TVD 2x15 Dinner Party
Ugh doing a work project right now that is killing my soul. So let me talk about The Vampire Diaries instead.
JFC this recap is so massive. I apologize ahead of time.
Man the “previously on the Vampire Diaries” intro was super long this week (it clocked in at just under a minute YES I WENT AND CHECKED AND EVERYTHING) and this was still one of those episodes where halfway through I was like “WOW THAT WAS AMAZING I WANT TO WATCH IT ALL AGAIN..... omfg it’s not done yet and Elijah is still alive, somebody hold me.”
First: WHAAAAAAAAAT ELENA STABBED HERSELF IN THE STOMACH:
I JUST NEED A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE HOW BADASS THAT WAS.
OKAY MOMENT DONE.
Wow what didn’t happen this week. I don’t even know where to start.
-bb vampire Stefan storytime! \o/ This went down way differently than I was expecting. I thought it would be all about Stefan’s ~dark past~ but instead it was to inspire Elena’s will to survive. Which LOL STEFAN, “MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER” IS NOT YOUR LIFE’S CALLING.
Early!Stefan’s over-the-top vampire face cracked me up. I love this show so much and I think everyone on it is so beautiful and talented but sometimes I just want to send them a note asking them to tone the makeup down a note or two.
-I LOLed when we came to present day!Stefan on the dock. STEFAN SALVATORE, VERY GOOD AT KILLING PEOPLE AND ALSO SKIPPING ROCKS.
-I was pleased in this weird way that Stefan and Elena are still mad at each other even if inside my tummy was twisting itself into knots and going DDD:. They were really at cross-sections in this episode and I felt a little bit like I was watching a sporting event, going POINT ELENA and/or POINT STEFAN at different intervals. I’m glad most of the kids weren’t around to see them fight as it was a bit like mummy and daddy going at it and omfg WHAT IF IT ENDS IN DIVORCE. (p.s. I don’t think it will though I do think they need to have a talk as things didn’t seem to be entirely resolved this week - BE CUTE AGAIN, STEFAN AND ELENA, FOR THE SAKE OF THE KNOTS IN MY TUMMY).
-lol Alaric called himself a “history buff.” LOL ALARIC, WE KNOW YOU HAVE BECOME THE TOWN DRUNK AND DON’T GO TO SCHOOL ANYMORE EXCUSE YOU.
-Elijah cracking a joke was the best. DO IT AGAIN. At this point in the episode, I really hoped Damon would not succeed in killing him which is probably wrong of me since he wants to kill Elena and all. ALSO ALARIC IS ON ELENA’S LIST OF LOVED ONES. He’s her new step-daddy. \o/
-OMG THIS WHOLE SCENE:
It started off so creepy and then when Damon enters looking all horrified and shocked and lecturing Stefan on being more careful and flouncing with “I AM DONE WITH YOU!! I AM LEAVING TOWN!!!” and it was so hysterical, omg. I think in general TVD takes itself pretty srs bsns, but I can’t not believe this scene wasn’t all about poking fun at itself. I can’t not.
-Aww but then when bb!Stefan was all “PLEASE BROTHER DON’T LEAVE ME I WILL BE BETTER D:” and Damon flounced anyway and for some reason this struck me as the most tragic thing. To be quickly followed by many other tragic things as this episode wore on.
-Andie and Damon’s relationship is the most unsettling thing. D: I like the way the actress played it though, like Andie was in this weird drug induced state for most of the episode. Doesn’t mean I didn’t still cringe at all their scenes together.
-I think it’s cute that even when in the midst of an argument and also telling the story of that one time he killed a lot of people, Stefan is still considerate enough to bring his girlfriend some tea:
THERE WAS A SAD LACK OF CUTE IN THIS EPISODE I TAKE WHAT I CAN GET.
-OMG LEXI, YOU CAME BACK TO ME, MY LOVE. \o/\o/
I especially love the scene where she gets to Stefan’s and looks so disappointed by his body count and he’s totally shifting awkwardly and looking away like he forgot to do his homework and OMG CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE CIRCLE OF VAMPIRE PARENTING HERE. So in 1960-whatever, Lexi takes Stefan under her wing and he attaches himself to her like a baby chick and then 150 years later after Caroline gets turned, Stefan takes over the mummying and brings Caroline under his wing. LEXI, WHEREVER YOU ARE, YOU MUST BE SO PROUD OF HIM.
