The Vampire Diaries : S03E11 Review
Okay here we go, thoughts and ranting will be had in what I can only expect to be random, rambly and LONG post.
Stefan: Never change okay. I find this dark side of Stefan a lot more compelling than S1/S2 Stefan (as so many others do). I’m very curious about what level Stefan has his humanity switch at and it was cool to find out that there are actual levels to it. I LOVED the “I don’t care what you think of me” line to Elena at the bridge. It was incredibly cruel of Stefan to use that bridge in his feud with Klaus, but gosh…it was so good.
Damon: I don’t even know. I wasn’t paying attention to him.
Alarcic/Meredith: I don’t know either lol. Is she crazy? Did she kill her ex? What’s going on?!
Elena/Matt: Salvatores who? Those two are meant to be together. OTP. Elena has this need to control and have everyone kiss her butt and drink her kool-aid. Matt definitely likes the kool-aid. They both feed into each other’s pain. Matt tells Elena she’s right in the things she does and Elena gives him the pity and sympathy he’s always whining for. Matt’s lack of respect for any other woman other than Elena is infuriating, but he is always at Tyler’s defense. That always boggles my mind. I want them to be friends again, but Matt’s treatment of woman compared to Tyler’s is on two different ends of the scale. Matt lacks the respect that Tyler gives unconditionally to the women in their lives. So how could they regain the friendship they once had when Tyler has changed so much and Matt is still stuck in his man-pain-feel-sorry-for-me-all-the-time world.
What angered me was that they did the birthday/funeral thing for Caroline, but ultimately made it about Elena in the end. RME. Those two are as about self-absorbed as you can get and therefore a match made in Heaven. I still think Matt has potential to be a good character, but his Elena worshipping gets in the way of that. Everyone at this point is angry with Elena so that she runs to the last person she knows that will always worship her…Matt; and of course he comes running like the idito that he is to assure her that she is good and loved and everything she does is right and everyone else is wrong. Please. I'm done with them.
Speaking of Elena, I wanted to throw my remote at my TV with her, “I don’t trust her not to get back with him,” line regarding Tyler and Caroline. Are you serious?! You have risked EVERYONE’S lives to try and get a sociopath serial killer who was murdering people of his own volition for an entire summer back to your innoncent hometown so he can maim even more people and because Caroline and Tyler (who have the closest thing to a healthy relationship) might try and work things out it’s not okay? Why? Because it’s not about you? Get over yourself chick. Ugh! She makes me so angry. No one is worthy of salvation or forgiveness if they don’t directly worship her first. She is the most hypocritical character on the show.
Bonnie: I might not be her biggest fan, but I have decided to give her a shot the last few episodes. She got a lot of points with her speech to Elena in the Fell crypt. It was about time someone called Elena out on her BS. I would do anything for my family, but Elena is constantly taking Jeremy’s choices away. Yes, he needed to be safe, but Jeremy was the one who wanted to leave town in the first place. By compelling Jeremy Elena took that free will away from him. THAT wasn’t right and kudos to Bonnie for telling her how it is. I did wish that she had told Jeremy he was being compelled. A part of me hoped he was faking it and he wouldn’t leave but alas…he left. Sadness. Come back soon Jer.
Tyler/Caroline/Klaus: That first TC scene was HEARTBREAKING. Trevino gets all of the awards for 3x11. His acceptance that he will never have the ability to put Caroline first and his gift to her had me in tears from the moment he said, “I can’t.” I loved that the charm bracelet he gave her had ship appropriate charms; the cheerleaders, the helmet, the paw print, the heart, and her initials. *Swoons* I just loved that he was cracking with the emotions that he was trying so hard to keep below surface. The way he bit his lip to keep from coming completely undone, the crack in voice and how he never pulled his eyes from hers had me a hot mess of emotions. The music was a bitch much though, it was distracting me from my lovely OTP.
