The Vampire Diaries 2x06: Plan B
Sep. 29th, 2023 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsThe Vampire Diaries 2x06: Plan B
This episode is a lot like the last one, in that I like it well enough, even find some elements quite effective, but come out of it feeling sort of meh.
This also marks a very interesting moment in this review series. If you actually wanted to, you could go from here and read my reviews from over a decade ago that will carry through to the end of s3. Because my opinions are clearly not that different (except generally lower) from what they were at the time, I thought about starting that review series with the introduction of Elijah, then decided that 2x07 was a really good episode so I might as well warm up on that one. I suspect I will be more wordy this time around, but it could be interesting to compare my old thoughts with current ones. On the other hand, I don’t want to have my old opinions influence too much of my new takes too much, so if I do some comparison it would be after I’ve written the new review to see if anything I said back in the day inspires new thought. And at some point (I really don’t remember when) I could even go searching for initial reactions to episodes and have another level of comparison.
Anyway, I think the main problem I keep coming to with this episode comes from TVD time. It’s an issue on both the small level of only having a couple days since the last episode, and a larger level of only being a couple weeks since the beginning of the season. And has an impact on most of the characters.
It’s a problem with Stefan and Elena’s ‘breakup’ and sneaking around, that they couldn’t even be subtle for the weekend (when does school happen? Maybe they have a four day school week). It’s a further problem that the Stefan drinking blood plan has only just gotten started. If anything I’d say the opening scene suggests Stefan’s still having trouble keeping himself fully restrained, and then at the end Elena just force feeds him her blood. Dudes, is this not literally what set off his last blood bender…which was like a month ago. There’s no way Stefan has built up a tolerance in just a couple days; more likely he’s still depressed over the last blood bender and so manages to hold it together this time because falling off the wagon again that quickly would be pretty bad.
Longer term, there’s an issue with Bonnie acting like she’s been out of the loop for ages when it’s been maybe a week since she made Caroline’s daylight ring (although there are some issues with Elena having not told her anything…though in this case the compressed timeline helps, because when has Elena had time to stop and catch Bonnie up if Bonnie hasn’t been at all the same things Elena has). And in kind of short term and ‘long’ term, it doesn’t handle her reconciliation with Caroline very well. We really needed one more check in on her avoiding Caroline before the reconciliation happened; we do get that between Bonnie and Elena, but Bonnie is not yet expressing any movement toward accepting Caroline, then in the course of a few hours they seem to be fine. We either needed time to thaw things out, or this needed to be a step in the thaw (okay, we can work together when we need to, but we’re not cool yet); but the arc is crammed into a single episode, a few hours of in ep time, making it seem weird that it took as long to start thawing as it did.
Caroline though gets the most…shafted by the TVD time problem. It wouldn’t seem like shafted, because everything is great for her by and large; but that’s exactly how it’s shafting her. All credit to CA, who is probably the only reason this plotline/character arc is working as well as it is, where I’m having a hard time expressing why it doesn’t work, because she is bringing a humanity and sympathy to the story that I think would be lost if she wasn’t doing such a good job. I’m not complaining that it seems Caroline is really good at being a vampire, but the timeline we have makes her way too good at it. Or it makes them overselling the development she’s had so far. When she tells Liz about how she’s able to control her cravings for blood, I wonder when she had time to get very confident with her control, or maybe I want to point out that not-Trip has barely started to decompose, or question when Caroline’s control has actually been tested up to this point. Damon was fine for a few weeks after he was turned, granted he was moping about Katherine, but he hadn’t gone full Damon yet.
I count how rushed Liz’s acceptance is as part of Caroline being underserved by the story. At most Liz has had a couple days to unlearn a lifetime of vampire…I don’t like calling it prejudice because it’s not even that wrong. Liz is literally in the basement while Damon is torturing and killing someone upstairs; one more death of many that the law will never hold him accountable for. But Liz was avoiding talking to Caroline, but a couple of conversations completely changed her mind about how to view vampires? Especially when I’m sure Caroline didn’t tell her about not-Trip or Mason, or how Damon had been treating Caroline when they were ‘dating.’
