Review of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – The New Deal (2012)

With the turn of the kaleidoscope, things are changing in Mystic Falls

So far no one is asking the really important question:  are Stefan’s emotions really turned off?  From all indications, Stefan has found a way to defy Klaus’ compulsion and managed to turn his human emotions back on again.  It became evident in ‘Homecoming’ when Stefan chose to save Damon, thereby saving Klaus, and earned his freedom — opposed to just letting Damon kill Klaus.  If Stefan had truly not cared about anything, he could have just sat back and let Damon kill Klaus.  Instead, Stefan saved his brother’s life and then stole Klaus’ family of coffins.  Had Stefan truly turned off his human emotions, the love and concern for his brother and the desire for revenge would have been moot.  So there are glimmers of defiance and emotion emanating from everything Stefan does.  Revenge, protection, concern and love – Stefan reeks of human emotion.  He is just doing a good job of hiding it.

This is the lynch-pin for everything right now.  It is truly Stefan’s world.  He holds all the pieces and he gets to decided what happens next.

Klaus may whine and pout that his precious family were snatched out from under his nose in the midst of his newly incarnate hybrid-army, but he is just reacting to the fact that Stefan pulled one over on him – and Klaus has no clue how to get the upper-hand back.  Klaus is a fine chessman, but when Elena stole his queen, Rebekah, and Stefan stole his other key pieces, his family, it left him with just a handful of pawns, the hybrids – and hybrids are useless as they only live to please their maker – Klaus, the sire of them all.  So Klaus’ chessboard was been essentially wiped clean and Stefan is repopulating the game in his favor.  Stefan secured a queen of his own, Katherine, and a few handy knights, Damon and Bonnie.  Because Klaus believes that Stefan doesn’t truly care about Elena at this point – which is probably a very vital and wrong assumption – he is not playing to his strengths.  Klaus sought to use Jeremy and Tyler as pawns – Jeremy both under compulsion and then as a vulnerable target; and Tyler, unfortunately, a mindless wimp under his master’s control who only seeks to please Klaus.

Klaus thought he could manipulate Elena into seeking out Stefan, but she is so disillusioned about who Stefan is at this point, she does not feel it is necessary to track Stefan down.  Instead, she gives up Rebekah in exchange for sparing Jeremy’s life – and asks to Damon to mind-wipe Jeremy again so that he can return to a state of blissful ignorance and live out his teenage years unaware of the supernatural battle raging around him.

At this point, neither Stefan nor Elena are reacting in the way that Klaus expects – they are adjusting to the fact that the game has changed.  Klaus still thinks they are playing by the old rule book.  The new game requires new rules and, as Klaus is finding out, new deals.

Points of Interest

1.         Who exactly is in that sealed coffin that Klaus is so desperate to get back?

2.         Was it necessary for Klaus to partially revive Rebekah only to reinsert the knife? What does he hope to gain from that stunt?  Is it only so that his final words are the only thoughts echoing in her brain until he thinks she is safe to revive again?  Is that cruel or kind?

3.         Jeremy overcame a mind-wipe once before.  How long will it be before he figures things out again?  It seems very naïve for Elena, Damon and Alaric to think that just getting Jeremy out of Mystic Falls will keep him safe.  All they did was succeed in making him prey in a world where there are all sorts of supernatural creatures roaming this vast planet we inhabit.

What Worked

Stefan’s carefully constructed illusion of indifference.  He is doing such a masterful job that even we cannot always tell what he is faking and what is real with him.  To have convinced his own brother and his girlfriend that he no longer cares about either of them, it is simply amazing.  Kudos to Paul Wesley for seamlessly transitioning between ruthless, unfeeling killer to achingly protective but concealed behind a flawless mask.

