The Vampire Diaries 1x04: Family Ties
Jan. 11th, 2023 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsThe Vampire Diaries 1x04: Family Ties
This episode is…kind of pretty good, and kind of really bad. I think if it weren’t for the one big issue that I’m taking with what happens towards the end I’d probably give it a marginal thumbs up, but there is that big problem so it kind of spoils the stew.
I do want to talk a bit more generally first. For one, this episode isn’t that bad with the TVD time either. It’s regular TV messy, rather than awful like TVD time usually is. It’s clearly not that long after the last episode, but it doesn’t follow directly and then stack several stories all but on top of each other so that there’s no time for anything to be processed.
And that got me thinking about something I remember being an ongoing issue for me with this show, but actually starts off as not being a problem. In fact it can’t start off with the problem that will be so obvious later. This episode lets the death the Gilbert parents hang over the story, for all the members of the family. But I recall that so many of the later losses will not be allowed room to matter. Caroline’s dad dies one day, but the Originals are throwing a party the next day that the story wants Caroline to go to, so we’re not going to let her grief matter. I know that’s far from the only example (actually what brought it to mind was that I don’t remember what the timeline is after Mayor Lockwood dies before Tyler’s story just doesn’t acknowledge it any more), it’s just the one that comes to my mind most easily, because I remember it pissing me off a lot.
In some ways this episode has the same oddness of POV clash that I’ve brought up before, but in others it’s a good fusion of them. A large chunk of this episode is very much taking place in the human world, and so is very familiar as a CW teen show. But we’re aware of the supernatural world that’s happening underneath it, and that there are things going on right out in the open that people aren’t noticing. But that’s where I don’t know who are POV is. We know too much for it to be Elena; we don’t understand Damon’s motives well enough; and Stefan…is maybe the closest to fitting how the episodes straddles the two worlds, but I’m not sure we know enough yet why he has decided to straddle those worlds.
That said, I’m going to appreciate another episode of Elena’s backbone, because I know at some point that’s going to become harder to spot. That said, something that I like (seeing Elena get fired up and stand up for herself and her friends and family) can be reinterpreted through a different lens. Because Elena at this point is still a big fish in a small pond as far as she knows. She’s part of Mystic Falls town royalty; while she’s had a pretty tough year, she still lives a pretty comfortable life, and is in a position where she feels comfortable standing up for herself. As soon as she learns how much more there is to the world, it’s understandable that she’s somewhat less confident that she can dictate how her world works.
Which is what makes it all the sweeter later on when she does bring her backbone into the bigger stakes world. If I was willing to give the writers credit that I absolutely do not believe they deserve, I would say there is a valid story to that; but this isn’t my first go-round with this series.
What did make a connection in my head is Elena and Stefan’s final argument where she’s demanding he tell her the truth and he’s still determined not to, even goes so far as to say that he may never be willing to tell her certain truths. Why does this stand out to me? Because they’re basically standing out there where Elena will manage to get big truths out of Elijah, because he respects her right to know the truth. I’m 90% sure I made this exact comment in my last review effort (let’s see…looks like) but that’s just the connection my brain has built. Here, Elena’s the one telling Stefan that trust is earned; then it will be Elijah telling her that her word doesn’t mean anything until she lives up to it. But which dynamic does end up earning the trust?
So…why do people like Damon? If I remembered there being a redemption arc (even if it wasn’t very good *cough*Spike*cough*) I might at least say this is a hell of a way to start him at the absolute nadir of such an arc. I’ve seen this before, I know there are at least debatably sympathetic reasons for some of what he does, but I’m not seeing a good side to him in what we’ve seen so far.
The one case I will partially give, is that if you think you have to pick Damon or Stefan to care about (I’m capable of hating them both), at least the show seems honest with Damon. Damon is a monster, but Stefan isn’t much better and it’s not clear how much the show knows that. It does seem to know he’s not the squeaky-clean good guy, at least for the moment, though it mostly focuses on the lies and that’s less of my issue.
