foxyfreds

IMO Nina has improved so much as Elena. There were so many layers to her performance tonight. She was hurt by Bonnie, so vulnerable when she was coming down the stairs, so desperate to help Stefan. I felt for her more in this ep than any other.

There's emotion in her voice and on her face. And to say she doesn't have spunk...after what she did to Stefan at the end? That took some immense courage at the end there. I NEVER expected that but I was like

BiCaRdiBrEeZa

OMG Caroline totally made this episode. She was high-larious! "So your not dropping out?" "Are you sure?" And i loved Bonnie's little side ways giggle at Caroline trying to con Elena into quitting, how precious Her little pep talk to Elena just proved how good a friend she is and how annoying it is when Bonnie and Elena treat her like crap because they bang on about how rude/vain/sarcastic she is when they act more like that than poor Caroline does.

Stefan.. what a badass. I kind of liked it. Even though he was crazy it was weirdly hot!

Damon and John are so funny. Love the animosity. I'm so glad Damon started taking Stefan's addiction seriously. It really irked me at the start when he kept joking about it and leaving blood around especially when he saw how Elena's room was all bashed up.

Still would have wished it was Caroline Stefan took instead of that random girl, i love Caroline and they need to bring her into the main storyline ASAP. Would have been a good time to finally reveal vampires to her AGAIN Not that i want her to get hurt or anything but having her revolving around the rest of the cast is frustrating when she's more interesting than a majority of them.

Anna and Jeremy were so adorable! I really like them

Damon stepping up and Elena walking down and seeing him was a really sweet scene I don't know what it was, the music in the background or the way Nina looked at Ian but yeah.. for something who never cared about them they are winning me over little bit by little bit every week. And the dance was beautiful as well... the music was like full on pimping DE I didn't realise Kevin and co were playing the DE card so obvious and so early on but i think it worked. It was pretty obvious IMO that during the dance you could literally see Elena realizing that she might be feeling something more for Damon.

Stefan.. flat out scene stealing. He was so mesmerizing on screen.. the car scene i totally agree Aurora hot! He was like having a full on conversation with that girl in the parking lot what was with that? And why in the world does anyone leave Elena alone with him ?? I really can't hate on Elena for ganging up on him with Damon and locking him up.. it was really the only way. It pretty clear that DE growing closer is going to be the result of this but i think it works.. and its a good way to introduce a fully fledged triangle next season.

Bonnie.. eh.. she's just there for me. I did like her scenes with Stefan.. i feel like they have really great chemistry.

In short... i'd give the eppie a 9/10 pretty intense and entertaining but never enough Caroline!

21:21

this episode was just AMAZING.

semmanclana

You think she does I don't. Just like I feel Bonnie's has much more of one than Elena.


At the beginning of the series she was just a damsel who in every episode found her self in some form of saving now she's just part of Stefan and just bla. Katherine actually has a personality while Elena is just..... there's nothing to really say. I think Nina puts everything she has to play Katherine that there's nothing really left for Elena. That and the writers get the blame.
Before I watched the show a lot of my friends said Elena is annoying but I don't find her annoying, she just doesn't have a personality. I can pinpoint one in all the characters but her. One of the reasons I don't care about the triangle.

Beautiful Disorder

ok, first of all.. Paul/Stefan... gave me CHILLS. AMAZING performance. From being all cool and fun to freaking out on Elena... just.. wow. It was quite thrilling to watch him this week I gotta say. I kinda like this side of him, all predator-y but my heart broke when he was hunting that girl and Elena saw him he looked so ... i dont know. I'm impressed by Elena's courage and the way she handled the obviously painful step of locking him up.

gotta agree with this. I like SE and all, but outside of interactions with the people in her life I can't identify anything with her

DE are all good and all, but I was kind of just wondering why the dance was dragging.... and has Ian's eyebrows always been like that? just wondering, his eyes were especially evil looking this week. Not a bad thing, just... funny I'm not so impressed that Damon encouraged Stefan to do this and then kinda did an about face like he didn't see it coming. Still, glad he's trying to help his brother.

THIS.


Anna and Jeremy are super adorable, and I'm so glad Jeremy didn't freak out about the mind wipe. I'm liking him more and more now he's got less of the tortured, emo thing from the beginning of the season going on. I DO worry about him and Anna... that look Uncle Jon gave was too damn ominous and ~sinister, lol.

