The Vampire Diaries 2x22 Review

[iaria]

As I Lay Dying

I loved this finale. I thought it was pretty great throughout. The final WTF is actually fairly on par with season one’s cliff-hanger something I never thought possible. I think Katherine still wins because there was all the build up to her but Jeremy’s is still very awesome for the potential. I pretty much loved what they did with all the characters and I loved the various relationships. I love that one of the major cliff-hangers is Stefan’s fate and that next season is going to be partially to do with saving him (perhaps even from himself).

I thought it would be a very Damon focused episode but while a lot of the events, at first, certainly revolved around him everyone got their own little story. It was actually a really even story as far as usage of the characters goes. I’m a bit surprised that Damon was cured so quickly because I was sure it was going to be dragged out as part of the cliff-hanger to be resolved next season but I’m really glad they did it this way. There is no way they would kill him off so it really would have lacked weight.

• Cliff-hanger ending reaction: Holy crap YES! ♥ This makes me so crazy excited I can’t even say. I love it. Jeremy can now see ghosts and I for one am all for it. That pretty much ensures that we could see anyone who has died on the show (and that is a lot of people!) and that is fucking fantastic. I actually had a fic idea a month or so ago about all the supernatural people who were killed in Mystic Falls being trapped there as ghosts who observe what’s happening. And now it’s kind of happening and I’m pretty incoherently gleeful about it.

There are tons of questions of course. That final shot of Jeremy looking at Anna and Vicki was rather – undefined. I mean they could just be the ghosts of the two women he loved but just because that’s how it appears doesn’t mean that is how it is. If it is it still leaves open whether they’re good or bad. I mean maybe they’re going to turn out to be angry ghosts who want revenge or to cause trouble? Can he only see those people who have a connection to himself or can he see anyone who died? Are ghosts going to bug him now to help them pass messages on to loved ones? Are we finally going to meet Grayson and Miranda Gilbert? Are we going to see Jenna again – and if we do is she going to be a human or vampire ghost? Wait are Vicki and Anna human or vampire ghosts? If they’re not ghosts what else could they be?

... wait, does this mean that Jeremy is a psychic now? That actually makes me giggle a bit. He can be a ghost therapist. He can become a medium and open his own shop and go on TV! But more seriously this twist has made me about 100 times more interested in Jeremy.

• I just have to say: ANNNNNA!!!! *HUGS*

• I am really hoping that there is more to it than Jeremy can now see ghosts. Don’t get me wrong I adore that twist and am hoping a lot that that is exactly how it plays out (see above) but I want more. Bonnie did a spell to bring a human back to life with possibly the power of a hundred witches or the help of them and it worked. They warned her that “There will be consequences.” and if the only consequences are that the formerly dead person can now see spirits then... that’s not really a lot of consequences there. That certainly wouldn’t deter me from coming back to life.

And if that’s all it is, and Bonnie has the power to do it, then why should she stop with just him? Why not bring back Jenna and Sheila and Luka and nameless other people killed? It has to be more than that. Both for Jeremy – all those above questions but also how is he different and what other changes are there in him and how is it going to affect him going forward – but also for Bonnie. We got the usual bleeding nose but there was no fainting, no hint that she is now in physical danger or that there was any affect on her from doing the spell. And there damn well should be. She brought Jeremy back from the dead. There should be consequences for her as well. I wonder if the ‘consequences’ change every time the spell is used?

• Is Jeremy still human? Will his ring continue to work for him? (If not I nominate Liz to get his, and Alaric to get Elena’s.) This reminds me of Buffy being brought back from the dead (the second time).

• Katherine was pretty much my voice this episode. I loved her turning around at the end and telling Elena “Oh. It’s okay to love them both. I did.” I totally agree! Go there show! Seriously if this show ends with Stefan/Elena/Damon going off into the sunset together I will love it forever regardless of anything else. However two points about that:

1) Katherine was basically encouraging Elena to go after both/reassuring her that it’s okay to love both of them, wait what? Up until even two episodes ago Katherine was helping Damon because she didn’t want to share Stefan with Elena for eternity. Has she given up on Stefan because Klaus has him now? Or perhaps knowing how badly it ended for her with them Katherine is encouraging Elena in hopes that she loses them both too?

2) In Damon’s hallucination/memory Katherine asks him “Is it so wrong for me to want you both?” and then later she tells Elena that she loves them both. Now since her return Katherine has maintained that she never loved Damon, that it was always Stefan, so which one is correct? With the idea that she only loved Stefan her wanting to turn Damon as well suddenly needs explanation, which to be fair is very easy to achieve – she finds Damon fun, his devotion to her is intoxicating, he’s hot, he and Stefan are bonded too close to separate, she’s a greedy hedonist who wants everything – but if she did love both of them it suddenly doesn’t need any external explanations. She loved both boys, differently for sure and for different reasons, but she loved them both and wanted eternity with them both. That does make sense. Thus Katherine this season – pushing Damon away and denying her feelings, trying to convince Stefan she loved him only – are just more of her games which is very Katherine. Perhaps her pushing Damon away was a test of his feelings for her? Or she wanted him to chase her?