My issue is that he uses Caroline just as much as Damon here. Seemingly, we’re supposed to be on Stefan’s side and think he pulled off a brilliant move to take Damon off the playing field. But all he did was spike a girl’s drink, and set her up to be murdered by his brother. If Damon had gone for the kill instead of feeding on her first, if he had tried to compel her and found he couldn’t and just got pissed off, Caroline is just dead. And yes that would be on Damon’s kill list, but Stefan’s hands wouldn’t be clean. What he does isn’t because he cares about Caroline or anyone else, he says that he only cares about protecting Elena from Damon. Zack at least is thinking about the larger threat Damon poses.
The whole mini-plot around Tyler and Vicki is strange in this one. Because I don’t really know how either of them see their relationship, and how this would fit into that perception. It has previously seemed like Vicki wants him to actually like her and want to be with her for more than sex; while Tyler is mostly just using her for sex. And this episode doesn’t exactly contradict that, except that it can’t seem to make up its mind about Tyler’s feelings. I can maybe even stretch to say that Tyler invites her to the party because she was acting like she’d cut him off if he didn’t take her, but I really don’t understand enough of Tyler’s motives and mindset to feel like that’s the obvious explanation, or how he assumed that to work.
There is somewhat of a larger issue at play there. Because Matt seems acceptable to the inner circle of Mystic Falls. Now, I’m sure there is a high degree of slut shaming in the dismissal of Vicki, and the Donovan mom; while Matt the well behaved, deferential young man is more acceptable as a friend to Tyler and had been long term boyfriend to Elena, later boyfriend for Caroline, and just in the orbit of the higher end of Mystic Falls. But there does seem to be enough classism in the way Vicki is treated that I would expect there to be more spill-over onto how Matt. Although…that would cast Miranda encouraging Elena to go ahead and break up with Matt in a different light, if I felt like crafting this into my view.
It's hard to say what our first impression of the Founders’ Council is supposed to be. Aside from maybe Liz, none of the members of the FC have been portrayed in a good light in this episode, and their motives are framed fairly sinisterly and duplicitous. So I guess I do think we’re supposed to mistrust them. The problem is…I don’t. Or rather, maybe I can’t say I trust them, but I think they are more than a little justified in their endgame. Because I will always support humans being able to fight back against vampires, and it’s not like the show has given us reason to feel sorry for the vampire population the humans are trying to hunt. I end up being proud of them for not buying the animal attack cover story, and doing what it takes to protect the people of the town.
I actually had written up some meta on this a few years back but I never posted it (I don’t even think I ever finished it). It’s just that so many stories try to paint humans as bad for trying to defend themselves and their community from literal monsters, and I rarely agree with that view. There are at least five people dead in however long it’s been since Damon came back to town, and he will not be brought to any kind of justice for it. He will never be arrested for abusing Caroline (it actually might even be statutory rape, even without adding 140 years to his apparent age). These are not things he was forced to do because a vampire has to live on the fringes of society; these are things he chooses to do because he knows he can get away with them (sure, they haven’t yet established the healing properties of vampire blood, but it will become so commonplace that I can’t let them off on this plothole; there is no reason to leave Caroline with evidence of Damon feeding on her except that he doesn’t care and it’s more of a game this way).
So I’m sorry if my being Team Human is problem. I’m not going to stop.
What am I shipping?
Um…Bonnie/magic? Really nothing. Even the little bit of me that thinks I will (in spite of everything) end up shipping Stefan/Caroline down the road, can’t take anything from this, because that end is just…pretty dang close to unforgivable.
Who do I hate the most?
For a good chunk of this episode I was prepared to say Damon took this easily, because I didn’t find much to object to with Stefan. And then the end happened. Damon is still the worst, but if he hadn’t already lapped Stefan, it might have been a closer race. Tyler is just high school elitist douchey, so he didn’t compete against the manpires.
