2x19 -- A thoughtful recap that tries to skip the 'wtf' and the 'omg' ;)
2x19
This isn't going to be a super long post. I have quite a few things to do and this is the best time frame I'm going to get to fit it in :/ Onwards to what's beneath the cut!
Apart from a few main points in this episode, there actually isn't too much else I want to discuss. I'm going to attempt to paragraph everything more neatly, as my last post jumped a bit and I wasn't super clear. (I'm going to try and convey in writing what my erratic brain is thinking here better than last time!)
Klaus.
Our main villain we seem to have been given. Now, I've loved Matt Davis playing the host body of Klaus, but I'm not exactly what I'd call thrilled with the actual ~character. That is, so far, anyway. We haven't really seen Joseph Morgan strut his stuff quite yet, so I'm still hanging in the balance. However, what I've personally garnered from him so far (including Matt Davis' stint) is that he's a super old vampire with a fucked up sense of humor, keen to take over the world by breaking the sun and the moon curse. However, now that we know there is no curse, he's keen to take over the world by breaking the curse upon himself. At first I wasn't too sure what he wanted, and I'm still not completely on the playing field. He wants to break the curse to have lots of power and create his own mutant army to -- what -- take over the world? That's what I'm gathering from here, anyway. Everything kind of leads back to 'take over the world.' There's something unnerving about Klaus, no doubt about it, but he's not someone I'm completely worried/nervous/scared/wary of. Like, I kind if am, but not really? I was more ~all of the before, about Katherine when she first appeared on the scene. I know that her style is different to Klaus' and he's more about games and fucking with people's heads above most, but I'm still waiting to see that 'OMFG' factor.
Elijah (+ Klaus).
I was kind of maybe expecting this. Not completely, no way, and not to begin with either. There was however, some strange kind of vibe that I got from Elijah about Klaus, like he wasn't 'in his trusted circle' but it was like he regretted it? I thought maybe best friends or best friends who were like brothers or cousins or something similar to that, so although I was astounded I wasn't too surprised. Also, it makes sense that there would be a threesome before Damon/Elena/Stefan and Damon/Katherine/Stefan. The show likes to make parallels a lot, I've noticed. Also, that Elijah genuinely felt something for Katerina wasn't too big of a surprise either. (I kind of already shipped them before hand present-day, so it was more pleasing than anything.) I love Elijah's character. He's all smooth and cool-cucumber-ish and attractive in a way I hadn't really considered before.
Katherine (Katerina).
I think we all know that Katherine Pierce kind of has my heart. (And if you didn't, you do now!) I love her an insane amount, from her devious, manipulative ways to her sex appeal. And her boobs. I mean, I cried in 2x09 when we saw her go back in her head and find her family murdered, and I feel for her, I do -- even though she is the bitch everyone says she is. She's fucked up and complex, and I love that so much. What got me a lot in this episode, was seeing human Katerina before she was turned, talking with Klaus and Elijah in the 1400s. She was young and delightful with many, many ideas of love and its completion to life. Katherine was young when she was turned into a vampire, and I think a lot of people forget that. She wasn't a thirty year old woman with a lot of life experience. She gained that experience over time through difficult circumstances. What we've seen up until 2x19 was that Katherine had seemed to always have been a selfish, self-serving bitch. I don't think she was quite like that when she was a human. However, that could bring up the argument of 'can you be born bad?' I don't believe she was ~born bad, but I do believe that selfishness and self-preservation were in her a bit more than the average person. However, though, you can see it's a small part of her, when she questions Elijah about love and Klaus. Katherine was once a girl very much like that of Elena today, and I think we kind of have to keep that in mind. (Do I need to mention I thought was amazing while doing her little dance with the bourbon?)
Elena (+ Elijah).
