SPOILERS: Vampire Diaries, to Date.

[windinthemaples]

1. I am a non-fan of cliffhanger endings. I've waited all week for *this* episode and now I'm waiting, yet again, for another week. They string you along, these television folks. :D

2. Is the actor who is playing Ben, the vampire bartender, gay? I'm thinking "yes" and this makes me all kinds of uncomfortable for him when he's macking on these girls. Maybe that's just me and maybe that's just what acting makes one do (kiss people you'd normally not be interested in) but still. He's not convincing me.

3. Okay, I'm confused. I thought that Anna(belle) was supposed to be Pearl's 'daughter'. Pearl is a vampire, so my first wonder is if Anna was a vampire in 1864 or actually Pearl's biological daughter? Yet, when Katharine and Damon were kissing in the store, Pearl warned them that Mrs. Fell was coming (Honoria Fell?) and that Annabelle walked up. What? Was she Mrs. Fell? Was she a vampire? Or was that Mrs. Fell comment kinda a throwaway and they couldn't be bothered to actually cast someone for that part?

4. I like the flashbacks in that I like getting to see (and not just hear) about Katharine and how the brothers became vampires and had all this happening to them. I hate the flashbacks for all the cultural/historical slip-ups. It seems they aren't attempting anything more than costume dress-up and there is only so much suspension of disbelief I can manage.

5. What I *did* love about the flashback was seeing Damon as an entirely different creature. He left the Confederacy for moral reasons? (There were a ton of hearty, healthy young men in that town, weren't there?) He was tentative and seemed like the shyer, younger brother in the past. The fact that he put so much trust in his little brother? And later, when both Stefan and Elena betrayed him--how heartbreaking was that? It is one thing for Bree, some chickadee to do it, but for the two people he probably *most* wants? He has an invite into the Gilbert house, he seemed to actually relish the fun of being inside a family home, and I believe he was sincerely hurt by the betrayal. (Again.) I think he wasn't the "evil" brother to begin with. I think he was the more naive, the more prone to Katharine's control, and ultimately the one who lost more somehow. His search for her is pretty single-minded but maybe not so surprising afterall. She is the one person he hasn't seen as betraying him. Brother, yes. Father, yes. Katharine human doppelganger, yes. Bree, yes. Everyone and everything, but this evil little bitch of a vampire.

6. I look forward to watching Ben and Anna die next week. I also am in awe of how fast Kevin and Julie are pushing this story along. Never resting on their laurels or regrouping, are they?

7. Did you see the preview for next week? When Damon tells Stefan he would like to see Elena die or wouldn't mind if she did or somesuch? Damon is usually so cool and snarky. Not in that line. Dare I say that was hard for him to say? And why? What is it about her that he doesn't want to kill? Is it just that she's the image of Katharine? Is it that he suspects she's related to Katharine? Remember that scene, episodes ago where he had finaggled an invite into Elena's home and late at night was watching her sleep, touching her face? Did he see Katharine there or something else? And, how interesting that the first thing the two brothers found to agree on in 140+ years was in protecting Elena from the vampire who'd been invited into her home. He was totally onboard with helping there. Why?

8. At what point will Stefan feel the need to kill his brother since Damon, too, has been invited in?

Comments

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

I have to say, while he is very pretty, I'm still kinda unimpressed with Ian as Damon. I find his performance very stylized and lacking depth. Could be the writing, though.

I missed Caroline this week. Something about her is so endearing, like Cordy on Buffy.

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

See, and I sort of like him, which I didn't think I would. I thought this last episode revealed a lot about his character...I thought he was pretty sad and sweet...he reminds me--much to my chagrin--of Spike on Buffy, which I didn't think he would.

[sihaya09.livejournal.com]

See, I loved Spike up through season 3. His snarkiness was fresh, and tempered by his "I'll do anything" love for Dru.

