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^ Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation! Damn..I did not even realize all of this. 😆
Originally posted by: -Nitya-^ Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation! Damn..I did not even realize all of this. 😆
Posted by Crissy Calhoun | April 10, 2011, 10:23 (EST) | 43
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Category: TV
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It's back! And The Vampire Diaries is just as hellbent as ever on freaking us out with heartbreak, supernatural twists, and double crosses galore. It's the beginning of the end of season 2, my friends.
So much of Know Thy Enemy is driven by what our characters feel compelled to do, whether it's literal compulsion (like Isobel) or what they feel they "have to do" — either for their own benefit (Katherine betraying the boys again), in the name of others (Alaric and Elena having kept the truth from Jenna, Caroline from Matt), or because it's what they think they're meant to do (Bonnie). But these betrayals, however motivated, have messed-up and messy consequences.
Jacked-Up Vampire Amends: When Isobel rolled into Mystic Falls last season, she was Katherine's messenger; here, unbeknownst to John or Katherine, she's Klaus's, compelled to be his puppet just like her compelled humans have done her bidding in the past. Isobel has been leaking information: willfully from John to Katherine and unwittingly from both John and Katherine to Klaus. And in Know Thy Enemy, Isobel tries to make amends for her actions to Alaric and Elena (though tellingly not with John). To Alaric, she reveals that she compelled him to move on from her and professes how much she loved him. Perhaps now (should he survive his currently occupation) with Isobel's final death, Alaric will be able to have true closure on that relationship. But Isobel's petty act of knocking on the Gilbert front door has caused devastating harm to his relationship with "Auntie Vanilla."
And Elena didn't slam the door on Isobel fast enough to prevent that damage from being done: Jenna realizes that she's the only one who didn't know that Isobel was alive. If Elena and Alaric ever manage to tell her the whole truth, will it only make Jenna more upset, knowing that life-altering and very dangerous secrets were kept from her by everyone she loves? Oh, Aunt Jenna, your tears break my heart.
Between Isobel returning and John's continued meddling, Know Thy Enemy forces Elena to deal with her birth parents in a way she's been avoiding. Isobel not only creates a rift between Jenna and Elena by showing up, she also disrupts Elena as she remembers the mother who raised her in her acceptance speech for the memorial scholarship donation. (Nothing like a body tumbling down the stairs, lifeless, to ruin a historical society luncheon.) Isobel's speech at her own grave complicates Elena's feelings as she sees first-hand the human part of Isobel and hears that Isobel did want to know her. But Elena will never have the chance to try to draw out that lingering humanity in Isobel; instead her last memory of her birth mother is watching her go up in flames. (Hasn't Elena been through enough?!)
Did Isobel take her necklace off of her own free will or was that her last compelled act? In A Few Good Men, the man under Isobel's compulsion makes sure Elena understands that she's to stop looking for her, then says "I'm done now" and steps in front of oncoming traffic, killing himself. Here Isobel definitely seems relieved to hear that she is "done" — she won't live to betray her flesh and blood again — but the echo of the previous moment is strong enough that I think her suicide was Klaus's decision, not her own.
Though Elena was gleeful earlier that day when Alaric punched John in the face, she feels differently about him after witnessing Isobel betray them all and then kill herself just after Elena got a glimpse of her humanity. John explains that he trusted Isobel because he had seen the love she felt for Elena and the pain she suffered to be separated from her. Because he loved Isobel, he believed her. John's methods may be disruptive, hurtful, and often immoral but his motivation has always been to protect his town, his family, his daughter — and Elena acknowledges that potential in him when she lets him stay. It's strange that the tentative words "maybe I can learn not to hate you" are such an epic step forward in a relationship, but Elena and her only surviving parent reach a turning point in that moment.
Make Me Forget: Just as John believed Isobel because she was the first girl he ever loved and that trust turned out to be misplaced, Caroline is unhesitant with her trust in Matt, believing what he tells her because she loves him so much. It has been torturous watching these two struggle to be together against the vampire-human relationship odds this season, and Know Thy Enemy takes their story into new depths of tragedy. Candice Accola continues to shine in her ability to make us feel everything Caroline feels, and in this episode Zach Roerig takes Matt to dark places we haven't seen him go before — there's a rage brewing in him when he confronts Sheriff Forbes about Vicki's death, and Matt can barely contain his conflicting emotions when he confronts Caroline. So hurt and scared and betrayed, Matt also feels, once again, so alone — no family, his friends all liars, and Caroline a monster. All Caroline wants to do is fix this mess, and when Matt insists on forgetting, she complies — a scene that only grows in its emotional impact when the twist is revealed. Matt lied to Caroline to get information from her, he's full of vervain, and her compulsion didn't work. One thing Matt doesn't like is a liar and he's now become one, as he and Liz do what they think they have to do to protect Mystic Falls.
