Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. These are the five stages of grief. And they were all on display, during this Very Special Episode of The Vampire Diaries . . . each with their own supernatural twists, of course.
So, break out your hankies, Fangbangers! Because this one is going to be a tearjerker . . .
(Oh, and please don’t forget to checkout my informal tribute to Jeremy Gilbert in Part 1 of this recap! JerBear needs your support today!)
[As always, special thanks to Andre for all the kickass screencaps you see here. He claims he’s going to not read this recap in protest of it’s inevitably schmaltzy content. But we don’t actually believe him, do we? :)]
Denial
“There’s absolutely no way that my brother is dead. I am NOT in denial.”
It’s Elena who first discovers Jeremy’s limp and lifeless body, covered in his own blood.
Poor guy! Dumped unceremoniously on the floor, while Katherine escaped to lord knows where . . .
. . . and “Silas” sauntered off to literally “put on his new face.”
A body like that deserves better . . . Ugly, decrepit, thousand plus year old Silas got his own entire tomb. Sexy Jer Bear should have at least gotten a small mausoleum, complete with a life-sized marble statute etched in his likeness . . . kind of like Michaelangelo’s David . . . except maybe not as tall . . .
She carries him all the way home from Nova Scotia swaddled in a blanket, like a baby.
“That’s not a casserole!”
Trust me, if Jeremy was alive to see that, he would have hated it. But Elena can’t help but baby Jeremy. He’ll always be her little brother, no matter how old or supernaturally buff he gets. Besides, he’s not really dead . . . just taking a supernatural ring-induced nap . . . right? RIGHT?
Damon stays back in Nova Scotia to find the still-missing Bonnie, and break the bad news about the cure to Rebekah. This leaves Stefan and Caroline to deal with Elena, and pass one another “She’s cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs,” looks, as Elena straddles the dead guy in his bed, and cups his ringed hand in her own, like she’s about to propose marriage. Jeremy would have hated that too!
Morbid as these scenes were, I have to laugh when Stefan tries to prevent Elena’s vampire ears from hearing him talk about her to Caroline by . . . TURNING ON THE SINK. Is this guy for real? This is even more ridiculous than his TURNING ON THE MOTORCYCLE last week to prevent Klaus from overhearing him.
I am proud of Elena for putting those two in their places.
She isn’t going nuts.
She has good reason to believe Jeremy is still alive . . . sort of. After all, this isn’t exactly the first time Jeremy Gilbert has laid lifeless on his bed . . . In fact, it’s probably the fourth or fifth.
And besides, JerBear lost his manly tattoos in the caves! That should make him human again, right? And humans wear rings of immortality that actually work, in this world . . . even if wearing them eventually turns their minds to mush. (Sorry Alaric.)
Elsewhere, in Denial Town, Caroline is hoping that a nice casserole will make everything better. Stefan is finally coming to grips with the fact that his ex-girlfriend might just wind up remaining a vampire bonded to Damon for all eternity. As for Damon, he’s in the forest, trying to convince himself he stayed behind just to find Bonnie . . . not not because he dreads having to face an utterly bereft Elena, and fears that he won’t be able to take away her pain.
But then poor Jer’s body starts getting grey and stinky. And for a girl with a vampire nose to avoid that, her denial has to not only exist, but be pretty darn deep. Is there a doctor in the house?
Anger
“NO! It’s NOT science. Where was science when you used vampire blood to save my life?”
Someone calls Doctor Meredith, who has to perform double duty as a coroner / undertaker, when she tries to convince Elena to “release the body to her.” (Shouldn’t she be wearing gloves, a lab coat . . . a surgical mask . . . something? Talk about unsanitary.)
Meri-DEATH drops a medical text book babble-filled truth bomb on Elena.
“Blah, blah, blah, bloodloss, bloating, blah, blah, blah . . . lividity . . . YOUR BROTHER IS A CORPSE! GET THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL!”
“NEVERRRRRR! DIE, PUNY HUMAN!”
And honestly, I can’t blame the newbie vamp for going full on Mean Girls rage fest on her ass. . .
After all, when has TVD given two licks about SCIENCE? Never!
“I like science!”
NOBODY CARES, SHANE!
This is a world where Mythological “Rules” are made to be broken, and science just plain doesn’t exist . . . (which likely explains why the students at Mystic Falls High only seem to attend classes in history and gym). Meredith, herself, probably had to get shipped off to Nova Scotia just to attend Med School.
Stefan immediately leaps into Hero Mode, in order to prevent Elena from murdering his wife The Only Doctor / Coroner / Undertaker / Supernatural Shrink in Mystic Falls. But he need not worry. All it takes is for Matt Donovan to pop by with his Cry Face, and Elena melts into a warm puddle of goo . . . as do we all . . .
Maybe this Matt Kid has superpowers, after all!
