The Vampire Diaries 1x14: Fool Me Once
Apr. 5th, 2023 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsThe Vampire Diaries 1x14: Fool Me Once
Hmm…
I can’t quite say I was disappointed in this episode, but in my head I thought it was a lot better than it was this time. In my memory it was when all these running plot threads came together and was the episode that really should have been called The Turning Point. But this time it ended up not being all that special.
Which leads me to guess that a least a good chunk of the initial enjoyment comes from having the rug pulled out from under the audience and Damon about Katherine not being all that we had so far been led to believe she was. Katherine is the character with the most development this episode, and she is redefined by her absence.
While it hasn’t often been at the front of my mind as I watch the show, I have let one of my old headcanons spin around in the back of my brain. I think Damon was Sired to Katherine, but with her absence the entire time he was a vampire he never knew it. Then, what he learns in this episode is akin to how one would break a sire bond; finally seeing her complete rejection of the bond he thought existed between them.
Not that I think the show writers would agree with that reading, but if they’re going to introduce that gross bit of mythology, I can do something more interesting with it. It might also explain why Damon manages to get people Sired to him, he has the trait to pass on to his bloodline.
Whether or not I incorporate that part of my reading, I think Damon gets hit with a hell of a lot of transference here. At just the moment when he really wanted Katherine to appear and come back to him, Elena shows up and gives a damn about him and his feelings and his life; things he just started to realize Katherine kind of didn’t care about.
Which isn’t to say he isn’t having ~feelings~ on the Elena front at other points in the episode. For all his proclamations that he hopes Elena dies, he was the one who went to meet with Anna and was going to go along with her plan. It did also suit his needs, he really didn’t care if other vampires got out so long as he got Katherine, and Anna had (supposedly) already lined up what they would need; it’s no skin off his nose to turn around and go with Stefan and Elena’s plan to just get Katherine and then burn everyone else. But I will allow that there was an element of Elena-concern in him agreeing to Anna’s plan.
I have quite a few thoughts on the big scene between Elena and Damon, but I warn you that they come from the Elena/Elijah shipper section of my brain. It shocked me how much that could have been an Elena/Elijah scene of argumentative honesty, trust games, and understanding each other’s motives. So why does this scene leave me cold, and my only interest coming from a relationship that doesn’t exist yet?
Well, not to ever discount how much I loathe Damon to my very core, but I sense another reason why my brain couldn’t jive with this. Mainly, I think it’s because of the low stakes. There is basically nothing on the line at that point; there’s no additional risk to Katherine if they ‘rescue’ her that night or any other; Damon has the grimoire and witches on his radar, even if he needed to find another he must have ways (dang, maybe he shouldn’t have killed Bree, you think?); Anna has no hostages to hold over their heads, nor does she have a witch on tap, or the grimoire, so she’s not going to open the tomb without Damon; they don’t need Katherine or any of the tomb vampires because they have some valuable piece of information the crew needs; or that this is the last night they can perform the ritual for another 50 years. The only question the scene deals with is whether Damon will trust Elena not to screw him over. And again, it’s nothing to him who he makes deals with so long as he gets into the crypt and saves Katherine.
Yeah, I think that is a lot of my issue, and why the drama feels more than a bit forced when they don’t invent an external reason why this has to be dealt with right now. As such, Elena deciding that this has to happen right now, feels like she’s just placating Damon so he doesn’t have more time to do something stupid before they can prepare a better way to get him what he wants. But I don’t think the show recognizes that the characters should be smarter than they are, so it’s not treated that it was the rush and unpreparedness that got Grams killed.
That said, a little of my issue with that scene is that, since it’s such an Elena/Elijah scene, I feel like my ship should have been just as likely to sail as Damon/Elena. But because no matter how much the show writes Elena as having relationships just as strong and more compatible, it will ignore those possibilities to revert back to the Triangle, and I hate that about this show.
