So, Dr. Wes
stumbled into a legion of travelers to protect him. Great. It was a sparkling
start after last week’s bummer of an episode. The introduction of Dr. Wes and
the travelers are among my least favorite things about season five. The Damon
torture episode before the winter hiatus was the nadir of TVD. Last week’s
episode suggested a change for the rest of the season. I wrote about this whole
three acts to a season thing that doesn’t work now. Oh well. Dr. Wes and the
travelers act as catalysts for Damon’s further descent into regrettable life
choices and then mosey off. They’ll be back, though. Alas, they’ll be back.
Damon’s already
committed many bad acts during his life so much of what he does in “Total
Eclipse of the Heart” reminds one of what he’s done and what he’s capable of
when he doesn’t care. The ‘Kidnapped Jeremy’ plotline was a retread of other
‘Kidnap and threaten Jeremy,’ and I expected one of the characters to raise
awareness to that in a meta way. Of course, no character calls attention to
that. Damon acts out of spite towards Elena, though she never broke up with him
because Katherine hijacked her body and used her Elena identity to end things.
See, that’s a retread of what happened last week on the show. It’s not very fun
to read, right? Damon uses Jeremy to hurt Elena, but Elena’s gone, so Katherine
needs to fake emotional investment in Jeremy’s safety. Katherine-as-Elena does
add a nifty twist to the Jeremy-in-peril, especially since it leads Tyler and
Matt, of all characters, to figure out that something is off in Mystic Falls. Enzo
kills Jeremy, but Katherine revives him. Stefan exiles him from Mystic Falls.
Damon staggers, as if slightly wounded by his brother’s words, before muttering
that he never intended to return. Dr. Wes and the travelers then turn Damon’s
instincts around by injecting him with the stuff that makes him hungry for
vampire blood.
Damon’s bad life
choices actually progress at the end of an episode in which he behaved like an
older rock band that only plays colleges. Yes, Damon takes the head off of a
vampire in the last scene as Enzo looks on and remarks, ‘This could be
trouble.’ Damon remarks to himself and to his victim that what’s happening to
him is karma. Decades and centuries of murdering humans led him to the moment
when he feeds on his own kind. There’s the rub. Damon’s redemption will happen
through his ordeal against his kind. The murder of Aaron, the sort of murder of
Jeremy, and all else he’s done will be forgiven because this ordeal. Stefan
knows Elena won’t forgive Damon for killing Aaron, but she will because of the
emphasis on the love triangle. Sometimes, Damon’s as shallow a character as
that idea of changing a bad boy into a good boy, which is the root of
Elena/Damon. Stefan admits to Katherine why he didn’t want Damon to be torn
from Elena, because Elena brought Damon back from the deep, helped him to
resist his worst impulses. Essentially, she changed him for the better.
Katherine likes
to see Damon’s self-destruction since he tortured her on her last day and
manages to turn what Elena would do to her own advantage without giving herself
away. Stefan’s her prize and approaches romance with him two or three times.
The first is at the Bitter Ball when they dance, and the second happens in Elena’s
dorm room. Katherine manipulates the situation and almost kisses him. Katherine
rejects Damon for life for having harmed Jeremy. Stefan still furrows his brow,
bothered by his brother’s behavior, reluctant to take from his hope and
salvation. The love triangle will end one of two ways: Stefan selflessly lets
Damon have Elena or Damon figures himself out and can exist without Elena. All
three will be changed by the current story, probably for the better until
better is dramatically and narratively uninteresting and the writers decide
Stefan needs to take heads off again.
The commitment
and dedication of Stefan are what I’d point to when explaining why he’s the
best character in the series. The writers continually nail the character’s
humanity. Stefan reminds me a lot of Angel, but Angel was never as free as
Stefan. Angel was burdened by the past, he committed his life’s work to helping
the helpless/hopeless. (I’ll always prefer Angel.) Stefan was really awesome in
those two scenes in which he threatened Enzo. He was tender in his scenes with
Katherine. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” showed once again how horribly our
favorite characters will act; it challenged our idea of morality in our modern
world once again; and it, again, got us to root for those characters behaving
horribly. Stefan’s the heart of the show—he’s been the worst and he’s been the
best. Now, TVD doesn’t actively challenge its viewers to think about what we’re
rooting for, but I think Stefan’s there as an active reminder of what living
looks like. He is the most human.
None of the
major characters have caught onto Katherine. She play-acts Elena adeptly.
Tyler, of all characters, hears Nadia compelling Matt. I can’t remember the
last significant turning point involving Tyler. Matt also figures out that
Nadia and Katherine worked together to take Elena’s body. Matt will eventually
forget because that’s how Matt’s written. Tyler may or may not be useful to the
others in clueing them in about what’s happened to Elena. Caroline watches
Katherine closely, sensing something different, especially when Stefan’s
around. I assume the jig will be up for Katherine by early March. I think
she’ll have changed somewhat, but however much she changed will be undone by
hijacking Elena’s body. That kind of character stuff happens a lot on TV.
Damon feeding on
other vampires is the next great crisis for the gang. I don’t know why anyone
besides Stefan would want to save him. Season five seems more about telling
stories in quick 2-3 episode bursts than that long-form commitment to Klaus and
the originals. That works. I’d love to see Dr. Wes written off, but I assume an
awesome dream episode awaits us all in early May. (I don’t really assume that).
Other Thoughts:
-I loved Nina
Dobrev’s acting when she played Elena’s sadness about Jeremy followed by her
playing Katherine’s total apathy about it.
-For a vampire
that’s spent a couple decades locked in a cell, Enzo’s possibly the most
stylish character.
-Rebecca
Sonnenshine and Holly Brix wrote the episode. Darren Genet directed it.
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