Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 348 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Body
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 15 | Aired on 2013.02.21
Back in Mystic Falls, Matt pulls his truck over, puts it into park and weeps. This is some down and dirty ugly crying. I'm not going to dwell on it or all his pain because I have to make him pudding.
Gilbert Gables. Elena picks up the same framed pictures she was looking at during the early moments of the episode. I guess we've come full circle. Outside, Stefan berates Damon's "Shut it off," command as a mistake. Damon: "It wasn't and you know it. It's the only way she's going to survive. We'll help her -- keep an eye on her. When she's ready, I'll use the sire bond to bring her back."
Recapper: That makes me wonder if shutting "it" off will somehow weaken (or, arguably, further weaken) the sire bond. After all, the sire bond happens when a human is in love with a vampire, and that vampire turns her. In shutting off her humanity, has Damon shut off the part of Elena that is "sired" to him?
Stefan blathers about how Elena's humanity was all she had left. What does that even mean? Damon says, "Humanity means nothing when don't have anyone to care about, Stefan."
Stefan: She had you.
Damon: She lost her brother. I'm not enough -- not this time.
Stefan: Listen Damon, I know that you and I -- we've been through some bad spots lately -- especially when it comes to her.
Damon: Yeah, well, guess none of that matters anymore.
Stefan: Can we kiss and make up?
Damon: Only in fanfic. In the script, all we're left with is half finished sentences, shoulder pats and meaningful glances.
Fic Writers: We'll fix that.
Back inside Elena wanders past Dead Jeremy and through Gilbert Gables for what I know will be the last time, even before she picks up a match and lights it. The boys enter then. Damon asks Elena not to do this. They can find another cover story. Elena says this is the best one, because no one will ask questions.
Stefan: If you burn down the house, it'll be gone. What if one day, when this is all over, you want to go home again.
Thomas Wolfe: You can't do that. I wrote a whole book about it, and everything.
Recapper: Tom, these kids can't even make it to school, never mind do independent reading. Save your undead breath.
Elena says she won't want to come home again and drops the match. She, Damon and Stefan walk out the door, without so much as a photograph or a few outfits. We cut back inside and watch Jeremy burn up. I guess Elena's not watching Supernatural, or she would have salted his corpse, first. The fire effects are chilling. We travel from Jeremy to his sketches, to his sneaker, to the kitchen, to whoever's journal that was, then fade to black.