So because I literally talked myself out with this episode all over Tumblr (it was a thing, I'm so embarrassed, I feel like I just talked about this show non-stop for a bit there), I'm going to write brief thoughts and then link to some of the posts I made. Most of them are meandering but it don't make no sense to repeat myself. You can read if you're bored as I'm not saying anything that one of you hasn't already said, and far more eloquently.
Onwards!
General
This episode was problematic in many ways BUT it was actually one of my favorite episodes of the season for two reasons (i) the really strong character work, on multiple levels, there were so many subtle touches in specific relationship dynamics that delighted and fascinated me; (ii) the show seemed more aware of its problematic shit than I think I've ever seen it, I hope I'm not wrong, but it was so baldly OUT THERE that I can't imagine anyone with a functioning mind could miss it. BONUS: the witches, any episode that highlights them, their role, their place, their function in this universe so brutally is bound to warm the cockles of my heart, so there you go.
Things that made me LOL:
+ Klaus. I feel like I need a modern AU in which Klaus is that kid who got L.O.S.E.R. pasted across his forehead and wedgies every Friday of the month in grade school, and grew into this weird, moody, artsy dude who lurked in hallways and skulked in dark alleyways while leering at the prettiest girl in high school--the one who wouldn't give him the time of day; and never got invited to the cool parties but always gate-crashed them anyway and tried to be the "cool" one by whipping out his loser bag of party tricks or dancing like a drowning rat to no avail; and was probably best friends with a giant-sized blow-up doll named Suzy. He also cried every single year on his birthday because he planned epic bashes and NO ONE ever showed up... not even his siblings.
I can't. I can't believe we were treated to him staring sullenly into a fire and burning his stalker sketches. I almost feel sorry for JoMo--I would if it wasn't so hilarious. Please continue to be pathetic just don't dedicate that much screentime to it, show, thanks.
I continue to look askance at this Klaus/Caroline situation. Their scenes are pleasant and--pleasant. That's about it. Oh and also inexplicable if they go where I think they're going but whatever. I LOVE Caroline using her assets and smarts to distract him, it reminded me of "Masquerade", and I like that this is her "role" in the team schemes because she's so good at it. And it really annoys me when they leave her out of their plots because she IS such an asset, so please don't stop doing this, I like it. But that's about it.
Yes to the glorious incestuousness of that last scene with Rebekah though. Never change.
+ Elijah. First, he does know that horses only reappeared in North America in the 16th century, right? Also, I think I would die happy if this show NEVER mentioned the "natives" who apparently had an ENTIRE village during the time of the Originals in what's now Mystic Falls--but whom we somehow NEVER saw in any of the flashbacks. Like, really, show? And they kept talking about the "natives" and the "Indians" and I was just like, Jesus, make it stop. This is so problematic, how do you not see this is problematic that you are referencing these people but that they are entirely invisible in your narrative?
Also, so I got into trouble on Tumblr for stating that the Elena/Elijah relationship was an under-developed, pandering mess--even though I was clear to note that I DO ship them and love both characters. It was weird. I laughed. But really, that Elijah note was... special. And unnecessary. What I do love is that this episode put paid to this delusion that Elijah is a cuddly but stoic (is this possible?) and noble teddy bear. Like it was starting to drive me nuts and give me bad memories of similar ways of talking about Stefan that drive me bonkers. That said, I found his speechifying throughout this episode a bit heavy-handed and overdone. I love you, my good-haired prince, but you are always best in small doses. The mystique is ruined with heavy exposure. So I'm glad he's gone off.
+ Kol's eyebrows. (Rivaling Damon's for most demonically-sculpted, in a good way). Also for some reason him and Klaus just seemed so awkward to me in that bar, like they were trying to be cool but not quite succeeding.
+ Alaric getting injured. Again. Seriously, this is why this character is actually shock!hilarious!subversive. On any other show, he would be the efficiently badass hunter-dude who is knowledgeable about weaponry and obscure historical facts and has a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe to him. On this show, not a week goes by without him getting killed or slapped around; he's a loser drunk whose best friend is a psycho, and his general impotence in all romantic relationships is frankly the stuff of legend. Love it.
Oh, hello, Meredith. I still don't think she's the Stabber. But cool if she is.
+ The Other Tree. Are we really going to spend the rest of the season in deathly fear of a tree? The most laughable shit tbh.
Other Things That Happened:
+ So, how about them Salvatores, hunh? This was some of that great character work. Particularly for Damon. No one is surprised. But also in terms of their dysfunctional brotherhood dynamic. Lol @ the constant "brother-ing" going on in this episode.
