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Vampire Diaries: Ordinary People

“Vikings?”

This was a heartbreaking and complicated episode about different types of love: father for child, husband for wife, siblings for one another, and Elena for the Salvatores. It was also a portrait-in-miniature of exactly how a close group of people can be broken apart by different member’s desire to keep everyone safe.

The flashbacks on VD are never my favorite part, but the New World Vikings were so interesting that I not only enjoyed the flashbacks themselves, I finally, finally decided that I like Sebastian Roché. His tough-as-nails Papa Michael just wanted to protect his family from plague, werewolves, and each other—an understandable desire, and one that the Mystic Falls Council surely understands.

That the Vikings made their way as far south as Virginia rather than settling in Newfoundland and communicated through cave drawings…well, I’m okay with that. The suspension of disbelief that makes us able to believe in vampires, werewolves, and witches surely allows us some revisionist American history, right? Despite the massive re-lo and the community-building with the native werewolves and associated witches, the Original Family wound up dying on the vine. The cure for mortality turned into the curse of immortality: all Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah have are each other. And their father hunts them to get vengeance for their mother’s death.

All of that means Rebekah has been deluded about Klaus for a thousand years. She loves him and is loyal to him, and he lied to her. Rebekah said, “he’s my brother, and I’m immortal. Should I spend an eternity alone?” She loves Klaus because Klaus is who she has to love, but now she knows he’s also the reason she has lost. Her impulsivity just might push her to the good side of the force. Whether or not her father will realize that she acted blindly is, of course, another situation entirely.

Meanwhile, Damon and Stefan decided to take a walkabout. Damon wanted to awaken Stefan’s humanity, and he might be succeeding. Michael pushed Stefan past the compulsion when he put Damon’s life on the line—but Stefan wasn’t able to entirely resist the compulsion back in the high school, when Elena was at risk. The loophole is brotherly love, I think. Maybe it really was the taste of freedom. As Elena said to Damon, “When all is said and done, there’s nothing more important than the bond of family... It won’t be because he loves me. It’ll be because he loves you.”

Elena’s realization that Stefan’s love for Damon might be deeper, or more abiding, than Stefan’s love for her seems to have affected her relationship with Damon. The final scene, in which Damon sneaks into her bed once again, really shows how close they have become: they felt like a married couple, safe and secure at the end of a long day. It was one of the sweetest and most perfect scenes on this show.

Bites:

• Elena: “She’s a thousand-year-old vampire who’s joined the cheerleading squad.”

• Damon: “It’s family day at vampire rehab.”

• Damon: “You’ve been on this bunny diet for the better part of fifty years.”

• Stefan: “It’s precision born out of tragic boredom.”

• Damon: “I happen to like the edge, Stefan. Your problem is your inability to resist falling over it.”

• Damon: “Ease up! She’s giving us her employee discount.”

• Elena: “I learned that she’s just a girl. That she lost her mom too young, and she loves blindly and recklessly, even if it consumes her.”

And Pieces:

• Just in case it wasn’t clear: Homecoming is... coming.

• No Caroline this week.

• I had thought that Klaus had a whole warehouse of family members in Chicago. Am I wrong?

• Damon is a rather terrible dancer.

• Elijah had very few lines this week. But lots more hair.

• How does the doppelganger fit into the new American history we learned this week?

I have a terrible head cold, and I surely didn’t do justice to this episode, as I cannot smell, taste, or hear. And, because my cold medicine makes me really loopy, I broke my glasses, so I can’t see. But this episode felt nice!

Four out of four bunny diets.

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

12 comments:

  1. It was a wonderful, four star episode. And head cold or not, you definitely did it justice. That scene with Damon and Elena at the end was probably the most romantic in the entire series.

    Get well soon, my friend!

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  2. During that Elena/Damon scene I just kept thinking “Awww, she's no longer kicking him out of her bed.” How things have changed between them. Flashback episodes are never my favourites but I enjoyed this one, despite the complete and total lack of Caroline.

    You did a great job with this one, Josie. Hope you start feeling better soon.

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  3. This was a terrific episode but it had me worrying for the future a bit.

    Despite recognizing his brotherly love for Damon, he is still very indifferent towards Elena. Would be interesting to see how that plays out.

    This feels like the turning point where the show turns towards Damon/Elena from Stefan/Elena. And now that its here I don't quite know how I feel about it.

    Why did Damon get so testy when Stefan commented on his humanity at the end?

    And last... if no one except Klaus knew that he killed his mother, how did it end up in the cave? Did he do it himself, or was is Mikael?