Also, I feel like Elena’s sympathy of Anna gets lost with the plan they go for. We got the setup of Elena’s compassion extending to Anna’s loss of her mother, but no payoff for it.
To come back to the subject of Katherine though. There are reveals about a character that you can’t un-know once you know them. Be it something in their backstory or a reveal about their personality that must have always been there but wasn’t seen until a specific point. My go to example is actually some of the reveals about Delenn in Babylon 5; I can’t un-know the things she isn’t telling people, about her plans or the prophesies, or her own actions surrounding the Earth-Minbari War. But because these things become such a part of my view of a character, on a rewatch, my learning them no longer has any power; I have to be invested in other people’s reactions, or the characters concern for others’ reactions.
And this is where a whole bunch of rewatch problems pile on each other to take away the meaning this episode once had. Because I know who Katherine is, I knew her better than any of the characters at this point; and I can’t un-hate Damon enough to be all that bothered by his reaction to learning who Katherine is. When I didn’t know Katherine so well, and didn’t hate Damon so much, there is something to appreciate about this story; but take that away and not much is left it seems.
Once more, I feel like there is something to be said on the subject of Matt/Caroline, but damn if I can work up enough energy to bother getting into it. Except that it’s got a weird counterpoint in it; it seems like it’s deepening Caroline’s character by showing her in such a different light than she was in the earlier episodes, but I also kind of feel like she just has less personality to fit into the healthy secondary relationship slot this is supposed to fill (also a little pairing the spares to it).
What am I shipping?
…hmm. Tyler seems pretty possessive of Matt and has a bit of a hate-boner for Jeremy; I could be persuaded toward Tyler the deeply closeted. Basically I don’t really ship anything at the moment. When the ship I clearly have the most thoughts about won’t be introduced to the show for almost a season, I think it’s safe to say I’m not being drawn to anything in the present.
Who do I hate the most?
Hissy-fit Damon allows the tomb vampires to escape. Also kind of Bonnie for thinking Stefan was worth saving when she could have spared us a lot of problems by letting Grams have her plan.
Hmm…
I can’t quite say I was disappointed in this episode, but in my head I thought it was a lot better than it was this time. In my memory it was when all these running plot threads came together and was the episode that really should have been called The Turning Point. But this time it ended up not being all that special.
Which leads me to guess that a least a good chunk of the initial enjoyment comes from having the rug pulled out from under the audience and Damon about Katherine not being all that we had so far been led to believe she was. Katherine is the character with the most development this episode, and she is redefined by her absence.
While it hasn’t often been at the front of my mind as I watch the show, I have let one of my old headcanons spin around in the back of my brain. I think Damon was Sired to Katherine, but with her absence the entire time he was a vampire he never knew it. Then, what he learns in this episode is akin to how one would break a sire bond; finally seeing her complete rejection of the bond he thought existed between them.
Not that I think the show writers would agree with that reading, but if they’re going to introduce that gross bit of mythology, I can do something more interesting with it. It might also explain why Damon manages to get people Sired to him, he has the trait to pass on to his bloodline.
Whether or not I incorporate that part of my reading, I think Damon gets hit with a hell of a lot of transference here. At just the moment when he really wanted Katherine to appear and come back to him, Elena shows up and gives a damn about him and his feelings and his life; things he just started to realize Katherine kind of didn’t care about.
Which isn’t to say he isn’t having ~feelings~ on the Elena front at other points in the episode. For all his proclamations that he hopes Elena dies, he was the one who went to meet with Anna and was going to go along with her plan. It did also suit his needs, he really didn’t care if other vampires got out so long as he got Katherine, and Anna had (supposedly) already lined up what they would need; it’s no skin off his nose to turn around and go with Stefan and Elena’s plan to just get Katherine and then burn everyone else. But I will allow that there was an element of Elena-concern in him agreeing to Anna’s plan.
