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.