Either way I guess it depends on what you believe more – what Katherine has told Damon and Stefan over and over, or what Katherine says in this one line to Elena before leaving? I’m leaning towards the latter personally. She brought him the cure and she was worried and upset when he was bitten. I think she cares whether she wants to or not.

• I really liked all the Elena/Damon scenes. This was a very shippy episode for them. Elena was really upset at the idea of him dying, she didn’t try harder to stop Stefan from going to Klaus to save Damon (though her immediate reaction was a resolute ‘no’), she went after Damon, she didn’t run after he bit her, she stayed by his side (and it very much reminded me of Rose, of how Elena and then Damon stayed by her side), she held him close the whole time, she forgave him, she told him sincerely that she liked him and then she voluntarily kissed his lips for the first time. Granted he was dying and just confessed again that he was in love with her but she still kissed him. I don’t think she is in love with him but she cares about him so much and she is attracted to him and I think this finale is going to change the relationships.

Damon seems to have finally made progress on the whole ‘stop being an asshole’ front – or at least dying has made him confront that his own choices lead him to where he is, he didn’t go on a killing spree like Rose did even though he certainly had an excuse, and there was some progress in his relationship with Elena (I was impressed with him accepting Elena being unwilling to just forgive him at the beginning). I’m pretty sure that next season will have a Damon who really is able to now take steps forward into being a less selfish person who doesn’t use women and kill them because of his angst (oh, please).

This is good because I have a feeling that Stefan is going to have a really horrible year next season. It kind of fits that now that Damon is finally, maybe, making steps to being a better person and finding an equilibrium Stefan is going over a cliff. I wonder if we’re going to see a blood arc redux times 10? What horrors is Stefan going to do and live through before getting free of Klaus? Is this how Stefan and Elena are going to fall apart? I really hope not.

It felt like Stefan and Damon's relationship didn't get as much of a focus this season as it got in season one but I loved what we did get. They spent the latter half of the season in opposition but end it with Stefan giving up everything he's been working for because he loves his brother that much. I'm hoping that next season we'll get more of a focus on their relationship again.

Then there is the third half of the triangle. Elena is still very much in love with Stefan but she does feel something for Damon and her watching over him as he slowly dies and what happened between them has to affect her. Him dying forced her to confront something really important – “I like you now. Just the way you are.” That is huge. Elena saying it out loud makes it real in a way that she could ignore before. It may not make sense but she likes Damon – impulsive, selfish, cruel, dangerous Damon who uses people and kills without thought and rarely respects her choices – she likes him. She accepts him as he is. Plus while the kiss was in no way romantic or sexy but rather was a goodbye and a gift to a dying person she loved it was still a kiss that she initiated and that will have an effect as well.

• The biggest ‘OMFG!’ moment for me was when Liz inadvertently shot Jeremy in the chest. I almost jumped out of my chair I wasn’t expecting it. I kept going ‘OMG’ over and over. I had a moment of ‘ahhhh’ and then relief that he had his ring and then another ‘omg’ moment when I realised that because it was Liz who shot him he could die. I was almost as worked up as Liz and the girls during that scene and when Caroline’s blood failed to bring him back I was left kind of flailing and going ‘but...!!!’

• Thinking that Jeremy might actually die, seeing him die, made me realise that in actual fact I don’t want him to die. Huh. He’s always been one of the character’s I least cared about but especially over this season he’s kind of been working his way up. Somehow I ended up caring for the littlest Gilbert. He’s still not a favourite but I would miss him if he died so I was pleased when he came back to life. Although when he died the first thing I thought was actually more along the lines of “omg, Elena! How can they do this to her? It’s going to destroy her!”

• I really liked the symmetry of Jeremy dying in the premiere, and coming back to life, and then him dying in the finale and coming back to life. Both having to do with Damon strangely (possibly Jeremy should stay away from him).

• “I heard about this one vampire. A crazy bloke. Always on and off the wagon for decades. When he was off he was magnificent. 1917 he went into Monterey and wiped out an entire migrant village. A true ripper.” Huh. I... like this. I was pretty let down by the flashbacks of Stefan and Damon just after they were turned. Stefan has been so adamant that he was worse than Damon and I just wasn’t seeing it. But this... this is perfect. If he ‘fell off the wagon’ multiple times in the last century and a half and did atrocious things every time then his conviction that he was worse now makes sense. Plus I think it gives added weight to him choosing to be off the blood and his commitment to being a good person. I wonder where Lexie was and what she thought during those times?

• If Stefan was so well known to be a ripper than why wouldn’t Damon have heard about it? That doesn’t make sense. In season one he seemed to be honestly confused as to why Stefan refused to go back on blood which makes even less sense. He knows what his brother is like – he hates the killing – and if he knows about Stefan’s reputation then why the uncertainty about why Stefan didn’t want back on the blood? Did he hear the rumours but not realise it was Stefan?

• “I have big plans for you.” That sounds ominous. Poor Stefan. When he attacked and killed the girl it appeared to me that he really had lost control not that he was playing along though I don’t know which is worse or better. What does this mean for him drinking Elena’s blood? Did they keep that up all season? We’ve seen him drinking from a blood bag not too long ago without losing control so is it just the quantity now that sets him off?

