Thoughts on Television (mostly jumbled thoughts)
I have too much free time today and too many thoughts in my brain about too many shows. So you all get word vomit on recently aired shows I watch. Spoilers for pretty much everything up to date, though a couple I’m an episode behind, but warnings now.
Please, please tell me what you all are thinking about these shows too. I love to hear other people’s thoughts.
+Arrow
Birds of Prey: It needed more Diggle and Felicity, but other than that I pretty much loved the episode and its focus on the female characters. Oliver was there, he played an important role, but he was secondary, a touch stone to connect the different characters. This week, it was not about Oliver’s story. And the parts that were, mostly it was just him showing that he’s a crappy mentor, once to Helena and now to Roy. But he took responsibility in regards to Helena, and maybe that means he’s learning, and he’ll eventually realize that he’s heading down the same path with Roy. Though really, I don’t think he’ll ever make a goodmentor. He’s far too damaged for that. It’s why his relationship with Diggle works, he doesn’t need to be mentored (he’s older than Oliver, he saw bad things in the world long before Oliver did, he knows what it means to be soldier fighting for what’s right and also for survival, he knows the cost of killing someone else) and he’s quite capable of telling Oliver he doesn’t know best. They’re equals and that’s important. This is also what works with Sara in a working sense and Felicity to a degree, but he’s never attempted to be a mentor to any of them, because he never needed to be. (Though if they could work on Felicity’s self-defense more, or at least mention that they were, that would be nice. I like to imagine Diggle, and now Sara, teach her when they have time off in the Arrow Cave. But that’s all it is imagining because the show hasn’t really given me anything to work with.)
I like that they showed Helena/The Huntress as capable and downright terrifying in what she was willing and capable of doing and then somehow turned it around to make it (most likely) be the beginning of her trying to put the past behind her and become a better person, become the superhero she’s supposed to be. Or Anti-hero, I haven’t actually read the comics so my knowledge is limited, though I admit the team up of three awesome lady superheroes sounds like something I would enjoy. I also liked that she felt no different after father died, that she didn’t feel vindicated or happy, she just felt numb. I always like the realness when shows go there, when they explore what the characters feel, and how often it’s more empty than when they had the mission of killing the person that had caused all their pain. And here there’s also the added layer of her not having been the one who killed him and I’m curious if as a character, if she wonders if she would feel different if she had been the one to do it. I liked her talk with Laurel, where Laurel was trying to appeal to her humanity because she understood what it was like to have someone she loved die, and then Sara using the complete opposite approach, violence.
I loved everything about the Laurel and Sara interactions, when they knew they were dealing with each other and when Laurel was out of the loop. (And apparently I have way less issues with Laurel not recognizing her as her sister than most. I mean, does anyone expect their sister to be a vigilante? I wouldn’t be looking for signs of that. And the show at least had Laurel question why she was supposed to be more important than everyone else in the building, I feel like that the type of thing that can be the first step into figuring these thing out. Also, it’s a superhero show. If glasses fooled everyone in every Superman universe, I don’t know how an actual mask, wig, and voice distorter wouldn’t do the same.) I liked that we see them developing a new relationship, exploring who they are now and how it relates to their own relationship, how Laurel wanted to prove to her sister that she could be strong like her, because she envied that strength. And then Laurel convincing the BC (not knowing, assumingly, that it’s her sister) that killing Helena wasn’t the right thing to do, without knowing everything the audience does (Sara doesn’t want to be a killer anymore, she wants to be better and stronger than that, she wants to be someone her family can be proud of and not scared of.) and she’s the one that stops her. Not Oliver. And that’s important. This show for all its wonderful female characters, rarely has them interacting and actually developing relationships with each other.
I also loved the little things with Laurel, her going to two meetings a day because she doesn’t know how to handle the world outside. How excited she was to get her job back, only to find out that it was all a sham, that she was being used and how close she came to falling off that wagon (and if she was alone she probably would have), and how at the end she turned around and she used it to her advantage. She got herself her job back using blackmail and it was such a wonderful moment. Oliver (and Tommy) had an image of perfect Laurel, but that Laurel never existed. She came with flaws and darkness crept in over time (so much trauma, her addiction, her mother’s abandonment, Tommy (and Sara, though it wasn’t permanent) dying, it made her into who she is now. All she can try to be is the person she wants to be and thinks is the best. She wants to be strong. She wants to be a lawyer who does good in the world. She wants to be happy. And she’ll do whatever it takes to get there.
Thea’s screen time was much less than the rest, but just as important in a lot of ways. It showed her strengths and weaknesses, showed who she was, and explored in a tip of the iceberg kind of way, how all of this vigilante related business is affecting her and her world. I love that she wouldn’t let Roy break up with her and he just didn’t know what to do with that that (I like Roy the best when he’s being bossed around by Thea and also Sin, but she seems to have disappeared for the moment or maybe forever, but hopefully not. I don’t care what happens between Thea and Roy; I’d love for those two to be besties.) and that she recognize it for what it is. I’ve wanted to see them explore Thea’s reaction to Roy’s behavior more and I still haven’t gotten that, BUT they’ve always made it clear that she knows something is going on, that she’s upset he isn’t telling her what’s going on, that she wants to help. Roy is the object in the way of that and now Oliver as well. I also love that she recognized that Roy making out with the other girl was him pushing her away even further, but it didn’t stop it from hurting or affecting her. She’s nineteen and stronger than most because of the hell life has put her through in all directions, but she’s still nineteen and he bought her a bracelet and told her he loved her and then he did this. She would have a reaction to it, she should have a reaction to it. She is not a carbon copy of her mother, able to hide her feelings so easily. Not yet at least. And her speech to Oliver about all the secrets and the lies and how she was just so tired of it all, was made so much more heartbreaking when she said that Oliver was the only one not lying to her and therefore pretty much the only one she didn’t think was going to break her heart any more than it was already broken. And it was just so wrong, because for all of Oliver’s talk about Moria and her secrets and his condemnation of her, he is so alike her in so many ways. They just got to where they are in such different ways. And it’s going to make it all so much more worse when the truths that they’ve been keeping from her start coming out. AND I WANT TO SEE IT ALL. I WANT HER TO SCREAM AND YELL AND SPIRAL OUT LIKE SHE DID IN SEASON ONE (ONLY WORSE). I WANT HER TO HATE HER MOTHER AND OLVER, TO DISOWN THEM. I WANT HER TO CURL UP AGAINST TOMMY’S HEADSTONE AND BEG HIM TO TELL HER IT WOULD ALL BE OKAY. I WANT IT ALL. (Have I mentioned that Thea is one of my favorite characters and that this season hasn’t given me nearly enough meaty stuff for her, not since the beginning really?)