Elsewhere in Anger Town, “Shane” breaks the news to Bonnie that JerBear has taken off his shirt for her for the very last time. Girlfriend is so pissed that her hookup prospects have just been limited to . . . that guy who’s sort of/ kind of her brother, that she starts to burn down the ENTIRE FOREST WITH HER MIND! Smokey the Bear would definitely not approve . . .
At this point, part of me was REALLY hoping that Bonnie would turn into the Lost smoke Monster and eat “Shane” ass . . .
But alas, it was not to be . . .
Also angry? Perpetually Cockblocked Damon! Damn that Stupid Bond for making him feel perpetually guilty about getting laid by the woman he’s loved for our seasons! He’d like to KILL that sire bond, if he could. But he can’t. So, instead, he uses Rebekah as a human shield to block the arrow heading for his heart. He then beats that Vampire Hunter Vaughn Guy, within in an inch of his life.
By the way, I’m still trying to figure out what that guy’s purpose on the show is exactly. Has JerBear’s death and Tyler’s “disappearance” left an opening for Window Dressing on the TVD Casting Roster? If so, why is Vaughn always wearing so much clothes?
Bargaining
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Bonnie . . . Bonnie . . . Bonnie. Everybody needs Bonnie. She’s been the magical answer to seemingly every supernatural kerfuffle into which the gang has got itself embroiled in the past. Why not this one too?
The problem, of course, is that Bonnie doesn’t want to be found. She wants to curl up into a ball and die, thank you very much. So, “Shane” has to take drastic measures. He has to get his eyes all wide and buggy, and mesmerize Bonnie into believing she could bring JerBear and his hot bod back to life.
When that doesn’t work, he literally brings back the dead . . . albeit temporarily. Suddenly, JerBear is on the floor asking Bonnie for help. Nevermind that he is actually back in Mystic Falls stinking up the Gilbert house . . .
Bonnie doesn’t question it. She’s still enamored with the memories of her hand running across that delicate firmly muscled skin. She’ll do whatever it takes to get that body back. Fortunately, “Shane” has the solution. Bringing JerBear back to the world of the living? It’s easy. All you have to do is murder twelve innocent humans. No biggie!
Just when Damon is about to return home Bonnie-less, the intrepid witch literally runs right into his arms. Bonnie and Damon hugging? Without trying to strangle one another, in the process? Clearly, the apocalypse is upon us!
Speaking of the apocalypse, since when did “Silas” become Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects? From the character’s mythological “too bad to be true” beginnings, to his masquerading as that doofus nerd, Professor Dumpy Dork . . . They even had the temporarily incapacitated Vaughn borrow a line straight from that iconic film, when he was warning Rebekah about the big bad’s inevitable escape. “How do you run from the Devil, if you don’t even know what he looks like?”
Yeah, I don’t know about you. But I wasn’t all that shocked when the soon-to-be-dead Shane revealed that Silas had somehow assumed his form, in order to wreak havoc on Mystic Falls.
“Anybody have a toothbrush I could borrow?”
I was only surprised he didn’t do it sooner. That said, I have to say that”Shane” is much sexier as Evil Silas, than he ever was as that annoying, boring mythology spewing, Professor Dumpy Dork. So, there might be hope for this character yet . . .
“You like me? You really like me?”
Meanwhile back home, Matt brings Elena to school, to show her that it’s OK to still have hope for her brother’s survival. And why not? School is a pretty hopeful place for the Scooby Gang.
“So this is what our high school looks like. I forgot!”
Think about it. They haven’t been there for months, and yet no one has ever been expelled!
It kind of makes me wonder what the writers are going to do with the inevitable “college” transition for this group. I mean, these guys are seniors, right? Have they even applied to colleges at this point? Have they taken their SATs? I guess the crew is counting on compelling the admissions officers of the colleges of their choice. Otherwise, I sincerely hope that Mystic Falls has its own community college . . .
Tyler: “I’m a Phoenix!”
Caroline: “No you aren’t, Loser. You’re a hybrid.”
Tyler: “No, I mean the online colle . . . never mind.”
Anywhoo, Damon brings Bonnie back home, and she explains Silas’ Wackadoo Plan. Crazy TVD Mythology Alert!
So, here’s the deal . . . Bonnie’s Desperate Loony Ancestor apparently somehow created this separate purgatory for all dead supernatural beings, all so that, when immortal Silas took The Cure and died, his Vampire/Witch self would be separated from his human beloved forever. But if Bonnie murders 12 humans, that Other Side will somehow cease to exist. This means that all currently dead Supernaturals come back to life, and all soon-to-be dead supernaturals, like Silas, can go to Heaven (or Hell) just like their human counterparts.
Sounds great, right? Except for the fact that some of these supernaturals are SERIOUSLY BAD DUDES . . . folks like the Hidey Hole Vamps, Esther, Mikael, Kol, and those hot Vampire Hunters from the Original Five to name a few . . . folks that the Scooby Gang REALLY doesn’t want to see come back to life. Let’s not forget the fact that doing this involves KILLING MORE PEOPLE.
