jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2012-07-04 12:18 am
jedi_of_urth) wrote2012-07-04 12:18 am
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100 Reviews: 12
I really was going to watch something different, but it was so convenient to stick with TVD and I’m all for convenience. Even if this episode is...this episode.
TVD 2x12: The Decent
It’s funny, because this episode is objectively pretty good, but I usually forget it exists, aside from “Oh yeah there’s that ep where Rose dies and I deny that this show makes me feel things as much as Damon tries to do.” Basically when I think about this section of season 2 my thoughts go:
-Okay, By the Light of the Moon (aka when Elena makes a deal with Elijah) is 2x11.
-The Dinner Party is 2x15
-The werewolfs go after Elena in 2x14 because Elena went to the cabin the episode before that.
-The girls had a sleepover between episodes, so 2x13 must be the one where Caroline is captured.
-That leaves 2x12 which is...which is...drawing a blank. Starts ep, oh yeah this one. All this stuff happens.
I suspect there are people who LOVE this episode, in fact I know there are. And I think the main thing that separates me from them is most of them are Damon fans. And I’m...not. Even when I do remember this episode it’s for Rose and Elena and a little bit for being the day everyone kissed Caroline (although sometimes I forget that wasn’t part of 2x13 even though that wouldn’t make sense) Which is weird because this *is* a Damon episode, I couldn’t really deny that, it just doesn’t register with me that way.
The main problem with me looking at it as a Damon episode is that Damon’s existential crisis at the end makes no sense to me. It doesn’t really track with his character, before or after this point. If this had been treated as a turning point, he’d been brought to the brink and forced to admit to himself what he really wanted but had for 140 years told himself he didn’t it would have been one thing. But at the end of the day I don’t feel like this was some kind of breakthrough for him, or like the issues raised in that scene really resonate with where his character arc goes forward.
And it’s really just those last few scenes that turn this from being about Rose and to a lesser extent Elena to being a Damon episode. Before then it’s very much a horror movie of being trapped in a house with a blood-thirsty creature type story which all belongs to the girls. Which is another reason why I kind of forget about this episode, because it’s a fairly episodic plot only sort of connected to the ongoing arc of the season.
What the episode seemed to be about (before Damon claimed it as his story in the last act) was whether Elena was giving up by taking Elijah’s deal, and Rose trying to convince her to keep fighting. The first time I watched through these episodes this arc of Elena’s really frustrated me because I saw things much the way Rose did, and I wanted Elena to keep fighting against her “fate.” And that was before I knew the full extent of the deal; so yeah it’s still something that rubs at me but at the same time the first time through I hadn’t really gotten Elena yet so all I saw was out heroine rolling over and surrendering to let others run her life. So looking at it now I can at least say that while it is that sort of, I also understand her enough to know she really did decide it was her best option not just because it was easy.
Anyway, the episode seemed to be about how Elena wasn’t ready to just give up and lay down and take it. We saw her fight back against Rose, and she seemed to hear what Rose was saying in the end, because she did accept that Stefan had taken steps to find another option seemingly because she was ready to explore some herself. But that angle of the episode, while it was set up to be that, had no real payoff in the story.
Instead, after the boys left Elena alone in the house with a sick/dying vampire all day (on a school day I remind you) the writers swoop Damon in and claim the episode was about him. And Stefan acts like he’s been on a quest off screen rather than the few phone calls we saw him make. And this is at the phase in the show where I still mostly liked their characters (although Damon’s kind of on a downswoop after this episode), I just object to the fact that they each in their own way get to take away from what seemed to be Elena’s story this episode.
Over in B plot territory we have love triangle issues. The main problem there is that I never for one second of the show, let alone this episode, believed Matt/Caroline had a chance, and Caroline/Tyler seemed inevitable enough by this point to be boring if that makes sense. And...that’s about all, aside from setting up Tyler finding out Caroline’s been stingy with the truth about Mystic Falls’ vampire problem.
All told this episode needed more Elijah. But then when don’t I say that? Even most episodes he’s in need more Elijah.
Basically, when I’m watching this episode it gives me feelings, because I like Rose and I hurt for her during this, and I even hurt for Damon during their last scene. But when it’s over I’m left with a meh kind of aftertaste where I’ll go back to being all “2x12....2x12...which one’s that again?”
Next time:
Possible? A lot of things. Probable? More TVD.
But if you want me to look at something specific...
