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iariaTop 3 Scenes
1) Elena and Stefan break up.
I really loved this scene and I think it was so well done. It didn’t feel contrived at all and I felt so much for both of them. It was clear as soon as we saw him that Stefan knew before Elena walked in what she was going to say. He probably knew the moment Alaric or Elena called to tell him what happened to Jenna. The scene felt raw and inevitable and painful. It’s Stefan’s reaction in particular that I love most.
Seeing Stefan’s tear stained face when Elena walked in and then him actually crying and being so emotional felt very unusual. To see Stefan – the hero, the male angsty vampire – react that way instead of manly reserve and furrowed brow was different from how it usually plays not only in vampire dramas but in dramas in general. The hero is all stoic with maybe some tears or all out crying in grief but this in between... that felt very ‘female’ in its presentation and I found that very interesting. In fact, I loved it. I also love how the whole scene just felt very gender reversed as a whole – Stefan’s red-splotched crying face, his tears and his denial of what she’s saying, Elena breaking up with him, Elena being more together/stoic than Stefan, Elena pausing before leaving and then pulling him in for a last kiss while holding his face between her hands, Elena walking away – I love all of it.
• It wasn’t the only wonderful gender-reversed scene between them in the episode. We opened with this little exchange:
“You’re staring.”
“I’m gazing.”
“It’s creepy.”
“It’s romantic.”
♥ I love it. Again taking something common from not only vampire dramas but shows in general and turning it on its head. When I watched it the first time I just found it adorable but watching it a second time I find myself getting the allusions to Twilight and slightly less to Buffy. Twisting the vampire watching his human love to the girl watching the boy (putting her in the active role and him the passive), having the male vampire love interest comment that it’s creepy (take that... every other male vampire in any vampire show ever), having the female main character state its romantic (but not talking of his observing her but rather her observing him)... I love it all so freaking much. Stefan/Elena = ♥. I am also very seriously loving TPTB right now. Sometimes they get things so very wrong like fridging Anna (for Jeremy of all characters) but far more often they get things right.
2) Elena/Bonnie/Caroline’s friendships getting screen time.
a. Elena and Bonnie. I’ve really been missing their friendship. We’ve had such a dearth of ‘friend’ scenes between them or least that’s what it’s felt like, that seeing them actually talk about their friendship was great and kind of a relief. I loved everything about their interactions. I’m glad that Bonnie actually brought up the distance between them instead of the show trying to carry on as if everything’s been proceeding as normal behind the scenes. I even liked the little moment of... jealousy (“Can you make it a little less obvious you’re on her side.”) and that Elena’s reaction was that they needed some quality alone time to talk. I loved Elena holding out her hand and Bonnie taking it.
- “I’m sorry, I don’t want to keep things from you but you’ve made it pretty clear where you stand on this whole vampire thing.” – Elena. As a reason for Elena not to have been talking to Bonnie about what’s going on in her life this really works for me. I think this could have felt like Elena blaming Bonnie for the distance between them but that’s not how it came off to me. Instead we have Elena whose life is pretty much vampires/supernatural all the time now and, knowing Bonnie’s opinion on it all, trying not to force Bonnie into something – much like Bonnie last season with the choosing between her and Stefan. But when you can’t talk about something so important in someone’s life it causes a divide whether you mean for it or want it or not. Considering what’s been happening over the last couple episodes I can understand Elena not realising just how much distance has grown between her and Bonnie.
- Bonnie: I know where I stand, Elena, and I know where you stand. But where do we stand?
Elena: You’re my best friend Bonnie. I didn’t mean to let this craziness with Caroline get in the way of that. She needs you too.
♥ I just really loved Bonnie’s line there and how she said it (like out of everything it is their relationship that matters most). I love Elena’s straight confirmation of their best friend status. I also love that in Elena’s response she turns it to being about Caroline and Caroline/Bonnie and there is no mention of her boyfriend the vampire or Damon or Katherine but that it’s all about the friendships between the girls.
b. Bonnie/Caroline. They didn’t get much but Caroline’s hopefulness with Bonnie and then Bonnie reaching out when she saw Caroline’s resigned reaction to her shutting her down was really nice. Also Caroline’s happy “Bonnie wasn’t mean to me once (laughs) and I just really think its progress.” was adorable. It really does feel like that.
c. Elena/Caroline/Bonnie. The three of them working together to save Stefan from the well was really nice. I want the three of them working together more. Solving puzzles, rescuing people, kicking ass, just hanging out as friends... I want it all.
3) Caroline and Liz bonding.
