hello my lovelies, are we ready?

[krickets]

→ Been having a rough couple of days. Shitty stuff going down at work. Won't talk about it, except to say that the crazies are out to get me. This is what I get for being an honest person. Maybe I should give it up. This fueled my determination when I later applied for a job in my dream town, but the odds are not exactly in my favor.

→ COMMUNITY. I loved the way this was shot. It was a nice blend of suspense and comedy. Josh Holloway: He's still got it. And if you miss the awesome version of Sawyer, this would definitely give you a quick and much needed fix. Sometimes their stylized eps really work for me, and sometimes they don't. This did. Maybe it's cause I love the western theme? (And because nobody had sex with Chang. Spoiler alert?)

→ THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:

I pretty much loved everyone in this. I feel like I want to save my thoughts for when I have re-watched and can analyze the whole thing, but what the heck, I will go for it.

- First, I actually cried. Something about Jenna's devastated face and knowing what was going to happen and having Elena tell her. I will miss that Sara Canning, you guys. There was definitely something so innocent about her character, and she's been bombarded with so much, and just her face. Sara was wonderful and Jenna was even more wonderful. Right from the start, they had me. She was brave, in the end. She tried to kill the witch and put an end to everything. I'm so sorry it didn't work. I really liked Jenna a lot.

- Elena may have been part of my tearing up. She was so gentle and calm and reassuring and yet terrified and heartbroken at the same time. It truly brought home how ill-equipped Jenna was for the job she took on. But then, who would be? These are not exactly ordinary circumstances. Elena is not exactly a normal girl. And she has remained so strong throughout this entire ordeal. For Stefan, for Jenna. They gave her her moment to break, just a little, last episode, and as ill-timed as it was, it was perfect and necessary. I sometimes can't believe how this character has evolved since season one. She's wonderful. In some ways I hope that the losses she suffered tonight don't harden her, but at the same time, the idea of that being a part of her season three arc is kind of exciting for me.

- Throwing this here: The imagery of those three rings fire was really beautiful.

- Of course Stefan would volunteer in Jenna's place. Of course. I was completely fucking shocked at Damon's reaction to that. Really? Does he care about Stefan that much? I know they have this century-and-a-half-old bond, but that was unexpected. But of course it 100% mirrored Stefan's pledge to find a cure for his brother at the end of the episode. This is just coming off of Damon's monster betrayal. I don't understand these brothers. Stefan is loyal. And apparently Damon at least doesn't want Stefan to die. But the love/hate thing still shocks me. Especially because it's mostly hate. I suppose we can attribute both their new found bond, and their continuing animosity to Elena. The dichotomy is perplexing.

- Also, I'm a little too mad at him for putting his life at risk to praise Stefan for offering himself up to Klaus. (Okay that's a lie, I totally love him for that.) But now I'm just worried what other plans Klaus has for him.

- While I found Jules' 'death bed apology' to be a little bit late, I actually felt sorry for her in the end. Goodness, though, she even dies pretty.

- The sound of Caroline's voice when she asked if Matt thinks her mother is going to try and kill her. Ouch. Heartbreak. I suppose this will be something they will deal with in the next season because I sincerely doubt they will wrap it up next episode. Although you never know what sort of cliffhanger they may have in store for us.

- Is this the end for Matt? Honestly, if this is their way of writing off Zach Roerig I might be a little pissed. Not to be completely heartless, but I would rather he died if that is the case. I loved him in this and the last episode. Despite the grumbling from the peanut gallery, I think he's had a great arc since finding out about Caroline. It's really only been a few episodes and he's gone from shock, to deception, to acceptance, to proving his loyalty and finally to this very real human reaction that he can't deal with this in his life. But I definitely hope that doesn't mean Matt disappears. I loved how open he was with Caroline in this episode, how he genuinely cares for both her and Tyler still, how he called them all friends. It was perfect. He better be coming back.

- Damon's problem is that he needs to think before he acts. Sure, she didn't become a vampire so Elijah's prophecy that she'll never forgive him might not come true. But because of what he did, and because he negated the power of the elixir, her father, who she was just beginning to trust, had to sacrifice his life to save hers. And speaking of that, now that he's gone (and in such a selfless way) I really wish John had been in these last two episodes. It would have been nice to have felt his death a little more harshly.

- When Bonnie magically prevented Alaric and Jeremy from leaving the property, I was so sure somebody was going to knock a candle over and burn the entire antique building to the ground. This was an actual fear I had when watching.

- Speaking of Jeremy, his best scene was with Elena at the end. He was kind of useless in this episode. Sorry Jer-Bear. Alaric was only mostly useless. But at least he got to break bad news to people. Which is... something.

- I realize that Bonnie was summoning the power of a hundred dead witches, but that other witch was so much more laid back in her spell casting. Bonnie, take notes. The sobbing and screaming and crying has got to stop.

