5.15 - 'Gone Girl' (The Vampire Diaries)
Well, here's the last episode of Vampire Diaries until March 20! Wah! Ah well, such is life (amidst stupid unexpected winter storms in Georgia!).
Another episode and I continue to enjoy the heck out of the season. Once I came to a reasonable explanation for why we got less Damon/Elena sexytiems than I expected in the first half of the seasons, I really have no major complaints and am really happy with the narrative overall. And this episode was another really great one. I just have one teeny quibble, an inconsistency in the timeline. However, considering that it came from Stefan-he who tends to overdramatize thing, I'm choosing to just put it down to Stefan being Stefan. (See random thoughts for that little bit there.)
First off… Katherine. I didn't think that the 100th episode should have revolved around a recurring episode, and furthermore, I didn't think that it was the strongest episode that had revolved around that particular recurring character. This potentially (and likely) the last episode to revolve around Katherine was much, much stronger and I liked it a lot more. She didn't get a happy ending at all and that was fine by me, because she didn't deserve a happy ending at all. Katherine Pierce a.k.a. Katerina Petrova made selfish, cruel, downright cruel choices time and time again for five hundred years. It was simply who she was.
She destroyed lives, she wrecked relationships, she tortured and killed people, and she made a misery out of those she claimed to love. She was simply terrible. And in the end, she threw away the chance to be with her daughter just so she could get the hollow and fake love of a man she didn't even truly love who wasn't even truly in love with the woman that she was pretending to be to get the love that she was seeking. Oy! Wrap your head around that one! She came this close to killing Elena forever (and took over her body, violating it in the process), did kill Mia, the Traveler, attempted to get Damon killed, broke his heart which inadvertently led to Aaron getting killed, not to mention Wes Maxfield and the other individuals that were turned into vampires and then killed and eaten by Damon. (Although to be fair those are on Damon, even if Katherine was indirectly a push there. Damon made the ultimate decision to kill all of those people and he would take responsibility for those deaths.) Bottom-line, Katherine is a bad, bad person. She did not deserve a happy ending. And, honestly, well, I guess I do have one other tiny quibble, I don't think she deserved to die with Stefan's kiss on her lips, even if it came with a stab to her gut because I don't think she deserved even that kiss. Not after all she had done. Nope. But at least she knew him even allowing that kiss was just a way to catch her off-guard enough to deliver the fatal blow.
Don't get me wrong, I've loved the character of Katherine from the first introduction of her to her last moment on screen scrabbling for purchase as she was sucked into hell (?), but she deserved to go. Bitch needed to go. It was time. This season, I've actually freaking adored her and there's a part of me that will always think of what could have been had they gone a completely different route and had decided to redeem a human!Katherine who had found her soul, friendship, then maybe love with Matt Donovan, humanity in her new human self.
But as she said to Matty Blue: "Oh well." Yeah, Katherine and Matt…
You knew I couldn't resist gif-fing my last Matt/Katherine moments ever, right? His little eyebrow raise when she said he couldn't have stabbed her? Her telling him that she was the only one among them who appreciated how beautiful he was. How he was the best night she never had, their mutual 'oh wells.' Man, oh, man… what could have been! *sigh* What could have been, indeed! I will always hold a place in my heart for Matty Blue and human!Katherine. *double sigh*
Also sigh-worthy? The moment when Elena (HALLELUJAH!) started to wake up and Damon got all wide-eyed and hopeful looking, this soft mushness coming over his face. And he whispered her name with such tenderness. And then when she finally woke up and she saw Damon, focusing on him and her eyes were all soft and full of such love and she said "Hi," and his face was all gooey and it was just gah ………………………
SO MUCH LOVE! And it was like Stefan wasn't even there for a moment because they were just seeing each other and it was so beautiful and I love them so much and it's Damon and it's Elena and Damon AND Elena, and you guys it's ELENA! It's FINALLY Elena. Elena is back! My beautiful, wonderful, non-evil, precious, precious, wonderful, wonderful Elena Gilbert is back. THANK YOU, BABY JESUS! ELENA, HOW YOU HAVE BEEN MISSED! And Katherine Fucking Pierce has been banished to hell!