The whole Liz-in-the-basement situation played out very differently than I was hoping and that was a huge disappointment. I wanted an episode devoted to Liz and Liz in the boarding house as the A plot and instead she was regulated to the C plot of the episode. We didn’t get any Damon/Liz bonding now that the truth was out, no Damon trying to help the Liz/Caroline relationship, no Elena/Liz scene with Elena talking about her support of vampires, no lengthy/complicated scenes of Liz seeing vampires and Caroline/Damon in particular as not monsters... however, that said it’s not all bad because we did get one thing I wanted: some really nice Caroline/Liz scenes. I would have liked to have seen more but what we got was good and it was nice to see them actually talking to each other.
• Liz: As long as you have blood you don’t need to kill?
Caroline: (pause) I want to. It’s my basic nature now.
This was so, so brave of her. She could have tried to take the easy route but instead she told the truth, and she didn’t try to hide or obscure it in anyway, and I am so proud of her.
• “It’s just that you’ve become this person... this strong, this confidant person.” – Liz. I actually believe her when she says this, she just seemed so impressed, which makes what happens even worse. I don’t however know how much I trust her appeal to Caroline to not compel her. We saw some of her desperation in her tone and while I buy her seeing Caroline as a person and her daughter again by this point her appeal did kind of feel like she was saying anything to try and prevent being compelled. I understand that but I also understand why in the end Caroline compelled her mother.
She tells Liz “I know I can trust you. But you’re never going to trust them” and it’s great that they managed to get to the point where Caroline can trust her mother (and where she’s heard her mother’s admiration for her) but I agree with her. That said – oh, how I wish we could have had Liz un-compelled and thus TPTB having to actually deal with how that affects everything. Until Liz knows the truth and is able to react from that her relationship with Caroline and Damon is always going to feel – shallow and I want more.
Also I was surprised, and again impressed, with Caroline using compelling her mother – to keep everything the same. The urge to ‘correct’ their relationship must have been great and I am so happy that she didn’t do it. This doesn’t mean that erasing her mother’s memories of the truth and of their hesitant bonding means that they have to return to exactly how their relationship was. Yes, Liz doesn’t remember and she’s once again missing a huge piece of who her daughter is now but Caroline knows that her mother could accept her, that she and her mother can be friends, and that her mother admires and loves her. On Caroline’s side things have changed, at least a little, and she can take this new knowledge and memories to try to create a better relationship with her mom. She doesn’t have to maintain the status quo, she can try to build a good relationship with her mom. She can stop ignoring her, stop fighting with her, stop closing her out, stop being a bitch to her... it’s on Caroline now how their relationship proceeds and I would love to see Caroline trying to change it for the better.
1) Elena and Stefan break up.
I really loved this scene and I think it was so well done. It didn’t feel contrived at all and I felt so much for both of them. It was clear as soon as we saw him that Stefan knew before Elena walked in what she was going to say. He probably knew the moment Alaric or Elena called to tell him what happened to Jenna. The scene felt raw and inevitable and painful. It’s Stefan’s reaction in particular that I love most.
Seeing Stefan’s tear stained face when Elena walked in and then him actually crying and being so emotional felt very unusual. To see Stefan – the hero, the male angsty vampire – react that way instead of manly reserve and furrowed brow was different from how it usually plays not only in vampire dramas but in dramas in general. The hero is all stoic with maybe some tears or all out crying in grief but this in between... that felt very ‘female’ in its presentation and I found that very interesting. In fact, I loved it. I also love how the whole scene just felt very gender reversed as a whole – Stefan’s red-splotched crying face, his tears and his denial of what she’s saying, Elena breaking up with him, Elena being more together/stoic than Stefan, Elena pausing before leaving and then pulling him in for a last kiss while holding his face between her hands, Elena walking away – I love all of it.
• It wasn’t the only wonderful gender-reversed scene between them in the episode. We opened with this little exchange:
“You’re staring.”
“I’m gazing.”
“It’s creepy.”
“It’s romantic.”
♥ I love it. Again taking something common from not only vampire dramas but shows in general and turning it on its head. When I watched it the first time I just found it adorable but watching it a second time I find myself getting the allusions to Twilight and slightly less to Buffy. Twisting the vampire watching his human love to the girl watching the boy (putting her in the active role and him the passive), having the male vampire love interest comment that it’s creepy (take that... every other male vampire in any vampire show ever), having the female main character state its romantic (but not talking of his observing her but rather her observing him)... I love it all so freaking much. Stefan/Elena = ♥. I am also very seriously loving TPTB right now. Sometimes they get things so very wrong like fridging Anna (for Jeremy of all characters) but far more often they get things right.
2) Elena/Bonnie/Caroline’s friendships getting screen time.
a. Elena and Bonnie. I’ve really been missing their friendship. We’ve had such a dearth of ‘friend’ scenes between them or least that’s what it’s felt like, that seeing them actually talk about their friendship was great and kind of a relief. I loved everything about their interactions. I’m glad that Bonnie actually brought up the distance between them instead of the show trying to carry on as if everything’s been proceeding as normal behind the scenes. I even liked the little moment of... jealousy (“Can you make it a little less obvious you’re on her side.”) and that Elena’s reaction was that they needed some quality alone time to talk. I loved Elena holding out her hand and Bonnie taking it.
