The Vampire Diaries 2x19 Review

[iaria]

Klaus

This was a really enjoyable episode. I didn’t even notice while watching that half the cast was gone this episode – Bonnie, Jeremy, Caroline, Matt, Liz and John – though it feels weird after the fact.

• I loved Elijah, and I really hope he sticks around for a long time. Or at the least that he isn’t killed permanently in the finale and thus can return to Mystic Falls.

• The entire Elena/Elijah situation made complete character sense for Elena. In fact I was really reminded of how Elena originally made friends with Damon. Elena’s reaction to Elijah asking her if he could trust her was very understandable. Elena believes in giving trust in order to earn trust, and she knows that Elijah has ample and rational reason to distrust her – so she gives him the dagger and leaves with him. I sighed a bit because she was really taking a huge chance. But this is Elena and this is what she does. This episode pretty much then becomes Elena trying to earn back Elijah’s trust in order to resume their deal.

- “She’s my family Elijah. I have to go to her.” Elena isn’t in Katherine’s league but she is actually very good at manipulating people in her own way. He just opened up to her about his brother and how much he’d meant to Elijah and Elena soon after took that knowledge and used it to get Elijah to let her go to Jenna. By connecting to him and appealing to him. She does something similar in the car scene. Then she calls him ‘a noble man’ to Stefan and she lays things out to him in a straightforward manner. Personally I love manipulative Elena.

- “You cared about her.” – Elena
“It’s a common mistake I’m told. It’s one I won’t make again.” – Elijah

Wow. Huh. Is the show going to be replaying the whole Katherine/Damon/Elena situation with Katherine/Elijah/Elena? Because I was kind of getting that feeling in this scene. I was getting a mid-season one Damon feel to Elijah’s scenes with Elena where she’s still learning to trust and feel for him. I was definitely getting some mad chemistry between them. It would be repeating a similar storyline that is actually still ongoing and I think that might be a bit much but at the same time I already shipping Elijah/Elena. I really love their interactions. I love the way he watches her and the long glances they exchange.

• I am very sad that the Stefan/Damon relationship has devolved so far back that Stefan can say here that he’s fine with Damon being in love with Elena as long as it means he’ll protect her when at the beginning of the season he felt the same way because it meant that Damon was letting himself feel again and Stefan wanted him to feel. They haven’t gotten as much screen time this season but this episode made me really wish they had. They were so close at the beginning of the season! What happened? Okay, Elena, and a fundamental disagreement about how best to protect her but... things went so bad so quickly!

It further saddens me because one of the aspects of my OT3 I love best is how Elena brings the Salvatore’s together (whereas Katherine tore them apart). For a season and a half it’s been Elena’s presence that has helped to heal the rift between them and the three of them just worked so well as a trio. In fact they worked better as a trio which is why I love them so much. Except now Elena is in the centre of the brother’s struggle and it’s upsetting the balance the three of them shared and it just makes me upset. I want my tightly knit OT3 back!

- “Let her go.” – Stefan
“Are you kidding me? We just got her back.” – Damon

See I loved that ‘we’. It should always be we. That is how it’s always supposed to be. Sigh.

- When Damon tried to stop Elena from leaving and Stefan stepped up and told him to let her go and they go into each other’s faces I really wish that Elena had stepped between them and told them not to fight. I just wish she had more of an active presence in that scene instead of just as the person the brothers were fighting over. I didn’t like that. Then maybe she could have tried to explain to Damon why she had to do things that way and Damon could stalk off in disgust and Elena could sigh and Stefan could tell her to go and he’d look after Damon. That scene would have felt OT3ish and thus I would have liked it better. Instead we have Stefan and Damon getting in each other’s faces while Elena stands there silently.

I actually didn’t love Nina’s acting in this scene which is weird because usually I love her acting choices. The expression on Elena’s face during the confrontation rubbed me the wrong way because instead of being worried or troubled about them fighting she seemed almost... smug. Now on one hand, she certainly has the right. The last time Damon manhandled her and threatened her like that she was alone (well, with Rose) and was helpless against him. So it must be kind of satisfying that this time she isn’t weak because Stefan is there and on her side (as well as being satisfied by Stefan choosing to trust her judgement.) But on the other hand... OT3! I am torn.

• “I have the one thing you’ll never have. Her respect.” – Stefan. That... was not what I thought he was going to say. I mean all the talk about Elena/Damon has been about Damon’s love for her. Her respect has never been mentioned before. I guess this means that a) Damon does want her respect, and b) Stefan does believe that Elena could love Damon one day. Hmm. I love that it’s Elena’s respect that’s the most important thing.

• The Damon/Stefan fight was interesting. It was basically just the two of them holding each other by the neck and growling at each other in a very animalistic/predator way. If Stefan is still drinking human blood then that puts them back on a more even footing – was that why it didn’t immediately devolve into throwing each other around? Or was it less than a fight and more them competing for dominance?

