You know, if you forget about everything that sort of doesn’t make sense in this episode — like why in the world the new vampire hunter thought his plan was a good idea in any way, shape, or form; that Stefan could have gone after him with his vampire speed; and…does anyone remember if Katherine has ever not-drank blood straight “from the vein”? — then this is very much the best episode of The Vampire Diaries in the longest possible time. Unfortunately, I cannot not see those things when I watch, so it gets a B+ from me tonight because seriously this was actually not bad at all. I’m so glad that I kept my more optimistic attitude going into this season, because thus far I have been enjoying the episodes a ton more.
Of course, I’m not really a fan of those moments where you have to sort of scoff at the idea that we care about April in any way. You’re friends with April, Elena! That person we’ve never mentioned in ever! This has now become the show where our core group will never die, á la True Blood. But beggers can’t be choosers, I guess. (Also, note, that Meredith nor the Originals were in this episode, which usually make them better. I’m just saying…)
But here’s mainly why I was a fan of tonight’s episode: it truly showcased the show’s ability to mix in plot intensity/insanity with actual moments of character development or…even tenderness. Let’s begin with Bonnie, because I have to, and also because I was actually in complete shock that the show decided to have a scene in which Bonnie was able to express her feelings for anything, with the addition of her living room (we’ve seen her foyer and a pillow in her room before). It doesn’t even matter that Stefan was there just to ask her about the perhaps-spelled bullets he pulled out of Tyler; it’s that he decided to ask her how she was coping with her grandmother re-dying (ugh) that — seriously — makes all the difference, instead of having Bonnie at everyone’s beck and call but always being furious with everyone since they never have before given two shits about her wellbeing, therefore allowing the audience to feel the same way. We get so much insight into how Elena and Caroline feel (and the male counterparts) that the only emotion we ever really get with Bonnie is stone-cold anger; vulnerability is a much better way to help flesh out the character. And I can only hope that it translated through the screen tonight. Otherwise, I think we may have to just throw our hands in the air and go “forget about it! turn her evil! turn her freakin’ evil!” Though, I still kind of want that. Like a lot.
Elsewhere, again I’d have to look back at the mythology with doppelgangers and needing blood from the vein, Elena’s having trouble keeping blood from bunnies and deer down. What I like about this storyline is that we’re getting to see deeper into what it feels like to turn into a vampire, as opposed to Caroline who was basically used as a way to turn a mostly annoying character into one of the more beloved of the series. And while that’s a plus — this is a shocker and you’re not going to expect the following — I think that the better way this is being exploited is with that darn love triangle! That’s right, I said it! Now, I’m not talking about the whole “YOU DRANK FROM HIM!” thing because what? but this has been what I’ve been ranting about for about a year now. I love that Elena feels the struggle between pushing for remaining kill-free and yet getting pulled closer into the depths of her desires, and how she feels a deeper connection with either brother because of it. Seriously, if they keep it up this way (even if the brothers are now a bit regressed), this could be the best mileage they get out of the pesky triangle…and it could be quite compelling, to boot.
But where it all culminates, and where this episode seriously gets the nudge into one of the better (keyword, not just entertaining as this also was) episodes in a long time, is having the characters actually take a little breath and grieve everyone they’ve lost. I know that they also sort of did this with Alaric when he didn’t die last season, but that scene to me always felt so empty (they just stared at him, it was kind of wonky; and the scenes in this episode were beyond cheesy, but whatever), and this was more about the series acknowledging that it doesn’t do that enough. When April was stabbed in this episode, I actually literally laughed. You may call that sick, but I call that desensitization. Are we really supposed to care about her? This show, hilarious. That’s all I could think. And the truth is that it’s because the series is quick to kill off people and then not have the characters care all that much. One of my least favorite is Caroline hardly giving Alaric any grief for her dead father.
And yet this entire episode was about knowing it does this. Caroline tells Tyler having sex after several people have died is greedy. April, at first, seems cold and distant, like she doesn’t even care that her father died, but she quickly realizes that she’s been pushing it aside; all she wants is for people to acknowledge that her father was a real person. (I couldn’t be the only person who caught that somewhat meta-ness?) Bonnie gets a scene where she can talk about her loss for the first time. And then Stefan sort of tells us like, “We get it. We don’t really take human life seriously.” I think this may be the beginning of the series actually sharpening the line between good and evil, further adding to Elena’s vampirism storyline and how she deals with both sides of the coin.
And really, that’s all I’ve been asking for.
