Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT No Peace I Find
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 11 | Aired on 01.21.2010
The Mystic Grill: Alaric is grading papers at the bar when Damon walks in and orders a bourbon. He looks down the bar and nods at Alaric. Alaric flashes back to his last morning with his wife, when he told her he'd be late getting home. Then he flashes back to his last night with her. He enters her bedroom to find her in another man's arms. That other man is our favorite Evil Pixie Monster -- Damon, who pauses to sigh in ecstasy, before he sinks his bloody fangs back into the late Mrs. Saltzman's neck. Back in the present, Alaric realizes who is sitting five feet to his left. He lifts his drink with his bling hand, takes an oh so meaningful sip, and sets it back down on the bar. His hand shakes until he slams it down on the bar. And? Scene.
Well, you know, no matter the flaws in any given episode, I cannot fault the pacing. Williamson, Plec, et alia give us everything they've got -- every week the show airs. I'm drowning in bloody reveals. Still, I have questions. I truly don't get Bonnie's lineage. It's a surname thing. Emily Bennett's surname was... well... Bennett. Likewise, Bonnie's surname is Bennett. And according to anything I can find, Jasmine Guy's Sheila is a Bennett, too -- but according to a reader, who seemed to take umbrage at my genealogical confusion, Guy is playing Bonnie's maternal grandmother, so...yeah, how are they all Bennetts? We know Bonnie's dad is in the picture, because she lives with him (except for when she's staying with Grams). Okay, so maybe Bonnie's mother didn't marry her dad and didn't give Bonnie his surname. But so then are we to also think Sheila didn't marry Bonnie's grandfather and didn't give Bonnie's mom his surname? This is a little clunky, but it can be explained. Still, right now? It itches.
That said, I really appreciate that the show is not shying away from Damon being a mass murderer. One "Angel"-vampire is enough, for now. Damon is Damon. He's pretty and as sweet as honey when he wants something and/or thinks someone is worth it, but for him -- at the end of the day -- humans are a lower life form. He feels no more guilty about killing them than I feel about eating a hamburger. Still, and although Elena doesn't know he killed Bree/Zoe, she does know about Vicki and Lexi, and how he's treated Caroline, so it also sort of itches that she's so comfortable hanging with him and begging for his life. I hope she finds out that soon after she obtained mercy for him (from Lee), he failed to give Bree/Zoe the same consideration.
After such a long hiatus, I missed Matt, Caroline, and Tyler. I hope they're back in the next episode. Cross your fingers, gentle readers. Until then, please don't advertise to the vampires that you're loaded with Vervain. It's not so much a deterrent as an invitation to improvise.
More seriously, please don't forget about Haiti. If you haven't yet donated, I've collected a bunch of links to reputable charities. They're right here starting on page 11 of my last HIMYM weecap. Click away, my friends.
Cindy McLennan can't believe you like Damon as much as she does. You should tell her your reasons in e-mail, or on Twitter.