Greetings, Fangbangers! In addition to my being away from home these past couple of days . . .
. . . another lame excuse valid reason for this recap being MASSIVELY late is that, honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what tone to strike with this review. I mean, normally, for an episode where a character dies, but everyone proceeds to “hang out” with him for the entire hour, as if he’s still alive, I’d make a few inappropriate Weekend at Bernie’s jokes, and call it a day . .
But this is Jeremy Gilbert, we are talking about! My JerBear! One of the last few, proud, representatives of Team Human!
Well . . . at least . . . he WAS human . . .
JerBear was the heart and soul of this show . . . its Moral Compass . . .
. . . well, except for that time when he did all those drugs . . . and chopped that guy’s head off . . . and murdered that Really Nice Hybrid . . . and indirectly killed 12,000 vampires . . . and tried to murder his sister.
But other than that . . . TOTAL Moral Compass!
And though this episode was spectacular in terms of its powerfully written scenes, and the stellar acting performances of everyone involved (most notably Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Zach Roerig, and Candice Accola), as a Goodbye Episode for our JerBear, a character whose been there since Day One. . . well . . . I mean . . . he literally just laid there and stunk up the joint.
Think about it. Alaric got a candlelight vigil . . .
. . . Uncle/Father John got to give a poignant monologue . . .
. . . Aunt Jenna got a classy funeral . . .
. . . even those doofuses from the Anti-Vampire Council got a memorial service.
JerBear got burnt up on the couch, and was left there to rot . . .
So, I decided that, before I begin my recap proper (which I will do, in Part 2), it would only be right to include a REAL tribute to the one, the only, Mini Gilbert, the TVD Scooby Gang’s very own Scrappy Doo . . .
Jeremy Gilbert was a character with humble beginnings. Back in Season 1, he was the “tortured artist” . . . the bratty emo loner kid / erstwhile pothead who abuses drugs, and gets swept up in the “Bad Crowd” just to please a girl . . .
I think even Steven R. McQueen himself, would admit that JerBear began the show as a bit of a cliche . . . And yet, McQueen somehow managed to give this paint-by-numbers character a certain amount of gravitas that it wouldn’t have had in the hands of a lesser actor.
Things got a bit more interesting for TVD’s youngest cast member, as the season wore on. Of course, no one could forget his hatred / thinly veiled homoerotic tension with then-Alpha Male Douchebag, Tyler Lockwood . . .
But I think the real defining moment for Jeremy Gilbert came when his character got embroiled in a surprisingly sweet, and almost innocent (but not quite, because those two f*&ked like bunnies) relationship with the mysterious and alluring, but refreshingly geeky, Vampire Anna . . .
Already an orphan, and having lost his first two loves, Vicki and Anna, to vampire related death, in the course of a single season, JerBear’s life was pretty much in the sh*tter through most of season 2.
And the poor guy inadvertently made a career of getting his ass kicked, and/or getting killed / revived (thanks to a supernatural ring, and a witchy pal) just about every other episode.
Then, came the deaths of literally every guardian figure he ever knew . . .
Did I mention how the writers randomly decided to turn him into The Kid from The Sixth Sense, around Season 3?
It would be enough to make even the strongest of teenagers, curl up in a ball and never come out of bed. But through it all, Jeremy was surprisingly resilient.
Rather than turning him inward, Jeremy’s losses helped open him up to some pretty awesome bromances with Alaric Saltzman . . .
Damon Salvatore . . .
Tyler Lockwood . . .
and, most recently, Matt Donovan . . .
We’ll just conveniently forget about that snoozer of a relationship he had with Bonnie Bennett . . . you know the one where he chose to date a CORPSE over her, because that was more exciting for him . . . and us . . .
And through it all, Little Brother Jeremy was fiercely loyal to and protective of his sister . . . at least when he wasn’t trying to stake her newfound vampire ass . . .
And this season? With this whole Vampire Hunter thing? It really did seem like Jeremy Gilbert was destined for big things . . . and no, I’m not just talking about his INSANE pectoral muscles . . . thank you, for those, by the way, Mr. McQueen . . .
He also got to flex his acting muscles, as a supernatural being, conflicted by his love for his sister, and his overwhelming instinctual desire to destroy her . . .
Deeper exposition of The Boy Named Jeremy Gilbert finally seemed inevitable . . .
But alas, it was not to be . . . Damn you, Katherine Pierce . . .
. . . and FRIGGIN SILAS!
