The Vampire Diaries 1x20 Review, Part 2

[iaria]

What I Didn't Like

• Jonathan staking Pearl and Harper was unexpected and horrible. I admit I’m kind of pissed. In fact my exact notes when it happened were – ‘I can’t believe they killed Pearl. Sonofafuckingbitch. I am pissed.’ – which, yeah, pretty much. What a waste of potential. Of course I’ve said that before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. One thing I certainly know well at this point is that this set of PTB really enjoy killing off people. But like Lexi and Bree and Sheila it’s kind of painful to see an awesome character (an awesome female character!) killed off way before she should be. Grr.

We didn’t even get a freaking Pearl/Katherine reunion and I am pissed about that too. I loved what we’ve gotten between Pearl and Anna but I wanted more. When she was packing I was sad to see her go but I remember distinctly thinking ‘but then at least they’ll be safe and won’t die’, god damn it. Then there was Harper who was given enough screen time that I was sure he was going to get an actual storyline and yet it all came to nothing.

• The Jonathan/Pearl meeting did not work for me at all. It came off very weird and disjointed. The whole tone John took with Pearl felt wrong from the beginning as did her reactions. He asked her to meet to get the device from her – and so decides that the best way to start that meeting is to bring up his ancestor namesake, how he betrayed her and throw it in her face? How is that ‘charming’? The answer: it’s not. Pearl should have left as soon as he made the crack about her ‘weakness for Gilbert men’.

Then going forward a bit in their conversation and John still knows nothing about the whereabouts of the device and while he starts with trying to woo her, as he logically should be (or threatening her), he then decides to turn to taunting her instead. Once again he throws his namesake back in her face this time in trying to make her believe he’d regretted killing her and then literally laughing in her face when she begins to fall for it. “You vampires... so emotional.” Um, WTF? I don’t get this! He wants the device – how exactly is being hurtful and laughing at Pearl going to help him accomplish his goal? The answer is that it damn well shouldn’t.

Pearl is the HBIC who poked Damon’s eyes out and staked Fredrick in the stomach and there is no reason why she would take this from John. And then to add to the complete ridiculousness she then proceeds to give him exactly what he wants before leaving. Why? Why would she do that? Was it just to get him out of her life? She had to know that she was in danger as soon as that leverage was gone. I just don’t understand it. Arg, what a aggravating scene.

• The revelation of how Damon and Stefan died was kind of ridiculous in its stupidity. Why the hell would they drag Katherine from the wagon and then stay right there to take her out of her restraints? Even when they heard the men returning they stayed right there, untying Katherine and not getting away. What the hell did they think was going to happen? So, so stupid. I mean how hard would it be to hop on to the wagon, drive off to somewhere safe and then set the vampires free?

• “You got what you wanted – you and me for all eternity. But hear this brother I will make it an eternity of misery for you.” – Damon. I still don’t completely understand this even though I’ve been thinking about it. At the end of the episode Damon confesses to Stefan that he hates/hated Stefan not because he forced him to turn but because Katherine turned him too and it was only supposed to Damon. Okay, I get that. Jealousy fine. But at this point Damon still doesn’t know the truth about the tomb and Katherine, right? I just... something about this is just not working for me.

• I was expecting to get something about Stefan and his blood addiction, since that’s basically what brought us to this point, and yet there was nothing about it. Sure, Stefan was enthralled by his father’s blood but I’d imagine that any new vampire would be. I was hoping we’d actually get some sense of how Stefan’s blood addiction worked and why it was so much worse for him.

• When I heard that David Anders was joining the cast as Elena’s uncle Jonathan Gilbert I was so excited and his very first episode seemed to confirm all my good feelings. I loved him in his first episode and it really seemed like he would be another excellent bad guy/foil for our main cast. The idea of John as Elena’s biological father was really intriguing. I was ready for a wonderful new character... and then nothing. In these last two episodes he’s just kind of fallen flat. Plus if they made him Elena’s biological father now after sharing only one scene with Elena in three episodes that would also fall a bit flat because there’s been no build up to it. (Though to be fair it was only speculation.)

• I’m noticing a pattern here I am not liking – Pearl is introduced and is powerful and awesome and then it disappears, Jonathan is introduced powerful and awesome and then it appears to disappear as well. It’s like the show isn’t very good at sustaining. ‘it’. I don’t know why the show couldn’t have kept Pearl and had multiple antagonists for our heroes.

• Stefan indicates that he’s refusing to eat, starving himself basically, because he no longer wants to go on, however, the problem there is that starving himself won’t kill him and he knows that. It’ll just turn him into a mummy.

