The Vampire Diaries, 1x02, “Night of the Comet”

Episode Title: Night of the Comet
Writers: Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec

Director: Marcos Siega

Originally Aired: 09/17/2009
Grade: B-

Much like in the premiere, there’s no proof that Damon killed the couple camping in the woods, though we’re obviously supposed to think it was him (and Stefan thinks the killings are Damon’s work, too). Vicki’s attack was definitely his doing, because she had nightmares about him and said point-blank on the rooftop that it was him. Damon never admits to any of the other killings, though. I’m not really trying to make excuses for him because I think he’s dreamy or anything; the fall cliffhanger just made me realize that we never actually see the attacker in many of these scenes, and that’s suspicious. We already know who Damon is and that he’s dangerous, so why wouldn’t they show his face during these attacks?

I know it’s kind of weird, but I actually like the Jeremy/Vicki dynamic. It feels true to small town life, the little brother getting a crush on his sister’s boyfriend’s sister, her feeling weird that Jeremy is younger than her, fearing that people will find out and malign her reputation even more than they already do. I wouldn’t call it riveting, but at least their little romance is slightly atypical of the usual teen high school show.

Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder have great chemistry. There’s a very intense level of intimacy between the brothers, with Damon often leaning in close in order to invade Stefan’s personal space, and neither of them back away from it. It’s not a comfortable level of intimacy, but rather tense and disturbing, and they sell it completely.

The Stefan/Elena stuff is what ended up driving me away from the show the first time around. Their initial cutesy “we met and it was epic” conversation was bad enough, but the agonizingly serious faux diary entry conversation (plus more “it was epic” nonsense) at the end was just too much for me to stomach. It still is, but after sticking with it an seeing where it goes beyond this point, I think the rest of the show is good. Good enough that I’m trying to take it with a grain of salt and see the Elena/Stefan romance as deliberately over-the-top, like that episode of Buffy where Xander has to save the high school from getting blown up by zombies, meanwhile Buffy and Angel save the world whilst having some ridiculous parody of their usual doomed relationship talk.

Miscellaneous Stuff

-I cannot stress enough how much I love Jeremy’s reaction to Aunt Jenna throwing the apple at his head. “OW-why? Why, why did you do that?” It makes me chuckle every time.