The Vampire Dairies 2x01 Review
Sep. 12th, 2010 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaThe Return
Yay! I am so happy that TVD is back. I’ve missed it. I loved this episode. It always surprises me just how much this show manages to fit into one episode. This one was packed though it was missing the moment I wanted most of all – an Elena/Katherine meeting. Everyone else got to meet her but they never actually came face to face, and I can’t wait until they do.
Katherine/Damon/Elena/Stefan
I loved everything happening between the four of them (though my inner Elena/Damon shipper was unhappy and my inner OT3 shipper just wanted the three of them to band together. Sigh.)
• “Game on.” I love Katherine. Not as much as Elena, but she is fun. I can’t wait to see what she does next. I don’t know that I believe her when she says that she loves Stefan and came back for him or maybe it’s just that I don’t want that to be her whole purpose for returning. I mean she knew where Stefan was for the past hundred plus years and could have approached him at any point so she can’t love him that much. I wonder if part of the reason she wants him now is because Elena has him? I want her to have a plan or scheme beyond Stefan even if it’s just to play games because she’s bored right now.
• I hope Isobel returns (and doesn’t die) and we get to see Katherine with minions. Oh, and I want some reaction on her part to Pearl’s death. Oh, how I wish Pearl hadn’t died. They would have been so awesome together! Katherine stabbing Stefan reminded me of both of Pearl dealing with Fredrick and the Salvatore brothers dealing with each other – vampires really like stabbing each other.
• I know Damon’s done horrible things, and fairly often I want him to suffer, but I was pretty much going ‘poor Damon’ throughout the entire episode. It was just one moment of pain and rejection after another for him and even if Elena ended hating/pissed at him I was still empathising with him. Even if he is a self-destructive selfish ass.
• “No, you don’t admit that you get hurt. You get angry and cover it up and then you do something stupid.” – Elena
“(pause) You’re scared. You think Katherine’s going to send me off the deep end, don’t you? I don’t need her for that.” – Damon
So true. I think if Elena had been taken out of the equation Damon would have been fine, or at least he wouldn’t have gone off the deep end. This is exactly what I want from these two – Elena caring about Damon, Elena knowing Damon, Elena reaching out to him and empathising with him and Damon in turn being affected by her (even if he doesn’t like it) and opening up to her. I love them like this.
• “Why is it such a surprised that I would kiss you?” – Damon
“That’s not a surprise. I’m surprised that you thought I’d kiss you back.” – Elena
“Now I’m hurt.” – Damon
Ouch. I love that Elena was so upfront with him but yikes. I don’t think that it came out the way she intended or meant it; or rather that he took it the wrong way. I think the way it sounded/the way he took it was that ‘she was surprised because of course she would never willingly kiss Damon’ instead of the way I think she meant it ‘she was surprised because she loves Stefan and would never betray him’. It’s about her loyalty and love for Stefan not about Damon’s worthiness. His ‘now I’m hurt’ was sincere and she knew it and I think she looked sorry about it so I wish she’d cleared things up. I wonder what she would have said if Bonnie hadn’t interrupted? That moment really reminded me of Giuseppe’s grave when Damon said that ‘she’d fooled him’.
• “Because you feel something for her! Because you actually care. And I am not going to let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that is finally after all this time willing to feel something. She’ll try to break you, she’ll try to break us, and how we respond to that will define us. It’s our choice. So no I’m not going to fight.” – Stefan. ♥ Oh, Stefan. He said shortly before this that he wanted to kill Damon for kissing Elena, but while he was clearly angry, I do not buy it. I mean Stefan is basically encouraging Damon to feel here (to feel for Elena), he’s being protective of Damon (and his feelings, for Elena) and he’s stating right out that he wants them together as allies against Katherine, wants them to stick together against her.
• “He saw the ring, that’s why he did it. He knew. ... It’s Katherine. She got under his skin. She undid everything good about him.” – Stefan. I loved Stefan making excuses for what Damon did. I love that Stefan is still on Damon’s side. In season one it was Elena trying to bring Stefan and Damon back together, I wonder if season 2 will be about Stefan bringing Damon and Elena back together? I can’t wait for the next Damon/Stefan scene. At this point it appears Stefan’s little speech didn’t prove at all effective.