I'm not including Damon and Stefan in this because wow, is that going to come later. I want to focus a bit more on Elena. Now, this girl has some guts. In a way, she is very much like Katherine. She has that streak in her that will allow her to push for what she wants, fight and strive for it no matter the difficulty. I'm generalizing the bloodlines here, but: I believe that the Petrova bloodline is a strong one in the way it passes down its traits. Now, we've only seen Katherine and Isobel so far in some depth, and they're both very selfish and strong women, very independent and slow to give their trust --- if they give it at all. I'd like to touch briefly on Katerina's father, who (of course, the shame would be enough reason I suppose to do it) took away her baby before she could even hold it. He seemed very hard and unforgiving, and I from that blood came Katherine and later on Isobel, and now, to Elena. However, by saying that and generalizing the bloodlines a super amount, I'd also like to point out the Gilberts. They seem softer and warmer than that of the Petrovas, and I think that is the combination that came to be in Elena. She is very warm and soft and caring and compassionate, but have no doubt that she'll do whatever she has to do if it comes down to it. Her ruthlessness comes not in her want to save herself, but to save others. I love that about Elena. I love that combination and how sometimes we see more of her Petrova side. I believe we saw it in this episode, no doubt about it. However, in saying that, I was very wary about her dealing with Elijah -- but knew he'd play it her way, at least for a while, due to their honor and trust code they both are fond of - and was amused by the parallels the show gave to Katherine/Elijah and Elena/Elijah. I'm not too sure if I want to ship the second one just yet... (I am a multi-shipper of the highest order, I would ship Katherine with a rock, okay. So for me to be like, uhmmm....)
What comes next has been quite war-ish on tumblr, with a lot of people getting quite shitty over the two and who was right and who was wrong and who deserved to be smacked in the face and all that jazz.
Before I get into anything, I'd just like to say this: No matter who I ship, no matter which character I love the most, I'm not one sided. If they did something wrong and yet I love them, I won't throw caution to the wind and take their side just because I like them. I'm not like that. Even if I hate a character but I believe in their actions within reason, I will stand by them one hundred percent. That said...
Stefan:
Okay. Now, I love Stefan. I really do. He's a charming, fantastic boyfriend who loves Elena dearly and. Well. I'm not trying to sell him to you! Now. A lot of people are like, 'OMFG, STEFAN I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR YOU ANYMORE. OMG.' I'm not one of them. I think sometimes people forget that Damon can be as much of a dick as he likes, but if Stefan is, holy shit. Elena is, also, his girlfriend. He is not okay with Damon being in love with her, that much is obvious. What he is okay with is the fact that Damon will try and keep her safe if he loves her, and for Stefan, that's better than having Damon rip out her throat. Now, as much as I love Stefan, and I don't condemn him or anything for saying what he said to Damon (because I believe Damon's said a lot of worse things to Stefan over the past 150 years) I think he was a little off with the Elena/Elijah thing. I mean, I know he trusts Elena explicitly, but I wouldn't have trusted her with Elijah quite as much as he did. I'm not saying he was totally okay with it, because we could see he wasn't, but I may have not been quite as okay with as he was... Now... leading onto:
Damon.
Between Katherine and Damon, you have my whole heart. I love the two of them, together and apart, but like I said above that won't come between what I find right or wrong, or how I would justify their actions. There's a lot of argument over whether Damon was in line with what he did and what he said. I say it wasn't, not fully, but I don't say it was, either. I'm kind of torn. Now, he was playing a the bitch for quite a bit of this episode, I'm not gonna lie. He spent the end of the last episode telling us that he was always going to choose Elena, and yet when Stefan is obviously concerned about her whereabouts, Damon is not. I found that a little odd. What I'd really like to get down to is the fight between he and Stefan, and what that lead to when Elijah and Elena appeared. (Fuck, I do like the way Elena and Elijah sound when you put the names together.) Now, we all know Damon is a little volatile, so what I don't see is why people seem so offended by the fact he would hit Stefan? Uhm, we all just saw Stefan say something would hurt Damon to the most extreme, so why is it now unjustified for Damon to retaliate with a punch to the face? I mean, Stefan knew he was pushing him there, I don't think he didn't know it was coming. From that, though, was what seems to have people up in the most frenzy about.
