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
After the break, Elena goes to Jeremy's room. Stopping in the doorway, she stares at him. As her eyes fill with tears and her lips tremble, Elena slowly walks toward her brother. His face is covered with a blanket so she uncovers it to take a last look. Really knowing him to be dead for the first time takes the wind out of her. She shrinks back and starts to cry. Damon enters the room and speaks her name. Elena then has a beautiful scene in which she repeats that Jeremy is dead. I can't give it all to you. It's too much. Watch the episode. She even realizes she can smell the decay. Don't worry, Elena. I think that's just Stefan. Did have chili on the flight home? When she ignores me, Damon tells Elena to talk to him, he can help her, but Elena wonders how. She tells him they need to take care of Jeremy's body and asks Damon to bring him downstairs.
When Elena arrives downstairs, Stefan tells her Matt is taking Bonnie Beserker home. They figured it would be for the best. Elena tells Damon to put the body on the couch, and then takes out a container of lighter fluid. She dumps it on her journal, or Jeremy's. I've lost track. She then pours it all over the room and all over her brother, his sketches, his X-box and Alaric's bourbon. When the gang tries to talk her down, she reminds them that earlier, they were talking about needing a cover story. She doesn't need this anymore -- she needs nothing of her past that reminds her of her dearly departed. "...Unless you guys are willing to bring back every supernatural creature on the other side, to get them back. Would you?" She turns to her current boyfriend. "I mean, I know you want your drinking buddy back. Would you, Damon, because I wouldn't? I don't know. I mean, does that make me a bad person? I have no idea." She yanks Jeremy's Protect-o Ring off his finger and flips it over to Damon, saying Germ won't need it anymore. Caroline screams at Elena to stop it. Out of lighter fluid, Elena's pouring booze around the joint now, too.
Elena says, "What else are we supposed to do with the body, Caroline? There's no room in the Gilbert family plot. Jenna and John took the last spots." When Stefan tries to calm her, Elena lights a match. "There's nothing here for me anymore, Stefan. Every inch of this house is filled with memories of the people I love, who have died: my mom, my dad, Jeremy, and then Jenna, Alaric, John -- even John. I mean they're all dead. Everyone is dead. What am I supposed to... I mean, how am I gonna... I can't even. There's nothing left for me." At that last, the match burns her fingers. She drops it, but Damon deftly catches it and snuffs it out before the whole place ignites.