There is one thing I would almost be willing to give the writing of the last Liz and Caroline scene, except that what I might give it would undercut what I think we’re supposed to take as the point. Because when Liz is surprised to find that Caroline is this strong and capable young woman, I would be willing to say Liz just hadn’t noticed that Caroline in many ways already was those things and that those qualities were what was helping Caroline deal with her transition. But I’m sure we’re supposed to see it as Caroline having become strong and capable through her transition; and that I don’t think there’s been time for.
It's actually the Lockwoods that make me the most convinced the writers don’t really understand how compressed their time is. Lockwood Sr. has been dead for those two weeks since last season. And while Carol does at least get a moment to miss her husband, none of them act like they just lost someone so important in their lives.
On a related note though, watching Tyler and Jeremy’s interactions keeping in mind how little Tyler actually knows about the supernatural world, makes them kind of funny. Tyler still only half believes in werewolves, and there Jeremy is talking about ancient Aztec curses and witches and shamans and whatever and as far as Tyler knows Jeremy is basing this all on old family folklore even less realized than what Tyler knows.
Oddly enough, the compressed timeline largely works with Jeremy. It’s almost the inverse of all the other problems I’ve brought up, because by writing him at a development pace that nearly fits the timeline we’re in, he feels like he’s stuck on issues of the past, while others have raced through three more issues in the meantime. I kind of think Elena might have forgotten that they were fighting, because she’s had too much else to deal with.
But that did get me thinking about where Jeremy is with his introduction to the supernatural world. Because him being around Damon torturing Mason and not sticking around for the end, seems to be portrayed as something he hasn’t been exposed to before. And…that almost works; because by and large Jeremy has been kept out of the more grisly aspects of dealing with the supernatural; but I’m not sure he’s been sheltered enough for us to see a connection to his change of heart toward Elena in the end. By the same token, he hasn’t been sheltered enough (in this very episode) to explain the change of heart with the threat having come home through Jenna.
Much as I can be judgmental of Damon, and I don’t feel bad about it, I think his reaction to Mason and Katherine is very interesting to watch. I’d say he is a little jealous, at the very least he’s taking some of his anger at being rejected by Katherine out of Mason (not that Mason was getting out of there alive anyway). And as a Damon character beat, him calling to gloat to Katherine makes a lot of sense and is quite compelling.
(It does remind me of my long ago realization that what this show doesn’t have and I don’t think ever has. is a tech person. They sort of try to give Alaric the Watcher role at times, but nobody ever gets the guy in the chair role.)
What I do kind of wish is that there were actual consequences for all the mistakes characters make regarding Katherine in this episode. I don’t want Jenna to be hurt worse, but because the wounds will be taken care of fairly quickly (since we’re in TVD time) this feels very minor. Even if, say, we’d seen them having to restrain Jenna from stabbing herself again while they waited for the ambulance; make it more clear that if they hadn’t been there Jenna would just be dead. Play up the drama so the psychological wound on Elena is more dramatic even if the cost in the moment wasn’t too high. As is, in the end there’s a part of me that resents them rolling over for a terrorist, and I don’t even want Stefan and Elena together.
I’m pretty sure I could have a point to make about the breakup scene, but it’s just overwrought. Maybe if I shipped them I’d feel more, or anything; but it’s banking on an investment in the ship that I do not have. It’s also banking on more buy-in on Damon and Elena than I have. As always, the Triangle just lands like a wet fart with me; but at least it didn’t take up that much time this episode.
What am I shipping?
Flutterings in Matt/Elena territory. I’d still be open to Jeremy/Tyler if the show gave me something to really sink my teeth into. I feel more on the Damon/Katherine front than I had before. I think a better show could have done something fascinating with Damon/Jeremy, but I’m not going to pretend this show would. And the girls get to go on an adventure and it’s sweet, the trio or any pairing of them would be fine.
Basically, I’d say nothing, but the ship tendencies are there.
Who do I hate the most?
I kind of have to say Katherine again, on Jenna and Matt’s behalf. I’m more judgmental of Damon because I can tell that the show barely sees his actions as bad while Kat is the villain, but Kat is messing with people I care about.