Some folks were a bit shocked at the brothers' selfishness and ruthlessness when it comes to keeping Elena alive and their general objectification of her as some sort of prize to be one blah, blah. I was like, lol, have you been asleep for three seasons? Anyway,
my scrambled thoughts on the matter are here. Oh, and
here.
The coin-flipping scene though was so explicitly offensive that it's again, one of those things that I refuse to believe the writers weren't deliberately making a point of.
Damon was so Damon in this episode, it hurts. Please continue to be unapologetically honest with him as a character, show, seriously. "Did you see the way we stood up to Elena?" LOL, I suppose every huntsman goes through endearingly futile attempted rebellious phases. It worked, for not a second.
At this point I am just: What Is A Stefan? I don't even know at this point. I think I might have yelped in horror at the return of his journaling. Someone capped it and he was writing something about "wallowing in the self-pity" or the "pain" or something. I just started hearing "I HAVE TO KNOW HER" voice-over in my head and in a Pavlovian panic, I started sweating bullets. Please, god, no. No but seriously, I'm hoping that the return of the bloodohol might mean good things for him as a character, galvanizing things. Or it might just mean a return to ground we've already visited and re-visited. Who knows. CAN'T HE GO BACK TO TWIRLING KNIVES SEDUCTIVELY AT PARTIES???
+ Elena. Legitimately the single thing this show is getting absolutely right for me right now in a way they never have before.
Except for her inexplicable "bond" with Elijah. Which yes I know they had something of an understanding but I honestly must've missed the few steps that make it even remotely sense-making for her to mess up this plan that she partly orchestrated.
BUT.
What did strike me was this letter at the end, contrived yes, but it made me think about identity construction for Elena--a thing that one can't really separate from the doppelganger narrative because it's literally ALL about that: the freedom to author your own narrative, your own story; the forces from without and in your blood that strip away that agency or try to etc. etc. Anyway, then I made this long, incoherent post about the construction of
Elena COMMA The Compassionate. And how that's both a problematic and problematized thing on the show. It's probably been said before but I couldn't stop once I started.
YES, to the show tackling the really complicated mess that is her place in the narrative, and the fact that people DO keep dying and suffering because they're caught up in this vicious maelstrom of which she is undoubtedly the EYE (and simultaneously the object and victim etc.).
Ugh, at her face when Rebekah tells her what "her boys" did. She didn't ask for this. She didn't ask for any of this.
All I can say is this show is seriously doing everything I've wanted with this character for the longest time. Really delving into the who, and what, and why of Elena Gilbert. It's complicated and messy, and I'm enjoying it. Carry on.
+ Rebekah. She seems so much more effective as a villain than Klaus is, her pettiness and viciousness are quite bracing (in a good way).
Love her incestuous everything with her brothers. LOL, this family.
And also her walk of shame. We've all been there, bb. I love you.
+ Elena/Bonnie/Caroline as a friendship construct. Now, they haven't always done well by this relationship but damn if it isn't one of my favorite things on the show (I.E. THE ONLY ENDGAME THAT MATTERS TO ME IDGAF). I'm really delighted by how the dynamic hasn't remained static over three years? Like in season 1, it was Bonnie playing mediator between the polarizing forces of Elena and Caroline. That changes in 1.17 when it becomes Caroline as fixer. Then it shifts again when Caroline gets turned, and Elena does somewhat play the "fixer" role but the show kind of drops it for the moonstone shenanigans but then we have that lovely doorway hug scene and it's beautiful again. And now this conflict, which is entirely and utterly earned bring Caroline back as mediator between two poles, and it is perfect.
I don't even know. I was so in love with their first scene, and their camaraderie. Elena ranting about Damon, Bonnie fiddling and struggling with that spell, Elena trying to give her instructions on how to do the spell (lol, Elena), and Caroline providing hilarious commentary. It was a bright moment in the dark and when they're all together again, I want more of this show. Reminds me of that one time they channeled Emily. All three of them are so distinctive, guh, I love them so much.
And then this:
LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE, PLEASE. FACES.
Were elements of Caroline's speech dodgy, really dodgy? Yes but I think in a sense they were deliberate. I wrote a
disgusting post about that too, if you're interested. I know that Caroline, in a sense, "speaking" for Bonnie was problematic, especially in the context of this episode which might as well have been WITCHES, HOW THE WORLD DONE SCREWED THEM. But, I think it was a smart, strategic choice given how fandom would've reacted if Bonnie had said even a fraction of that onscreen and also because the words Caroline were saying felt like something of meta commentary even though they were specifically referencing and about Bonnie. I thought it was kind of important that Caroline be the one to say it because lord knows what she's been through because of this mess, idk, idk. I'm holding out hope that they will let Bonnie articulate specifically for herself in coming episodes (a thin, dessicated hope, but it's there).
