Elena’s World – Vampire Diaries “The Night of the Comet” review

I came to two conclusions during last night’s episode:  First, that I am going to have to completely divorce myself from the books when I review the episodes, or I am going to speculate on their handling of certain characters in a way that might be a MAJOR spoiler for the season(s) to come.   And, second, that I freaking LOVE this show.  Last night hooked me.  Like, I enjoyed the first episode and came out of it pleasantly surprised that I didn’t hate it, but last night made my stomach flutter and my heart melt and my lips say, “more, please!” 

This episode played out more like a normal hour-long drama, and like I expect most of the episodes to come will—it covered a span of only one day, split its time pretty equally between the three main plotlines (Elena and Stefan’s budding relationship, Vicki’s attack, and Jeremy’s drug use), and gave us more of the minor characters than the opening installment did.

The day starts with Aunt Jenna going to a conference with Mr. Tanner, the “asshat of a history teacher” (her words), who tells her that Jeremy is on drugs and cutting too much class, and that she is basically failing as their guardian.  We learn in their discussion that she is the “kid sister” of Elena and Jeremy’s mom.  Vicki has a nightmare about vampires; Stefan tries to change her memory but can’t be sure it worked because his powers are weak from only drinking animal blood.  While he is at the hospital, Elena goes to his house and meets Damon, instead.  Damon tells her that Stefan is on the rebound from an ex-“girlfriend” who shattered his heart.  When Stefan comes in and sees them both there, he tells Elena she shouldn’t have come and coldly ignores her in favor of glaring at Damon, who refuses to give up his game to Stefan—“you’ll just have to wait and see.” 

At the town’s Night of the Comet celebration, where the citizens of Mystic Falls gather to watch the comet that passes by once every 145 years (and that Bonnie’s grandmother, the witch, tells her is a harbinger of blood and death:  ooh, foreshadowing, anyone?), Bonnie tells Elena she’s just making excuses about not going after Stefan.  When Elena and Stefan run into each other, he apologizes for earlier and she tells him it’s okay—and that it’s okay that they’re not going to happen.  As she put it, “We met, and we talked, and it was epic, but then the sun rose and reality set in.”  The comet is bright and cold overhead. 

At the restaurant where the kids all hang out, Vicki turns up missing after she is attacked in the bathroom by a vision (or was it?) of Damon the vampire.  Stefan hears her arguing with his brother from the edge of a rooftop and flies up to save her.  Damon taunts Stefan about using his weakened powers on Vicki’s mind and tells her to tell him what attacked her.  “A vampire did—you did!” she cries.  “Wrong!” he shouts angrily.  More calmly he tells her that Stefan attacked her, Stefan Salvatore, a vampire, attacked her.  Damon tells Stefan he can choose between drinking her blood to control her mind, or letting her spill his secrets.  Stefan calls his bluff and shoves her away; Damon, perhaps impressed with his brother’s moral strength, fixes her memory back. 

Later that night Elena and Aunt Jenna are commiserating about their failures with Stefan and Jeremy, when Elena says “she has to do something.”  She goes back to Stefan’s house, where he answers the door.  She says she’s there because she realized that what she was going to write in her diary was things she should be telling to him.  He asks her what they are—that she had convinced herself it was okay to give up, but that the truth is she’s tired of not living, of not doing anything.  Then he tells her what his words would be—that the reality setting is this (the two of them together).  And then they kiss. 

The epilogue shows Caroline flirting with Damon and then a flash of them in bed, where Damon suddenly shows his teeth and goes in for a strike….

As I said in my intro, this episode really flipped my fan-girl switches.  I thought it did an excellent job of slowing down the action so that we could really savor the moments.  My only gripe was that sometimes the characters spoke too fast.  I had to rewind dialogue more than once in I think three different places to catch what was being said, Elena twice and Damon once.  That was annoying.  Also (so I guess this makes two gripes), Stefan’s hair was way too reminiscent of the Edward Cullen School of Perfect Tousled-ness.  Seriously?  Give Paul Wesley his own look, ’cause I’ve reversed my opinion and decided the dude is cute enough to stand alone.  But overall it was an episode that sparkled with energy and drama and danger, all the elements you need for a teenage soap these days.

One line that I thought was hilarious was when the Salvatore who owns the boarding house, Zach I think, calls Stefan uncle—“Is she really worth it, Uncle Stefan?  This girl you came back for?” all the while looking 20 years older and more hard-living. 

The bookend diary entries of both Elena and Stefan might be a little bit cheesy, but they serve a narrative purpose that makes me okay with them:  they give us insight we wouldn’t otherwise have into where Stefan’s mind is, especially, and to some extent Elena’s, since right now she’s still lying to everyone around her but Stefan about how she’s doing, but hasn’t yet gotten in deep enough with him to tell him everything.  They also highlight what the main theme of the episode will be. 

And this episode, I really liked that the diary entries at the end were the two of them confessing their obsession with each other.  When he was giving her that speech, that “I met a girl, and we talked, and it was epic, and then the sun rose and reality set in…and this is reality,” I was (mentally) shrieking “Kiss her!  Kiss her!  KISS HER! Oh, my God, if you don’t kiss her then you are the biggest tease in the wor”—and then he did kiss her, and it was, oh, my God, it was perfect.  And he was all sweet about it and she was like, “Oh, HELL no, we are not done,” and pulled him back for more, which was also hilarious and sweet and perfect. 

Let’s see, what else…the extra details we learned about Aunt Jenna were nice, and put in really well–not an obvious information dump.  While I might disagree with Mr. Tanner’s assessment of raising teenagers as being “completely impossible,” I appreciate that they are trying to give Aunt Jenna her own struggle to focus on.  Her attempts to talk to Jeremy about his drug use were about as effective as you’d expect from an aunt whose age is more like a cousin than a parent.

I liked the horror-movie jumpy scenes in Vicki’s nightmares and/or living nightmare.  I jumped on my couch both times (although I am kind of jumpy that way, so that may not mean much), which made watching extra fun.  It’s something I hope continues.  The book series has plenty of darkness—which so far this TV series seems bent on recreating—so I’ll probably be in luck.  Also, it made me smile when I realized that each episode is opening with what amounts to an urban legend/campfire story about a young couple in a deserted patch of woods…. 

I am not sure where they’re going to go with Caroline being bitten by Damon, but in the context it seems more likely that he will simply erase the incident than leave her with nightmares.  He certainly scoped her out enough to imply he has a soft spot for hot girls.  But it could also leave her open to further mind-control later.  All of these borderline horror elements make me happy, because while this might be a high school drama, real vampire stories aren’t complete without some thrills and chills.

And fulfils, which have already been brought up by Caroline and Bonnie.  “It’s simple,” Caroline explains, “girl meets boy, girl likes boy, girl and boy have sex.”  I am curious to see how they handle that aspect of Elena’s relationship with Stefan, and Damon’s relationship with any of the females in the story.  The books never brought it up at all, not even by implication…although there wasn’t anything that implied they weren’t having sex, either.  It just didn’t come up AT ALL (well, it was like 1991). 

The sneak-peak at next week’s episode suggested that might be on the horizon—and how hilarious was the shot of Elena half-naked and jumping off of Stefan screaming when she looks down at…something?  Can’t wait!