This episode is a lot like the last one, in that I like it well enough, even find some elements quite effective, but come out of it feeling sort of meh.
This also marks a very interesting moment in this review series. If you actually wanted to, you could go from here and read my reviews from over a decade ago that will carry through to the end of s3. Because my opinions are clearly not that different (except generally lower) from what they were at the time, I thought about starting that review series with the introduction of Elijah, then decided that 2x07 was a really good episode so I might as well warm up on that one. I suspect I will be more wordy this time around, but it could be interesting to compare my old thoughts with current ones. On the other hand, I don’t want to have my old opinions influence too much of my new takes too much, so if I do some comparison it would be after I’ve written the new review to see if anything I said back in the day inspires new thought. And at some point (I really don’t remember when) I could even go searching for initial reactions to episodes and have another level of comparison.
Anyway, I think the main problem I keep coming to with this episode comes from TVD time. It’s an issue on both the small level of only having a couple days since the last episode, and a larger level of only being a couple weeks since the beginning of the season. And has an impact on most of the characters.
It’s a problem with Stefan and Elena’s ‘breakup’ and sneaking around, that they couldn’t even be subtle for the weekend (when does school happen? Maybe they have a four day school week). It’s a further problem that the Stefan drinking blood plan has only just gotten started. If anything I’d say the opening scene suggests Stefan’s still having trouble keeping himself fully restrained, and then at the end Elena just force feeds him her blood. Dudes, is this not literally what set off his last blood bender…which was like a month ago. There’s no way Stefan has built up a tolerance in just a couple days; more likely he’s still depressed over the last blood bender and so manages to hold it together this time because falling off the wagon again that quickly would be pretty bad.
Longer term, there’s an issue with Bonnie acting like she’s been out of the loop for ages when it’s been maybe a week since she made Caroline’s daylight ring (although there are some issues with Elena having not told her anything…though in this case the compressed timeline helps, because when has Elena had time to stop and catch Bonnie up if Bonnie hasn’t been at all the same things Elena has). And in kind of short term and ‘long’ term, it doesn’t handle her reconciliation with Caroline very well. We really needed one more check in on her avoiding Caroline before the reconciliation happened; we do get that between Bonnie and Elena, but Bonnie is not yet expressing any movement toward accepting Caroline, then in the course of a few hours they seem to be fine. We either needed time to thaw things out, or this needed to be a step in the thaw (okay, we can work together when we need to, but we’re not cool yet); but the arc is crammed into a single episode, a few hours of in ep time, making it seem weird that it took as long to start thawing as it did.
Caroline though gets the most…shafted by the TVD time problem. It wouldn’t seem like shafted, because everything is great for her by and large; but that’s exactly how it’s shafting her. All credit to CA, who is probably the only reason this plotline/character arc is working as well as it is, where I’m having a hard time expressing why it doesn’t work, because she is bringing a humanity and sympathy to the story that I think would be lost if she wasn’t doing such a good job. I’m not complaining that it seems Caroline is really good at being a vampire, but the timeline we have makes her way too good at it. Or it makes them overselling the development she’s had so far. When she tells Liz about how she’s able to control her cravings for blood, I wonder when she had time to get very confident with her control, or maybe I want to point out that not-Trip has barely started to decompose, or question when Caroline’s control has actually been tested up to this point. Damon was fine for a few weeks after he was turned, granted he was moping about Katherine, but he hadn’t gone full Damon yet.
I count how rushed Liz’s acceptance is as part of Caroline being underserved by the story. At most Liz has had a couple days to unlearn a lifetime of vampire…I don’t like calling it prejudice because it’s not even that wrong. Liz is literally in the basement while Damon is torturing and killing someone upstairs; one more death of many that the law will never hold him accountable for. But Liz was avoiding talking to Caroline, but a couple of conversations completely changed her mind about how to view vampires? Especially when I’m sure Caroline didn’t tell her about not-Trip or Mason, or how Damon had been treating Caroline when they were ‘dating.’