The scene between Tyler and Klaus was intense. I never thought that Klaus would want Tyler to bite Caroline. I knew that demand wasn’t going to be carried willfully by Tyler and straight up cheered when he refused (even though I knew something bad was going to happen). Of course that wasn’t the case as the episode progressed, but Tyler thought he had control and standing up from himself was the first step he had to take to get his free will back. It was Klaus’ smugness throughout the episode that was really irritating me (especially after Tyler's refusal). I love this guy, I do. I think as a villain he’s on point, what I don’t like is his man-pain. Please, we have enough of that. When he’s being villain-ly, conspiring, manipulating and being charming to get what he wants is when I’m really enjoying him as a character. Just don’t eff with my OTP dude.
I loved that Caroline drunk texted Tyler and her “I’m delicate” line was perfection (plus she wore that charm bracelet through out the entire episode). I did get a little satisfaction at Matt’s pissy-ness at the mention of Tyler and his lame attempt to be intimidating when Tyler crashed the party. Please Matty, Tyler kicked your ass (excuse my language) as a human, he would end you now.
I think what hurts the most was Tyler’s false sense of hope and security. He showed up to the crypt believing that his love for Caroline was stronger than his bond to Klaus. He had every intention on expressing that to her and finally telling her he loved her only to be devastated by the fact that he no longer has the free will he thought he had. His reaction to what he had done was nothing short of awesome on Trevino’s part. His realization that he bit her, his pleas and the way he says her name…*rubs heart* it was too much for my shipper heart.
The ‘I love you’ was done so well. I have always been afraid of hearing those words in my ships and it is worse in fanfiction. Okay, so as viewers, we have known since S2 that Tyler has been falling in love for Caroline for some time. I’m just weird about the ILYs and it’s always thrown me off or made my ship feel OOC. I feel like in ff, that the ILYs were always said too soon, not in this case. Tyler said the words with such certainty and he didn’t hesitate or stutter, he said it and didn’t regret or feel ashamed for saying those words to her. It was just awesome, only to be taken away a few seconds later. Let me just live in the moment for a few seconds okay? It was just so perfect, and kissed her and put all those feelings in that kiss and they were going so good and then….Ugh!! I knew something was going to happen because as they were kissing the music playing over them was so ridiculous (What was up with that BTW? The music supervisor did a HORRIBLE job with this episode. Everything was too loud and obnoxious if you ask me) and it wasn’t TC’s theme music.
I don’t understand why Tyler is the only character who gets crapped on for his actions, none of which can be said that he did because HE WANTED to. None of the other characters have tried helping him because he doesn’t drink Elena’s kool-aid and that renders him irrelevant. I’m not going to rant anymore on this subject because I think I’ve done enough in the past.
As for the Klaus and Caroline scene, I didn’t read anything shippery into it. I did like it for Caroline perspective on the life she can have if she chooses too. (Can we have one of these moments for Tyler please? Did the writers forget that he too is looking at immortality? TC can bond over this too!) I didn’t enjoy Klaus’ man-pain…again. It worked though; I did enjoy it because I went into that scene knowing that Klaus was full of it. That he had an ulterior motive for wanting Caroline harmed. Klaus is looking at the bigger picture and now he has the Mayor and Sheriff of Mystic Falls in his pocket. Why has Klaus taken a sudden interest in Caroline? Is it to punish Tyler? The business with the bracelets is interesting (for the lack of a better word). While Klaus spoke to Caroline he fingered Tyler’s bracelet twice and then brings in a bling-bling bracelet after he's given Caroline his blood and has left her to rest. I see that there are differences to the bracelets. Tyler’s is representative of her life now and her relationship with him as young teenagers; whereas Klaus' is more womanly and worldly. In an episode where leaving your old life behind and looking ahead was the tone and focus, it irks me that the writers applied that to the gifts Caroline received. Whether or not Caroline is falling for Klaus’s charms is still remain to be seen. At first, I wasn't too worried about KC. I mean, it would be really OOC for Caroline to be the least bit interested in Klaus. After EVERYTHING he's done to the people she loves and pretty much took Tyler away from her, she's going to be all hearts-in-her-eyes over him? No, I don't think so. BUT JP and co. have done some seriously effed up stuff so who knows. I think it would be complete character assination if KC were to happen.
Overall, the episode was…okay? It might lead to some interesting developments, but I’m not holding my breath.