I have quite a few thoughts on the big scene between Elena and Damon, but I warn you that they come from the Elena/Elijah shipper section of my brain. It shocked me how much that could have been an Elena/Elijah scene of argumentative honesty, trust games, and understanding each other’s motives. So why does this scene leave me cold, and my only interest coming from a relationship that doesn’t exist yet?
Well, not to ever discount how much I loathe Damon to my very core, but I sense another reason why my brain couldn’t jive with this. Mainly, I think it’s because of the low stakes. There is basically nothing on the line at that point; there’s no additional risk to Katherine if they ‘rescue’ her that night or any other; Damon has the grimoire and witches on his radar, even if he needed to find another he must have ways (dang, maybe he shouldn’t have killed Bree, you think?); Anna has no hostages to hold over their heads, nor does she have a witch on tap, or the grimoire, so she’s not going to open the tomb without Damon; they don’t need Katherine or any of the tomb vampires because they have some valuable piece of information the crew needs; or that this is the last night they can perform the ritual for another 50 years. The only question the scene deals with is whether Damon will trust Elena not to screw him over. And again, it’s nothing to him who he makes deals with so long as he gets into the crypt and saves Katherine.
Yeah, I think that is a lot of my issue, and why the drama feels more than a bit forced when they don’t invent an external reason why this has to be dealt with right now. As such, Elena deciding that this has to happen right now, feels like she’s just placating Damon so he doesn’t have more time to do something stupid before they can prepare a better way to get him what he wants. But I don’t think the show recognizes that the characters should be smarter than they are, so it’s not treated that it was the rush and unpreparedness that got Grams killed.
That said, a little of my issue with that scene is that, since it’s such an Elena/Elijah scene, I feel like my ship should have been just as likely to sail as Damon/Elena. But because no matter how much the show writes Elena as having relationships just as strong and more compatible, it will ignore those possibilities to revert back to the Triangle, and I hate that about this show.
Also, I feel like Elena’s sympathy of Anna gets lost with the plan they go for. We got the setup of Elena’s compassion extending to Anna’s loss of her mother, but no payoff for it.
To come back to the subject of Katherine though. There are reveals about a character that you can’t un-know once you know them. Be it something in their backstory or a reveal about their personality that must have always been there but wasn’t seen until a specific point. My go to example is actually some of the reveals about Delenn in Babylon 5; I can’t un-know the things she isn’t telling people, about her plans or the prophesies, or her own actions surrounding the Earth-Minbari War. But because these things become such a part of my view of a character, on a rewatch, my learning them no longer has any power; I have to be invested in other people’s reactions, or the characters concern for others’ reactions.
And this is where a whole bunch of rewatch problems pile on each other to take away the meaning this episode once had. Because I know who Katherine is, I knew her better than any of the characters at this point; and I can’t un-hate Damon enough to be all that bothered by his reaction to learning who Katherine is. When I didn’t know Katherine so well, and didn’t hate Damon so much, there is something to appreciate about this story; but take that away and not much is left it seems.
Once more, I feel like there is something to be said on the subject of Matt/Caroline, but damn if I can work up enough energy to bother getting into it. Except that it’s got a weird counterpoint in it; it seems like it’s deepening Caroline’s character by showing her in such a different light than she was in the earlier episodes, but I also kind of feel like she just has less personality to fit into the healthy secondary relationship slot this is supposed to fill (also a little pairing the spares to it).
What am I shipping?
…hmm. Tyler seems pretty possessive of Matt and has a bit of a hate-boner for Jeremy; I could be persuaded toward Tyler the deeply closeted. Basically I don’t really ship anything at the moment. When the ship I clearly have the most thoughts about won’t be introduced to the show for almost a season, I think it’s safe to say I’m not being drawn to anything in the present.
Who do I hate the most?
Hissy-fit Damon allows the tomb vampires to escape. Also kind of Bonnie for thinking Stefan was worth saving when she could have spared us a lot of problems by letting Grams have her plan.