Right? Katherine was totally sent to hell by the witches? Right? That's totes what happened? The witches were all, 'Nah, we don't want that bish hanging round here. She's even too nasty for all of us. We let her in here, she'll come up with some mess and get everyone all riled up here on the other side and get all the guys fighting each other, cause some rebellion and get the warlocks coming up with some spells and the next thing you know they'll be opening doors to the real world and Katherine will be stepping through causing havoc and it will be chaos. That girl ain't stepping foot over here! Nuh uh! Begone with you, honey! Into the pit of hell with that one.'
You know what I'm saying? This *is* Katherine we're talking about. Totes believable. Also believable were her final words before her death. When I had imagined it, it was always much more dramatic and just featured Katherine, Stefan and Damon, but the snarkiness did fit her better honestly and everyone letting her have her say also fit simply because they *are* good people and they had just watched Nadia die and had seen Katherine wrecked about that. So they were giving her this because, gosh darn't, they are nice people too. And, Damon, well, Damon just doesn't give a damn about Katherine anymore.
Which she still hasn't quite grasped. She gave her whole long, biting spiel about how she created him and gave him purpose. She told him that she taught him how to love, how to desire, that he would have been nothing, a nobody without her, blah, blah, blah, intending to hurt him and all she did was show him that she still doesn't get it. Katherine can't hurt him anymore. He doesn't care about her. What she says or doesn't no longer has the power to hurt him. The only way she effects him is by how spectacularly she fails in having any happiness at the end of her life.
She dies all alone, the only person who cares about her dead because of Katherine's complete and utter selfishness and cluelessness about other people's feelings. And that is what Damon takes to heart. So instead of running away, like Katherine always did (albeit for different reasons), as Damon was planning to do, he's staying. Of course, Katherine always ran to save herself. Damon ran to save those he loved from being hurt by him. Big difference and one that Katherine could never understand. But this time, yeah, Damon is staying not to hurt them, but so that they can heal together. To see it through and let the chips fall where they may.
Way back when this arc began I had said when Katherine possessed Elena that it was a very predictable twist but that I was OK with it as long as I got some great character development and wonderful storytelling out of it. I really believe that I have. I feel that Damon and Stefan have grown separately and together and I absolutely love that. And I am incredibly excited to see where we will go from here with these two. I really, really am. I feel that Stefan has taken some strong strides in where he stands with his brother and that Damon has taken some important steps with regards to himself and where he needs to be, and hopefully we'll begin to see some kind of adjustment with the others as well. We'll see.
Onto randoms …
- OK, this may be because I'm not terribly fond of Nadia or Olga Fonda's portrayal of her (although to be fair, I think I'd like Nadia if she were played by an actress I liked and one who could, you know, act), but were the Nadia flashbacks necessary like, uhm, at all? Yeah, didn't think so.
- So, yeah, hah, Damon's reaction to finding out that it was Katherine who ripped his heart into a million pieces and thus his ensuing reaction was all based on Katherine ripping his heart into a million pieces and not Elena was basically a big, fat shell-shocked 'what the hell am I going to do? I am so screwed.'
- That quibble I mentioned at the top was how Stefan said that Katherine had been pretending to be Elena for weeks, but then later Bonnie mentioned to Liv that they needed her to do the same locator spell she had done the other night-which matches up with the timeline that matches up with everything else that makes more sense and fits with what we know which is about 3-4 days since Katherine possessed Elena (as opposed to uhm, weeks). Yeah. So, just Stefan being overdramatic and Damon not calling him on it.
