Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: C | 106 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT The Human Diary
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.05.2013
Present. Damon tells Aaron, "And that's exactly what I did." Silently, Elena reacts. Now she's judging him, but I can hardly blame her. Aaron asks how many Whitmores Damon has killed. Damon thinks for a second then says, "Since 1958? I lost count." Elena asks, "When was the last one?" He doesn't answer quickly enough for her. "Damon, when was the last one?"
Damon says, "A few months ago. Her name was Sarah. I had to go all the way to Charleston to find her." Aaron winces at his aunt's name. Damon tells Elena, "It was a weekend trip. You didn't know." Elena says, "But we were together a few months ago." Damon says, "Starting the summer of our lives." Elena's eyes flash. Her lips curl. "I had no idea." Damon raises his eyebrows. "Told you it wasn't pretty."
Aaron fires the gun. Damon is down. Elena screams, "No!" She drops to the floor and looks into Damon's cell. He's unconscious. Blood flows from his forehead, across his temples, down the back of his neck and onto the floor. Snacks, anyone?
Back at Mossy Manse, Caroline is all alone, trying to move the safe. She calls out for help. No one answers.
Katherine finds Stefan in another room, breaking down a chair he smashed during a pre-therapy panic attack. They joke about the ugly chair, and then Stefan tells Katherine, "So, I guess you were right, all along. It was easier for me to focus on my physical pain than the breakup. I need to move on."
I'm so disappointed this episode has made Stefan's pain all about the breakup. I was fine with Katherine's assumption that the breakup was at fault, but all season long, we were fed the idea that the pain was from the breakup and from Damon and Elena being together, but mostly from the fact that all summer long, Damon and Elena never once looked for Stefan. He kept himself sane by waiting for them to rescue him, but they didn't. That was far more complex. That presented the triangle (which needs to die) in its strongest light where are three people involved deeply love each other. This is shallow and beneath the show I thought I'd come to know.
Katherine closes in on Stefan. "So you admit it. I do know what I'm doing." Stefan confesses he never quite knows what she's doing. Katherine smirks and admits that sometimes she doesn't know, either. She moves in closer and turns her gaze from the fireplace to the hottie before her, and then adds, "...like right now."
I don't know what you think, but it sure seems to me like Katherine knows what she's doing. She raises her right hand and places it over his heart, and strokes upward toward his shoulder. Finally, they kiss. It's short. Katherine pulls back and looks at Stefan. If the first move had to be hers, the second must be his. He slides his right hand under her long hair and onto the back of her neck, and then pulls her toward him. They kiss again. It's far more intense. Katherine caresses his cheek. At this point, let's leave them their privacy.