Vampire bites:
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Now, seriously, I'd give that episode an A+. Last season was worth the B+, but... What the heck! It was intense from the beginning until the very end. I liked Elena's reaction to animal blood and how she turned to Damon for help. I'm a Stelena fan that doesn't like shippers fight cause, truly, the triangle is the least important thing in this show. But guys, if you insist in this triangle, use it in situations like this! Damon got Elena's back this episode and Stefan got mad because she drank from him, that's how they should use the triangle, with other plots that are actually interesting. But glad to see Elena's still with Stefan. Yay. Anyway, Connor was a total surprise; after all the things we heard about him, I'd thought he would end up to be friendly or something like that (that could still happen). But he was a bad ass during the entire hour. His appearance at the Mayor's house was unexpected and thrilling. And his plan, I'm sorry, but I thought this was genius! He is new to town, he surely knows some of the vampires, but with mostly every citizen at that Memorial (Connor may not know, but these events happens all the time in Mystic Falls!), he saw a shot to find out, and maybe even kill some of them. And that's what he's done. He used April's blood to seduce (is this actually the right word?) the vampires, since they could smell it. Elena fell into the trap easily! If he had any doubt, now he hasn't.
I got pissed after realizing that thee were five vampires and one human, but he fought Damon nicely (and, didn't Stefan say to Tyler that if he was a normal vampire, he'd die because of Connor's bullet? What, Connor decided to use a non-lethal bullet to shoot Damon?), and he clearly has a supernatural thing going on. His ink is our assurance to that. And he has some crazy weapons, so, I was fine that he got the win. This show needs to establish new threatening villains.
In any case, tonight's episode was really, really, really awesome. Dealt with all the emotions, gave Bonnie a lot of good moments (SHE WASN'T A PLOT DEVICE THANK YOU WRITERS, ok she was a little bit of a plot device, Stefan was asking for her help, but,,, THANKS) and man, she needed those. Matt did something useful for a change, and we got to see a remix of that Goodbye scene we saw on episode Our Town. The Vampire Diaries started off this season on a good shape, let's hope to say like this, in order to leave behind the wrongs we got on Season 3.
April - New Useless Bitch i could care less
The Stefan and Bonnie Scene was really good
OMG when Tyler when up there and took one for the team that boy is GOLD
FINALLY A REAL BAD ASS IN TOWN Connor was Great
Matt was awesome
Love the Tyler & Care Stuff we got this ep
Damon need to stop with the childish stuff it is really messing up his sexy
The end when they all when around and said who they loss was really good
Damon and Ric good sad Bro Scene there
even Tyler 's Mom was rocking
This Blood stuff Every Vamp in History drinks blood diff ways but Elena need to get it from the vein WTF ever But Matt came with a Save
I hadn't like this episode so much, but then you opened my eyes with your review, so I'd say I've passed from a C- to a B-.
My favorite things on today's episode:
- The vampires talking in the funeral - FINALLY! THEY ARE GETTING SMART AND ACTUALLY USING THEIR VAMPIRE ABILITIES TO SOMETHING.
- The whole funeral scene, expect that i had no idea what was the hunters plan either.
- Stefan helping Bonnie.
- Caroline helping Elena.
- Alaric at the end. I miss Matt Davis. BTW you didn't mention this scene, did you?
oh, and I forgot to say that that beggining was so confusing!
first there was stefan and elena waking up in the woods, but then there's stefan with damon and preparing to leave the house, like, what? and then stefan and elena are in the woods again but "training" to be animal blood sucker vampires and then there's damon again and then there's stefan and elena and elena throws up, and i'm like:
"wait, they were sleeping before or after this all happened? and they had this talk with damon before, but when do they slept? i'm so confused."
This was an improvement from last week's episode. Has some of the same problems, still keeping Bonnie out of most of the group activities. I don't know why she couldn't have come to the service, though she had an explanation for being holed up in her house. But I would assume she had some connection with the council members and their families as well. And she was still used as a plot device, but at least she wasn't forced to do witchy woo woo.
I too kind of welcome the idea of her being a villain, even though I don't think she would be portrayed very well as a villain. Anyway I don't think they could do much worse than the season premiere or season 3.
I feel that Elena's character was somewhat strengthened this episode b/c you had one of her friends, i.e. Caroline, holding her responsible for almost causing harm to someone she loved. The moment she had with Caroline was really strong and I hope they continue to do more of that. I don't see why she should seek Stefan or Damon for help when Caroline is a shining example of what kind of vampire she ought to be. That's what I kept thinking throughout this episode and I was glad for Caroline's intervention.