My only grumble, would probably again be the lack of Felicity. (Diggle just had an episode centered on him, and since this episode was so centered around the female characters, I minded less this time for him. This time.) I feel like they could have worked her perfectly worked her into the Oracle spot of the team, as that’s the role she fills most of the time anyways to my knowledge (again never read the comics). Sara went off on her own to save Laurel, wouldn’t it have been awesome to see a scene with her and Felicity where she talks about needing to save her family, that she can’t just sit there, and asking for Felicity’s help? Felicity being the voice in her ear as she tried to find a way in and out of the building with Laurel, her helping Sara and Detective Lance kidnap Helena’s father to save Laurel, possibly going against what Oliver wants. It didn’t need to be anything huge. Felicity is mostly a behind the scenes player, but we could have gotten little moments, even of Helena commenting on Felicity helping her, bringing the Birds of Prey thing full circle. All of them aware of each other. But Felicity did have some good moments and she was there and helpful and had some funny lines and good moments, so I guess I’ll forgive them. But still, they totally missed a great opportunity.
+HIMYM
Okay, I’m going to start out by saying by large, I’m usually never satisfied by series finales. They tend to wrap things up into little bows and put everything together and it always feels like I’m watching the end of something and not like I’m watching an episode of a show I’ve been watching for years, even though all the same characters are there. There are a few exceptions, the FRIENDS finale is one of my favorite because they worked their way up to pretty much everything that happened, they didn’t really spring too much of it on the viewers, and everyone had a chance to shine in different ways. Monk is another one, that while it definitely did wrap everything up when it came to Trudy’s murder for Monk, it only made sense that that’s how they ended the series. So much of Monk was about her murder, about Monk’s inability to solve the one case that meant the most to him, there wasn’t really another way for it to end imo. But for the most part, even with shows I would list as my favorites, their finale episodes didn’t work for me in a way that left me feeling completely satisfied and happy. I guess that in a lot of ways I’m more of a season finale, cliff hanger, wait five months to speculate what will happen kind of girl, than a series finale, it’s all over and look at where they ended up kind of girl. To each their own I suppose. Either way, I’ll admit, I might be overly critical when it comes to finales and it might be impacting the way I watched/enjoyed/judged this one.
The HIMYM finale, it really just left me feeling confused about how I felt about it, but I know it definitely wasn’t satisfied. I can’t say I minded that Ted and Robin eventually ended up together, I read a thing about it somewhere that explained it wonderfully, and about the two of them were all about timing and wanting different things and how they each moved on to get those things, (Ted fell in love with Tracy and had children and the life he had always imagined. Robin got the career she had always dreamed and wanted and lived the life she wanted.) but that they always stayed special to one another and eventually they found their way back to each other. In so many ways it makes sense, including the ending they filmed way back with the kids and how the story wasn’t really about their mother. (Kudos for keeping that under wraps to the producers, writers, Lyndsy and her fake brother I do can’t remember the name of, and anyone else who may have known.) But I guess, I just feel…cheated. Like if they knew this was always where they were headed, then it somehow makes my investment in Barney and Robin’s relationship, in the Mother, in the whole wedding weekend, seem like it wasn’t worth my time. I mean we went from Barney and Robin’s wedding to them being divorced in the first half of the episode. I mean, I know there were large time jumps, but still. They had three years and then it ended. They based the final season around a wedding of a couple that they knew were never going to last. I just. I don’t know what to do with that. On top of that, they made me like the mother, they had all these wonderful moments (in the finale as well) and I thought Ted had finally met the love of his life, that this was his happy ending, this was him finally being proven right in his eternal optimism that love was just around the corner. But that seems lessened by the fact that so many years later, he was still just as in love with Robin as he had always been. And I know that doesn’t take away the love he felt for Tracey, I know that’s not how it works, it just…like I said, the only way I can explain it is that I feel cheated. Like the show should have been called How I Met Your Step Mother instead. Also, I feel like they lacked giving us anything for Lily outside of her family, which seemed unfair considering they showed us Marshall becoming a judge.
There were some things I did like. Barney meeting his daughter, NPH just killed that scene, with the speech he had mocked before. You could so easily see her becoming the most important thing to him in the world just as he looked at her. And I loved them showing him being an active dad, falling asleep at the table, and suddenly becoming one of them saying that they had to be home by 9:45. I loved pretty much everything at the beginning when the gang is saying goodbye, Lily and it being too real and the ET goodbye, the epic high five that ended up injuring them both, and of course him meeting Tracey. Their little talk under the umbrella, where they realized how many times they did or could have crossed paths, and how they had both shared the umbrella that they were now standing under. It was just the perfect meet cute. And I did love that Robin ended up with her dream job, because she deserved it. I honestly can’t remember if that was something set up before this season or just for the finale, but either way it made me happy.
+NCIS: LA
I don’t have any general thoughts, just mostly Kensi thoughts. She’s my favorite, I’m biased and I will admit it. But I have to say, I love what they did writing her own story to film ahead of time because of Daniela’s pregnancy. I love that it allowed her to have her own storyline completely separate from the rest of the team, because that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.
And I so called the Jack thing but I was still so excited anyways when it was revealed. I just love it. But I also love Kensi’s reaction to seeing him again, to hearing his story. Because you can see it breaking her. All these years she’s blamed herself for not being able to reach him, to help him, for his disappearance. She’s hated herself for it and hadn’t gotten passed it, not all the way. And here he is telling the tale of how he figured it out for himself, how he had found someone to love, carved out a life for himself and become someone softer. Kensi had the complete opposite reaction, everything in her life after him had made her into someone harder. She doesn’t know how to be soft anymore, not really. And that started when her father died, yes, but it was so amplified when Jack disappeared on Christmas morning all those years ago and it only got worse as time went by. And it was all so interesting to see it play out, to see it her face and her eyes, and her longing for the man she once knew, who some part of her still loved (couldn’t stop loving, because how do you stop loving a ghost?). Daniela’s acting was just so perfect.
I’m so excited for tonight’s episode, you don’t even know. I love Kensi centric episodes and I love that we’ll finally get to see the team coming to her rescue. Kensi usually defeats any idea of her being the damsel in distress (she’s usually the one causing your distress), but still, the closest we’ve seen to this was in B, Kensi and that was still mostly at the end. That was Kensi’s mission and I’m not unconvinced that Sam wasn’t there to make sure she didn’t kill anyone.
+Person of Interest
Mostly I just want to talk about Root because I love her, ridiculous amounts and it makes me sad anytime I see that others don’t feel the same. But it was inevitable for me, she’s played by Amy Acker, she’s a little unhinged, she’s a villain turned anit-hero, damaged and using a computer program to try to understand humanity. All of these things lead to favorites.
The episode / was so wonderfully done. So full of Root and I loved every minute of it, but the scene with her and Harold where they talk about the machine and the janitor and how he thinks he’s irrelevant to him. Holy crap was everything about that scene amazing. Where she shows him the picture of the man and his dead friends and she tells him that this man he’s fighting so hard to protect believes in a concept of a higher being, a reason for everything, and the day that his friends died there was a reason too. Someone wanted to get rich and Root was the one hired to make it happen. She asks him how he managed to break the machine to make it care so much about people, because she isn’t like him, or it, or John or any of the rest of them, she doesn’t see the good in people, she can only see the bad. Harold so often forgets that the first thing we find out about who Root really was, was that her friend was abducted by a police man and she watched as a woman she trusted helped cover it up. That is what she sees when she looks in the world, she sees bad code, herself included. She’s learning to care, to not to kill, through a machine. The question she doesn’t ask is how badly is she broken? And then Harold offers to help show her the way, like he did the machine, and she hates him for that. You can see it in her eyes. She hates that he thinks she doesn’t care about anyone or anything, because she cares about him. She cares what happens to the machine and the people it contacts. Root knows what will happen if this other machine goes online, knows she and Harold and Shaw and John (though I think she could care less about John, he’s far more expendable to her) will all die. They will be the first ones on the list and mostly likely they won’t make it out alive. She tells him this in anger, because no matter what she does, he doesn’t seem to understand.