Aside from that, I’m pretty sure Silas/ Shane is full of sh*t. I don’t think he has any plans for bringing these people back as anything but evil zombies, primed to do his bidding . . . but that’s just me . . .
Except, maybe it’s not just me. Because while Bonnie is spitting her Silas-imbibed Crazy Juice all over the Gilbert Kitchen table, Elena is getting this look on her face. It’s a look of understanding . . . of realization . . . of knowledge . . . of . . .
Depression
“There is nothing here for me anymore, Stefan. Every inch of this house is filled with my love for people who have died.”
April calls looking for Jeremy, and Elena admits that he can’t come to the phone. . . because he’s dead. She admits it to April, at the same time that she admits it to herself. There is no more denial. No more anger. No more bargaining. All that is left is the stench of death, rising from Jeremy’s bed . . . and depression.
As the rest of the Scooby Gang looks on in horror, Elena impulsively drowns the house in kerosene. She tosses Jeremy’s sketches, and his X-box on the floor, along with the dearly departed Alaric’s bourbon. She gives Damon Jeremy’s immortality ring (a foreshadowing to Damon’s eventual inadvertent transformation back into a human?).
She’s crying and babbling like a woman who has officially lost all of her family.
She’s scaring Caroline, who has made a vampire career in Keeping up Appearances . . . who hasn’t been able to reach Tyler to tell him what is going on, and who is being eaten up inside by grief, guilt, and concern for her friend.
Outside in his car, Matt has just dropped Wackadoo Bonnie at home, and has finally allowed himself to experience the loss he has been holding at bay for Elena’s benefit. His wrenching release of emotion is arguably more heartbreaking than anything we’ve experienced throughout this entire emotional episode . . .
Back in the Gilbert’s house, Elena is inconsolable. She’s screaming and crying. She’s in pain. Suddenly, it’s as if all the familial losses of the past three seasons, that she’s kept at bay, in order to soldier on, have suddenly revisited themselves upon her, with a vengeance.
It’s one of the curses of being immortal. You are doomed to watch the people you love die, over and over again. And you can never join them. It’s something Stefan and Damon have inevitably had to cope with in their long lives.
But Elena is not 165. She is only 18. And she has already lost more loved ones than she can count on her fingertips. She’s not sure she’ll be able to survive this . . . and, quite, honestly, neither are her friends.
Damon and Stefan both love Elena, in their own ways. And it literally kills them to see her in this much pain.
Stefan tells Damon to do what he has to do to help Elena, even if it involves invoking the dreaded sire bond.
I’ve actually given this a lot of thought. I’ve tried to determine whether Damon had any other options available to him, to help Elena, aside from doing what he ultimately did. Had he done nothing, but comforted her, and allowed her to cry on his shoulder, would she have eventually soldiered on? Or would she have become so bereft that she ultimately took her own life, by meeting the sun?
In terms of evoking the sire bond, was there some other command Damon could have given, aside from the one he ultimately gave to ease her pain? My first thought was that he could have told her to simply substitute her sadness for feelings of hope and comfort. But I suspect that would not have worked. After all, though rooted in love, the sire bond actually only effects actions, and cannot be used to CHANGE emotions, in and of, itself.
A more practicable solution would have been for Damon to tell Elena to FORGET . . . FORGET that Jeremy had died. . . FORGET all the loss she experienced. Heck, he could even tell her to believe that Jeremy had stayed in Denver. And she would have believed it, if she thought that believing that would have made him happy.
But would that have been a better solution, or an even more inhumane one?
So, Damon did what I believe he truly felt was his only option. He told Elena to turn off her humanity, and her emotions, even if it meant that her love for him would cease to exist. He did it to spare her pain . . . possibly to save her life. He did it to give her the gift of . . .
Acceptance?
“I’m not enough for her. Not this time.”
Outside, for their very last Porch Scene, Damon and Stefan come to, if not necessarily a truce, at least an understanding of one another. Damon explains to Stefan why what he did for Elena was the only possible solution in his eyes.
Damon assumes he will eventually be able to use the sire bond to bring back Elena’s humanity, when the time is right. But, honestly, I’m not so sure. If the sire bond is seeped in Elena’s preexisting love for Damon, what happens when she no longer feels that love. Will he still have the same hold on her? That remains to be seen.
Anywhoo, the loss of Jeremy, in a weird way, brings these two brothers together, who, despite their differences, are grateful to still have one another, even after all these years . . .
Inside, Elena gives her brother one last look, before coldly lighting the match that will ultimately incinerate her childhood home. In telling Elena to reconsider her decision, Stefan is appealing to a humanity that Elena no longer has. She answers dispassionately.
What a waste of good artwork!
A home fire is the best excuse for Jeremy’s untimely demise. So what if April Young, who was told Jeremy was dead hours ago, asks questions? She could always be terminated . . .
