The Vampire Diaries 2x21 Review

[iaria]

The Sun Also Rises

I knew there were going to be deaths and I even knew which people would be most likely to die. I thought I was prepared and that I had accepted it. I even listed the characters in order by how much I didn’t want them to die and neither Jenna nor John were on my ‘must not die’ list. But oh, their deaths hurt. I started crying during Jenna’s final moments and was sobbing when she died. I cried more during this episode than any other TVD episode; more even then I have for a TV show in a long time.

• I am going to start first with one little moment that I loved, that made me squee inside just a bit with happiness, because this review is otherwise so full of sadness and unhappiness (which is not dislike).

That moment of squee: Damon going to Elena’s body immediately, picking her up... and then laying her down beside a prone Stefan (who reaches out for her), and removing the stake in Stefan’s back. And then Stefan sends Damon to take Elena to safety. That little moment was just so OT3 and I ♥ it so much.

• Jenna. Oh, Jenna. D: I was really hoping for the ring once I thought of it (I forgot Alaric gave it to John) and when it was obvious that she was a vampire I pretty much knew that she was going to die. I just wasn’t sure and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to get to me as much as it has. Jenna kind of got the short stick in the show largely because of her exclusion in the truth. But in these last two episodes since she’s learned it she has been so awesome and we got a glimpse of the strength and support she could have offered Elena and the others if she had been in the know sooner, or had survived this episode and I really mourn that we didn’t get that.

We got to see a bit of potential – the way she handled the truth, the crossbow, her final scene – and I hate that she never got to fulfil that, that she was stuck for two seasons as the one who knows nothing. She would have been so amazing as a vampire if this episode was anything to go by. I know we just went through this storyline with Caroline but this show can never have too many awesome female vampires! Actually, you know what, it makes me angry that she was killed off because even though they did a similar storyline with other characters those were other characters and the potential with Jenna was so great. Sometimes I kind of hate this show. I was actually expecting the cavalry to show up in time to stop Jenna’s death, all the way until Klaus stuck the stake in her chest.

- “It’s alright Elena. I know what I have to do.” And then she bites Greta. Trying till the end to protect Elena even at the cost of her own life. Oh, Jenna. Sniff. It’s making me teary-eyed just thinking about it. Why do the awesome women, the awesome female vampires, have to keep dying?

• The Jenna/Elena scenes were amazing. I wish we had gotten more scenes like these before now. Their relationship and their love for each other and just everything they were in those scenes really got to me. I loved Elena trying to attack Greta at the beginning; I liked her trying to fight for Jenna with her words (which is the only weapon she’s really ever had). Pretty much everything about their scenes were wonderful and so well done and just... “I’m going to die aren’t I” while her eyes fill with tears and she bites her lip; and her explaining to Elena about how she hadn’t wanted to be their guardian at first; Elena’s “I failed you.” and then “You’ll be stronger. You can fight back. I’m going to get through this. I’ll be okay. I need you to believe that. But promise me that when you get the chance... run.” Oh, Elena. Oh, Jenna. Klaus would have caught Jenna if she had run but she didn’t even try. Sniff. Also Elena helping Jenna to use her vampire hearing was great.

• “Jennna, no. (sobbing) Just turn it off. Jenna. Turn it off. Then you won’t be scared anymore.” Oh, and now I’m crying again. Oh, Elena. Oh, Jenna. The way they stared at each other! That was the most painful and emotional moment of the episode for me.

• John. I knew John was going to die when he explained the spell though I didn’t know that he knew until the scene with Jeremy and Alaric. I’ve had a rather bumpy ride with John Gilbert. I adored him on his first episode; I thought he was awesome. Then in his next episodes that interest pretty much disappeared and he was just very disappointing (sigh, the story of his life). But I’ve always held a bit of a soft spot for him because of that first episode and because he was Elena’s father.