Witches' Warning: Nothing like a little teamwork to cross off "harness ancient dead witch power" from the To Do list. With the information passed to Bonnie from Jonas, Damon's historical knowledge of Mystic Falls' killing spots, and the strength to withstand what seemed like a harrowing spell — those screams were not of this world, Bonnie Bennett! — our favorite witch is now a super witch. Though she rather cavalierly shows off her new abilities to Jeremy by raising a storm, Bonnie understands the serious consequences that come with using fully those powers. If she uses her power to kill Klaus, it will kill her — and she's willing to pay that price. None of the characters mention the potential larger impact of letting Klaus (or any vampire) break the Sun and the Moon Curse (perhaps to keep the show from feeling too Buffy/Angel-apocalyptic) — but if vampires could roam around day or night as their little hearts desire, there just might just be a corresponding increase in humans dying at their hands or being used as their puppets and playthings. So when Bonnie tells Jeremy that her resolve to kill Klaus isn't just for Elena's protection or for Jeremy's but for everyone's, we could take her to mean everyone.
Bonnie feels that this is what she was born to do — and while it's a noble idea, she wasn't actually born with super witch powers, she acquired them of her own free will. What she interprets as something she "has to do" isn't necessarily a calling or her fate, but her choice. Will Jeremy, the only person who knows that Bonnie's witchcraft has had any weakening effect on her in the past, keep this a secret from Elena and co. or will he rat Bonnie out in an effort to save her from herself — motivated by the same feeling that made him help to keep Elena from martyrdom in By the Light of the Moon?
We Got Played, All of Us: "Be smart," says Katherine to Stefan and by the end of Know Thy Enemy it seems like the brothers Salvatore are finally getting their strategy together, after realizing that keeping a mystical object in a soap dish is not the best hiding spot. (Such a Damon thing to do, to overestimate his own cleverness and have it backfire on him … whilst he is shirtless.) The web of liars, information leaks, and self-serving alliance makers has been revealed, and knowing what Klaus and Katherine each know will hopefully help Stefan, Damon, and Elena through the rest of the season — as will the "secret weapon" their enemies don't know about. Taking up Isobel's clever safe house idea, the brothers offer Elena their home and they seem to understand why Klaus would allow the doppelgnger to go free — he's confident Elena won't follow in Katherine's footsteps by running or turning vampire, and he knows that she has two trusty bodyguards (although she is kidnapped on their watch, like, all the time).
What they don't know is that Klaus will be coming for a visit in the guise of a handsome history teacher we all know and love. The super creepy blood transfusion set-up, the witch bowing before his master, and the smirk on Matt Davis's face as he greets Katerina in Bulgarian as we meet Klaus — this show has reached new heights of awesome! Quite the trick to play on us, and the perfect ending to the first episode in the hotly anticipated Klaus chapter of The Vampire Diaries.
Compelling Moment: While Alaric punching Uncle John in the face and Katherine tossing Stefan into the shrubbery elicited major cheers from me, I'm going to have to go with the heartbreaker moment as the most compelling: Matt and Liz in her car, mourning Caroline — "I feel like she died." "She did."
The Rules: The spirits of the witches are able to mess with Damon when he enters their home — maybe it's Emily who has the ability to disable his ring, as she originally spelled it? — and they throw Jeremy away from Bonnie when he attempts to intervene. Bonnie demonstrates advanced storm raising with her newly harnessed powers. Despite taking small doses of vervain to build up his tolerance, Stefan is still susceptible to a vial full injected into his bloodstream. Demonstrating a Jonas-level of expertise, Klaus's witch (Maddox) has no trouble taking down Katherine. And, of course, there's the kicker: with Maddox's spell and a transfusion of (what I assume to be) Klaus's blood, Alaric is possessed by Klaus — a brilliant twist that builds on what the show has established about witchcraft, compulsion, possession, the power of the Originals, the mystical qualities of blood, and Klaus's recluse character.
Foggy Moments:
Other thoughts & questions as we wait for The Last Dance
(EP218):
Sound off below with your thoughts, likes/dislikes, and theories! Ain't
it grand to have our show back?
Crissy Calhoun is the author of Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to The Vampire Diaries and is writing a follow-up book that covers season 2 (due out in September 2011). When not obsessively re-watching CW shows, she works as managing editor at ECW Press in Toronto. She blogs on TVD, Gossip Girl, and other random things at crissycalhoun.com and tweets @crissycalhoun.
Originally posted by: Jaan730The costumes that Matt/Caroline are wearing in the next epi [spoiler] JFK and Jackie O.[/spoiler] are really symbolic.... uh oh
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