Damon just seems bored most of the time.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I think Damon has existed too long with nothing to live for. Like, he's so bored he'd actually kill people (and change them) and torment his brother because of it. Like, how often do you see him *feel* anything? Only a few times in the course of the show, I think. I'd like to think that's Damon--needing something to reconnect, some reason to continue to exist forever.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Ian Somerhalder in interviews? He's a wreck. I suspect a serious case of ADD and I think sometimes his performance shows a similar twitchiness. I'm not sure if it is acting brilliance, the character, or what, but I'm never sure what to think of him. Is he evil personified? Is he putting up a tough front for a soft exterior? Is he just emotionally broken? Sociopath?

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Unable to sleep last night Sean and I stayed up and watched it... Though I didn't see the trailer for next week.

On Anna(belle) and Mrs. Fell I was under the impression that Annabelle rushed into the doorway to block Mrs. Fell from seeing something she shouldn't and Mrs. Fell was somewhere behind, still approaching.

Historical innaccuracy? Drove me nuts... First of all, deserters in the Civil War were tracked down and often put to death. Secondly Stefan would have been fighting, I think boys as young as 12 were forced to go to battle... Thirdly, I don't think in Virginia in that time period they would have been accepting of an Asian woman as a store owner/lady of the town... Thirdly, Virginia was seriously hurting during that time period, I don't think that genteel relaxed life depicted was very accurate at all... And this was toward the end of the war, right? When did Richmond fall? Egads...

Also I thought Damon came home on leave and then never went back because Catherine got her hooks into him--wasn't he still wearing his uniform and insisting on his loyalty in the earlier flashbacks?

Yes, not only is Damon invited in, but he's a cold-blooded murderer--let's not forget the he butchered Stefan's friend and his sort-of friend only to maintain his cover... In that Bree didn't betray him so much as he betrayed her and she realized that he'd kill her without a second thought if it benefitted him.

Earlier when he was watching Elena, etc, I really think he didn't kill or hurt her right off because he wanted to use her to mess with Stefan--seducing Elena away from Stefan would hurt him more, more deeply, more lastingly than simply killing her.

He might have some tenderness/mercy toward Elena because she looks like Catherine and might be related to her, however, I also think it's totally possible that Damon might still think he will need her in his future plans. What if he needs the blood of one of Catherine's relatives to open the tomb, what if he needs to hold her hostage to force Stefan to help him... If he kills her, turns her, or horribly injures her now he loses all leverage.

But yes he was hurt, because he had enough confidence in his own charm, his little trip to Georgia, etc, that he thought he could trust Elena, or at least that he'd know her tells... However, that wouldn't have stopped him from using her for his own purposes at any point in the future--don't forget how he messed with and turned and then killed Vickie for no reason but his own amusement.

But don't mistake my distrust of the character's motives here--Damon is the only thing that keeps me watching, I just try to call evil evil.

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah the siege of Richmond began in 1864.... Don't know what exactly that meant for Virginia, but some remote towns were spared direct battle... However, Virginia was in sorry shape.

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

*On racial dynamics in Virginia--when I was little we went out into the wilds of/ the mountainous areas of Virginia and they were not very accepting of non-whites and that was the early eighties, I can't think they would have been MORE tolerant during the height of the Civil War.... Seriously, some red necky men stopped my father when he was in a store and criticized him for bringing Asians (my best friend coming to visit) and blacks (some friends of his) into the town. Scary stuff.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I'd say you have no questions about Damon's character. :D (With good reason, I might say, but I'm still holding out hope for redemption. Maybe.) Do you think Damon loved Katharine? Is there anything not-evil about him, do you think? What is his motivation for opening the tomb?

Everything you've said about Virginia, the war, the easy life they seem to be living. (Hello, Italian immigrants? Asian? WTF.) Stupid. My tongue, it bleeds! :D This hoop skirts and corset fantasy is absurd. Unless, somehow, you can argue that Mystic Falls was somehow magically separated from the rest of the nation. Like, they couldn't be bothered with this man vs. man thing when they were fighting a man vs. demon life. But yeah, I'm not sure who I'm angrier with--a crew that tries to sell that schlock or an audience that accepts it because they don't know any different.

