE.)
no subject