• A part of me wishes that TPTB had gone through with Damon actually killing Jeremy, or that they’d made him a vampire, but then I guess that would have been too unforgivable between Elena and Damon. Still, that was a really powerful and well done scene. The muffling of the sound – was that supposed to how Damon was seeing things in that moment?
• “There’s nothing good about him, Stefan, not anymore. He’s decided what he wants. He doesn’t want to feel, he wants to be hated it’s just easier that way. He’s got his wish. ... I hate him, Stefan.” – Elena. This made me sad, I admit. I am all about the OT3 and one of my favourite parts of the show is the Elena/Damon friendship. I can definitely understand why she feels this way – Damon just killed her brother, who she loves more than anyone, in front of her – but I don’t want their friendship gone! I mean clearly they are going to get it back at some point but it’s going to be a long road and I really wanted my OT3 banding together against Katherine and her arrival actually making the ties between them stronger. Oh, well.
- We have heard something very similar from Elena before, when she learned that Damon had turned Isobel, and Elena forgave him for that pretty quickly. I have a feeling this is going to take a lot longer but Katherine, and the threat of her, is probably going to force them together whether Elena wants it to not, and then it’s only a matter of time before their friendship is mended. I mean Jeremy isn’t dead, Damon was twisted up by Katherine and Elena herself, he was drunk, and he could have seen the ring and I think all those will contribute to Elena finding herself empathising and forgiving him again. I mean he tried to eat Bonnie in front of her, there’s what he did to Caroline, he turned Vicki, and she watched him stake Lexie and she got over all of that. Elena’s empathy for Damon has always been fairly inexplicable in some ways but still very much a part of her character and it will prove true now as well. I mean in what she says she’s already doing it – she may have started by saying there’s nothing good in him but then she continues about how he doesn’t want to feel (because it hurts) and I think understanding why he did it is definitely the first step in forgiving him.
• So that Damon/Elena scene... that was uncomfortable. I was actually worried for a half second that TPTB would have Damon try to rape Elena and I’m so relieved that it didn’t actually play out that way. It was mainly freaking me out because it was giving me bad Buffy flashbacks. I don’t actually see Damon attacking Elena in that way and when I re-watched I didn’t see it at all.
• “Move?” – Damon
“Very helpful. Thank you.” – Elena.
Heh. Actually it kind is. I mean what other advice is there? I would definitely do it. I mean at this point it would be stupid to keep staying in that house. Actually it’d make a lot of sense for the Gilbert’s to do ‘renovations’ on their house and move into the Salvatore boarding house – it protects both the Gilberts and the Salvatores from Katherine. But I guess with Damon’s killing of Jeremy that’s not going to happen. They should still move.
• “You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one.” – Katherine. Hmm, it’s actually true both ways. Also, it makes me think of Elena/Damon though I suppose it didn’t start as hate.
• “The truth is you’re the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch you always were.” – Stefan. Um, Stefan what happened to your plan to not aggravate Katherine? That said I loved the Stefan/Katherine interactions.
• I’m not sure that I’d believe Damon reacting in any way other than immediately cutting off his emotions. I mean he was just rejected by Katherine and Elena, in favour of Stefan both times, and then did something that Elena would find unforgivable. Why would he not cut off his emotions?
• I loved that Stefan knew that it was Katherine pretty much immediately.
• I loved Elena playing peace-maker between Stefan and Damon in the kitchen.
• Katherine telling Damon that it had always been Stefan she loved and that she never loved him make me wonder what game she’s was playing. I’d think it’d make more sense to string Damon along, to make him think that she did love him, and thus keep his loyalty at least for the immediate future. I thought smacking him down like that wasn’t the best way she could have handled it. But then I guess it depends on what exactly her plan is, doesn’t it? This way has definitely sent Damon off the deep end, and if she knew that Elena would reject him and her plan is to send Damon into a downward spiral then I guess she’s started off very well.
Everything Else
• Of course this show would get the big secret out in the first eight minutes by having people actually talk to each other. I love that.
