Now that’s a
crazy episode of The Vampire Diaries. Bonnie had glass in her neck that quickly
drained blood from her body while Elena, human for seconds, faces a pissed off
Lily who’d love to rip her neck off. For a minute I thought the writers would
kill off Elena two episodes before the finale. Julie Plec challenged fans to
predict how Elena leaves the series. Killing off the heroine of the series
before the season finale would’ve been a pleasant surprise. I imagined the
final two episodes devoted to the brothers Salvatore and their complex
relationship with Mom. Elena escaped through a vent. Damon and Stefan knocked
their mother out with a shot of vervain to the neck, placed her in the
Salvatore detox dungeon, and hoped for the best.
Lily promised
her Stefan “devastation” once she found a way to bring her friends to her from
the 1903 prison world. Alas, the hoped for best did not come to fruition.
Lily’s a broken, sad, and insane vampire. Stefan and Lily shared a few scene
monumental scenes together that were about their lost mother-son bond, Stefan’s
quiet desperation to pull her back from brutal ripper murders, Lily’s
disconnectedness from life, and Stefan’s attempts to remind her that she
needn’t murder or maim, because of him and Damon. The latter happened after
Stefan lied to her. Lily could tell. He can’t look her in the eye when he lies.
The second time he looked her in the eye as she held a stake of wood inches
from her heart. The scene would end in one of two ways. Lily, after telling
Stefan she forgot how beautiful his eyes are, stakes herself, turns to stone,
as Stefan gasps and furrows the brow; or she attacks her former pride and joy
and bundle of love, her sweet Stefan. I liked the quiet depiction of Stefan’s
arc in “I’d Leave My Happy Home For You.” He didn’t lie to her during their
chat in the Mystic Grille, but he lied to himself-that is, he didn’t believe
what he said. In his desperate moment, though, as he watched her hold a stake
to her chest, he let it out. I thought it was touching.
Secondary to the
troubles with his mother was Damon’s consideration of taking the cure so that
he could live the rest of his days with Elena, which Damon kept from Stefan.
Enzo informed Stefan, because Enzo’s the washerwoman who knows everything about
all and will one day turn into a willow. The brothers barely chatted. Damon
took Elena into memories she forgot. They ate fries atop the Mystic Falls clock
tower. I wanted Elena and Stefan to talk about her choice. They hardly share
scenes anymore. Elena took the cure without any drama. It differed from the
heavy drama of the season four cure that took the gang to damned Nova Scotia
for the first time. Stefan ignored that Elena took it and only felt concern for
his brother leaving his happy home for Elena, the girl he also loved. TV
writers habitually choose to ignore parts of characters’ pasts in service of
other plots. Pacey dated Joey’s best friend and roommate during season five,
one season after one of the great teenage TV romances in teenage melodrama
history, with nary a mention or reference to the relationship that led Pacey to
sailing the seas after their breakup (which he caused by losing his bleeping
mind at the Capeside High senior prom). Plec, Dries, and the other writers for
The Vampire Diaries won’t acknowledge the intense and far superior romance of
Stefan’s and Elena’s because they don’t want it to impinge or devalue or
decrease Elena’s and Damon’s own intense relationship, as if people may only
have one intense love in their life, as if exclusivity and convenient amnesia
makes one better than the other. Of course, Stefan called Damon about waiting
to take the cure until after Lily’s murder spree ceased. I guess he felt
concern for Elena’s life; however, Damon comes to her after Lily’s locked away
so that she can tell him about the memories that returned to her of him and
her.
Alaric seemingly
compelled me to forget their relationship, Damon’s and Elena’s, for I did not
recall the scene about the cure in season four where Damon walked away damning
humanity like a character in a William Gass story. Bonnie stated her opinion
that Elena feared being human with Damon because her feelings may change. Jo
challenged the idea that going supernatural could change a person so much. Jo,
the poor character, does not know she’s a fictional character in a fictional
world in which going supernatural will change a person so much because it’s a
way to transition a character from an epic romance to another epic romance
without incurring the backlash of vocal internet fandom folk. The memories
returned to Elena, good and bad, and she still loved Damon. It’s not about her
not loving Damon anymore; it’s about her love for Damon. He loves life as a
vampire. The episode title hints at the final two episodes. People say “I’d” when
they can’t do whatever it is they would. “I’d go with you, if you’d like” or
“I’d have bought a pint of ice cream if the store re-stocked the ice cream
shelf.” Damon would, but he won’t. Something terrible will happen.
Lily’s psychotic
vampire-witch friends from the 1903 prison world walk in from their cold, snowy
morning walk around Nova Scotia for a Kai prepared breakfast. Kai’s neck looked
covered with punctures from vampire teeth, but that crazy witch knows how to
return to Mystic Falls. It involves either porridge or gruel.
The teaser of
the episode was among the cleverer of in the series. Alaric sat in his
classroom, grading papers in the dark, unaware that Constance Garnett suffered
from increasingly bad eyesight from her dedicated work of translating great
works of Russian literature by candlelight, and he heard a noise. Damon
kidnapped him from the classroom and took him to a bachelor party. Bonnie and
Elena hired a male stripper to get Jo’s party started. It was a great, great
teaser that played on something terrible always happening to Alaric whenever
he’s happy. The looming threat of the witch-vampires and Kai’s return makes
Matt’s warning to Alaric seem foreshadowy. Matt’s a drunken mess, picking
fights with Tyler, and telling Alaric that he’s a bastard for choosing to bring
a child into a world with vampires, witches, and werewolves. So, Alaric, the
wise old soul he is, promised Jo, after learning from her about the twins, that
they’ll raise their children somewhere far away where her family won’t find
them, where they’ll be safe, and I know that something terrible will happen
before that happens.
“I’d Leave My
Happy Home for You” had near-deaths, palpable dread, and plenty foreboding, and
also a promise from Lily to devastate Mystic Falls. Though the series will
return for a seventh season, it had a finale vibe. The writers, not every
season, build stories to great emotional crescendos. I’m indifferent about the
devastation the witch-vamps will cause in Mystic Falls. There’s a lot of great personal
character stories being told as the sixth season closes. I hope for the best
finale of TVD since the Elena’s death in season three in two weeks. Fingers
crossed.
Other Thoughts:
-Nina Dobrev and
Kat Graham dancing with the police officer dancer was an unexpected highlight
of the episode.
-Tyler’s the
least essential character on The CW.
-Jo mentioned
Liv, but not by name.
-Enzo and Damon
shared a scene after a long period apart. Damon razzed him about not telling
him his own mother turned him in 1903. The writers didn’t know that then,
Damon.
-Brett Matthews
& Rebecca Sonnenshine wrote the episode. Jesse Marn directed.
No comments:
Post a Comment