Thursday, May 20, 2010

Vampire Diaries - Founder's Day, S01E22 - Season Finale

This is the way seasons should end. There was drama, there was bloodshed, there was an epic massacre, and there remain a great number of unknowns going into next season which make me SO angry that September is so far away. Of course, I then think about the warm summer temperatures and realize I will survive, but, still, I hate the wait.

We knew a massacre was coming. The vampires had been planning to decimate Mystic Falls, the humans had been planning to stop them and kill them in return. It turned out that Bonnie (Katerina Graham)'s decision not to deactivate the anti-vampire device actually saved the town. Lucky for her - Elena (Nina Dobrev) couldn't be too upset about it.

Still, despite knowing it was coming, I had no idea how it was going to go down and who would end up dead by the end. Despite my love of body counts, there weren't any characters I actually wanted to see gone. Villainous or kindly, they are all awesome and interesting.

When the device worked, and the vampires were dragged to the basement of an old shop, I was concerned to see Damon (Ian Somerhalder) being captured by John (David Anders), but far more upset to see Anna (Malese Jow) pulled from Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen). He knew they were going to kill her, but he was too run down to fight them for her. I loved that Alaric (Matt Davis) prevented Stefan (Paul Wesley) from being taken, and I suspect if he had been in the position to do so, he would have done the same thing for Damon.

Mayor Lockwood also ended up in that basement, though he was definitely not a vampire. I guess there was a flaw in the plan, since one of the people implementing it ended up dead (and I loved that a vamp simply broke his neck rather than having him wait for the flames). Worse, though, was that poor Tyler (Michael Trevino) was equally affected, causing an accident that has Caroline (Candice Forbes) in critical condition.

Other major highlights for me were:
- when John killed Anna before the fire. Perhaps he should have done the same to Damon, but there was a certain amount of increased protectiveness for Jeremy. Elena loves Stefan, not Damon, after all.
- Bonnie helped Damon escape the flames. Perhaps simply for Elena, but probably also because Damon thanked her for saving his life when she had not in fact done so. Some part of her realizes that he is not so evil after all.
- Damon and Jeremy's conversation which led to Jeremy possibly turning himself into a vampire. A little weird that he would try to die by drug overdose - usually that's more a female thing...but it was probably the easiest way to leave us uncertain of whether he will still be human next season.
- Damon confessing to Elena that he was confused by his new desire to protect Mystic Falls. It was friendly, while emotional, and when he kissed her cheek, it was the innocent act of a friend. But her body language, her attitude, transformed that innocence into the desire to act on something he did not mean to act on, and Damon leaned in for the kiss. I was annoyed when Elena kissed back, glad when Jenna (Sara Canning) interrupted them and ordered Elena inside, and finally freaked out when I realized that Jenna had just given permission to Katherine to enter their house.
- When John confessed to Katherine, thinking she was Elena, the feelings he had had for Isobel, and what he was doing and why, my heart broke to think that Elena would never hear her birth father say those words to her. John should have been far more careful in the presence of a woman wielding a knife, but his ring made him sloppy. And he paid for it.

With a fantastic body count, the introduction of a villain far more awful than anyone we've met until know, the presence of werewolves as well as witches and vampires, and 2 lives which hang in the balance, next season promises to be as excellent as this one was.

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