[NOTE: Okay, so obviously I didn’t love Season Three of the show. But I have high hopes for Season Four. So every Thursday until the season starts I’m going to post a “classic” moment from Season Three. Hopefully this will rev up momentum, and/or create good karma in the world so the writers feel good and it will come out in their writing (a fan can hope). These moments aren’t chosen because I think they profoundly illustrate the thematics/narrative/characters of the season; rather, I’m specifically picking moments I have unadulterated, happy memories of. The memories of these moments don’t contain a single “I wish they went in a different direction” or “ouch that line was awkward and/or offensive.” Just good moments that I enjoyed, and that exceeded expectations.]
Sorry I’m late again! But technically I did get this in before 4×1!
This week’s moment is from Episode 3×22 “The Departed.” I’ll say, with some reservations, that this is probably my favorite five straight minutes in the whole season. Just…everything. I will also say, up front, that I have some problems with it. Paul Westley explains pretty well all that is unbelievable about the car scene, and I do (mostly) agree with him. But I’m reminded quite forcefully of something Ebert & Roeper once said about Million Dollar Baby, that it was easily the best film of its year if you watch it with your emotions. If you watch with your mind at the forefront rather than your heart, the internal logic doesn’t bear well under scrutiny and it’s a bit harder to defend…so that’s kind of where I’m at. I admit upfront that the blocking in combination with the pre-established mythology of vampire-strength makes Stefan’s failure to save both of them a bit wonky. And, considering that Stefan was planning to outright kill Bonnie in order to save Elena just seven episodes earlier in “All My Children,” his willingness to let her die to save Matt seems selfless beyond credulity. So I recognize that upfront in order to say yes, I know it’s true, and now I just want to move on to the things I loved.
First of all, Alaric. In spite of my reservations regarding the corruptive-ring storyline, I thought Matthew Davis acted the hell out of the role. He had a credible cruelty, a kind of fondness for torture that wasn’t playful enough to be re-directed, just enough to be creative and psychologically hurtful as well. Menacing, and he had that kind of elemental hypocrisy that most true-believer murderers tend to possess. It was very well done and so I was so very pleased to get this last scene between him and Jeremy. If the character had to leave the show then, on a personal level, I like that my last sight was of my Alaric.
Beyond selfishness, I also liked the basic implication of the scene. Esther formerly stated that Alaric’s true self, the one she spoke to every time he died, was the ruthless vampire hunter we got to meet in the last few episodes. And I’d hate if that were Alaric’s “natural” self, and I’d also hate the implication that the things that made him good and lovable and protective all stemmed from the corruptive influence of moral relativity. So this scene annuls all that. Not only is ghost-Alaric back to his wonderful default self…the reason he manifests at the Gilbert house is because his first impulse on dying was wanting to say goodbye. Evil-Alaric was the most perverse version of his best self…his deep desire to protect humans manifested by harming everyone he was protective of: he drank Bonnie’s blood, outed Caroline and Tyler to the Council, tortured Caroline, attacked Meredith, and stood by while Esther forced Elena to once again have her blood taken from her for a malignant ceremony (not to mention being an all around douche), all in the name of protecting them. Saying goodbye to Jeremy now un-inverts his role as paternal/protector, he says goodbye out of love and respect. On the whole, I don’t know that the Jeremy-as-medium storyline paid off in too big of a way, but for this scene alone I’m just so pleased. Also, I just appreciated the warmth. I think a lot of people, when in mourning, just want to believe that their loved one is still with them watching over them. Not just in an “I-miss-them-so-much” way (though there’s that too), but because of that fear of loss. When the person is dead then (unless you’re 100% committed to faith in an afterlife) there’s some worry that they’re just gone altogether, from existence, and if they start to slip from your memory than the one bit of existence they have left disintegrates. (At the least, it’s like that for me with my cat who just died after 16 years of companionship). I would imagine that, with Alaric, it would be that much worse because that specialness that seemed to compose Alaric already seemed to be gone. So when he says “I’ll always be here to look after you, Jeremy; you’ll never be alone. I promise,” and he has that absolutely firm, pleasant conviction in his voice, it’s just…that’s what you want to hear. Especially Jeremy, who in 1.5 years has lost both parents, 2 girlfriends, one uncle, one aunt, and now his sister…you need to believe your loved ones aren’t completely gone. Maybe I’m overstating the significance of the scene, but it just really speaks to me in a comforting way.