I really wanted the show to explore their father/daughter relationship so much. When she invited him into her life after Isobel’s death I was really excited to see where their relationship would go but then he disappeared and... now he’s dead. And Elena gets a letter from him where she gets to realise only when it is too late how much he loved her, just like with Isobel, and god, poor Elena. I was kind of expecting that at some point, not this soon, that John would end up sacrificing himself for her. I thought the scene itself was very well done. I loved how quiet it was and how at peace John was, and that he walked out into the sun during his final moments. It was just a really well shot death scene.

- “I don’t ask for your forgiveness or for you to forget I only ask that you believe this. Whether you are reading this as a human or as a vampire I love you all the same. As I have always loved you and always will.” It was a really beautiful letter. Oh, John why couldn’t you just express that in words to Elena?

- I think that John made a severe miscalculation this episode and it’s actually kind of appropriate because that is always what John does. I will bet anything that if Elena was given a choice between being a vampire with John alive and being human with John dead she would have chosen the former every time. They didn’t know about Jenna’s death at the time of the ritual but they knew that she was in serious danger and that there was a very strong possibility that she could die and at the least that she would be a vampire. And by giving his life so Elena wouldn’t turn John took away the very last parental figure in not only Elena but also Jeremy’s life. Alive he could be there for them, protecting them and supporting them, but dead he just leaves them alone.

I mean in his letter he even expresses regret about how he was so set in his hatred of vampires and that he should have listened to her more and tried to understand – and then he sacrifices his life not so she wouldn’t die but so that she wouldn’t be a vampire. *head slap* Of course he wouldn’t see the dissonance in that. He didn’t consider that she might want to be a vampire or might be willing at least (he doesn’t know that she’s against it) and so he is choosing to take himself out of her life to stop her from becoming what he hates. It was just not the right choice. And that is kind of what makes this whole situation sadder because, god, that is so in character for John. Sigh. Also there’s the fact that it really does feel like it is inevitable that Elena will one day be a vampire and so it feels like that makes John’s sacrifice meaningless.

- John’s death would have had a lot more oomph and weight to it if we’d actually seen him starting to bond with and have a relationship with Elena (and Jeremy). If he’d been in these latter season episodes especially post-Isobel’s death actually interacting with Elena and with them getting to know each other it would have made him death just mean more. Plus we haven’t even gotten a scene between Elena and John since the scene where she told him she wanted him to stay so that she could learn to not hate him because he was her last surviving parent. I mean – what the hell was the point of that if they weren’t going to ever interact again before the show killed him off (in a kind of stupid if lovely and moving way)?

• I was a bit disappointed by the lack of Jeremy/John this episode. I mean once Jeremy realised John was going to die why didn’t we get something more from him even if only a hug? Back in season one when it seemed obvious for the show to explore the Elena/John relationship it instead explored the Jeremy/John one. It ended kind of badly and they aren’t as close but... John was about to die! And why did John only give a letter to Elena? Why not one to Jeremy or why didn’t John actually say anything to Jeremy about him and them? That was just disappointing.

• Another disappointment in a similar vein was the backseat Jeremy took during the ‘funeral’. I would have liked for him to have had his own roses to place on the graves. Actually on further thought all those deaths that Elena was mourning affected Jeremy just as much and it was actually insulting that he just got to stand in the background looking sad. What the hell was that? I’m actually feeling a bit pissed about that. How hard would it have been to show Jeremy kneeling at Jenna and John’s unmarked graves after Alaric laid his rose for Jenna and while Elena laid her roses for their parents? It would have taken nothing away from that scene including time.

