The Vampire Diaries 3x04 Review

[iaria]

Disturbing Behavior

Wow, so much happened in this episode. I really enjoyed it.

• I really loved where the show went with the Elena/Damon relationship. I loved Damon confronting her about her trying to make him be like Stefan and his refusal to let her make him something he’s not. I loved everything Caroline had to say to Elena: “Yeah, but that doesn’t make him any less Damon. ... No one’s changing Damon. Not even you.” I like that the show doesn’t appear to be going the ‘Elena’s love redeems Damon and makes him a good person’ route. Damon needs to chose to be a better person for himself and while, yes, people change for the people they care about this is just... too big? For it to stick and really mean something for Damon I really think this has to be something he wants for himself.

• I adore that Elena being so in denial about her feelings for Damon, fighting against ever confessing them or even thinking about being with him, is not because of Stefan but because he does really horrible things and yet she still likes him. Yes! He’s a killer, he’s psychotic and dangerous and does things like kill his best friend and she still likes him. How could she care, let alone love, a monster? Of course that has her completely freaked out. Of course she’d never want to confess that or own up to it. Though she has already told him that when he was dying – “I like you now”. She’s already admitted it out loud. I also love how this is tying in with all the Stefan stuff this season. Stefan who is a monster himself and Elena who’s been dealing by not dealing. By completely ignoring the fact that he’s killing people every day. That he killed Andi. I can’t wait to see where this all goes.

• “You’re the one who pulled the dagger out of her.” LOL. Klaus/Stefan/Rebekah were a lot of fun. I also love how much Klaus is so obviously crushing on Stefan. He admires Stefan’s ‘family loyalty’ (I see it – this is the guy who ‘killed’ his family but also takes their bodies everywhere he goes), he enjoys spending time with Stefan so much, he lets Stefan convince him to ‘relax’, and doesn’t worry about him running around unsupervised and when he learns that Stefan might be betraying him he isn’t angry, he just wants to get rid of whatever it is that’s distracting Stefan from him. It’s kind of adorable. I also like how Rebekah fits into their dynamic.

• I loved Elena and Damon cooking together. Teasing and laughing and bugging each other – it was very cute. They always have such great scenes in the kitchen.

• Damon and Liz! I loved the scenes we got of Liz and Damon being friends but I’m also disappointed and irritated because I really wanted to actually see how they got back to this point. The last time there was any sort of interaction between the two was when she tried to shoot him while he was out of his mind. I really wanted to see their first meeting after Liz had learned the truth. Liz coming to terms with her daughter is one thing. Damon, who was her friend and lied to her from the beginning and is a killer, is entirely different. I’m disgruntled that we didn’t get to see any of it.

• I really, really wish that we had gotten a scene with Elena and Bonnie comforting Caroline. It was acknowledged and we got a lot of scenes of the girls interacting but then they end up talking about other things like Stefan and Damon. Caroline tells Elena “As your friend who worries for you daily” and it made me so irritated because this is what I want to see. Okay, actually the show is doing a pretty good job showing Caroline being a great friend – I loved her answering her phone during a heavy make-out session with Tyler ‘in case of a friend emergency’ but the show let me down with Elena and Bonnie. How hard would it have been to have had them comforting her? It would only have taken a minute or two. I definitely think they did have that talk/comfort session, and I can imagine it, but I’d like to actually see it.

• I liked Caroline confronting Elena about Damon – it goes with her personality, of course she’d bring it up, be blunt about it and refuse to let it go – however at the same time it didn’t work for me. For the last couple episodes it’s been Alaric who’s been seeing all the Damon/Elena moments while Caroline’s mainly been off in her own storyline. So it felt completely random for her to suddenly bring up Elena’s relationship with Damon. Why the sudden interest? Why would she suddenly think that something had changed between Elena and Damon? I mean, yes, she knows Elena kissed him but beyond that there hasn’t been anything she’s seen that would lead her to thinking their relationship had changed. Oh, wait – Elena did tell them that Damon was cooking with her that morning. But still. If anything Caroline should have been in that kitchen scene. We’ve seen that she’s sharp at picking up people’s feelings (see Jeremy) so if she’d seen them interacting then I would have completely bought her being curious and preoccupied by their relationship.

• “Hey I think you need to take a beat with Elena.” – Alaric. He’s trying to play dad/protector for Elena? LOL. Apparently when Alaric decides to check in he does it all the way. Did he really think trying to get between Elena and Damon was really a good idea? This more than anything was probably what caused Damon to lose it with him later. I mean Alaric called his ability to look after Elena into question and I think he was a bit hurt by that. Plus it appears that by accepting a place in Elena’s family Alaric’s primary allegiance has switched over to her even with Damon.

“I’m supposed to look after her and this is me doing that.”
“What do you think I’m doing?”

You know, I’m glad that Alaric is going to try and be her (and Jeremy’s) family but this did rub me a little the wrong way. Please stop trying to protect Elena by making decision for her behind her back. That’s really not his place.

• So, wait, does Carol know that Damon is a vampire now too?

• Katherine saves Stefan – yay – by killing Goria the witch – meh.

• “Your temporary funeral.” – Damon, who then kills Alaric. Literally my only reaction to that was ‘oh, Damon’. It actually doesn’t bother me that much though clearly Alaric and Elena are not anywhere near as blasé about it. Damon apparently took dead Alaric home, set him up on a couch and then made him a drink for when he ‘woke’ up and more than anything I found it kind of sweet. And messed up. And so Damon. But sweet too.