Root believes in the machine and she believes in him. She just wants him to believe in her back.
+Pretty Little Liars
I was kind of disappointed by the finale, it just seemed like too much talking and not enough action. It had some lovely moments, like Spencer learning she didn’t have anything to do with Ali’s disappearance or the girl in the grave, and I also loved that Ali strung that out, that she made Spencer sit there and feel the guilt of something she didn’t do until she was ready to give her relief. It’s such a wonderful reminder of who Ali is and that two years later and all her experiences, she is still the girl she always was (at least in some ways). And that girl wasn’t very nice. Ali talking about being buried alive by her mother was so well done, Sasha really is an awesome actress, I do look forward to seeing more of her next season. I also enjoyed Hannah grabbing the gun and all of the girls demanding that the faceless guy (it looked like a guy) to take off his mask. They were all powerful in that moment, wanting it to be over, wanting to finally get what they deserved; an ending to all of this. Of course they didn’t, that’s the curse of A, it never really ends. Also the death of Mrs. DiLarentis is super interesting to me (and also sad because I love Andrea Parker) because it adds some new levels. And it looked like she was getting buried where she had buried her daughter, there seemed like some sort of poetry in that. (Katherine Pierce, get out of my head with your death and poetry talk.)
I’m sadly wondering if Jason will end up being the person or one of the people involved in what happened, just because I can’t see Ali’s mom covering up for anyone else. (Maybe her father but that’s it, but even then I think she would have been far more likely to turn him in.) Jason was a mess, addicted and strung out, she would have seen it as an accident, she would have been trying to protect the only child she has left. It makes sense in a lot of ways. It also explains why there seems to be a distance between them. But I really like Jason’s character, he’s right below Caleb on my list of favorite male characters, so I don’t want him to be a bad guy. Why couldn’t it just have been Ezra? Speaking of….I LOVED everything they did with him, even if they copped out and had him writing a book, they still deconstructed his character and showed that he was not the handsome prince waiting for Aria at the end of her fairy tale, instead he had helped trap her in the tower, had ignored her pleas for help. So I really, really, don’t want them to try to…unvillianize him just because he got shot. I mean, let’s not forget, he followed them there. He was still being a creeper. That said, I do understand Aria’s reaction, she did love Ezra, it was never a game to her or a plan, it was just love. So to see him there and think he was dying, I would have been crying if I was her too. It’s an instinct, a reaction based on what is happening in the now, not something else. I just don’t want the show to make it into more than that. But then, the show never gave me my Spencer-Toby “I hate you for what you put me through. You may have done this to protect me, but it’s over now. We’re over now,” scenes like I wanted them too. I have to take the scraps of her getting mad at him for not calling her back and her reminding him that she thought he was dead once and the non-romantic look on her face as they curled up on the couch in the mid-season finale. Seriously, if I had my way all the girls would get new significant others (except maybe Hanna because I like her and Caleb and so far Travis has been cute, but other than that).
Also, the Noir episode, AMAZING. Everything about it was amazing. Any show wanting to do something like that should look at PLL as an example. So much character exploration for Spencer and done in such a wonderfully Noir way, all the shots and the costumes and the acting. Just everything.
+Psych
Okay, so you already heard me complain about series finales but there are exceptions. Psych’s finale is mostly an exception. Yes, it wrapped things up, but it didn’t change the fundamentals and it was mostly based around the Gus and Shawn friendship and really, that’s all I could ask for in a Psych finale. For me, the story has always been about those two, as important as the other characters are, so the finale should be about them too. I loved that they stayed in character with Shawn, that he didn’t know how to do goodbyes, so he found a way around them. He made tapes instead. His Gus tape made me all teary-eyed, when he apologized for standing in the way of the life Gus deserved and should have had, that he didn’t know how to say goodbye to him. And then his tape to Lassie where he talked about Jules and how he knew how much she meant to both of them and then he wanted to admit the truth, to tell him he was right that he was a fraud, and Lassie stopped it before he could and broke it so he would never be tempted to watch it and find out for sure. Shows how much our Lassie and Shawn and their relationship has all grown. And the ending, where Gus showed up at the crime scene, yelled at Shawn for leaving like that and then said this was where he wanted to be, that solving crimes with Shawn was who he wanted to be. It was just perfect. As was Shawn’s proposal to Jules (I could have lived without it admittedly, but it was nice for all the fans who loved them and shipped them much harder than I did) and how she ended up saying yes to both him and Gus. It was perfect and gave me Boy Meets World flashbacks. You can’t love one without loving the other, just in different ways, and you can’t have one without having the other. Shawn and Gus are a package deal, it’s been that way since they were young and it’s not going to suddenly change now.
I also liked that a lot of it was just a normal episode, spiced up by the fact that Shawn was leaving and didn’t know how to tell his loved ones. The creator said that shared my dislike of series finales, so I think that helped them actually create a better one. Lots of things were wrapped up, others weren’t (we never saw Henry’s video, we don’t know what he’s doing now, we don’t know how Shawn and Gus will fair in SF, etc.) and that’s how I like it.
+The Good Wife
Loved the last to episodes. Loved the season really, but especially the last two. I knew something big happened in the one but Will’s death still surprised me and hit me harder than I expected. I always liked his character but he’s never been on my favorites list. (Cary as ever remains my favorite male character.) But it was just SO well done and everyone’s reaction to it, Kalinda breaking down might have been what did it for me. Kalinda doesn’t break down, it’s not in her nature, so you know something is terribly wrong if she crying.
And then the next episode of them all dealing with the aftermath in the next few hours. So well done and heart touching and breaking and everyone got there moment to shine. My favorites were surprisingly David’s, Cary’s and Kalinda’s. David’s because you never expected it of him and he let himself cry but then he knew he had to go back to business, but he tried, he really tried to do it as respectfully as he could, apologizing to Diane and Alicia. And then Cary’s moment of just utter anger. He was never close with Will, but I think the death of someone who had been so constant, who he respected, who he compared himself to so many time (“We are the new Will and Diane”) would definitely have affected him a lot, especially so soon after it happened. So him telling the other callous lawyer to sit the hell down. Well, it was hot and also so wonderfully acted. Just the whole scene. And Kalinda, I loved watching her deal with her grief by investigating. That’s what she does, it’s who she is, Will had told her that just hours before and she’s using it to push passed this pain and she does. And the scene with her and the boy who killed Will (yes, he’s an adult but there he is most definitely a boy) was so perfectly in character and so perfectly done. It was a horrible thing to do in so many ways. His character was not stable, he didn’t mean to kill Will, he had tried over and over to kill himself in the Court room after it happened and was on suicide watch. But this is Kalinda type justice, this is her offering him relief, to make all this go away, and then pulling the belt back and telling him no. He just has to live with what he had done. I’ve seen several places where they didn’t get the scene and I just-have they not been watching Kalinda all these years? Did they tune her out? Everything about that scene made sense to me on so many levels. Even people less hard than Kalinda would do something like that if they had the opportunity too, even in the exact same situation where you actually have a sympathetic murderer. Alicia’s scenes were of course wonderfully done as well, the one with her daughter standing out the most to me, as they argued (respectfully) about their beliefs in God and his part in all of this. And I just love how the show managed it, they didn’t put down either one’s belief, there was nothing wrong with not believing in God and there was nothing wrong in believing in one. There was just two different sides, trying to make sense of what happened and why it happened and if it meant anything at all.