The vampire hunter actually doesn't seem that bad. He can't be worse than season 3 Klaus. His plan I think was to weed out the vampires in town. But it still remains to be seen who he really is and what his connection might be to the dead council people. The only flaw I saw in his plan was that I don't think the gang would react visibly during a funeral with a bunch of humans. But I liked how they were aware of what was going on.
And I too laughed when April got stabbed b/c I couldn't helping thinking WTF. It didn't make any sense. He could have stabbed anybody so why it had to be her I really don't know. In fact if Caroline and Elena hadn't decided to glamor her it's possible April could have pressed charges against him or at least alerted more people to his agenda.
I liked the scene involving Jeremy and the vampire hunter (I'm guessing his name is Connor). My guess is the guy is being protected by, or has a contract with, someone who is dead. Maybe even a demon since another witch might be less plausible. And that's why Jeremy can see the tattoo. It's possible the vampire hunter has some supernatural defenses that would make him uneasy to kill. He seemed to hold his own against Damon so I'm wondering what other strengths he might have.
And it didn't make sense for Stefan to just let him go. He could have easy sped past the guy's car. But maybe he was worried about being seen during daytime. I think Caroline did that once when she was being chased by Alaric near the school. Instead of running home she just ran to her car for some reason.
The memorial scene was refreshing compared to last season's "goodye Ric" scene.
I only found one thing really distasteful this episode. Damon referring to racial minorities as ethnic food (and I can only assume the American comfort food referred to a white person and that in and of itself is xenophobic). That was completely disgusting and uncalled for, esp given the implications of people fetishizing other people, essentially "consuming the other". It's really gross. Then he has the nerve to talk like he knows a thing about cultural appropriation (i.e. the Japanese lanterns). He just needs to shut up.
And I absolutely loved Tyler's move this episode. MVP indeed. Just love Trevino. I guess there is some notable benefit to him being a hybrid.
So from what I gather yet another filler episode where nothing matters at all, elena continues to be a VERY special(boring) snowflake and a buttload of new pointless characters are introduced? Yay....
Just saw the end scene on youtube - well it would be touching if it was not ruined, TVD-style by placing Alaric chilling there, YET AGAIN, ruining any tension that could be built around death - why care about someone dying if they are just chilling in this fluffy nice afterlife thing together with everyone else? What makes deaths work is the UNKNOWN - you do not get to "follow" where character goes on after it all ends for him - there's no "after" and that finality, that knowledge that you will never see the character again and that for all intents or purposes that person ended existing is EXACTLY what makes deaths work. TVD no longer has that. I fully expect that By the end of the show, Bonnie will pull out another spell out of nowhere and revive everyone from afterlife.
Current TVD is basically this beautiful unfinished painting that had so much promise to be great....and then someone peed on it...and threw it out through the window into a trash bin.
After your countless comments on nearly every review and recap ('I hate the show, it's sexist, I hate Elena, etc') I conclude:
I think that deep down you like the show, but somehow your virtues (may they be instilled by your parents or learned by whatever experience) collide with what you think the message of the show is.
However, it is not a bad TV-show, that's why you keep on wanting to know what's happening in it. Because if you really didn't care, you would stop reading these reviews and commenting here.
Please don't forget that this still is a fantasy show and therefore does not have to be realistic (concerning death, and anything else because let's face it, vampires are not realistic either but the core of the show).
I guess what I wanted to say: I basically never agree with your comments, but everyone has his/her opinion and I also accept yours. But PLEASE WATCH THE EPISODE BEFORE commenting! You can't base an opinion on something you haven't seen. Thanks.
I like the show (or should I like the potential of the show), I do think the show like romanticized the hell out the Civil War era, stereotypes minorities, and tokenizes Bonnie, alot of folks noticed TVD writes in a very racialized way (like people noticed all the witches for the most of black and for some reason are in slave relationship to white vampires). I refused to watch full episodes because of this. I do believe unfortunately Julie Plec has gone into sexist territory, even with the female vampires are subpar to their male vampire counterparts, for example it is strange how Caroline gets tortured alot or even recently Rebekah really hasn't done any awesome vampire things. There's obvious inequality there. For me what has unfortunately turned to TVD into bad television is these things have been brought to their notice and they refused to absolutely do anything about it.