- Elijah, Elijah, Elijah. Please tell me that after they resurrect their "kin" that they all turn on Klaus and chop him into teeny tiny pieces and put them into separate lock boxes and freeze them in the center of separate icebergs. (This might be a total buffy rip-off, but still.) And just to clarify, this is not me wanting Klaus to die, this is me wanting Elijah to redeem himself. And freeze-wrapping his brother's body parts is clearly the only way to do it.

- Caroline and Tyler. Well aren't you cute? I like that Tyler laughs at Caroline's ridiculous over simplifications. "Not all friendships are perfect." Right. On so many levels. I'm so glad he made it through and that these two obviously have a journey to go on next year together -- and the idea of the two of them mourning the loss of Matt together, albeit in different ways, is really sweet. I was hoping for a conversation between the boys, I won't lie. But this was good too. (I'm holding out for next season, and maybe Tyler, his BFF, will be the one to bring Matt back into the fold.)

- Do we think (after Damon survives the uncurable werewolf bite) that Klaus is going to come back to seek revenge on Damon for killing his "dance partner?" She was pretty, although evil. *shrug*

- Gosh Elena looked so heartbroken in the end. She's been through a lot. And she looked really pretty in her funeral dress. (Wow, shallow.)

- I feel like I must be leaving something out. But all I can say is... I'm not really looking forward to next week. I'll spare those of you who don't watch the promos the details. That'll be for another post or something.

- ETA: This is what I left out. Damon for all of his faults, gave us a beautiful moment tonight when he picked up Elena's body, and laid it next to Stefan's. That was lovely.

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Comments

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm sure I can elicit more from you, we'll have that convo, no worries.

Regarding Katherine, I'm pretty sure she's stuck unless somebody pulls some kind of vampire mojo (or maybe Bonnie can get her out?) I was so sure the girl was going to die this season, but no. She remains. Not that I wanted her to die but I wouldn't have been too heartbroken -- and I do feel bad for poor Nina Dobrev. (And there are so many characters!)

I guess there's no real question of whether or not Damon cares for Stefan. The question is how he shows it. Which, just a few hours prior to this, he showed by shoving a giant piece of furniture through Stefan's chest. My shock was more that he reacted physically and emotionally to the news. My expectation would be for him to say something snarky like "That idiot! He's going to get himself killed for JENNA?" [And we could all probably at least sorta agree what behind that snark, there was love/concern for his brother.]

But what we got was something very different and something unexpected I think. I read a re-cap this morning and the recapper suggested that Damon may have not only been reacting to Stefan, but also the fact that Elena would soon be a newly turned vampire, and both Stefan and Damon would be dead and completely useless to her in this new world she'd be living in. I don't necessarily disagree with that.

For me, Damon's a work in progress. Okay sometimes less heavy on the "progress" portion of that. [Or a lot less heavy.] He's not redeemed. [Yet?] He doesn't put others before himself. Like Bonnie does. Like Elena does. Like Stefan does. Like Jenna and John did in this episode. Without question. Without wondering what they will get out of it. If he had known Tyler would bite him, that he was far enough into his transformation for it to matter, do you think he would have put himself between Tyler and Matt and Caroline? I can't believe that he's really at that point yet. [Unless he was doing it in order to protect Elena's friends -- for her, not for them.] He says "it should have been me" instead of Jenna. But that has far less to do with Jenna than it does Elena. Katherine said "I didn't let love get in the way." She chose herself. And if Damon had a choice between himself and Jenna, if you take out his feelings for Elena, he would choose himself every time. [At the current juncture.]

Maybe this brush with mortality will change that? Who knows.

Him asking for forgiveness, I get that. I don't think his remorse lies in feeling like he's done something horrible to Elena. I think it has more to do with the idea that Elena may never forgive him.

But what you said the other day about "why be good if you don't get anything out of it?" Loving Elena is a start. Caring for her. But there is way too much wrong with the idea that Elena should reward Damon with romantic love (or even just sex) every time Damon does something nice. In fact, I think the only way Elena would ever or could ever love Damon for realsies, is if his change for the better is one that has little to do with her and a lot more to do with himself. Now, I'm not saying I want them to neuter him, and you know how I would love to see him take on a "big bad" role for a while, but hopefully they eventually manage to give him this big epic turnaround that frankly, Ian Somerhalder deserves, haha. (Just, somebody please do something about the eyes. Can we do a letter-writing campaign?)

One of the things that I love is that Stefan believes in Damon's power to change. Even when he doesn't deserve it. This is a guy, who was going to starve him and keep him mummified for a couple hundred years or so and then "re-evaluate." And now he's encouraging him to live, to make human ties, to be a better person. (Vowing to find a cure for something uncurable.) And don't get me wrong, I don't think that Damon deserves all of that most of the time. But the fact that Stefan sees it in him is kind of nice. I would like to see it myself some day.