In the final moments of the episode, Damon, Stefan and Elena leave the Gilbert House in a Slo Mo sequence that manages to be both Bad Ass and Utterly Depressing at the same time . . .
It’s kind of like watching the opening scene to Reservoir Dogs over again . . . after you’ve seen it before, and know that pretty much everyone is going to die . . .
Back inside the Gilbert household, Jeremy burns to a crisp, along with his drawings, his sneakers, his X-Box, and let’s not forget Elena’s diary. Don’t fret, JerBear. Other Side or No Other Side, you can rest assured you are going to get laid like a champ in the Great Beyond . . . Dead or alive that body of yours is just too good to resist!
I’m burning up for your love, JerBear!
Next week on TVD, Evil Elena eats some cheerleaders, joins a nudist colony, and engages in a foursome with Stefan, Damon, and Caroline. In other words, “Bring it On” is going to be the best fanfiction ever written!
See you in a few weeks, Fangbangers!
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The Exquisite Corpse
TV Recappers Anonymous 
Meri-DEATH! Bwahaaa! So many feels. And lest we forget, one of my favorite characters, Elena’s mini-Woobie, it toast (unless some guy that’s in love with her had smuggled it into his bed pre-blaze)! I personally think the wise thing would be to give the GerOutOfDeathFreeRing (not) to Matty–he deserves it after his tear-jerking performance this week! Loved the 5 stages of grief–BRILLILANT! And I bet Andre leaves a comment (he HAD to read the recap in order to screencap it–lol)! I’m calling the new-old resident of Mystic Falls Shilas–possibly he’s a shapeshifter, even though it’s been suggested to me that he’s just influencing Bonster’s mind to “see” Shane and very careful nobody else saw him. Vaughn was a set-up tool for ‘The Originals’–how ELSE would we have known Katherine caught up with Hayley in New Orleans? lol I don’t think the Bermuda Expression Triangle of Death is actually gonna work–after all, it would not only bring Jer back, it would bring QETSIYAH back, and who wants her? Shilas has some other master plan than just going to the afterlife with his dead human lady-love. CharKol was right–if Shilas’ plan works, it would be the End of the World–death by population explosion! Great two-parter–loved it!
Oh, that adorable teddy bear! How could we forget about him? It is possible he survived the Gilbert fire! After all, Elena had been sleeping at La Casa de Rich and Awesome fairly frequently, once JerBear started trying to murder her on a regular basis. I’m suspecting she took the bear with her in her overnight case. 🙂 This way, on those rare nights that she couldn’t sleep with the Real Thing, at least she had a surrogate.
You bring up a really good point about no one, apart from Bonnie having actually seen Professor Dumpy Dork (aside from Rebekah, who seemingly saw “The Other One.”) So, there is a good chance that this is just another example of Silas manifesting himself as another person, like he did back when he was in the crypt. There was just something about the way that scene between her and Damon in the forest was shot, that seemed to suggest as much.
Personally, I’d love to see a bit of a “Fight Club Ending” for this storyline, wherein they replay all the scenes between Bonnie and Shilas, to show that the wackadoo has actually been talking to herself this whole time. (Now, if only she’d then start kicking her own ass a la Tyler Durden! I’ve been wanting to see Bonnie literally beat herself up for about three seasons now.)
Reading your recaps is almost as much fun as watching the episodes! I recently discovered The Vampire Diaries and watched all seasons up to (of course) this episode. After that I read all your recaps (love them!! And I totally agree with the hotness that is Damon Salvatore, oh my…. Rose was oh so right when she said that the man / vampire is almost literally dripping sex!).
Anyway, this was a very emotional episode…. In the beginning I had my doubts about Jeremy whether he would be really really dead, but as it turns out he is. And how sad that may be, I had a bit of a laugh when Stefan said “[Jeremy] was starting to decompose”. Lol.
I kinda like Bonnie’s (VERY BAD) plan to drop the veil of the Other Side and by doing that releasing every supernatural creature ever. I think it’ll give the show a needed boost, plus it gives our Scooby Gang something to do while the Originals are leaving town in the foreseeable future.
Oh and I LOVED Damon’s and Rebekah’s bad cop / worse cop approach. So awesome! They should do that more often.
Regarding the “turn it off” bit…. Yeah, I gave that a lot of thought too… I agree with you and I also think that Damon was a bit out of his dept there. Re the forgetting part, I don’t know if that would’ve worked, forgetting sounds more like compelling and, as we know, that wouldn’t have worked. However, I found that scene very moving. They have been through so much and I liked the paralell there. Damon switched his humanity off (the season 1 Damon), Elena brought him back, now Elena switched her humanity off and Damon is now possibly the only person who can bring her back. But maybe I’m too much of a romantic 😉
I also found the porch scene between the brothers very moving and fitting. Good to see them bonding, they’ll need that with Elena on the loose and becoming a Katherine 2.0 (which I think will be awesome btw).
