TVD subverted
the ‘Stefan saves Caroline’ storyline by having Stefan DESTROY Caroline. Stefan
the inhumane rips the heads off of drama directors as casually as someone
ordering soup and bread. Stefan the inhumane wants Caroline, she who forced him
to turn off the switch, to have fun with her humanity-free year. Rip the heads
off of strangers, feed off cute college girls, and destroy the gas tank in a
motorcycle. Stefan wants her to go for it without abandon and without fear of
the guilt she’ll feel in a year. Stefan’s plan doesn’t involve switching the
switch in a year. Ah, vampires.
Damon, in the
beginning of the episode, beats the stuffing out of a chair. He feels
frustrated by his brother’s foolish decision to flip the switch. Humanity free
Stefan will commit atrocities, feel guilt, and brood. Damon doesn’t want Stefan
to repeat the cycle. “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” has instances of
meta-narrative-the reformed popular culture definition, not the literary
definition. Julie Plec and Caroline Dries don’t insert themselves into the
narrative the way in which a Gass or a Nabokov did. Characters refer to
humanity-free nonsense of the past. Caroline’s driven to avoid the horrific
post-inhumanity spree her other friends experienced. The writers know flipping
the switch has been done, and that the challenge is writing it with a new spin.
Stefan’s attempt to destroy Caroline is a new and interesting spin. The
humanity free arcs are filler stories for that rough middle stretch of the
season when the beginning is behind and the end far away and when the 22 or 23
episode order more potently a beast of burden. The arc allows for brief but
temporary emotional conflicts that plunge into dark depths for two or three
episodes. Never more. The stories benefit the actors more than the
storytelling, because whatever atrocities they commit, atrocities that would
enshrine them in their own hall in Skizzen’s Inhumanity Museum, won’t linger or
last. Like magic, the switch is a narrative cop-out. The writers have a lot of
fun without having to seriously deal with what happens after the inhumanity.
Example: Damon Salvatore.
The solution for
humanity free Stefan and Caroline exists in 1903. Lilian Salvatore, the brutal
vampire ripper killer, can trigger Stefan’s humanity. Stefan’s humanity will
trigger Caroline’s humanity. Bonnie and Kai bring Damon and Elena to 1903.
Bonnie agreed to bring Kai because she didn’t plan to bring him back with the
others. Damon consulted with his mother about helping with the Stefan problem.
Lillian’s an insane vampire. She keeps desiccated vampires in the basement of
the 1903 Salvatore home; however, she’s Stefan’s angel. She came to him after
her resurrection because she loved him, but her lust for blood kept her from
him and Damon. Lily reacted to the news about the death of her husband, via
Stefan ripping his throat out, with laughter. Damon convinced her to leave
without her friends, her ‘family’, because he emphasized why Stefan needs her. So,
she goes, but she’ll want her ‘family’ back. Kai has the misfortune of meeting
her family after Bonnie and friends left him.
Kai became more
apologetic and remorseful after merging with Luke. Luke’s essence cured the
psychopath in Kai. Kai, in the middle of season six, apologized to those he
hurt or tried to kill or maim or torture. Bonnie represented to Kai the last
piece to his reformed nature, as it were. Her rejection of him, her abandonment
of him, and his lingering psychopathic tendencies, seem likely to return him to
a less forgiving and redemptive person when he returns from the 1903 prison
dimension. Bonnie’s revenge against him will change him back into the person
she hated and wanted trapped. She’ll be responsible for newly evil and
psychopathic Kai by May sweeps.
Enzo hatched his
own plan to stop Stefan and Caroline. Alaric joined him for reasons I don’t
recall 90 minutes after the episode ended. Alaric and Jo had been involved in a
delightfully light subplot about the name of their baby. Oh yeah, I remember.
Enzo called Alaric soft. He thought Alaric would run away from danger because
of his baby. Alaric challenged that and then almost died. Jo, while treating
him, called him an idiot and said he needed to stay alive for 18 years for the
sake of her and the baby. Jo’s line of dialogue almost guarantees her impending
untimely death and a zany ‘Alaric raises his child as a single father!’
storyline for seasons 7-14.
Much of “A Bird
in a Gilded Cage” sets up future storylines; so what of the episode? Is there a
story? Sure. A gilded cage is gold, beautiful, but a cage. Stefan and Caroline
have sex, bite good-looking necks, banter over headless corpses, but they’re in
a cage of inhumanity. Lily’s in a cage-physical and mental. Elena, too, is in a
cage. Her and Damon share an overtly heavy-handed scene about infinity prior to
Bonnie giving to Damon the gift of the vampire cure. She tells him they have
forever together. Damon has the vial of cure a scene later-the cure he wanted
for Elena. Either he or Elena will receive the cure. No more forever. One of
the trio won’t remain eternal. Plec mentioned moving The Vampire Diaries
towards an ending. Whomever takes the cure seems a more significant thing than
Katherine taking the cure last season, because it signifies the beginning of
the end, not a stop-gap, but the end.
Other Thoughts:
-Maybe it is a
stop-gap. Who knows. I’m a barely read blogger that referenced two authors that
would be horrified to be referenced in a review of a TVD episode.
-“But I cannot
sleep without the radio on…” Tell me where that lyric is from and I’ll give you
a signed print copy of my review for the 14th episode of season 3 of
The Vampire Diaries.
-No Tyler and
Matt again. The absence of Tyler is fine. Matt should’ve been part of the last
two episodes. Cut the music budget to find money for Zach Roerig.
-Enzo’s no
longer interested in using Sarah as pawn, but he soon told her her last name.
Damon mentioned reunion possibly thrice times in the episode. There’s going to
be a nonsense Salvatore reunion in a few episodes.
-Neil Reynolds
wrote the episode. Joshua Butler directed.
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