The Vampire Diaries: Welcome to Paradise
October 19, 2014 12:09 PM - Season 6, Episode 3 - Subscribe
In an attempt to bring some fun back into their lives, Elena persuades Caroline to meet her at the swimming hole where she plans to introduce her to Liam. Tyler, still working on controlling his anger issues, asks Liv for a favor and is surprised when she makes an unexpected confession. Stefan arrives back in Mystic Falls looking for Enzo and is caught off guard when he notices a strange change in Elena. Meanwhile, at the lake, Enzo’s actions cause Matt to make a startling revelation, and Jeremy makes a discovery about the anti-magic spell that could potentially put Elena’s life in danger. Elsewhere, Damon and Bonnie stumble upon clues that lead them to believe they’re not alone.
Fair play, but I have to say that this season so far has been better than last season, when it just seemed there was just too much trying to happen. Enzo is a nutter, but still, an entertaining nutter and it's sort of nice to see Angry Stefan (though I have difficulty believing he was that attached to Ivy).
I love that if you've been compelled outside Mystic Falls but go right back into Mystic Falls, OH SHIT SON HERE COMES REMEMBERING.
posted by Kitteh at 12:22 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I love that if you've been compelled outside Mystic Falls but go right back into Mystic Falls, OH SHIT SON HERE COMES REMEMBERING.
posted by Kitteh at 12:22 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I'm getting tired of the "we all have to hang out with the Bad Guy" thing - how many times have they had to do that? Enzo, Silas, Markos, Klaus... basically, if a dude has a name taken from a Brooklyn Organic Free Range Daycare client, he's going to be a pain in the ass at all the parties. I wonder if the writers just label a character with GENERIC VILLAIN OF THIS EPISODE (Gvothe) when they write from on top their mountains of coke and mandness and then some lucky intern gets to find/replace the correct name in later.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:27 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:27 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
The Originals constantly trying to make Klaus likeable and sympathetic after episodes and episodes of him being an utter asshat is why I stopped watching that show. I hated him on TVD and no amount of "ermehgerd he's tortured because his dad was a jerk to him and he secretly makes art and has feels about his child" is ever gonna make that happen for me.
Since Michael Malarkey's name is in this season's credits, I don't guess the Sheriff from Eureka is going to do as Stefan suggested and off him. I will buy the Sheriff a Coke if he does so I can get on with the show.
posted by Kitteh at 2:04 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Since Michael Malarkey's name is in this season's credits, I don't guess the Sheriff from Eureka is going to do as Stefan suggested and off him. I will buy the Sheriff a Coke if he does so I can get on with the show.
posted by Kitteh at 2:04 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I dunno, I don't really care how Groundhog Day Guy dosed the vervain, I think it was hilarious that his trap was basically to sit in the liquor store eating pork rinds until Damon wondered in for his daily bottle of bourbon. Who are these people?
I'm liking that Elena is both a loser and a premed, and that Matt is really earnest about this whole "training" thing (could Matt get any more earnest? He's grown on me so much, in the first season I found him impossibly boring, but at this point he just seems so OTT salt-of-the-earth and Mr. Responsible that I just can't help having a soft spot for the guy) but otherwise, I'm just not sure about the rest of the show right now.
Liv and her brother could maybe be interesting, but they're not yet, because they don't have an interesting storyline. So far all I'm remembering is some brouhaha over a dented keg and Liv maybe wanting to flirt with Tyler, which COME ON, that wouldn't even be interesting gossip in the real world, I'm definitely not going to sit there and watch a show about stuff that mundane. What's next, a storyline about Liv doing her laundry but forgetting to wash the clothes she was planning to wear the next day and getting snippy with her brother because she's aggravated with herself over that? Also, I don't really even know what's supposed to be going on with Caroline? She's so incredibly mopey and while I sort of understand why and am still enjoying her interactions with Elena, otherwise it seems like she's got absolutely no storyline, interesting or otherwise. I can't care about Enzo and want him gone. I don't even know why Caroline is being protective of him (actually don't know, does anybody else?)? Tyler -- eh. I actually used to like Tyler a lot, but this portion of his series-long "anger management arc" isn't gelling imo. Jeremy, I've never cared about and still don't and probably never will.
