TVD 4x05: This is as good a place to fall as any
Vampire Diaries and I have been starcrossed this season, which is why I haven't been posting much. The first episode premiered when I was on a honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean, and try as I might, there turned out to be no way to watch it on that torture prison of my own design boat. Internet access was charged by the minute and the television channels were only there to tease you. I am not exactly proud of this, but I may have called Guest Services all:
Me: Hello good sir. Please explain what this CBS-slash-CW business means on your program guide. Which is it?
Good sir: . . . What?
Me: I mean, how can it be both channels? (laughs awkwardly).
Good sir: Well . . uh, I think it depends what waters we are in which one we pick up.
Me: I see. WHAT WATERS WILL WE BE IN ON THURSDAY?! TELL ME NOW, AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT.
The Prince Consort: (exiting the bathroom): What are you doing? Who are you talking to?
Me: Shit, gotta go. Talk later.
PC: . . . . Please tell me you weren't trying to figure out how to watch Vampire Diaries.
Me: Hey look! That drink is blue and in a glass shaped like a puffer fish.
In all seriousness, I actually did have a great time on that dumb boat--monkeys! casinos! lurid alcoholism!--but there was also a part of me that was curled up in a fandom corner, crying. The last few weeks have been spent trying to catch up on work and friend-time and cat-time and cleaning-time and I've been in agreement with most opinions on S4--intriguing, mostly positive if occasionally nervous-making, but a little overstuffed with exposition and could use 1000x less Stefan being . . . Stefan. Blerghhhh. But then last night happened and cats and friends and work and kitchens can wait, gosh darn it. Cause it made me so, so happy. So happy in a dark, horrible, angsty way!
These are thoughts in no particular order, because organization is for fools with working brains. Ahahahahaahahhaha. (P.S. When ever I try to type "Ahahahaha" on my iPhone, auto-correct changes it to "Aha banana" and now I . . . kind of like it.)
+++So I knew Connor was a goner as soon as we found out Jeremy was a potential, and as discombobulating as it is to have new characters appear on this show and then get eaten three days later in the timeline, can't say I'm upset with how it happened. At all. #VAMPIREELENA4EVER. I had always speculatd that Elena's first kill would be in defense of a person she loved (drink!), but they surprised me with 1.) how awesomely brutal it was and 2.) that it was in a greyer context than her avenging an immediate threat. Like, pragmatically, Connor was always going to be a threat so it made sense to kill him to preserve everyone's safety in the long run. But in that moment, the hostages had been saved. He was alone in a tunnel and (mostly) unarmed. At that point Elena knew Stefan wanted him for something, but it didn't matter. He stabbed her, true, and called her a monster, so she was provoked . . . but it's still a much more ambitious departure for the character than I think I expected. YAY. YAY.
+++Also, ninety billion points for her snapping his neck a la Damon. I may be wrong, but I can only think of one time that Elena witnessed Damon snapping someone's neck, and that's when he snapped Jeremy's, which makes this so much more delicously dark. (Okay, actually I think she was there when he snapped Greta's in the S2 penultimate episode, but STILL).
+++Snorted when Elena called what she did with Damon at Whittmore college "dirty dancing." I understand that they wanted it to be sexy, but honestly the only thing sexy about it was when Elena took blood from Damon's chin and licked it off her finger. It will accept "stupid dancing," I will accept "high as fuck dancing" and "bouncy dancing." I will not accept dirty dancing unless Elena is referring to the blood on their faces. Don't get me wrong--I really LIKE the dancing scene because lol, weirdos. But I think it missed the sexyboat by a mile, and is instead on the akwardferry. (DON'T EAT THE SNACKS. They are awkward).
+++I did laugh a little bit, however, @ Elena's indignation at Damon barging into her bedroom, as though he did not catch her ferreting through all of his drawers a mere two episodes ago.
+++I am happy Bonnie has glimmers of a solo storyline, even if will probably lead to the same issues her storylines always have (too little, too half-assed, writers too uninterested in her arc, honestly). Professor Shane has a cool Svengali vibe going and I dig it, but those hypnosis scenes were zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, especially back to back with the high-octaneness of the hostage situation. I laughed out loud when we cut to a scene where he just says "You've been sitting here for seven hours! How convenient to the other plot!.
+++As anvil-y as they are being with the triangle and how it is changing because vamp!Elena leans more toward Damon, I still cheered when Damon asked Stefan about his reasons for pursuing the cure at all costs, and there was a LONG, GLORIOUS PAUSE and then an "I will always love her" with a big "but . . . " embroidered all around it. At least they are making strides at representing the negative side of this whole Cure Mission, that it is just as selfishly motivated as it is motivated by Stefan's "epic love" of Elena.
+++Still grring over the truly flimsy reasons not to *tell* Elena that this is a possibility, like she's too fragile to handle it, Stefan's conviction that she would want it, 100%, if it were a possibility . I am side-eying Damon on this one, too, even though he gets a one-episode day pass to Okayville right now because of it really not being the right time to say anything. Also, generally I just find pessimism and anti-hope refreshing deep down in my cold, dead heart.
+++Italy totally looks like the woods of Mystic Falls, but with more tarp. So weird!
+++Not really feeling Caroline/Tyler any more, which makes me a little sad. As glad as I am that they're not going the cliched affair route with Hayley, The Hybrid Revolution just seems silly and sort of an unnecessary distraction at this point. Tyler is the only one of Klaus's hybrids that we even know (Tony and Daniel got names, but were quickly decapitated, and were always antagonists in the grand scheme of this), so I find it hard to care about whether they are free of compulsion or not. Also, it makes me do things like this hackjob below, and then laugh my nerdy head off, forever alone in musical dorkdom.
