100 Reviews: 44
Sep. 26th, 2012 01:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthYou know, I have a lot of thoughts on this episode, but not so much of a review. So let’s bust out another style for this one.
TVD: 3x10: The New Deal
1. I find the timeline really screwy here, because in some ways it feels like there’s been a long lull since Homecoming for paranoia to set in and Jeremy to get really angry and bitter; but not only is that not TVD’s style it doesn’t make sense for Klaus either so...well it’s wonky.
2. This is where Stefan’s story goes really off the rails too. Or...at least in retrospect this section of his story is really awkward. Because I can totally get behind the angry Stefan arc (t’s not about any kind of switch any more, all he has left is anger) but the problem is they wanted him to be all redeemed by the end of the season. If they had really gone to the angry Stefan (not Ripper Stefan, but still dark Stefan) arc and committed to it there’s a lot to like in it, but looking back on it this is kind of the hardest thing to get past from a story perspective because there is NO EXCUSE, and there shouldn’t be that’s why when it’s good it works so well.
At this point in the season it makes sense, following what’s happened to him since he left with Klaus he knows he can’t go back, and he’s lashing out at the only target he has (besides himself but as much as Stefan broods I’m not sure he really goes in for the whole Angel style guilt thing). He has no hope of “redemption” or whatever word he might apply to it, and he doesn’t want to feel all the other things he’s left with after these adventures; so get good and mad and focus on revenge so that that’s all you have to feel. But again, the show completely didn’t deal with him COMING BACK from this point. He had his epiphany about coming back off screen, they made it all boil down to the human blood component of the problem, and forgot all the issues they had raised at the beginning of this “arc” (I use the term loosely because at this point it still looks like an arc but overall it really wasn’t) about why he couldn’t just come back to his old life.
Yes I AM going to keep complaining about Stefan’s “arc” this season. But mostly the resolution, otherwise I’m going to have to write a novel once we get to that point.
3. I can never seem to write it but my headcanon says Elena and Damon had some version of the following conversation on their way out to the witch house.
E: So if Stefan has the coffins...
D: We give them to Klaus and everyone lives to see another day.
E: Actually that wasn’t the only thing I was thinking.
D: Oh? What’s that then?
E: Klaus didn’t say we had to return his family with the daggers in their hearts.
D: No way, no how.
E: But Elijah would know if there’s a way to fight Klaus.
D: Don’t care, not going to happen.
E: (glares)
D: We are not releasing the spider to maybe catch the fly.
4. I actually felt this time like there was a lot of Elijah undertones to the Elena and Klaus dealings here. She’s backed into a corner and people are shutting her out so she decides to gamble with an Original. Hell I *almost* feel like he’s taunting her over her history with Elijah when he’s goes to a “You have my word” place (logically he’s just taunting them that his word is kind of mediocre but it’s the best they’ve got but I can embrace a reading with more Elijah undertones to it).
4.1. However when Damon asks Elena if she trusts Klaus she emphatically says No. She knows she can’t really trust his word, she just can’t do nothing. But we have past and upcoming examples that she *does* trust Elijah, which is the real difference between the Elena-Klaus deals and Elena-Elijah ones; dealing with Klaus was making treaty terms with the enemy, dealing with Elijah was an alliance and eventually...a meeting of kindred spirits who happen to be on opposing sides a lot of the time.
4.2. However we shouldn’t ignore the fact that Elena pretty much OWNED Klaus in this round of their conflict. He threw down the gauntlet but she found a way to slap him with it. And again I will point out that Elena shows about an thousand times more agency when dealing with anybody not named Salvatore than she does around those two.
5. I’m working on a new bit of headcanon that maybe Klaus decided to go after Caroline when he had to leave Rebekah out of his plans. I’m not sure it works yet but it does acknowledge the incest undertones of Klaus talking to Rebekah’s body here.