- I loved how they were all talking about not picking up on it being Katherine. First defending themselves, but she did this which is so Elena-like, and then listing all the things that are Elena-like before listing more things that were obviously NOT Elena-like before they just kinda trailed off because DUH! as Caroline said they're the worst friends ever! Hah! I love when the show calls them out on their shit! They were too busy dealing with their own stuff and ignoring the fact that "Elena" was acting off and instead coming up with excuses because they simply didn't want to deal with yet more Elena drama.
- Speaking of Caroline, I love her, I do, but I can't help but think of what a hypocrite she is (and I can't but think that every Damon fan thinks this as well) when she or anyone else goes on about her seeing the good in people, or she makes any reference to seeing the good in Klaus… BECAUSE she refuses to see the good in Damon. The fact that she continues to say and act as if Damon is the most EVUL ever but then says and acts like she sees the good in others is just so beyond hypocritical. Show, I love you like no other, but you need to freaking address the Damon/Caroline situation like SO NOW!!!!
- Speaking of Damon, bahahahaha! I was grinning so much during the scene between him and Tyler because it was so obvious that he was baiting Tyler and Tyler was so very stupid that he was incapable of picking up on it. It just re-affirmed my belief from a few episodes ago that, yup, when Matt hangs with Tyler, the stupid sets in because clearly the stupid comes from one Tyler Lockwood and it sadly Matt is not immune. I mean, really, could Damon have *been* more obvious. Nope! But still Tyler fell for it like so easily. I ♥ you so, Damon Salvatore.
- You know, I liked Liv in her introduction the other episode, but not so much in this one. I mean, getting her flirt on with Jeremy knowing he has a girlfriend was bad enough, knowing his girlfriend made it even worse, and right in front of his girlfriend made it ten times worse, but then acting like it was no big? GURL!!!!! Really? I just was not impressed. Like at all. Bonnie, you may not be a witch, but you can still take her down, Bonnie Badger!
- As for Damon torturing and killing Wes, I suppose I should feel bad about it, but I really don't. Wes tortured and killed tons of people as far as we know. He took innocent Jesse and destroyed his young life. Kidnapped and messed up Damon. Kidnapped Elena and was planning on torturing her. Injected Damon with a cannibalistic serum, was planning on doing the same to Nadia in the guise of helping her. And he tortured Enzo we don't know for how many years. Wes was a sick, twisted, evil sadistic fuck.
- Nadia is dead. YES! Please, may I never have to see Olga Fonda grace my beloved Vampire Diaries again. Kthanxbai! :)
- Ugh, ugh, ugh! The Tyler/Caroline discussion did NOT make me happy. Show, do not do this to me. I cannot deal with another round of those two. Please, pretty, pretty please. Caroline becomes beyond lame with Tyler. And boring. And he treats her terribly. And she TOLD him that if he chose revenge over her, they were done. PERIOD. Fine, let them be friends, but damnit, the romance better be OVER! Grrr.
- OK, Damon called Katherine "Kitty-Kat." How has he never called her that before? And is that not wickedly adorable?
- Damon's "I'll see you in Hell, Kat." I sure hope that was just foreshadowing for where Katherine was going, not my bb, Damon!
- OK, I get the point of the Katherine/Nadia pretty pretend fantasy, but I kept thinking of when Damon did it for Rose and it just felt like a rip-off of that scene and that one just felt so much more genuine. And I can't even say it's because I cared more for Rose than I do Nadia. Yes, I dearly wanted Nadia dead and she's so beyond not my favorite, but I certainly wasn't overly fond of Rose and I wasn't impressed with Lauren Cohan's portrayal of her character either. I just felt that the parallelism here didn't do it for me. Or maybe I just really care *that* little for Nadia. :shrug:
- Did Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) get a haircut? I think he did. It looks good.
Well, that's all she wrote. I quite, quite enjoyed the episode. I'm quite, quite loving the season and I am quite, quite sad that I have to wait TWO weeks to see Damon and Elena (ELENA!) make out. It's been a long time! WHEE! Lovely preview is lovely!
