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3/31/2013

Teen Wolf : Love Is a Battlefield



Well, people, Teen Wolf's return is "just" a couple of months away, and I just realized I hadn't finished talking about season 2 ! I'm picking up at episode 10. At this point, we know the creepy dude who almost drowned was the one who controlled the kanima, but Grandpa Argent killed him. Oh, and he's buddies with the kanima.




So, the episode started out kinda gloomy, with a whole 5 minute recap of how crappy things are. Stiles is talking about drowning, to the shrink who's friends with the veterinarian. Anyway she tells him that when you're drowning you should hold on 'til the very last second, quotes Churchill... It's not really interesting, just a way to tell us Stiles' dad got his job back and Scott's mom won't talk to him, now that she found out he's a werewolf. 




 And cue, the actual episode.




Grandpa Argent stops by Scott's house to threaten him into helping him find Derek. Except every other member of the pack is apparently in hiding, so good luck Scotty... 




But then Isaac just pops up at the veterinarian's office. I loved this scene, it was adorable.





So, before Isaac came along, Scott and the doc were examining and petting a super cute little dog. But apparently he smells like cancer, and he's going to die. But the wise doc tells Isaac he has the ability to help.




Isaac takes some of the dog's pain away. And then he starts crying ! Oooh poor baby... Isaac is one of the few characters I genuinely like, which consist of Derek and Stiles, basically. But he can be kind of ridiculous, mostly because he thinks he's so tough and cool, but honestly, it's cute. 




Anyway, Scott is all "Don't worry, I cried too" and I'm sorry, he's just trying to be nice, but it's ridiculous, he's ridiculous, he's the puppy, it's cute, sure, but mostly it's just funny.




Awwwwwwwwwwwwww !



Happy faces


After all this emotion, they get down to business. Isaac came to tell Scott the others were leaving tonight during the game, and ask for his advice. Which he didn't give because he's stupid and he has "no idea what he's doing." His words. Those two have become best friends in under 2 episodes, and like almost every other boy-boy friendships on the show, it looks alarmingly similar to a boy-girl relationship. Awwww. Also Isaac also informs Scott that what's his face will be playing in the game that very night.




Okay, so the context is set, now bring on the action.


Such conviction and pride


I'm sorry this shot is useless, but please, look at the other people around Stiles' dad. He just yelled "My son is on the field" after realizing... well that Stiles was in fact on the field. I love those people's faces. The black dude and the one with glasses just look annoyed like "come on man, stop that shit", the lady next to Glasses is seeing God, and the blond on the left is checking out Mister Stilinski's ass. Nice work, people.




Okay, now bring on the action, for real. Grandpa Argent is the cause of all the commotion, as is tradition. He threatens Scott, nice technique by the way, though a little repetitive... If Scott doesn't get him Derek before the last 30 seconds of the game, Jackson will kill someone at the game. 




But of course, one of my favorite characters is always there to save the day. So at this point, it's not even half time, Stiles and Jackson are on the field, Scott isn't allowed to play but Isaac is, and Grandpa Argent is nearby, waiting and staring.




The look of love.




Too little mention of Derek in this post. That's not right. But then again he wasn't anywhere close to the action in this episode. No, he got a surprise visit from the big bad from season 1, which turned into a day-long conversation, with a little fighting.


One day, I'll know your name.


In the entire episode, Derek basically just stood there and looked pissed. Then they fought a little, while talking. Derek is having a lot of problems. First he has the kanima to deal with, then the 2 thirds of the Argent family that want to kill him, and 2 of his pack members just dumped him. He's having doubts about his abilities as an alpha. Tragic, I know.





Back to the game-related action ! Isaac got on the field, and knocked out enough players of his own team for Scott to be allowed to play, but in the process he was attacked by Jackson, so he's about to be completely paralyzed and Grandpa Argent wants to cut him in two. But luckily, his newfound relationship with Scott means that he won't be left behind. Awwwwwwwwwww, he came back to protect his friend. Soooo cheesy, but that's why we love them.  




When all that was happening, the game was still going on. And at some point, by some act of the lord, Stiles turned into the Michael Jordan of Lacrosse. He scores once, then again, offering the victory to his team. The clock ticks, the umpire blows his whistle and the game is over. They won, everybody's cheering, yay, happy faces everywhere !




Aaaaaaand then the lights go out. One by one, until the field is completely dark.




And in the end, the person that got hurt was actually Jackson. Big twist, I gotta say, nice. Everyone rushes to him. Verdict : No breathing, no pulse, a lot of blood, and he did it to himself.




But there's another problem. Stiles is missing, his dad wanders calling out for him, but he's not there and actually, I don't even remember what happened to him. Did Grandpa Argent kidnap him ? Yeah, that was probably it, since he created the whole diversion in the first place. More on that in the final post about the second season.




Wow, I talked about almost everything that happened in this episode. Except, of course, for Alison's I'm-the-baddest-psychotic-bitch-in-town new personality, but who wants to hear about that ? In the end the conversation between Derek and the Big Bad ended on the conclusion that, the only way to solve the kanima problem is to save Jackson, "through his heart", in other words, through Lydia. That's more than enough for an interesting finale.


3/15/2013

The Vampire Diaries : Stand By Me



 I both love and hate this season of the vampire diaries. Love because Elena's a f#cking vampire and hate because, although I didn't realize it until recently, I liked the old Elena better.




Vampire Elena is new, therefore interesting plus, like I said, she's a freaking vampire ! But with the whole sire bond thing she hasn't really been herself, she seems lost and that's understandable, poor girl has lost every single person she ever dared love.  