And it doesn’t happen in the flashbacks, but I imagine that at some point Stefan breaks down and sobs about everything into Lexi’s arms, including everything about Katherine and Damon and killing his dad and Lexi pats him on the head and gives him a cookie and then Stefan is ready to be good again. Stefan probably kept that from Elena though because it wouldn’t seem very manly.
-ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GORGEOUS LEXI LOOKED IN PERIOD CLOTHING FOR A MINUTE:
There were a few scenes I actually had to re-wind and watch again because I’d stopped listening to the dialogue and was just basking in Lexi looking amazing.
-And Elena and Stefan talk about how Damon killed her and how this still makes Stefan sadface and I would just like to personally thank the writers right now for a scene that I have wanted for 1.5 seasons now AND WE’RE FINALLY GETTING IT. What a nice piece of continuity, gold stars all around.
-Bonnie and Jeremy’s chemistry was OFF THE CHARTS in this episode and I was pretty much going “omg just make out already” through the whole thing even though I don’t even know if I ship it yet? But then Bonnie said she needed to talk to Elena first and Jeremy looked so disappointed and AW YOU TWO KIDS.
-My brain tends to wander during long exposition-y stuff so it was sort of going “blah, blah, blah, dagger dipped in some old tree OOH LOOK AT HOW CLOSE ELENA AND STEFAN ARE SITTING EVEN WHEN ON AN ONGOING STANDOFF:”
It’s just a thing that I notice. I am so obsessed with the way Paul and Nina portray the Stefan/Elena relationship through their body language.
-Other things I noticed, when not killing people, Paul Wesley was rocking the slightly furrowed brow look a lot this episode:
I will call it the Classic Stefan.
-Maaaaaaaaaaaan when Stefan was like p.s. Not only do I know this dagger exists, but my brother plans to use it tonight!!, I was like “MINUS FIVE POINTS FROM TEAM SALVATORE.” Omfg, I like that this episode ended with Elena asserting her agency, but at this point I was so annoyed with all the men in her life (John, Damon, Stefan, principally) designing these complicated plans to keep her safe for her own good and withholding information. (Not to mention Alaric’s high-handedness in keeping everything from Jenna and choosing to give back the ring rather than be honest with her. WHAT IS THAT. WHAT IS THAT EVEN). Every man on this show needs a timeout.
-Except Jeremy, who totally thinks Bonnie is at her hottest when she is powerful and doing magic which I thought was THE BEST EVER. I loved when he so trustingly offered himself up to her to channel too. TEAM BONNIE/JEREMY, POINT FOR YOU.
-I found this gif on tumblr and basically it sums up all my feelings with regards to Alaric and Damon and the plot to kill Elijah:
WHAT. SO AWESOME. And then it was followed by Alaric telling Damon off for not being honest with him (even though Alaric isn’t being honest with Jenna) because Alaric is his only friend and Damon seems to nod and accept this and it was a beautiful moment of bromance. THOSE TWO.
Also at this point I assumed the episode had reached its climax and was amazed WHEN IT JUST KEPT POUNDING ALONG. How does TVD manage to consistently do that with only 42 minutes an episode?
-“That’s all I want you to do. I just want you to fight for it.”
THESE TWO, EVEN WHEN THEY’RE ANGRY WITH EACH OTHER. Omg the way he sort of nuzzles against her forehead for a moment. Be together forever, Stefan and Elena.
-I feel like there might have been a theme in this episode about keeping things from the ones you love even if you have their best interests at heart. I mean, okay, it wasn’t so much a theme as they took a baseball bat and clubbed us over the head with it.
