100 Reviews: 27
Jul. 25th, 2012 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthOkay, so back to reviews, and back to TVD for it.
TVD: 2x20: The Last Day
It’s been a while since I watched this one, and even longer since I watched it without immediately going on the 2x21, so therefore the first time probably since it aired that I approached it as its own episode rather than part of the closing arc. And for all its good parts, it really does work better as the middle part of the trilogy (with the finale as a coda to that).
One thing I will say for this episode is it’s really one of the few times I come close to shipping either side of the Triangle, and I actually come pretty close to shipping both sides...at times. Both sides are still problematic for me, meanwhile Elijah is wearing his early model “I’m so completely falling in love with you because everything you do makes me love and respect you more” face.
Yes I will talk about the Triangle more, but I’m me so I have to mention how great Elena and Elijah play off each other first. The info dump at the start continues to really be a talk between Elena and Elijah even with Stefan in the room (not quite as much as it will be by the end of s3, since they do at least acknowledge that Stefan is there at this point) in that while Elijah is providing info to Elena (and Stefan), the two of them are also explaining things to Stefan; basically *they’re* a team, where Elena and Stefan aren’t, and Elena and Damon sure as hell aren’t. Then there’s the excellent conversation between them where they’re both just honest, him about the odds, her about her reasons, and it’s so...they *get* each other, they *talk* to each other, they *communicate* ideas with each other. And it’s...something we don’t see in the other relationships.
Anyway, back to ships canon intended to sail with. The thing about the Elena/Damon scene is that I really do get a sense of Elena reaching out to him, like she really does want him to understand and she’s willing to talk about it. But Damon isn’t going to hear it (alternatively Damon isn’t Elijah); all he hears is her willing to roll the dice with her survival, even though I think even he knows (subconsciously at least) that she’d rather take a 50/50 shot at humanity over being a vampire. Then my tentative ability to see actual affection from Elena gets swarmed over by Damon being awful and reminding me that I don’t ship them for other reasons than not thinking Elena really likes him very much.
And again, Elijah gets it. I think he might be overstating things when he says Elena will never forgive Damon, underestimating her capacity for forgiveness (although he may be basing that estimate on her likely ability to forgive after becoming a vampire), but in principle he gets it; that Damon took the choice from her, and as Stefan points out and Elijah can probably guess, Damon really should know better.
You know, it probably says something that the moments I start to maybe ship D/E or S/E are the moments they have more in common with E/E than usual. I kinda maybe feel D/E for a moment when Elena wants to talk about her choices and thinks honesty (and a little flirtiness that would be full on eye-sex for E/E) is the way to go. I start to maybe like S/E when they finally start being honest with each other about what the future of their relationship was always going to be. I always have mixed feelings about Stefan’s admission that he’d want Elena to be a vampire and with him forever but I don’t necessarily judge him for it; I wonder if the writers are quite saying it right since Stefan seems to have so many issues with being a vampire that I’m not sure he’d want that for Elena, but I can assume they were going for a ‘I have forever, so I have the ability to want to be with you forever, and I do; vampirism isn’t so bad when we’re together right?’ Kind of a reverse of Cloen/Rose being ‘If I only have one life I’m damn sure going to spend it with you,’ I guess.
But it’s Elena’s admission that she doesn’t and never did, want to be a vampire that carries the weight of the scene. Because that’s always been the elephant in the room with her and Stefan; it’s always been there in her attitude and actions but never stated outright. And basically she never said if because she knows what it means for her relationship with Stefan; that one day her choice to *live* is going to come between them, and this is a girl who doesn’t even want to think about losing anyone else she loves, ever. Could she make a different choice later in her life after she’d had time to grow up and decide if it was in fact what she wanted? Yeah, it could happen. But right now she wouldn’t choose it, she’d choose to take her chance of continuing it live.
Okay, time to address *my* elephant in the room. I think we’re all clear on how much I don’t want vamp-Elena in s4. There are exactly three bits of spoiler info I’m interested in hearing before it happens on the show a) that Elijah is going to be in at least half the episodes of the season, b) that Klaus is getting his own body back within the first episode, and c) that Elena isn’t going to become a vampire (honorable mention-that Elena is going to dump both Salvatores like the garbage they are). Anything other than that I don’t need to know, but knowing those would at least give me something to hold on to (only if they’re true, I don’t want lies).