However this really could be by the tone and I think how Julie Plec words her spoilers makes TVD look very unflattering (for example imo Julie handled the Caroline/Kyler scene spoiler badly as she implied some rape was about to go down and then laughed about it).
However I do understand why those type things are ignored by the general population/mainstream because this type of writing is normal and I hoped TVD would not be the norm but unfortunately we live the age of conveniently kick ass women on tv (as oppose to straight up badass females from the 90's) and subtle racialization.
Preach....
It's true that many of the witches are black (not all of them though, i.g. Esther), but what you said about the slave relationships is untrue. Except for Emily and Katherine, I guess she was her handmaiden or slave or whatever, we did not see a lot about those two, also they seemed to be friends?! The other witches just help Vampires out a lot.
Also, male characters get tortured a lot too, if not even more. Rebekah herself tortured Damon pretty bad, Damon got also tortured by Mason, Stefan was tortured a lot too.
I don't ignore these kind of things, but I don't think they were purposely meant as racist and I never agreed with opinions about the sexist part, I think that's just (maybe overly feminist) people overreacting who see something sexist in everything because some women are not pictured as bad-ass as they themselves would like them to be.
They were not Friends, Emily made it clear she was only helping KAtherine because owed Katherine. Same thing with Lucy who seem cool with Katherine but made it clear she was too was in debt to Katherine. The Martins are another example of this of while many argue that it was partnership but I saw The Martins doing alot of the heavy lifting. And most cases the black ones who were just helping get victimize while their white vampire "Friend" gets off scott free. You are aware not all slave/master relations were volatile ones, in most cases they were cogenial to one another, and particularly with handmaiden (sugarcoating for a slavegirl by the way). ANd what I gather from this is you know nothing about tokenism or Minorities relationship with current Hollywood.
Not playing down the men being torture but they have balance of showing them being powerful. I don't see that with the female vampires. In fact in most cases the females get tortured by people they know intimately and then forgive them in unrealistically quickly, while the men can stay angry and even exact revenge on the person who sought harm on them.
I am not overly feminists (to me you are just saying that to keep excusing this, cause why does someone have to be overly feminist to point out inequality, I don't think of myself as a feminist as I don't care for equal pay for women, all I care about is my right to vote and rights to my own body/property. I love men and believe they inequality over things as well), I just believe equality and yes there is a complete divide between the women and men on this show. Like Again has Rebekah done earth shattering vampire ish like Elijah and Klaus. All the girls's stories are about their love lives (with the exception). Based on comments I've been seeing lately by fandom, we have a very racist and sexist fanbase, who do take this and use that in their rationale (you know Matt Davis and JP made the assumption only black people are fans of Bonnie, so since that the case, white america (mainstream) can not relate to her. so how is one not to perceive her writing as anything but intentional)
Again I say TVD is writing like the norm where it just normal to make minorities lesser than white people or limit their social actions. Or to trivialize women. Hello Men outnumber women on this show, the writers spent more time introducing men to show. Men also in general have better quality of stories. Its intentional because as I said Julie has been questioned on this, goes to behave unprofessionally, then goes to do even more gross things to these women.
As for overreaction...an overreaction was when white people flipped out about a nipple slip or whatever at Superbowl half time, that no one if they were honest did not see, which then led to them pretty much only attacking Janet Jackson and fining her while letting Justin Timberlake off scott free, while forgetting during Oscars one year some white male ran across the stage nude. What people are doing with TVD making an observation and because they love the show wants to point it out and hope for change so we can have a collective better quality of storytelling. As for how we picture women, I picture them as strong and what I getting TVD is women who seem lack self-preservation and respect for themselves, which while that is a great story to tell it only worth watching if women are going attempt to do things to change their circumstances.
However I am going END this discussion here as it not the place for it and I quite frankly don't believe you are equip to handle a discussion about Hollywood and its relationship with race relations and women as you were so quick to trivialize people's concerns.
THIS!!!! ^^^^^ how is it being overly feminist to point out obvious inequality? And handmaiden is just a nice word for slave because tvd likes prettying up the civil war era when it was anything but. And you pointed out esther, yeah that is one white witch out if how many that we've seen? Gloria, bonnie, ayana, grams, greta, lucy, the martins. Your argument is invalid.
