The Vampire Diaries 2x07: Masquerade
Dec. 19th, 2023 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsThink I'll take a couple days and clean out a different file. I'm actually probably a bit more likely to get back to this project than I am FMA (if only because my fic brain remains more drawn to this series than FMA), but I don't know what mood I'll be is exactly when we get to 2024.
The Vampire Diaries 2x07: Masquerade
This is kind of an odd duck of an episode, because it’s just…good. I definitely have some meta points to make about it, but I don’t think I’m going to call out much of the plot. Given that it’s this show I wouldn’t be that surprised to find that a stiff breeze on it would make the whole thing fall apart, but it’s nice enough to look at that I’m not immediately inclined to go looking for the problems.
In fact the thing in the presentation I’m most likely to complain about almost justifies itself. Because drunk-and-compelled Matt is really out of character…because of course he is. Most of what he’s doing makes no sense, in addition to being out of character…because of course it doesn’t make sense for Matt to be doing this, he doesn’t even really know how to do the thing that he knows he’s supposed to do.
To tackle the standard timeline question, I’d say there is a little bit of wiggle room here. Probably not more than maybe three days, which means I’m still wondering when school is supposed to be happening, but it’s a bit. The funnier note of that is Bonnie wondering when Jeremy started driving, because I’m not sure when Jeremy turned 16 either (also I’m not sure how many cars they have in the family, since last I knew Elena was still driving Jenna’s car after her own was wrecked back in mid s1. TVD time makes it so hard to just say things happened in between episodes).
I’m almost convinced Stefan is just drinking human blood on the regular at this point and is doing a better job hiding it than he did last season. I could make an argument that he started drinking human blood at least after his day hanging out with Katherine, since Stefan’s drift toward meanness started in 2x05 before we saw him start drinking human blood; which mean all the more that him bringing Elena into the idea of him drinking human blood was just an addict move to make her an accomplice and an enabler. But at this point Stefan is hardly distinguishable from Damon in his motivations and attitudes; except I guess he’s a little less cool with collateral damage.
Oh, I guess there is one other thing I don’t like about the way the climax is handled here. Because if Elena hadn’t come to the party and already been found by Jeremy and Bonnie, I have to assume she just ends up dead along with Katherine. I don’t understand why Katherine doesn’t point out the linking spell before they get so close to killing her; yes it’s more dramatic to have Jeremy get there to warn them at the last second, but it doesn’t work in character for Katherine. I think what should have happened was that after the Salvatores’ initial attack, Katherine just starts laughing at them as they watch wounds they’re sure should have seriously disabled her heal quickly because she passes them on to Elena but draws out explaining it to them waiting to see if they can figure it out (they can’t, they’re dumb).
There is one thing a little odd about how much I love this episode, and that’s the way it handles Elena. This episode kind of treats Elena the exact way I hate it when she’s treated, and yet it doesn’t drag the episode down for me. She’s completely sidelined, intentionally kept out of the loop, and then ends up the damsel in distress; in a worse episode I would probably site those as reasons I dislike it, and yet I don’t dislike it here.
While not conscious of it while watching the show, putting the analysis cap on does reveal how much this was probably done to so that we don’t get any doppelganger confusion and/or keep ND from having to pull full double duty (also preempting any scenes that would require camera tricks having Katherine and Elena in the same scene). They clearly have been keeping the number of encounters between Elena and Katherine to a minimum so far this season, and this isn’t the point when they change it.
That said, now that I am thinking about this episode ignoring Elena, I am a bit miffed. This is a boss fight episode, and almost every other character is involved in the action; that’s a lot of what’s so great about it, that it is a team episode. But Elena isn’t part of the team, and that’s unfortunate. Alaric gets to be more a part of the team than Elena (even if he wasn’t on the team at the party, he was in the know about what was happening), and that makes it more unfortunate still. And having two episodes in a row where the team is working on a big operation and Elena is left out in the cold…I’m pretty sure that did annoy me at the time, but oddly enough I’m finding myself with a different thought on it now.
Because by having the group treat Elena as if she isn’t part of the group, they’re shutting her out before she starts shutting them out over the next few episodes. It’s this treatment that leads Elena to start seeing herself as expendable to the people she loves, and even thinking of herself as a burden to them, so why shouldn’t she just be the sacrifice? If it’s the only way she can protect them, instead of them always putting themselves on the line to protect her, she sees no problem with it. Because they don’t treat her like they love her as a person; they love her as an object to be kept in glass and admired.
Setting the stage for Elijah to step in wanting to make deals with *her*. Elijah really is the one person who treats Elena as the central figure in her own fucking story. I know all of this becomes pretty obvious in 2x11, but I’m already starting to think in that direction.