Goodbye, JerBear! You may be gone, and your rotted stinky body may have been burnt to a crisp by your now feelings-free sister, but you will never be forgotten . . . unless we’re compelled by vampires to forget you . . . or we just smoke too much pot . . .
Onward to the recap! Coming (relatively) soon to a blog near you . . .
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An apt tribute to our Rebel with Too Many Causes! I secretly hold out a sliver of slim-to-none hope that Shilas and Bonnie’s Bermuda Expression Triangle will work, and Jer-Ber would return–hey, he’s just a KrispyKritter on The Other Side now! But then, that would bring about The End of The World via Population Explosion, so there ya go…Looking forward to Part 2!
Thanks Mak! Shilas, I like it! Some have speculated that Shane is actually Silas’ doppelganger, a la Katherine and Elena. But personally, I like the idea of a shape-shifting Silas, who plays a different character every week. Maybe he could even play JerBear! That would be one way to get those abs back. 😉
In all seriousness though, JerBear did have a surprisingly silent end for a major character. I am hoping he gets to come back in ghost form, at least, for a few final words. Alaric got to do it! Anna and Vicki got to do it! Mason got to do it! Grams got to do it a few times! Why not JerBear?
An apt tribute to JerBear, Jules! One could indeed hope that the veil is broken a little bit, just enough to allow some supes to escape, like Jeremy, Alaric, Anna, and maybe even Jenna? But somehow, I’m inclined to think that isn’t going to happen, and the writers are slowly leaving Mystic Falls in the dust and moving on to college… Did you notice that none of the regulars who would stay in MF are left alive, except for Liz Forbes?
Good point, serendipity. Since the writers HAVE been sort of following the book series a bit more lately, and they ARE shipping at least a portion of their cast to New Orleans next season, it does make sense that they would be preparing for Elena and Co. to head to a new locale in Season 5 (maybe Duke University, where Alaric used to teach?) for “demon hunting.”
Thank you for this appropriate tribute to Jeremy, he will be missed immensely…
Thank you, Aranka. JerBear will most certainly be missed. It won’t quite feel like TVD without him. 🙂
Interesting what you did hear Julie, I am impressed.
And don’t worry and take your time with the recap, God knows I will need some time to come down from that as you probably guessed already. And my comment to this post will take some time as well. It has to be good after all. 😉
Thanks, Andre. And of course, I owe a sizeable portion of this Jeremy Gilbert tribute to your fabulous screencaps of his supernaturally well-endowed physique. 🙂
One word: heartbroken.
Did I miss anything? Was he casted on another show or movie? Cause I didn’t see this coming AT ALL. I NEED AN EXPLANATION.
Thanks for doing this sort of eulogy first, he really DID deserve it. Looking forward to Part 2 Julie, I’ll read you soon
Thanks so much, Julie. Actually, I don’t believe Steven R. McQueen has been cast in another show or movie yet, unfortunately. I think his character was sacrificed at the writers’ altar, because it was the only death that would cause Elena to turn off her humanity.
If he is, in fact, gone for good, I hope he finds a worthy role soon. The guy is an exceptional actor, with a lot of talent.
Pingback: Last Weekend at JerBear’s (Part 2): A Recap of The Vampire Diaries’ “Stand by Me” | TV Recappers Anonymous
Ok, Julie here is my comment:
I must say I was impressed and surprised that you decided to do something like this. And you did well optically no doubt. And I agree that Jeremy Gilbert has to be mourned even though I am myself not capable of doing so and not just because he might come back.
In case anybody asks why I think this, well, take a look at McQueen’s profil at IMDB.com and you know what I mean:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1997596/filmoseries#tt1405406
He is at the very least in the credits for the episodes 16, 18 and 20. And the weird thing is, even imdb has no info on episodes 17 and 19 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1405406/episodes?season=4&ref_=tt_eps_sn_4).
If his character is gone for good why have him in the credits anyway? A bit weird isn’t it?
One thing before I start, you better not compare Jeremy up to mid season 2 with Scrappy Doo, there is a reason he made it as part 2 in this list:
With Jeremy post mid-season 2, do it; that totally fits. Of course he was nowhere near as annoying as Elena, but to be honest even Bella could no longer be as annoying as Elena.