6. Continuity gripe, if Esther’s coffin is spelled shut, how does it match the rest of the coffins? I’m pretty sure Klaus has kept buying new ones for the family over the centuries but how does that work with Esther’s body? This has been bugging me for a while so I might as well mention it here.
7. Is there something we missed in Damon’s backstory with Emily Bennett? Because the fact that she continues to mess with Damon but apparently not Stefan...could use some explanation.
8. I still have mixed feelings about Tyler’s story this season. It sets up a lot of interesting ideas but...I’m pretty sure it’s better than Stefan’s arc-like-thing but that may be that it had less to lose. I like the discussions we get about the subject here.
8.1. However, what *is* the difference between being sired and Damon compelling Andie to love him? Ignoring the fact that Damon probably compelled her to do certain things that he couldn’t count on her doing just because she was (fake) in love with him, both relationships are built on an emotion one party created in the other; and then that party makes decisions based on those implanted feelings of loyalty.
9. I think it would have helped this episode if either we knew it had been a while since Ghost World, or if we had seen Jeremy since then. Because as is...he seems *way* angrier than he was until this point and it doesn’t really track. Elena puts it as him going off the rails since Bonnie broke up with him but if that relationship meant that much to him he wouldn’t have gotten involved with Anna in the first place. He’s angry at *everything* here; did he die a few times while he was off screen and Esther’s been working on him or something?
9.1. This round of compelling Jeremy is weird too (I seem to be saying a lot of things are weird here). Because I’m not sure I think Elena would go straight to compelling him to get out of town without seeing what he thought in a calmer mood first (and if it was like his attitude when he was angry he’d *want* to go); and I’ve always thought it was done as if Jeremy knew exactly what was happening as soon as Damon started talking and he didn’t say anything about it happening. Which all makes it just weird that they ever needed to compel him, since it seems clear he was okay with this idea of leaving town. Especially since they didn’t actually have it come into play down the road. They compelled him to put MF behind him and never look back but when they show up to take him home he doesn’t protest that he thinks it’s better he stays away? The compulsion seems unnecessary to the plot and Jeremy’s character and poorly thought out on a plot and character level too.
10. You know, I sometimes borderline agree with the other characters trying not to add more to Elena’s overloaded plate of shit and not immediately bring her in on things. But when it reaches the point of outright lying to her I lose all tentative ability to condone it.
10.1. Which is why my problems with the D/E kiss boil down to two things:
-He had *just* lied to her about being involved in Stefan’s plans , so it’s hard to say it comes from a place of them being partners like a good chunk of the episode seemed to be trying to sell. He clearly doesn’t feel some deep emotional need to kiss her because he views them as essentially being in a relationship just without the physical aspects of it (granted Stefan wasn’t always the best at including her in plans so maybe he doesn’t think it’s necessary to having a relationship with her).
(-Nor is it born out a drive to be there for *her* when she’s been through so much that day. He makes that abundantly clear, that it’s all about what he wants. This isn’t really its own point though.)
-The music. Dear gods the music. From the first time I saw this episode I just thought the song was ridiculous for a changing of the central relationship on the show that they seemed to be going for. And it’s actually a lie it proves out. She never shuts the door on Stefan, nor does she enter into anything with Damon from this point. I actually like the song but its use here is ridiculous.
11. My Elena/Alaric feelings are always happy this episode, they’re so good together.
12. Okay, all the complaining I seem to do, again, I like this episode. I think it has a lot of good stuff in it, a lot of my complaining is the bigger picture stuff. This is certainly part of that bigger picture but most things in the smaller context don’t seem so bad. This is just a show that is a lot less than the sum of its parts (maybe...there are some episodes that seriously drag down that overall sum, and usually have a lot to do with defining the bigger picture elements I dislike). However we’re only a couple episodes away from Elijah where I will do less complaining (or at least a lot more squeezing about the non-Salvatore parts).
Next time:
I am going to *try* and cover this season before s4 starts, so I better get on with it. We’ll see how well that goes though. But if I get bit by a reviewing urge I may double down with an early review too (TVD is a nighttime thing).
