Vampire Diaries

Damon Salvatore, you are so beautiful that it almost hurts to look at you.

Good GOD, y’all, last night’s finale was intense.  SO much happened, and there was so much action and drama and tension that by the end of it, I swear, my blood was really pumping.  I almost don’t know where to begin, truth be told.

Okay, let’s start with the secondary characters, because that’s a tiny bit easier.  I was glad to see Matt and Caroline with somewhat of a story, and I cracked up at her making him hide his cast because it wasn’t period.  Ha!  Oh, sweet Caroline, that is so you.  And I loved how she spent the entire story trying to get Matt and Tyler to make up–pushing Matty along to forgive Ty, while simultaneously giving Tyler a little hell because her loyalty is to Matt.  Those two are precious.  And I loved her getting right in the middle of Tyler and his dad when it looked like it was about to turn all child abuse up in this bitch.  I feel like Caroline has come such a long and believable way as a character on this show, and she’s one of my favorites.  I really hope she survives into next season–I THINK she will, but you know how it is with this show.  No one is safe, ever.

Well, obviously.  After last night, that’s all the more vivid.

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Dude, I am so intimidated about starting this post because so much HAPPENED last night, but let me just say, I think it was one of my favorites of the season so far.  Everyone did a great job with their parts roles, and shit really got rolling as we barrel toward the finale.  Which, there again, what am I going to DO all summer without this show?  Ugh.  I love May sweeps but then June is just so … EMPTY.  It’s like there’s been a TV apocalypse, where the cockroaches are the only survivors and in this case, cockroach=America’s Got Talent.

You know, normally I’m a believer in leaving the best for last but today, we’re going to start with the love triangle because it DEMANDS to be discussed.  Now, I’m going to tell you all a dirty little secret that as a “hardcore” TV fan, I really shouldn’t admit, buuuuuut … I like love triangles.  I do!  I can’t help it!  Love triangles and unresolved sexual tension.  I am a cliche.  And I’m the lowest common denominator, but it’s important to know who you are, right?

So I’m not really one to complain about them anyway, but especially in this case, when I see the internet bitching about the love triangle between Elena and the Salvatores, I really don’t get that because it’s kind of a huge premise of the show (and books).  And because I think the show did a really admirable job of taking two people who, at the beginning of the series, I couldn’t have imagined even LIKING each other, much less L-bombs being tossed around, and making them genuinely believable as friends with some electricity between them.  As far as love triangles go, it’s a pretty good one.

Plus, especially in this case, it’s not just about who gets the girl, or which sexy vampire the girl chooses.  All of this deeply affects the relationship between two brothers, which is already strained, and that’s interesting as well.  The whole thing becomes somewhat less about a romance and more a study on interpersonal relationships, repeated history, consequences of choices, and shifting loyalties.  I like it.  What’s not to like?

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Ahhhh … Vampire Diaries.  Dude, so much to love.  I still can’t believe how awesome this show is.  And I feel like, in general this season, we’ve managed to avoid Twilight comparisons.  Tonight, not so much.

Obviously, Stefan being a dangerous wild animals is something that is in direct contrast with that puss Edward Cullen, who just never seemed scary.  I loved how VAMPIREY he was in this ep, and when he looked up from attacking that girl to see Elena, Damon and Bonnie … he looked horrifying and awesome.  I kind of love Paul Wesley right now, because he seemed like an entirely different person, or in other words, he did some good acting.

But I feel like we do have to have a conversation about abusive relationships, a la Twilight.  Alright, with Twilight, I felt like the “abusive relationship” crap was a load of bullshit UNTIL I got to Eclipse, and then I got so disgusted with Edward that I almost put the entire series down altogether.  But in that particular case ,that was just Edward’s personality.  And I guess he apologized for it and did let her be friends with Jacob, but for me, it was kind of too little, too late.

In Stefan’s case, he was much more physical with the abuse, even though he didn’t hit her.  He was very physically intimidating, though.  And he also apologized for it, but it seemed like in a typical abuser way.  But in Stefan’s case, he’s having an addiction problem.  I don’t know, this whole thing reminds me a lot of this video I had to watch in a college sociology class, where it was talking about how Disney fucks up little girls (fun sidenote: this is the class and topic where I was called a “pinko”, the proudest moment of my college career), and there was this video about how Beauty and the Beast is essentially a love story about an abusive relationship, and you’re kind of like, eh, I don’t know.  But then you see these interviews with these little girls, like seven-year-old girls, and the interviewer just asks them, “If you had a friend who was in a relationship like Belle’s, what advice would you give her?” and the little girls are all like, “I’d tell her that if he’s mean to her to just try to be nicer to him because then he’ll change and love you,” and you’re like WHAT THE FUCK?  But that IS so the message, when you really think about it.

Anyway, I’m not saying that this is exactly like Beauty and the Beast in that regard, but I DO think it’s a fine line that the show is walking right now.  What I think saves it for me is that we’ve seen Stefan and that he’s a good person with a good heart and good intentions, and he didn’t willingly choose to fall off the wagon (it was necessary for saving his life and Elena force-fed him).  So when Elena says it’s not him, even though I’m not sure I can completely buy it because it obviously is a PART of him, I understand that and I can kind of feel that way along with her.  And I DO like that she isn’t just standing by and letting it happen, or being in denial, or letting him verbally lash out at her without calling him out on it (“Are you LISTENING to yourself?”).  So for now, with her throwing his bloodsucking ass in detox, I’m cool with it.  I just hope that the show is mindful about glorifying abusive relationships, and I’m sure they will be.  They seem to be pretty bitchin’ about female empowerment.