Sigh, regardless, I'd have written that specific line differently but at the same time it hit so hard because it was written that way. /conflicted.
+ Bonnie & Abby
So, if there was ever an episode that stood as testament to everything that's fascinating and problematic about the witch narrative, this might be it. Like this episode was essentially the most meta the show's gone with the witches and their place in the narrative. And I simply HAVE to believe that the writers were being entirely self-reflective in doing this because any other option is abhorrent. In the past I've generally accepted that they're entirely oblivious to the subtext of this mess but this episode was SO conscious about it that I don't think it's possible for a thinking writer to NOT see what they're doing. And it was Michael Narducci who is probably one of the best at writing Bonnie and witches in general, he just has a good sensitivity to them, their "duty" etc. that most of the others don't. So I'm going to cling to this.
PLEASE DON'T DISAPPOINT ME, OMG.
The witch narrative is so incredibly tragic to me for many reasons and this episode really drove home why. Nature is kind of the worst, tbh. It/She/Him might be the actual "villain" of the show because there's something incredibly cruel about it. About these women (and men) who are born into magic, who are literal "servants" of this entity, who live their lives "preserving the balance" - whatever that means; sacrifice and subsume their wants, needs and desires in the service of this force; live with the constant specter of their own deaths or personal injury; suffer incredible punishments when they "fall out of line"( i.e. Esther had to feel all the pain of every single one of her children's victims for a millennium? Way harsh, Nature. Or Abby "losing" her magic and a part of herself in punishment for choosing to walk away, for DARING to walk outside the script laid out for her); and generally they DIE, painful, miserable, lonely, violent, cruel deaths. That's it. That's their fate. To be tools, to be weapons, in much the same way that doppelgangers are objects, of something entirely BIGGER than they, and to suffer for it, and to die.
I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
And of course this is further problematized on this show because we have these power dynamics between witches and vampires, compounded by race dynamics that could not be more explicit in this episode. And then there's Esther leeching power off the Bennetts for a millennium, and not getting her ass handed to her for it. There's just SO much going on here. And I have never been more thankful to this show for actually surfacing this stuff. I am obsessed.
So then we come to Bonnie and Abby, and WELP. Thanks show for not killing her entirely? And also, yes this is some heavy stuff but I am SO happy that they did this. Like, the narrative possibilities for this, for Bonnie as a character having to confront in a way she never has her issues with vampires, her mother, her craft, her relationship with Elena and her peers. Like there is SO much to play with. Please don't fuck it up, show.
And don't kill Abby. Let her go on a road trip of self-discovery. Let her leave. Let her do anything. Just. Don't. Kill. Her. Also I swear to god, if Bonnie disappears with Abby for five episodes, I will cut a bitch. I want all of this played out onscreen, as much of it as can be, and Caroline possibly mentoring Abby in how to be a vampire? GIVE THIS TO ME.
I'm a bit annoyed they didn't give more of Bonnie's perspective at the last. Especially because I know Kat Graham filmed a scene in which she cried her eyes out and yet we didn't see it. It would've balanced Caroline speaking for her really well. Sigh, stupid show.
So I guess this is to say that I'm excited for Bonnie's narrative in a way that I haven't been this season because they've been so dodgy. I'm excited to see her hate both Salvatores (that dynamic generally works so much better when she's threatening them or giving them aneurysms or generally not being cooperative, and may it please apply to BOTH of them). I'm excited to see her and Elena navigate this territory, ugh, delicious conflict. I'm also juiced to see her bond with her mother in these extraordinary circumstances; and what this'll mean for her understanding of vampires and stuff. Also, if they make her go even darker, maybe vengeful, a bit of a vigilante--you will hear me screaming with joy from across the oceans--all I've ever wanted? Quite possibly, yes.
Once again, don't fuck this up, show. There is literally so much at your fingertips right now with this. *so anxious*
+ Lol, Esther was such a condescending jackass, it was hilarious. And surely on purpose?
Her and Finn should hook up or something. The "favored son", hunh? I see.
IN CONCLUSION.
If I were you, I would've skipped straight to here and been done with this horrible post.
What are we going to do for hiatus, people? *sobs*
P.S. THANK YOU to everyone who sent me delightful hearts on Galentines/Valentines. Much love. Much, much love.