    All that said and done, the rest was so good that it still gets 4 stars.

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  4. Here's one to add to Rish's question: if Mikael is the one to have drawn the cave paintings, how do we know he didn't frame Klaus? ;o)

    Actually, given Klaus' vengeful streak and the way he talked about the original witch, I'm inclined to believe he committed matricide.

    When Elena said that about Rebeka, the look on her face said she realised the exact same thing applied to herself

    And yeah, These guys were supposed to have a nice BIG family and we saw many other coffins... when do we get to meet the rest of the vikings?

    And Rebeka should realise she doesn't have just Klaus, at the very least there's also Elijah!

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  5. This episode was fantastic. And yes, Damon may not be the best dancer in the world, but he is surely fun to watch. Andf I laughed hard at the opening scene when he scares Elena at the cave - that was a very funny scene, "scarycat".
    Also, the scene when Alaric is busy interpreting the drawing and Damon is teaching Elena some Buffy moves was really fun to watch.

    Elena got it right, after all, Stefan did put himself on Klaus's hands to save Damon, so in that love lies our loophole. And I think we haven't had the whole story yet, for why was that Elijah was not with them in Chicago? Or after that? Rebekah said she got in trouble with Klaus a few times before, so are we seeing that?

    And yes, that bed scene felt really like a married couple. Isn't it surprising that Damon is finally getting loved after being everyone's second best for too long?

    Finally, seriously, Klaus should get a therapist - his stepfather hates him and wants him dead, he feels lonely for he is the only one of his species (or rather, was), his mother is ashamed of him and cursed him, he killed his mother, he is a liar and also an abuser - come on, he's a dish for any psychotherapist. Although I really doubt one would be glad to have him as patient, lol.
    What a great episode! Four stars, definetly.

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  6. Samantha Gomes

    "Elena got it right, after all, Stefan did put himself on Klaus's hands to save Damon, so in that love lies our loophole."

    I am sure at that point Stefan would have gone to Klaus to save anyone. He was good at that point.

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  7. @kish, not only was he good, but he also felt he had a debt to pay about his brother. Anyways, that seems an eternity ago, not only 9 episodes... Paul Wesley is playing such a fantastic mean Stefan that sometimes it makes it hard to remember he was the good old Stefan Elena loves. Ah, and to think we will have a hiatus after next episode...

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  8. I couldn't improve the feedback any further bu will just say, once again, how much I adore S3. The best yet, by a vampire-jumping mile

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  9. I thought it was the (native American?) werewolf locals who drew the account in the cave-drawings. The Original Family used the viking-runes as we saw.

    This both makes more sense to me (Why would people from medieval Norway or Sweden or something use this style of cave-drawing?)and it fits with Rebekkah's outburst at the end. "They mean nothing! They are just -stupid- drawings done by -stupid- people who had no idea who my family was!"

    Anyway, great review. I liked the analysis on Rebekkah in particular. I'm looking forward to seeing where they'll go with this character.

    -Randal

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  10. Just caught up with this one!
    Was brilliant to see Klaus and Elijah again, and nice to see just how petrified of Mikael Klaus is.
    I definately don't think we got the full story here though. Rebekah was the first one of the siblings to drink the blood, making her the first vampire, right? So why is Klaus considered the original? And why is he so powerful, more so than his siblings, and why do they fear him so much? It is because he's a hybried?
    Also, the Origonals have special powers that other vampires don't, which was something else not explained. we know how they became vampires, but not how they became uber vamps.
    Plus, we didn't see the origional doppogander. There were more than 3siblings but we only saw the others in shadow. Clearly, the writers intend to bring them into it at some point in the future. It wasn't about meeting new characters anyway, but Rebeka's story. I think we'll get another flashback later on, showing how Klaus got cursed properly.

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  11. Josie - you are so right about that final scene. The most romantic one yet.

    And, I must agree with Rish that this episode felt like a big turn in where Elena's affections will be. At least for the time being....

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  12. I liked this episode for the Damon-Stefan-Elena stuff, but I thought had a huge plot hole: what was the point of Lexi somehow magically teleporting Stefan years through blood withdrawal in the last episode while Elena watched in anguish if Damon was just going to come along in this episode, release him, feed him a waitress and return the status to the new quo?

    Elena was all "I'm not mad". Um, really? Why not? Last episode you wanted your brother to contact Lexi to detox Stefan. You got lucky, it happened, and now you don't care because brotherly love is going to bring Stefan back? Totally weird.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of TVD (can't type VD as VD=Venereal Disease) but this was a big plot hole for me in an otherwise stellar row of episodes.

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