• Stefan’s blackmail of John, and how vicious he was during that scene, shocked me and really showed that once again just because he plays nice it doesn’t mean he is nice, or that he’s weak. He’s just as dangerous as Damon, if not more so since you don’t expect it from him. It’s actually something I love about the character. Still something about that scene didn’t really work for me so much. Perhaps it’s him ordering Elena’s biological father away without asking her what she wants, which did irritate me, though her calling him on it and thanking him directly after did get rid of most of it.
• I wonder about John’s behaviour when Elena and Stefan went to see him. He seemed to want to reach out to her in the kitchen scene (before he knew it was Katherine) and Elena giving him back the ring could be taken as a truce gesture so I was expecting him to end up speaking to Elena alone. Instead he did everything he could to push her away. I don’t really get that.
• On the one hand, I’m glad John isn’t dead because I think there is so much potential in him being Elena’s dad, and in his relationship with Jeremy. But on the other hand, he lived, and Jeremy lived, and after so many female re-occurring characters being killed off (characters who are so much more awesome than them and who also had a lot of potential) I’m really not happy. Seriously if the next person killed off is a female character I’m going to be pissed.
• I do like that John gave Jeremy his ring but I also kind of hate it because it just seems to emphasis his lack of relationship with Elena. She’s his daughter, and more than Jeremy she is right in the middle of everything and the more likely a target for Katherine, and so she would seem to be the obvious choice to be given it. It annoys me that she wasn’t.
• I wonder how Jeremy is going to react to Damon killing him? Is this going to cause him to see things the same way John does? But then he and Damon had that moment of bonding in his room only a couple days before so would Jeremy be angry but wanting to hear why Damon did it? Hmm. I wonder if this is going to kill Jeremy’s desire to die?
• I love how once the danger is gone Elena immediately thinks of Jeremy and goes running to look for him instead of getting back to her dying bio-father/uncle.
• I loved the Katherine/Bonnie confrontation. I loved how quick thinking Bonnie was when confronted by Katherine. I don’t know that I would have thought to open the door (but then when Bonnie isolated herself to call Elena I was shaking my head at her so...) I think because of their connection through Emily this could be another pair that could be very interesting to watch. Katherine, Elena and Bonnie – I want to see more of that.
• “No. You’ll do it anyway. For Elena.” – Bonnie. Huh. I should have re-watched the last couple episodes of last season because I don’t remember Bonnie learning that Damon had feelings for Elena. I don’t think there was a moment were anything was said. But then I guess she didn’t need anyone to tell her because, like Isobel, she saw enough that she could have logically put it together. I mean the tomb plan, the dance, but probably most especially Damon giving Elena the device when she asked him.
• I spent most of the episode expecting Jeremy to turn into a vampire so I kind of love the bait-and-switch of it being Caroline who ends up turned ... well, probably. I’m assuming that Caroline is going to be turned because she has Damon’s blood in her. But then it’s hard to say how much time has passed, it’s been at least a couple days, so would his blood still be in her? Hmm. I guess I was assuming that since Katherine told Caroline to give the Salvatore brothers a message she was expecting Caroline to survive to give it (which, how did she know that Caroline had vampire blood? I suppose she could have just meant that Caroline’s dead body was a message. Oh, I hope not. Between dead Caroline and vampire Caroline I am firmly behind vampire! ETA: and I just re-watched and Katherine says to Matt that Caroline’s recovery was ‘practically miraculous’ so it’s clear she suspects what happened, and hey, if she was wrong I don’t think she’d have a problem with Caroline dying.
• I'm excited to see what they do with Caroline being a vampire, and her finally learning the truth about everything, but especially with regards to her relationships with Bonnie and her mother. Bonnie is very anti-vampire right now but Caroline is one of her best friends and she loves her. In a way Bonnie is slightly responsible for what’s happened to her – she gave the working device to John which put Caroline in the hospital and then she got Damon to give Caroline his blood – and she will definitely continue to feel the guilt. Actions have consequences and Bonnie was definitely feeling that this episode. But at the same time it was Bonnie pushing Damon to save Caroline that’s ended up saving Caroline’s life. Sure, she’s a vampire but she’s still alive. I can’t wait to see how their friendship proceeds from this point. Caroline/Liz have always had a rocky relationship but I do firmly believe that Liz loves her daughter and I hope we get to see the fall-out that Caroline being a vampire has on their relationship. I’m hoping that in the end it makes them closer.