Always open to suggestions
TVD: 3x10: The New Deal
1. I find the timeline really screwy here, because in some ways it feels like there’s been a long lull since Homecoming for paranoia to set in and Jeremy to get really angry and bitter; but not only is that not TVD’s style it doesn’t make sense for Klaus either so...well it’s wonky.
2. This is where Stefan’s story goes really off the rails too. Or...at least in retrospect this section of his story is really awkward. Because I can totally get behind the angry Stefan arc (t’s not about any kind of switch any more, all he has left is anger) but the problem is they wanted him to be all redeemed by the end of the season. If they had really gone to the angry Stefan (not Ripper Stefan, but still dark Stefan) arc and committed to it there’s a lot to like in it, but looking back on it this is kind of the hardest thing to get past from a story perspective because there is NO EXCUSE, and there shouldn’t be that’s why when it’s good it works so well.
At this point in the season it makes sense, following what’s happened to him since he left with Klaus he knows he can’t go back, and he’s lashing out at the only target he has (besides himself but as much as Stefan broods I’m not sure he really goes in for the whole Angel style guilt thing). He has no hope of “redemption” or whatever word he might apply to it, and he doesn’t want to feel all the other things he’s left with after these adventures; so get good and mad and focus on revenge so that that’s all you have to feel. But again, the show completely didn’t deal with him COMING BACK from this point. He had his epiphany about coming back off screen, they made it all boil down to the human blood component of the problem, and forgot all the issues they had raised at the beginning of this “arc” (I use the term loosely because at this point it still looks like an arc but overall it really wasn’t) about why he couldn’t just come back to his old life.
Yes I AM going to keep complaining about Stefan’s “arc” this season. But mostly the resolution, otherwise I’m going to have to write a novel once we get to that point.
3. I can never seem to write it but my headcanon says Elena and Damon had some version of the following conversation on their way out to the witch house.
E: So if Stefan has the coffins...
D: We give them to Klaus and everyone lives to see another day.
E: Actually that wasn’t the only thing I was thinking.
D: Oh? What’s that then?
E: Klaus didn’t say we had to return his family with the daggers in their hearts.
D: No way, no how.
E: But Elijah would know if there’s a way to fight Klaus.
D: Don’t care, not going to happen.
E: (glares)
D: We are not releasing the spider to maybe catch the fly.
4. I actually felt this time like there was a lot of Elijah undertones to the Elena and Klaus dealings here. She’s backed into a corner and people are shutting her out so she decides to gamble with an Original. Hell I *almost* feel like he’s taunting her over her history with Elijah when he’s goes to a “You have my word” place (logically he’s just taunting them that his word is kind of mediocre but it’s the best they’ve got but I can embrace a reading with more Elijah undertones to it).
4.1. However when Damon asks Elena if she trusts Klaus she emphatically says No. She knows she can’t really trust his word, she just can’t do nothing. But we have past and upcoming examples that she *does* trust Elijah, which is the real difference between the Elena-Klaus deals and Elena-Elijah ones; dealing with Klaus was making treaty terms with the enemy, dealing with Elijah was an alliance and eventually...a meeting of kindred spirits who happen to be on opposing sides a lot of the time.
4.2. However we shouldn’t ignore the fact that Elena pretty much OWNED Klaus in this round of their conflict. He threw down the gauntlet but she found a way to slap him with it. And again I will point out that Elena shows about an thousand times more agency when dealing with anybody not named Salvatore than she does around those two.
5. I’m working on a new bit of headcanon that maybe Klaus decided to go after Caroline when he had to leave Rebekah out of his plans. I’m not sure it works yet but it does acknowledge the incest undertones of Klaus talking to Rebekah’s body here.
6. Continuity gripe, if Esther’s coffin is spelled shut, how does it match the rest of the coffins? I’m pretty sure Klaus has kept buying new ones for the family over the centuries but how does that work with Esther’s body? This has been bugging me for a while so I might as well mention it here.