Bonnie. I've missed her. I'm surprised by all the comments about how she was behaving this ep. It totally makes sense. She was incredibly attached to Grams, and they were made to this spell that killed her and didn't even bring about the desired result. Is she supposed to jump back into school and run into Stefan and Elena's arms? She's grieving, she's VERY bitter, and after that scene with the mind control.. very badass.

Caroline... tried too hard sometimes and it bugs me. Glad she won the contest though, she deserved it.

Can we have more Tyler please?

Disturbia

I like seeing everyone's different points of view is interesting how everyone views scenes and characters differently definitely makes me look out for things.

I actually like all three girls so I dont have a problem with any of them and think all three of them bring something different to the table and they all have a personality. The only thing that annoys me is the way Caroline is treated by B/E so very much looking to a confrontation scene.

I was re watching and I actually liked how Bonnie played the scenes and I actually do agree that it was ''zombie like'' but I still think it was done on purpose, especially as Grams was saying that emotions play a part in a witch's power, so she may seem ''dead'' and lacking emotion but Im sure and hoping more emotions will surface I guess we will see how she acts during the remaining eps. But I understand people not liking her or whatever everyone likes/dislikes certain characters so I respect that.

But I will have to say as much as I like Bonnie I was annoyed with one thing which was her anger at Elena I understand her being mad at her but like I said before I would have loved to see her aim the majority of her anger at the Salvatore's, maybe that will come up. But I do think she is slightly transferring possibly I think she blames herself but taking her anger out on other people.

semmanclana

I dont believe she took all her anger out on Elena. Unlike Stefan and Damon, Elena kept confronting her on it so she explained to Elena how she felt. Like she told Elena she would never make her chose but she needs her space to think. Her grams died for basically nothing and shes hurt and doesn't want to be connected to the vampires anymore. And Elena is connected to them.

And I to loved the way Kat played Bonnie's emotions. You can tell that she was keeping them bottled up but in the end she couldn't any more.

Disturbia

But the thing is I understand why Elena was confronting her it seemed like they never even spoke at all when she was away and the first few times Bonnie was not really saying anything about what was up when Elena was talking to her(not that I blame her btw just seeing it from Elena's perspective)so Obviously Elena was trying to find out why her bf was avoiding her.

But I do think they will be cool again, she said she didnt want anything to do with the Salvatore's and blames them yet she helped Stefan she maybe mad at Elena but it seems she will still be there for her.

I agree IMO the way she played practically emotionless I guess worked for this ep. Hopefully we will see some of Grams Pizzaz come out though.

sweet_zelda

I agree with those two comments completely. Just because she ended up yelling at Elena doesn't mean she's actually mad at Elena. She said it herself, she's frustrated and she made her choice that she was done with them. She doesn't want to make Elena choose, so she makes the choice for her.

Schumiac

I absolutely "older brother" Damon.

I think his "views" regarding Stefan's blood drinking makes complete sense. I think what gets overlooked in this story is Stefan's human blood drinking story is not exactly an "addiction" story even if there are parallels, for human blood IS the "normal" Vampire FOOD, which is what they HAVE TO drink to be at their top form. So, Stefan by drinking human blood is NOT abusing a substance, he is doing what is normal & "healthy" for a vampire. Which is ultimately what Damon wants for him.

He WANTS his brother to stop refusing his "vampirism" and embrace it and part of that is drinking human blood, so of course he pushes for it. It seems a vampire who is NOT engaging in a "healthy dose of human blood" as is the natural vampire diet is weaker in strength AND also ends up being depressed (it is like they have LESS life in them overall). I think as a brother he finds Stefan's refusal to come to terms with his vampirism "unhealthy".

The problem is, Stefan NEVER got to learn to control his hunger which Damon did NOT really know, as even last episode he was telling Damon he DID have it in control and was not drinking simply due to "moral" reasons. When next episode ended, Damon only saw Stefan struggling to "resist" human blood, he was too busy with Jeremy & Uncle John to know what was going on between Stefan & that douche bag in the party or anything. So, as far as Damon is concerned, Stefan's "holier than thou" attitude may have him trying to go back to his animal diet and resist being a vampire, but his vampirism was kind of winning the fight this time around due to his hunger, so sorry he may have been for how lost and beaten down Stefan looked, but he also was happy to see him back on "vampire" track.