TVD 2x12: The Decent
It’s funny, because this episode is objectively pretty good, but I usually forget it exists, aside from “Oh yeah there’s that ep where Rose dies and I deny that this show makes me feel things as much as Damon tries to do.” Basically when I think about this section of season 2 my thoughts go:
-Okay, By the Light of the Moon (aka when Elena makes a deal with Elijah) is 2x11.
-The Dinner Party is 2x15
-The werewolfs go after Elena in 2x14 because Elena went to the cabin the episode before that.
-The girls had a sleepover between episodes, so 2x13 must be the one where Caroline is captured.
-That leaves 2x12 which is...which is...drawing a blank. Starts ep, oh yeah this one. All this stuff happens.
I suspect there are people who LOVE this episode, in fact I know there are. And I think the main thing that separates me from them is most of them are Damon fans. And I’m...not. Even when I do remember this episode it’s for Rose and Elena and a little bit for being the day everyone kissed Caroline (although sometimes I forget that wasn’t part of 2x13 even though that wouldn’t make sense) Which is weird because this *is* a Damon episode, I couldn’t really deny that, it just doesn’t register with me that way.
The main problem with me looking at it as a Damon episode is that Damon’s existential crisis at the end makes no sense to me. It doesn’t really track with his character, before or after this point. If this had been treated as a turning point, he’d been brought to the brink and forced to admit to himself what he really wanted but had for 140 years told himself he didn’t it would have been one thing. But at the end of the day I don’t feel like this was some kind of breakthrough for him, or like the issues raised in that scene really resonate with where his character arc goes forward.
And it’s really just those last few scenes that turn this from being about Rose and to a lesser extent Elena to being a Damon episode. Before then it’s very much a horror movie of being trapped in a house with a blood-thirsty creature type story which all belongs to the girls. Which is another reason why I kind of forget about this episode, because it’s a fairly episodic plot only sort of connected to the ongoing arc of the season.
What the episode seemed to be about (before Damon claimed it as his story in the last act) was whether Elena was giving up by taking Elijah’s deal, and Rose trying to convince her to keep fighting. The first time I watched through these episodes this arc of Elena’s really frustrated me because I saw things much the way Rose did, and I wanted Elena to keep fighting against her “fate.” And that was before I knew the full extent of the deal; so yeah it’s still something that rubs at me but at the same time the first time through I hadn’t really gotten Elena yet so all I saw was out heroine rolling over and surrendering to let others run her life. So looking at it now I can at least say that while it is that sort of, I also understand her enough to know she really did decide it was her best option not just because it was easy.
Anyway, the episode seemed to be about how Elena wasn’t ready to just give up and lay down and take it. We saw her fight back against Rose, and she seemed to hear what Rose was saying in the end, because she did accept that Stefan had taken steps to find another option seemingly because she was ready to explore some herself. But that angle of the episode, while it was set up to be that, had no real payoff in the story.
Instead, after the boys left Elena alone in the house with a sick/dying vampire all day (on a school day I remind you) the writers swoop Damon in and claim the episode was about him. And Stefan acts like he’s been on a quest off screen rather than the few phone calls we saw him make. And this is at the phase in the show where I still mostly liked their characters (although Damon’s kind of on a downswoop after this episode), I just object to the fact that they each in their own way get to take away from what seemed to be Elena’s story this episode.
Over in B plot territory we have love triangle issues. The main problem there is that I never for one second of the show, let alone this episode, believed Matt/Caroline had a chance, and Caroline/Tyler seemed inevitable enough by this point to be boring if that makes sense. And...that’s about all, aside from setting up Tyler finding out Caroline’s been stingy with the truth about Mystic Falls’ vampire problem.
All told this episode needed more Elijah. But then when don’t I say that? Even most episodes he’s in need more Elijah.
Basically, when I’m watching this episode it gives me feelings, because I like Rose and I hurt for her during this, and I even hurt for Damon during their last scene. But when it’s over I’m left with a meh kind of aftertaste where I’ll go back to being all “2x12....2x12...which one’s that again?”
Next time:
Possible? A lot of things. Probable? More TVD.
But if you want me to look at something specific...
no subject
Instead, after the boys left Elena alone in the house with a sick/dying vampire all day (on a school day I remind you)
Funniest thing about the episode tbh.
(Psst: I have been reading all your reviews! Going to go on a comment spree now...)
no subject