"A what?" "You can all go to hell."
So much drama from those lines. Now, let's just break it down a little bit. A lot of people think respect + Damon don't really go together, but I really think they do. As hard as it is with the way he acts to garner such respect, I think Damon wants is desperately (and I do think he has it in some cases.) However, he's currently hurt (by his brother, who has much as he fights with, he loves) and is now seeing Elena walk in with the man who was going to initially offer her up on a silver platter. (That they knew of, of course.) To see her trust this man, so easily and fully, is probably worse than anything Stefan could ever have said. Damon, as much as he does bad things, wants Elena to trust him desperately, and he has done things to try and prove that, also. I understand his anger fully. I understand why he's so mad that Elena would trust Elijah over him, and that's why I don't think he's being a bitch right there. I don't think he was being a bitch right there at all. He was hurt, very, very hurt, and was responding to it the best way he knew how. Angrily.
Also, the Andie thing? I've said before I'm not okay with how the show treats women sometimes. (In general they're quite good, no doubt! But when it comes to Damon there's a bit of glossing.) It was a little sad when he went to his room to find Andie in her underwear, wanting to 'be there for him.' I know she meant it more than just sexually, but that's how it came across to start with for me. It's like Damon can't get that bit of comfort he needs to help him ~be better. Andie says she wants to help him, but I honestly don't know sometimes if it's part of her compulsion, because let's face it. A well raised and intelligent woman like Andie Star would not be willing to offer herself up as a comforting, sexual chew toy. It saddens me to see her treated like that, and I'm not okay with Damon treating her like that. However, if you look closely at his face as she leaves, and what he's just said, he doesn't want to hurt her. He doesn't want to kill her. When she goes, he looks over his shoulder and he looks so upset and broken it's horrifically saddening.
I know a lot of people won't agree with me on this, especially about Damon, but -- there you have it!
This isn't going to be a super long post. I have quite a few things to do and this is the best time frame I'm going to get to fit it in :/ Onwards to what's beneath the cut!
Apart from a few main points in this episode, there actually isn't too much else I want to discuss. I'm going to attempt to paragraph everything more neatly, as my last post jumped a bit and I wasn't super clear. (I'm going to try and convey in writing what my erratic brain is thinking here better than last time!)
Klaus.
Our main villain we seem to have been given. Now, I've loved Matt Davis playing the host body of Klaus, but I'm not exactly what I'd call thrilled with the actual ~character. That is, so far, anyway. We haven't really seen Joseph Morgan strut his stuff quite yet, so I'm still hanging in the balance. However, what I've personally garnered from him so far (including Matt Davis' stint) is that he's a super old vampire with a fucked up sense of humor, keen to take over the world by breaking the sun and the moon curse. However, now that we know there is no curse, he's keen to take over the world by breaking the curse upon himself. At first I wasn't too sure what he wanted, and I'm still not completely on the playing field. He wants to break the curse to have lots of power and create his own mutant army to -- what -- take over the world? That's what I'm gathering from here, anyway. Everything kind of leads back to 'take over the world.' There's something unnerving about Klaus, no doubt about it, but he's not someone I'm completely worried/nervous/scared/wary of. Like, I kind if am, but not really? I was more ~all of the before, about Katherine when she first appeared on the scene. I know that her style is different to Klaus' and he's more about games and fucking with people's heads above most, but I'm still waiting to see that 'OMFG' factor.
Elijah (+ Klaus).
