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tori_reviewsThe Vampire Diaries 1x09: History Repeating
I…really liked that episode. It hit a lot of notes, and most of them pretty well. It’s better at horror than this show usually is; it advances the plot in pretty natural ways; it adds more to the story while providing some answers to what’s been going on; it has quite a bit of good character work for quite a few characters. There’s still quite a bit of the season to go, but this is a strong contender for a prime example of what the show was in the first season, about the dark hidden secrets of a small town and how history has a way of coming back to haunt us.
Let’s do a little timeline check-in (with a bit of character analysis attached). There does seem to be a bit of slack between last episode and this one, which I’m okay with. I do think at this point the writers still had in their heads that a season would equal a year, like it does in so many shows. I’m not going to say it really tracks even now, and the writers won’t actually admit that it can’t be the case until about s3 (s2 is kind of wishy-washy on what year it is), but they are setting it up to at least pass cursory inspection.
Elena mentions to Bonnie that she wouldn’t have really believed all the witch stuff a couple weeks ago. If we take that at face value, that would put the last 4-5 episodes all in those two weeks, and maybe even a little less. But that does seem to track with the timeline we’ve seen, so I can’t argue with it; it’s just a very busy couple of weeks. On the other hand, Alaric and Jeremy say they’re a couple of months into the school year; which would imply that the first 3-4 episodes of the season were stretched over 6+ weeks and that doesn’t track. It also doesn’t even quite fit with Halloween being the stated ~2 weeks ago. So basically, it kind of works and it kind of doesn’t.
There’s also the fact that Logan was killed within those two seeks since Elena learned about the supernatural world. I’m not sure which side that falls on relevant to the timeline working, but it is a bit worth keeping in mind.
Also that, as follow-up to what happened with Lexi, I’m not sure there is a good timeline that makes sense of Stefan and Damon’s dynamic. I like their dynamic in this episode, but it rarely seems informed by what’s been happening lately. In some ways it feels like a reset of their dynamic; and considering the episode’s placement in the season (this being about the point in the writers’ room when they start being able to write to how the actors are working and what strengths are revealing themselves) it wouldn’t surprise me if it is a little bit moving into version 2.0 of the characters. This seems more like the brothers’ dynamic that we’ll see most often going forward; they may sometimes hate each other, but they really do love each other more than the hate, and they will always gravitate back to being brothers.
In addition to being possibly the best episode so far for the Salvatores playing off each other, it’s possibly the best for both of them each individually. Stefan talking about the past with Damon seems much more natural and likely honest than anything we’ve had of him with telling Elena things. He even seems…you know, I won’t say smart, because I can’t bring myself to say that, but not so dumb; probably because it makes sense for him to know how to talk to his brother. And I will always have more sympathy for Damon when it comes to Katherine than his…well any relationship besides Stefan. For it only being revealed this episode that his schemes are about saving Katherine, and by the end of the episode it seems that he’ll need a new mission, I buy what this episode lays out about his devotion to her.
I’m not sure if it’s helped or hurt by knowing that all his pain is over someone who gives almost as few fucks about Damon as I do. It is at least funnier this way.
I am however absolutely not surprised that the episode where I almost care about the Salvatores happens when they have very little to do with Elena. The few scenes between Stefan and Elena were the times when he most grated against my forbearance and reluctant sympathy. In those scenes my brain can’t let go of how he never tells her anything unless he has to, and he gets to make the grand sweeping decisions without her input or agreement. When he wanted to continue their relationship last time, he just assumed she must want to too, now that he’s ready to get out of her life, she still gets no say in whether he does so.
In kind of a middling spot, I find his flip-out at the end a bit odd. Because I can’t tell if it’s because of the mess with Elena or all this has ripped open his Katherine scars. The former is more CW, the second is more interesting, and they don’t really go together in my mind.