+The Originals
I’m behind by an episode, but while I was dreading watching the episode where Rebekah left (I was terrified they killed her off), I actually quite loved it. It show cased all the fucked up-ness that is the Original Family, Klaus and his hatred of those he loves and his outlook to the world, it showed Rebekah so desperately tired of this life, of living in her family’s shadow. And it showcased that no matter how abusive their relationship was, Rebekah had always been on Klaus’s side. She stood against him twice in her life and she hated herself for it both times. She didn’t know how to live without him. But she wasn’t going down without a fight, she wasn’t going to let Klaus railroad her and not accept his part of the blame. Because he was to blame, Klaus was incapable of letting Rebekah be happy with anyone but him. He was incapable of being anything but toxic to her. All of the flashbacks were wonderful, the idea that even as a human, Rebekah’s loyalty was so strong, she was willing to not just stand up to their father for Niklaus when none of the others did, but willing to kill him to end the abuse. It shows something about her, a loyalty that Klaus has long sense forgotten.
And while I’m terribly sad Rebekah’s gone (I LOVE Rebekah!), to see her riding off into the sunset, finally able to live her life as she chooses, no looking over her shoulder, no one else making decisions for her, no one to abuse her; there could be no better ending than that. That episode could have been the series finale for me and I would have been happy.
+The Vampire Diaries
While You Were Sleeping was a wonderful Elena episode. I loved her reaction to what happened, the hallucinations of what Katherine had done in her body, her anger over no one noticing, her fear of Katherine winning, of her really turning into a monster. It was all done so perfectly and Nina did such an amazing job. I also like that we got to see the hallucinations and effects of the hybrid poison, because it’s such an interesting concept to me. That not only does a werewolf bite kill a vampire but it destroys them inside out before they die. I also really loved all the Caroline and Caroline/Stefan stuff we got. We got to see Caroline stand on her own, we got to see her taking a stand against hundreds (maybe) of Travelers, and a glimpse at that moral compass disappearing even further. Caroline, like most people in their little group, will always choose one of her own over everyone else. And I loved the contrast between her holding the knife to Sloan’s throat compared to what happened in the next episode. Because I fully believe she would have slit Sloan’s throat in that moment if she didn’t stop hurting her friend, just like she drove that knife into the witch’s heart last season, but premeditated murder is not something that Caroline is capable of yet and possibly never will be. And it’s a very interesting dynamic to watch.
Rescue Me bored me on a lot of levels that didn’t involve Caroline or Bonnie. I’ll admit to bias, but I love Elena as well, and with the exception to the scenes with Jeremy which I really loved, I found it boring rehashing things with Damon that seemed to have already played out. In one case it was the teacher talking about Jeremy not him, but it was such a lovely parallel to season one when Jenna was the one being called in and basically called a failure and I loved it. Elena has had so much happen to her, is only nineteen, there is no reason she should be any good at parenting Jeremy. But I can only imagine how much of a failure it made her feel, another family member slowly falling out of grasp. I also loved her phone call to Bonnie, they were adorable, and just talking like friends do. I miss scenes like that happening regularly.
Poor, poor Bonnie. Not only is she insecure about what’s happening with Jeremy (she and gladly the show has not forgotten what happened with Anna), she has to deal with finding out she had been played by Liv and her brother, and then the Travelers mass suicide and used her basically to get their leader back. All that pain she endured and she was alone. She’s always been alone in this, she said that so long ago, but it’s still true.
My favorite scenes were all Caroline, I’ll admit to the bias. I love all my girls, but Caroline is my favorite, and I loved her actively searching out for a person to murder but her inability to say the words. I quite liked her interactions with Enzo, and I liked them even more when they revealed that he had ulterior motives himself, and he had been to a degree playing her the whole time. It made it more interesting and less likely that it’s going to become a ship. I’ve seen talk of it and I think they have good chemistry but I just never got that vibe watching the episode and when he revealed that a) she reminded him of the woman he loved and then b) that he had made a deal of his own to find her (though how old would she be now unless she was a vampire? I’m confused about that bit, chances are she is married and happy and has kids, Enzo. You know nothing.) and for me it dashed any thoughts of them leaning in that direction. But I still enjoyed most of their scenes. Her reminding him that she was a good vampire that didn’t kill people willy-nilly (“I’m sorry is this supposed to be easy?”), him comparing her to a soldier and her denying that’s what she is (she’s been at war since she was sixteen, she just didn’t know it and hasn’t been able to accept it since she found out), him listening in with her at the hospital as she cried out for Stefan to say something, and them at the dinner. I liked his little perky angel of death line. It’s kind of accurate. And then all of her scenes with Stefan’s doppelganger. Oh, they were just perfect. She tried so hard to be okay with it, she had her hands around his throat and then he sat up, and everything changed. I love that she compelled him to trust her, that he was the most important person in the world to her (true on so many levels in that moment, because he looked like Stefan and right now she is clinging to her relationship with Stefan in the wake of everything that has been happening, because him and his death means Stefan will live and that makes him important, because killing him is something she will never be able to forget and that makes him selfishly important), and that it won’t hurt. And then she snaps Enzo’s neck. I love it. She never claimed to trust him and she didn’t. Instead she takes Tom to the dinner and she compels him to tell her his life story because she’s looking for something to tell her this is okay, that he deserves to die, that he did something in his life to make him just as much a monster as she is. And the scene where she imagines him choking and pulling the water away, so perfect. So very perfect. And her face when she snaps out of it, because that’s not who she wants to be, she loves Stefan but that’s not who she wants to be. So she saves Tom, because he’s a good person and she’s not and there’s still time to figure everything out and get Stefan back. She’ll figure out a plan. But Enzo throws a wrench in all those plans and snaps Tom’s neck for her and it’s her turn to hurt him, to play him, to tell him that if the girl he loved really was like her, then she wouldn’t want him She wouldn’t want someone capable of such a thing. And of course I love, love, love, LOVE her scene with Stefan at end. Platonic or romantic, I don’t care how anyone reads it’s, it was wonderful. The idea that she thought herself a failure and Stefan reminds her that she’s a good person for not doing it, him teasing her, and her realizing that he knew that she would never go through with it. And I quite like that he made the distinction between couldn’t and wouldn’t, because Caroline is capable of murder under the right circumstances but he knows she’s wasn’t capable of this. And I loved the cuddling, platonic or otherwise, the idea that they’re that comfortable with each other makes me happy. And when they wake up, before they run, their wrapped around each other and they look happy (and Candice looks so pretty, my hair never looks like that when I sleep. Never.) and it just, it gives me feelings okay? And I love all of it.