-BONNIE GETTING HER MAGIC TAKEN AWAY. THAT WAS THE MOST AWFUL. DD: It was like Caroline being tortured all over again. Next to the “everyone is lying” theme, I wonder if there was also a more insidious and underlying theme of “men who try and oppress women’s agency” because that shit was all over this episode. I don’t think we’re meant to see it as positive that Alaric is lying to Jenna or that Bonnie had her magic forcefully taken away or that everyone is hiding things from Elena to protect her or that Damon is compelling Andie. Of course WHAT WE ALSO GET is Elena taking back her agency, Jenna refusing to stand for Alaric’s lies, Katherine manipulating Damon into doing what SHE wants, and, of course, Lexi, who saved Stefan from himself.
If they were going for The Men Who Try and Repress Women’s Agency and How They Take it Back, that is pretty awesome.
-SPEAKING OF AWESOME:
ELENA GILBERT, RESIDENT BADASS.
-And ugh, I love how Stefan (and lol also Damon as we see at the end) stands back and let her do it, trusting her plan and her abilities to fight back. It’s like... they began this episode on this huge divide (Elena wants the right to make her own decisions even if that means dying, and Stefan wants so desperately for her to live even if that means doing things behind her back), but Elena finds the will to live and Stefan trusts her plans even when they involve pretty serious stomach stab wounds.
-In my continuing obsession of the way Elena and Stefan use their body language to tell us they are still a couple even when they’re fighting:
What it is not like this episode made me feel weirdly insecure about my OTP, shut up okay, I mean, I am dealing. D:
-Aw Stefan and Damon FINALLY talking about Lexi. I was like YEAH STEFAN GET ANGRY because tbh his unexplained nonchalance about how his brother KILLED HIS BFF always baffled me but I see now that he just repressed it along with everything else and I was weirdly excited that there still seems to be this resentful anger about it. GET ANGRY BB, LET IT OUT.
-BEST ENDING SCENE EVER:
<---LOL DAMON’S FACE. I like how the Salvatore brothers just keep falling for it, re: Katherine week after week. WHEN WILL YOU TWO LEARN, YOU ARE NEVER PLAYING HER, SHE IS ALWAYS PLAYING YOU.
NEXT WEEK: KATHERINE IS BACK FOR SOME DOPPLEGANGER SHENANIGANS. \o/ Who is excited? I AM EXCITED.
JFC this recap is so massive. I apologize ahead of time.
Man the “previously on the Vampire Diaries” intro was super long this week (it clocked in at just under a minute YES I WENT AND CHECKED AND EVERYTHING) and this was still one of those episodes where halfway through I was like “WOW THAT WAS AMAZING I WANT TO WATCH IT ALL AGAIN..... omfg it’s not done yet and Elijah is still alive, somebody hold me.”
First: WHAAAAAAAAAT ELENA STABBED HERSELF IN THE STOMACH:
I JUST NEED A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE HOW BADASS THAT WAS.
OKAY MOMENT DONE.
Wow what didn’t happen this week. I don’t even know where to start.
-bb vampire Stefan storytime! \o/ This went down way differently than I was expecting. I thought it would be all about Stefan’s ~dark past~ but instead it was to inspire Elena’s will to survive. Which LOL STEFAN, “MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER” IS NOT YOUR LIFE’S CALLING.
Early!Stefan’s over-the-top vampire face cracked me up. I love this show so much and I think everyone on it is so beautiful and talented but sometimes I just want to send them a note asking them to tone the makeup down a note or two.
-I LOLed when we came to present day!Stefan on the dock. STEFAN SALVATORE, VERY GOOD AT KILLING PEOPLE AND ALSO SKIPPING ROCKS.
-I was pleased in this weird way that Stefan and Elena are still mad at each other even if inside my tummy was twisting itself into knots and going DDD:. They were really at cross-sections in this episode and I felt a little bit like I was watching a sporting event, going POINT ELENA and/or POINT STEFAN at different intervals. I’m glad most of the kids weren’t around to see them fight as it was a bit like mummy and daddy going at it and omfg WHAT IF IT ENDS IN DIVORCE. (p.s. I don’t think it will though I do think they need to have a talk as things didn’t seem to be entirely resolved this week - BE CUTE AGAIN, STEFAN AND ELENA, FOR THE SAKE OF THE KNOTS IN MY TUMMY).