So we finally get Alaric showing up. I’d forgotten that the show went so hard trying to make you think he was a vampire; now I can’t remember when they stop, although it is probably within an episode or two. It’s a little interesting that we don’t really start with him showing interest in Elena, and for now I don’t mean that in the way of them as a ship. For starters, it’s surprising because she’s the one connected to Isobel; he doesn’t know that yet, he doesn’t even have any reason to think that at this point, but it would have been reasonable to have him at least pay Elena some attention. Him not focusing on Elena is also a bit counter to setting him up as a new vampire, since vampires have a tendency to recognize Elena as looking like Katherine.
Which is then interesting to think in terms of all the doppelganger mythology we get in later seasons. Because if this was s2 then with a potential new vampire, showing him on the lookout for the doppelganger would be the logical assumption. Which comes back to my point about what I like about this episode being small scale compared to the later seasons of the show. As much as I like the later stuff (for a little while) and basically consider the arrival of Elijah as the beginning of *my* TVD, there is something to be said for the small scale stuff.
While we don’t get any time with Elena and Ric, he does have good chemistry with both Jeremy and Jenna pretty quickly. Unfortunately, he has more chemistry with Jeremy, and it’s kind of creepy. I do think the actor/director don’t know what vibe to go with for Alaric yet, especially with the misleading going on, so once things start to shake out I think that chemistry will work for them instead of being creepy.
I actually had a thought about all the doppelganger mythology stuff though; what does Emily know about all that? Granted there is a lot of later mythology stuff I either never knew or have no clear memory of, but would she be clued into why this Elena girl looks like Katherine? Quite frankly, I think that if she did, then stopping the tomb vampires from getting out is a lesser concern than a human doppelganger. Then again, Emily’s priorities here seem a bit skewed even within this season. Did she know that Katherine isn’t in the tomb? Was she just gaming Damon, getting him to protect her line in exchange for not needing to do anything to save Katherine? But then why lock the others away? Did she also have a deal with Anna and she was just double dipping getting Damon to make a deal for something she was already going to do?
I also can’t remember if the crystal was actually destroyed in this episode. I do remember that even on first watch I always found it a little sketchy since the episode had already had Bonnie try to get rid of it in a big dramatic way and this feels quite possibly like a light show meant to get everyone else to stop trying to get their hands on the crystal. I don’t remember if I was right or not though.
Back up in my general impression of the episode, I mention how this is a really good grounding of what the show is at this point, but it’s also a good example of what the show could be. If the three main characters were the three girls and the show was focused on them gaining so much understanding of what was going on in the world around them. The scenes with Emily exerting control are better horror than anything we’ve seen from the vampires so far, and part of that is how little control the girls have, and how little they understand about what’s happening. The development of the group dynamic between the girls is more compelling than Damon’s attempts to make drama in prior episodes (I may like Damon’s character more when it is connected to Stefan and Katherine, but that doesn’t backtrack interest in how he’s been messing with Elena and Caroline). I think this may stand as a good example of why the show is so frustrating; it has so many options for better stories to focus on, but it always reverts back to the fucking triangle.
I’m not sure I like that this is how Bonnie gets let on the vampire secrets, but I would have liked it a lot less if she wasn’t let in after this episode (keeps it as a Doylist objection that this was how the writers decided to bring her in, but if she hadn’t been let in here then it would reflect badly on the characters who weren’t trusting her). And not just because of the stuff that happens at the end, but when she’s being so open about her new experiences with the supernatural that even lies of omission about the rest feel unfair. I can’t decide how I feel about not just telling Caroline the truth at this point either, but to the show’s limited credit, I’m not sure I’m supposed to. Had Caroline stuck around for the undeniable magic part of the evening, then of course I don’t think they should lie to her; but she gives the impression of being in denial about what she has seen. Now, Elena does know that Caroline has to know something from the time she was with Damon, but I think I can accept that at this point they don’t think she could handle the whole truth.