Oh and one thing, since you mentioned it. I know I said it in earlier comments, but maybe some Jylers here didn’t know: you could all have had Jyler. Word on the street is McQueen and Trevino were down for Jyler but Williamson chickened out because “he doesn’t want to repeat himself.” Literally he said:
“I don’t want to do a coming-out story. I did it on Dawson’s Creek. As much as I’d like to do [a gay story], I want it to be fresh, and I’d want to do it in a new way. I don’t know what that way is. We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it on countless shows. I’ve done my coming-out story, and I was very proud of it, and I don’t know what it would be.”
http://www.blastr.com/2010/07/someone-on-vampire-diarie.php
Well, don’t do a coming out story then, and “seen it on countless shows” isn’t exactly true. No matter whether male or female, just have them be normal or simply unnecessary to come out. And anyway, what bullshit reason is that? Dawson ‘s Creek ended 6 years before TVD started, plenty of people entered and left puberty in that time, considered the time limit probably the very same people. And Jack was a self-hating gay, not someone who simply didn’t want any more trouble than he already had. There would have been lots more to do than just give Caroline a gay dad. If you could call that gay. Seriously that could have easily been left out and it would make no difference. Actually it can easily be forgotten.
Now as, you probably guessed, I have a different take on this than you.
I have to say, no matter what will happen with the character I personally cannot mourn Jeremy Gilbert even though he “died” in this episode. I am past mourning. Well I actually never mourned him because I quite frankly didn’t notice that he died when it happened. I only noticed his death in retrospective and by that time TVD had long replaced him with another character. So there was no emotional investment possible on my part anymore. In my eyes Jeremy Gilbert was a character I barely knew and so I could never form any sort of appropriately strong emotional bound to him and mourn him the way he probably deserved. I also cannot see his replacement as a moral compass because his writing, like so many in this show, was too fickle for that. Also he simply didn’t have the necessary exposure. I will explain why I think that in a short time, but first let’s look at Jeremy and Steven McQueen.
Jeremy started out as the only original character as McQueen himself noted:
No strings attached in any way, sadly the writers (or whoever is responsible for this character disaster) have taken that too literal and messed him up. But let’s not get into that now.
Fact is that the character could go either way and I think even back then McQueen would have been able to deliver it as these two videos proof:
Part 1:
Part 2:
And apparently later also:
McQueen himself stated that Jeremy was the most interesting character he ever played:
But this character is simply not there anymore. Back then he was able to go either way, he was smart enough to figure everything out by himself and to come up with plans on his and still green enough to need some sort supervision. He was dark and light enough to actually go either way and it would have been believable. He had artistic talent that could have been used as a way to convey messages about his personal state of mind. He wanted to proof he was not a kid anymore, especially because Elena always treated him like he was in diapers and also didn’t let him make his own decisions. Also his story is a good example that turning emotions off apparently doesn’t work, not in a good way at least. Back then he got angry at Elena for treating him like that; he wanted to kill Damon for murdering him, which was justified, well if you are normal person of course, his dumbass sister forgave the murderer everything. He was sarcastic, screaming in a room full of people but nobody heart him, had his own, also selfish, agendas and could have been a lot. He was the perfect character to see growing up.
But he wasn’t. The “Jeremy” that died on Thursday way nothing like that, not even remotely. At most it was a bad clone. So from now one I will just call him Clone. Early Jeremy will simply be Jeremy. Just to make things clear for what is to come.
Mid-season 2 Clone fully emerged (there were some signs a bit earlier in the season), the one who was more and more a punching back, which might not have been bad storytelling wise had they have him react to that and how helpless he felt among all those supes. On a teenage boy of 15 or 16 something like that would never go without repercussions. Highschool is tough and the urge to proof oneself during that time very strong. So teenagers that age would usually not take well to be so helpless all the time. Something especially stressful in a show with supernatural monsters and which could be used for character development. But no, instead they had this whole Anna-Bonnie-Clone triangle which didn’t make sense, because why should Jeremy have been interested in Bonnie in the first place? And why should Clone? Clone showed back then that he was not a real character but just a tool for Elena and everybody else. Maybe that’s why he got partnered with Bonnie. Two tools make a good match right? Nope. Not at all. Not in real life and surely not on this show.
In my “21 ways to become Jeremy Gilbert” I had these points:
1) Be totally oblivious to the fact that you look like a model.
2) Always surround yourself with people who are oblivious to the fact that you look like a model.
3) Be heterosexual even if you character sends out massive bi-vibes.
4) Have girlfriends and family members that drop dead left and right around you.
5) Despite all the death around you never suffer from any depression or drug abuse, except of course your parents die.
6) Forget your daily vervain intake to make yourself be open for any sort of compulsion from any run-of-the-mill vampire despite the fact that you are in constant mortal danger and already died more than once.
7) Have thick arms and a muscled torso but never use them except a day before you suddenly leave town.
8) Be friends with total strangers.