Please, please tell me what you all are thinking about these shows too. I love to hear other people’s thoughts.
+Arrow
Birds of Prey: It needed more Diggle and Felicity, but other than that I pretty much loved the episode and its focus on the female characters. Oliver was there, he played an important role, but he was secondary, a touch stone to connect the different characters. This week, it was not about Oliver’s story. And the parts that were, mostly it was just him showing that he’s a crappy mentor, once to Helena and now to Roy. But he took responsibility in regards to Helena, and maybe that means he’s learning, and he’ll eventually realize that he’s heading down the same path with Roy. Though really, I don’t think he’ll ever make a goodmentor. He’s far too damaged for that. It’s why his relationship with Diggle works, he doesn’t need to be mentored (he’s older than Oliver, he saw bad things in the world long before Oliver did, he knows what it means to be soldier fighting for what’s right and also for survival, he knows the cost of killing someone else) and he’s quite capable of telling Oliver he doesn’t know best. They’re equals and that’s important. This is also what works with Sara in a working sense and Felicity to a degree, but he’s never attempted to be a mentor to any of them, because he never needed to be. (Though if they could work on Felicity’s self-defense more, or at least mention that they were, that would be nice. I like to imagine Diggle, and now Sara, teach her when they have time off in the Arrow Cave. But that’s all it is imagining because the show hasn’t really given me anything to work with.)
I like that they showed Helena/The Huntress as capable and downright terrifying in what she was willing and capable of doing and then somehow turned it around to make it (most likely) be the beginning of her trying to put the past behind her and become a better person, become the superhero she’s supposed to be. Or Anti-hero, I haven’t actually read the comics so my knowledge is limited, though I admit the team up of three awesome lady superheroes sounds like something I would enjoy. I also liked that she felt no different after father died, that she didn’t feel vindicated or happy, she just felt numb. I always like the realness when shows go there, when they explore what the characters feel, and how often it’s more empty than when they had the mission of killing the person that had caused all their pain. And here there’s also the added layer of her not having been the one who killed him and I’m curious if as a character, if she wonders if she would feel different if she had been the one to do it. I liked her talk with Laurel, where Laurel was trying to appeal to her humanity because she understood what it was like to have someone she loved die, and then Sara using the complete opposite approach, violence.
I loved everything about the Laurel and Sara interactions, when they knew they were dealing with each other and when Laurel was out of the loop. (And apparently I have way less issues with Laurel not recognizing her as her sister than most. I mean, does anyone expect their sister to be a vigilante? I wouldn’t be looking for signs of that. And the show at least had Laurel question why she was supposed to be more important than everyone else in the building, I feel like that the type of thing that can be the first step into figuring these thing out. Also, it’s a superhero show. If glasses fooled everyone in every Superman universe, I don’t know how an actual mask, wig, and voice distorter wouldn’t do the same.) I liked that we see them developing a new relationship, exploring who they are now and how it relates to their own relationship, how Laurel wanted to prove to her sister that she could be strong like her, because she envied that strength. And then Laurel convincing the BC (not knowing, assumingly, that it’s her sister) that killing Helena wasn’t the right thing to do, without knowing everything the audience does (Sara doesn’t want to be a killer anymore, she wants to be better and stronger than that, she wants to be someone her family can be proud of and not scared of.) and she’s the one that stops her. Not Oliver. And that’s important. This show for all its wonderful female characters, rarely has them interacting and actually developing relationships with each other.
I also loved the little things with Laurel, her going to two meetings a day because she doesn’t know how to handle the world outside. How excited she was to get her job back, only to find out that it was all a sham, that she was being used and how close she came to falling off that wagon (and if she was alone she probably would have), and how at the end she turned around and she used it to her advantage. She got herself her job back using blackmail and it was such a wonderful moment. Oliver (and Tommy) had an image of perfect Laurel, but that Laurel never existed. She came with flaws and darkness crept in over time (so much trauma, her addiction, her mother’s abandonment, Tommy (and Sara, though it wasn’t permanent) dying, it made her into who she is now. All she can try to be is the person she wants to be and thinks is the best. She wants to be strong. She wants to be a lawyer who does good in the world. She wants to be happy. And she’ll do whatever it takes to get there.
Thea’s screen time was much less than the rest, but just as important in a lot of ways. It showed her strengths and weaknesses, showed who she was, and explored in a tip of the iceberg kind of way, how all of this vigilante related business is affecting her and her world. I love that she wouldn’t let Roy break up with her and he just didn’t know what to do with that that (I like Roy the best when he’s being bossed around by Thea and also Sin, but she seems to have disappeared for the moment or maybe forever, but hopefully not. I don’t care what happens between Thea and Roy; I’d love for those two to be besties.) and that she recognize it for what it is. I’ve wanted to see them explore Thea’s reaction to Roy’s behavior more and I still haven’t gotten that, BUT they’ve always made it clear that she knows something is going on, that she’s upset he isn’t telling her what’s going on, that she wants to help. Roy is the object in the way of that and now Oliver as well. I also love that she recognized that Roy making out with the other girl was him pushing her away even further, but it didn’t stop it from hurting or affecting her. She’s nineteen and stronger than most because of the hell life has put her through in all directions, but she’s still nineteen and he bought her a bracelet and told her he loved her and then he did this. She would have a reaction to it, she should have a reaction to it. She is not a carbon copy of her mother, able to hide her feelings so easily. Not yet at least. And her speech to Oliver about all the secrets and the lies and how she was just so tired of it all, was made so much more heartbreaking when she said that Oliver was the only one not lying to her and therefore pretty much the only one she didn’t think was going to break her heart any more than it was already broken. And it was just so wrong, because for all of Oliver’s talk about Moria and her secrets and his condemnation of her, he is so alike her in so many ways. They just got to where they are in such different ways. And it’s going to make it all so much more worse when the truths that they’ve been keeping from her start coming out. AND I WANT TO SEE IT ALL. I WANT HER TO SCREAM AND YELL AND SPIRAL OUT LIKE SHE DID IN SEASON ONE (ONLY WORSE). I WANT HER TO HATE HER MOTHER AND OLVER, TO DISOWN THEM. I WANT HER TO CURL UP AGAINST TOMMY’S HEADSTONE AND BEG HIM TO TELL HER IT WOULD ALL BE OKAY. I WANT IT ALL. (Have I mentioned that Thea is one of my favorite characters and that this season hasn’t given me nearly enough meaty stuff for her, not since the beginning really?)
My only grumble, would probably again be the lack of Felicity. (Diggle just had an episode centered on him, and since this episode was so centered around the female characters, I minded less this time for him. This time.) I feel like they could have worked her perfectly worked her into the Oracle spot of the team, as that’s the role she fills most of the time anyways to my knowledge (again never read the comics). Sara went off on her own to save Laurel, wouldn’t it have been awesome to see a scene with her and Felicity where she talks about needing to save her family, that she can’t just sit there, and asking for Felicity’s help? Felicity being the voice in her ear as she tried to find a way in and out of the building with Laurel, her helping Sara and Detective Lance kidnap Helena’s father to save Laurel, possibly going against what Oliver wants. It didn’t need to be anything huge. Felicity is mostly a behind the scenes player, but we could have gotten little moments, even of Helena commenting on Felicity helping her, bringing the Birds of Prey thing full circle. All of them aware of each other. But Felicity did have some good moments and she was there and helpful and had some funny lines and good moments, so I guess I’ll forgive them. But still, they totally missed a great opportunity.