That said, I will admit that if I was as hard on Elena as I usually am on the Salvatores, I would have some stuff to criticize about her in this episode. I even have some to criticize as is, but some of her actions could be read much more harshly than I do. But I am (for now) kinder to her because she is a teenager who’s just learned about all this stuff and is taking a lot of cues from Stefan as to what to do with the knowledge. Plus, we know Elena at least partially wishes she didn’t know all this stuff that she’s learned, so she probably can at least convince herself that she’s keeping the secrets for people’s own good (even beyond Stefan).
Which may be why she frames her choice to tell Bonnie the truth at the end as if it’s the selfish choice rather than Bonnie being entitled to the truth. That Bonnie can clearly handle these kinds of secrets and it being wrong to lie now that it is in her life. Although I also think it’s a little odd that she frames it to Stefan as if it’s about her (Elena) needing someone to talk to about all this. Because if that is the reason, then it is a selfish reason. I do think there is truth in that reason, because Elena absolutely needs to be able to talk about what she’s going through with people who aren’t the ones putting her through it, and that Stefan has been insisting she keep it secret would be abusive behavior were it not for the admitted stakes of what’s going on. And my first thought was that that’s why she framed it in the selfish way for Stefan, because he’s actually more likely to respond to a selfish argument than a moral one.
But my biggest ‘huh’ moment in Elena’s speech to Stefan at the end was when she somehow contorts the conclusion that all this had convinced her that she can handle all that being with him means. I do not understand how she reaches that conclusion based on the evidence she’s gained in the last twelve hours. There are reasons that dealing with this could have convinced her that it’s better if they’re together than not, but she says she has somehow come to the realization that she’s cool with all this, and that I don’t believe.
What am I shipping?
I guess I’m shipping Matt/Caroline about as much as I was last time, which means a lot more than I was into it a decade ago. I like what they can be for each other, and given my friend-shipper tendencies, that’s not a bad place to start even if I’m not really into them as a ship yet (or really ever).
That said, I still kind of feel like Matt wants to include not being with Elena on his list of reasons he’s so alone right now. Because my little Elena/Matt heart responds to that kind of thing.
Who do I hate the most?
Damon, but not as much as usual.
I…really liked that episode. It hit a lot of notes, and most of them pretty well. It’s better at horror than this show usually is; it advances the plot in pretty natural ways; it adds more to the story while providing some answers to what’s been going on; it has quite a bit of good character work for quite a few characters. There’s still quite a bit of the season to go, but this is a strong contender for a prime example of what the show was in the first season, about the dark hidden secrets of a small town and how history has a way of coming back to haunt us.
Let’s do a little timeline check-in (with a bit of character analysis attached). There does seem to be a bit of slack between last episode and this one, which I’m okay with. I do think at this point the writers still had in their heads that a season would equal a year, like it does in so many shows. I’m not going to say it really tracks even now, and the writers won’t actually admit that it can’t be the case until about s3 (s2 is kind of wishy-washy on what year it is), but they are setting it up to at least pass cursory inspection.
Elena mentions to Bonnie that she wouldn’t have really believed all the witch stuff a couple weeks ago. If we take that at face value, that would put the last 4-5 episodes all in those two weeks, and maybe even a little less. But that does seem to track with the timeline we’ve seen, so I can’t argue with it; it’s just a very busy couple of weeks. On the other hand, Alaric and Jeremy say they’re a couple of months into the school year; which would imply that the first 3-4 episodes of the season were stretched over 6+ weeks and that doesn’t track. It also doesn’t even quite fit with Halloween being the stated ~2 weeks ago. So basically, it kind of works and it kind of doesn’t.
There’s also the fact that Logan was killed within those two seeks since Elena learned about the supernatural world. I’m not sure which side that falls on relevant to the timeline working, but it is a bit worth keeping in mind.