I was kind of maybe expecting this. Not completely, no way, and not to begin with either. There was however, some strange kind of vibe that I got from Elijah about Klaus, like he wasn't 'in his trusted circle' but it was like he regretted it? I thought maybe best friends or best friends who were like brothers or cousins or something similar to that, so although I was astounded I wasn't too surprised. Also, it makes sense that there would be a threesome before Damon/Elena/Stefan and Damon/Katherine/Stefan. The show likes to make parallels a lot, I've noticed. Also, that Elijah genuinely felt something for Katerina wasn't too big of a surprise either. (I kind of already shipped them before hand present-day, so it was more pleasing than anything.) I love Elijah's character. He's all smooth and cool-cucumber-ish and attractive in a way I hadn't really considered before.
Katherine (Katerina).
I think we all know that Katherine Pierce kind of has my heart. (And if you didn't, you do now!) I love her an insane amount, from her devious, manipulative ways to her sex appeal. And her boobs. I mean, I cried in 2x09 when we saw her go back in her head and find her family murdered, and I feel for her, I do -- even though she is the bitch everyone says she is. She's fucked up and complex, and I love that so much. What got me a lot in this episode, was seeing human Katerina before she was turned, talking with Klaus and Elijah in the 1400s. She was young and delightful with many, many ideas of love and its completion to life. Katherine was young when she was turned into a vampire, and I think a lot of people forget that. She wasn't a thirty year old woman with a lot of life experience. She gained that experience over time through difficult circumstances. What we've seen up until 2x19 was that Katherine had seemed to always have been a selfish, self-serving bitch. I don't think she was quite like that when she was a human. However, that could bring up the argument of 'can you be born bad?' I don't believe she was ~born bad, but I do believe that selfishness and self-preservation were in her a bit more than the average person. However, though, you can see it's a small part of her, when she questions Elijah about love and Klaus. Katherine was once a girl very much like that of Elena today, and I think we kind of have to keep that in mind. (Do I need to mention I thought was amazing while doing her little dance with the bourbon?)
Elena (+ Elijah).
I'm not including Damon and Stefan in this because wow, is that going to come later. I want to focus a bit more on Elena. Now, this girl has some guts. In a way, she is very much like Katherine. She has that streak in her that will allow her to push for what she wants, fight and strive for it no matter the difficulty. I'm generalizing the bloodlines here, but: I believe that the Petrova bloodline is a strong one in the way it passes down its traits. Now, we've only seen Katherine and Isobel so far in some depth, and they're both very selfish and strong women, very independent and slow to give their trust --- if they give it at all. I'd like to touch briefly on Katerina's father, who (of course, the shame would be enough reason I suppose to do it) took away her baby before she could even hold it. He seemed very hard and unforgiving, and I from that blood came Katherine and later on Isobel, and now, to Elena. However, by saying that and generalizing the bloodlines a super amount, I'd also like to point out the Gilberts. They seem softer and warmer than that of the Petrovas, and I think that is the combination that came to be in Elena. She is very warm and soft and caring and compassionate, but have no doubt that she'll do whatever she has to do if it comes down to it. Her ruthlessness comes not in her want to save herself, but to save others. I love that about Elena. I love that combination and how sometimes we see more of her Petrova side. I believe we saw it in this episode, no doubt about it. However, in saying that, I was very wary about her dealing with Elijah -- but knew he'd play it her way, at least for a while, due to their honor and trust code they both are fond of - and was amused by the parallels the show gave to Katherine/Elijah and Elena/Elijah. I'm not too sure if I want to ship the second one just yet... (I am a multi-shipper of the highest order, I would ship Katherine with a rock, okay. So for me to be like, uhmmm....)
What comes next has been quite war-ish on tumblr, with a lot of people getting quite shitty over the two and who was right and who was wrong and who deserved to be smacked in the face and all that jazz.
Before I get into anything, I'd just like to say this: No matter who I ship, no matter which character I love the most, I'm not one sided. If they did something wrong and yet I love them, I won't throw caution to the wind and take their side just because I like them. I'm not like that. Even if I hate a character but I believe in their actions within reason, I will stand by them one hundred percent. That said...