This episode is…kind of pretty good, and kind of really bad. I think if it weren’t for the one big issue that I’m taking with what happens towards the end I’d probably give it a marginal thumbs up, but there is that big problem so it kind of spoils the stew.
I do want to talk a bit more generally first. For one, this episode isn’t that bad with the TVD time either. It’s regular TV messy, rather than awful like TVD time usually is. It’s clearly not that long after the last episode, but it doesn’t follow directly and then stack several stories all but on top of each other so that there’s no time for anything to be processed.
And that got me thinking about something I remember being an ongoing issue for me with this show, but actually starts off as not being a problem. In fact it can’t start off with the problem that will be so obvious later. This episode lets the death the Gilbert parents hang over the story, for all the members of the family. But I recall that so many of the later losses will not be allowed room to matter. Caroline’s dad dies one day, but the Originals are throwing a party the next day that the story wants Caroline to go to, so we’re not going to let her grief matter. I know that’s far from the only example (actually what brought it to mind was that I don’t remember what the timeline is after Mayor Lockwood dies before Tyler’s story just doesn’t acknowledge it any more), it’s just the one that comes to my mind most easily, because I remember it pissing me off a lot.
In some ways this episode has the same oddness of POV clash that I’ve brought up before, but in others it’s a good fusion of them. A large chunk of this episode is very much taking place in the human world, and so is very familiar as a CW teen show. But we’re aware of the supernatural world that’s happening underneath it, and that there are things going on right out in the open that people aren’t noticing. But that’s where I don’t know who are POV is. We know too much for it to be Elena; we don’t understand Damon’s motives well enough; and Stefan…is maybe the closest to fitting how the episodes straddles the two worlds, but I’m not sure we know enough yet why he has decided to straddle those worlds.
That said, I’m going to appreciate another episode of Elena’s backbone, because I know at some point that’s going to become harder to spot. That said, something that I like (seeing Elena get fired up and stand up for herself and her friends and family) can be reinterpreted through a different lens. Because Elena at this point is still a big fish in a small pond as far as she knows. She’s part of Mystic Falls town royalty; while she’s had a pretty tough year, she still lives a pretty comfortable life, and is in a position where she feels comfortable standing up for herself. As soon as she learns how much more there is to the world, it’s understandable that she’s somewhat less confident that she can dictate how her world works.
Which is what makes it all the sweeter later on when she does bring her backbone into the bigger stakes world. If I was willing to give the writers credit that I absolutely do not believe they deserve, I would say there is a valid story to that; but this isn’t my first go-round with this series.
What did make a connection in my head is Elena and Stefan’s final argument where she’s demanding he tell her the truth and he’s still determined not to, even goes so far as to say that he may never be willing to tell her certain truths. Why does this stand out to me? Because they’re basically standing out there where Elena will manage to get big truths out of Elijah, because he respects her right to know the truth. I’m 90% sure I made this exact comment in my last review effort (let’s see…looks like) but that’s just the connection my brain has built. Here, Elena’s the one telling Stefan that trust is earned; then it will be Elijah telling her that her word doesn’t mean anything until she lives up to it. But which dynamic does end up earning the trust?
So…why do people like Damon? If I remembered there being a redemption arc (even if it wasn’t very good *cough*Spike*cough*) I might at least say this is a hell of a way to start him at the absolute nadir of such an arc. I’ve seen this before, I know there are at least debatably sympathetic reasons for some of what he does, but I’m not seeing a good side to him in what we’ve seen so far.
The one case I will partially give, is that if you think you have to pick Damon or Stefan to care about (I’m capable of hating them both), at least the show seems honest with Damon. Damon is a monster, but Stefan isn’t much better and it’s not clear how much the show knows that. It does seem to know he’s not the squeaky-clean good guy, at least for the moment, though it mostly focuses on the lies and that’s less of my issue.