• I really, really want to see some consequences next year for all the loss Jeremy and Elena have suffered. In the last two seasons, which is like six months show time, Elena has lost both her adoptive and biological parents, and her aunt as well as suffering various other traumas like Jeremy’s death (even though that didn’t stick). She has actually had to watch three of them die in front of her while she was helpless to save them – Jeremy, Isobel, Jenna – and possibly her adoptive parents as well. Jeremy has lost his parents, his first and second girlfriends and now his aunt and uncle, on top of the whole being killed thing. These two have lost so many people they love or are otherwise connected to, have been through so much trauma, and in so little time that they should seriously have major PTSD. Basically they live in a war zone here. I actually really want to see them having PTSD now just because it’s verging on unbelievable and stretching my suspension of disbelief too far that they would be so mentally and emotionally okay. I want fallout!

“Jeremy. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that you’ve lost so many people.” – Elena
“I still have you.” – Jeremy

Oh, Gilberts. I wasn't expecting the show to kill of the final two parent figures in Elena and Jeremy’s lives. In one episode the show made Elena and Jeremy truly orphans.

• Oh, Stefan – him deciding to offer his life in exchange for Jenna’s... I don’t even know what to say about that. That is so Stefan. You know, now that the show is over and I’ve spent some time writing this review and thinking about the episode what I’m mainly left with is that I love Stefan and that I’m pleased that he would do that for Elena (and Jenna).

• The focus of everyone, the reason they took so long to get to the ritual, being to find a way to save Elena from being a vampire instead of them working to figure out a way to save Jenna and/or Stefan was irritating. I mean once Jenna became the sacrifice and then Stefan went to take her place, one of them was going to die and everyone just seemed to go along with that. WTF?

• Stefan’s reaction to Damon being bitten worked for me perfectly. His shock and confusion at first, “We’ll find something” and that he immediately decided that it wasn’t the end – “I will do this” and his horrified, upset expression that the episode ended on. I’m looking forward to him fighting to save his brother.

• There were two Elena/Damon moments this episode and one worked for me while the other didn’t so much. I like Damon in the scene with the unconscious/dead Elena where he says to her “Come back as a vampire I will stake you myself. Cause I can’t stand the idea of you hating me forever.” Damon really sold that scene, and his anxiety about her fate. I didn’t like so much the moment where Elena and Damon exchange a long look over the grave of her parents. What exactly was that? The fact that it happened over John’s ‘I love you’ part of the letter strikes me as on purpose which I’m okay with but the look itself I don’t know.

• “I rather appreciate the symmetry of three women; three Goddesses.” I don’t. I didn’t actually notice it until all three of them were in circles of fire that it was three women but then I had an immediate DNW reaction to it. Actually I noted down ‘yuck’ in response to it being three women being sacrifice by Klaus. Greta helping didn’t make it better. It’s just left me feeling all... gross. We had four deaths this episode – Jenna, John, Jules and Greta – and three of them were women. I am not impressed show. The show actually is fairly good at killing off the same proportion of male and female characters and I really do believe that it just feels like they kill off the female characters more because they are usually so much more awesome and memorable. That said this episode has put a serious dent in that. I am not happy.

We kind of got some further symmetry to our three female sacrifices (Elena, Jenna, Jules) with the three human men (John, Alaric, Jeremy) being left in the abandoned witch house for their own safety. Now there is a reverse of the usual in that – the men being left behind for their safety and I do like that. But I would have liked it a lot more if the three sacrifices hadn’t been woman (or if Caroline had been one of those heading off into battle to increase the women fighting to more than just Bonnie). Actually when the men were left behind for their own safety I was expecting something to go wrong there. For Klaus to have somehow sent men, for there to be a fire, something.

• Bonnie was great taking out Klaus. Her knocking out Jeremy with a kiss and locking in Alaric were part and parcel with her... misusing her magic or perhaps using it in a morally questionable way but in this case I loved it. I loved her steely faced resolve and threatening Elijah that if he didn’t kill Klaus she would kill them both regardless of whether it took her life or not. That was badass. Her running towards them instead of throwing magic when Elijah took off didn’t make sense but I’m going to blame the writers there.