Another episode and I continue to enjoy the heck out of the season. Once I came to a reasonable explanation for why we got less Damon/Elena sexytiems than I expected in the first half of the seasons, I really have no major complaints and am really happy with the narrative overall. And this episode was another really great one. I just have one teeny quibble, an inconsistency in the timeline. However, considering that it came from Stefan-he who tends to overdramatize thing, I'm choosing to just put it down to Stefan being Stefan. (See random thoughts for that little bit there.)
First off… Katherine. I didn't think that the 100th episode should have revolved around a recurring episode, and furthermore, I didn't think that it was the strongest episode that had revolved around that particular recurring character. This potentially (and likely) the last episode to revolve around Katherine was much, much stronger and I liked it a lot more. She didn't get a happy ending at all and that was fine by me, because she didn't deserve a happy ending at all. Katherine Pierce a.k.a. Katerina Petrova made selfish, cruel, downright cruel choices time and time again for five hundred years. It was simply who she was.
She destroyed lives, she wrecked relationships, she tortured and killed people, and she made a misery out of those she claimed to love. She was simply terrible. And in the end, she threw away the chance to be with her daughter just so she could get the hollow and fake love of a man she didn't even truly love who wasn't even truly in love with the woman that she was pretending to be to get the love that she was seeking. Oy! Wrap your head around that one! She came this close to killing Elena forever (and took over her body, violating it in the process), did kill Mia, the Traveler, attempted to get Damon killed, broke his heart which inadvertently led to Aaron getting killed, not to mention Wes Maxfield and the other individuals that were turned into vampires and then killed and eaten by Damon. (Although to be fair those are on Damon, even if Katherine was indirectly a push there. Damon made the ultimate decision to kill all of those people and he would take responsibility for those deaths.) Bottom-line, Katherine is a bad, bad person. She did not deserve a happy ending. And, honestly, well, I guess I do have one other tiny quibble, I don't think she deserved to die with Stefan's kiss on her lips, even if it came with a stab to her gut because I don't think she deserved even that kiss. Not after all she had done. Nope. But at least she knew him even allowing that kiss was just a way to catch her off-guard enough to deliver the fatal blow.
Don't get me wrong, I've loved the character of Katherine from the first introduction of her to her last moment on screen scrabbling for purchase as she was sucked into hell (?), but she deserved to go. Bitch needed to go. It was time. This season, I've actually freaking adored her and there's a part of me that will always think of what could have been had they gone a completely different route and had decided to redeem a human!Katherine who had found her soul, friendship, then maybe love with Matt Donovan, humanity in her new human self.
But as she said to Matty Blue: "Oh well." Yeah, Katherine and Matt…
You knew I couldn't resist gif-fing my last Matt/Katherine moments ever, right? His little eyebrow raise when she said he couldn't have stabbed her? Her telling him that she was the only one among them who appreciated how beautiful he was. How he was the best night she never had, their mutual 'oh wells.' Man, oh, man… what could have been! *sigh* What could have been, indeed! I will always hold a place in my heart for Matty Blue and human!Katherine. *double sigh*
Also sigh-worthy? The moment when Elena (HALLELUJAH!) started to wake up and Damon got all wide-eyed and hopeful looking, this soft mushness coming over his face. And he whispered her name with such tenderness. And then when she finally woke up and she saw Damon, focusing on him and her eyes were all soft and full of such love and she said "Hi," and his face was all gooey and it was just gah ………………………
SO MUCH LOVE! And it was like Stefan wasn't even there for a moment because they were just seeing each other and it was so beautiful and I love them so much and it's Damon and it's Elena and Damon AND Elena, and you guys it's ELENA! It's FINALLY Elena. Elena is back! My beautiful, wonderful, non-evil, precious, precious, wonderful, wonderful Elena Gilbert is back. THANK YOU, BABY JESUS! ELENA, HOW YOU HAVE BEEN MISSED! And Katherine Fucking Pierce has been banished to hell!