Stefan:
Okay. Now, I love Stefan. I really do. He's a charming, fantastic boyfriend who loves Elena dearly and. Well. I'm not trying to sell him to you! Now. A lot of people are like, 'OMFG, STEFAN I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR YOU ANYMORE. OMG.' I'm not one of them. I think sometimes people forget that Damon can be as much of a dick as he likes, but if Stefan is, holy shit. Elena is, also, his girlfriend. He is not okay with Damon being in love with her, that much is obvious. What he is okay with is the fact that Damon will try and keep her safe if he loves her, and for Stefan, that's better than having Damon rip out her throat. Now, as much as I love Stefan, and I don't condemn him or anything for saying what he said to Damon (because I believe Damon's said a lot of worse things to Stefan over the past 150 years) I think he was a little off with the Elena/Elijah thing. I mean, I know he trusts Elena explicitly, but I wouldn't have trusted her with Elijah quite as much as he did. I'm not saying he was totally okay with it, because we could see he wasn't, but I may have not been quite as okay with as he was... Now... leading onto:
Damon.
Between Katherine and Damon, you have my whole heart. I love the two of them, together and apart, but like I said above that won't come between what I find right or wrong, or how I would justify their actions. There's a lot of argument over whether Damon was in line with what he did and what he said. I say it wasn't, not fully, but I don't say it was, either. I'm kind of torn. Now, he was playing a the bitch for quite a bit of this episode, I'm not gonna lie. He spent the end of the last episode telling us that he was always going to choose Elena, and yet when Stefan is obviously concerned about her whereabouts, Damon is not. I found that a little odd. What I'd really like to get down to is the fight between he and Stefan, and what that lead to when Elijah and Elena appeared. (Fuck, I do like the way Elena and Elijah sound when you put the names together.) Now, we all know Damon is a little volatile, so what I don't see is why people seem so offended by the fact he would hit Stefan? Uhm, we all just saw Stefan say something would hurt Damon to the most extreme, so why is it now unjustified for Damon to retaliate with a punch to the face? I mean, Stefan knew he was pushing him there, I don't think he didn't know it was coming. From that, though, was what seems to have people up in the most frenzy about.
"A what?" "You can all go to hell."
So much drama from those lines. Now, let's just break it down a little bit. A lot of people think respect + Damon don't really go together, but I really think they do. As hard as it is with the way he acts to garner such respect, I think Damon wants is desperately (and I do think he has it in some cases.) However, he's currently hurt (by his brother, who has much as he fights with, he loves) and is now seeing Elena walk in with the man who was going to initially offer her up on a silver platter. (That they knew of, of course.) To see her trust this man, so easily and fully, is probably worse than anything Stefan could ever have said. Damon, as much as he does bad things, wants Elena to trust him desperately, and he has done things to try and prove that, also. I understand his anger fully. I understand why he's so mad that Elena would trust Elijah over him, and that's why I don't think he's being a bitch right there. I don't think he was being a bitch right there at all. He was hurt, very, very hurt, and was responding to it the best way he knew how. Angrily.
Also, the Andie thing? I've said before I'm not okay with how the show treats women sometimes. (In general they're quite good, no doubt! But when it comes to Damon there's a bit of glossing.) It was a little sad when he went to his room to find Andie in her underwear, wanting to 'be there for him.' I know she meant it more than just sexually, but that's how it came across to start with for me. It's like Damon can't get that bit of comfort he needs to help him ~be better. Andie says she wants to help him, but I honestly don't know sometimes if it's part of her compulsion, because let's face it. A well raised and intelligent woman like Andie Star would not be willing to offer herself up as a comforting, sexual chew toy. It saddens me to see her treated like that, and I'm not okay with Damon treating her like that. However, if you look closely at his face as she leaves, and what he's just said, he doesn't want to hurt her. He doesn't want to kill her. When she goes, he looks over his shoulder and he looks so upset and broken it's horrifically saddening.
I know a lot of people won't agree with me on this, especially about Damon, but -- there you have it!