#last night’s episode is truly making me go through a spiral of buddie’s best hits and jfc

[buttercupbuck]

does anyone remember that time when carla told eddie to make sure he was following his heart and then he got shot in front of buck and reached out for him as he bled out in the middle of the street? and like…how he kind of woke up from a coma and heard buck say how he wished he’d been shot instead and needed so badly for buck to know how loved (to the core) he was? because what the fuck was that shit

#last night’s episode is truly making me go through a spiral of buddie’s best hits and jfc #they really did ALL of that #buddie

[thevampirediariesdiary]

1.09 History Repeating

The episode’s called “History Repeating”, so OBVIOUSLY it’s about the brothers, a perfect snapshot of their broken, broken relationship - with hints about just what parts of their history might come back around.  

This is the first episode with Alaric!  Despite being genuinely cool, he hits every single “new teacher trying to be a bro” trope like he’s checking them off a list: making fun of his name, telling the students they can call him Rick, and literally throwing the previous teacher’s files in the trash.  When explaining an extra credit history assignment to Jeremy, he literally says “make it sing”.  Rick.  That is not a helpful instruction.  

Stefan is giving Damon the cold shoulder...understandably...  Damon offers up a peace offering: coffee, to help with circulation.  I hereby offer a formal apology for making fun of the caffeine vampire fact two episodes ago.  It did in fact come back up again.  Show continuity, I should have had more faith in you.

Stefan ignores the coffee, so Damon offers a truly half-assed apology: “I got the town off our back, it was for the greater good, but I’m sorry, and to prove it, I’m not going to feed on a human for at least...a week?”  Shirtless Stefan, aka the Platonic Idea of Abs, wanders out of the closet and says “Because I realize that killing your closest and oldest friend is beyond evil and yet somehow...worthy of humor?”  Damon says, “Are you mimicking me?”  “Yes, Stefan,” says Stefan.  “Now that the secret society of vampire-haters is off our back, I can go back to my routine of ‘how can I destroy Stefan’s life this week?’”  Damon pipes up, “And I can go back to sulking, and Elena-longing, and forehead-brooding.”  And adds, “This is fun, I like this.”  “And I will finally reveal the ulterior motive behind my evil and diabolical return to Mystic Falls,” says Stefan.  “Yeaaah I’m done,” says Damon, then shifts back into dopey-Stefan voice: “That’s just like you Damon, you always have to have the last word!”  It’s a weirdly comfortable level of banter, given that Stefan was considering literally killing him one episode ago, but you get the feeling that this is the only way they know how to cope.  Plus, it’s a great bit, so I don’t even care if it’s out of character.  

Caroline yells at Matt for saying “hey” to her repeatedly, as it “reeks of awkward subtext”, and is a “lame guy move”.  He accuses her of reading into the same thing he’s said to her every day since the first grade, and says it’s a “lame girl move”.  I identify the heck out of the introspection spiral Caroline is clearly on.

Stefan tells Elena that he won’t be coming back to school; he’s gonna back off, keep his distance.  “Back off from school or from me?” Elena asks.  Stefan doesn’t answer, just says, “It’s better this way.”  “Yep, I got it,” Elena bites out.  “You’re angry, that’s good,” says Stefan, “it’ll be easier if you hate me.”  It’s condescending and paternalistic and I hate it.

Damon is still pestering Bonnie about the crystal.  “I’ll scream,” she threatens.  “Ohhhh noooo, don’t do that, let’s stay on point,” he says.  Started at the bottom...?  But it freaks Bonnie out enough that she tells Elena, and Elena tells Stefan, and Stefan promises to figure it out.

Jenna, staring at Alaric across the room: I like a man who can dine alone.  Quiet strength. Jeremy: I thought you were still in that Logan-depression thing. Jenna, in the Most Me sentence ever spoken: Oh, I’ve sworn off men forever, but it doesn’t mean I can’t observe them from a safe distance. 

Jenna says Jeremy’s dad had a box of stuff, the-Gilberts-came-over-on-the-Mayflower stuff.  This means the Gilberts and I have ancestors who were buddies!!  Or we would, if it was not Literal Historical Fact that my Mayflower ancestor was a terrific asshole whom No One Liked.

Stefan picks up the brother-impersonation bit again at the bar: S: So, Stefan! You know, I’ve been thinking. I think we should start over, give this brother thing another chance.  We used to do it oh-so-well once upon a time. D: I DON’T, Damon.  I can’t trust you to be a nice guy, you - you kill everybody, and you’re so mean...and...you’re so mean.  ...you’re really hard to imitate, and then I have to go to that lesser place.

Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena attempt to have a manicure night, but it turns into Bennet crystal drama, which I am 200% over.  “What is going on?” Caroline asks. “Why am I not a part of this conversation? You guys do this to me all the time.”  Elena says that’s not true, but Bonnie says it is - she can’t talk to Caroline, because Caroline never listens.  Caroline’s apology speech is fantastic: “It’s just not me.  I don’t believe in the *ooooohhh ghost noises*.  But if you do, then - okay.  I’m in.  That’s what it takes for me to jump on board, because I consider you my best friend, and I’m saying this knowing that Elena’s in the kitchen listening to my every word.  Look, I didn’t know how real this was for you, but I’m listening now, okay?”  I feel like this captures something important about Caroline - she’s not self-centered, precisely, she just assumes everyone’s seeing the same world she is, and placing importance on the same things.  But once she figures out that something is a big deal for her friends, it’s a big deal for her, too.  