Right? Katherine was totally sent to hell by the witches? Right? That's totes what happened? The witches were all, 'Nah, we don't want that bish hanging round here. She's even too nasty for all of us. We let her in here, she'll come up with some mess and get everyone all riled up here on the other side and get all the guys fighting each other, cause some rebellion and get the warlocks coming up with some spells and the next thing you know they'll be opening doors to the real world and Katherine will be stepping through causing havoc and it will be chaos. That girl ain't stepping foot over here! Nuh uh! Begone with you, honey! Into the pit of hell with that one.'
You know what I'm saying? This *is* Katherine we're talking about. Totes believable. Also believable were her final words before her death. When I had imagined it, it was always much more dramatic and just featured Katherine, Stefan and Damon, but the snarkiness did fit her better honestly and everyone letting her have her say also fit simply because they *are* good people and they had just watched Nadia die and had seen Katherine wrecked about that. So they were giving her this because, gosh darn't, they are nice people too. And, Damon, well, Damon just doesn't give a damn about Katherine anymore.
Which she still hasn't quite grasped. She gave her whole long, biting spiel about how she created him and gave him purpose. She told him that she taught him how to love, how to desire, that he would have been nothing, a nobody without her, blah, blah, blah, intending to hurt him and all she did was show him that she still doesn't get it. Katherine can't hurt him anymore. He doesn't care about her. What she says or doesn't no longer has the power to hurt him. The only way she effects him is by how spectacularly she fails in having any happiness at the end of her life.
She dies all alone, the only person who cares about her dead because of Katherine's complete and utter selfishness and cluelessness about other people's feelings. And that is what Damon takes to heart. So instead of running away, like Katherine always did (albeit for different reasons), as Damon was planning to do, he's staying. Of course, Katherine always ran to save herself. Damon ran to save those he loved from being hurt by him. Big difference and one that Katherine could never understand. But this time, yeah, Damon is staying not to hurt them, but so that they can heal together. To see it through and let the chips fall where they may.
Way back when this arc began I had said when Katherine possessed Elena that it was a very predictable twist but that I was OK with it as long as I got some great character development and wonderful storytelling out of it. I really believe that I have. I feel that Damon and Stefan have grown separately and together and I absolutely love that. And I am incredibly excited to see where we will go from here with these two. I really, really am. I feel that Stefan has taken some strong strides in where he stands with his brother and that Damon has taken some important steps with regards to himself and where he needs to be, and hopefully we'll begin to see some kind of adjustment with the others as well. We'll see.
Onto randoms …
- OK, this may be because I'm not terribly fond of Nadia or Olga Fonda's portrayal of her (although to be fair, I think I'd like Nadia if she were played by an actress I liked and one who could, you know, act), but were the Nadia flashbacks necessary like, uhm, at all? Yeah, didn't think so.
- So, yeah, hah, Damon's reaction to finding out that it was Katherine who ripped his heart into a million pieces and thus his ensuing reaction was all based on Katherine ripping his heart into a million pieces and not Elena was basically a big, fat shell-shocked 'what the hell am I going to do? I am so screwed.'
- That quibble I mentioned at the top was how Stefan said that Katherine had been pretending to be Elena for weeks, but then later Bonnie mentioned to Liv that they needed her to do the same locator spell she had done the other night-which matches up with the timeline that matches up with everything else that makes more sense and fits with what we know which is about 3-4 days since Katherine possessed Elena (as opposed to uhm, weeks). Yeah. So, just Stefan being overdramatic and Damon not calling him on it.
