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butterflyOkay, some more thoughts.
The Originals
The revelation that Klaus is the one who killed his mother was one of those things that slot perfectly into what we know about him - and what Rebekah had just spent an episode talking to Elena about - Klaus cannot handle betrayal. He felt betrayed by his mother when she rejected him after his werewolf genes showed, so he killed her. He was convinced that she hated him. Remember what he said in "The Reckoning" - "You know how much the Original Witch hated me, so why would I do anything other than the opposite of what she says?" Now, that the solution that the Original Witch is trying to find is consistently pretty much anything other than "kill Klaus" argues to me that his mom doesn't hate him. She doesn't want a hybrid army around, hence the failsafe, but she's not trying to kill Klaus, to kill her son. She's trying to kill some random doppelgänger!girl that she's never met. But, to Klaus, all he can see and feel is that his mother hates him for something that he had no control over.
He lied to Rebekah so that he wouldn't be alone. Elijah was likely told the same lie. And then Klaus hunted down and put away all the people who might tell a different story (ah, and we see the difference that Klaus does show - the siblings who left/abandoned him, he might dagger but he keeps them close and travels with their corpses, but the father who was not his biological father and who repudiated him, that guy can rot in a mausoleum in Charlotte because fuck him).
And Elena's point about Klaus was a good one - the werewolf gene comes with aggression; even non-triggered werewolves are aggressive, especially around the full moon. There is a biological component. Klaus needs to take a good anger-management course, I guess is what I'm saying.
Mikael... ugh. I mean that in a "I feel this character is being written and acted well and man, I really hate him" way. It's not Klaus's fault that he's not Mikael's biological son. Taking that out on him is just petty. But Rebekah says that Mikael's dominant character trait is his pride. He was so prideful that Rebekah did believe that he was capable of killing his wife.
Rebekah was so awesome in this episode. We got to see a great range of emotion from her and got to learn her story. I have loved her from the start but my love has deepened with this episode. And I've been pleased by how healthy her love for Stefan is - she obviously does love him an incredible amount, enough to attempt to leave her brother (and get daggered for it), but she will never be a mat for Stefan to step on. If he's going to be a jerk about things, then she's going to leave him alone and go hang out with people who aren't being jerks to her.
The Salvatore boys
Oh, and if Mikael saying that wasn't a red flag that he didn't, at least, kill Katherine with his first assault, nothing is. He obviously got the info about where/who from Katherine. I suspect that she's still alive (well, undead, but you get what I mean), but in captivity. Probably compelled again. At least he doesn't actually have a personal grudge against her, like Klaus did.
So, yes, the Salvatore boys. Ahhhh, who are the most complex and awesome brothers ever. I loved them so much in this episode. I love that Damon was able to assess what was wrong with ripper!Stefan (he's depressed because he feels like he has no control over his life!). I love that Damon freed Stefan (echo of Stefan freeing Damon in the last episode). And then we had a episode that was chock-full of brotherly bonding (ending in a fight but it is the Salvatore brothers). And Damon is finally starting to be a good big brother to Stefan. He left the care and raising of Stefan to Lexi the first time around, because he was hurt and pissed off and he didn't want to be around Stefan, but still wanted him taken care of. And it's taken over a hundred years for him to realize that Lexi kinda screwed the pooch on that one. But maybe now Damon can do it right and teach Stefan some actual self-control as opposed to forcing him to repress everything.
The last conversation between Damon and Elena made me giddy from shipper-joy, but also made me giddy in terms of Damon-Stefan and the relationship between all three of them as a whole. It's family-related love that tends to move mountains on this show, but some people are more bound into that than others - Anna, who was more attached to her mother than to her romantic interest, and Stefan, who loves his brother over anyone else in the world. For Damon, Elena comes first. For Stefan, Damon comes first. And it was that way back in 1864, too - Damon chose Katherine but Stefan didn't seem to care all that much about Katherine once he was a vampire... he was much more concerned about his brother. The reason that the Salvatore brothers are vampires is layered:
a) they were capable of becoming vampires because of Katherine's blood, fed to Damon willingly and to Stefan unwillingly
b) they started on the road because their father's hate for vampires was stronger than his love for his sons
c) the bloodlust is very hard for a newbie to control, and so Stefan became a vampire out of his hunger
d) Stefan didn't want to spend eternity without Damon, so he coaxed and tempted his brother into choosing to live
And that last piece is, of course, why Stefan complained about Damon a lot in S1 but couldn't ever genuinely try to kill him. For Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah (and all the unnamed sibs) - they are vampires because their parents made a choice. Mikael chose to become a vampire; Katherine is another person who chose to become a vampire out of desperation - hey, they have something in common! Caroline became a vampire because people loved her enough to save her life and then Katherine took advantage of that. Damon chose it, not out of desperation but out of love. Stefan became a vampire because Katherine made a choice.
Stefan showed again this episode that his love for Damon is overriding - no, he can't break the compulsion, but if Damon is threatened, suddenly he can think of loopholes in the compulsion that he can exploit. For Stefan, it's always going to be Damon > everyone else.
Damon and Elena
*sigh*
Oh, I love them. The banter; him continuing to teach her how to fight; the way the bedroom scenes between them just keep getting more and more positive. Awesome. Seriously, every note between them is being played perfectly. I adore it.
And I love that Alaric has slotted back into place. He's admitted that he can't not care about Damon (it is rather difficult to stop) but now he's going to remember that Damon is a vampire.
I did not notice the lack of Caroline, Jeremy, Matt, or Tyler until the episode was over - always a sign of a compelling episode.
