The Vampire Diaries 4x08 Review
Jan. 22nd, 2013 12:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaWe'll Always Have Bourbon Street
• I'm confused about what I think or feel about the whole sire bond situation except that I don't love it. So I'm going to mostly ignore it here except for how both choices before Damon right now are bad choices. One - he could cut off the relationship between himself and Elena except that ignores the fact that the bond is there because Elena had feelings for him in the first place and it completely ignores Elena's own thoughts/feelings and removes her decision making from the process. Two - he leaves the bond in place and thus will always be able to control Elena even inadvertently. Personally I think option Two is the better one by far even if it's not great.
• ... okay I lied: the obvious difference between Charlotte and Elena's sire bonds to Damon are completely on purpose right? Because the way the bond seemed to work for Charlotte (completely literal and with her having no free will against him) does not seem at all like Elena's bond with him (she can hesitate, she has in fact argued with him and gone against his wishes before). I hope this is addressed. Perhaps each sire bond is different?
- ALSO: if a sire bond is created when a person Turned has feelings for the person who Turned them then this means both Damon and Stefan have sire bonds to Katherine, right? I mean both were in love with her when they died, and they Turned via her blood. I don't remember them being forced to do whatever she said.
• I loved Elena offering herself in exchange for Caroline as a torture victim.
• The opening Damon/Elena scene was excellent.
• I loved getting to see the girls hanging out together and just having fun and being friends.* I loved how happy they were. Elena's happiness over being able to drink from blood bags was excellent and I loved the Bonnie/Caroline stare down over the tea. It's been awhile since we've got a scene between the three of them hanging out.
*...Except we don't get anything of substance in those hanging out scenes. They dance around and there's arguing about Damon but that's it. No chatting about Bonnie's attempts to relearn magic, or Elena's new thoughts on being a vampire or Caroline bringing up whatever the latest school event is or whatever. Anything would have been great.
- I also loved a lot about the make-up scene. I loved Elena being unable to return Caroline's hug because her arms were pinned and then the way they held each other. It was adorable. I loved Bonnie joining them and how it felt like this was a scene that had played out many times between these three.
At the same time I don't love the way Caroline apologised. She has damn good reason to hate and be distrustful of Damon and she shouldn't apologise for not being happy about Elena/Damon or about wanting to protect Elena. Apologies for her continual harping about Damon even after she agreed to let it go, and the fact that she keeps making snide comments knowing that Elena is close to him, okay.
• I'm pretty mad that the show brought up the elephant in the room - Caroline/Damon from season 1 - and that they chose to do it by a) having Elena lash out snidely about Caroline sleeping with him the first night she met him, and b) having Caroline reply that it was because she "didn't know what a sociopathic narcissist he was". And then not only is there no mention of how he then went on to abuse and terrorize Caroline but Elena actually says "He's always been there for me when I needed him." Emphasis on "I". Ugh. Adding in Elena saying in the next scene that "his track record is kind of spotty" was unbelievable. Just, ugh show, no. This could have been the perfect opportunity of them to discuss what happened and actually seriously talk about it but of course not.
• I liked how Stefan approached the whole sire situation at the beginning of the episode - refusing to jump into accusations, approaching Damon calmly* and pushing him into getting incontrovertible proof. And that he did acknowledge (and apologise) to Damon about how the sire bond wasn't his fault.
*...Except that he approached Damon not Damon and Elena. She was right there and he didn't even think to stop her from leaving. Because apparently this isn't something she has a damn right to know. Arg.
• Stefan being all appalled that Damon sacrificed 12 people to break his last sire bond and was going to do it again with Elena made me roll my eyes. I mean, please. The last episode had him turning someone so that Jeremy could kill him and get more of the map. If it would take, say, 12 people to reveal the map fully and get to the cure I'm pretty sure Stefan would do it so his attitude towards Damon is ridiculous and massively hypocritical.
• I find myself worried for Tyler now. This whole alpha situation is very much against his nature and like Shane manipulating Bonnie isn't going to go well, Hayley manipulating Tyler into taking control of the hybrids, when this whole de-siring situation was about giving everyone freedom, is not going to go well. I mean he had his hand around Kim's heart as he stated he wouldn't hurt her because he was different from Klaus and them immediately turned around and threatened to kill her if she didn't submit. Yikes. This is not going to end well.
• Of course it's Caroline who gets tortured. Again.
• I liked Nandi a lot and I loved her not taking any crap from the Salvatores. I loved her giving Damon an aneurysm - that was awesome. I miss those. Now if only she can come around and mentor Bonnie because Bonnie really needs it.
• Hated Caroline's "germ ridden skanks" line about Damon's previous sexual partners.
• Weirdly, considering how little interaction they've always had, I love watching Elena and Tyler together and I really liked their short scene.
• It seems like every time Lexie shows up I like her less and less.
• I wonder if there were 12 Council members who were killed in the explosion. Hmm. If that was a sacrifice what did Shane do with the resulting power?