9) Act like every company is right as long as it is company and never realize that this implies that you feel totally alone.
10) Suddenly fall in love with your sister’s best friend.
11) Be in your mid-teens even if you look like a grown man and act according to point 7.
12) See dead people and start a relationship with them.
13) Have an older sister that forces her will on you and acts as though she sacrifices something.
14) Adapt remarkably quickly to all sorts of dangerous situations but let yourself be treated as though you’re still in diapers.
15) Never say anything when people mistreat you and always forgive them.
16) Be the only person around you who has mixed-race relationships.
17) Be either punching bag or a tool to be used.
18) Be left alone in dangerous surroundings by the people that supposedly want to protect you.
19) Be in constant danger because of the people who want to protect you.
20) Have a ring that protects you from death by supernaturals and who for some inexplicable reason might change you into a psychopath.
21) Start out as the most intelligent of your group and later loose that intelligence complete
I wrote this after the crappy season 3 and it still didn’t become better, it fits Clone to his very last breath. The last bit of actual kickass stunt Jeremy did was against Katherine while she was imprisoned in the tomb. It backfired sure but at least he tried and succeeded for some time. Maybe had the others not constantly treated him like a pre-schooler it might have turned out better (back then the show had not yet turned crazy so speculating over character’s motivations made a lot more sense). And my 21 points on how to become Jeremy Gilbert basically encompass what they did wrong with the character. After mid-season 2 it was as if Jeremy had been completely replaced, a total different character (Clone) had emerged, one who just accepted that he can’t take care of himself. Jeremy would have never done that. But Clone was totally ok with it; at the very least he did nothing to change it. Clone was only there to be kicked around and angsted about. Not to mention providing the basis for him to be the next deus ex machina, other than our usual deus ex machina Bonnie of course.
Now, the Clone we saw since the start of season 3 barely showed any appropriate emotions. Apparently forgave Damon for what he did to him, was never angry with anybody for more than a few minutes, and was never affected by anything in the long term. Seriously, it took the ghosts of Jeremy’s dead girl friends to get him on some small drugs again despite the fact that he was supposed to be Jeremy. That did it but not the fact that since his parents died Jeremy had four more deaths to deal with. That is totally not Jeremy. So sorry but that is not “resilient” Julie, it is just bad writing. Whatever was wanted of him Clone did, whatever was done to him he forgave and he was just so damn stupid. He knew Tyler was sired to Klaus but trusted him anyway. And he no longer took vervain and so left himself be open to compulsion, a plothole the writers never explained. Despite having never defeated a vampire in actual combat he still thought he could take on Damon full front. Damon used him as a tool to get Anna to talk and he just forgave him for that. And later he was a tool, again, for Elena to be cured. Seriously who here thinks it was about someone else?
The whole hunter thing was basically just there so they didn’t need to introduce and develop another character. With Clone they now had the perfect blank page to paint a new bad picture on whenever needed.
And his “bromances”… Julie, really I thought you to be better with this.
Damon Salvatore? The guy who murdered Jeremy? Jeremy would have told his dumbass sister a long time ago that Damon is the start of all her troubles. Like I said Jeremy would have wanted to kill the bastard. But Clone would never do that. Clone was totally ok with being the tool they needed and never speaking his mind unless it was for Elena. He even wanted Damon’s attention and approval. First the victim, than medium, than the victim again and later the hunter, in which Clone was definitely just a tool, no matter the fact that he killed some vampires, Clone managed to do that with a hybrid already without training. This makes me wonder why they did the training stuff anyway. Well, probably they forgot about that, or they didn’t care.
Speaking of the killed hybrid:
Only two times was Jeremy back as it seemed: when he killed the hybrid and when he was hypnotized came Jeremy back to live, the one who would speak turkey with Elena and not just kiss her ass all the time. It would have been nice to have Jeremy back for a day. Having own thoughts and agendas. Seeing him learn and improvise quickly. But no, Clone was back very soon and we were left to deal with him once more. Apparently the writers either can’t deal with or don’t like Jeremy and so they gave us Clone.
So the one who died in my mind was not Jeremy, it was Clone and Clone was not a real character in my mind.
So if you want to mourn Jeremy Gilbert I would suggest saying something like this:
Jeremy Gilbert, we barely knew you.
You died too young, sacrificed on the altar of your oldest sister.
You never got the chance to become a man as you were replaced by a bad copy of yourself.
Never were you given a chance to take revenge on the monsters that ruined your life.
We hope you will be reunited with the people you lost in the existence to come.