• I think Caroline is going to handle being a vampire a lot better than Vicki. I want Damon to help her with her transition in some way. Stefan should definitely be in charge but I want Damon to be there for her and to make up to Caroline what happened between them in the first season.
- Strangely, Caroline becoming a vampire gives me hope that the Damon/Liz friendship might actually survive. Liz is, understandably, very anti-vampire but her love for her daughter might cause her to see that vampires aren’t all the same when Caroline doesn’t turn into an evil killer. And once she sees ‘vampire Caroline’ as ‘Caroline the daughter she loves’ and a person, then it’s so much closer to seeing vampires as people and being willing to think of them as something other than needing to be killed. Damon already has an in because he’s been Liz’s confidant and friend for months now and while she’ll be pissed about being lied to and will feel used, she already thinks of him as a person and she’ll remember him as that even when she doesn’t want to. I love the Damon/Liz friendship a lot and I really want it to continue.
I loved their scene at the hospital when Damon comforted Liz and held her while she broke down over Caroline. I don’t want them as enemies.
• Damon playing peace-maker between Carol and Liz made me laugh. I loved it. Maybe he really should be the next Mayor.
• I have no real opinion on Tyler’s uncle yet. He definitely seems less douchy than Tyler’s dad, and he’s attractive so those are pluses.
• It was very weird that we didn’t get a Tyler/Matt scene. For all that Tyler’s on Matt’s shit list right now he is Matt’s best friend and his father just died, so where was he?
• I really want to see more of Jenna’s POV on what she thinks is happening with Elena and Damon. First there was the dance, then there was the kissing on the porch, and then Elena going to talk to Damon at the wake. She knows nothing about what’s actually happening which makes her POV on what she does know kind of fascinating and I want to know more. I do think with Katherine in town, and her killing of Caroline, that Elena had better tell Jenna the truth in the next couple episodes. It’s been ridiculous keeping her in the dark this long but now with the danger so immediate not letting Jenna know would just be wrong.
Yay! I am so happy that TVD is back. I’ve missed it. I loved this episode. It always surprises me just how much this show manages to fit into one episode. This one was packed though it was missing the moment I wanted most of all – an Elena/Katherine meeting. Everyone else got to meet her but they never actually came face to face, and I can’t wait until they do.
Katherine/Damon/Elena/Stefan
I loved everything happening between the four of them (though my inner Elena/Damon shipper was unhappy and my inner OT3 shipper just wanted the three of them to band together. Sigh.)
• “Game on.” I love Katherine. Not as much as Elena, but she is fun. I can’t wait to see what she does next. I don’t know that I believe her when she says that she loves Stefan and came back for him or maybe it’s just that I don’t want that to be her whole purpose for returning. I mean she knew where Stefan was for the past hundred plus years and could have approached him at any point so she can’t love him that much. I wonder if part of the reason she wants him now is because Elena has him? I want her to have a plan or scheme beyond Stefan even if it’s just to play games because she’s bored right now.
• I hope Isobel returns (and doesn’t die) and we get to see Katherine with minions. Oh, and I want some reaction on her part to Pearl’s death. Oh, how I wish Pearl hadn’t died. They would have been so awesome together! Katherine stabbing Stefan reminded me of both of Pearl dealing with Fredrick and the Salvatore brothers dealing with each other – vampires really like stabbing each other.
• I know Damon’s done horrible things, and fairly often I want him to suffer, but I was pretty much going ‘poor Damon’ throughout the entire episode. It was just one moment of pain and rejection after another for him and even if Elena ended hating/pissed at him I was still empathising with him. Even if he is a self-destructive selfish ass.
• “No, you don’t admit that you get hurt. You get angry and cover it up and then you do something stupid.” – Elena
“(pause) You’re scared. You think Katherine’s going to send me off the deep end, don’t you? I don’t need her for that.” – Damon
So true. I think if Elena had been taken out of the equation Damon would have been fine, or at least he wouldn’t have gone off the deep end. This is exactly what I want from these two – Elena caring about Damon, Elena knowing Damon, Elena reaching out to him and empathising with him and Damon in turn being affected by her (even if he doesn’t like it) and opening up to her. I love them like this.