Alaric later points out that regardless of supernatural beings being friends and family they’re still supernatural and, implied, they do not think or act the same way as humans. That’s true. Vampires are so casually violent with each other that it actually makes sense to me that Damon, who has accepted Alaric as a friend and who he knows is as close to being invulnerable as a human could be, would be violent with him as well. Humans you have to be careful around, vampires you don’t. Alaric’s moved more into the vampire column. It’s kind of a compliment really, if you think of it a certain way. Damon doesn’t have to be careful around Alaric anymore.

Also because vampires are so casually violent with each other they just sort of shrug it off. How many times have Damon and Stefan hurt each other? A lot. But nothing changes because of it because that’s just how things are with vampires. The injuries are basically superficial, they drink some blood, and soon enough they’re completely healed. Damon knew that Alaric would heal and be back to normal. He just didn’t think through the psychological effects or consider that Alaric might think it was a betrayal.

So I understand Alaric being pissed and even feeling betrayed but overall it doesn’t bother me, Plus Damon being all hurt because Alaric was mad at him amused me. Yes, Damon, I wonder why he’d be a little upset. It’s probably for the best that it wasn’t Elena at his door to hear “I only accept written apologies”. I don’t think that would have gone well either.

• Actually what did bother me was Elena (and Alaric’s) nonchalant reactions to Damon’s news about Bill. Elena asking Damon what he did to Bill that he’d need to use compulsion on him made me blink a lot because – what? It’s like the fact that Bill just tortured his vampire daughter the other day completely slipped her mind. It’s ridiculous. I understand them, or rather Elena for Caroline’s sake, not wanting Bill to die but them just brushing aside the danger he posed didn’t work for me at all. Seriously – tortured his daughter! Knows the truth! This is something they should be worried about.

Also I do understand Elena being “vervain in water? Could be good” as a first reaction because it was actually mine as well. Except if you think about it for even a couple seconds more – what about showers, or eating food cooked in water? Damon and Caroline (and Stefan when he returns and any other vampire ally) won’t be able to eat or drink anything in town. It will basically drive them out of Mystic Falls.

• Why wouldn’t Stefan immediately have called Damon when he learned that Klaus needed Elena’s necklace? When he excused himself for air at the beginning that’s what I thought he was going to do.

• Damon’s attack on Bill reminded me of Stefan scaring John away in 2x01 by threatening him. I think the intent in both cases was the same.

• “I’m stronger than you little girl.” – Damon
“While I’m angrier.” – Caroline

I loved the Caroline/Damon confrontation. At first I wasn’t sure about her beating him because he is a lot older and stronger than her. But then figured it’s not like it was a long fight and mainly she surprised him and then ran away. Plus she had more reason to win. I did really enjoy her throwing him around and the head-butt was awesome. I ♥ Caroline. Oh, also, I loved Caroline telling her dad to ‘grow up’ and forcing him to drink her blood to heal.

• Oh, Anna, baby. She made me so sad. I was considering the idea that she was playing Jeremy up until he shut her out and then we got that heartbreaking moment where she cries unseen behind him. Why is she alone?! Why of all the people killed in Mystic Falls is she trapped? And possible Vicki. What makes them special? Or are there other ghosts around but each cut off from each other?

• I was really glad that Jeremy told Bonnie the truth at the end because his re-emerging feelings for Anna was having me worried that we could be heading into a ‘Jeremy emotionally cheats on Bonnie with Anna while keeping her presence a secret’ storyline and I was not looking forwards to it. I actually would like for the show to explore Jeremy’s feelings for Anna and especially Vicki, who both died suddenly and neither of whom he really had a chance to move on from properly. I just don’t want Bonnie to be kept in the dark about what was going on.

• “Do you think you’ll ever love anyone like you loved that girl?” – Rebekah. Hmm. I would have thought that she’s ask about them, about him ever caring about her like he once had.

• “Don’t worry I’m going to go home before somebody kills me.” – Bill. That is the smartest thing anyone who has ever been in that town has ever said. But then he follows it up by being a complete ass to his daughter. God, such an ass. Someone needs to hit him a lot. Actually I wish John was still around because I’d be interested to see how they interact.

• So are we actually going to find out how the hell Bill managed to get around Damon’s compulsion? It can’t just be him working for decades to will it not to work. A friendly witch? Vervain in his shoes?

• “You’re not self-destructive enough...” – Bill. Um, yeah. Because if there’s something Damon is not its self-destructive enough.

• I did find it interesting, and kind of loved, that Bill defined himself as ‘the ex-husband of the sheriff’ instead of as ‘a Council member’.

• “Some of them may be family or friends but they’re still supernatural. They don’t follow our rules or our laws, they look after themselves and that’s what we need to do.” – Alaric. Hmm. That’s actually in large part completely true. That said I didn’t actually like this scene because Alaric basically bullying his way onto the Council as a stand-in for the Gilbert family irritated me.

• I am all for a Katherine/Damon road-trip. I can’t wait to see what sort of trouble they’re going to be getting up to. I was hoping at the beginning for Katherine and Stefan to team up to find the Original hunter and take down Klaus but Katherine and Damon doing that could be even more fun. Hopefully there will be lots of bickering and flirting. And considering this is Katherine possibly a visit with a new witch who will, also hopefully, not die.