-lol Alaric called himself a “history buff.” LOL ALARIC, WE KNOW YOU HAVE BECOME THE TOWN DRUNK AND DON’T GO TO SCHOOL ANYMORE EXCUSE YOU.
-Elijah cracking a joke was the best. DO IT AGAIN. At this point in the episode, I really hoped Damon would not succeed in killing him which is probably wrong of me since he wants to kill Elena and all. ALSO ALARIC IS ON ELENA’S LIST OF LOVED ONES. He’s her new step-daddy. \o/
-OMG THIS WHOLE SCENE:
It started off so creepy and then when Damon enters looking all horrified and shocked and lecturing Stefan on being more careful and flouncing with “I AM DONE WITH YOU!! I AM LEAVING TOWN!!!” and it was so hysterical, omg. I think in general TVD takes itself pretty srs bsns, but I can’t not believe this scene wasn’t all about poking fun at itself. I can’t not.
-Aww but then when bb!Stefan was all “PLEASE BROTHER DON’T LEAVE ME I WILL BE BETTER D:” and Damon flounced anyway and for some reason this struck me as the most tragic thing. To be quickly followed by many other tragic things as this episode wore on.
-Andie and Damon’s relationship is the most unsettling thing. D: I like the way the actress played it though, like Andie was in this weird drug induced state for most of the episode. Doesn’t mean I didn’t still cringe at all their scenes together.
-I think it’s cute that even when in the midst of an argument and also telling the story of that one time he killed a lot of people, Stefan is still considerate enough to bring his girlfriend some tea:
THERE WAS A SAD LACK OF CUTE IN THIS EPISODE I TAKE WHAT I CAN GET.
-OMG LEXI, YOU CAME BACK TO ME, MY LOVE. \o/\o/
I especially love the scene where she gets to Stefan’s and looks so disappointed by his body count and he’s totally shifting awkwardly and looking away like he forgot to do his homework and OMG CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE CIRCLE OF VAMPIRE PARENTING HERE. So in 1960-whatever, Lexi takes Stefan under her wing and he attaches himself to her like a baby chick and then 150 years later after Caroline gets turned, Stefan takes over the mummying and brings Caroline under his wing. LEXI, WHEREVER YOU ARE, YOU MUST BE SO PROUD OF HIM.
And it doesn’t happen in the flashbacks, but I imagine that at some point Stefan breaks down and sobs about everything into Lexi’s arms, including everything about Katherine and Damon and killing his dad and Lexi pats him on the head and gives him a cookie and then Stefan is ready to be good again. Stefan probably kept that from Elena though because it wouldn’t seem very manly.
-ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GORGEOUS LEXI LOOKED IN PERIOD CLOTHING FOR A MINUTE:
There were a few scenes I actually had to re-wind and watch again because I’d stopped listening to the dialogue and was just basking in Lexi looking amazing.
-And Elena and Stefan talk about how Damon killed her and how this still makes Stefan sadface and I would just like to personally thank the writers right now for a scene that I have wanted for 1.5 seasons now AND WE’RE FINALLY GETTING IT. What a nice piece of continuity, gold stars all around.
-Bonnie and Jeremy’s chemistry was OFF THE CHARTS in this episode and I was pretty much going “omg just make out already” through the whole thing even though I don’t even know if I ship it yet? But then Bonnie said she needed to talk to Elena first and Jeremy looked so disappointed and AW YOU TWO KIDS.
-My brain tends to wander during long exposition-y stuff so it was sort of going “blah, blah, blah, dagger dipped in some old tree OOH LOOK AT HOW CLOSE ELENA AND STEFAN ARE SITTING EVEN WHEN ON AN ONGOING STANDOFF:”
It’s just a thing that I notice. I am so obsessed with the way Paul and Nina portray the Stefan/Elena relationship through their body language.
-Other things I noticed, when not killing people, Paul Wesley was rocking the slightly furrowed brow look a lot this episode:
I will call it the Classic Stefan.
