Writers: Bryan Oh and Andrew Chambliss
Grade: A+
Until Elena actually spoke in that opening scene, I wasn’t sure whether we were seeing Stefan and Katherine prepare for the oft-mentioned Founders’ Ball back in 1864, or modern-day Stefan and Elena preparing for the Founders’ Day Celebration. Well-played, show, especially in retrospect. Equally nice was Damon pointing out that “Katherine is not Elena,” followed by Elena walking up in her old-timey gown, shooting the boys a most Katherine-esque smirk, and dropping a curtsy.
Even during the kiss, I was thinking, “Elena, what are you doing?! Stop that, you idiot!” (right along with, “Damn, now that’s how you do a slow-build kiss. HOT!” and “I really shouldn’t be so excited about this considering that Jeremy’s simultaneously trying to kill himself upstairs.”).
And going back to that kiss, I really don’t think Damon intended to try it when he began the conversation, but rather it was one of those “It just happened” moments. I think the kiss on her cheek was meant to convey that yes, he has feelings for her, but he knows they’re not reciprocated and he respects her and her relationship with Stefan. He expected her to at least say something discouraging about the kiss on the cheek, and when she didn’t, and in fact appeared to be giving him come-hither eyes, he dared to push a little further. It’s not like he ninja-kissed her, though. He telegraphed his intentions clearly, he moved in very gently and slowly, he gave her every opportunity to reject him and back away.
Is it sucky that he kissed Stefan’s girl after Stefan saved him? Of course it is! But a poster over at TWoP pointed out that Damon’s over-emotional behavior, which culminated in kissing “Elena,” may be intended as a parallel to Stefan’s blood junkie facet. Stefan has bottled up his thirst for human blood for a century and a half, and we saw what happened when Stefan finally gave in to his weakness. Likewise, Damon has bottled up his emotions for just as long, so now we’re seeing what happens when he stops restraining that side of himself. Each brother has a weakness that can overwhelm him if it’s not properly controlled. Damon is unaccustomed to having emotions, let alone controlling them, just as Stefan was unaccustomed to drinking human blood and controlling the urges that go along with it. When viewed in that light, Damon’s inability to tear himself away from “Elena” is a bit less damning. With his emotion switch on, he’s not adept at controlling his feelings or the actions they inspire. I can only hope that Damon's attempt to rediscover his human feelings doesn't get nipped in the bud like Stefan's human blood drinking.
There’s been a great deal of debate amongst fans about whether or not Damon recognized Katherine before going for the lips, and about whether or not the ambiguity was intentional. I’m firmly in the “no” camp on both counts. I think that when we left him, Damon was very surprised that Elena let him kiss her (and kissed back!), maybe a little bit ashamed, and slowly beginning to realize that perhaps something was a little off. My argument as to why I feel this way is pretty long-winded, so I’ll give it its own section below.
Aside from the kissing of Damon and the killing of Elena’s bio dad, it’s also significant that Katherine was on the receiving end of their heartfelt speeches, both of which were intended for Elena’s ears. It’s tragic that she will never get to hear Uncle John’s last words for her, though it’s possible she might get a repeat of Damon’s speech some day in the future.
I had some issues with the way Anna was handled in this episode. For one thing, it seemed out-of-character for her to give Jeremy a vial of blood so he can turn after she leaves town. Would she really leave him to die and transition alone? It’s such an obvious plot contrivance—they needed a way for her death to push Jeremy into wanting to turn, but if she’s dead, she can’t do the turning. Voila, vial of blood! The death itself was also plot device-y (and anti-climactic)—the writers needed Anna’s death to make Damon feel bad and give him a reason to go to the Gilbert house and talk to Jeremy, which in turn put him in the right place at the right time so he could bump into Kathlena on his way out. And the conversation with Damon plus the knowledge of Anna’s death (combined with the other losses he’s suffered) led Jeremy to try to end his pain. At least Anna’s murder wasn’t a useless death with no purpose other than shock value.
I’m okay with the direction Jeremy’s story seems to be headed, but Jeremy insisting that Damon didn’t really take his suffering away felt like a bit of a retcon. Jeremy seemed to be saying that Damon only took away his memory of what happened to Vicky, which made him feel better because he didn’t remember why he was sad. But if that’s all Damon did, I don’t know why Jeremy’s behavior changed so drastically afterward. His downward spiral into rebellious behavior was caused by the death of his parents, and Damon didn’t erase any of that, so wouldn’t he still have behaved the same way he did before Vicky’s death? The only way that storyline works for me now is if I picture it as Damon trying to bury Jeremy’s suffering away, rather than removing it altogether. Jeremy’s pain seeped back to the surface over time, until he couldn’t ignore it anymore.
The Kiss
I see nothing in Somerhalder’s performance or in Damon’s characterization that would support Damon knowing that was Katherine before the big kiss, and I also don’t see anything interesting about it from a story perspective.
I’ve watched that sequence four or five times now (I know, right?), and I just don’t see the wheels turning in Damon’s head. The only time that I see anything resembling an actual thought on Damon’s face is after the door is shut and he’s looking conflicted and confused, touching his lips. That’s when I see the wheels begin to turn, but everything before that seems like pure emotional vulnerability with very little thought behind it. If Damon was supposed to be thinking thinky thoughts during that scene, someone probably should have let Somerhalder know.