Regarding the Gilbert house….. I’ll miss that house!! So many important things have happened there, it was almost a character in itself (ha! The Gilbert Kitchen of Death!!). It was also very symbolic, the burning of the house and Jeremy.
Thanks so much, MarLin. You bring up an interesting point about Bonnie’s plan to drop the veil between this world and the Other Side potentially being successful. In fact, if I recall correctly, there was an episode back in Season 3, where they did something very similar. Remember, the Hidey Hole Vamps returned, along with Anna, Vicki, Lexi and Pearl?
Part of me wonders if ACTUALLY physically bringing back the dead (as opposed to just bringing them back temporarily as ghosts) would result in the “Pet Cemetery” problem, of having them all be evil zombies. 🙂 Now, that would be a kick to watch. I think I’d particularly enjoy seeing a zombie version of Useless Aunt Jenna. 😉
I also liked your idea / prediction that Damon would be the one to ultimately rescue Elena’s humanity, just like she did for him, earlier on in the series. In fact, many have predicted that Damon will somehow end up becoming human toward the end of this season. Wouldn’t it be cool if a HUMAN Damon was the one to save Elena’s humanity? 🙂
You also bring up a good point about the difference between the sire bond and compulsion. I actually think, when it comes to direct commands, there’s a very fine line between the two, which is why Damon’s been so cautious / hesitant with regard to how he speaks to Elena, ever since he learned of the bond. Just like with compulsion, when Damon tells Elena to do a particular action, she does it, without really questioning it. The difference between this and compulsion is that the root of the action is different. A compelled person mindlessly obeys, whereas Elena obeys, subconsciously because she wants to please Damon.
Depending on the nature of the command, I think using the sire bond still raises some of the same ethical concerns as compulsion. And I suspect that this is something with which Elena and Damon will have to grapple with, once she returns to her true self.
Hi Jules! I was disillusioned with TVD for a while. I skipped a few weeks before catching up, which was surprisingly enjoyable. Then disappointed. Then this episode hapened. “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.” In spite of a few weirdnesses (why was Caroline on the phone all the time? why did Stefan say Elena feels grief more powerfully than anyone?), this is one of my favorites. I STILL am hoping for Jeremy’s return, but, damn, making characters comment on his rotting scent and showing close ups of his burning corpse? Cold.
I had the exact same thought as you re Keyser Soze. I had to laugh out loud when I heard Vaughan’s delivery. He was so earnest, but I thought, what is this, The Usual Suspects?? For me, the episode had a real (or almost real) death (I was hardly affected by the others because they were fake or so drawn out), characters reacting to one another, and no Klaroline. I keep trying to like the ship, but when the two of them share a moment I feel confused and physically repulsed.
ANYWAY, I realized I’ve actually been most intrigued by the Bonnie/Shane/Silas storyline this season. It was pretty boring and repetitive at first, but apparently I’m drawn to boring aspects of TVD (Stefan, Finn, Connor, anyone?), probably because they’re more mysterious. Looking back, I’m actually impressed that Shane told lies lies freaking annoying lies in almost every scene he was in. And I’m interested in how Bonnie hasn’t had a mentor since Grams, and her friends (apart from Caroline) aren’t too concerned about where her new powers came from and about sharing knowledge about shady Shane.
So Bonnie turns to the person who is there for her. Shane ostensibly wants her to be independent, but in fact he wants her to be completely dependent on him, to the point that she could die without him. Yikes! And where was Bonnie when she got the bad news about Jeremy? With Shane/Silas and only Shane/Silas. There are also echoes of Quetsiya/Silas in that he’s using her for her magic in order to be reunited with his wife. After all the manipulation and hypnotism, Bonnie finally went over the edge and appears to be semi-possessed like Shane was.
I was stunned (but shouldn’t have been) when the gang decided to let Matt drop off Bonnie so she could sleep off her plans of mass murder. It looks like the next episode will focus on Elena being a bad girl, because a partial apocalypse is less important than a teenage vampire. I hope they don’t diffuse the Silas/veil storyline anytime soon, because every supernatural show seems to need a “the earth is doomed” storyline.
[Also, I had an alarming realization that I once had a crush on a youngish teacher with curly black hair who was inspiring but turned out to be shady. My friends didn’t tell me because they thought we were too close. Coincidence?? D:]
The rest of the episode is just too sad. :,( Thanks for your recaps, Julie! Good to be back.
Hey Noelle, I think, like you, a lot of fans experienced a sort of mini-breakup with TVD over the past few episodes. The use of telephone calls as narrative recapping devices pissed the heck out of me. And yeah, the Scooby Gang’s insistence that Special Snowflake Elena “hurts” more than anyone else, was eyeroll inducing. That said, I agree with you that this week’s episode had a lot of the emotional resonance that the three previous ones have lacked.