Even at the start of this episode, I don't think he was THAT bothered about the fact Stefan was on human blood. But Stefan insisting to lie on it kind of got him suspicious, and running into Stefan's stash (which made me go "wow!" for even Damon only has like 3 bags at home if Stefan's first night of forbidden human blood sucking is any indication) and Stefan's attitute about it all started to make him realize Stefan was being a tad reckless and not thinking straight and what with council now back on 'vampire mode' and Uncle John back to cause trouble (which are all things that happened after he gave Stefan the pro-human blood talk in last episode, btw) it is simply BETTER for them all around for Stefan to be kept in check and in control. That is when he really realized Stefan has been BSing about having it in contol, a century and a half of being a vampire in which he DID have bouts of human bllod drinking and Stefan actually STILL has not learned how to control it, and I think that is kind of shocking for Damon as HE has it in control and so does pretty much all the vampires. Which is part of the reason he told Elena, IMO, because she has a calming effect on Stefan & he listens to her and she could be able to reach out and knock some sense to him -at least about being "careful" with his actions.

& When Damon saw Stefan with that girl in the forest is the moment he really grasped how BAD things are for Stefan and how far gone he is. It was a wale up call for Damon too, as I think up until that moment even he was not really aware how far gone and out of control and crazy Stefan is. Which makes sense, for he loves Stefan and he himself has things under control and Stefan -even when they were human- has been the poster child of "self-control" and always been the "good, proper brother" to Damon's "bad, improper brother".

I don't know if everything that happened today will have Damon going "I guess you should stay off human blood forever", I doubt it will. I think he'd still prefer Stefan to stop resisting his vampire nature & LEARN TO CONTROL the hunger so that he can have a 'normal, healthy life' as a vampire. But now he KNOWS how bad that "process" will be, and THIS is absolutely not the time (and nor the place as I think Damon is kind of starting to care for the town and likes having a life there) for it. Which is why Damon is teaming up with Elena to "stop" raging crazy Stefan.

Also I am SOOOO glad Damon didn't have another "this is his nature Elena, yes of course he might be hurting that girl" speeches to Elena when he told her about how Stefan is missing and so is the girl and she was "he would never hurt the girl". All he wanted to do was find his brother, and he didn't want to hurt Elena and seemed to be even kind of calming her down with his "let's just go find him"...

And I don't see his sitting outside Stefan's cell as being just for Elena. He was going up as he assumed so was Elena, he'd either escort her out or sit down with her to "talk" things through (Stefan was already unconcsious) for he cares about Elena and this whole thing was taking a toll on her, too. Doesn't mean he'd just abandon Stefan and let him sit in that cell all alone without a care for him if it wasn't for Elena. He does love and care for his brother and I'm sure he'll be taking care of him to do best of his capabilities in the upcoming episode (I say best of his capabilities for I think Damon does have a difficulty understand the depths of Stefan's problems with blood control & how much it tortures his soul as HE doesn't have such difficulties and Stefan is not very open to him about any of it)

As for Ian Somerhalder: He mesmerized me last episode again. I think one of the things I love the most about his performance, when in all "mocking" 'I'm a 145 years old immortal, no I do not take life seriously AT ALL and am kind of bored" mode but especially when in pissed of, threatening, menacing mode he DOES come off as inhuman and VAMPIRE-like which has to do with Ian's body language but especially how he uses his face. It is a GREAT contrast to his "being his human self" serious & sad, caring scenes where he comes off as "human". I those switches. Which is why I don't see him as "over-acting" as some do, I think it is a conscious effort on his part to show his character is not just a regular human being but a VAMPIRE and I think it is the right way of going about it. It makes me even more drawn into the story and helps sell it much better.

foxyfreds

Excellent post Asena!

wigbee71583

I agree with this 100%. Elena has a personality and it is awesome. She is a girl who loves fiercely and is loyal to those she loves. She isn't a mean girl throwing quips at other people to make herself feel better. She internalizes her pain and tries to soldier through it. She is a really introverted character which I like. Elena feels like a real teenage girl who has had her entire life turned upside down. She isn't throwing fits when she finds out unpleasant thing. She deals with them the best she can. Caroline and Bonnie also feel like real girls to me too. Elena is my favorite character on the show followed by Stefan.