• I really hated Caroline still being off in her own storyline. I thought that with Klaus there she would finally join the main group but no. It is really irritating me. I want her back with everyone else! Although I did find myself a little torn because it felt like that as long as she was off in her own storyline and away from Klaus she would remain safe and she is the person whose death I least wanted and so that was good. Now that she’s survived this episode I feel a lot safer about her fate so, damn it, I want her back with the main gang. Of her storyline this episode I really loved her final scene with Tyler, they were wonderful and it was sweet, and I do ship them. I also loved her concern for him throughout the episode, even when he was trying to kill her. I was very happy that she was back among the group at Jenna and John’s funerals. I didn’t however get all that involved over her tears over her breakup (again) with Matt – not just because I don’t like them as a pair, and we’ve been here before, but also because this episode was full of so much more pain and anguish and people hurting for better reason that her tears kind of felt... less.

• I’m actually rather glad that Matt is having such problems with Caroline being a vampire. It was the direction I was hoping the show would go in but then thought they’d dropped after the last episode. So I was happy about how the Caroline/Matt scenes played out. And I liked his explanation for why he doesn’t think he can handle being with Caroline – he accepts that she is still very much herself and he still cares for her but he doesn’t want to be a part of the supernatural world. He has his own life that kind of sucks and he just doesn’t want to add more suck to it. That’s a very reasonable desire. It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts. One thing I found pretty interesting, and also disturbing and I’m not sure how I liked it, was Matt’s reaction to Tyler. When he shot Tyler I was really shocked. He was holding the gun, and he did kill Maddox and we still haven’t gotten a reaction to the fact that he killed a person, but I just wasn’t expecting him to shoot his best friend so easily. He didn’t blink! And, yes, I know that Tyler was trying to kill them, and also he was a wolf, but he’s still Matt’s best friend from childhood (despite their recent difficulties) and I would have expected him to hesitate! Was he just having a difficult time connecting wolf = Tyler?

• Klaus having hunted down and taken out their parents and siblings, effectively killing them, makes everything fit together so well. I was not sold on the flashback explanation Elijah gave to Elena for why he turned against Klaus. It just didn’t make sense, it wasn’t enough of a reason, and so this was a relief.

- Elijah turning against his word makes perfect sense to me. It seems Elijah is in fact just like Elena and Stefan and Damon and any number of other characters who put family ahead of everything else. Of course Elijah would jump on the chance. I can’t help but think about how that scene might have gone if it had been Elena he’d been looking at, who’d been telling him to not listen to Klaus. Oh, I cannot wait until Elijah and Elena meet again. I am excited.

- But something I can be mad at him for is how he completely failed to uphold his side of the bargain with Elena. The only thing that she wanted was for her loved ones to be kept safe and he assured her that they would be. Instead Caroline and Tyler were kidnapped to be used as sacrifices and had to be rescued by Damon and then Jenna was turned and sacrificed as the vampire. WTF, Elijah?! More than anything this is actually what I want Elijah to answer for – not that he saved Klaus in the end but that he broke his word by not protecting Elena’s loved ones. Hmm. I would love if this broken part of the deal leads to the return of Jenna. Like, because she was on the list and then died in the ritual Elijah broke his word and he becomes determined to bring her back to make things up to Elena or more specifically to satisfy his honour.

• I wonder about one specific aspect of Jenna (and Jules and John’s) deaths – how this will maybe cause Elena to revaluate her life. Elena has slowly been growing more morally grey as the episodes pass and she becomes more enmeshed in the supernatural world and it’s all come to head, apparently, in how she has reacted to the sacrifice and more specifically how she has completely ignored and glossed over the fact that two people (a vampire and werewolf) would also have to die in it. Now I’ve considered it OOC behaviour and sloppiness on the part of TPTB who I really expect better from but if we take it from a Watsonian pov then that leaves Elena purposefully choosing to accept those deaths as necessary or letting herself dwell in a sort of self-chosen obliviousness about it.