I also agree with you about Poor JerBear’s death being probably the least classy in TVD history. He literally stunk up the joint, and then was burnt into oblivion . . . not the way most of us envision our final moments, that’s for sure That’s why part of me is hoping we at least get one ghostly JerBear visit, if for no other reason than that it will allow me to wipe his grey-faced visage from my memory.
You bring up a good point about Bonnie and why she’s taken a sudden detour to crazy town. In a way, I liken it to joining a cult. Cult leaders are charismatic, like Shane/Silas, and prey on the lonely and vulnerable. Whereas, in the past, Bonnie has been portrayed as a strong, relatively intelligent character, lately the focus has been on her aloneness. Whereas the rest of the Scooby Gang is quick to worry about Elena at any sign that she might be the least bit sad, or acting out, Bonnie has been spending hours alone with creepy Shane for weeks, and though everybody seemed to distrust him, nobody thought to give Bonnie the intervention she so desperately needed. If it had been Elena, in Bonnie’s shoes, you know they’d all be waiting on her doorstep, the minute she said the word “expression.”
I’m also with you on next week, most likely being a bit of a “filler episode,” more memorable for its satire and comic relief, than for any lasting plot developments that might occur within the hour. The fact that the episode is being called “Bring it On” (a nod to the Disney franchise) seems to suggest as much. Actually, from what I’ve read, a good portion of the regular cast won’t even be featured in the next episode, which will focus exclusively on Elena, Damon, Stefan and Caroline. I guess the writers feel like fans need a breather, after the emotional heaviness of “Stand By Me.”
I can’t say I disagree with them, in that regard. 🙂
Julie I didn’t say I wouldn’t read it out of protest I said “I cannot guarantuee that I will have the strength to read a recap to this shitty episode.” And quite frankly I am gonna have to gather a lot of strength to do this and thankfully the next TVD episode won’t air before the 14th March.
This episode was one of the worst I have ever seen and it was a classic example of everything that is wrong with this show and to adequately address this I will have to take a hiatus of my own until the weekend. Then I am gonna comment on this show and the recap in full. Until then it’s not possible for me. I have to really and 100 % cool down because this episode was just such a giant fuck-up it was unbelievable.
For me to enjoy this show, I would need to create an immense amount of suspension of disbelief, based on simply consuming what the show feeds me without questioning anything and making one excuse after another for their constant plotholes and calling it theories and explanations.
How you people do that. How you can seemingly just ignore the show’s constant flaws. I simply cannot conceive. To deal with this I will need time.
And quite frankly one thing I can say already:
You, and I mean all Delenas, give the show credit it simply does not deserve in my eyes. Not just with all the stuff regarding Bonnie and all the other secondary tools of this show. But with your main reason for watching this show: Delena. Why do I say this? Because I think you Delenas got screwed. You got screwed big time. For more than 2 seasons the writers teased you, and the way you reacted to it looked to me like starving jackals devouring every piece of meat that got tossed to you and treat it like a feast. And now they gave you this crap. After all this time and all this teasing they gave you this total crap on the level of a preschooler and sold it as gold to you. I have no idea whether they produce this bullshit on purpose or have no idea/or no possibility of storytelling. But in either case: Man they screwed you so much!!!
I will explain why I think that in my full post as well but like I said not now. Too early for this.
So since this comment is not much good for this recap I can just as well use it for some other stuff that might interest you and your readers:
http://www.hypable.com/2013/02/23/teen-wolf-releases-5-behind-the-scenes-videos-picture-from-opening-scene-of-season-3/
Also I started to read the fourth book of the Mortal Instruments series. For all their, many many, flaws the first three books were at least relaxing, most of the time. But number four…
So far I would say don’t read it. It is just so melodramatic, it is like watching Delena over and over again so far. The main male lead is the same ass as always, the main female is starting to become as annoying as Elena and nobody really calls them out. Also even for YA standards this “love” (seriously they have been in a relationship for only 6 weeks) is ridiculously fast and overdramatic. And as for Clare’s “gay characters”, same problem. That was already ridiculous in book 2 and 3 but now…. I am currently at page 108 or so on my ebook and I already rolled my eyes so often at it I lost count. And there is no reason for creating this ridiculous teen angst. Should the book lose its relaxing effect on me completely I will stop reading, plain and simple.
Seriously, so far I would say, you missed nothing when you don’t read it. Absolutely nothing.
I will only speak for myself (obviously), but I would like to comment on your post. Just to shed a little light on how some people watch TVD.
For me, TVD is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Yes, the show has plotholes you could drive a truck through. Yes, the show has a lot of flaws. Yes, the show doesn’t handle every storyline as good as it should. Does that bother me? No. Nope. Never have. Never will.