• I love that when Elena entered the room and said ‘stop’ they immediately stopped. ♥

• Elijah seeing history repeating with the brothers fighting... I have hope that because it is over Elena, and she has proven over and over, to have a different relationship with the Salvatore’s than Katherine that things will be different. Katherine tears people and relationships apart, even when she doesn’t mean to, while Elena brings people together.

• “I was protecting Elena. I will always protect Elena.” – Stefan. I’m guessing Stefan’s second line was specifically put in there to echo Damon’s line in the previous episode about always loving her. What I really liked about this moment was that Stefan swallows his pride, trusts Elena and goes along with her plan. Once he decided to trust Elena he apparently decided to commit to that no matter what. Like Elena he knows he wronged Elijah (he did conspire to kill him) so if they’re going to be working together it wouldn’t hurt to apologise for that. I also like that he also says right out that he’ll do what it takes to protect Elena and I feel like that was a veiled warning that he would do it again if he needed to.

• Thus far I still find Klaus a bit unsatisfactory. I think I’ve read too many comments from people who have read the books talking about how scary Klaus is because I find myself disappointed by him. He’s ‘supposed’ to be (according to people’s gushing) scarier and crazier than Katherine. I just don’t find him that scary excepting for the scene with Jenna and Stefan. I don’t find him anywhere near as awesome as Katherine. I really want to though.

• I was glad that the show dealt with the whole ‘no invite’ situation with Elijah. A vampire being unable to breathe until they leave makes sense. Plus Elijah running into walls amused me.

• One witch, ie Bonnie, using all her power, even or especially having been boosted by dead witches, will kill Klaus but it will kill Bonnie as well. So... couldn’t they just have a coven of witches take on Klaus and kill him? I mean the more witches the better chance that they will all survive yes? Why does everything have to rest on the shoulders of one teenage witch? Unlike the werewolves witches aren’t near extinct. We know that Bonnie has more family of which there is at least one witch (Lucy). Why hasn’t Bonnie tried to get in contact with her? I would think that Stefan, Damon and Katherine all know witches so why not contact them? Now that I’ve thought of it it seems so obvious and it annoys me that no one else has thought of it.

• I loved Stefan running over to protect Jenna, and the way he hovered watchfully while Klaus monologued and was scary, and then how he went all cold and violent and attacked Klaus.

• Poor Jenna. That wasn’t the worst possible way for her to learn the truth but it was pretty bad. I wonder how Stefan managed to get her back to the manor? One thing I really liked about the Jenna/Elena conversation was that while Elena gave excuses for lying at the beginning by the end she was just apologising. So is Jenna living at the manor now? Jeremy’s hiding out with Bonnie but where’s John gotten off to?

• The scene with Katherine dancing around, drinking and just enjoying herself was kind of random but made me smile. I love her.

• Katherine before being turned really was quite different. Without the centuries of running we get “True love is not real until it is returned.” and “Life is too cruel. If we cease to believe in love why would we want to live?” Now it’s possible that it was just Katherine playing Elijah but it seemed real to me.

• “She’s a person. You victimise her.” Stefan was very snarky and irate over Andie this episode and then he came out with this line. It’s completely true and I’m glad someone has called Damon out for it even though it felt a bit sudden. It’s been so many episodes now with no one saying anything. I actually found Andie herself very interesting this episode. She was so upbeat and supportive of Damon. The way she told Stefan to mind his own business, the way she asked Damon to drink from a blood bag, the way she said “Damon easy” when he grabbed Elena, the way she was trying to get Damon to calm down (“You don’t have to be so angry at your brother, he’s worried about Elena and..”), how she doesn’t leave when he tells her to because he didn’t order her to and then tells him no even though he’s upset and has his arms around her neck because “you need to know that someone cares about you”. I just find it very... interesting. Disturbing but fascinating and kind of confusing. I’m not sure what to think about it. How much control does Andie have over her emotions and decisions? Where are TPTB going with her?

• I want to know more about witches being the ‘servants of nature’ and maintaining the balance of the world.

• I don’t really understand why Elijah now wants to kill Klaus now. Just because Klaus turned on his so easily? Has Klaus been tormenting him ever since? Has his distance from Klaus caused Elijah to be able to see Klaus for what he is and decide that he is too dangerous/insane to live? We need more background on why Elijah has turned on Klaus because it has to be more than what happened with Katherine. Also Elijah said that he had his own reasons to want Katherine to pay – does he blame her for the rift with his brother? But then if he wants Klaus dead why would he still be angry at her? Unlike with the Salvatore’s I think Katherine was pretty innocent in the Klaus/Elijah breakup.