The best SL right now, I think, is Bonnie/Damon in 1994. First of all, I love that they're in 1994 and everything is sorta/kinda "period." Also, I was surprisingly touched by their tag-team fighting this past episode. But who IS this pork rinds guy? He obviously wouldn't be in Damon's hell, since Damon doesn't know him, and I don't know why Grams would concoct this whole 1994 world for Bonnie and then stick this random guy in it. Has he been able to eat any hot food since he's been in 1994? Does he have access to a microwave or anything, or has he had to live on convenience food this whole time? If he has had to live on pork rinds for months, no wonder he's stupid and cranky now.
Even though that storyline is pretty fun imo, I wish that Bonnie hadn't just gotten her magic back. The show has such a long history of using her magic as a deus ex machina that for a long while now I've just ended up feeling disappointed when they've decided to rely on it to carry the plot along yet again.
The Originals constantly trying to make Klaus likeable and sympathetic after episodes and episodes of him being an utter asshat is why I stopped watching that show.
I was feeling like that until the Originals just went FULL THROTTLE in that graveyard episode last season when Klaus went after Rebekah, and he was just so utterly, OTT *impossible* that I started cracking up laughing and now I just straight up enjoy him as comic relief. It's like everything he says/does is him trying to beat his previous high score in the game of "How Impossible Could a Person Be?!" There were previous episodes where they gave us a taste of that, like when he's revealed one of his horrendous paintings and even the other characters would be at a loss but trying to come up with something to say that would still be polite, and he would just stand there waiting for them to say something nice, for an uncomfortably long time. Or when he's had some Moment of Epic Angst, set to a loud background track, that would involve him ripping out the hearts of a bunch of people or something equally monstrous and gruesome. But it was when he was standing on top of a gravestone shouting about "The Trial of Rebekah Mikaelson" and even Rebekah couldn't take him seriously that Klaus won me over and now I'm always rooting for him to be even more OTT. In this past episode of TO he was literally hanging out next to a body, painting another one of his hideous paintings with his victim's blood. I mean COME ON. And he just gets a scolding from someone (or not even!) and then in the next episode goes and does something even more melodramatic and ridiculously monstrous. But that is why I love TO. I think that Klaus really is what Damon is still supposed to be on TVD, but whereas they will just go balls to the wall in making Klaus irredeemably irritating, wayyyyy past the point of him ever even possibly being at all attractive (I think that's also helped a lot, the TO writers seem to have basically given up on selling him as a romantic lead, so they have the freedom to just make him straight up *silly* at this point), Damon never seems...Idk, that inventive or even absurdly horrible anymore. He just seems sort of grimly horrible?
Klaus always gets this "cat that ate the canary" look after/while doing something OTT, like he's thinking "NEVER SAW THAT COMING, DID YOU!" about whatever his completely dumb antics are this time, and then is invariably crestfallen when yes, literally everyone saw that coming and isn't impressed. I appreciate that they just make him into a chump more often than not. I even like that he has a legitimately sad backstory because sometimes it does become genuinely tempting to feel bad for him (I mean, they *really* harp on Mikael being crazy violent), but just when things reach peak woobie he'll do something just *so* appalling that it's like, OK NOPE NEVER MIND DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BACKSTORY, THIS DUDE IS JUST *THE WORST.*
Damon also used to be given a lot of scenes where he was just The Worst (and it seemed like you were genuinely supposed to see him that way, it didn't feel like it was supposed to be sexy really) or at least a chump, too -- even when he was being relatively scary, there were similar scenes where he'd be trying (and would fail) to show someone up by pulling bizarre behavior, like when he killed the coach for no reason right in front of Stefan, way back in the day. But nowadays, naw. It's not even that they keep Damon's hands clean, they don't particularly imo, they just don't go as campy with him as they do with Klaus. Maybe because he's still a romantic lead, or maybe it's just a difference in the tone of TVD v. TO?