+HIMYM
Okay, I’m going to start out by saying by large, I’m usually never satisfied by series finales. They tend to wrap things up into little bows and put everything together and it always feels like I’m watching the end of something and not like I’m watching an episode of a show I’ve been watching for years, even though all the same characters are there. There are a few exceptions, the FRIENDS finale is one of my favorite because they worked their way up to pretty much everything that happened, they didn’t really spring too much of it on the viewers, and everyone had a chance to shine in different ways. Monk is another one, that while it definitely did wrap everything up when it came to Trudy’s murder for Monk, it only made sense that that’s how they ended the series. So much of Monk was about her murder, about Monk’s inability to solve the one case that meant the most to him, there wasn’t really another way for it to end imo. But for the most part, even with shows I would list as my favorites, their finale episodes didn’t work for me in a way that left me feeling completely satisfied and happy. I guess that in a lot of ways I’m more of a season finale, cliff hanger, wait five months to speculate what will happen kind of girl, than a series finale, it’s all over and look at where they ended up kind of girl. To each their own I suppose. Either way, I’ll admit, I might be overly critical when it comes to finales and it might be impacting the way I watched/enjoyed/judged this one.
The HIMYM finale, it really just left me feeling confused about how I felt about it, but I know it definitely wasn’t satisfied. I can’t say I minded that Ted and Robin eventually ended up together, I read a thing about it somewhere that explained it wonderfully, and about the two of them were all about timing and wanting different things and how they each moved on to get those things, (Ted fell in love with Tracy and had children and the life he had always imagined. Robin got the career she had always dreamed and wanted and lived the life she wanted.) but that they always stayed special to one another and eventually they found their way back to each other. In so many ways it makes sense, including the ending they filmed way back with the kids and how the story wasn’t really about their mother. (Kudos for keeping that under wraps to the producers, writers, Lyndsy and her fake brother I do can’t remember the name of, and anyone else who may have known.) But I guess, I just feel…cheated. Like if they knew this was always where they were headed, then it somehow makes my investment in Barney and Robin’s relationship, in the Mother, in the whole wedding weekend, seem like it wasn’t worth my time. I mean we went from Barney and Robin’s wedding to them being divorced in the first half of the episode. I mean, I know there were large time jumps, but still. They had three years and then it ended. They based the final season around a wedding of a couple that they knew were never going to last. I just. I don’t know what to do with that. On top of that, they made me like the mother, they had all these wonderful moments (in the finale as well) and I thought Ted had finally met the love of his life, that this was his happy ending, this was him finally being proven right in his eternal optimism that love was just around the corner. But that seems lessened by the fact that so many years later, he was still just as in love with Robin as he had always been. And I know that doesn’t take away the love he felt for Tracey, I know that’s not how it works, it just…like I said, the only way I can explain it is that I feel cheated. Like the show should have been called How I Met Your Step Mother instead. Also, I feel like they lacked giving us anything for Lily outside of her family, which seemed unfair considering they showed us Marshall becoming a judge.
There were some things I did like. Barney meeting his daughter, NPH just killed that scene, with the speech he had mocked before. You could so easily see her becoming the most important thing to him in the world just as he looked at her. And I loved them showing him being an active dad, falling asleep at the table, and suddenly becoming one of them saying that they had to be home by 9:45. I loved pretty much everything at the beginning when the gang is saying goodbye, Lily and it being too real and the ET goodbye, the epic high five that ended up injuring them both, and of course him meeting Tracey. Their little talk under the umbrella, where they realized how many times they did or could have crossed paths, and how they had both shared the umbrella that they were now standing under. It was just the perfect meet cute. And I did love that Robin ended up with her dream job, because she deserved it. I honestly can’t remember if that was something set up before this season or just for the finale, but either way it made me happy.
+NCIS: LA
I don’t have any general thoughts, just mostly Kensi thoughts. She’s my favorite, I’m biased and I will admit it. But I have to say, I love what they did writing her own story to film ahead of time because of Daniela’s pregnancy. I love that it allowed her to have her own storyline completely separate from the rest of the team, because that doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.
And I so called the Jack thing but I was still so excited anyways when it was revealed. I just love it. But I also love Kensi’s reaction to seeing him again, to hearing his story. Because you can see it breaking her. All these years she’s blamed herself for not being able to reach him, to help him, for his disappearance. She’s hated herself for it and hadn’t gotten passed it, not all the way. And here he is telling the tale of how he figured it out for himself, how he had found someone to love, carved out a life for himself and become someone softer. Kensi had the complete opposite reaction, everything in her life after him had made her into someone harder. She doesn’t know how to be soft anymore, not really. And that started when her father died, yes, but it was so amplified when Jack disappeared on Christmas morning all those years ago and it only got worse as time went by. And it was all so interesting to see it play out, to see it her face and her eyes, and her longing for the man she once knew, who some part of her still loved (couldn’t stop loving, because how do you stop loving a ghost?). Daniela’s acting was just so perfect.
I’m so excited for tonight’s episode, you don’t even know. I love Kensi centric episodes and I love that we’ll finally get to see the team coming to her rescue. Kensi usually defeats any idea of her being the damsel in distress (she’s usually the one causing your distress), but still, the closest we’ve seen to this was in B, Kensi and that was still mostly at the end. That was Kensi’s mission and I’m not unconvinced that Sam wasn’t there to make sure she didn’t kill anyone.
+Person of Interest
Mostly I just want to talk about Root because I love her, ridiculous amounts and it makes me sad anytime I see that others don’t feel the same. But it was inevitable for me, she’s played by Amy Acker, she’s a little unhinged, she’s a villain turned anit-hero, damaged and using a computer program to try to understand humanity. All of these things lead to favorites.
The episode / was so wonderfully done. So full of Root and I loved every minute of it, but the scene with her and Harold where they talk about the machine and the janitor and how he thinks he’s irrelevant to him. Holy crap was everything about that scene amazing. Where she shows him the picture of the man and his dead friends and she tells him that this man he’s fighting so hard to protect believes in a concept of a higher being, a reason for everything, and the day that his friends died there was a reason too. Someone wanted to get rich and Root was the one hired to make it happen. She asks him how he managed to break the machine to make it care so much about people, because she isn’t like him, or it, or John or any of the rest of them, she doesn’t see the good in people, she can only see the bad. Harold so often forgets that the first thing we find out about who Root really was, was that her friend was abducted by a police man and she watched as a woman she trusted helped cover it up. That is what she sees when she looks in the world, she sees bad code, herself included. She’s learning to care, to not to kill, through a machine. The question she doesn’t ask is how badly is she broken? And then Harold offers to help show her the way, like he did the machine, and she hates him for that. You can see it in her eyes. She hates that he thinks she doesn’t care about anyone or anything, because she cares about him. She cares what happens to the machine and the people it contacts. Root knows what will happen if this other machine goes online, knows she and Harold and Shaw and John (though I think she could care less about John, he’s far more expendable to her) will all die. They will be the first ones on the list and mostly likely they won’t make it out alive. She tells him this in anger, because no matter what she does, he doesn’t seem to understand.