I like how Damon was as clueless as Elena. If it hadn't been for Stefan he would've just waited with her for Jeremy to wake up until he realized he wouldn't. Like "Oh shit, I hadn't thought about that... Hey honey, listen ..." That would've been awkward. :)




Anywho ! So while Damon is searching for Bonnie on that godforsaken island, Stefan and Elena get back to Mystic Falls with Jeremy's body. And for some reason everyone just has to make Elena feel worse. Of course she knows he's not gonna wake up, she's in denial ! That means that even though she won't admit it, even though she's not aware of it herself, she knows. And the implication is a very fragile state of mind.




But they just keep pushing her. Stefan and Caroline keep talking behind her back, even though she can obviously hear everything they're saying, and they call Dr Freaking Fell. And the bitch is like "You're brother's skin is gonna bloat." Really ? And you're surprised she stacked you against a wall ? Dude you ruined her life, by turning her into the one thing she never ever wanted to be and now you come into her house, inspect her dead brother's body and tell her she can't hold on to it ?




I haven't liked Elena much this season, (yes I'm repeating myself, I am aware of that) but in this episode I was on her side for the entire thing, you wanna snap at Meredith ? You go girl ! You think there's a chance Jeremy's gonna come back ? I'm with you on this one too ! The worst part is I knew chances were he wasn't gonna wake up, it's the Vampire Diaries, major characters die every 2 or 3 episodes, but her thing about the tatoo being gone was actually plausible, I honestly had hope. Seems there's a lot of that going on lately.




Bonnie. Oh Bonnie Bonnie Bonnie... Will you ever die ? I had hope there too, not as much though. For a second I thought "Finally, thank you lord" but I quickly realized Bonnie's not a major character they can expand. Not yet anyway, she's the super witch. She's the only witch. There are tons of humans, vampires, werewolves, originals, even hybrids don't seem to be an endangered species anymore but witches ? No such luck. So we're stuck with Bonnie. Oh and she's insane now too. Yay !




Again, I like how Damon explains the situation to Stefan. First and foremost, "she's out of her mind, Stefan". Then, he actually explains the situation to his brother, while said douche brother stands there uncomprehending.




Anyway, Bonnie ran into Shane in the woods. And he explained to her that all she had to do to raise the dead was kill twelve people. Of course she thought it was a brilliant idea ! The whole time Bonnie, Matt and Caroline are discussing Bonnie's crazy idea, something in Elena's brain is snapping. My theory is you need crazy to know crazy. Somehow Bonnie's craziness made a part of Elena wake up and say "Oh my god something big happened and I didn't even see it."




Then April calls, asking for Jeremy and the realization strikes home. Elena just blurts out that Jeremy's dead, hangs up and walks out.




What makes this episode one of the best, nay one of the bestest of all time, is the tension. From the moment the phone rings, the space is saturated with it. Because Elena knows her brother is dead, and considering things, basically it's like she just found out. And you know it's gonna blow up. It has to.
Awww Damon, I barely mentioned his name in this whole post ! Of course he would follow her upstairs, normally that's the part where I sit up and light a cigarette. There, I didn't even notice this was a Damon/Elena scene (no I don't like saying "Delena", sorry guys) I was just glad it wasn't Stefan.  




Then again it wasn't exactly a romantic scene.




 From then on, Nina Dobrev, you rocked my world.




Elena asks Damon to carry Jeremy downstairs and goes into overdrive. She starts burning down her house.




It's funny how you feel like the real Elena is finally waking up. Not just the Elena who knows her brother from her dead brother but the true, pre-vamp, for real Elena. She was always fighting with someone (Damon) to show what was the right thing to do. And in the middle of exorcising her memories, that's exactly what she did. It was nice, I found myself liking her like I did in the old days. Maybe she would've been more like her old self if you know... anyway, we're not at that part yet.




 I liked Caroline for the first time in a while too. For some reason after Elena became a vampire I entirely stopped liking Caroline, she was selfish, bitchy for no reason, and she was so totally Team Stefan I just couldn't do it. But just when she said "Elena, stop it, you're scaring me !" I fell in love with the character all over again. I don't know why, I guess it just felt right, it was realistic and in line with the character. Candice Accola had a lot to do with it, I don't if I've said this before but she's a really really talented actress.




But back to Elena. I didn't cry when she was talking, not the first time anyway. Of course Stefan is trying to dissuade her and doing a piss poor job at it. She says she doesn't want to live in this house anymore, several dead relatives will to do that to you. It's the best cover story.





Then she drops the flame, Damon catches it and says he needs her to calm down. She falls down on her knees and starts really crying. I'm talking my-entire-family-is-dead crying. There. That's when I burst into tears.




Oh, Damon.




I have a lot of screenshots for this scene but I don't even know how to begin to comment on them.





Maybe finish telling the story ? So Damon takes on, and again wasn't even paying attention to it the first time around, and everybody thinks he's gonna tell her to calm down, that it's all gonna be okay but then ... you stop crying all together, sit the f#ck up with a big oh-no-they-didn't look on your face.   


"Turn it off"


Only Damon would've made that happen and only he had the ability to actually do it. So yeah we won't see old Elena but we are getting humanity-off Elena. And the look on Stefan's face, that's just bonus.






I was really scared they were gonna make us wait a few weeks to see the new Elena even though there was like 10 minutes left ! But of course, they didn't. Elena rationally decides that the fire story is the best cover story and if that means she won't have a home to come to, that's not a problem, it's not a need she can even fathom.





So the plan is : wait 'till she's strong enough to let it back in and then make her. Grrrreat plan ! What could possibly go wrong ? That's why I love Damon, Stefan never would've pulled off something like that, and maybe if this were real life, he would've been right not to. But this isn't real life and that is the greatest thing that could've possibly happened. I'd like to point out that this episode was written by Julie Plec. No wonder. Props to everyone else involved in the making of this episode. And thank you !

Oh, one last thing, Family by Noah Gundersen.