7. Is there something we missed in Damon’s backstory with Emily Bennett? Because the fact that she continues to mess with Damon but apparently not Stefan...could use some explanation.
8. I still have mixed feelings about Tyler’s story this season. It sets up a lot of interesting ideas but...I’m pretty sure it’s better than Stefan’s arc-like-thing but that may be that it had less to lose. I like the discussions we get about the subject here.
8.1. However, what *is* the difference between being sired and Damon compelling Andie to love him? Ignoring the fact that Damon probably compelled her to do certain things that he couldn’t count on her doing just because she was (fake) in love with him, both relationships are built on an emotion one party created in the other; and then that party makes decisions based on those implanted feelings of loyalty.
9. I think it would have helped this episode if either we knew it had been a while since Ghost World, or if we had seen Jeremy since then. Because as is...he seems *way* angrier than he was until this point and it doesn’t really track. Elena puts it as him going off the rails since Bonnie broke up with him but if that relationship meant that much to him he wouldn’t have gotten involved with Anna in the first place. He’s angry at *everything* here; did he die a few times while he was off screen and Esther’s been working on him or something?
9.1. This round of compelling Jeremy is weird too (I seem to be saying a lot of things are weird here). Because I’m not sure I think Elena would go straight to compelling him to get out of town without seeing what he thought in a calmer mood first (and if it was like his attitude when he was angry he’d *want* to go); and I’ve always thought it was done as if Jeremy knew exactly what was happening as soon as Damon started talking and he didn’t say anything about it happening. Which all makes it just weird that they ever needed to compel him, since it seems clear he was okay with this idea of leaving town. Especially since they didn’t actually have it come into play down the road. They compelled him to put MF behind him and never look back but when they show up to take him home he doesn’t protest that he thinks it’s better he stays away? The compulsion seems unnecessary to the plot and Jeremy’s character and poorly thought out on a plot and character level too.
10. You know, I sometimes borderline agree with the other characters trying not to add more to Elena’s overloaded plate of shit and not immediately bring her in on things. But when it reaches the point of outright lying to her I lose all tentative ability to condone it.
10.1. Which is why my problems with the D/E kiss boil down to two things:
-He had *just* lied to her about being involved in Stefan’s plans , so it’s hard to say it comes from a place of them being partners like a good chunk of the episode seemed to be trying to sell. He clearly doesn’t feel some deep emotional need to kiss her because he views them as essentially being in a relationship just without the physical aspects of it (granted Stefan wasn’t always the best at including her in plans so maybe he doesn’t think it’s necessary to having a relationship with her).
(-Nor is it born out a drive to be there for *her* when she’s been through so much that day. He makes that abundantly clear, that it’s all about what he wants. This isn’t really its own point though.)
-The music. Dear gods the music. From the first time I saw this episode I just thought the song was ridiculous for a changing of the central relationship on the show that they seemed to be going for. And it’s actually a lie it proves out. She never shuts the door on Stefan, nor does she enter into anything with Damon from this point. I actually like the song but its use here is ridiculous.
11. My Elena/Alaric feelings are always happy this episode, they’re so good together.
12. Okay, all the complaining I seem to do, again, I like this episode. I think it has a lot of good stuff in it, a lot of my complaining is the bigger picture stuff. This is certainly part of that bigger picture but most things in the smaller context don’t seem so bad. This is just a show that is a lot less than the sum of its parts (maybe...there are some episodes that seriously drag down that overall sum, and usually have a lot to do with defining the bigger picture elements I dislike). However we’re only a couple episodes away from Elijah where I will do less complaining (or at least a lot more squeezing about the non-Salvatore parts).
Next time:
I am going to *try* and cover this season before s4 starts, so I better get on with it. We’ll see how well that goes though. But if I get bit by a reviewing urge I may double down with an early review too (TVD is a nighttime thing).
Always open to suggestions