There is one thing I would almost be willing to give the writing of the last Liz and Caroline scene, except that what I might give it would undercut what I think we’re supposed to take as the point. Because when Liz is surprised to find that Caroline is this strong and capable young woman, I would be willing to say Liz just hadn’t noticed that Caroline in many ways already was those things and that those qualities were what was helping Caroline deal with her transition. But I’m sure we’re supposed to see it as Caroline having become strong and capable through her transition; and that I don’t think there’s been time for.
It's actually the Lockwoods that make me the most convinced the writers don’t really understand how compressed their time is. Lockwood Sr. has been dead for those two weeks since last season. And while Carol does at least get a moment to miss her husband, none of them act like they just lost someone so important in their lives.
On a related note though, watching Tyler and Jeremy’s interactions keeping in mind how little Tyler actually knows about the supernatural world, makes them kind of funny. Tyler still only half believes in werewolves, and there Jeremy is talking about ancient Aztec curses and witches and shamans and whatever and as far as Tyler knows Jeremy is basing this all on old family folklore even less realized than what Tyler knows.
Oddly enough, the compressed timeline largely works with Jeremy. It’s almost the inverse of all the other problems I’ve brought up, because by writing him at a development pace that nearly fits the timeline we’re in, he feels like he’s stuck on issues of the past, while others have raced through three more issues in the meantime. I kind of think Elena might have forgotten that they were fighting, because she’s had too much else to deal with.
But that did get me thinking about where Jeremy is with his introduction to the supernatural world. Because him being around Damon torturing Mason and not sticking around for the end, seems to be portrayed as something he hasn’t been exposed to before. And…that almost works; because by and large Jeremy has been kept out of the more grisly aspects of dealing with the supernatural; but I’m not sure he’s been sheltered enough for us to see a connection to his change of heart toward Elena in the end. By the same token, he hasn’t been sheltered enough (in this very episode) to explain the change of heart with the threat having come home through Jenna.
Much as I can be judgmental of Damon, and I don’t feel bad about it, I think his reaction to Mason and Katherine is very interesting to watch. I’d say he is a little jealous, at the very least he’s taking some of his anger at being rejected by Katherine out of Mason (not that Mason was getting out of there alive anyway). And as a Damon character beat, him calling to gloat to Katherine makes a lot of sense and is quite compelling.
(It does remind me of my long ago realization that what this show doesn’t have and I don’t think ever has. is a tech person. They sort of try to give Alaric the Watcher role at times, but nobody ever gets the guy in the chair role.)
What I do kind of wish is that there were actual consequences for all the mistakes characters make regarding Katherine in this episode. I don’t want Jenna to be hurt worse, but because the wounds will be taken care of fairly quickly (since we’re in TVD time) this feels very minor. Even if, say, we’d seen them having to restrain Jenna from stabbing herself again while they waited for the ambulance; make it more clear that if they hadn’t been there Jenna would just be dead. Play up the drama so the psychological wound on Elena is more dramatic even if the cost in the moment wasn’t too high. As is, in the end there’s a part of me that resents them rolling over for a terrorist, and I don’t even want Stefan and Elena together.
I’m pretty sure I could have a point to make about the breakup scene, but it’s just overwrought. Maybe if I shipped them I’d feel more, or anything; but it’s banking on an investment in the ship that I do not have. It’s also banking on more buy-in on Damon and Elena than I have. As always, the Triangle just lands like a wet fart with me; but at least it didn’t take up that much time this episode.
What am I shipping?
Flutterings in Matt/Elena territory. I’d still be open to Jeremy/Tyler if the show gave me something to really sink my teeth into. I feel more on the Damon/Katherine front than I had before. I think a better show could have done something fascinating with Damon/Jeremy, but I’m not going to pretend this show would. And the girls get to go on an adventure and it’s sweet, the trio or any pairing of them would be fine.
Basically, I’d say nothing, but the ship tendencies are there.
Who do I hate the most?
I kind of have to say Katherine again, on Jenna and Matt’s behalf. I’m more judgmental of Damon because I can tell that the show barely sees his actions as bad while Kat is the villain, but Kat is messing with people I care about.