I loved this episode and I loved Elena. When that girl loves you, she will stick by your side. I like that Elena was trying to get through to Stefan for the whole episode. Stefan played Elena like a fiddle until the end. His actions just screamed addict from the way he lied to her,minimized her worry and fear for him, and twisted her concern for him into something that makes Elena look untrustworthy. He used her absolute trust in him against her. The finale scene between the two of them was perfect. I can't believe the show allowed Stefan to call her stupid and slam her into the wall. I though they would pull back, but they went there. The way PW played that scene, I felt like Elena could be hurt by Stefan at any moment even during their hug. I'm glad Elena fought for Stefan by locking him up and keeping him safe from himself until they can find a suitable alternative to keep him from destroying himself and adding on the guilt that he already carries. They didn't make Elena so naive that the power of her love would cure Stefan. She knew that she needed to carry a dart when she went into the room with Stefan. The other thing I liked about Elena is that I felt she would have done this for anyone she loved. It didn't help that Elena felt guilty for starting Stefan on his blood diet after centuries of abstention.

I get where both Bonnie and Elena were coming from. They both handled the strain in their friendship as well as they could given the circumstances. I felt for Elena when she found out that Bonnie called Caroline everyday while she was away when she wouldn't return any of Elena's messages. Bonnie is the only true confidant that Elena has and to have Bonnie end their friendship must have hurt horribly. Elena and Caroline were interesting as well. I love that Caroline won the contest,and Elena was truly happy for her even though she was losing Bonnie to Caroline and her boyfriend was going off the deep end. It was also nice to see that Caroline get a glimpse into the pain Elena carries around due to her parents death. The show has been pushing Caroline feeling second best to Elena and Elena gets everything and it was a nice reminder that Elena's life isn't as happy as it seems. I think Caroline needed a reminder that they all have problems.

From this last episode, I can see how Elena grows closer to Damon and how that deepens their bond in a completley organic way. Elena has no one in her life that she can confide in now that Bonnie has cut her off and Stefan has gone off the rails. Elena needs to save Stefan from himself and Damon is the only person who knows the whole story and can give her any type of emotional support. It makes sense that they would develop a deeper friendship since both of them are all the other has during Stefan's crisis. No one else understands what they are going through. I like that they aren't making it seem like she suddenly wants to jump his bones and that she hasn't forgotten what he has done to the other people she loves. It is just he is all that she has right now. I think this wouldn't happen if Bonnie were in the picture. Elena would be going to her for support. Elena's entire support structure consists of Bonnie and Stefan and if you take both of them away at the same time you get a girl who literally has no one else but Damon. I hope they concentrate on building the Damon and Elena friendship up instead of making it romantic. It would look horrible for Elena to become interested in Damon when the person she loves is in extreme pain.

Janelle

^ IA completely with you wigbee71583!

While I ship DE, I do think SE have chemistry & found them so adorable during their own dancing scene. I loved Elenas point at him after the whole "no touching." They just seemed like a very happy couple. That whole screen was cute. I have to re-watch the show but when he was with Amber id he not mention how Elena was not supose to find out?

Schumiac

I think Bonnie also made perfect sense. The poor girl is still grieving, and she has lost so much in such a short time, she IS kind of NUMB-which the acting shows. It is not just the loss of her beloved grandmother, she is “changing” herself, she used to be a normal human teenage girl whose biggest problem in the world seemed to find a suitable boyfriend, and be stuck in two contesting girls etc. Now she is a witch and has all these powers to control and get a graps of and it is not really all that ‘cool’ and fun as lighting candles and making feathers fly. This is serious, and can be deadly (if she overdoes it). Besides, the world is a much dangerous place than she has ever known it to be with vampires and all, and as a “witch” she is pretty much more a part of the supernatural world of vampires now than humans & she’d rather not be. She wants “normalcy” in her life, she wished she could go back to just being a human teenage girl, where this new world she all of a sudden got drawn into is dangerous and hurtful and dark. And, Elena is one of the biggest reasons she got so involved in this world and she is her biggest link to this world. So, of course she is pulling away from her. It is very consistent with her character. She didn’t want to be part of things when she first found out about Stefan being a vampire & was cold towards him trying to distance herself, and now that she has suffered a great loss she is even more cold and tries even more desperately to distance herself. Not everyone is going to be “vampire-friendly” like Elena was, and given Bonnie already got bitten by one and almost died as a result (which was by the way thanks to her ‘ancestor’ who possessed her body –which is abusive- and used her to do her magic, double cross a vampire and piss him off sending him to a raging anger and then ‘leave her’ to face the repercussions) and lost her grandmother because of ‘vampire affairs’ I think it makes sense that she doesn’t like vampires in general and is not fond of the ‘supernatural world’ in general.

