The Vampire Diaries 2x06-2x09

[oyceter]

ZOMG PLOT LIKE WHOA.

First off, I love that Katherine is actually scary as a villain. She doesn't seem to do emotional torture quite as much as Angelus does, but she has some very scary body count. Together, they fight crime!

I am also so glad Bonnie has more to do in these episodes! I'm disturbed by how complicit she is in the kidnapping and subsequent killing of Mason, but I love the nosebleeding witchery using angst—it helps that it fondly reminds me of X-Files S4. I also loved her cousin showing up! I was going to growl about yet another black woman being used to further white people's agendas, but I love the two of them double-crossing Katherine and I hope we see the cousin again. And then, not one, but two love interests for Bonnie! I was going to say I approved of Jeremy/Bonnie only so far as it was an indication that Bonnie was being written back into the main cast and being less isolated than she has been since basically Sheila died, but I don't buy the chemistry or the reasoning at all. Also, Jeremy! He's still boring.

But then there is Luka the warlock! I still growl at the final reveal that his dad is being used to further yet another white person's agenda, but Luka plus Lucy plus the nosebleeds make me hope for much more Bonnie character development, and hopefully a lot more of Bonnie's ancestors' history!

Caroline! I still love Caroline-as-vampire. I loved loved loved her conversation with her mother in the dungeon, although I don't fully buy the emotional reasons for wiping her mother's memory except as a way to make things easier on the writers. On the other hand, please to not being going with Caroline/Tyler, show? Despite feeling bad for Tyler becoming a werewolf, that is still not enough for me to overlook his overall jackassery. Also, someone still really needs to tell Matt what was going on, since it's pretty obvious that the less people around Elena know, the more in danger they are. Plus, I am kind of hoping for a little more Matt/Caroline angst.

And! Klaus! Awesome! I wasn't sure they were ever going to go there! Now I am betting Elena ends up being vamped by the end of the season somehow or the other, although hopefully for reasons less stupid than she does in the books. I love getting more Katherine backstory, especially how we keep going back to Katherine in Mystic Falls and constantly adding to that story. Although to be honest, why in the world did they lock her up instead of staking her? Especially given how difficult it was to pin her down in the first place? (Also, how much do I love that Katherine had about 18 different backup plans in place?) It's also nice finally getting another female vampire, although there should already be a betting pool started for how long she stays before she ends up staked, most likely to amp up the Damon angst.

(Speaking of which, annoyed at the killing of both Amy and Sarah.)

Re: Stefan, I loved Caroline and Elena rescuing him from the vervain-steeped well, and I love his and Caroline's talk when he compares her with Lexi. I was also very fond of extremely awkward road trip with Damon.

Damon. Ohhhh Damon. You almost hit my woobie buttons as bit when you told Elena you loved her but that she was better off with Stefan, and I almost thought you were being mature and letting her go. And then you had to go wipe her memory. For example, the storyline in which both Elena and Katherine want Stefan more than him is something that'd normally get me in a romance novel, and then he goes and acts worse than all the alpha jerks in romances, and that is that. It's also very confusing because they keep bouncing between woobie-fying him and making him extremely scary, like when he PULLS OUT MASON'S HEART. EW. I mean, at least the show doesn't try to put both moments together, unlike Yuki Kaori (note to writers: cradling warm intestines and murmuring about how it feels like your mother's embrace is not a good play for sympathy). Damon's over the top either way, but I prefer the scary Damon way, as it feels much less of an apologia.

Elena! Oh honey. I love you, but I really wish they would stop doing damsel in distress plots with you. It's a little better now that Caroline is vamped and Bonnie's back on the scene, so at least it's men AND women off rescuing Elena, but really, they keep putting her in danger to provide more angst for the Salvatore brothers. And somehow they start letting Jeremy join in too?!

So in the end, am cautiously more optimistic on the Bonnie front, love the plot, am still skeptical about race and gender, and wanting more vampire backstory!

Comments

[meganbmoore]

With Bonnie and Jeremy helping Damon re: Mason, I kind of doubt either really realized exactly what was going to happen going in (and unless Jeremy has told her, I'm not sure what Bonnie knows about the actual torture)? I'm sure both had a vague idea, but despite what they've been through (both mostly because of Damon) I think they're both still relatively naive and innocent regarding how people can be evil and cruel and ruthless, and I'm not sure that kind of violent and ruthless torture is something you realize is there until you're actually exposed to it in someway, at least as a teenager. It's possible I'm fanwanking some as Bonnie is my favorite, but I think that's ballanced by, uhm, never having liked Jeremy (who did stay once he realized what was happening, and I'm not sure how I feel about that).

