My, oh my! A lot has been going down on the Vampire Diaries front, and I’ve been neglecting my duties in expressing my opinions. Nothing gratifies me more.

Throw Damon a Bone

I was getting very frustrated and discouraged with the way Damon’s character was being treated during the previous 3 episodes and 5 minutes, but Thursday’s episode (Kill or Be Killed) finally put things back on track.

In my estimation, the real trouble began when Damon snapped Jeremy’s neck. Yes, I can see the reasoning behind it, and the intent. The idea is that Damon will have committed an act of such atrocity that it will be all the more amazing and epic and awesome and thrilling and blah blah blah when he and Elena finally make up and get together (it will happen, or they fail at making a love triangle). It will show how much Elena is able to forgive him. It shows how much Elena can hurt Damon. It also allows, sigh, for them to backpeddle because we all know how buddy-buddy those two were getting: too buddy-buddy for comfort, because Stefan and Elena were looking pretty weak. Time to back the DE train up, say the writers. In the process, we’ll throw a nice obstacle in the way of the relationship that’ll be so EPIC once it’s gotten around. And, by the way, we can bring Jeremy in and he’ll magically forgive Damon for killing him and that’ll be cool and help bring Damon and Elena back together after we threw that monkey wrench in their relationship.

I’m not saying they don’t have a plan, or that it might not work out in the end. I’m just saying that killing Elena’s brother was the wrong way to put a bog in the path that leads to Delena land even if he did come back to life safe and sound. It’s pretty unbelievable, even in the VD universe, that she could forgive him for that. And, it makes absolutely no sense character-wise. That’s what ticks me off. It makes sense with some of Damon’s character traits: impulsive, violent, emotional. But there are two very, very large parts of his personality that it does not match up with: his loyalty and his intelligence. He loves Elena (or they have “something”), and he might have wanted to hurt her after she rejected him (you won’t find me arguing that), but he should have done something to her that was so heinous. He’s shown that when he cares for someone, he will not hurt them (that’s pretty much just Stefan and Elena up to this point). All of a sudden, he does something extraordinarily horrible to this person. Then, of course, you have to take into account how damned stupid it was of him to do that. He cares about Elena, and he must have known that killing Jeremy was absolutely unforgivable, 100%. Even a drunk, emotional Damon would never do something that would destroy utterly one of the things he cared about most.

What made it worse was in episode three when Damon lied to her about seeing the ring. Problem one: Damon doesn’t lie. He hasn’t lied about anything else ever so far as I can remember, though he evaded answering questions. Problem two: this would have been a prime opportunity to make Damon’s previous actions work for his character. Being overly emotional is not enough of an explanation for snapping Jeremy’s neck, not to me. They could have said he saw the ring and was just trying to scare Jeremy and lash out at Elena. Would have worked for me.

Then he wanted to kill Caroline. This disappointed me, because I would think he’d be cautious at least and see if she might be an asset to him and his brother. That’s what the Damon we all knew from Season 1 would have done.

Then there was his pleading with Elena. Do not like him acting the fool for her. This is Damon, dammit. Give him a little credit and give him some respect. All of a sudden, he’s throwing himself all over Elena? It could have worked, but . . . it didn’t.

In episode 4, he shook Mason’s hand and went back on it. I said to the screen, “And mean it, Damon!” But of course, I was trying to knock some sense into the writers. It didn’t work. Damon stabbed Mason with a knife and made an enemy. I was really frustrated: Damon again does something stupid and out of character. Why are you doing this to him, writers?

And by the way, no really good one-liners so far. Maybe, “Now I’m not living up to my best self.”

This is the trouble: Damon was built up as an awesome character, the smartest one in town, the big bad-ass brother, the sexy one, the one who had the wit and the pathos. For these 3 episodes and 5 minutes, he came across as an idiot and a jerk with few redeeming qualities. Not because that’s the way his character should be, but because the writers failed.

Thank god for Thursday’s episode, Kill or Be Killed. Damon was at last not doing stupid things, was making good decisions, and wasn’t taking crap. And it turns out he was totally right all along about Mason (sweet vindication), who betrayed him and Stefan. He also showed that old soft side (and the intelligent side that says think before you stab) when dealing with Liz and Caroline and Elena. Thank GOD the writers brought it back a little bit.

I still think they need to go back and give a better explanation of the neck-snapping. It could be one simple line. He explained that he was just overly emotional, that Katherine got to him–not good enough, writers.

Best line of the night: “But you’re my friend.” Poor Damon! Jesus, everyone rejects him!

Spoilers!

Some major teasers came from a panel that was held today with the writers and Steven R McQueen.

Here’s a linkedy-link courtesy of vampire-diaries.net.

I know part of this “manning up” on the part of Jeremy will involve bonding time with Damon. That’s been hinted at, and I cannot wait for it! It’s been dubbed Team Milk and Cookies, like Team Badass (Damon and Alaric–by the way, I LOVE Alaric and his knowing looks especially when Damon and Elena are together in the room with him).

Katherine. Romania. 1492. Wow. Firstly, she’s Katerina Petrova, and that ain’t Romanian. I’ve watched enough gymnastics competitions to recognize a Romanian name when I see it. And that is Russian, very Russian. Naturally, this extends to other Slavic countries, but Romania isn’t one of those. There are therefore two possibilities: Katherine traveled to Romania or this flashback is actually about her maker or someone else having to do with her.

By the way. Romania. 1492. Equals Dracula. Just saying.

Bonnie in a love triangle. Yey, maybe she’ll have better luck in love. As long as Damon isn’t involved. And poor Matt. Give him a little more action, please?

Oooh, Kelly Donovan back as a succubus? I dunno, I don’t want them to go all supernatural menagerie on me. I’m barely okay with adding werewolves to the mix.

David Anders back as Uncle John? WANT!

Lexi and Anna coming major? MAJOR WANT!

In flashbacks? OMG, YES PLEASE! I love flashbacks hardcore.

Oh, Julie. “Every man woman and child”? Ew. I know you were exaggerating for comedic effect, but refrain from doing so ever again. Please. Damon is not quite that promiscuous. Damn.

It’s going to be hard to have this week with no new episode. I’m currently out of school and without even a part-time job, so I have way too much time on my hands to think about this stuff. So it’ll be hard. But I’m looking forward to Plan B (looks like some insanity may happen) and especially to the following two episodes–a MASQUERADE. Who else is singing Phantom of the Opera? But some major you know what is going to go down it looks like–it looks like Elena might be kidnapped by Katherine’s old friend Lucy, who may or may not be a witch.

I have some qualms, but this show rocks. Keep on being awesome, TVD!