TVD is brain-off television. It’s entertaining enough and it doesn’t require a lot of working braincells (always nice after a hard day of work 😉 ). The eyecandy is top notch. The acting is (very) good. There is humour. I don’t take the show very serious. And, admittedly, my expectations have always been very low regarding TVD, so I’m never disappointed 🙂
The thing I’m more curious about is why you seem to get so upset with this show. I mean, that’s not worth it, right? It’s just tv…. 🙂
You at least seem to know what you are doing there and apparently can see at least some of the show’s flaws. But why do you watch it then? If you just want to relax why do you watch a show like this? It’s not as though you have to look for the flaws, they get thrown right into your face. And I doubt that even those that defend it are not on some level aware of this. It must hit some nerve or people would not get so upset when you criticize it. Seriously I came across some weird “fans”, I don’t know whether you know it, but this show attracts a lot of A-class nutjobs. So while you don’t seem to take this show serious, others definitely do.
Even some say this show is unpredictable. Why I cannot fathom. Seriously this show is totally predictable. They basically do the same thing over and over. In each season there was a vampiric entity of one form or another suddenly occurring mid-season. In each season a “twist” occurs around mid-season. In each case Elena is in the center of it and the two males have to deal with it. In each season they basically graft Damon the way they want to make him look like the “hero.” And in case of Elena, for three seasons now do they adapt the universe to her and not the other way around. You can really predict that each new twist will involve Elena. Furthermore nearly every new black character is a witch or somehow connected to it and in each case when it is a witch (no matter what skin color) they actually end up serving/helping vampires instead of going against them. Every new threat so far turned out to be no actual threat at all, seriously who here did not predict that the hybrids would be whimps?
There is definitely some more stuff that is repetitive, like the whole triangle thing or that barely any new blood survives (so why fans are hoping for actually new love interests is a mystery to me), but I want to keep it short now.
And no matter what situations they create they always chicken out when it gets tough and difficult (erasing Jeremy’s memory, having Tyler leave, shutting off humanity, never dealing with the effect of Caroline’s tortures) as if they cannot deal with that. This they have done for 4 seasons and so no one can just say “it was right what the characters did” and put that forth as an argument. The writers did that too often to still have that be a plausible explanation.
I personally think with your smileys and your last sentence you showed what I regard the ultimate flaw in reasoning.
Many say, it’s just a show or it’s just TV. If it is just that, why is it that the show is so popular?
Shows or TV are never “just that.” They show what works and what many people want. A successful show promotes itself by at the same time giving viewers what they want and at the same time creating the need in viewers to want what is promoted. And that is what TVD does. It drags the Twilight hype out as long as it can and at the same time promotes the attractiveness of its main cast and advertizes for new viewers by its over the top pacing and opening scenes.
And saying that “it’s just TV” is the same as saying “it’s just fiction.” But Fiction does not have to be illogical. Within a fictional world there are rules of structure that make the world seem tangible. Logic does exist within it because without it there would be no plotline. And here the only plotline now is “For Elena.” Nothing else matters. Elena has to be in the center no matter what and even that they are not doing in a good way. Also the importance of fiction is seriously underestimated. Think just for a minute about history. Think how much was just fiction and what effect they had, and I am not talking about Twilight, I am talking of all these films created by Hollywood that promoted one stereotype and prejudice after another.
Also in my eyes this show promotes racism (think about it, how many POCs on this show have survived so far in comparison to the overall non-statist POCs, and how many of them died actual noble deaths and whose sacrifices had positive consequences) and sexism (how often had males rescued females here and how often vice versa? Not even vampirism could get Elena out of her dumbass in distress status). Also its blatant disregard of history is a slap in the face. You could say that this is a show of vampires and witches so it doesn’t have to be historically accurate. Well, wrong. Because it is based on our world, with references to our world, so it has to play by the same historical rules and not portray the antebellum south as a paradise without slavery, not gloss over the bloody civil war and especially not eradicate its natives by making the Originals, and especially Klaus, white.
Also think about it: How big is the chance that Bonnie would ever claim that Mystic Falls is her town and not that of the others (her claim is even better than Klaus)?
In addition I see no humor in this show. Not one bid. Only lame ass wannabe jokes.
I cannot ignore the flaws of this show; they are way too obvious to that. Like I said they are
And this is what bugs me: Why is this crap so popular? It’s flaws are legion but people are not driven away by it? They are drawn to it. They make excuses and simply seem to forget it. Or like in your case they simply watch it.
But why? Is there really nothing better in American TV when you simply want a brain-off show? Is that the best your media industry can produce?
Or is the cast so visually appealing that nothing else matters?
And why should the acting matter if the stories are crap? And seriously, when was the last time they handled a story actually well?
Did you ever ask yourself what that means that such crap like this with so many issues gets so popular and is regarded as progressive and good?
Andre, I’m just really, really curious… why exactly do YOU watch this show? No offence, really, but I don’t get it. Everytime I read what you wrote it’s just about how crappy this show is and how you don’t get why people like it – but why are you still watching it? Because you wait for it to get better? Or just because you like to get upset about it? I would really like to know you reasons not to stop watching. 🙂
The short answer is:
I want to know what these people, whoever is responsible for this crap, are thinking.