Also that, as follow-up to what happened with Lexi, I’m not sure there is a good timeline that makes sense of Stefan and Damon’s dynamic. I like their dynamic in this episode, but it rarely seems informed by what’s been happening lately. In some ways it feels like a reset of their dynamic; and considering the episode’s placement in the season (this being about the point in the writers’ room when they start being able to write to how the actors are working and what strengths are revealing themselves) it wouldn’t surprise me if it is a little bit moving into version 2.0 of the characters. This seems more like the brothers’ dynamic that we’ll see most often going forward; they may sometimes hate each other, but they really do love each other more than the hate, and they will always gravitate back to being brothers.
In addition to being possibly the best episode so far for the Salvatores playing off each other, it’s possibly the best for both of them each individually. Stefan talking about the past with Damon seems much more natural and likely honest than anything we’ve had of him with telling Elena things. He even seems…you know, I won’t say smart, because I can’t bring myself to say that, but not so dumb; probably because it makes sense for him to know how to talk to his brother. And I will always have more sympathy for Damon when it comes to Katherine than his…well any relationship besides Stefan. For it only being revealed this episode that his schemes are about saving Katherine, and by the end of the episode it seems that he’ll need a new mission, I buy what this episode lays out about his devotion to her.
I’m not sure if it’s helped or hurt by knowing that all his pain is over someone who gives almost as few fucks about Damon as I do. It is at least funnier this way.
I am however absolutely not surprised that the episode where I almost care about the Salvatores happens when they have very little to do with Elena. The few scenes between Stefan and Elena were the times when he most grated against my forbearance and reluctant sympathy. In those scenes my brain can’t let go of how he never tells her anything unless he has to, and he gets to make the grand sweeping decisions without her input or agreement. When he wanted to continue their relationship last time, he just assumed she must want to too, now that he’s ready to get out of her life, she still gets no say in whether he does so.
In kind of a middling spot, I find his flip-out at the end a bit odd. Because I can’t tell if it’s because of the mess with Elena or all this has ripped open his Katherine scars. The former is more CW, the second is more interesting, and they don’t really go together in my mind.
So we finally get Alaric showing up. I’d forgotten that the show went so hard trying to make you think he was a vampire; now I can’t remember when they stop, although it is probably within an episode or two. It’s a little interesting that we don’t really start with him showing interest in Elena, and for now I don’t mean that in the way of them as a ship. For starters, it’s surprising because she’s the one connected to Isobel; he doesn’t know that yet, he doesn’t even have any reason to think that at this point, but it would have been reasonable to have him at least pay Elena some attention. Him not focusing on Elena is also a bit counter to setting him up as a new vampire, since vampires have a tendency to recognize Elena as looking like Katherine.
Which is then interesting to think in terms of all the doppelganger mythology we get in later seasons. Because if this was s2 then with a potential new vampire, showing him on the lookout for the doppelganger would be the logical assumption. Which comes back to my point about what I like about this episode being small scale compared to the later seasons of the show. As much as I like the later stuff (for a little while) and basically consider the arrival of Elijah as the beginning of *my* TVD, there is something to be said for the small scale stuff.
While we don’t get any time with Elena and Ric, he does have good chemistry with both Jeremy and Jenna pretty quickly. Unfortunately, he has more chemistry with Jeremy, and it’s kind of creepy. I do think the actor/director don’t know what vibe to go with for Alaric yet, especially with the misleading going on, so once things start to shake out I think that chemistry will work for them instead of being creepy.
I actually had a thought about all the doppelganger mythology stuff though; what does Emily know about all that? Granted there is a lot of later mythology stuff I either never knew or have no clear memory of, but would she be clued into why this Elena girl looks like Katherine? Quite frankly, I think that if she did, then stopping the tomb vampires from getting out is a lesser concern than a human doppelganger. Then again, Emily’s priorities here seem a bit skewed even within this season. Did she know that Katherine isn’t in the tomb? Was she just gaming Damon, getting him to protect her line in exchange for not needing to do anything to save Katherine? But then why lock the others away? Did she also have a deal with Anna and she was just double dipping getting Damon to make a deal for something she was already going to do?