• I'm confused about what I think or feel about the whole sire bond situation except that I don't love it. So I'm going to mostly ignore it here except for how both choices before Damon right now are bad choices. One - he could cut off the relationship between himself and Elena except that ignores the fact that the bond is there because Elena had feelings for him in the first place and it completely ignores Elena's own thoughts/feelings and removes her decision making from the process. Two - he leaves the bond in place and thus will always be able to control Elena even inadvertently. Personally I think option Two is the better one by far even if it's not great.
• ... okay I lied: the obvious difference between Charlotte and Elena's sire bonds to Damon are completely on purpose right? Because the way the bond seemed to work for Charlotte (completely literal and with her having no free will against him) does not seem at all like Elena's bond with him (she can hesitate, she has in fact argued with him and gone against his wishes before). I hope this is addressed. Perhaps each sire bond is different?
- ALSO: if a sire bond is created when a person Turned has feelings for the person who Turned them then this means both Damon and Stefan have sire bonds to Katherine, right? I mean both were in love with her when they died, and they Turned via her blood. I don't remember them being forced to do whatever she said.
• I loved Elena offering herself in exchange for Caroline as a torture victim.
• The opening Damon/Elena scene was excellent.
• I loved getting to see the girls hanging out together and just having fun and being friends.* I loved how happy they were. Elena's happiness over being able to drink from blood bags was excellent and I loved the Bonnie/Caroline stare down over the tea. It's been awhile since we've got a scene between the three of them hanging out.
*...Except we don't get anything of substance in those hanging out scenes. They dance around and there's arguing about Damon but that's it. No chatting about Bonnie's attempts to relearn magic, or Elena's new thoughts on being a vampire or Caroline bringing up whatever the latest school event is or whatever. Anything would have been great.
- I also loved a lot about the make-up scene. I loved Elena being unable to return Caroline's hug because her arms were pinned and then the way they held each other. It was adorable. I loved Bonnie joining them and how it felt like this was a scene that had played out many times between these three.
At the same time I don't love the way Caroline apologised. She has damn good reason to hate and be distrustful of Damon and she shouldn't apologise for not being happy about Elena/Damon or about wanting to protect Elena. Apologies for her continual harping about Damon even after she agreed to let it go, and the fact that she keeps making snide comments knowing that Elena is close to him, okay.
• I'm pretty mad that the show brought up the elephant in the room - Caroline/Damon from season 1 - and that they chose to do it by a) having Elena lash out snidely about Caroline sleeping with him the first night she met him, and b) having Caroline reply that it was because she "didn't know what a sociopathic narcissist he was". And then not only is there no mention of how he then went on to abuse and terrorize Caroline but Elena actually says "He's always been there for me when I needed him." Emphasis on "I". Ugh. Adding in Elena saying in the next scene that "his track record is kind of spotty" was unbelievable. Just, ugh show, no. This could have been the perfect opportunity of them to discuss what happened and actually seriously talk about it but of course not.
• I liked how Stefan approached the whole sire situation at the beginning of the episode - refusing to jump into accusations, approaching Damon calmly* and pushing him into getting incontrovertible proof. And that he did acknowledge (and apologise) to Damon about how the sire bond wasn't his fault.
*...Except that he approached Damon not Damon and Elena. She was right there and he didn't even think to stop her from leaving. Because apparently this isn't something she has a damn right to know. Arg.
• Stefan being all appalled that Damon sacrificed 12 people to break his last sire bond and was going to do it again with Elena made me roll my eyes. I mean, please. The last episode had him turning someone so that Jeremy could kill him and get more of the map. If it would take, say, 12 people to reveal the map fully and get to the cure I'm pretty sure Stefan would do it so his attitude towards Damon is ridiculous and massively hypocritical.
• I find myself worried for Tyler now. This whole alpha situation is very much against his nature and like Shane manipulating Bonnie isn't going to go well, Hayley manipulating Tyler into taking control of the hybrids, when this whole de-siring situation was about giving everyone freedom, is not going to go well. I mean he had his hand around Kim's heart as he stated he wouldn't hurt her because he was different from Klaus and them immediately turned around and threatened to kill her if she didn't submit. Yikes. This is not going to end well.
• Of course it's Caroline who gets tortured. Again.
• I liked Nandi a lot and I loved her not taking any crap from the Salvatores. I loved her giving Damon an aneurysm - that was awesome. I miss those. Now if only she can come around and mentor Bonnie because Bonnie really needs it.
• Hated Caroline's "germ ridden skanks" line about Damon's previous sexual partners.
• Weirdly, considering how little interaction they've always had, I love watching Elena and Tyler together and I really liked their short scene.
• It seems like every time Lexie shows up I like her less and less.
• I wonder if there were 12 Council members who were killed in the explosion. Hmm. If that was a sacrifice what did Shane do with the resulting power?