However it came about Elena accepted the deaths of two strangers in order to try and save the people she loved, a moral choice very much at odds with her deeply empathetic nature, but complete natural in the supernatural world she’s slowly been becoming a part of. And in doing so she ended up losing two people she loved, her final two parental figures, as well as watching the death of a woman she did know. So basically it all just backfired on her in the worst way and now I wonder if it’s going to cause her to re-examine her beliefs and choices and where she is going to go from here.

• “Are you Jules?” Oh, Elena. Just something about that really got to me. She has spent so much effort to not think about those others being sacrificed with her and then there’s Jenna and now even the werewolf is someone she knew. The way that she asks that is just so... sad. It broke my heart a little. I could just feel Elena already connecting to her. Despite Jules having killed Rose and trying to kill Caroline, Damon and Stefan she cared about Tyler, she loved Mason and wanted revenge for him (but put Tyler over revenge) and Elena is always able to move past past wrongs. Plus you know she feels guilty because it was her agreeing to the sacrifice that put a target on Jules back.

• I knew Jules was going to die as soon as she turned up in the previous episode. I felt really sorry for her – even if she did kill Rose and many other people – because when she tells Elena “I just didn’t want him to be alone” I believed her.

• I was pretty disappointed with how Greta was dealt with. We spent so much time with Jonas and Luka trying to save her and while I loved that she never needed saving because she was never lost how things played out ended up making everything about them pointless. She chose to be a bad guy which is great except we don’t get to know anything about why. Why did she abandon her family to side with Klaus? I really wanted to get Greta’s reaction to them being dead and how they died. To make the whole Martin storyline have any meaning or purpose there needed to be consequences for our heroes over what happened and for that you needed Greta. But she died before we even learned if she knew they were dead.

I was also really looking forward to a Greta vs Bonnie showdown but Damon zooming in and breaking her neck pretty much put an end to that as well. It was good planning on the part of the gang but bad for the part of me that wanted more. I think I’ve hit a fatigue point with all the deaths on the show because I am started to really dislike the way they keep killing off all these characters before their potential get’s to be fully explored, or even explored at all. It is very annoying.

• So Klaus isn’t dead and my first thought is that Alaric gets to keep having Katherine as a roommate. I guess that is one way to keep her on the show but still minimise the amount of chaos she can stir up. I’m just really glad she survived..

• I liked the Katherine/Damon scene at the beginning. I liked Katherine actually being worried about him, I liked his anger towards her, and I liked their exchange where he bitterly wonders how she managed to be the only one to win again, she points out “I didn’t let love get in the way” and he tells her to enjoy eternity alone. She was right about the love – it motivated all Elena’s actions, it motivated Jenna to leave the house and then attack Greta instead of running, it motivated John to give his life so Elena could be human, it motivated Elijah to keep Klaus alive, it motivated Stefan and Damon – this episode was really all about people letting their love lead their choices and actions even to the detriment of their health. But as a human Katherine believed that there was no point in living without love and I wonder if next season will be about Katherine learning to love again, or rather learning to put love first again and accept it into her life?

• How exactly are Elena and Jeremy going to explain Jenna and John’s disappearances? John is actually not that hard since he makes a habit of leaving Mystic Falls often and also his death didn’t actually need to be hidden since it wasn’t of obvious supernatural means. Jenna, on the other hand, is definitely not so easy to explain away. She is guardian to Elena and Jeremy. She goes to college and is writing her thesis. She maybe has a job. She has friends. She can’t just be hand waved as having left town. Is she just going to ‘disappear’? Neither of them are adults so are they going to need a guardian? If so who – Alaric? I am also curious about their living arrangements now. Are they going to continue to live in the family home? Elena technically owns the manor so could they perhaps move in there?

• If John had kept wearing the ring what would have happened? Would it have prevented the spell from working? Would he have died and then come back to life – and Elena in turn would have come to life and then died/been turned?