Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 8 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT New York Dolls
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.21.2013
I know Lexi wasn't on the animal diet, but her first appearance on the series led me to believe that she only drank bagged blood. It wasn't stated outright, but with that phlebotomist mention, it was strongly implied. Of course that was in 2009. Damon was with Lexi in 1977, so I guess this isn't a continuity problem, it just caught my attention. The Continuity Fairy lands on my desk and says, "O ye of little faith." Anyhow, Damon stretches out his hand to Elena and leads her into the crowd. We flash back to...
1977. The earlier crowd "dances" to the same song. When a big galoot bumps into Lexi, Damon vamps out and snarls at the guy, who then flees in fear. Lexi smiles at Damon. The Show decides to troll me, and we flash forward to the...
Present. Elena, Rebekah and Damon are "dancing." Elena takes off her coat, hands it to Damon and declares she's hungry. Damon gestures to the crowd and tells her, "Pick." Elena chooses a nearby woman. Aside from Matt, who was a volunteer, and Connor, whom Elena was trying to stop, have all of Elena's victims been female (except for that time at the frat party when she feed on Roofie Rapist)? It seems to me they have. I wonder why. Girl-on-girl titillation is probably the reason, but I wonder if the writers are trying to protect Elena from the appearance of "being with" even more men.
I'm having trouble making my point because I'm trying to discuss something fraught with icky sexual politics, without compounding the error, so bear with me, please. It seems to me that the writers could be choosing female victims for Elena because perhaps they think it will seem "sexier" (in the clichéd sense of straight guys getting excited by watching women together) to watch Elena feed off a girl, or share a girl with Damon, and later Rebekah. I'm also wondering if they've grown sensitive to the "slut shaming" that's gone on in fandom since Stefan and Elena broke up, and she took up with Damon. This is only speculation, but whether or not it's correct, I think it's a shame so many of her victims are female. Given Stefan's early season reaction to Damon sharing his blood with Elena, I'd like to see Switched-Off Elena purposefully choose male victims in an attempt to rub it in Damon's face. Digression over.