That's as good a note to go out on as any, I think. WHAT DID YOU GUYS THINK?
Me: Hello good sir. Please explain what this CBS-slash-CW business means on your program guide. Which is it?
Good sir: . . . What?
Me: I mean, how can it be both channels? (laughs awkwardly).
Good sir: Well . . uh, I think it depends what waters we are in which one we pick up.
Me: I see. WHAT WATERS WILL WE BE IN ON THURSDAY?! TELL ME NOW, AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT.
The Prince Consort: (exiting the bathroom): What are you doing? Who are you talking to?
Me: Shit, gotta go. Talk later.
PC: . . . . Please tell me you weren't trying to figure out how to watch Vampire Diaries.
Me: Hey look! That drink is blue and in a glass shaped like a puffer fish.
In all seriousness, I actually did have a great time on that dumb boat--monkeys! casinos! lurid alcoholism!--but there was also a part of me that was curled up in a fandom corner, crying. The last few weeks have been spent trying to catch up on work and friend-time and cat-time and cleaning-time and I've been in agreement with most opinions on S4--intriguing, mostly positive if occasionally nervous-making, but a little overstuffed with exposition and could use 1000x less Stefan being . . . Stefan. Blerghhhh. But then last night happened and cats and friends and work and kitchens can wait, gosh darn it. Cause it made me so, so happy. So happy in a dark, horrible, angsty way!
These are thoughts in no particular order, because organization is for fools with working brains. Ahahahahaahahhaha. (P.S. When ever I try to type "Ahahahaha" on my iPhone, auto-correct changes it to "Aha banana" and now I . . . kind of like it.)
+++So I knew Connor was a goner as soon as we found out Jeremy was a potential, and as discombobulating as it is to have new characters appear on this show and then get eaten three days later in the timeline, can't say I'm upset with how it happened. At all. #VAMPIREELENA4EVER. I had always speculatd that Elena's first kill would be in defense of a person she loved (drink!), but they surprised me with 1.) how awesomely brutal it was and 2.) that it was in a greyer context than her avenging an immediate threat. Like, pragmatically, Connor was always going to be a threat so it made sense to kill him to preserve everyone's safety in the long run. But in that moment, the hostages had been saved. He was alone in a tunnel and (mostly) unarmed. At that point Elena knew Stefan wanted him for something, but it didn't matter. He stabbed her, true, and called her a monster, so she was provoked . . . but it's still a much more ambitious departure for the character than I think I expected. YAY. YAY.
+++Also, ninety billion points for her snapping his neck a la Damon. I may be wrong, but I can only think of one time that Elena witnessed Damon snapping someone's neck, and that's when he snapped Jeremy's, which makes this so much more delicously dark. (Okay, actually I think she was there when he snapped Greta's in the S2 penultimate episode, but STILL).
+++Snorted when Elena called what she did with Damon at Whittmore college "dirty dancing." I understand that they wanted it to be sexy, but honestly the only thing sexy about it was when Elena took blood from Damon's chin and licked it off her finger. It will accept "stupid dancing," I will accept "high as fuck dancing" and "bouncy dancing." I will not accept dirty dancing unless Elena is referring to the blood on their faces. Don't get me wrong--I really LIKE the dancing scene because lol, weirdos. But I think it missed the sexyboat by a mile, and is instead on the akwardferry. (DON'T EAT THE SNACKS. They are awkward).
+++I did laugh a little bit, however, @ Elena's indignation at Damon barging into her bedroom, as though he did not catch her ferreting through all of his drawers a mere two episodes ago.
+++I am happy Bonnie has glimmers of a solo storyline, even if will probably lead to the same issues her storylines always have (too little, too half-assed, writers too uninterested in her arc, honestly). Professor Shane has a cool Svengali vibe going and I dig it, but those hypnosis scenes were zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, especially back to back with the high-octaneness of the hostage situation. I laughed out loud when we cut to a scene where he just says "You've been sitting here for seven hours! How convenient to the other plot!.
+++As anvil-y as they are being with the triangle and how it is changing because vamp!Elena leans more toward Damon, I still cheered when Damon asked Stefan about his reasons for pursuing the cure at all costs, and there was a LONG, GLORIOUS PAUSE and then an "I will always love her" with a big "but . . . " embroidered all around it. At least they are making strides at representing the negative side of this whole Cure Mission, that it is just as selfishly motivated as it is motivated by Stefan's "epic love" of Elena.
+++Still grring over the truly flimsy reasons not to *tell* Elena that this is a possibility, like she's too fragile to handle it, Stefan's conviction that she would want it, 100%, if it were a possibility . I am side-eying Damon on this one, too, even though he gets a one-episode day pass to Okayville right now because of it really not being the right time to say anything. Also, generally I just find pessimism and anti-hope refreshing deep down in my cold, dead heart.
+++Italy totally looks like the woods of Mystic Falls, but with more tarp. So weird!
+++Not really feeling Caroline/Tyler any more, which makes me a little sad. As glad as I am that they're not going the cliched affair route with Hayley, The Hybrid Revolution just seems silly and sort of an unnecessary distraction at this point. Tyler is the only one of Klaus's hybrids that we even know (Tony and Daniel got names, but were quickly decapitated, and were always antagonists in the grand scheme of this), so I find it hard to care about whether they are free of compulsion or not. Also, it makes me do things like this hackjob below, and then laugh my nerdy head off, forever alone in musical dorkdom.
That's as good a note to go out on as any, I think. WHAT DID YOU GUYS THINK?