My issue is that he uses Caroline just as much as Damon here. Seemingly, we’re supposed to be on Stefan’s side and think he pulled off a brilliant move to take Damon off the playing field. But all he did was spike a girl’s drink, and set her up to be murdered by his brother. If Damon had gone for the kill instead of feeding on her first, if he had tried to compel her and found he couldn’t and just got pissed off, Caroline is just dead. And yes that would be on Damon’s kill list, but Stefan’s hands wouldn’t be clean. What he does isn’t because he cares about Caroline or anyone else, he says that he only cares about protecting Elena from Damon. Zack at least is thinking about the larger threat Damon poses.
The whole mini-plot around Tyler and Vicki is strange in this one. Because I don’t really know how either of them see their relationship, and how this would fit into that perception. It has previously seemed like Vicki wants him to actually like her and want to be with her for more than sex; while Tyler is mostly just using her for sex. And this episode doesn’t exactly contradict that, except that it can’t seem to make up its mind about Tyler’s feelings. I can maybe even stretch to say that Tyler invites her to the party because she was acting like she’d cut him off if he didn’t take her, but I really don’t understand enough of Tyler’s motives and mindset to feel like that’s the obvious explanation, or how he assumed that to work.
There is somewhat of a larger issue at play there. Because Matt seems acceptable to the inner circle of Mystic Falls. Now, I’m sure there is a high degree of slut shaming in the dismissal of Vicki, and the Donovan mom; while Matt the well behaved, deferential young man is more acceptable as a friend to Tyler and had been long term boyfriend to Elena, later boyfriend for Caroline, and just in the orbit of the higher end of Mystic Falls. But there does seem to be enough classism in the way Vicki is treated that I would expect there to be more spill-over onto how Matt. Although…that would cast Miranda encouraging Elena to go ahead and break up with Matt in a different light, if I felt like crafting this into my view.
It's hard to say what our first impression of the Founders’ Council is supposed to be. Aside from maybe Liz, none of the members of the FC have been portrayed in a good light in this episode, and their motives are framed fairly sinisterly and duplicitous. So I guess I do think we’re supposed to mistrust them. The problem is…I don’t. Or rather, maybe I can’t say I trust them, but I think they are more than a little justified in their endgame. Because I will always support humans being able to fight back against vampires, and it’s not like the show has given us reason to feel sorry for the vampire population the humans are trying to hunt. I end up being proud of them for not buying the animal attack cover story, and doing what it takes to protect the people of the town.
I actually had written up some meta on this a few years back but I never posted it (I don’t even think I ever finished it). It’s just that so many stories try to paint humans as bad for trying to defend themselves and their community from literal monsters, and I rarely agree with that view. There are at least five people dead in however long it’s been since Damon came back to town, and he will not be brought to any kind of justice for it. He will never be arrested for abusing Caroline (it actually might even be statutory rape, even without adding 140 years to his apparent age). These are not things he was forced to do because a vampire has to live on the fringes of society; these are things he chooses to do because he knows he can get away with them (sure, they haven’t yet established the healing properties of vampire blood, but it will become so commonplace that I can’t let them off on this plothole; there is no reason to leave Caroline with evidence of Damon feeding on her except that he doesn’t care and it’s more of a game this way).
So I’m sorry if my being Team Human is problem. I’m not going to stop.
What am I shipping?
Um…Bonnie/magic? Really nothing. Even the little bit of me that thinks I will (in spite of everything) end up shipping Stefan/Caroline down the road, can’t take anything from this, because that end is just…pretty dang close to unforgivable.
Who do I hate the most?
For a good chunk of this episode I was prepared to say Damon took this easily, because I didn’t find much to object to with Stefan. And then the end happened. Damon is still the worst, but if he hadn’t already lapped Stefan, it might have been a closer race. Tyler is just high school elitist douchey, so he didn’t compete against the manpires.