Also, can I just say, that with all this magic rings and pocketwatches, vampires and vampire slayers, witches and werewolves and a whole fucking month of Founders’ Day activities, what really got me this time was the unrealistic nature of Stefan throwing his backpack in the trunk with his blood stash.  I was like, hello, Stefan, it’s called the front passenger seat.  GOD.

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Well, I know this was the episode where we wandered into an alternate universe where Stefan is fun, but for me (as usual), this episode was all about the Damon.

Well, okay, maybe not ALL about Damon.  There was a ton going on in this episode, starting with Stefan going through blood withdrawal and hitting the liquor cabinet pretty hard to deal with it.  Stefan thinks that Damon is enjoying seeing him fail but I got more of a sense that Damon just wanted Stefan to embrace it than gloating.  Well … maybe teasing him in the opening scene with almost leaving the glass of blood was a little gloating, but it was nicely bookended by him actually leaving a glass of blood for Stefan at the end, which he did go for.  I think at this point, Damon just needs Stefan to go one way or another because they have so much shit to deal with, and he knows that Stefan drinking blood is by far the path of least resistance.

Top of the list of “shit to deal with” is Uncle John, and the universal hatred of him cracks me up.  I like the actor playing him–I liked him a lot on Heroes but I thought he was hotter on that show, and finally I realized it was because he had an accent on Heroes.  But it’s okay, he doesn’t need to be hot on here, we have plenty of eye candy and as long as he can be a villain (and trust me, HE CAN), we’re good.

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Man, you guys.  Between TVD and Supernatural, last night was an emotional night of television for me.  But let’s start with Vampire Diaries, shall we?

The vampire lair continues to provide all kinds of action and story possibilities, with this week’s plot primarily being Frederick kidnapping Stefan for a double dose of torture, initially for getting the vamps caught in the first place in 1864, and currently for him staking Beth Ann, ol’ Drop Dead Fred’s girlfriend.

The other thing that I liked was the plot twist of the storm–although it was a little convenient, I forgive it because rather than having the cliched “snowed in” episode, instead we got a few happenings that made logical sense in the storm, the first of which being enough cloud cover for the bad vamps to venture out and snatch Stefan while he was squirrel hunting.  (Also, sidenote, even with all the blood and guts and gore and biting on this show, eating SQUIRRELS is what I find to be gross.  And we didn’t even SEE it!  Go figure.)

It really was a good Damon episode as well, as soon as he figured out that Stefan was in trouble and needed to be saved.  I like Damon a lot in “get shit done” mode, and I feel like it’s in these situations that we get the most insight into his character because there’s just not time for the Damon facade, which means a sacrificing of the snark as well.  I loved the moment when Elena called him out about joking all the time, and he suddenly got very serious about not being able to be distracted by her safety and “getting it” about her and Stefan.  Damn.  I love Damon.  And you can’t spell Damon without D-A-M-N.  And an O.  Just saying.

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Oh my God WHAT?  I’m doing a post in a respectable amount of time during moving week?  WHAT THE FUCK!  Yeah, crazy.  But I knew that it was going to be now or never so I pick … now!  And dude, this episode?  Shit got real, yo!

Seriously, so much happened that I barely know where to start, but let’s go my usual route and start with Matt and Caroline because they’re easy … although not as easy as MATT’S MOM!  Ba-dum-ch.  Seriously, though, three things that must be addressed up front.  One, has Matt’s hair gotten darker?  Two, this show loooooves having Caroline in a bra.  And three, did you all catch his mom calling Caroline’s mom “Lezzie Forbes”?  Hee!  She must read this blog!

But even though that was deliciously bitchy, she crossed the bitch line when she ripped Caroline a new one.  I was like, aw hell no.  I love Caroline, and what is her fucking problem, anyway?  Like Matt’s mom has room to be judging anyone.  Please.  Let’s kill her soon, yeah?

Something that I do find interesting about this show, before we move on to other, vampire-ier things, is that there’s not the whole “are they or aren’t they virgins” thing going on that I know was a part of the WB shows I watched growing up (i.e. Dawson’s Creek and Felicity), and even like there was last week on LUX, even though it turned out that she wasn’t.  It’s just like, assumed that everyone is fucking regardless of age.  I don’t really know how kids nowadays are, but I don’t know, maybe they ARE all fucking, so … respect!  It’s just funny how much things change, on TV at least, in just ten or fifteen years.  And it’s weird that I remember TV from that long ago.  God, I am ancient.

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Okay, I’ve had my big ass coffee for the morning and I’m ready to go!  Let’s do this shit!  Seriously, I know exactly how those vampire zombies felt when they got their first drink of blood and came back to life.  Thank god for caffeine, am I right?

This episode, if we MUST head into yet another hiatus, was really a good way to leave us hanging.  It just felt really satisfying all around, and hit a shocking variety of notes.  And honestly, I thought they’d save opening the tomb for the season finale, so they got me there–I forgot exactly how much this show DOESN’T fuck around on making things happen.  And you know, at one point, it all felt like character whiplash, and maybe it was a little in the beginning when we didn’t have such a good grasp on the characters, but at this point, I think it’s a really GOOD thing.  There’s not a lot of waiting around for something to happen, unnecessary filler, and you get the feeling that there are a lot more stories to tell.  I’m totally on board with how the episode has been paced in the last several episodes.

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