On the other hand, probably nobody else finds Klaus funny and fun to watch so probably TVD is doing the right thing by not making TVD *as* campy as the Originals is. I just happen to love camp.
posted by rue72 at 3:47 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm liking that Elena is both a loser and a premed, and that Matt is really earnest about this whole "training" thing (could Matt get any more earnest? He's grown on me so much, in the first season I found him impossibly boring, but at this point he just seems so OTT salt-of-the-earth and Mr. Responsible that I just can't help having a soft spot for the guy) but otherwise, I'm just not sure about the rest of the show right now.
Liv and her brother could maybe be interesting, but they're not yet, because they don't have an interesting storyline. So far all I'm remembering is some brouhaha over a dented keg and Liv maybe wanting to flirt with Tyler, which COME ON, that wouldn't even be interesting gossip in the real world, I'm definitely not going to sit there and watch a show about stuff that mundane. What's next, a storyline about Liv doing her laundry but forgetting to wash the clothes she was planning to wear the next day and getting snippy with her brother because she's aggravated with herself over that? Also, I don't really even know what's supposed to be going on with Caroline? She's so incredibly mopey and while I sort of understand why and am still enjoying her interactions with Elena, otherwise it seems like she's got absolutely no storyline, interesting or otherwise. I can't care about Enzo and want him gone. I don't even know why Caroline is being protective of him (actually don't know, does anybody else?)? Tyler -- eh. I actually used to like Tyler a lot, but this portion of his series-long "anger management arc" isn't gelling imo. Jeremy, I've never cared about and still don't and probably never will.
The best SL right now, I think, is Bonnie/Damon in 1994. First of all, I love that they're in 1994 and everything is sorta/kinda "period." Also, I was surprisingly touched by their tag-team fighting this past episode. But who IS this pork rinds guy? He obviously wouldn't be in Damon's hell, since Damon doesn't know him, and I don't know why Grams would concoct this whole 1994 world for Bonnie and then stick this random guy in it. Has he been able to eat any hot food since he's been in 1994? Does he have access to a microwave or anything, or has he had to live on convenience food this whole time? If he has had to live on pork rinds for months, no wonder he's stupid and cranky now.
Even though that storyline is pretty fun imo, I wish that Bonnie hadn't just gotten her magic back. The show has such a long history of using her magic as a deus ex machina that for a long while now I've just ended up feeling disappointed when they've decided to rely on it to carry the plot along yet again.
The Originals constantly trying to make Klaus likeable and sympathetic after episodes and episodes of him being an utter asshat is why I stopped watching that show.
I was feeling like that until the Originals just went FULL THROTTLE in that graveyard episode last season when Klaus went after Rebekah, and he was just so utterly, OTT *impossible* that I started cracking up laughing and now I just straight up enjoy him as comic relief. It's like everything he says/does is him trying to beat his previous high score in the game of "How Impossible Could a Person Be?!" There were previous episodes where they gave us a taste of that, like when he's revealed one of his horrendous paintings and even the other characters would be at a loss but trying to come up with something to say that would still be polite, and he would just stand there waiting for them to say something nice, for an uncomfortably long time. Or when he's had some Moment of Epic Angst, set to a loud background track, that would involve him ripping out the hearts of a bunch of people or something equally monstrous and gruesome. But it was when he was standing on top of a gravestone shouting about "The Trial of Rebekah Mikaelson" and even Rebekah couldn't take him seriously that Klaus won me over and now I'm always rooting for him to be even more OTT. In this past episode of TO he was literally hanging out next to a body, painting another one of his hideous paintings with his victim's blood. I mean COME ON. And he just gets a scolding from someone (or not even!) and then in the next episode goes and does something even more melodramatic and ridiculously monstrous. But that is why I love TO. I think that Klaus really is what Damon is still supposed to be on TVD, but whereas they will just go balls to the wall in making Klaus irredeemably irritating, wayyyyy past the point of him ever even possibly being at all attractive (I think that's also helped a lot, the TO writers seem to have basically given up on selling him as a romantic lead, so they have the freedom to just make him straight up *silly* at this point), Damon never seems...Idk, that inventive or even absurdly horrible anymore. He just seems sort of grimly horrible?