• “Why is it such a surprised that I would kiss you?” – Damon
“That’s not a surprise. I’m surprised that you thought I’d kiss you back.” – Elena
“Now I’m hurt.” – Damon
Ouch. I love that Elena was so upfront with him but yikes. I don’t think that it came out the way she intended or meant it; or rather that he took it the wrong way. I think the way it sounded/the way he took it was that ‘she was surprised because of course she would never willingly kiss Damon’ instead of the way I think she meant it ‘she was surprised because she loves Stefan and would never betray him’. It’s about her loyalty and love for Stefan not about Damon’s worthiness. His ‘now I’m hurt’ was sincere and she knew it and I think she looked sorry about it so I wish she’d cleared things up. I wonder what she would have said if Bonnie hadn’t interrupted? That moment really reminded me of Giuseppe’s grave when Damon said that ‘she’d fooled him’.
• “Because you feel something for her! Because you actually care. And I am not going to let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that is finally after all this time willing to feel something. She’ll try to break you, she’ll try to break us, and how we respond to that will define us. It’s our choice. So no I’m not going to fight.” – Stefan. ♥ Oh, Stefan. He said shortly before this that he wanted to kill Damon for kissing Elena, but while he was clearly angry, I do not buy it. I mean Stefan is basically encouraging Damon to feel here (to feel for Elena), he’s being protective of Damon (and his feelings, for Elena) and he’s stating right out that he wants them together as allies against Katherine, wants them to stick together against her.
• “He saw the ring, that’s why he did it. He knew. ... It’s Katherine. She got under his skin. She undid everything good about him.” – Stefan. I loved Stefan making excuses for what Damon did. I love that Stefan is still on Damon’s side. In season one it was Elena trying to bring Stefan and Damon back together, I wonder if season 2 will be about Stefan bringing Damon and Elena back together? I can’t wait for the next Damon/Stefan scene. At this point it appears Stefan’s little speech didn’t prove at all effective.
• A part of me wishes that TPTB had gone through with Damon actually killing Jeremy, or that they’d made him a vampire, but then I guess that would have been too unforgivable between Elena and Damon. Still, that was a really powerful and well done scene. The muffling of the sound – was that supposed to how Damon was seeing things in that moment?
• “There’s nothing good about him, Stefan, not anymore. He’s decided what he wants. He doesn’t want to feel, he wants to be hated it’s just easier that way. He’s got his wish. ... I hate him, Stefan.” – Elena. This made me sad, I admit. I am all about the OT3 and one of my favourite parts of the show is the Elena/Damon friendship. I can definitely understand why she feels this way – Damon just killed her brother, who she loves more than anyone, in front of her – but I don’t want their friendship gone! I mean clearly they are going to get it back at some point but it’s going to be a long road and I really wanted my OT3 banding together against Katherine and her arrival actually making the ties between them stronger. Oh, well.
- We have heard something very similar from Elena before, when she learned that Damon had turned Isobel, and Elena forgave him for that pretty quickly. I have a feeling this is going to take a lot longer but Katherine, and the threat of her, is probably going to force them together whether Elena wants it to not, and then it’s only a matter of time before their friendship is mended. I mean Jeremy isn’t dead, Damon was twisted up by Katherine and Elena herself, he was drunk, and he could have seen the ring and I think all those will contribute to Elena finding herself empathising and forgiving him again. I mean he tried to eat Bonnie in front of her, there’s what he did to Caroline, he turned Vicki, and she watched him stake Lexie and she got over all of that. Elena’s empathy for Damon has always been fairly inexplicable in some ways but still very much a part of her character and it will prove true now as well. I mean in what she says she’s already doing it – she may have started by saying there’s nothing good in him but then she continues about how he doesn’t want to feel (because it hurts) and I think understanding why he did it is definitely the first step in forgiving him.
• So that Damon/Elena scene... that was uncomfortable. I was actually worried for a half second that TPTB would have Damon try to rape Elena and I’m so relieved that it didn’t actually play out that way. It was mainly freaking me out because it was giving me bad Buffy flashbacks. I don’t actually see Damon attacking Elena in that way and when I re-watched I didn’t see it at all.