• Elena didn’t have tons to do but I loved the opening scene with her sadly looking in on Jeremy and then Jenna’s empty bedroom. Oh, Elena. I also loved her escaping Liz’s office by breaking a window because that is just so Elena. That is: awesome!

• I am really happy that both Liz and Katherine survived the episode because I was kind of sure one of them was going to die.

• I loved Liz this episode. I loved that she finally only moved because Carol pushed her (but what was that about?), that when she went into the Salvatore manor guns drawn she wanted to talk to Damon, that she was so horrified and stricken when she shot Jeremy that she listened to her vampire daughter. That in the end she overcame her lifelong hate and fear to hug her daughter back.

• “I don’t want to lie. I’m not going to be afraid of you anymore. (takes her hand) And I don’t want you to be afraid of me anymore. I’m still your little girl. (hugs her) It’s me. It’s me. Mom.” – Caroline. This scene made me cry. The expressions on their faces and Liz hugging her back and them clinging to each other as they cry... sniff. ♥ I loved it.

• “I thought I killed him.” / “But you did.” I really love the soft way Caroline said that. It just really resonated with me. People die and come back to life on this show all the time but they still died. Liz has been clinging to what she was raised to think about vampires so tightly, so unwilling to accept what was right in front of her, and that caused her to accidentally shoot and kill Jeremy. He lived in the end but that was really luck (and a powerful girlfriend) and in the end what’s important there is that Liz killed him. She did it. Hopefully it’s what she needed, the wake up call that took John so long to get, that things aren’t so black and white and in the end hatred just leads to bad places. It appears it is. I’m really hoping for Liz to be an ally next season with lots of scenes between her and Caroline and her and Damon. Also we definitely need a Liz/Jeremy scene.

• Alaric spent the episode just there, always in the background being supportive and helping people (even as he tried to deal with his own grief and loss and anger). He was wonderful. The way that he was there for Jeremy makes me think that he really might become Elena and Jeremy’s guardian, in practice if not in legality, which is a bit weird but I’m all for it. Especially if we continue to get Jeremy/Alaric scenes like the ones in this episode. Or perhaps Alaric is moving more into the mentor type position that John was in last season? He was great when he just immediately listened to Bonnie and picked Jeremy up, he was great when he told her “He’s just a kid, tell them to shut up” and how relieved he was when it worked. I loved that he took Jeremy home and then instead of leaving asked if he could stay the night – clearly for Jeremy’s sake.

The two best/most moving moments for me were: 1) Alaric teasing Jeremy about his goodbye with Bonnie. “And the day after that.” It was adorable! I want more of that! The two of them making each other laugh even though it was only a day after Jenna’s death didn't bother me. I liked it. They are both are well used to mourning people. I also loved Jeremy’s sincere thank you. 2) Alaric sleeping on the couch. Ouch. Oh, Alaric. He just couldn’t bear to sleep in Jenna’s bed.

• The Alaric/Damon bromance is still going strong. Even as he’s trying to get drunk and wallow in his bitterness and grief as soon as Stefan tells him that Damon is hurt, is dying, Alaric’s first thought is “What do you need?” because he loves his vampire best friend. And then he takes Damon his ring and a drink, and he refuses to let Damon provoke him (I loved that his response to Damon bringing up the fact that he turned Isobel being a fairly mild “Neither one of us is drunk enough for this conversation.” as he gets ready to pour them more) and when Damon has him by the throat and both threatens him and begs Ric to kill him his response is to look sad and then stab him with vervain.

• Oh, Elijah. He clearly needs to leave Mystic Falls because he keeps being killed there. And betrayed. Poor, Elijah. He is really not going to be happy the next time he wakes up. Also can I just say that I really love that there is no known way to permanently kill an Original (and I hope there never is) because that means I never have to worry about Elijah being killed off for good. This is excellent because I love him. I vote for Elena learning where he is next season and setting him free – again, and maybe with his family – in order to save Stefan.

• Why exactly are all the Originals in Mystic Falls? Or did Klaus and Stefan already leave? If it is Mystic Falls, which it sounded like, then I’m kind of puzzled. Did he have them shipped there after discovering where the doppelganger was? Them being hidden there the whole time just doesn’t work for me because that is just too much coincidence.

• Klaus managed to work for me much better than he ever has. I loved that he knew that Katherine was on vervain. Competence and knowledge makes him much more intimidating.

• I was really happy that Emily, and the other witches, refused to help Stefan save Damon. It would have made no sense for them to help. And that Emily only helped to save Jeremy when Bonnie pleaded to her because she loved him.

• I’m glad to get an answer about the site of the witches deaths – it is still a place of power and it is still full of the spirits of those dead witches. One question unanswered that I’m curious about: does Bonnie still carry all that power or did she use it up?

I can’t wait till next season – Damon and Elena teaming up to save Stefan (with the help of their friends), Liz an ally, Jeremy seeing the ghosts of people who’ve died – yes please!