Klaus always gets this "cat that ate the canary" look after/while doing something OTT, like he's thinking "NEVER SAW THAT COMING, DID YOU!" about whatever his completely dumb antics are this time, and then is invariably crestfallen when yes, literally everyone saw that coming and isn't impressed. I appreciate that they just make him into a chump more often than not. I even like that he has a legitimately sad backstory because sometimes it does become genuinely tempting to feel bad for him (I mean, they *really* harp on Mikael being crazy violent), but just when things reach peak woobie he'll do something just *so* appalling that it's like, OK NOPE NEVER MIND DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BACKSTORY, THIS DUDE IS JUST *THE WORST.*
Damon also used to be given a lot of scenes where he was just The Worst (and it seemed like you were genuinely supposed to see him that way, it didn't feel like it was supposed to be sexy really) or at least a chump, too -- even when he was being relatively scary, there were similar scenes where he'd be trying (and would fail) to show someone up by pulling bizarre behavior, like when he killed the coach for no reason right in front of Stefan, way back in the day. But nowadays, naw. It's not even that they keep Damon's hands clean, they don't particularly imo, they just don't go as campy with him as they do with Klaus. Maybe because he's still a romantic lead, or maybe it's just a difference in the tone of TVD v. TO?
On the other hand, probably nobody else finds Klaus funny and fun to watch so probably TVD is doing the right thing by not making TVD *as* campy as the Originals is. I just happen to love camp.
posted by rue72 at 3:47 PM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]
Kitteh, was just thinking about it some more, and I'm sorry if the above comment seemed argumentative! I meant it as a continuation of the Damon/Klaus/Enzo comparison that robocop is bleeding brought up (and specifically Damon/Klaus, because they're so clearly counterparts, as the "intimate antagonist" leads of their respective shows), because I do think that TVD is constantly recycling the same "types" of characters -- but I think it's maybe on purpose. Those groups or pairs of "similar" characters seem like variations on a theme to me, and make more sense, imo, in comparison/contrast with each other, than they do when each is standing all on his own as an individual. And of course I personally prefer the tackiest iteration of that particular "intimate antagonist" character, Klaus, but that's mostly because I have extremely tacky taste -- interested to hear other takes on it!
posted by rue72 at 8:41 PM on October 20, 2014
posted by rue72 at 8:41 PM on October 20, 2014
I will grant you that the Damon/Bonnie storyline is very interesting (Damon, who knew you had that much flannel?).
BUT -- I sort of love where Elena might be heading this season. The whole trying to get the gang together and No One Was Having It was great. It was bittersweet, sad, a bit pathetic. I mean, in a way, it felt like how the show itself faces its future. We've gone through high school, now we're in a conveniently located college, and then what? There can't be many more reasons to keep the characters Mystic Falls-adjacent once that is over.
Yes, Tyler's anger issues being at the forefront again is dull. Matt continues to be the normalish moral heart. Jeremy is only awesome when shirtless. But Caroline remains of the best characters on the show, often showing the only sense and sanity when everyone engages in bad decision-making. (Except for Enzo. CareBear, did we not learn from s1 Damon-dating?)
posted by Kitteh at 8:20 AM on October 21, 2014 [3 favorites]
BUT -- I sort of love where Elena might be heading this season. The whole trying to get the gang together and No One Was Having It was great. It was bittersweet, sad, a bit pathetic. I mean, in a way, it felt like how the show itself faces its future. We've gone through high school, now we're in a conveniently located college, and then what? There can't be many more reasons to keep the characters Mystic Falls-adjacent once that is over.
Yes, Tyler's anger issues being at the forefront again is dull. Matt continues to be the normalish moral heart. Jeremy is only awesome when shirtless. But Caroline remains of the best characters on the show, often showing the only sense and sanity when everyone engages in bad decision-making. (Except for Enzo. CareBear, did we not learn from s1 Damon-dating?)
posted by Kitteh at 8:20 AM on October 21, 2014 [3 favorites]
I always think that the Damon/Enzo/Klaus characters are there for the adults who are watching the show. They exist at least half the time for our snark, but because they're a snark vehicle they also need to be Visible Bad Guys too.
posted by corb at 2:33 PM on November 4, 2016
posted by corb at 2:33 PM on November 4, 2016
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posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:51 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]