- I loved how they were all talking about not picking up on it being Katherine. First defending themselves, but she did this which is so Elena-like, and then listing all the things that are Elena-like before listing more things that were obviously NOT Elena-like before they just kinda trailed off because DUH! as Caroline said they're the worst friends ever! Hah! I love when the show calls them out on their shit! They were too busy dealing with their own stuff and ignoring the fact that "Elena" was acting off and instead coming up with excuses because they simply didn't want to deal with yet more Elena drama.
- Speaking of Caroline, I love her, I do, but I can't help but think of what a hypocrite she is (and I can't but think that every Damon fan thinks this as well) when she or anyone else goes on about her seeing the good in people, or she makes any reference to seeing the good in Klaus… BECAUSE she refuses to see the good in Damon. The fact that she continues to say and act as if Damon is the most EVUL ever but then says and acts like she sees the good in others is just so beyond hypocritical. Show, I love you like no other, but you need to freaking address the Damon/Caroline situation like SO NOW!!!!
- Speaking of Damon, bahahahaha! I was grinning so much during the scene between him and Tyler because it was so obvious that he was baiting Tyler and Tyler was so very stupid that he was incapable of picking up on it. It just re-affirmed my belief from a few episodes ago that, yup, when Matt hangs with Tyler, the stupid sets in because clearly the stupid comes from one Tyler Lockwood and it sadly Matt is not immune. I mean, really, could Damon have *been* more obvious. Nope! But still Tyler fell for it like so easily. I ♥ you so, Damon Salvatore.
- You know, I liked Liv in her introduction the other episode, but not so much in this one. I mean, getting her flirt on with Jeremy knowing he has a girlfriend was bad enough, knowing his girlfriend made it even worse, and right in front of his girlfriend made it ten times worse, but then acting like it was no big? GURL!!!!! Really? I just was not impressed. Like at all. Bonnie, you may not be a witch, but you can still take her down, Bonnie Badger!
- As for Damon torturing and killing Wes, I suppose I should feel bad about it, but I really don't. Wes tortured and killed tons of people as far as we know. He took innocent Jesse and destroyed his young life. Kidnapped and messed up Damon. Kidnapped Elena and was planning on torturing her. Injected Damon with a cannibalistic serum, was planning on doing the same to Nadia in the guise of helping her. And he tortured Enzo we don't know for how many years. Wes was a sick, twisted, evil sadistic fuck.
- Nadia is dead. YES! Please, may I never have to see Olga Fonda grace my beloved Vampire Diaries again. Kthanxbai! :)
- Ugh, ugh, ugh! The Tyler/Caroline discussion did NOT make me happy. Show, do not do this to me. I cannot deal with another round of those two. Please, pretty, pretty please. Caroline becomes beyond lame with Tyler. And boring. And he treats her terribly. And she TOLD him that if he chose revenge over her, they were done. PERIOD. Fine, let them be friends, but damnit, the romance better be OVER! Grrr.
- OK, Damon called Katherine "Kitty-Kat." How has he never called her that before? And is that not wickedly adorable?
- Damon's "I'll see you in Hell, Kat." I sure hope that was just foreshadowing for where Katherine was going, not my bb, Damon!
- OK, I get the point of the Katherine/Nadia pretty pretend fantasy, but I kept thinking of when Damon did it for Rose and it just felt like a rip-off of that scene and that one just felt so much more genuine. And I can't even say it's because I cared more for Rose than I do Nadia. Yes, I dearly wanted Nadia dead and she's so beyond not my favorite, but I certainly wasn't overly fond of Rose and I wasn't impressed with Lauren Cohan's portrayal of her character either. I just felt that the parallelism here didn't do it for me. Or maybe I just really care *that* little for Nadia. :shrug:
- Did Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) get a haircut? I think he did. It looks good.
Well, that's all she wrote. I quite, quite enjoyed the episode. I'm quite, quite loving the season and I am quite, quite sad that I have to wait TWO weeks to see Damon and Elena (ELENA!) make out. It's been a long time! WHEE! Lovely preview is lovely!