Root believes in the machine and she believes in him. She just wants him to believe in her back.
+Pretty Little Liars
I was kind of disappointed by the finale, it just seemed like too much talking and not enough action. It had some lovely moments, like Spencer learning she didn’t have anything to do with Ali’s disappearance or the girl in the grave, and I also loved that Ali strung that out, that she made Spencer sit there and feel the guilt of something she didn’t do until she was ready to give her relief. It’s such a wonderful reminder of who Ali is and that two years later and all her experiences, she is still the girl she always was (at least in some ways). And that girl wasn’t very nice. Ali talking about being buried alive by her mother was so well done, Sasha really is an awesome actress, I do look forward to seeing more of her next season. I also enjoyed Hannah grabbing the gun and all of the girls demanding that the faceless guy (it looked like a guy) to take off his mask. They were all powerful in that moment, wanting it to be over, wanting to finally get what they deserved; an ending to all of this. Of course they didn’t, that’s the curse of A, it never really ends. Also the death of Mrs. DiLarentis is super interesting to me (and also sad because I love Andrea Parker) because it adds some new levels. And it looked like she was getting buried where she had buried her daughter, there seemed like some sort of poetry in that. (Katherine Pierce, get out of my head with your death and poetry talk.)
I’m sadly wondering if Jason will end up being the person or one of the people involved in what happened, just because I can’t see Ali’s mom covering up for anyone else. (Maybe her father but that’s it, but even then I think she would have been far more likely to turn him in.) Jason was a mess, addicted and strung out, she would have seen it as an accident, she would have been trying to protect the only child she has left. It makes sense in a lot of ways. It also explains why there seems to be a distance between them. But I really like Jason’s character, he’s right below Caleb on my list of favorite male characters, so I don’t want him to be a bad guy. Why couldn’t it just have been Ezra? Speaking of….I LOVED everything they did with him, even if they copped out and had him writing a book, they still deconstructed his character and showed that he was not the handsome prince waiting for Aria at the end of her fairy tale, instead he had helped trap her in the tower, had ignored her pleas for help. So I really, really, don’t want them to try to…unvillianize him just because he got shot. I mean, let’s not forget, he followed them there. He was still being a creeper. That said, I do understand Aria’s reaction, she did love Ezra, it was never a game to her or a plan, it was just love. So to see him there and think he was dying, I would have been crying if I was her too. It’s an instinct, a reaction based on what is happening in the now, not something else. I just don’t want the show to make it into more than that. But then, the show never gave me my Spencer-Toby “I hate you for what you put me through. You may have done this to protect me, but it’s over now. We’re over now,” scenes like I wanted them too. I have to take the scraps of her getting mad at him for not calling her back and her reminding him that she thought he was dead once and the non-romantic look on her face as they curled up on the couch in the mid-season finale. Seriously, if I had my way all the girls would get new significant others (except maybe Hanna because I like her and Caleb and so far Travis has been cute, but other than that).
Also, the Noir episode, AMAZING. Everything about it was amazing. Any show wanting to do something like that should look at PLL as an example. So much character exploration for Spencer and done in such a wonderfully Noir way, all the shots and the costumes and the acting. Just everything.
+Psych
Okay, so you already heard me complain about series finales but there are exceptions. Psych’s finale is mostly an exception. Yes, it wrapped things up, but it didn’t change the fundamentals and it was mostly based around the Gus and Shawn friendship and really, that’s all I could ask for in a Psych finale. For me, the story has always been about those two, as important as the other characters are, so the finale should be about them too. I loved that they stayed in character with Shawn, that he didn’t know how to do goodbyes, so he found a way around them. He made tapes instead. His Gus tape made me all teary-eyed, when he apologized for standing in the way of the life Gus deserved and should have had, that he didn’t know how to say goodbye to him. And then his tape to Lassie where he talked about Jules and how he knew how much she meant to both of them and then he wanted to admit the truth, to tell him he was right that he was a fraud, and Lassie stopped it before he could and broke it so he would never be tempted to watch it and find out for sure. Shows how much our Lassie and Shawn and their relationship has all grown. And the ending, where Gus showed up at the crime scene, yelled at Shawn for leaving like that and then said this was where he wanted to be, that solving crimes with Shawn was who he wanted to be. It was just perfect. As was Shawn’s proposal to Jules (I could have lived without it admittedly, but it was nice for all the fans who loved them and shipped them much harder than I did) and how she ended up saying yes to both him and Gus. It was perfect and gave me Boy Meets World flashbacks. You can’t love one without loving the other, just in different ways, and you can’t have one without having the other. Shawn and Gus are a package deal, it’s been that way since they were young and it’s not going to suddenly change now.
I also liked that a lot of it was just a normal episode, spiced up by the fact that Shawn was leaving and didn’t know how to tell his loved ones. The creator said that shared my dislike of series finales, so I think that helped them actually create a better one. Lots of things were wrapped up, others weren’t (we never saw Henry’s video, we don’t know what he’s doing now, we don’t know how Shawn and Gus will fair in SF, etc.) and that’s how I like it.
+The Good Wife
Loved the last to episodes. Loved the season really, but especially the last two. I knew something big happened in the one but Will’s death still surprised me and hit me harder than I expected. I always liked his character but he’s never been on my favorites list. (Cary as ever remains my favorite male character.) But it was just SO well done and everyone’s reaction to it, Kalinda breaking down might have been what did it for me. Kalinda doesn’t break down, it’s not in her nature, so you know something is terribly wrong if she crying.
And then the next episode of them all dealing with the aftermath in the next few hours. So well done and heart touching and breaking and everyone got there moment to shine. My favorites were surprisingly David’s, Cary’s and Kalinda’s. David’s because you never expected it of him and he let himself cry but then he knew he had to go back to business, but he tried, he really tried to do it as respectfully as he could, apologizing to Diane and Alicia. And then Cary’s moment of just utter anger. He was never close with Will, but I think the death of someone who had been so constant, who he respected, who he compared himself to so many time (“We are the new Will and Diane”) would definitely have affected him a lot, especially so soon after it happened. So him telling the other callous lawyer to sit the hell down. Well, it was hot and also so wonderfully acted. Just the whole scene. And Kalinda, I loved watching her deal with her grief by investigating. That’s what she does, it’s who she is, Will had told her that just hours before and she’s using it to push passed this pain and she does. And the scene with her and the boy who killed Will (yes, he’s an adult but there he is most definitely a boy) was so perfectly in character and so perfectly done. It was a horrible thing to do in so many ways. His character was not stable, he didn’t mean to kill Will, he had tried over and over to kill himself in the Court room after it happened and was on suicide watch. But this is Kalinda type justice, this is her offering him relief, to make all this go away, and then pulling the belt back and telling him no. He just has to live with what he had done. I’ve seen several places where they didn’t get the scene and I just-have they not been watching Kalinda all these years? Did they tune her out? Everything about that scene made sense to me on so many levels. Even people less hard than Kalinda would do something like that if they had the opportunity too, even in the exact same situation where you actually have a sympathetic murderer. Alicia’s scenes were of course wonderfully done as well, the one with her daughter standing out the most to me, as they argued (respectfully) about their beliefs in God and his part in all of this. And I just love how the show managed it, they didn’t put down either one’s belief, there was nothing wrong with not believing in God and there was nothing wrong in believing in one. There was just two different sides, trying to make sense of what happened and why it happened and if it meant anything at all.
