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because the cool kids are still talking about 2.19
No, pretty sure I'm the only one who's spent the past two weeks trying to parse out why the events at the end of "Klaus" made sense. Cut me a little slack though, it's been at least four years (!?) since I've seriously attempted the meta thing, but it's good to exercise the brain with the important questions in life.
Where to start? The shocker that there is no curse of the sun and moon? That Klaus dropped the V-bomb on Jenna, then Stefan snarled attractively at her with his bloodshot eyes? That Klaus and Elijah are brothers? That Elijah was in love with Katherine, because the circle of liiiiife rules us all?
Nah, we all want to talk about Damon’s outburst. Except me, who wants to talk about my newfound love of Elijah and the sly little way he said, “I’m a little behind on the times, but I believe the term you’re searching for is OMG.”
Right, back to Damon. His relationship with Andie, brief as it was, is fascinating to me. We know how Damon claims to see it: she’s “my distraction” from Elena. We know how Stefan sees it: she’s his toy, used for blood and sex. But besides his macho persona, he has a track record of letting people think what they want of him and surprising them in the end, so I’d like to think there may have been something more at work:
Maybe he kept her around to stay strong on fresh human blood and keep his head clear and figure out how to save Elena and beat Klaus.
Maybe she was meant to be a legitimate experiment on Damon’s part to live as “normal” a life as a vampire can, without killing people.
Maybe the arrangement was just as he claimed, but when she made it clear that it meant something more to her, he got angry because for the first time in a long time someone has cared about him, and he’s too fucked up and emotionally unavailable to reciprocate.
My thinking is that it was a little of all of the above. Because even after Damon’s breakdown on the road, when he says that he misses his humanity in the same breath as he kills Jessica, he still tries to walk the (mostly) straight and narrow as much as any vampire can with Andie. And in fairness, he doesn’t lie to her. Funny thing about Damon - he may not correct their assumptions, and he doesn’t always tip his hand, but he doesn’t try to deny what he’s up to.
But onto the events of the day. To sum up: He goes out to jailbreak Katherine, ensuring that she owes him one by giving her the vervain. She knows Klaus and wants him dead, too - with her help, they’re a lot closer to killing him without Elijah.
And yet Elena’s out there with Elijah. Elena, who professes to be his friend, makes an alliance with a man who very much wants to kill him, and (for all he knows) is willing to sacrifice her to break the curse. Elena didn’t trust his promise to figure out a way to protect her and save Bonnie, that she again made the easy choice not to fight. And ultimately, if nothing else, her reviving Elijah and inviting him into the boardinghouse puts Damon and Stefan in danger once their deal is completed.
Cue Andie coming in to remind him of all of the above in fewer words and more scotch, trying to comfort Damon by getting him to acknowledge his worry about Elena and Stefan - a terrible tactic because there are few things in life that Damon hates more than being confronted with his feelings. He either flirts or fights his way out of those conversations. And then she doesn’t leave, standing there telling him she cares when she is only supposed to be a compliant recipient of Damon’s emotional and physical needs. On top of his no good very bad day, he’s now also angry at her for caring about him despite knowing full well that he’s in love with another woman. Sound familiar?
So if you think of Andie as an embodiment of all of Damon’s weaknesses when it comes to Elena, then their confrontation in his room suddenly looks a lot more like Damon being angry not at her, but at himself. Angry that he knows Elena loves Stefan yet he can’t shut out his feelings (like she knows he loves Elena yet she cares about him), that he can’t just walk away even though it’s hurting him (she stays despite his feeding on her and manipulating her memory and actions), that he lets himself be used and serves his purpose as protector (as Andie serves as his distraction) but can’t have what he really wants. His inflection when he tells her to leave is all desperation, to make her see the dangerous situation she's in. And he's immediately sorry after biting her, and compels her to make sure she leaves this time before he falls apart entirely and kills her too.
That he lashed out at her physically isn’t really surprising - the fact that he stopped himself is though. Damon died a lovesick young man who had been betrayed by everyone he loved: his brother, his father, his lover. As much as Stefan is empathic, maybe Damon’s problem is that he feels so much on his own that he needs a physical outlet. He has been a vampire for 146 years, and it’s obvious from the flashbacks that he’s undergone a radical change from the man he used to be. He struggled with his new life, and he had no mitigating force for his basic urges, like Stefan had Lexi (to whatever extent). Damon left Mystic Falls, physically tried to put the past behind him, and we don’t know what happened to turn him from the man who didn’t want to become a vampire into the hedonistic sadist who haunted Stefan and killed anyone he became close with. Maybe he never found a way to cope with his emotions, and combined with the bloodlust, he figured out that embracing his new outward strength meant keeping anyone from getting too close to the part of him that was still vulnerable.
I’m not trying to excuse what Damon did. He hurt someone who couldn’t defend herself, and emotionally and physically manipulated her for a long time before that. But I think that seeing it as Damon projecting himself onto Andie and lashing out at her to make himself realize what will happen to him (on a more metaphorical level) if he keeps pining for Elena makes it … understandable?
In any event, I think stuff happened in the episode before the last five minutes?
Trevor brings Katherine to Klaus’s estate in 1492 knowing what she is. I get that Klaus has been perpetuating the sun and moon curse for almost 500 years at that point, but how do people know what the doppelganger looks like?
Nice touch with the dagger as Elena’s token of trust, then putting Elijah on the spot by appealing to the good side she really has no right to.
Klaus reminds Katherine that he slaughtered her family. Setup for vengeance, since she’s the one with the most motive to kill him?
“I have my own reasons for wanting Katarina to pay.” -Elijah
Why does he resent her? Because he helped her escape, and she betrayed him by turning into a vampire? It’s not like they could’ve been together even if she had managed to escape. Did he promise to protect her, and she didn’t believe him? Is he bitter about his affection destroying his relationship with Klaus?
Elijah doesn’t believe in love. Why not? Did he finally buy Klaus’s line that love makes you weak? Is it a vampire thing, that he knows how easily people can be manipulated, so emotion doesn’t matter?
Stefan and Damon literally at each other’s throats over Elena sets up Elijah’s flashback to his fight with Klaus once Katherine’s betrayal is revealed. The way he says “Perhaps” after Damon storms out and Stefan says he’s just angry with him and that he’ll come around - Elijah knows Klaus never trusted him again, that he has proven he could remain angry for eternity.
Where to start? The shocker that there is no curse of the sun and moon? That Klaus dropped the V-bomb on Jenna, then Stefan snarled attractively at her with his bloodshot eyes? That Klaus and Elijah are brothers? That Elijah was in love with Katherine, because the circle of liiiiife rules us all?
Nah, we all want to talk about Damon’s outburst. Except me, who wants to talk about my newfound love of Elijah and the sly little way he said, “I’m a little behind on the times, but I believe the term you’re searching for is OMG.”
Right, back to Damon. His relationship with Andie, brief as it was, is fascinating to me. We know how Damon claims to see it: she’s “my distraction” from Elena. We know how Stefan sees it: she’s his toy, used for blood and sex. But besides his macho persona, he has a track record of letting people think what they want of him and surprising them in the end, so I’d like to think there may have been something more at work:
My thinking is that it was a little of all of the above. Because even after Damon’s breakdown on the road, when he says that he misses his humanity in the same breath as he kills Jessica, he still tries to walk the (mostly) straight and narrow as much as any vampire can with Andie. And in fairness, he doesn’t lie to her. Funny thing about Damon - he may not correct their assumptions, and he doesn’t always tip his hand, but he doesn’t try to deny what he’s up to.
But onto the events of the day. To sum up: He goes out to jailbreak Katherine, ensuring that she owes him one by giving her the vervain. She knows Klaus and wants him dead, too - with her help, they’re a lot closer to killing him without Elijah.
And yet Elena’s out there with Elijah. Elena, who professes to be his friend, makes an alliance with a man who very much wants to kill him, and (for all he knows) is willing to sacrifice her to break the curse. Elena didn’t trust his promise to figure out a way to protect her and save Bonnie, that she again made the easy choice not to fight. And ultimately, if nothing else, her reviving Elijah and inviting him into the boardinghouse puts Damon and Stefan in danger once their deal is completed.
Cue Andie coming in to remind him of all of the above in fewer words and more scotch, trying to comfort Damon by getting him to acknowledge his worry about Elena and Stefan - a terrible tactic because there are few things in life that Damon hates more than being confronted with his feelings. He either flirts or fights his way out of those conversations. And then she doesn’t leave, standing there telling him she cares when she is only supposed to be a compliant recipient of Damon’s emotional and physical needs. On top of his no good very bad day, he’s now also angry at her for caring about him despite knowing full well that he’s in love with another woman. Sound familiar?
So if you think of Andie as an embodiment of all of Damon’s weaknesses when it comes to Elena, then their confrontation in his room suddenly looks a lot more like Damon being angry not at her, but at himself. Angry that he knows Elena loves Stefan yet he can’t shut out his feelings (like she knows he loves Elena yet she cares about him), that he can’t just walk away even though it’s hurting him (she stays despite his feeding on her and manipulating her memory and actions), that he lets himself be used and serves his purpose as protector (as Andie serves as his distraction) but can’t have what he really wants. His inflection when he tells her to leave is all desperation, to make her see the dangerous situation she's in. And he's immediately sorry after biting her, and compels her to make sure she leaves this time before he falls apart entirely and kills her too.
That he lashed out at her physically isn’t really surprising - the fact that he stopped himself is though. Damon died a lovesick young man who had been betrayed by everyone he loved: his brother, his father, his lover. As much as Stefan is empathic, maybe Damon’s problem is that he feels so much on his own that he needs a physical outlet. He has been a vampire for 146 years, and it’s obvious from the flashbacks that he’s undergone a radical change from the man he used to be. He struggled with his new life, and he had no mitigating force for his basic urges, like Stefan had Lexi (to whatever extent). Damon left Mystic Falls, physically tried to put the past behind him, and we don’t know what happened to turn him from the man who didn’t want to become a vampire into the hedonistic sadist who haunted Stefan and killed anyone he became close with. Maybe he never found a way to cope with his emotions, and combined with the bloodlust, he figured out that embracing his new outward strength meant keeping anyone from getting too close to the part of him that was still vulnerable.
I’m not trying to excuse what Damon did. He hurt someone who couldn’t defend herself, and emotionally and physically manipulated her for a long time before that. But I think that seeing it as Damon projecting himself onto Andie and lashing out at her to make himself realize what will happen to him (on a more metaphorical level) if he keeps pining for Elena makes it … understandable?
In any event, I think stuff happened in the episode before the last five minutes?
Why does he resent her? Because he helped her escape, and she betrayed him by turning into a vampire? It’s not like they could’ve been together even if she had managed to escape. Did he promise to protect her, and she didn’t believe him? Is he bitter about his affection destroying his relationship with Klaus?