Mystic Musings || Set A Fire And Watch It Burn

But at the same time, you can see where Bon's coming from. If I were her, I'd probably be seriously confused too. And Bonnie does raise some valid points. Even if they're not what Elena wants to hear there and then.

Foreshadowing
Ohmygod, all the foreshadowing the girls make about Caroline, it makes me so uncomfortable! ): First, "We have to make Caroline proud, or she will KILL us'I don't know how she does this all the time." "Well, that's because she's not human, obviously." *both girls laugh*

And these just keep coming! It's enough to make you super uncomfortable, especially since you know that Caroline is dead and not human and she could very easily kill them.

not invincible
Jeremy seems to think that since he's got the ring now, he's invincible. He's not, Katherine proved that when she almost killed John, and Damon proves that when he manages to get rid of the ring from Jeremy's hand. While Jeremy's hatred for Damon is justified [hello, the man/vampire/psycho killed him!], baiting Damon - is idiotic. Jeremy needs to learn that.

Though I've got to say, I was way disappointed about Jeremy forgiving Damon so fast. The end, while sweet in a very odd way, was disappointing. What is it with the Gilbert siblings and forgiving homicidal maniacs who have tried to kill them/the people around them so easily? I love Damon, but seriously? Some sort of redemption - actual guilt and working towards forgiveness - would be nice.

"Jeremy, if I thought you wanted to kill me we'd be having a much different conversation."
I love this new, supremely confident Stefan. Okay, not so new, this Stefan was under the brooding one, but he's at the forefront now, and I'm loving it because this man/vampire has some great lines, a great rapport with the other characters - and he laughs! Laughs and smiles and his cracks jokes!

"Well today we have a distraction in the form of the slavedriver Elena. Hello, Elena."
Seriously, can he get more perfect? And I love that he's completely okay with Elena wanting 'normal' because he knows she means it in the sense that nothing going wrong during the day rather than in a 'you're not human, not normal I want nothing to do with you today' sort of way. It's like, she accepts who he is and what he can do as normal, but if anyone else pulled anything, then it's wrong. Case in point, the end of the episode where he remembers what she said about the ferris wheel and jumps them to the top. I want a Stefan now. [B, my birthday is coming up, get me a Stefan Salvatore? *smiles*]

Big Brother Stefan
The Stefan-Jer scenes are probably gonna make me pretty happy this season. (Though clearly not as happy as Jer/Ty scenes. Ahem.) And not just because Steven is very, very pretty, and I cannot get over how gorgeous he is. But because Stefan seems like a big brother to Jer, and that's pretty sweet to see. *I will not mention the'position'in which Stefan is standing in relation to Jeremy. I must not mention that. With that arm against the locker, leaning against it, so protectively, over Jeremy, and looking at him in that way with that smouldering gaze'Oh my.*

With a cameo from hot uncle Mason.

Who was not shirtless ):

Okay, now that that's done with. It's going to be interesting seeing how Mason takes Tyler under his wing. Which he clearly seems to be doing. He seems like a really shady guy, a more negative character than I'd want Tyler to be mentored by (like what was mentioned in the BSB AT, I think, I do NOT want Tyler to turn out like Tyler Smallwood in the books!), and I honestly wonder what kind of'father figure? Brother figure?..he'll make to Tyler. *is nervous for Ty* On the other hand, I'm glad for the bigger role Tyler now has. :D

Mason has mad skills. It's interesting how the alpha male dynamics change, even within the episode. Yes, I am referring to the ending, where Tyler has the moonstone. Even before that, when Mason's looking for the moonstone and Tyler comes in, notice how Mason keeps repeating the fact that the moonstone he's looking for has "minimal monetary value" and is purely sentimental. He's clearly hiding something from Tyler, and Tyler knows it, which is probably why Tyler seeks out the moonstone for himself. And it probably doesn't help that Mason lies to Tyler. I wonder, though, what are his motivations for doing so? He seems too self-centred a character to be hiding the werewolf thing 'for Tyler's own good'. Any ideas?

The Council
Really, once again, the amount of faith the Founders' Council has in Damon just amuses me. If only they knew the truth right? Though I think he's gotten fond of Liz Forbes and even Carol to some extent, now he's using this as a way to find out the Lockwood secret.

Damon spearheading the Founder's Council. 'Nuff said. *shakes head* Wow. Irony of ironies.

vamp!Caroline
I've always known that Caroline was gorgeous. I mean, Candice is really, really pretty. I've known this since I saw her in the episode After School Special on Supernatural where she got to make out with teen!Dean and I had no clue who she was - but the subtle makeup differences they've done now just make her even more stunning. They've made the make-up around her eyes darker, and it makes them pop. Just so stunning.

I think it's a huge deal that Caroline is freaked out about her transformation. She's scared of what is happening to her, and what she can do - and what she may do to other people. It says a lot about her character. She cares about what other people think about her, how they feel about her - and it's translated into her being a vampire. She doesn't like hurting the people she cares about, and even as a vampire this is true. So very different from vamp!Vicki where she was a lot about the rush  and the high.

vamp!Caroline also seems to know a lot more about her abilities - everything that Damon made her forget because he was so secure in his compulsion of her comes back to her in bits and pieces and she knows a lot more than she did before. The innocence that her friends tried to preserve, the freedom from this horrible truth got her killed - and she woke up with that naivety gone, and remembering what she went through has given her an edge, a strength that Damon had taken away from her. She's a lot tougher than she was.

The way she keeps apologizing when she's feeding off the nurse makes it very obvious that she's still human, and still hurting and hates doing what she's doing only she can't help it. Even when she attacks Carter at the end, she's crying while she does it, and she apologizes. Her own actions horrify her - and ultimately, that is what keeps her from losing herself. She does not want to lose herself, because losing herself means losing everyone around her and possibly hurting them, and she cannot do that. I've said in earlier Musings that Caroline just wants someone to love her. If she lost herself to this monster that keeps rearing its head, she believes no one would love her - and she cannot live with losing the people she loves.

Caroline, in a sense, is the best representation of humanity on this show. It's sort of ironic that they've turned that into the living dead - but if they kept this essence of her humanity despite her lapses, it'd be tremendously poetic. This slip of a girl, this insecure, neurotic girl that is constantly overlooked, is the best of all of them because she cares, so much, about everything.

She is also, a teenage girl. And it is evident in so many of her lines. In the end, she's still Caroline. Matt and spending time with other teenager means everything.

The excuse she feeds the nurse "My husband likes to get kinky" or something of that sort is so something a teenager would say, especially one like Caroline. And her joy in the compulsion - "I don't know how that works but it's brilliant" - is the joy of someone who would break rules and go wild with that power. Not kill-people!wild, but throw-a-party-with-alcohol-involved-and-charm-the-parents-into-not-grounding-them-for-life!wild.

Her confrontation with Damon was probably one of my favorite Caroline scenes in this show so far. Here we have a girl who's been physically and emotionally scarred by this man/vampire standing in front of her, who has been so terrified of everything he represents because he played on her insecurities and feelings and used her, fight back. She stands up for herself, doesn't back down, throws him across the floor - and then childishly says "You suck." Admittedly, that threw me a bit. I expected something fiercer. Then I realized that it was such a Caroline thing to say. That entire scene was perfect.