The Vampire Diaries — “Homecoming”
Hmmmm. That’s about where I’m at with this episode. One thing I can certainly say is that this week was not at all like last week’s super talky episode. Some stuff happened here. A plan was hatched. A person was killed. Things kinda got reset but then, not reset at all. It was the perfect midseason finale in some ways—they have shifted the players on the board just enough to surprise viewers but not enough to dramatically alter the central thrust of the season.
So here’s my real issue—the central thrust of the season is Klaus. Yes, it is also bad Stefan (and that I like). But Klaus…um, how do I put this? He sucks. You know, as a bad guy. He isn’t scary, he’s terribly whiny (runs in the family), and he tends to talk much bigger than he acts. Why oh why are we continuing with Klaus when other possible bad guys—ahem, Mikael—seem to have so much more potential for genuine menace and mayhem?
Elena and Damon may be coming to terms with losing Stefan. Maybe. But that was super tentative because there was no kiss between them, there was no goodbye between Elena and Stefan, there was nothing that would prevent Elena from ever loving Stefan again. So really, Elena’s decision to try to move on was not really a decision—it was a statement of fact that he’s sort of out of the picture for a while. Disappointing.
Did anyone really suffer a loss here? Okay, I did. My favorite couple is no more, and it seemed an appropriate break. But I am sad, nevertheless.
Ugh–sad! I’ve had it up to here with “Sad Rebekah”. I made a joke in last week’s post that we need a “Sad Rebekah” meme like we had with “Sad Dawson.” With Dawson, the funny part was Van Der Beek’s difficulty playing sad. With Rebekah, it is her inability to feel anything else. Bor-ing. And not moving. A sad sack of a woman, who is betrayed for 1000 years, worries more about a dance than, oh, I don’t know, asking her brother how he could do that to her? Disappointing.
I suppose I should take a moment to acknowledge that I have always complained that TVD has one big problem—being a vampire is always awesome, so why doesn’t everyone just sign up to become one? But then again, “Sad Rebekah” seems to think being a vampire is all lonely (whine, whine, whine), so maybe I’m supposed to read her predicament as a condemnation of vampirism. That said, just because Rebekah is herself a pretty crummy character (with no personal drive beyond joining the cheerleading squad?), I’m not sure that is quite what I was asking for with the whole, “there needs to be something about being a vampire that sucks to make Elena’s decision to avoid being one make more sense.” [side note: Twilight is a pretty terrible set of books (fun, but terrible), but they were on to something with the monster baby. Is having a baby the one human experience you lose as a vampire? If The Vampire Diaries was set roughly twenty years later, that would be the issue—Elena is approaching 40 and neither of her two vampire boyfriends can give her what she needs. Ha!] Suffice to say, Rebekah’s loneliness is not a terribly compelling plot line.
But let me say a few nice things. I liked the Elena-Bonnie girl talk scene. I loved the breakup scene (subtle, simple, effective). But more importantly, there’s a trait in #TVD that I have long admired–the show’s writers respect Elena. They don’t make her stupid or weak or whiny. She tends to be pretty self-aware, confident, and determined. Even though she doesn’t have Buffy’s advantages, she does have some of Buffy’s strength of self. And that’s awesome. Elena is the one character that doesn’t need to be “fixed” by becoming supernatural. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t need to turn.
So this episode is kind of a mess. Stuff happens, yet nothing much changes. How can we move forward at 120 miles per hour yet end up in exactly the same spot? This is the danger of a mid-season finale, folks. Disappointing.
- November 12, 2011
- Karen
- Episode Recap, Episode Review
- the CW, The Vampire Diaries