And also, why this stuff is liked, successfull and even stated as progressive when its so obviously sexist, racist, over the top and as MarLin puts it “has plotholes you could drive a truck through.”
And I also wonder why people either don’t see it when it practically flies into their face or are not bothered by it at all.
Take this season so far:
In all previous seasons they stated time and again that vampires are also people and deserve to be happy and now they kill them left and right to get what they want and none of the characters has any problem with it. Another reason why Elena was so badly written and Dobrev’s performance so annoying, apart from the fact that her face was way too smooth for actual crying out of despair. She whines about how she would not sacrifice people to get her brother back but apparently she had no problem to kill who knows how many people just to get to the cure. This would be not so bad were it intentional. Elena could be a really good villain, a self rightuous, manipulative, dumb, androgynistic and whiny bitch that lays waste to everything she touches and blames everybody else. But she is not that, worse she is the girl we are all supposed to relate to.
And despite what some people here state about Damon accepting her as she is. He puts her on a pedastal as much as every other of her friends. Elena is supposed to be this figure of righteousness whom we should fell sorry now.
Well I can’t. And I mean that literally. I can’t fell sorry for her.
Thank you for your answer. So you still hope that someday everything will make sense, or rather you yourself try to make sense of it. 😀
I have to admit that I feel the same way about Elena. I do not relate to her and I do not see her like she is probably supposed to be seen (i.e. the way you describe it). I feel sorry for Jeremy, for Alaric, etc… but I, too, can’t feel sorry for Elena.
However, I still enjoy watching the show. I don’t know why. If you would ask me to ‘defend’ the show, I probably couldn’t do so – or rather I’m not keen on discussing or explaining myself. Nevertheless, I respect and in some aspects understand your point of view. 🙂
Actually what you say I heard very often and that is why I think that this show is only successfull because of its marketing. Because what else is there? Character development? Barely and if at all its rather to fit Elena and “drama.” Is it surprising? At least in my eyes no. Unpredictable? Surely not. If I would find myself saying that I like something and have no idea why I would wonder whether I haven’t fallen to advertisement.
Basically the show promotes being rich, attractive, white and stereotypical gender roles. And it simply overexposes the three main lamers. And not in a good way. I mean how often did they do what normal couples do? When was the last time they didn’t stumble from one crisis to the other? Thinking about it, where they ever truly couples?
Well, at least in my case, I can’t be advertisement. I’m not living in America, and although now and then I see some advertisement here, too, I don’t think that is the reason for watching the show. Maybe Jules is my advertisement. 😀 When I see that she posted a new blog entry, I watch the show so I can read her recap. However, I still want to know how the show continues.
I just can’t imagine Elena having breakfast with Stefan or Damon, who sipp on a bloodbag, talking about gossip and what they did yesterday.. and then perhaps going to minigolf (does that word exist? But I think you know what I mean). I guess Caroline and Matt/Tyler were more of a couple than the main characters.
Having couples do actually normal things is important to show why they are a couple. After all, take all the “drama” away, all the supernatural stuff, and what is left off the main three?
Ok, I think you misunderstood me and I guess that is my own fault. I didn’t really explain the marketing topic.
This show isn’t so much advertized via the regular channels, it rather advertizes itself via its content. I think it does so by following four very simple rules:
1) Follow the current trend
2) Avoid any difficult topics or play them down
3) Pay lip service to at least some difficult topics to keep minorities silent enough and create the illusion of including everybody and dealing with those topics
4) Assign everything not normative to ambivalent and evil characters, preferably those that die or leave quickly
Examples for the three rules would be:
1) the vampire craze, the bad boy stereotype, the story of the good girl saving the bad boy, romanticizing of obsessive feelings and sex (advocated as love), advocating wealth you do nothing for, romanticizing teen age
2) slavery, domestic abuse, anger issues, obsession, racism, divorce, growing up too fast, death, complexities of the wider world, complexities of relationships, the werewolf transformation, sexism
3) Bonnie, Sheriff Forbes, Bill, Sheila, Matt, Vicky, Elijah, the hybrids, the werewolf transformation, Jeremy, Pearl
4) Sage, Katherine, Lexi, Lucy, Jamie, Bill, Connor, Kim, Pearl
Especially examples of point 3 and 4 can easily overlap. There are more examples but I wanted to keep it short. I think by following these rules, they basically make everything right to sell itself to an audience that wants things kept easy despite the danger this poses. And as to not bore them quickly and get new viewers the show at the same time creates the illusion of being deep by having a fast pace and throwing one needless element in after another (e.g. Michael’s cannibalism, the hunter’s curse, the witches as servants of nature, spirits etc.).
Thereby the show is basically advertisement and nothing more. Advertisement that works. They are bad storytellers per excellence, but advertise the show they can.
Damn youtube playlists, I fell for it again. This was the Magical Negro video I was referring to: