TVD - 4x16 "Bring it On" - stop calling, stop calling, I don't want to think anymore
This episode was terrifying. But also kind of wonderful. But mostly terrifying. And it inspired a lot of unexpected anti-shipper feelings and fantasies in me where Elena just tells eerrrrebody to go screw themselves and steals Damon’s Camaro to go on a cross-country ribbon stealing spree. She will not be denied ribbons any longer, guys! What, she’s just supposed to use a hair band? Fools! Hair bands are for ladies with emotions.
Seriously, though, everyone in this episode who still had emotions was functioning on the levels of extreme dooftard, especially the Salvabros. I am fed up with both of them right now, tbh. In Damon’s case, this never lasts for long, and I have a suspicion that next week is gonna bring some hardcore emotional fallout for him that is both incredibly awesome and also makes me want to die inside and then all will be forgiven in my soul. But right now, sheesh Louise. You all wrought this because of your own inability to deal with Elena’s grief, and now you’re all running around like “A vampire with her switch turned off? Egads! What is this thing? Shall we pelt it with lectures? Shall we reenact my greatest hits? I know, let’s try and use the sire bond BECAUSE THAT’S ALWAYS WORKED OUT SO WELL.”
Losers. ALL OF YOU.
Anyway, here are notes, in no particular order:
+++I wish I could say that I think the sire bond is gone for good, but I know that I don’t get nice things. Pretty sure it’s going to rear its ugly head again before the end of the season, so I can’t muster up much celebration, especially since everyone’s sudden and liberal attempts to use it this episode left such a bad taste in my mouth. I think I would have been less revolted if it was just limited to “Don’t eat anyone,” and not the “Join clubs! Get involved!” like she is a cat that needs something dangled in front of it.
+++That said, I love how humanity-less Elena is just entirely defined by want, want, WANT. More so than any other vampire we’ve seen without his/her humanity, I think. It feels so right that the opposite of her human self, where her ~compassion for others and her fear of disappointing anyone meant an almost constant state of self-denial. I loved the hell out of the ribbon scene, because IT’S SUCH A TRIVIAL THING, but now Elena wants it and so she is going to let herself have it, along with a healthy sampling of cheerleader blood.
+++Too many Stefan/Elena scenes for my taste, especially since all of them consisted of Stefan rattling on about his own experience as a vampire or telling Elena that now she was acting exactly like Katherine. Right, Stefan, because there is nothing between a Good Elena and a Bad Katherine.
(Also one day I was scrolling through tumblr tags and found one of those endless pointless comparisons between Damon and Stefan that was like “Stefan helps Elena by giving her endearing lectures about how she is better and how much he loves her. Damon says they should go to a bar.” And I remember just laughing my ass off at “Endearing lectures.” ENDEARING LECTURES. Because that’s exactly what you want in a boyfriend, for sure. Because of this, it made me so happy when Elena actually called him out on coming up to lecture her some more).
+++Ra Ra Riot song at the dance party! Ra Ra Riot song at the dance party! Also loved that we were all focused on Damon while it was on, considering the chorus is just “I want to be your toy. I want to be your toy.” Over and over again.
+++The Damon in this episode. The Damon! When I peek behind my general annoyance at how much he’s just sort of bungled things and is continuing to bungle things, there’s something really, really interesting happening there. Here is a Damon who Elena is suddenly accusing of being No fun. Here is a Damon who is suddenly getting a chance to basically reenact the fantasy life he imagined 160 years ago with Katherine, where it’s just him and his lady love, and they are two beautiful monsters against the world. And he is leaning into it, guys. The scene at the end where he’s in the car with Elena, he’s preening. See his scoffing comment about emotions to Stefan and then how he looks to Elena for approval as they speed out of town.
I firmly believe that next week will be all about butting against this long-held fantasy of his and him realizing he doesn’t want it anymore. At least not in this form, where emotions are off entirely and they are careless vampires apart from everything. I think this season has been a lot about these characters finding a balanced life-Stefan needs a world that contains more than Elena, Damon needs emotion and he needs connections, and Elena needs to sometimes let herself have what she wants. I think that’s where we’re going to end up this season, and that’s what we’re messily in the process of building.
+++As hard as it was to see Caroline get emotionally (and physically) tortured by Elena, I’m glad that she was Elena’s first target, in a way, because the tension that’s been growing between them since the beginning of this season needed some kind of explosion. I saw all sorts of comments about how the only real emotion Elena experienced this ep was getting jealous of Caroline and Stefan and how that proves her feelings for Stefan are real blah blah blah, but no. I think what we were seeing was her lingering resentment, untempered, about how Caroline has really become more of a friend to Stefan than her. And it was possessiveness of Stefan, I think, but also possessiveness of Caroline. These were her people, and now they just collude with how best to fix her and sometimes dance together and laugh.
+++Am I wrong in hoping that Caroline/Stefan happens so Caroline can finally see how just-not-perfect-a-boyfriend Stefan is? PLEASE? I’ll admit, I thought the scene where Stefan tossed Caroline over his shoulder to dance was cute as hell, but I don’t think there’s ever been a question of how good Caroline is for Stefan. But upupa_epops made a wonderful point on tumblr about how the reverse is not true at all. In the scene after Caroline’s mom is taken and after Caroline’s BFF has tried to kill her, all Stefan can talk about is himself and himself in relation to Elena.
+++Will? Who that guy? Don’t care.
+++Matt's got a mansion, lol. Good luck with that property tax, dude.
+++Hayley/Klaus scenes were kind of … boring. Apart from Hayley’s special birthmark, what did any of that actually contribute to the storyline? But they do kiss nicely. Achievement unlocked. Why a tan bra, tho? #seriousquestions
+++My husband chose to watch this episode with me, which, ngl, is probably a heretofore unknown sign of the apocalypse, so buy a hard hat. But he made me promise to query why Mystic Falls high school had a Seismology club, and why couldn't Elena have joined THAT and munched on some amateur seismologists? Also he would like the internet to know that hospitals don't just keep their blood in tubs in the break room. I tried to tell him that all bets were off in a town that still produces Fruitopia, but he was insistent.
Seriously, though, everyone in this episode who still had emotions was functioning on the levels of extreme dooftard, especially the Salvabros. I am fed up with both of them right now, tbh. In Damon’s case, this never lasts for long, and I have a suspicion that next week is gonna bring some hardcore emotional fallout for him that is both incredibly awesome and also makes me want to die inside and then all will be forgiven in my soul. But right now, sheesh Louise. You all wrought this because of your own inability to deal with Elena’s grief, and now you’re all running around like “A vampire with her switch turned off? Egads! What is this thing? Shall we pelt it with lectures? Shall we reenact my greatest hits? I know, let’s try and use the sire bond BECAUSE THAT’S ALWAYS WORKED OUT SO WELL.”
Losers. ALL OF YOU.
Anyway, here are notes, in no particular order:
+++I wish I could say that I think the sire bond is gone for good, but I know that I don’t get nice things. Pretty sure it’s going to rear its ugly head again before the end of the season, so I can’t muster up much celebration, especially since everyone’s sudden and liberal attempts to use it this episode left such a bad taste in my mouth. I think I would have been less revolted if it was just limited to “Don’t eat anyone,” and not the “Join clubs! Get involved!” like she is a cat that needs something dangled in front of it.
+++That said, I love how humanity-less Elena is just entirely defined by want, want, WANT. More so than any other vampire we’ve seen without his/her humanity, I think. It feels so right that the opposite of her human self, where her ~compassion for others and her fear of disappointing anyone meant an almost constant state of self-denial. I loved the hell out of the ribbon scene, because IT’S SUCH A TRIVIAL THING, but now Elena wants it and so she is going to let herself have it, along with a healthy sampling of cheerleader blood.
+++Too many Stefan/Elena scenes for my taste, especially since all of them consisted of Stefan rattling on about his own experience as a vampire or telling Elena that now she was acting exactly like Katherine. Right, Stefan, because there is nothing between a Good Elena and a Bad Katherine.
(Also one day I was scrolling through tumblr tags and found one of those endless pointless comparisons between Damon and Stefan that was like “Stefan helps Elena by giving her endearing lectures about how she is better and how much he loves her. Damon says they should go to a bar.” And I remember just laughing my ass off at “Endearing lectures.” ENDEARING LECTURES. Because that’s exactly what you want in a boyfriend, for sure. Because of this, it made me so happy when Elena actually called him out on coming up to lecture her some more).
+++Ra Ra Riot song at the dance party! Ra Ra Riot song at the dance party! Also loved that we were all focused on Damon while it was on, considering the chorus is just “I want to be your toy. I want to be your toy.” Over and over again.
+++The Damon in this episode. The Damon! When I peek behind my general annoyance at how much he’s just sort of bungled things and is continuing to bungle things, there’s something really, really interesting happening there. Here is a Damon who Elena is suddenly accusing of being No fun. Here is a Damon who is suddenly getting a chance to basically reenact the fantasy life he imagined 160 years ago with Katherine, where it’s just him and his lady love, and they are two beautiful monsters against the world. And he is leaning into it, guys. The scene at the end where he’s in the car with Elena, he’s preening. See his scoffing comment about emotions to Stefan and then how he looks to Elena for approval as they speed out of town.
I firmly believe that next week will be all about butting against this long-held fantasy of his and him realizing he doesn’t want it anymore. At least not in this form, where emotions are off entirely and they are careless vampires apart from everything. I think this season has been a lot about these characters finding a balanced life-Stefan needs a world that contains more than Elena, Damon needs emotion and he needs connections, and Elena needs to sometimes let herself have what she wants. I think that’s where we’re going to end up this season, and that’s what we’re messily in the process of building.
+++As hard as it was to see Caroline get emotionally (and physically) tortured by Elena, I’m glad that she was Elena’s first target, in a way, because the tension that’s been growing between them since the beginning of this season needed some kind of explosion. I saw all sorts of comments about how the only real emotion Elena experienced this ep was getting jealous of Caroline and Stefan and how that proves her feelings for Stefan are real blah blah blah, but no. I think what we were seeing was her lingering resentment, untempered, about how Caroline has really become more of a friend to Stefan than her. And it was possessiveness of Stefan, I think, but also possessiveness of Caroline. These were her people, and now they just collude with how best to fix her and sometimes dance together and laugh.
+++Am I wrong in hoping that Caroline/Stefan happens so Caroline can finally see how just-not-perfect-a-boyfriend Stefan is? PLEASE? I’ll admit, I thought the scene where Stefan tossed Caroline over his shoulder to dance was cute as hell, but I don’t think there’s ever been a question of how good Caroline is for Stefan. But upupa_epops made a wonderful point on tumblr about how the reverse is not true at all. In the scene after Caroline’s mom is taken and after Caroline’s BFF has tried to kill her, all Stefan can talk about is himself and himself in relation to Elena.
+++Will? Who that guy? Don’t care.
+++Matt's got a mansion, lol. Good luck with that property tax, dude.
+++Hayley/Klaus scenes were kind of … boring. Apart from Hayley’s special birthmark, what did any of that actually contribute to the storyline? But they do kiss nicely. Achievement unlocked. Why a tan bra, tho? #seriousquestions
+++My husband chose to watch this episode with me, which, ngl, is probably a heretofore unknown sign of the apocalypse, so buy a hard hat. But he made me promise to query why Mystic Falls high school had a Seismology club, and why couldn't Elena have joined THAT and munched on some amateur seismologists? Also he would like the internet to know that hospitals don't just keep their blood in tubs in the break room. I tried to tell him that all bets were off in a town that still produces Fruitopia, but he was insistent.