For example, when Elena finally found Stefan to plead for his help, he calmly told Elena, “Not really my problem.”  Her answering slap across his face echoed with the pain she felt at his indifference.  Her retort, “Then you can go to hell,” only cemented the loss.  Elena is convinced that Stefan is gone forever because Klaus forced him to turn off his human emotions.  So much so that when Klaus came to her seeking her help in tracking Stefan down, she angrily snapped, “[Stefan] doesn’t care about me anymore.  You made sure of that.  You turned him into a monster. Now he’s your problem.”

Yet interestingly, when Elena told Bonnie, “The Stefan we know is gone,” Bonnie asked, “How is Damon handling that?” and Elena, “Damon is Damon.”  Bonnie was not as worried about Elena handling the loss of her boyfriend, but more concerned about how Damon was reacting to his brother’s betrayal.  Elena may be angry, but Damon is hurt.

When Damon finally got a chance to ask Stefan why he had to save Klaus and screw up their plan to kill him, Stefan broke his façade and admitted, “I did it to save you.”  It was the perfect moment as Damon staked his brother in the chest incapacitating him and angrily said, “When are you going to get it through your head — stop saving me!”  Curiously, Stefan also admitted that the reason he stole Klaus’ coffins was because he wanted take everything that means anything to Klaus away from him — like he did to Stefan. These are not the explanations of a vampire without human emotion.  Damon now knows that his brother is back – just hiding from his emotions and perhaps hiding from Elena, who may not forgive him for his recent sins.  To tell or not to tell, that is the question.  Yet Damon, surprisingly, does the right thing.

After acquiescing to Elena’s request to mind-wipe Jeremy, Elena tells Damon, “Thank you” and he tries to be casual about it by replying, “No problem.”  Not wanting him to deflect her thanks, Elena insisted, “Not just for this, Damon.  For everything.  I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”  That was the moment. The look on Damon’s face said it all.  The choice was his and his alone.  But after embracing the path to be a better man for her, Damon knew he had but one option.  He told her, “You should know this — Stefan didn’t screw us over.  Well, he screwed us over but he had a good reason . . . He saved Klaus to save me. Then he stole the coffins to get even.” Confused, Elena said, “Damon, if he did that to protect you — why would he even do that? What does it even mean?”  Partially in agony for having stuck by his decision to tell her and do the right thing, Damon retorted, “What does it mean?  It means I’m an idiot!  It means that I thought for one second that I wouldn’t have to feel guilty anymore.”  Not sure what he was talking about, Elena asked, “What are you talking about?  Guilty for what?” Unable to not say it, Damon quietly replied,  “For wanting what I want.”  With dawning realization, she softly said, “Damon.”

This is the moment of agony and ecstasy of star-crossed lovers. Damon, struggling with his desire to be the man she wants him to be, tried to shrug it off by saying, “I know.  Believe me I get it — brother’s girl and all.”  But, as he ruefully smiled and tried to walk away, his nature got the better of him and he turned back and said, “No, no.  You know what?  If I’m going to feel guilty about something, I’m going to feel guilty for this” – and kissed her until she was breathless. With his final words, “Good night,” Elena stood completely still, shell-shocked.  The curse of being in love with two brothers.  This was curse Katherine had warned her about.  Elena now knows that Stefan has turned back on his emotions.  Her heart belongs to Stefan, but now she is conflicted by her desire for Damon too. The moment played out perfectly so that we felt just as conflicted.  How to choose?

The dilemma of the love triangle aside, there was another cute moment earlier in the episode when Elena sought out Damon to talk at the Grill.  Finding him somewhat inebriated, she informed him that day-drunk is not his most attractive look.  To which Damon merely purred, “Oh, what is my most attractive look?”  She then flippantly replied, “I’m not saying you have any attractive look.  I’m just saying this is my least favorite one.”  That moment would have been similarly swoon-worthy, if Klaus had not chosen that moment to say, “Don’t mind me.”  This may be the fate of the Damon-Elena romance – always interrupted by the mechanisms of fate.