You honestly sound like a coworker of mine that when I pointed out the inequality in this show, the girl told me i was looking /thinking too hard about it. No, just no -_-
Keep in mind the only white witch happens to be "the original" witch. Consider the implications of that for a minute. Also the series has tried to soften the idea that Emily was Katherine's slave by calling her a "handmaiden" instead. It's really stupid. If you have even basic knowledge of slavery then you'll know that is a load of bullshit. And if you follow the dialogue whenever a request is made of Bonnie she almost always does as she is told. There is never much time for her to contemplate what she wants. She just does everything, pretty much like a slave. And no one tries to defend her when she suffers physical abuse from the hands of others (e.g. Klaus, Damon). Consider that in the season premiere she produced a daylight ring for Elena despite having lost her grandmother a second time. And no one seemed to comment about her suffering. Or the time the brothers killed her mom and turned her into a vampire. Elena wasn't concerned about her friend's feelings, all she wanted was for Bonnie to do everything within her power to save Ric and then forgive her. A lot of work considering her emotional state at the time.
It has nothing to do with women being "bad-ass." I welcome a character with actual weaknesses and strengths. You don't need to have physical strength to be a strong person. And Elena has demonstrated this in the past with mental ingenuity and a will to survive.
I was gonna say before that you could have simplified your overall statement by just saying "I don't agree with this comment" instead of trying to insult people by saying they're overreacting or trying to psychoanalyze why they do certain things. There's a wealth of discussion surrounding these issues. Just pick a forum/book and read.
Alaric's presence there is what made me really break down. Death doesn't have to be horrible for it to be meaningful. It is sad because they're not with each other anymore. It is hopeful to think that he is still Alaric somewhere and he's ok.
In fact, in a show about vampires I prefer a more positive spin on the afterlife. Because it should be asking,do we really want to live forever? Is immortality all it's cracked up to be? Is there something to be said for following the natural process of life - living, growing, and dying to make space for new life?
Anyway, I thought the scene was touching and the episode was strong.
The ending was pretty funny even if it wasn't meant to be. Holding a memorial for people when half of them were killed by the guy standing opposite to you is just weird. It's not just Caroline who didn't give Alaric grief for her dead father but everyone has forgotten that Damon killed Vicki, Lexxi, Alaric (Indirectly causing him to go all seriel killer), Jeremy, raped Caroline and indirectly caused the death of Bonnies grams.
Wow you are so right. Lol. And he had the nerve to complain about memorials. He's so delusional and psychopathic.
Michael,Katherine drank blood from a blood bag in 2x04.
My DVR is always taping two things at this time so I've been watching it live which is not great. My main reason for watching is Bonnie who is never on enough. However, I liked her scene with Stefan tonight. I liked how they acknowledged that everyone uses Bonnie but no is ever there for her, but I'll like it more if something changes with that.
Overall, I liked the episode. I hate how Damon acts a lot of the time but there's moments where he still draws me in. Loved him talking to Alaric at the end.
About that doppelganger stuff, I really don't think they meant that Elena must always drink from the vein. My understanding of that explanation was that she needed a first drink from the vein; she isn't an ordinary vampire, she is also a doppelganger, that could possible make things even worse! Every vampire in this show, during its first days drank straight from the vein, they couldn't keep Elena off of it. Actually, gotta say I'm kind of mad she didn't drink from a random guy and crossed a line. It was clear she wouldn't kill Matt, so the writers took the easy road. But all of our main characters (Stefan, Damon, Caroline) killed someone at some point when they are newbies. They say the urge it's huge, so, amid all of them, Elena is the only one that can truly control? Yeah, she has help, but they keep trying to make Elena look like this super hero, which she, clearly isn't. And in my opinion (continuing my last comment) that was the only thing missing this episode. But hey, that can still happen, we can still see her crossing the line and having to deal with that.
I loved the scene at the end when Damon went to visit Alaric, its just shows the deep connection Damon had with him and that he has to cope with loss as well. I really like the way Elenas actually in the heat, before it was always Damon and Stefan that had to do all the dirty work and to me it just felt like she was getting pushed around to be protected, now that shes a vamp she can stop whining and get stuff done which I am very happy about. And I do agree with you about having this group of characters that won't die like in true blood, but at least with vampire diaries the minor characters that can be kill have more depth than in tb , Also I think Elena is a stronger character than sookie, or ....i like her more at least, sookie just seems soo....unrealistic and naggy (especially in terms of the love triangle im mean 'boo-hoo 3 impossibly hot guys want to sleep with me, a small town waitress thats barely seen anything outside her town' - who can relate to that?).
I did like this ep. I thought the church scene was very good and played very well but vd is very good at causing panic in public gatherings .