I also can’t remember if the crystal was actually destroyed in this episode. I do remember that even on first watch I always found it a little sketchy since the episode had already had Bonnie try to get rid of it in a big dramatic way and this feels quite possibly like a light show meant to get everyone else to stop trying to get their hands on the crystal. I don’t remember if I was right or not though.
Back up in my general impression of the episode, I mention how this is a really good grounding of what the show is at this point, but it’s also a good example of what the show could be. If the three main characters were the three girls and the show was focused on them gaining so much understanding of what was going on in the world around them. The scenes with Emily exerting control are better horror than anything we’ve seen from the vampires so far, and part of that is how little control the girls have, and how little they understand about what’s happening. The development of the group dynamic between the girls is more compelling than Damon’s attempts to make drama in prior episodes (I may like Damon’s character more when it is connected to Stefan and Katherine, but that doesn’t backtrack interest in how he’s been messing with Elena and Caroline). I think this may stand as a good example of why the show is so frustrating; it has so many options for better stories to focus on, but it always reverts back to the fucking triangle.
I’m not sure I like that this is how Bonnie gets let on the vampire secrets, but I would have liked it a lot less if she wasn’t let in after this episode (keeps it as a Doylist objection that this was how the writers decided to bring her in, but if she hadn’t been let in here then it would reflect badly on the characters who weren’t trusting her). And not just because of the stuff that happens at the end, but when she’s being so open about her new experiences with the supernatural that even lies of omission about the rest feel unfair. I can’t decide how I feel about not just telling Caroline the truth at this point either, but to the show’s limited credit, I’m not sure I’m supposed to. Had Caroline stuck around for the undeniable magic part of the evening, then of course I don’t think they should lie to her; but she gives the impression of being in denial about what she has seen. Now, Elena does know that Caroline has to know something from the time she was with Damon, but I think I can accept that at this point they don’t think she could handle the whole truth.
That said, I will admit that if I was as hard on Elena as I usually am on the Salvatores, I would have some stuff to criticize about her in this episode. I even have some to criticize as is, but some of her actions could be read much more harshly than I do. But I am (for now) kinder to her because she is a teenager who’s just learned about all this stuff and is taking a lot of cues from Stefan as to what to do with the knowledge. Plus, we know Elena at least partially wishes she didn’t know all this stuff that she’s learned, so she probably can at least convince herself that she’s keeping the secrets for people’s own good (even beyond Stefan).
Which may be why she frames her choice to tell Bonnie the truth at the end as if it’s the selfish choice rather than Bonnie being entitled to the truth. That Bonnie can clearly handle these kinds of secrets and it being wrong to lie now that it is in her life. Although I also think it’s a little odd that she frames it to Stefan as if it’s about her (Elena) needing someone to talk to about all this. Because if that is the reason, then it is a selfish reason. I do think there is truth in that reason, because Elena absolutely needs to be able to talk about what she’s going through with people who aren’t the ones putting her through it, and that Stefan has been insisting she keep it secret would be abusive behavior were it not for the admitted stakes of what’s going on. And my first thought was that that’s why she framed it in the selfish way for Stefan, because he’s actually more likely to respond to a selfish argument than a moral one.
But my biggest ‘huh’ moment in Elena’s speech to Stefan at the end was when she somehow contorts the conclusion that all this had convinced her that she can handle all that being with him means. I do not understand how she reaches that conclusion based on the evidence she’s gained in the last twelve hours. There are reasons that dealing with this could have convinced her that it’s better if they’re together than not, but she says she has somehow come to the realization that she’s cool with all this, and that I don’t believe.
What am I shipping?
I guess I’m shipping Matt/Caroline about as much as I was last time, which means a lot more than I was into it a decade ago. I like what they can be for each other, and given my friend-shipper tendencies, that’s not a bad place to start even if I’m not really into them as a ship yet (or really ever).
That said, I still kind of feel like Matt wants to include not being with Elena on his list of reasons he’s so alone right now. Because my little Elena/Matt heart responds to that kind of thing.
Who do I hate the most?
Damon, but not as much as usual.