• “Move?” – Damon
“Very helpful. Thank you.” – Elena.
Heh. Actually it kind is. I mean what other advice is there? I would definitely do it. I mean at this point it would be stupid to keep staying in that house. Actually it’d make a lot of sense for the Gilbert’s to do ‘renovations’ on their house and move into the Salvatore boarding house – it protects both the Gilberts and the Salvatores from Katherine. But I guess with Damon’s killing of Jeremy that’s not going to happen. They should still move.
• “You hate me, huh? That sounds like the beginning of a love story, Stefan, not the end of one.” – Katherine. Hmm, it’s actually true both ways. Also, it makes me think of Elena/Damon though I suppose it didn’t start as hate.
• “The truth is you’re the same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch you always were.” – Stefan. Um, Stefan what happened to your plan to not aggravate Katherine? That said I loved the Stefan/Katherine interactions.
• I’m not sure that I’d believe Damon reacting in any way other than immediately cutting off his emotions. I mean he was just rejected by Katherine and Elena, in favour of Stefan both times, and then did something that Elena would find unforgivable. Why would he not cut off his emotions?
• I loved that Stefan knew that it was Katherine pretty much immediately.
• I loved Elena playing peace-maker between Stefan and Damon in the kitchen.
• Katherine telling Damon that it had always been Stefan she loved and that she never loved him make me wonder what game she’s was playing. I’d think it’d make more sense to string Damon along, to make him think that she did love him, and thus keep his loyalty at least for the immediate future. I thought smacking him down like that wasn’t the best way she could have handled it. But then I guess it depends on what exactly her plan is, doesn’t it? This way has definitely sent Damon off the deep end, and if she knew that Elena would reject him and her plan is to send Damon into a downward spiral then I guess she’s started off very well.
Everything Else
• Of course this show would get the big secret out in the first eight minutes by having people actually talk to each other. I love that.
• Stefan’s blackmail of John, and how vicious he was during that scene, shocked me and really showed that once again just because he plays nice it doesn’t mean he is nice, or that he’s weak. He’s just as dangerous as Damon, if not more so since you don’t expect it from him. It’s actually something I love about the character. Still something about that scene didn’t really work for me so much. Perhaps it’s him ordering Elena’s biological father away without asking her what she wants, which did irritate me, though her calling him on it and thanking him directly after did get rid of most of it.
• I wonder about John’s behaviour when Elena and Stefan went to see him. He seemed to want to reach out to her in the kitchen scene (before he knew it was Katherine) and Elena giving him back the ring could be taken as a truce gesture so I was expecting him to end up speaking to Elena alone. Instead he did everything he could to push her away. I don’t really get that.
• On the one hand, I’m glad John isn’t dead because I think there is so much potential in him being Elena’s dad, and in his relationship with Jeremy. But on the other hand, he lived, and Jeremy lived, and after so many female re-occurring characters being killed off (characters who are so much more awesome than them and who also had a lot of potential) I’m really not happy. Seriously if the next person killed off is a female character I’m going to be pissed.
• I do like that John gave Jeremy his ring but I also kind of hate it because it just seems to emphasis his lack of relationship with Elena. She’s his daughter, and more than Jeremy she is right in the middle of everything and the more likely a target for Katherine, and so she would seem to be the obvious choice to be given it. It annoys me that she wasn’t.
• I wonder how Jeremy is going to react to Damon killing him? Is this going to cause him to see things the same way John does? But then he and Damon had that moment of bonding in his room only a couple days before so would Jeremy be angry but wanting to hear why Damon did it? Hmm. I wonder if this is going to kill Jeremy’s desire to die?
• I love how once the danger is gone Elena immediately thinks of Jeremy and goes running to look for him instead of getting back to her dying bio-father/uncle.
• I loved the Katherine/Bonnie confrontation. I loved how quick thinking Bonnie was when confronted by Katherine. I don’t know that I would have thought to open the door (but then when Bonnie isolated herself to call Elena I was shaking my head at her so...) I think because of their connection through Emily this could be another pair that could be very interesting to watch. Katherine, Elena and Bonnie – I want to see more of that.