Yet as much as fate may be straining to throw obstacles in their way, Damon is persistently around when Elena needs him.  He disposed of the headless corpse, provided his blood to heal Alaric, and mind-wiped Jeremy without really being asked.  Damon recognizes his new place in her life.  It is not enough to protect Elena from harm, it is to be her companion in taking care of the daily chores – albeit, the more atypical kind.  But he has figured out that she needs him in her life.  He fills a role that she didn’t know would ever need filling — a life-companion to face all the obstacles and problems, not just the kind that try to kill you.

So when Elena confided her concerns about Jeremy having to grow up too fast, it was not just worrying about physically protecting Jeremy, but sharing a parental concern.  As Damon tried to ease her worries by sharing, “My brother’s sort of running his own show right now,” Elena reminded him, “Well, my brother just chopped off someone’s head. It’s not right.  It’s not fair.  He’s 16 years old.  He shouldn’t have to live like this. We have to fix this.”  This was not a moment for quips and levity, but a moment to share in her burdens.  She had invited him to help her make a hard decision.  Sensing her newfound trust in opening up with this decision, Damon quietly and firmly reassured her,  “Elena, we will.  We will.”  For the first time, Elena has invited him to be a part of her normal life, not just her supernatural life.  That invitation speaks volumes.  It reveals trust and perhaps the beginning of love.

Another person who is really stepping up in their time of need is Alaric.  Despite his prior attempts to inebriate his pain over loosing Jenna, Alaric still made a point to keep watch over the Gilbert siblings.  It was good to see that he had cleaned up his act, helping out around the Gilbert house again and keeping a protective eye on Elena and Jeremy.  He also risked the pain of death pushing Jeremy out of the way of the speeding car.  While he did not know that his invincibility ring was going to fail to heal him, he knew that it was still going to hurt a lot.  He was willing to risk pain and a form of death for Jeremy.

Later, as he left the hospital, Alaric tried to reach out to Jeremy, by asking, “You okay?”  To which Jeremy replied, “Why wouldn’t I be?  I shot a hybrid in the back and chopped his head off with a meat clever.  Typical Sunday, huh?” Knowing that it was not as easy as Jeremy was trying to make it, Alaric told him, “You can talk to me about this stuff, you know that right?”  And Jeremy’s angrily said, “What can you tell me that I don’t already know? This is the way things are.  It sucks, but I’ve just got to get used to it.”  It was the wake-up call.  This was a young man angry that this is the life he had been forced into.  Yet it was not Alaric’s decision to make on how to handle Jeremy – he left that up to Elena.

Best line of the night:  Alaric, “So I have Damon to thank for the fact I’m still walking?”  Jeremy, “Yeah, he said to remind you that you owe him a drink.”  Alaric, “That’s funny.”  He also got in the second

Second best line of the night: Dr. Meredith Fell, “Mr. Salzman, what is your secret?  Guardian angel or did you sell your soul to the devil?” Alaric, “A little of both.”

While Stefan and Damon are typically the heroes of the show, there is a lot to be said for the guy without any supernatural abilities who puts his life on the line and who takes two children under wing.

What Didn’t Work

Tyler’s stubborn insistence that he still has free will.  When Elena tried to reason with him by saying,  “I don’t understand.  Klaus has terrorized every single one of us, and you’re blindly loyal to him,” Tyler continued to insist that he can still make his own decisions.  He doesn’t even see how ridiculous that is.  He has lost his girlfriend and his friends.  He has lost it all and doesn’t even realize it.  Surely Tyler is smarter than that.

Also, despite the fact it provided a funny punchline, it seemed cruel for Alaric’s invincibility ring not to work.  Plus, that should have served as a reminder as to why it was a bad idea to send Jeremy away where they could not protect him if his ring suddenly stopped working.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

“The New Deal” written by Michael Narducci and directed by John Behring. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ stars Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Joseph Morgan, Steven R. McQueen, Candice Accola, Katerina Graham, Michael Trevino, Zach Roerig, Matt Davis, Claire Holt. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.