I’m not sure how the final scene between Stefan and Elena fits into my take on this episode, because that scene comes to a weird place. I really don’t get Elena’s logic in that scene or why she isn’t ready to get back together with Stefan. I can see reasons why she wouldn’t want to, from him making sure she was left out of things tonight, to the fact that the two of them have actually been quite on-again/off-again or at least in relationship limbo several times in the few months they’ve been together, to the fact that she doesn’t feel very well at the moment so could they at least put off relationship talk until tomorrow. But that it’s because she needs to make sure her family is safe…that fits with where her arc is going this season, but I’m not clear on her reasons to go there right now.
If there had been a way to have Elena already know what Katherine tries to say at the tomb, about there being a bigger threat coming for Elena, that would have been a reason for Elena to be acting out of fear, even if it’s not a fear that quite makes sense logically with so little to go on. It really is all done in service of how the writers need the episode to end, and there’s no logical reason why Elena would have wandered off on her own in her condition without at least someone in the gang stalking her to make sure she’s okay. But they need it to be slightly logical that no one notices Elena is gone until the next morning.
Also I do like that they put Katherine in the tomb, that seems like something this group would think of; between a little unwillingness to outright kill her and a small possibility they can ever get out of her what her real goal is, a little poetic justice is within their collective brainpower.
I have a smattering of thoughts on what we get about Bonnie here, but they’re really jelling into a clear point. It is trying to give Bonnie some development, and is clearly trying to bring her back into the group so she can be part of plots without having to do arguments every time they need her for a story. And I do think it is managing to do so without entirely brushing aside who her character has been; at least until the last scene with Lucy where I really feel the writers’ hand insisting that Bonnie just play along with the main plots instead of wanting to be her own person. And while I will say that Jeremy/Bonnie does ring a bit of pairing off characters that don’t have enough other things going on (when both easily could) they’re sweet enough.
Maybe my Bonnie thoughts will jell a bit better later on. I make no promises, I’m about to have Elijah things to talk about.
What am I shipping?
It’s a toss-up between Damon/Katherine/Stefan, Elena/Bonnie, Jeremy/Bonnie (but I don’t think I’d threesome that one although oddly enough I do think there’s a reality where Jeremy/Elena could handle the incest, but even that reality isn’t now), Elena/Matt, and getting an early start on Elena/Elijah (I don’t know that I need a reason beyond how that blood soaked outfit is what Elena’s going to be wearing when she meets what I maintain should have been the love of her life).
Who do I hate the most?
OOC Matt. I don’t hate Matt, I’m not sure I ever hate Matt, but drunk and compelled Matt is unpleasant.
The Vampire Diaries 2x07: Masquerade
This is kind of an odd duck of an episode, because it’s just…good. I definitely have some meta points to make about it, but I don’t think I’m going to call out much of the plot. Given that it’s this show I wouldn’t be that surprised to find that a stiff breeze on it would make the whole thing fall apart, but it’s nice enough to look at that I’m not immediately inclined to go looking for the problems.
In fact the thing in the presentation I’m most likely to complain about almost justifies itself. Because drunk-and-compelled Matt is really out of character…because of course he is. Most of what he’s doing makes no sense, in addition to being out of character…because of course it doesn’t make sense for Matt to be doing this, he doesn’t even really know how to do the thing that he knows he’s supposed to do.
To tackle the standard timeline question, I’d say there is a little bit of wiggle room here. Probably not more than maybe three days, which means I’m still wondering when school is supposed to be happening, but it’s a bit. The funnier note of that is Bonnie wondering when Jeremy started driving, because I’m not sure when Jeremy turned 16 either (also I’m not sure how many cars they have in the family, since last I knew Elena was still driving Jenna’s car after her own was wrecked back in mid s1. TVD time makes it so hard to just say things happened in between episodes).
I’m almost convinced Stefan is just drinking human blood on the regular at this point and is doing a better job hiding it than he did last season. I could make an argument that he started drinking human blood at least after his day hanging out with Katherine, since Stefan’s drift toward meanness started in 2x05 before we saw him start drinking human blood; which mean all the more that him bringing Elena into the idea of him drinking human blood was just an addict move to make her an accomplice and an enabler. But at this point Stefan is hardly distinguishable from Damon in his motivations and attitudes; except I guess he’s a little less cool with collateral damage.
Oh, I guess there is one other thing I don’t like about the way the climax is handled here. Because if Elena hadn’t come to the party and already been found by Jeremy and Bonnie, I have to assume she just ends up dead along with Katherine. I don’t understand why Katherine doesn’t point out the linking spell before they get so close to killing her; yes it’s more dramatic to have Jeremy get there to warn them at the last second, but it doesn’t work in character for Katherine. I think what should have happened was that after the Salvatores’ initial attack, Katherine just starts laughing at them as they watch wounds they’re sure should have seriously disabled her heal quickly because she passes them on to Elena but draws out explaining it to them waiting to see if they can figure it out (they can’t, they’re dumb).
