Why save or
mourn or care about the very worst, morally deprived characters in The Vampire
Diaries? That question likely had space on the writers’ room white board. The
writers probably discuss the question, ponder it, dwell upon it, and so forth,
for stretches during any and all seasons. “Black Hole Sun” is littered with
reminders that these characters maimed and killed, drink themselves into
oblivion, and loathe themselves more than anyone else loathes them. Damon’s
always been the problem character in the series. We exist in a culture where
audiences treat characters like people and thus the character’s morality
matters more than anything else in the story. Damon cannot be an unrepentant
monster; but rather he must repent and suffer for what he’s done. The writers
have a trick or two to maintain the essence of the character without obviously
retconning him (though they’ve retconned the retconned that retconned the
retcon) or making him overtly remorseful.
“Black Hole Sun”
flashes back to May 1994. Damon returned from his worldwide romp to reunite
with his brother. Stefan returned to Mystic Falls determined to create a new
life, a more normal life, which parallels Stefan’s goal twenty years later, on
the outskirts of Mystic Falls. Damon ruins Stefan’s happiness in 1994. He
slaughters a family along with a pregnant woman. His Uncle Zack will die
fifteen years later because of Damon’s remorse and regret. Stefan explains to
Damon why Damon acts out, which also acts as an explanation for the audience:
Damon doesn’t want Stefan to find happiness and contentment. The twist to their
complicated fraternal relationship is that Stefan, free of Damon in 2014,
cannot enjoy a happy, contented life without Damon. He cannot live without his
brother, for good or ill. Elena, for the same reasons, can’t live without him.
Stefan explains it in a way that’ll relate to the rebel spirit of
impressionable teenagers and the ‘dark’ parts that write bad poetry: Damon
helped Elena find comfort in the darkness-the only part that felt alive-and
when he died, that part died. So, yeah, Damon’s a monster; however, he’s a
noble monster. Save him.
Stefan and Elena
spent the episode traveling together. Stefan wanted to prove he could live a
happy, normal life. He can’t. He fails. The aforementioned happiness and
contement of his breaks apart when a bar patron breaks his face. Elena
witnesses Stefan’s habit of letting others beat the hell out of him. Stefan’s
retort hits a number of significant beats that lingered from past seasons as
well as from the first three episodes. Elena uses compulsion to forget, so why
can’t he do what he needs to get by without Damon? As always, the brothers’
love story trumps the romantic love story. Stefan’s grief is a more adult kind
while Elena’s is more adolescent. Alaric offers to restore her memories, but
she declines. Her diary, which Alaric showed her, allows her to continue to
exist without devolving into a chaotic murderous vampire. Perhaps there’s a
deeper idea there about memory and the written word. Memory deteriorates,
fades, mixes, confuses events, people, where and when, who was there; however,
the written word, the most faded ink (as an old proverb or fable goes) is
stronger than the strongest memory. Elena will not meet Damon’s inevitable
return with confusion, hatred, and the like. Also a nice touch: the diary. It
is The Vampire Diaries.
Damon
essentially cops to feelings of regret and remorse through his admittance for
why he killed his uncle Zack. Kai, the latest villain and plot device, asks for
a story. Kai functions as an antagonist-to Damon, to Bonnie. He’s a villain for
murdering his siblings, and for wanting to murder the rest of his coven/family.
He’s a potential mass murderous problem whenever the trio leave his hell. Kai’s
a frustrating character. Part of that’s designed and part of that isn’t. TVD
follows the same formula season-after-season. Season 6 is no different;
however, the flashback episode that reveals various inciting incidents’ for
various characters happened in episode four. Kai, like previous villains,
belabors everything for the sake of exposition for the sake of
characterization. Damon’s story matters more than the specific plots, which is
fine. Plots don’t make a story. Kai’s motivations come together laboriously: he
murdered his brothers and his sisters, and he’s a powerful witch banished to
hell by his coven. He wanted Bonnie and Damon to do the hard work for him.
Bonnie won’t. He helps her regain her magic and the concentration necessary for
magic and only after all that does he threaten to kill them both. He never
will. He’s either a bad guy who the fans will like, which is all of the bad
guys except for Markos, and will hang out with the gang come season 7, or he’s
a bad guy the fans will like who will die but then occasionally return (like
Kol). Kai’s as lively and charismatic as the originals.
The framing of
“Black Hole Sun” is Kai’s-he suggests Damon tell of his horrible action the day
of May 10, 1994. The 90s pastiche of previous episodes disappeared. Damon holds
up a newspaper showing the news of Kurt Cobain’s death. Damon, we learn, makes
pancakes everyday because the lady he killed loved pancakes. Okay, then. The
brotherly conflict deepens. Damon explains why he killed Stefan’s favorite
people. His reasons seem more sociopathic than anything, but Stefan nods and
decides not to take a road trip with him. His decision not to take a road trip
with Damon happens before Damon slaughters an entire family and goes all Dawson
on Stefan in the Salvatore living room.
I think part of
Kai’s deal involves unearthing truths. Any non-supernatural character digs and
digs for truth. Human memories for Mystic Falls civilians are foggy and
confused. Entering Mystic Falls removes magical compulsion, reveals truth, and
reveals that those who people though monstrous were not monstrous but only
manipulated by monsters. It’s like they open a book and there it is: the world
within a word, or, rather, words within created worlds. Tripp found the vampire
that killed his wife, Enzo. Sarah remembered Elena. Jeremy helped clear up, for
her, the identity of her father. Tripp and Sarah will together, with Jeremy and
Matt mixed in as foils and spies, as conflicted humans who’ll eventually
succumb to the orders of their supernatural bully friends. Maybe that’s what
season 6 will dwell upon: the idea of unearthing, of seeing what’s there when
something’s not, of trying and failing to fill a hollow.
Other Thoughts:
-Jodi Lyn O’Keefe
returns and sasses Alaric for looking at bloodied patient instead of her. Alaric,
when not screwing up his chances with the cute doctor, helps Jeremy deal with
sadness.
-No Caroline or
Tyler. Damon and Sheriff Forbes met in 1994, but he compelled her to forget
him. I assume she remembers their meeting now
-Kellie Cyrus
directed it. Melinda Hsu Taylor &
Neil Reynolds wrote the episode.
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