• How the hell did Elena find Stefan at the end? That makes no sense to me. I don’t think his location was right outside the manor so did she just run out and start wandering around the grounds hoping to find him? Ridiculous. I mean what if he ran all the way to say – his father’s tomb or the old family house? It makes no sense to me that she wouldn’t have grabbed Damon when she ran upstairs and been all ‘Stefan is gone, he’s going to try and kill himself’ and for them to have worked together to find him. I really do think Elena would have needed Damon to do so and even if she didn’t I feel like she would have told him. Wouldn’t she have passed him when she left the house?

For my own sense I’m going to have to fanwank this: Elena ran upstairs and told Damon, he found Stefan and sent her to get him but refused to help (he still thinks Stefan is being a drama queen) but perhaps kept an ear open for them and would have saved Stefan if he’d proved stubborn and stayed out as the sun was about to rise. There that’s already better.

Other

• When Elena calls Damon he tells her that Stefan is “extra broody” and that is definitely true. A lot of people have talked about how Stefan is a ‘broody’ vampire, and while compared to Damon he is I don’t actually think he has been excessively broody for most of the season. He’s certainly not on the level of Angel. There has been some brooding, especially on these last handful of episodes, but mostly I think Stefan is just really serious and quiet and that comes off as broody to people.

• “It doesn’t have anything to do with you actually caring about him.” / “Your thing, not mine.” Oh, Damon. At this point it really is a case of ‘you doth protest too much’. I wanted Elena to call him on that. Maybe later.

• If only Harper had gone to answer the door. John only succeeded in staking Pearl because he caught her off guard.

• Elena grabbing clothes from her place made me realise that when she said she was always over at the Salvatore mansion she actually meant it. Clothes mean she’s spending the night. So she’s been sleeping and spending a lot of time there, including doing homework. Has she been eating there (do they have food in the house)? Has she been showering? Did Damon give her her own room or is she sleeping in Stefan’s? So could you say that she is basically living there? If so I wonder if it would be enough to keep other vampire’s out?

- Also where the hell is Jenna in all this? What does she think of Elena basically living at her boyfriend’s house?

• Giuseppe really was a horrible father wasn’t he? But then he was clearly a fanatic. I’d wondered if Stefan had had something to do with his death after the scene at Giuseppe’s grave but to learn that Stefan ate his father... ouch, poor Stefan.

• From what was said between Damon and Stefan in this episode it appears that vampires can turn off or turn on their emotions? How exactly does that work? I mean Stefan tells human Damon that he can “turn the guilt and pain off with a switch” and then at the end of the episode Damon actually confirms that he feels guilt, or rather “If I wanted to. It’s there.” which seems to imply that Damon does feel guilt for at least some of his actions as does his little rant to Stefan – “My actions, what I do, it’s not your fault. I own them. They belong to me. You’re not allowed to feel my guilt.” That’s... interesting. Both that Damon feels guilt and that vampires can apparently turn off their emotions (or at least those pesky painful ones like guilt and... pain).

• Emily was loyal to Katherine because Katherine saved her life and Emily owed her a debt. Hmm. I am finding Emily an enigma. I mean she indicates to Stefan that being a vampire is a curse and she didn’t want it for them and yet we’ve seen her in early flashbacks being amused by Katherine playing with the Salvatore brothers. She certainly seemed supportive then. Bad writing or something else? There seemed to be an actual friendship between Emily and Katherine in the previous flashbacks but in Emily’s later appearance there doesn’t appear to be and her attitude is a lot less supportive (and so it’s smelling like a change in direction for the writing of her).

I’m really curious about Katherine saving Emily and just how it could have incurred such a huge debt between them. I would think Emily creating day-walking jewellery for Katherine (and her friends) would have wiped that slate clean. I suppose it’s possible that Emily didn’t create Katherine/Pearl’s jewellery. They are after all pretty old. If she hadn’t made the deal with Damon would Emily have still tried to save Katherine? That would certainly settle the debt.

• When Anna told Jeremy that he was ‘my weakness’ I immediately became sure that she was going to sacrifice herself to save him at some point in these last episodes. How the episode ended up turning out hasn’t convinced me otherwise.

• Oh, poor Henry, we barely knew him. But he seemed pretty nice and kind of naive and even a little adorable. Like a puppy almost. I kind of wanted to pat him on the head. Even despite his attacks on Alaric which I don’t think were indications that he was a bad or evil vampire. Was he newly turned when captured back in 1864?

• “Witches – judgy little things.” – Damon. Hmm. That seemed a bit pointed. Does he know about Bonnie and her new attitude towards Stefan?