And really, with Grandmother’s death I first and foremost blame Emily –who I generally like but also have some issues with due to how she used and then abandoned Bonnie-. Emily KNEW vampires, she should know better than to double-cross one who has for a lifetime did as she asked him to & Grandmother may have played it all as "vampire business, doesn't involve witches" BUT it was pretty much about a DEAL made between a WITCH & a VAMPIRE for the SURVIVAL of LOVED ONES - Damon was simply there to "collect" on his end. Besides, she’d have known the vamps were all mummified. So why not just let Katherine out and say the others need to be “killed off”. Damon would do it. It is not like HE ever wanted the whole tomb vamps to be saved, he only ever wanted Katherine, it was Emily who turned it into a “all is saved” spell, and I am not sure if it was because she HAD to (why give Katherine a special necklace otherwise) or with Pearl (and maybe some other vamps she liked) captured too she decided to make it a “wholesome” deal. In anyc ase, it certainly wasn’t Damon’s doing that the spell to save Katherine (which is what his deal with Emily was about) ended up saving all the vamps, and if Emily did not want them out, she could just give Damon who has kept to his end of things perfectly till that moment, have what he wanted. But she double-crossed him and than left her own grand-grand child all defenseless and confused to deal with his wrath…
The same goes for Grandmother, btw. They even had a plan to kill all the vamps. So, why not just let Damon HAVE what he wants after which he’ll leave (meaning they’ll be perfectly safe) than try to double-cross him? He IS the reason the Bennett’s are even around, as without him they were obviously all going to be burned as witches. She must have known how Damon has actually been looking after her family all this time if spirits do indeed talk. So, let the guy have what has been promised to him by Emily long time ago, and he’ll leave you all alone –problem solved and your ‘own’ definitely not in danger. Instead she also tried to one-up him, thought he was obviously ‘prepared’ this time for the Bennett’s betrayal and took Elena with him inside. And no, Elena could NOT get out as Damon would not have let her out unless they let him out (they wouldn’t know Damon would let go off Elena once inside, too busy to think about anything other than Katherine). Just because the spell didn’t work for Elena didn’t necessarily mean she’d be Ok. So, double crossing Damon was IMO a dumb and unnecessary move that just needlessly complicated things. And really, once she knew he had to “let” Damon & Stefan out, she should have simply concentrated on letting the seal down as planned and then they could simply kill all the vamps, as was PLANNED! Why the “need to keep the seal up” nonsense, still? Though, to be fair, I think part of the idea is she didn’t really have to power to bring the seal down and only with Bonnie’s “help” was able to break it apart for long enough to let the vamps out? And maybe the spell “went wrong” because she underestimated Bonnie’s power, which, even at this novice level, was strong enough to bring down the spell completely? I mean the jedi mind trick seemed to take a lot from Grandmother when she did it to Damon and hers didn’t even last that long whereas the one Bonnie did to Stefan lasted long and she was cool as a cucumber during all of it (and Bree definitely didn’t even know how to do it, probably wasn’t powerful enough). I think Bonnie is definitely Emily-levels of powerful. Which is interesting. I wonder if she can also make day-walking jewelry for vamps? That’s a career that would make very rich, I’d day…


& loved that Caroline won the contest fair & square, she deserved it. Maybe now she'll get over her Elena inferiority complex, for poor darling was so sure Elena would win it. And I kind of liked that Matt was absent. I think Caroline deserves better than him and the last thing she needed on such a beautiful day for her was to have Matt drooling over how beautiful Elena looks or this or that or giving her glances...

TheSweetestSmile

Well, that IS going to happen someday. Just not right now.