There is one thing a little odd about how much I love this episode, and that’s the way it handles Elena. This episode kind of treats Elena the exact way I hate it when she’s treated, and yet it doesn’t drag the episode down for me. She’s completely sidelined, intentionally kept out of the loop, and then ends up the damsel in distress; in a worse episode I would probably site those as reasons I dislike it, and yet I don’t dislike it here.
While not conscious of it while watching the show, putting the analysis cap on does reveal how much this was probably done to so that we don’t get any doppelganger confusion and/or keep ND from having to pull full double duty (also preempting any scenes that would require camera tricks having Katherine and Elena in the same scene). They clearly have been keeping the number of encounters between Elena and Katherine to a minimum so far this season, and this isn’t the point when they change it.
That said, now that I am thinking about this episode ignoring Elena, I am a bit miffed. This is a boss fight episode, and almost every other character is involved in the action; that’s a lot of what’s so great about it, that it is a team episode. But Elena isn’t part of the team, and that’s unfortunate. Alaric gets to be more a part of the team than Elena (even if he wasn’t on the team at the party, he was in the know about what was happening), and that makes it more unfortunate still. And having two episodes in a row where the team is working on a big operation and Elena is left out in the cold…I’m pretty sure that did annoy me at the time, but oddly enough I’m finding myself with a different thought on it now.
Because by having the group treat Elena as if she isn’t part of the group, they’re shutting her out before she starts shutting them out over the next few episodes. It’s this treatment that leads Elena to start seeing herself as expendable to the people she loves, and even thinking of herself as a burden to them, so why shouldn’t she just be the sacrifice? If it’s the only way she can protect them, instead of them always putting themselves on the line to protect her, she sees no problem with it. Because they don’t treat her like they love her as a person; they love her as an object to be kept in glass and admired.
Setting the stage for Elijah to step in wanting to make deals with *her*. Elijah really is the one person who treats Elena as the central figure in her own fucking story. I know all of this becomes pretty obvious in 2x11, but I’m already starting to think in that direction.
I’m not sure how the final scene between Stefan and Elena fits into my take on this episode, because that scene comes to a weird place. I really don’t get Elena’s logic in that scene or why she isn’t ready to get back together with Stefan. I can see reasons why she wouldn’t want to, from him making sure she was left out of things tonight, to the fact that the two of them have actually been quite on-again/off-again or at least in relationship limbo several times in the few months they’ve been together, to the fact that she doesn’t feel very well at the moment so could they at least put off relationship talk until tomorrow. But that it’s because she needs to make sure her family is safe…that fits with where her arc is going this season, but I’m not clear on her reasons to go there right now.
If there had been a way to have Elena already know what Katherine tries to say at the tomb, about there being a bigger threat coming for Elena, that would have been a reason for Elena to be acting out of fear, even if it’s not a fear that quite makes sense logically with so little to go on. It really is all done in service of how the writers need the episode to end, and there’s no logical reason why Elena would have wandered off on her own in her condition without at least someone in the gang stalking her to make sure she’s okay. But they need it to be slightly logical that no one notices Elena is gone until the next morning.
Also I do like that they put Katherine in the tomb, that seems like something this group would think of; between a little unwillingness to outright kill her and a small possibility they can ever get out of her what her real goal is, a little poetic justice is within their collective brainpower.
I have a smattering of thoughts on what we get about Bonnie here, but they’re really jelling into a clear point. It is trying to give Bonnie some development, and is clearly trying to bring her back into the group so she can be part of plots without having to do arguments every time they need her for a story. And I do think it is managing to do so without entirely brushing aside who her character has been; at least until the last scene with Lucy where I really feel the writers’ hand insisting that Bonnie just play along with the main plots instead of wanting to be her own person. And while I will say that Jeremy/Bonnie does ring a bit of pairing off characters that don’t have enough other things going on (when both easily could) they’re sweet enough.
Maybe my Bonnie thoughts will jell a bit better later on. I make no promises, I’m about to have Elijah things to talk about.
What am I shipping?
It’s a toss-up between Damon/Katherine/Stefan, Elena/Bonnie, Jeremy/Bonnie (but I don’t think I’d threesome that one although oddly enough I do think there’s a reality where Jeremy/Elena could handle the incest, but even that reality isn’t now), Elena/Matt, and getting an early start on Elena/Elijah (I don’t know that I need a reason beyond how that blood soaked outfit is what Elena’s going to be wearing when she meets what I maintain should have been the love of her life).
Who do I hate the most?
OOC Matt. I don’t hate Matt, I’m not sure I ever hate Matt, but drunk and compelled Matt is unpleasant.