As for Damon…how great was that? I reluctantly concede that Spike’s bloodied crying acting in “The Gift” was far superior to Somerhalder’s bloodied crying acting here, but it’s still quite good. And the source of the grief…Damon’s fighting someone who will kill him (and Damon really likes not dying more than most of these characters) but the only other way for the fight to end, theoretically, would be Alaric dying. Damon doesn’t want that to happen for several reasons, not the least of which is that he actually has to fight to the death without causing death or Elena dies too. So once Alaric starts dying…not only is Damon’s only human friend in a century dying for good, it also means that the only woman he’s ever loved (where the love wasn’t built on a foundation of lies) is dying too. The doubly-layered “you are not dead, you are not dead”…just, yes.
The Meredith part. Since Meredith was an actual character in the books, I was pretty disappointed with her writing/acting thus far, but the blood thing was pretty epic. Her cheating with blood was established half a season or so earlier so it’s not a cheat, but subtle enough that you don’t see this twist coming. It also raises some questions, like did Meredith tell Elena she was using blood and that’s why Elena had Stefan save Matt? I also gotta give props to Meredith; she faced down two dangerous vampires this episode with decent aplomb. Alaric was remorseless and homicidal, Damon was grief-stricken and unpredictable (and Damon’s very dangerous when he’s impulsive and unpredictable). So props where it’s due.
I even don’t mind Rebekah; she has the logical behavior that has been glaringly absent from all the Originals this season. When someone is threatening your life and you’re a million times stronger than them..you kill them. This practical villainy really shouldn’t require a season finale to come to the fore but there you go. The scene works for me. I do kind of wonder what her plan was if Matt didn’t swerve out of the way. I guess after being run down she’d just chase after the car.
And then the Wickery Bridge location. One of the major premises of Season Three is what happens if you live past your expiration date (there must be a better way to word that). Between Jeremy’s ghosts who can’t find rest, to the Originals who die and come back and die and come back again and again, to Caroline’s unearned 18th birthday party (naturally in a tomb), it’s natural that Elena’s death should come where she would have died a year earlier were it not for Stefan saving her. The only weapon that can permanently kill an Original is made from the white oak of the bridge; if the Originals die all the vampires in the world die, the only way they won’t die is if Elena and Alaric die. It’s an either/or with all of these characters who should already be dead and the bridge wins either way.
I’ll tell you what though, as much as I love Nina and Paul’s acting (and I do), and think that the eerie blue lighting is iconic and beautiful (and I do), and as much as I love that Elena was consistent to the end, sacrificing her life to save her loved ones (and I really, really do), that’s not even my favorite part of this scene. I think this scene is a call back to 3×11 (“Our Town”) and I’ve gone ahead and added the clip at the bottom. Elena remembers the normal girl she was pre-car crash, and worries over if that girl, and her parents, would be disappointed to see what she’s become: “a girl who falls in love with vampires.” It’s a vulnerable, understandable worry. She’s from a long line of Gilberts, who establish their heroism by opposing all vampires. Her “uncle” John left no room for moral relativity; all vampires were bad. Even her tender loving parents, it turns out, had a secret room in their cabin filled with deadly weapons. By loving Stefan—and then Caroline—and then Damon, she’s markedly separating herself from what her parents and old self might consider “good.” And she doesn’t think she can be the good girl she used to be. And though it’s unsaid, knowing Elena, I also don’t think she would consider herself good if she began indiscriminately hating all vampires. And so the moral relativity, the rationalizations and reasonings that this series and Elena are all about, come to a head in this final scene. Because (and this is what I love most), it’s interpolated with scenes from the first car crash. Elena is fully herself and at the same time, does exactly the same thing her heroic father did, which is determinedly preventing someone from saving her so that someone else can be saved.
Alaric returned to his “true self,” because in the primal cornerstone of his being that’s who he really is. Elena has changed over time, but she’s never lost touch with her “true” self, consumed with a love that can’t stop itself from loving. Elena is what she loved in her parents and also the girl she has become, and as it turns out, there is no conflict between these two identities, they both end in love and sacrifice.
[This next clip is the one from “Our Town.”]