Also YAY! For liking Tyler. I am pleased. That's all.

[holycitygirl.livejournal.com]

See I think the basic disagreement we are having transcends TVD. We are really talking about human nature here and whether or not we think that nature is inherently good or mostly self-serving. I don't think that it is inherently good. Bonnie puts people [some people] first because she takes pride in being noble [like her grandmother]. She's done questionable things - the same as everybody on this show. She Elena puts people first because she's a martyr [and maybe has a little of a death wish/guilt over surviving the fatal car crash that killed her parents/being the doppleganger that is putting everyone in danger]. Stefan puts other people first because he's making up for the terrible things he did when he was first turned/because he doesn't want to be like his brother/it helps him sleep at night. John - maybe I'd give you that John did something selfless, but - again, it was out of guilt and this spontaneous love for the daughter he decided pretty late in life he was going to do something to help. Nothing is selfless. Everybody gets something out of being good. Why can't Damon? What, he's supposed to be the one guy in the world that just does it to do it?

What I'm saying is - I don't think there is anything wrong with Damon helping Caroline and Tyler to help/curry favor with Elena. [Although I don't think there was thought there. I think he jumped in to save her without thinking at all. And that that instinct is more telling than conscious decision making ever could be]. I don't that doing the right thing for the wrong reason matters in the grand scheme of things. I'm nice to my brother's girlfriend because she's my brother's girlfriend. Because I love him, not because I love her. I can't stand the girl and think she's going to muck up my niece's life, but I'm nice to her so my brother doesn't hate me. Does that negate all my niceness? Do you think she would rather I be honest and mean? No.

I still think a little love and maybe a daily hug would help Damon. And yes - the last hug he got resulted in him force feeding Elena blood - but I don't think that means he's heartless. I think that bad decision proves he has one. If we are willing to forgive Stefan for taking the decision out of Damon's hands then we have to do the same for Damon. He "of all people" shouldn't have - but he "of all people" did - because he was finally in the same position. He didn't want to live without her - he couldn't handle the thought of being in a world she wasn't in. The same as Stefan all those years ago. It was wrong, but it was not done out of hate.

I'm not saying he is redeemed or anywhere close to being anything like Stefan. I'm kind of arguing that he doesn't have to be. He is what he is. A fucked up guy. If Elena's friendship/respect [not sexual favors or romantic love - although, I do think Elena leads him on from time to time] is what it takes to make him stop killing and using people - then I'm okay with that.

I think that Stefan and Elena have a lot in common. They both feel empathy easily. They both want to forgive. That is why they love Damon, and why - ultimately - Damon loves them. I think they are both going to do everything they can for him on the next episode and I LOVE THAT ABOUT THEM. I think that Damon can and will deserve it one day.

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Riddle me this, pessimist.

Why did Damon help Rose to be at peace when he put her out of her misery? What did he get out of it? I would argue that he got nothing out of it. In fact, the whole thing pissed him off so much that he went and killed poor Jessica. He didn't love Rose, that much we know. (He loves Elena.) And yet he cared for her. And he didn't want her to suffer, so for no reason at all that benefitted him, he conjured up this peaceful and blissfully ignorant facade so that she could die happy, as the person she was before becoming a vampire.

That is the most genuine moment of compassionate humanity I think we've seen this entire series from Damon. And I don't think he got one thing out of it.

I think you don't take it far enough, Stefan is good because it helps him sleep better at night. But why does it make him sleep better? Because he's doing the "right" thing, but why does he want to do the right thing?

Because it makes him feel good? To go to heaven? To have friends? To win Elena's love? No. I am pretty sure that none of those things factor into it in the end. I think it goes to something deeper. I think it's something inherent. I will always believe that.

And you can argue that same thing for Damon letting Rose die peacefully. Why? You could say maybe he did it so he wouldn't feel like he was killing her in cold blood, out of guilt. But that absolutely doesn't make sense for Damon -- he would know why he was doing it, know that it was necessary to kill her out of mercy. [And while we're on the subject, why even do that?] Damon helped Rose because she needed him. Because she was suffering and he wanted to give her something good before she died -- to take away her pain. His reward for that is that she died and he was miserable. And nobody even knows it happened except for him.

And just thinking about the most recent ep, why did he lay Elena's body next to Stefan's? Even though I am pretty cynical about his character, I can't see how or why that act could be considered selfish.

I think the difference in how we think is that I don't necessarily think a consequence or reward for being good, is the same thing as the motivation for that behavior. And I definitely don't think that motivations are singular, but I do think that there can be truly selfless "deciding factors."

If you say that Damon is justified because he's acting selfishly, but so does everyone in every situation then in my opinion we're just letting him off too easily -- and generally speaking over-simplifying the "sins" he has committed against others for personal gain/lashing out/turning it off/turning it up/etc. In the end I want to see him redeemed, and I want to see it done in a believable way.