+The Originals
I’m behind by an episode, but while I was dreading watching the episode where Rebekah left (I was terrified they killed her off), I actually quite loved it. It show cased all the fucked up-ness that is the Original Family, Klaus and his hatred of those he loves and his outlook to the world, it showed Rebekah so desperately tired of this life, of living in her family’s shadow. And it showcased that no matter how abusive their relationship was, Rebekah had always been on Klaus’s side. She stood against him twice in her life and she hated herself for it both times. She didn’t know how to live without him. But she wasn’t going down without a fight, she wasn’t going to let Klaus railroad her and not accept his part of the blame. Because he was to blame, Klaus was incapable of letting Rebekah be happy with anyone but him. He was incapable of being anything but toxic to her. All of the flashbacks were wonderful, the idea that even as a human, Rebekah’s loyalty was so strong, she was willing to not just stand up to their father for Niklaus when none of the others did, but willing to kill him to end the abuse. It shows something about her, a loyalty that Klaus has long sense forgotten.
And while I’m terribly sad Rebekah’s gone (I LOVE Rebekah!), to see her riding off into the sunset, finally able to live her life as she chooses, no looking over her shoulder, no one else making decisions for her, no one to abuse her; there could be no better ending than that. That episode could have been the series finale for me and I would have been happy.
+The Vampire Diaries
While You Were Sleeping was a wonderful Elena episode. I loved her reaction to what happened, the hallucinations of what Katherine had done in her body, her anger over no one noticing, her fear of Katherine winning, of her really turning into a monster. It was all done so perfectly and Nina did such an amazing job. I also like that we got to see the hallucinations and effects of the hybrid poison, because it’s such an interesting concept to me. That not only does a werewolf bite kill a vampire but it destroys them inside out before they die. I also really loved all the Caroline and Caroline/Stefan stuff we got. We got to see Caroline stand on her own, we got to see her taking a stand against hundreds (maybe) of Travelers, and a glimpse at that moral compass disappearing even further. Caroline, like most people in their little group, will always choose one of her own over everyone else. And I loved the contrast between her holding the knife to Sloan’s throat compared to what happened in the next episode. Because I fully believe she would have slit Sloan’s throat in that moment if she didn’t stop hurting her friend, just like she drove that knife into the witch’s heart last season, but premeditated murder is not something that Caroline is capable of yet and possibly never will be. And it’s a very interesting dynamic to watch.
Rescue Me bored me on a lot of levels that didn’t involve Caroline or Bonnie. I’ll admit to bias, but I love Elena as well, and with the exception to the scenes with Jeremy which I really loved, I found it boring rehashing things with Damon that seemed to have already played out. In one case it was the teacher talking about Jeremy not him, but it was such a lovely parallel to season one when Jenna was the one being called in and basically called a failure and I loved it. Elena has had so much happen to her, is only nineteen, there is no reason she should be any good at parenting Jeremy. But I can only imagine how much of a failure it made her feel, another family member slowly falling out of grasp. I also loved her phone call to Bonnie, they were adorable, and just talking like friends do. I miss scenes like that happening regularly.
Poor, poor Bonnie. Not only is she insecure about what’s happening with Jeremy (she and gladly the show has not forgotten what happened with Anna), she has to deal with finding out she had been played by Liv and her brother, and then the Travelers mass suicide and used her basically to get their leader back. All that pain she endured and she was alone. She’s always been alone in this, she said that so long ago, but it’s still true.
My favorite scenes were all Caroline, I’ll admit to the bias. I love all my girls, but Caroline is my favorite, and I loved her actively searching out for a person to murder but her inability to say the words. I quite liked her interactions with Enzo, and I liked them even more when they revealed that he had ulterior motives himself, and he had been to a degree playing her the whole time. It made it more interesting and less likely that it’s going to become a ship. I’ve seen talk of it and I think they have good chemistry but I just never got that vibe watching the episode and when he revealed that a) she reminded him of the woman he loved and then b) that he had made a deal of his own to find her (though how old would she be now unless she was a vampire? I’m confused about that bit, chances are she is married and happy and has kids, Enzo. You know nothing.) and for me it dashed any thoughts of them leaning in that direction. But I still enjoyed most of their scenes. Her reminding him that she was a good vampire that didn’t kill people willy-nilly (“I’m sorry is this supposed to be easy?”), him comparing her to a soldier and her denying that’s what she is (she’s been at war since she was sixteen, she just didn’t know it and hasn’t been able to accept it since she found out), him listening in with her at the hospital as she cried out for Stefan to say something, and them at the dinner. I liked his little perky angel of death line. It’s kind of accurate. And then all of her scenes with Stefan’s doppelganger. Oh, they were just perfect. She tried so hard to be okay with it, she had her hands around his throat and then he sat up, and everything changed. I love that she compelled him to trust her, that he was the most important person in the world to her (true on so many levels in that moment, because he looked like Stefan and right now she is clinging to her relationship with Stefan in the wake of everything that has been happening, because him and his death means Stefan will live and that makes him important, because killing him is something she will never be able to forget and that makes him selfishly important), and that it won’t hurt. And then she snaps Enzo’s neck. I love it. She never claimed to trust him and she didn’t. Instead she takes Tom to the dinner and she compels him to tell her his life story because she’s looking for something to tell her this is okay, that he deserves to die, that he did something in his life to make him just as much a monster as she is. And the scene where she imagines him choking and pulling the water away, so perfect. So very perfect. And her face when she snaps out of it, because that’s not who she wants to be, she loves Stefan but that’s not who she wants to be. So she saves Tom, because he’s a good person and she’s not and there’s still time to figure everything out and get Stefan back. She’ll figure out a plan. But Enzo throws a wrench in all those plans and snaps Tom’s neck for her and it’s her turn to hurt him, to play him, to tell him that if the girl he loved really was like her, then she wouldn’t want him She wouldn’t want someone capable of such a thing. And of course I love, love, love, LOVE her scene with Stefan at end. Platonic or romantic, I don’t care how anyone reads it’s, it was wonderful. The idea that she thought herself a failure and Stefan reminds her that she’s a good person for not doing it, him teasing her, and her realizing that he knew that she would never go through with it. And I quite like that he made the distinction between couldn’t and wouldn’t, because Caroline is capable of murder under the right circumstances but he knows she’s wasn’t capable of this. And I loved the cuddling, platonic or otherwise, the idea that they’re that comfortable with each other makes me happy. And when they wake up, before they run, their wrapped around each other and they look happy (and Candice looks so pretty, my hair never looks like that when I sleep. Never.) and it just, it gives me feelings okay? And I love all of it.