-Maaaaaaaaaaaan when Stefan was like p.s. Not only do I know this dagger exists, but my brother plans to use it tonight!!, I was like “MINUS FIVE POINTS FROM TEAM SALVATORE.” Omfg, I like that this episode ended with Elena asserting her agency, but at this point I was so annoyed with all the men in her life (John, Damon, Stefan, principally) designing these complicated plans to keep her safe for her own good and withholding information. (Not to mention Alaric’s high-handedness in keeping everything from Jenna and choosing to give back the ring rather than be honest with her. WHAT IS THAT. WHAT IS THAT EVEN). Every man on this show needs a timeout.
-Except Jeremy, who totally thinks Bonnie is at her hottest when she is powerful and doing magic which I thought was THE BEST EVER. I loved when he so trustingly offered himself up to her to channel too. TEAM BONNIE/JEREMY, POINT FOR YOU.
-I found this gif on tumblr and basically it sums up all my feelings with regards to Alaric and Damon and the plot to kill Elijah:
WHAT. SO AWESOME. And then it was followed by Alaric telling Damon off for not being honest with him (even though Alaric isn’t being honest with Jenna) because Alaric is his only friend and Damon seems to nod and accept this and it was a beautiful moment of bromance. THOSE TWO.
Also at this point I assumed the episode had reached its climax and was amazed WHEN IT JUST KEPT POUNDING ALONG. How does TVD manage to consistently do that with only 42 minutes an episode?
-“That’s all I want you to do. I just want you to fight for it.”
THESE TWO, EVEN WHEN THEY’RE ANGRY WITH EACH OTHER. Omg the way he sort of nuzzles against her forehead for a moment. Be together forever, Stefan and Elena.
-I feel like there might have been a theme in this episode about keeping things from the ones you love even if you have their best interests at heart. I mean, okay, it wasn’t so much a theme as they took a baseball bat and clubbed us over the head with it.
-BONNIE GETTING HER MAGIC TAKEN AWAY. THAT WAS THE MOST AWFUL. DD: It was like Caroline being tortured all over again. Next to the “everyone is lying” theme, I wonder if there was also a more insidious and underlying theme of “men who try and oppress women’s agency” because that shit was all over this episode. I don’t think we’re meant to see it as positive that Alaric is lying to Jenna or that Bonnie had her magic forcefully taken away or that everyone is hiding things from Elena to protect her or that Damon is compelling Andie. Of course WHAT WE ALSO GET is Elena taking back her agency, Jenna refusing to stand for Alaric’s lies, Katherine manipulating Damon into doing what SHE wants, and, of course, Lexi, who saved Stefan from himself.
If they were going for The Men Who Try and Repress Women’s Agency and How They Take it Back, that is pretty awesome.
-SPEAKING OF AWESOME:
ELENA GILBERT, RESIDENT BADASS.
-And ugh, I love how Stefan (and lol also Damon as we see at the end) stands back and let her do it, trusting her plan and her abilities to fight back. It’s like... they began this episode on this huge divide (Elena wants the right to make her own decisions even if that means dying, and Stefan wants so desperately for her to live even if that means doing things behind her back), but Elena finds the will to live and Stefan trusts her plans even when they involve pretty serious stomach stab wounds.
-In my continuing obsession of the way Elena and Stefan use their body language to tell us they are still a couple even when they’re fighting:
What it is not like this episode made me feel weirdly insecure about my OTP, shut up okay, I mean, I am dealing. D:
-Aw Stefan and Damon FINALLY talking about Lexi. I was like YEAH STEFAN GET ANGRY because tbh his unexplained nonchalance about how his brother KILLED HIS BFF always baffled me but I see now that he just repressed it along with everything else and I was weirdly excited that there still seems to be this resentful anger about it. GET ANGRY BB, LET IT OUT.
-BEST ENDING SCENE EVER:
<---LOL DAMON’S FACE. I like how the Salvatore brothers just keep falling for it, re: Katherine week after week. WHEN WILL YOU TWO LEARN, YOU ARE NEVER PLAYING HER, SHE IS ALWAYS PLAYING YOU.
NEXT WEEK: KATHERINE IS BACK FOR SOME DOPPLEGANGER SHENANIGANS. \o/ Who is excited? I AM EXCITED.