The weird thing is, looking back at it, I might have actually been less upset if it had happened after the ritual. I’d have been heartbroken for her, I wouldn’t have wanted her to be trapped in a life she didn’t want but...it wouldn’t have felt quite so awful. Because while Elena wouldn’t have chosen it, it would have been the result of various people’s choices including her own. The only person who chose anything about it happening in s3 was Rebekah and maybe you can count Meredith. It’s not just some unforeseen consequence of Matt and Jeremy drugging Elena to get her out of town; it’s not an unfortunate side effect of the way Stefan and Damon had been treating Elena; it’s not even the result of something Elena did; hell, there doesn’t even seem to be an element of Elijah not explaining things well enough to Rebekah, she knew what he meant and acted in defiance of that. It’s the result of things being done to Elena, Esther used her to create Alaric the vampire, Klaus weakened/injured her to the point Meredith had to use vampire blood to heal her (without asking her or informing her afterward so that others were making choices with that in mind), Rebekah killed her. I’m not saying I would have believed her choosing to turn if the writers were determined to go there but rather than being something that ‘happened to’ her, it was something that was ‘done to’ her; and you know what, after the rest of s3 I’m sick of things being ‘done to’ Elena.
Okay...that tangent over back to this episode. Damon and Katherine crack me up, Damon basically results to school yard taunts to convince Kat to help him and it WORKS.
The last few episodes have been going that way, but it’s particularly evident here and in 2x21, that the writers had no real plot thread to tie Caroline and Tyler in with the Klaus plot. Even here, when they’re captured to be part of the Klaus plot they don’t deal with that they have to have relationship talks. And next time their plot is basically a distraction from the main story. I guess the writers decided to over correct for that in s3.
Yet again the show is awful in its treatment of Jenna. I should get over it but pretty soon I won’t have any more reasons to complain so I might as well stick to it for the last couple times I can. And it looked briefly like there might actually be some room for growth in her story line but nope, have to nip that in the bud ASAP, can’t let teens start thinking their parental figures (even bad ones) can have storylines. Grrr.
Aside from ranting about future plotlines, this episode was okay. It’s quite a bit better when viewed with the ones surrounding it though than it is on its own because most of this episode is set up for 2x21, and coming off the high of 2x19’s love story. It’s not exactly the weak link, because it’s a very important link that binds the trilogy together it’s just...crafted to be that rather than its own thing. I should probably have treated 2x20/2x21 as a two-parter, but that wasn’t what I felt like doing when I sat down to watch stuff tonight.
Next time:
Probably 2x21, because I should at least watch them in close succession But my other shows sound good too.
As usual, feel free to make a suggestion
TVD: 2x20: The Last Day
It’s been a while since I watched this one, and even longer since I watched it without immediately going on the 2x21, so therefore the first time probably since it aired that I approached it as its own episode rather than part of the closing arc. And for all its good parts, it really does work better as the middle part of the trilogy (with the finale as a coda to that).
One thing I will say for this episode is it’s really one of the few times I come close to shipping either side of the Triangle, and I actually come pretty close to shipping both sides...at times. Both sides are still problematic for me, meanwhile Elijah is wearing his early model “I’m so completely falling in love with you because everything you do makes me love and respect you more” face.
Yes I will talk about the Triangle more, but I’m me so I have to mention how great Elena and Elijah play off each other first. The info dump at the start continues to really be a talk between Elena and Elijah even with Stefan in the room (not quite as much as it will be by the end of s3, since they do at least acknowledge that Stefan is there at this point) in that while Elijah is providing info to Elena (and Stefan), the two of them are also explaining things to Stefan; basically *they’re* a team, where Elena and Stefan aren’t, and Elena and Damon sure as hell aren’t. Then there’s the excellent conversation between them where they’re both just honest, him about the odds, her about her reasons, and it’s so...they *get* each other, they *talk* to each other, they *communicate* ideas with each other. And it’s...something we don’t see in the other relationships.
Anyway, back to ships canon intended to sail with. The thing about the Elena/Damon scene is that I really do get a sense of Elena reaching out to him, like she really does want him to understand and she’s willing to talk about it. But Damon isn’t going to hear it (alternatively Damon isn’t Elijah); all he hears is her willing to roll the dice with her survival, even though I think even he knows (subconsciously at least) that she’d rather take a 50/50 shot at humanity over being a vampire. Then my tentative ability to see actual affection from Elena gets swarmed over by Damon being awful and reminding me that I don’t ship them for other reasons than not thinking Elena really likes him very much.
And again, Elijah gets it. I think he might be overstating things when he says Elena will never forgive Damon, underestimating her capacity for forgiveness (although he may be basing that estimate on her likely ability to forgive after becoming a vampire), but in principle he gets it; that Damon took the choice from her, and as Stefan points out and Elijah can probably guess, Damon really should know better.