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ok, here's my take, based purely on the show as I haven't read the book. Damon may have loved Katherine, he may have been obsessed with her, he may have wanted her more because there was the competition with Stefan, he might have had any combination of the above factors. I'm not discounting that he could love her. However, spending apparently only a brief time with her and a couple hundred years hence bitter over her loss and not loving anyone else etc speaks to obsession.

Was he a nice guy originally, before being turned? I don't know. He wasn't particularly flinching when Katherine showed him how she killed people--he was a tad squeamish but there was no "oh that poor man, what did he ever do?" thing. Which could be naive selfishness, or sociopathy or obsession to the point where he couldn't see anything else, or all of the above.

The difficulty here is the difficulty in life--monsters are rarely pure monsters. They can be funny, they can be considerate, they can help in one instance and harm in another... Monsters get their feelings hurt. They might not start out as monsters, which makes their fall all that much more tragic. However, you'd be foolish to forget what they are capable of.

Theoretically if we consider vampires as a total myth, not just within the vampire diaries, then we are faced with the question of how much humanity a "person" retains when what makes them human is removed. Immortal they are forced to distance themselves from mortals or be heart-broken over and over. Surviving on blood they are "forced" to prey on humans, so must turn off some or all of their natural empathy. Faster, more powerful than humans they might look down on the relative weakness of mortals. The power corrupts.

So with Damon, even if we assume he's a good person in the beginning, then he has been corrupted by his own power. But if you know he can turn off the "give a damn" any time he likes and kill anyone without hesitation, then you know he's extremely dangerous and nobody can take their safety for granted around him.

In the US we are rather addicted to our mythos of the benign sociopath--the one who is still good underneath, but kills without remorse, because this monster is capable of cutting down everyone who stands in our way, while we ourselves, as some special exception, remain safe... Interesting psychologically of course, but deeply flawed.

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

Anyway, I had a point somewhere...

The why and how of Damon makes for interesting television, however, any character with a brain would realize the why and how don't matter...

Still it's like the horror movie where you shout at the screen "noooo, don't go down the slimy scary tunnel in the dark with just your flickering flashlight!"

If characters made smart choices there would be nothing to watch.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Before you got to this part of your comment, the scary movie moment, I'd wondered how you could ever watch (let alone enjoy) a show if you equated the main character with *real* predators and sociopaths.

I guess it is like my mother says, "Even Hitler loved someone."

I prefer to see Damon differently. (Or I'd hate the show, I think.) I inherently like him and have, obviously, given him some free passes for his (scary bad) behavior in the name of vampire morality not being equal to my own human morality.

[neva-butterfly.livejournal.com]

It depends... Vampire Diaries is pure fantasy and thus I am enjoying watching it, though the historical inaccuracy pushed me out of the fantasy and disturbed my viewing of it.

I hate and won't watch 24, though Sean still watches it, because the Americana Myth of the Benevolent Sociopath who makes the tough (violent) choices so you and I don't have to is just so overwhelming there.

I love/hate watching Dexter but cannot stop watching it, and that's partly because it entirely rips the mask off the fantasy. Here's a broken person doing horrible broken things but at the same time trying to redeem himself and understand his own brokeness, by doing those horrible things to those he deems deserving of it, but then just when it lulls you back into rooting for him, hoping against hope that he'll turn into "a real boy" it rips that hope away and leaves you with more brokeness. I think I'm psychologically scarred by watching it... Weirdly enough though, Sean got me the first two Dexter books and he's honestly repugnant in the books, and they humanize and idealize him a great deal for the show.

If vampires have a different morality, isn't the killing of Lexi still just off the charts there?

Yes, Hitler loved someone and others loved him... And the BTK killer was liked by his co-workers, was married, had kids and was apparently by most accounts a decent dad... Nothing is simple ...

Still if a dog gets rabies and is trying to bite people, it's not his fault he has rabies, it's tragic, but you have to put him down.

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I have to concentrate on the pretty costumes. XD

WE ARE SO ADDICTED TO THIS SHOW AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT. XDDDDDDD

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

YAY! I worried that it wouldn't "take". Glad to hear you're still watching! :D

I waver between being embarrassed that I love it and just loving it. ;)