I much prefer Damon as a straightup villain and being treated like it, and the only time I've enjoyed the character (outside of some scenes with Bonnie, Liz and Katherine) is the first half of season one, where he was an entertaining antagonist and we were supposed to root for his downfall.

I think Damon was actually compelling Elena throughout the confession, because she went from being scared and bordering on freaking out to being still and having the lifeless eyes people get when being compelled when he told her to listen. Even without that, though, the scene would have lost any redeeming value it might have had otherwise with me because he was basically describing her as a pure and virtuous object that was a prize for the "better man" to have.

I am attempting to be optimistic about Luka and Jonas? I think the show is using witch/warlock as good/bad magicuser (as opposed to the modern male/female stereotype, which is terribly wrong) and I hope Bonnie realizes it. Hopefully, Luka either doesn't know what his father is up to and won't join him when he does learn, or that he'll change sides if he already knows. What I want is for Jonas to be playing Elijah and not get killed for it, but I'm sure that won't happen. (And am I right in thinking these are the only black men besides poor Harper to survive their first episode?)

I love all the vampire stuff and kind of like that the show might be doing Caroline/Tyler, but non-evil and with him far, far less misogynistic and rapey than he was in the books. He still has date-rape tendencies and tends to be too forceful with women (though is still a saint compared to Damon) but, unlike most characters of the type or even other men in the series, he's acknowledged before that its a problem he has, and something he wants to fix. I think his hyped up teen sexual aggression/Mason's temper/the mayor's abuse is meant to be because of the werewolf thing which I'm never comfortable with, but wven though it isn't addressed often, I'm glad that it's at least somewhat addressed.

I seriously hope that we get way more vampire flashbacks (preferably some including Emily and Anna and Pearl) and am hopeful that the Lexi namedropping in the last 3 eps means more of her, too.

[oyceter]

I don't remember enough of the torture scene to say, but I remember being really squicked out by Bonnie and Jeremy being in the same room at the same time Damon was doing some stuff. But I could be remembering wrong!

I almost wish Damon were compelling Elena through the confession, but given how the writers write the relationship, I am not doubtful at all that they would have Elena ok with him sneaking into her bedroom again. I mean, she forgave him for meaning to kill Jeremy pretty quickly!

I really really really want more flashbacks with Pearl and Anna too! That would be so awesome.

[meganbmoore]

Bonnie left as soon as they got there, almost. She basically scanned Mason's brain and took off. I'm not sure she even knew if Damon was going to torture him, or question him and kill him. I'd say she could have even though Damon was going to compell him and then make him go hiking across Europe or something, but I do remember she asked about the tarp Damon had spread out, and started getting antsy about leaving when he said it was for the mess. Jeremy stayed throughout, though he may have left before the actual killing. He seemed pretty surprised and horrified, though. (I regret my inconsistent memory for details, at times.)

The writers are...very inconsistent with everyone's attitude's towards Damon, IMO. I think that they went so far with the character early on without thinking about the fact that they basically couldn't kill him, even though it makes the other characters look foolish to keep him around as an ally, and now they're stuck and so they have characters take him seriously for a bit when he does something, but then have an "oh, that Damon..." attitude most of the time. But Elena was on the verge of panic and then suddenly not in that scene, and then acted scared and nervous again when he opened the door in ep 9, and she couldn't see if anyone else was there. I don't think she's forgiven him so much as they've had very few scenes together this season. (Which is a relief for me.)

I'm just hoping Meredith shows up, isn't white, and doesn't die.

[yhlee]

I'll take Katherine over Angelus any day of the century. Angelus gets caught up in ego games. Katherine is one of the smartest villains ever. Or to put it another way, I'm more scared of Katherine than I am of Angelus. Katherine wouldn't torture me to death in horrible gruesome lingering ways, but I am always going to be more frightened of the smart ones.

[oyceter]

She is very well organized! I admire that in a villain. I just loved the plan B and C and D and E etc. etc.

[yhlee]

Aside from the bit where I believe Katherine should be nuked from orbit, I kind of fangirl her. *wry g* I'm starting to wish I'd requested Vampire Diaries fic for Yuletide.