Damon: I’m impressed, Stefan.  Fun with booze and darts, sentimental with football, and now: starry night.  ...what do you want, Stefan.  Stefan, seriously: It wasn’t real, Damon.  Our love for Katherine.  Damon, sotto voce: Oh, god.  Stefan, doggedly: She compelled us, we didn’t have a choice.  It took me years to sort that out, to truly understand what she did to us.  Damon: Oh, no, Stefan.  We are not takin’ that on tonight. Stefan: What do you want with Katherine’s crystal? Damon: How do you know about that? Stefan: Come on, you knew Elena would tell me. Damon: How’d you know it was Katherine’s? Emily gave it to her on her last night.  I was with her and you...weren’t. Stefan, defiantly: I was the last one to see her, Damon.  Now, what do you want with Katherine’s crystal? Damon, trying desperately to remain smug: She didn’t tell you? Stefan: We had other things on our mind. Damon: I could rip your heart our and not think twice about it. Stefan: Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Damon: I have a bigger surprise, Stefan.  I’m gonna bring her back.

OKAY SO ABOUT THIS.  First of all, how have they never talked about this before???  It has almost been one and a half CENTURIES.  Second: For someone who starts off trying to convince Damon that all the Katherine feelings weren’t real, Stefan sure seems like he’s still invested in which of them was loved by her more.  Instead of saying “I knew it was her crystal because she compelled me to be there that night and not tell you”, he says he was the last one to see her, like it’s some competition and he won?  And “we had other things on our mind”??  What are you doing?  This is a particularly dumb strategy because it’s CLEAR that Damon has not achieved ANY distance from the whole love triangle; his face when Stefan tells him he was with Katherine that night goes from this:

Shattered trust and suffocating inadequacy, to this:

You can SEE HIM deciding to play his last card, to finally one-up his little brother whom everyone loved more.  And then RIGHT BACK to the sudden-but-inevitable-betrayal look when Stefan basically says they were too busy having sex and bein’ in love to talk about jewelry.  EDIT: I just realized maybe Stefan did this on purpose to get Damon unsettled and angry enough that he would spill his secret?  If that’s the case, it was half brilliant but also insane...since unsettled and angry Damon, at this point in the show, tends more to violence than he does to truth-telling. 

Anyway, we get the tomb spell revelation.  “Did you know witches can use celestial events to draw energy into their magic - pssh, me neither!” says Damon, perfectly proving the point I made here.

This shot, of Jeremy being super pissed when he opens his front door and Elena and Caroline are standing there screaming? 

That’s how I felt through the whole seance sub-plot in this episode.  Also in aww-poor-Jeremy moments, he’s minding his business going through his dad’s boxes when his aunt and his history teacher come home like this:

The show is HEAVILY implying Alaric is a vampire, by the way.  He has a gaudy ring which he says belonged to his father (spoiler alert, that’s a lie), and he does the whole look-pensively-at-the-lintel thing while standing in the doorway.  “You know what, I’m not gonna invite you in,” Jenna tells him.  “Some other time,” says Rick, looking cocky as hell.

Emily Bennet possesses Bonnie and takes everybody to the woods, where Stefan learns there are multiple tomb vamps.  “I don’t care about them, I just want Katherine,” says Damon.  “This isn’t about love, is it, this is about revenge!” Stefan accuses.  “The two aren’t mutually exclusive!”  Emily-as-Bonnie destroys the crystal, despite Damon’s agonizing pleading, and then when Emily leaves, Damon attacks Bonnie. Stefan saves her; Elena gives Damon dagger-eyes which are somehow still a little...disappointed?

And here’s what’s arguably the biggest revelation of the episode, delivered by Damon, tears in his eyes: “Katherine never compelled me.  I knew everything, every step of the way.  It was real for me.”

Elena makes another bid for togetherness with Stefan: “I thought I couldn’t be with you, but I can!  You don’t have to push me away, I can do this.”  “I can’t,” says Stefan, and tells her he’s leaving town.  The back and forth is already driving me insane, and we’re only on episode nine.  Oh, long-form television and your contrived stalling.

Matt climbs into Caroline’s window to tell her “We cuddled, and it creeped me out.”  He needs to improve his communication skills.  But they figure it out, and then eat junk food in her bed, adorably.  Damon sits where Stefan left him, and stares into space, broken.  Stefan throws an old journal across the room and breaks down crying, looking like he’s finally lost control.  Elena confesses everything to a very shaken Bonnie.  And last but not least, Logan Scum-Bucket Fell turns up on the Gilbert doorstep, and asks, “Aren’t you gonna invite me in?”

Music Moments: Barcelona’s “Come Back When You Can” plays over the closing scenes, presumably referring to Katherine - “come back when you can / let go, you’ll understand / you’ve done nothing at all to make me love you less / so come back when you can”.

Eyebrow Watch: “Yeaaaah I’m done”

And a Very Special Edition of Eyebrow Watch, featuring Stefan-as-Damon:

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#rewatch #tvd #1.09 #history repeating