We are thankful you don’t have to see what your clone did in your name.
Thankful that you didn’t had to witness how your sister became the biggest threat to world peace ever since the Cuban missile crisis.
May you rest in peace and may your killers receive their just punishment by meeting the monsters they created in person.
Farewell Jeremy Gilbert.
Ps. We will have our Magical Negro do a quick gay spell on Tyler and send him over to you on the other site so you can finally have the piece of ass you always wanted.
Hey Andre,
Interesting analysis here. You do make a great case for the extent to which the writing of the Jeremy character has changed over the course of the past few seasons. The angry rebellious artist JerBear, with the inquisitive mind and big heart would likely be unrecognizable to the almost overly innocent and naive punching bag who briefly dated Bonnie in Season 3.
That said, I do think the writers came a long way toward bringing the character of Jeremy back to himself this season, with the hunter storyline. His friendship with Matt appeared genuine to me, and was able to exist on a plane apart from Elena and Co. The writers allowed Jeremy to revisit his hunter side, as well as his anger / frustration over being compelled, when he was introduced to Connor. And, finally, as a vampire hunter, Jeremy exhibited some of the strength of character we saw in early seasons, as well as that trademark flare for rebellion. We even got to revisit some of Jeremy’s unresolved anger issues toward vampires and even his own sister. Despite the fact that Jeremy considered vampires among his friends, and loved his sister dearly, his destiny as a hunter enabled him to recognize / come to terms with the roles both inadvertently played in the death of nearly everyone he loved.
And as much as I could never stomach the Jeremy / Bonnie relationship, I did like how in his final episodes, Jeremy acted as both a physical and metaphorical pillar of strength for Bonnie, when all the other characters either ignored her / wrote her off as crazy. In fact, I’d say that in addition to Jeremy being the remaining link to Elena’s humanity, he might very well have been the remaining link to Bonnie’s sanity. Jeremy’s death clearly made Bonnie even more vulnerable to the Psycho Cult of Silas, than she was previously.
I guess that Jeremy suddenly “dated” Bonnie again might either be a reaction to the criticism Plec received from fans after she shipped Bonnie with Jamie (still no sign of him and apparently Bonnie is still not good enough to date bloodthirsty vampires, unlike the show’s white cast who all had one or two bloodthirsty vampires lusting after them) or maybe one of those attempts to convince people that there is more consistence in the show than just “For Elena”. Another example would be the Damon Crow in the 1912 episode and the burning diary in the last episode. Seriously in both cases: Why did they even bother with putting it in? They ignored it so often so what reason could there be? Apparently only to show that there is some sort of consistency, that it is still the same show.
I also disagree with you on the hunter thing. I think you filled holes that simply are due to the writers’ incompetence and nothing else. Let me explain: Jeremy’s “anger” was attributed to his hunter status, that it “wasn’t him” was stated in the scene with the hypnosis and how quickly he attacked Bonnie’s mother while being totally controlled around all other vampires. Had they actually used the hunter thing as expressing his anger he would have attacked Damon already, also Stefan or even Tyler; especially Damon simply for having killed him, not something you simply forget. Bonnie’s mother surely didn’t have an actual emotional connection to Jeremy but she didn’t piss him off either. Sorry Julie, but that is not bringing the character back. Quite frankly I am not sure what that was supposed to be. Definitely not dealing with complicated issues. Maybe some writer managed to throw that in without Plec going on a rampage. Calling that pro-Jeremy is the same as saying Ginger Snaps was pro female werewolf, when in fact it was the same old same old in its portrayal of aggressive, dominant and hairy girls as something abominable that can only lead to destruction. Jeremy was again just the tool, punching back and dumbass in distress. How many vampires did he really and directly kill since becoming a hunter? Not even a handful. They had him trying to attack Damon, an incredibly stupid move, and how did they know how to train Jeremy anyway? In the battle with Kol he had to be basically protected and rescued by Elena and Kol’s strength was incredibly reduced for that also. Chris was just taken by surprise and so where the other vamps. Had they wanted Jeremy to become more independent he would have tried to research on the hunter’s thing and everything around it himself. He would not have taken shit from Damon or he would have been openly be hostile towards him had they wanted to show his earlier anger resurfacing. No Julie, I think Jeremy was once again just the tool for Elena. Like everybody on this show that is not in an actual “romantic” relationship.
Bonnie… sorry, the same thing regarding giving the credits. Bonnie is no actual character. She is a plot device; she no longer acts like a real human being. Jeremy’s death changed nothing in that regard. I will explain that in the post to your second recap.