- “I’m sorry, I don’t want to keep things from you but you’ve made it pretty clear where you stand on this whole vampire thing.” – Elena. As a reason for Elena not to have been talking to Bonnie about what’s going on in her life this really works for me. I think this could have felt like Elena blaming Bonnie for the distance between them but that’s not how it came off to me. Instead we have Elena whose life is pretty much vampires/supernatural all the time now and, knowing Bonnie’s opinion on it all, trying not to force Bonnie into something – much like Bonnie last season with the choosing between her and Stefan. But when you can’t talk about something so important in someone’s life it causes a divide whether you mean for it or want it or not. Considering what’s been happening over the last couple episodes I can understand Elena not realising just how much distance has grown between her and Bonnie.
- Bonnie: I know where I stand, Elena, and I know where you stand. But where do we stand?
Elena: You’re my best friend Bonnie. I didn’t mean to let this craziness with Caroline get in the way of that. She needs you too.
♥ I just really loved Bonnie’s line there and how she said it (like out of everything it is their relationship that matters most). I love Elena’s straight confirmation of their best friend status. I also love that in Elena’s response she turns it to being about Caroline and Caroline/Bonnie and there is no mention of her boyfriend the vampire or Damon or Katherine but that it’s all about the friendships between the girls.
b. Bonnie/Caroline. They didn’t get much but Caroline’s hopefulness with Bonnie and then Bonnie reaching out when she saw Caroline’s resigned reaction to her shutting her down was really nice. Also Caroline’s happy “Bonnie wasn’t mean to me once (laughs) and I just really think its progress.” was adorable. It really does feel like that.
c. Elena/Caroline/Bonnie. The three of them working together to save Stefan from the well was really nice. I want the three of them working together more. Solving puzzles, rescuing people, kicking ass, just hanging out as friends... I want it all.
3) Caroline and Liz bonding.
The whole Liz-in-the-basement situation played out very differently than I was hoping and that was a huge disappointment. I wanted an episode devoted to Liz and Liz in the boarding house as the A plot and instead she was regulated to the C plot of the episode. We didn’t get any Damon/Liz bonding now that the truth was out, no Damon trying to help the Liz/Caroline relationship, no Elena/Liz scene with Elena talking about her support of vampires, no lengthy/complicated scenes of Liz seeing vampires and Caroline/Damon in particular as not monsters... however, that said it’s not all bad because we did get one thing I wanted: some really nice Caroline/Liz scenes. I would have liked to have seen more but what we got was good and it was nice to see them actually talking to each other.
• Liz: As long as you have blood you don’t need to kill?
Caroline: (pause) I want to. It’s my basic nature now.
This was so, so brave of her. She could have tried to take the easy route but instead she told the truth, and she didn’t try to hide or obscure it in anyway, and I am so proud of her.
• “It’s just that you’ve become this person... this strong, this confidant person.” – Liz. I actually believe her when she says this, she just seemed so impressed, which makes what happens even worse. I don’t however know how much I trust her appeal to Caroline to not compel her. We saw some of her desperation in her tone and while I buy her seeing Caroline as a person and her daughter again by this point her appeal did kind of feel like she was saying anything to try and prevent being compelled. I understand that but I also understand why in the end Caroline compelled her mother.
She tells Liz “I know I can trust you. But you’re never going to trust them” and it’s great that they managed to get to the point where Caroline can trust her mother (and where she’s heard her mother’s admiration for her) but I agree with her. That said – oh, how I wish we could have had Liz un-compelled and thus TPTB having to actually deal with how that affects everything. Until Liz knows the truth and is able to react from that her relationship with Caroline and Damon is always going to feel – shallow and I want more.
Also I was surprised, and again impressed, with Caroline using compelling her mother – to keep everything the same. The urge to ‘correct’ their relationship must have been great and I am so happy that she didn’t do it. This doesn’t mean that erasing her mother’s memories of the truth and of their hesitant bonding means that they have to return to exactly how their relationship was. Yes, Liz doesn’t remember and she’s once again missing a huge piece of who her daughter is now but Caroline knows that her mother could accept her, that she and her mother can be friends, and that her mother admires and loves her. On Caroline’s side things have changed, at least a little, and she can take this new knowledge and memories to try to create a better relationship with her mom. She doesn’t have to maintain the status quo, she can try to build a good relationship with her mom. She can stop ignoring her, stop fighting with her, stop closing her out, stop being a bitch to her... it’s on Caroline now how their relationship proceeds and I would love to see Caroline trying to change it for the better.