• “No. You’ll do it anyway. For Elena.” – Bonnie. Huh. I should have re-watched the last couple episodes of last season because I don’t remember Bonnie learning that Damon had feelings for Elena. I don’t think there was a moment were anything was said. But then I guess she didn’t need anyone to tell her because, like Isobel, she saw enough that she could have logically put it together. I mean the tomb plan, the dance, but probably most especially Damon giving Elena the device when she asked him.
• I spent most of the episode expecting Jeremy to turn into a vampire so I kind of love the bait-and-switch of it being Caroline who ends up turned ... well, probably. I’m assuming that Caroline is going to be turned because she has Damon’s blood in her. But then it’s hard to say how much time has passed, it’s been at least a couple days, so would his blood still be in her? Hmm. I guess I was assuming that since Katherine told Caroline to give the Salvatore brothers a message she was expecting Caroline to survive to give it (which, how did she know that Caroline had vampire blood? I suppose she could have just meant that Caroline’s dead body was a message. Oh, I hope not. Between dead Caroline and vampire Caroline I am firmly behind vampire! ETA: and I just re-watched and Katherine says to Matt that Caroline’s recovery was ‘practically miraculous’ so it’s clear she suspects what happened, and hey, if she was wrong I don’t think she’d have a problem with Caroline dying.
• I'm excited to see what they do with Caroline being a vampire, and her finally learning the truth about everything, but especially with regards to her relationships with Bonnie and her mother. Bonnie is very anti-vampire right now but Caroline is one of her best friends and she loves her. In a way Bonnie is slightly responsible for what’s happened to her – she gave the working device to John which put Caroline in the hospital and then she got Damon to give Caroline his blood – and she will definitely continue to feel the guilt. Actions have consequences and Bonnie was definitely feeling that this episode. But at the same time it was Bonnie pushing Damon to save Caroline that’s ended up saving Caroline’s life. Sure, she’s a vampire but she’s still alive. I can’t wait to see how their friendship proceeds from this point. Caroline/Liz have always had a rocky relationship but I do firmly believe that Liz loves her daughter and I hope we get to see the fall-out that Caroline being a vampire has on their relationship. I’m hoping that in the end it makes them closer.
• I think Caroline is going to handle being a vampire a lot better than Vicki. I want Damon to help her with her transition in some way. Stefan should definitely be in charge but I want Damon to be there for her and to make up to Caroline what happened between them in the first season.
- Strangely, Caroline becoming a vampire gives me hope that the Damon/Liz friendship might actually survive. Liz is, understandably, very anti-vampire but her love for her daughter might cause her to see that vampires aren’t all the same when Caroline doesn’t turn into an evil killer. And once she sees ‘vampire Caroline’ as ‘Caroline the daughter she loves’ and a person, then it’s so much closer to seeing vampires as people and being willing to think of them as something other than needing to be killed. Damon already has an in because he’s been Liz’s confidant and friend for months now and while she’ll be pissed about being lied to and will feel used, she already thinks of him as a person and she’ll remember him as that even when she doesn’t want to. I love the Damon/Liz friendship a lot and I really want it to continue.
I loved their scene at the hospital when Damon comforted Liz and held her while she broke down over Caroline. I don’t want them as enemies.
• Damon playing peace-maker between Carol and Liz made me laugh. I loved it. Maybe he really should be the next Mayor.
• I have no real opinion on Tyler’s uncle yet. He definitely seems less douchy than Tyler’s dad, and he’s attractive so those are pluses.
• It was very weird that we didn’t get a Tyler/Matt scene. For all that Tyler’s on Matt’s shit list right now he is Matt’s best friend and his father just died, so where was he?
• I really want to see more of Jenna’s POV on what she thinks is happening with Elena and Damon. First there was the dance, then there was the kissing on the porch, and then Elena going to talk to Damon at the wake. She knows nothing about what’s actually happening which makes her POV on what she does know kind of fascinating and I want to know more. I do think with Katherine in town, and her killing of Caroline, that Elena had better tell Jenna the truth in the next couple episodes. It’s been ridiculous keeping her in the dark this long but now with the danger so immediate not letting Jenna know would just be wrong.
