Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 2 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Just Because I Tell You Things Doesn't Mean You're Allowed To Know Them
By Cindy McLennan | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.15.2011
Still standing in the living room doorway, Alaric says, "Vampire for sure." Damon corrects him. "It's Stefan, for sure... It's his signature. There's a reason they call him 'the Ripper'. He feeds so hard he blacks out and rips them apart. But then, when he's done, he feels remorse." He shakes his head as he approaches the victims. "It's the damnedest thing." Damon raises his foot to Blondie's knee and starts shaking it. When her head finally falls off her shoulders and to the floor, he adds, "He puts the bodies back together." Alaric's voice is no more than a whisper. "Back together?" Damon grimaces as he looks at Blondie's head on the rug. "Definitely Stefan." There's some rich, subtle work by Matthew Davis and Ian Somerhalder here. Alaric is very much the horrified human at this grisly sight. It's not that Damon is pleased, enjoying the carnage, or even admiring it. He's clearly not glad that Stefan is so far gone again, but he is, if not sanguine, at least more accepting or much less repulsed by it all, as a vampire should be, even one who's getting back in touch with his humanity and is trying to be reasonably good (if we grade on a curve and forgive his compulsion of and feeding off of Andie). Kudos to both actor, and to director John Behring, too.
Mossy Manse. Elena is helping Caroline and Tyler prepare for her own birthday party -- the one she doesn't even want. Someone needs to remind our girl how to say "no" it seems. Here, allow me. Hey, Elena! Over here. You just lost your Aunt Jenna and your Uncle Daddy. Your Demon Lover has sacrificed his "soul" if not himself, to save his Evil Pixie Monster brother and is cutting a bloody swath up the East Coast. Your history teacher/husband of your late, vampyric bio-mom, who is also the lover of your aforementioned late aunt is camped out on your couch. You have no discernible source of income, and have to wake your sleepyhead little brother every day for his probably sub-minimum wage job waiting tables at your hangout. If you don't want a party, you don't have to have one. And even if you do want one, I don't see why you have to help set up for it. I mean really. Tsk. She's not listening to me, either. I thought I got through to these characters last season and that they'd started taking my direction, but they seem to have regressed over the summer. Damn it.
Elena complains, not about having to set up for her own party, but about how Damon seems to discount all her leads on Stefan. Tyler: "Maybe he doesn't want to find him." Caroline: "Tyler!" Tyler turns to Caroline, "What?" He then says to Elena, "He's into you. Isn't he?" Elena ignores that and explains for the new viewers that Stefan only left in the first place, to save Damon's life, so of course Damon wants to find him. Tyler: "But...you kissed him. Probably screwed with his head." Caroline: "Tyler!" Elena can't believe how much Caroline has told Tyler, but she only says so through her mostly bemused expression. When Caroline apologizes, Elena shakes her head and says, "Don't worry about it. Yes. I kissed him. But it was... it was a goodbye kiss." She looks like she doesn't fully believe herself as she too quickly adds, "I thought he was gonna die." Tyler rolls his eyes and shrugs. My husband Scott translates this gesture for me: "Tyler's saying, Damon's a guy who is in love with you. He doesn't give a shit about why you kissed him. He's dealing in concrete facts. You kissed him." Ha.