You know, it probably says something that the moments I start to maybe ship D/E or S/E are the moments they have more in common with E/E than usual. I kinda maybe feel D/E for a moment when Elena wants to talk about her choices and thinks honesty (and a little flirtiness that would be full on eye-sex for E/E) is the way to go. I start to maybe like S/E when they finally start being honest with each other about what the future of their relationship was always going to be. I always have mixed feelings about Stefan’s admission that he’d want Elena to be a vampire and with him forever but I don’t necessarily judge him for it; I wonder if the writers are quite saying it right since Stefan seems to have so many issues with being a vampire that I’m not sure he’d want that for Elena, but I can assume they were going for a ‘I have forever, so I have the ability to want to be with you forever, and I do; vampirism isn’t so bad when we’re together right?’ Kind of a reverse of Cloen/Rose being ‘If I only have one life I’m damn sure going to spend it with you,’ I guess.
But it’s Elena’s admission that she doesn’t and never did, want to be a vampire that carries the weight of the scene. Because that’s always been the elephant in the room with her and Stefan; it’s always been there in her attitude and actions but never stated outright. And basically she never said if because she knows what it means for her relationship with Stefan; that one day her choice to *live* is going to come between them, and this is a girl who doesn’t even want to think about losing anyone else she loves, ever. Could she make a different choice later in her life after she’d had time to grow up and decide if it was in fact what she wanted? Yeah, it could happen. But right now she wouldn’t choose it, she’d choose to take her chance of continuing it live.
Okay, time to address *my* elephant in the room. I think we’re all clear on how much I don’t want vamp-Elena in s4. There are exactly three bits of spoiler info I’m interested in hearing before it happens on the show a) that Elijah is going to be in at least half the episodes of the season, b) that Klaus is getting his own body back within the first episode, and c) that Elena isn’t going to become a vampire (honorable mention-that Elena is going to dump both Salvatores like the garbage they are). Anything other than that I don’t need to know, but knowing those would at least give me something to hold on to (only if they’re true, I don’t want lies).
The weird thing is, looking back at it, I might have actually been less upset if it had happened after the ritual. I’d have been heartbroken for her, I wouldn’t have wanted her to be trapped in a life she didn’t want but...it wouldn’t have felt quite so awful. Because while Elena wouldn’t have chosen it, it would have been the result of various people’s choices including her own. The only person who chose anything about it happening in s3 was Rebekah and maybe you can count Meredith. It’s not just some unforeseen consequence of Matt and Jeremy drugging Elena to get her out of town; it’s not an unfortunate side effect of the way Stefan and Damon had been treating Elena; it’s not even the result of something Elena did; hell, there doesn’t even seem to be an element of Elijah not explaining things well enough to Rebekah, she knew what he meant and acted in defiance of that. It’s the result of things being done to Elena, Esther used her to create Alaric the vampire, Klaus weakened/injured her to the point Meredith had to use vampire blood to heal her (without asking her or informing her afterward so that others were making choices with that in mind), Rebekah killed her. I’m not saying I would have believed her choosing to turn if the writers were determined to go there but rather than being something that ‘happened to’ her, it was something that was ‘done to’ her; and you know what, after the rest of s3 I’m sick of things being ‘done to’ Elena.
Okay...that tangent over back to this episode. Damon and Katherine crack me up, Damon basically results to school yard taunts to convince Kat to help him and it WORKS.
The last few episodes have been going that way, but it’s particularly evident here and in 2x21, that the writers had no real plot thread to tie Caroline and Tyler in with the Klaus plot. Even here, when they’re captured to be part of the Klaus plot they don’t deal with that they have to have relationship talks. And next time their plot is basically a distraction from the main story. I guess the writers decided to over correct for that in s3.
Yet again the show is awful in its treatment of Jenna. I should get over it but pretty soon I won’t have any more reasons to complain so I might as well stick to it for the last couple times I can. And it looked briefly like there might actually be some room for growth in her story line but nope, have to nip that in the bud ASAP, can’t let teens start thinking their parental figures (even bad ones) can have storylines. Grrr.
Aside from ranting about future plotlines, this episode was okay. It’s quite a bit better when viewed with the ones surrounding it though than it is on its own because most of this episode is set up for 2x21, and coming off the high of 2x19’s love story. It’s not exactly the weak link, because it’s a very important link that binds the trilogy together it’s just...crafted to be that rather than its own thing. I should probably have treated 2x20/2x21 as a two-parter, but that wasn’t what I felt like doing when I sat down to watch stuff tonight.
Next time:
Probably 2x21, because I should at least watch them in close succession But my other shows sound good too.
As usual, feel free to make a suggestion