The main argument I’ve seen in favor of Damon recognizing Katherine pre-kiss is that Damon is “smart,” and thus should have figured it out, and that Damon wouldn’t betray Stefan and Elena after the “don’t make me regret our friendship” conversation he had with Elena. I already addressed the latter sentiment above, and as for the former: Damon is indeed smart, but I don't think he was supposed to be very smart in this episode. He still had vervain in his system possibly muddling his instincts, and he was practically a raw nerve ending throughout the entire day, so I have a hard time believing that his brain was even able to overcome those factors and recognize Katherine, let alone switch gears from believing he was talking to Elena to figuring out she was really Katherine to beginning to scheme, all without tipping her (or me) off in the slightest. I think Damon can be a great manipulator, but I don’t think he’s good enough to fool Katherine in that kind of surprise setup, with no premeditation. This guy couldn't even control his facial expression when Elena told him not to make her regret their friendship, so I can't buy that he was able to reign himself in like that with Katherine and successfully maintain the vulnerability and sense of wonder he was projecting.
Several other aspects of Damon’s behavior also don’t make much sense if he knew. As overly emotional as Damon was in this episode and as angry as he was in the previous one, I don’t believe he would have been able to keep his mouth shut with Katherine right in front of him. Damon isn’t feeling particularly cuddly toward Katherine right now—those feelings are currently directed at Elena—so if he knew it was Katherine before going in for the kiss, then wouldn’t that render the kiss pointless? Great centuries-spanning love or not, I just don’t think Damon would have wanted to kiss Katherine, especially under such surprise circumstances, and he didn’t need to kiss her to keep her thinking that he bought her Elena act. I suppose he could have suspected she was Katherine and kissed her as a test, but I just don’t see that on my screen. I also don’t believe he would have allowed her to enter Elena’s house without putting up a fight. At the very least, if we were supposed to believe he knew what was going on, I would have expected to see him striding off purposefully to find Stefan, not standing around looking confused and conflicted and touching his lips.
And from a story perspective, I think that Damon recognizing Katherine pre-kiss both renders him too perfect and takes away everything interesting about the scene. Damon making a move on his brother’s girlfriend because he’s flipped his ‘humanity’ switch and is on emotional overload is much more compelling than “Damon's super-awesome because he can recognize Katherine, fool her into thinking he believes her act, and NOT betray Stefan, all within about 60 seconds!” The former sounds like interesting characterization that is consistent with the emotional journey we’ve seen, whereas the latter sounds like fangirl wish fulfillment. There’s also the fact that Katherine is supposed to seem like a terrifying evil mastermind at the moment, and Damon seeing through her first play would undermine that. If Damon can see through her ruse so easily and play her like a fiddle in return, why should I find her threatening?
Considering all of the above, I don’t think Damon knew, nor do I think the showrunners intended the scene to be ambiguous. I think those responsible for the scene—Williamson and Plec, the episode’s writers, the director, and Somerhalder—underestimated the extent to which each viewer’s perception of Damon would influence their interpretation of what happened. What I’m afraid of is that the writers are going to read fan reactions (or get the summary from the likes of Ausiello) and decide that having Damon know it was Katherine before going in for the kiss is better because a) it makes Damon look like a badass schemer, and b) it means he didn’t betray Stefan. If they retcon what I saw on my screen, I’m going to be pretty miffed. And I say this as someone who adores Damon and is disappointed that he betrayed his brother.
Other Stuff
-I was sad that Caroline, as Miss Mystic Falls, looked like she was wearing a baby poop-colored velvet sack compared to Elena’s wealthy debutante look. Seriously, Elena’s outfit was way overboard, and I thought it made her seem a bit conceited…
-Yay for Stefan ripping off the band-aid regarding John being Elena’s dad, but nay for using it as a way to badmouth Damon. Insecurity doesn’t become you, Stefan.
-And speaking of Stefan’s insecurity, he also didn’t seem entirely convinced by Elena’s repeated professions of love. I can relate, though. I have a friend who’s a bit like Damon—beautiful, and equal parts charismatic and destructive—and she rarely gets any comeuppance for the shit she pulls and usually manages to charm the hell out of most people she meets. It’s hard for me to accept it when people choose me over her.
-LOL at the townspeople standing idly by while the deputies stuck needles into seemingly innocent people in pain and dragged them off.
-Also LOL at Stefan telling Damon “It’s only real when it comes from your desire to do the right thing, for nothing in return. And I know that that is an entirely foreign concept to you.” Right. You mean like that time Damon fought his way through a house full of hostile vampires to save your wimpy ass? I’m sure he had a lot to gain from that. I know that Damon and Stefan each have insecurity-driven blind spots regarding each other, so I can let it go, but I was rolling my eyes.
-Why did John kill Anna but leave Damon alive? Did he kill her in revenge because she’d tainted his precious Jeremy? Or did he kill her as an act of mercy so she wouldn’t suffer through the fire? Leaving Damon is partly plot contrivance—obviously one of the main characters isn’t going to die so early in the show’s run—but I can easily imagine him wanting Damon to suffer a slower, more agonizing death by fire as opposed to a quick staking.
-Is Mayor Lockwood really dead? I’m leaning toward yes, because Tyler’s “werewolf powers” seemed to activate as soon as Lockwood’s neck was snapped.
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