The Originals
The revelation that Klaus is the one who killed his mother was one of those things that slot perfectly into what we know about him - and what Rebekah had just spent an episode talking to Elena about - Klaus cannot handle betrayal. He felt betrayed by his mother when she rejected him after his werewolf genes showed, so he killed her. He was convinced that she hated him. Remember what he said in "The Reckoning" - "You know how much the Original Witch hated me, so why would I do anything other than the opposite of what she says?" Now, that the solution that the Original Witch is trying to find is consistently pretty much anything other than "kill Klaus" argues to me that his mom doesn't hate him. She doesn't want a hybrid army around, hence the failsafe, but she's not trying to kill Klaus, to kill her son. She's trying to kill some random doppelgänger!girl that she's never met. But, to Klaus, all he can see and feel is that his mother hates him for something that he had no control over.
He lied to Rebekah so that he wouldn't be alone. Elijah was likely told the same lie. And then Klaus hunted down and put away all the people who might tell a different story (ah, and we see the difference that Klaus does show - the siblings who left/abandoned him, he might dagger but he keeps them close and travels with their corpses, but the father who was not his biological father and who repudiated him, that guy can rot in a mausoleum in Charlotte because fuck him).
And Elena's point about Klaus was a good one - the werewolf gene comes with aggression; even non-triggered werewolves are aggressive, especially around the full moon. There is a biological component. Klaus needs to take a good anger-management course, I guess is what I'm saying.
Mikael... ugh. I mean that in a "I feel this character is being written and acted well and man, I really hate him" way. It's not Klaus's fault that he's not Mikael's biological son. Taking that out on him is just petty. But Rebekah says that Mikael's dominant character trait is his pride. He was so prideful that Rebekah did believe that he was capable of killing his wife.
Rebekah was so awesome in this episode. We got to see a great range of emotion from her and got to learn her story. I have loved her from the start but my love has deepened with this episode. And I've been pleased by how healthy her love for Stefan is - she obviously does love him an incredible amount, enough to attempt to leave her brother (and get daggered for it), but she will never be a mat for Stefan to step on. If he's going to be a jerk about things, then she's going to leave him alone and go hang out with people who aren't being jerks to her.
The Salvatore boys
Oh, and if Mikael saying that wasn't a red flag that he didn't, at least, kill Katherine with his first assault, nothing is. He obviously got the info about where/who from Katherine. I suspect that she's still alive (well, undead, but you get what I mean), but in captivity. Probably compelled again. At least he doesn't actually have a personal grudge against her, like Klaus did.
So, yes, the Salvatore boys. Ahhhh, who are the most complex and awesome brothers ever. I loved them so much in this episode. I love that Damon was able to assess what was wrong with ripper!Stefan (he's depressed because he feels like he has no control over his life!). I love that Damon freed Stefan (echo of Stefan freeing Damon in the last episode). And then we had a episode that was chock-full of brotherly bonding (ending in a fight but it is the Salvatore brothers). And Damon is finally starting to be a good big brother to Stefan. He left the care and raising of Stefan to Lexi the first time around, because he was hurt and pissed off and he didn't want to be around Stefan, but still wanted him taken care of. And it's taken over a hundred years for him to realize that Lexi kinda screwed the pooch on that one. But maybe now Damon can do it right and teach Stefan some actual self-control as opposed to forcing him to repress everything.
The last conversation between Damon and Elena made me giddy from shipper-joy, but also made me giddy in terms of Damon-Stefan and the relationship between all three of them as a whole. It's family-related love that tends to move mountains on this show, but some people are more bound into that than others - Anna, who was more attached to her mother than to her romantic interest, and Stefan, who loves his brother over anyone else in the world. For Damon, Elena comes first. For Stefan, Damon comes first. And it was that way back in 1864, too - Damon chose Katherine but Stefan didn't seem to care all that much about Katherine once he was a vampire... he was much more concerned about his brother. The reason that the Salvatore brothers are vampires is layered:
a) they were capable of becoming vampires because of Katherine's blood, fed to Damon willingly and to Stefan unwillingly
b) they started on the road because their father's hate for vampires was stronger than his love for his sons
c) the bloodlust is very hard for a newbie to control, and so Stefan became a vampire out of his hunger
d) Stefan didn't want to spend eternity without Damon, so he coaxed and tempted his brother into choosing to live
And that last piece is, of course, why Stefan complained about Damon a lot in S1 but couldn't ever genuinely try to kill him. For Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah (and all the unnamed sibs) - they are vampires because their parents made a choice. Mikael chose to become a vampire; Katherine is another person who chose to become a vampire out of desperation - hey, they have something in common! Caroline became a vampire because people loved her enough to save her life and then Katherine took advantage of that. Damon chose it, not out of desperation but out of love. Stefan became a vampire because Katherine made a choice.
Stefan showed again this episode that his love for Damon is overriding - no, he can't break the compulsion, but if Damon is threatened, suddenly he can think of loopholes in the compulsion that he can exploit. For Stefan, it's always going to be Damon > everyone else.
Damon and Elena
*sigh*
Oh, I love them. The banter; him continuing to teach her how to fight; the way the bedroom scenes between them just keep getting more and more positive. Awesome. Seriously, every note between them is being played perfectly. I adore it.
And I love that Alaric has slotted back into place. He's admitted that he can't not care about Damon (it is rather difficult to stop) but now he's going to remember that Damon is a vampire.
I did not notice the lack of Caroline, Jeremy, Matt, or Tyler until the episode was over - always a sign of a compelling episode.
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Date: 2011-11-05 03:53 am (UTC)