As I Lay Dying

Oops, I don't think I ever got around to reviewing the last ep. Oh, well. Even though I should be in bed (which would be a prob. as I'm not sleepy), I'm reviewing this one. The keyword for this review is "Awww." Prepare to see it many times.

First thing: I LOVE STEFAN! I know, you two are SO Damon-dazzled *coughespeciallyyouhelpscough* that Stefan's actions may not have impacted you the way they did me, but DAYUM! He killed me in this one! Whipped out that old friend of his, GUILT, and zipped right into the maw of the enemy to find a cure! (wipe the Damon out of your eyes long enough to realize how awesome it is that, when it comes to someone he loves, Stefan will launch himself into danger and ask anyone any time for help. Damon may murder anyone at any time, but Stefan does THIS! Without a moment's hesitation or even a flicker of a flinch, too!) This is so awesome and so BAD! Oh Nooo! See, helps?! I TOLD you Stefan was about to get really, really bad! I called this one big-time. I expected pretty much exactly this. You said the spoilers said Delena time was coming up so, logically, that couldn't happen unless Stefan had fucked up big-time and was really out of the way and here it is! I feel horrible for him, but am so touched by what he did, too. Of course, one of the horrible aspects is that, yes, he did give up Elena for Damon. But let's imagine the consequences if he hadn't! As much as Elena loves him, we know she loves Damon too. Do you think she'd have ever felt the same for Stefan if he hadn't done it? Also, knowing her, she'd have blamed herself for the rest of her days if she knew SHE was the reason Damon died (and she almost certainly would, of course, have found out eventually). So, in a way, he did this for BOTH of them. Katherine had a very good point when she said at least she'll have Damon to keep her company. (By the way, go, Kat! Nice to see there is a drop of humanity left in there! And did you hear her? She said she loved both Salvatores! Oh, yeah?! Then why did she shatter Damon into itty bitty pieces by telling him she loved Stefan?! She's such a bitch!) Stefan has already committed his first murder. This. Is. So. BAD. He was the big damned hero of this ep.

Next, I JUST ADORE THE ENTIRE MAIN CAST! I was struck by the contrast between T.V.D.'s finale and "Supernatural's" last ep. "The Man Who Would Be King" tore me up because of the discord and family fracturing, this ep. tore me up because of the love between everyone, with everyone apologizing, forgiving, loving and pulling together against common enemies. AWWWWWWWW! There was so much juicy, sappy love everywhere in this one! Damon finally taking responsibility for his own part in becoming a vampire (I loved that scene; so touching and it was about damned time! YES, Stefan pushed him into it, but he didn't FORCE him. No one had a gun to Damon's head at any point. He physically could have walked away from all of it. He did not), feeling bad and sorry for blaming Stefan, Elena being there for Damon (though she shouldn't have kissed him. I know, I can hear you now, "she thought he was dying!" Sorry, still wrong. Mostly.), Caroline and her mama!!! AWW! That was kinda out of the blue, but it touched me anyway; I cried. Shut up. Jeremy and Bonnie. Alaric and Jeremy and Bonnie and Damon. OK, let me just give Alaric his own paragraph.

Say what you will about the actor who portrays him, but how can ya not adore Alaric? He's LOVELY! He was also a hero tonight. Bless him, at the top of the ep. he was drowning in self-pity, then all it took was hearing his friend was dying and he snapped right the fuck out of it. One small pause, then it was "What do you need?" And he didn't even rise to Damon's baiting him. (Refresh my memory: what did Damon have to do with getting Jenna killed?) He just stayed with him. Awwwww! (Although injecting him with Vervain in his weakened state might not've been the best idea. However, in Damon's condition, he well may've killed Alaric in his desperation.) And did you see him with Jeremy? He was all Sammy Winchester when he was dead, talking to him anyway, "Come'ere, buddy, I got you, I got you" and then, with Bonnie, so protectively bad-assed with those dead witch bitches, "Well, he's just a kid, tell 'em to shut up!" Awwww. And he was so relieved when he came back to life (and so touched by Bonnie getting him that way, Aw). And the way he stuck around later. Jeremy's new daddy. I adore Alaric. (Have you noticed?)

Gee, Klaus killed Elijah. What a shock. NOT. Surely it's the non-permanent death, though. It'd better be! Klaus is cool, don't care what anyone says. He's evil in this calm, cool way that I dig. My guess is he wants Stefan to help him in his quest to populate the world with werevamps. This show had better not have Stefan kill too many people. If he does, he's going to lose a lot of love. I'm sure I'm not the only one who won't be able to get over that. It's very clear that he's a monster that makes Damon look like a puppy when he's on hublood. Klaus! You FUCKER!

The Damon/Kat flashbacks were nice. Damon was so different then! Ian did a great job highlighting the difference! Poor kid, he was a wanna-be bad boy then, it seems. He just didn't understand that the real thing was so horrible. I still giggle at his past hair. Girlie aside: I love the wallpaper in Katherine's room in the past. So, anyway, here we go with Delena! helps, aren't you excited?! I'm torn. Sure, I'm looking forward to seeing them as a couple, however, it's coming at such a hideous price with Stefan. At least all this time there's been Stelena, it wasn't at the price of a horrible sacrifice from Damon! So, the circumstances are probably going to hold me back from getting as much joy from it as all rabid Delena "shippers." Looks like it's going to be all: Stefan trots off with Klaus, doing his bidding, all the while, surely, looking for a way out of it. He's going to freak everyone the fuck out with what he does. It'll be shocking and exciting and we won't recognize the guy for a while (in other words, he's SO going to be Calena's dream vampire. She may just drop Damon like a hot potato for Stefan!). Meanwhile, sparks will fly between Damon and Elena with Stef out of the pic. She'll see him in a new light now that he's gotten all repentant and mushy. She'll also be feeling rejected because of what Stefan did, despite the stuff I mentioned above. So, BAM, Delena. How it'll get back to Stelena, I don't know. When Stefan comes back into her life, I say they just cut to the chase and be the revolutionary first TV drama that features a polyamorous main character romance. (You know they think about it. Little Miss Kat is all for it! She's a bitch, but she's a cool, forward-thinking bitch!) But they won't. So, do you girls want to play the guessing game of "How Does Stelena Get Reborn?" I got nothin' at present. You?

By the way, I sure hope Damon's sickness caused him to be unaware of Jeremy behind him when he moved out of the way. Otherwise . . . yikes. Surely it did, because he'd wanted to be killed cleanly. There was his chance to have it without having to do it himself or have a friend or loved one do it.

So, what the hell's going on with Jeremy? Is the price of his life being haunted by his dead past girlfriends? Weird!

In conclusion, this was an excellent episode, although they slipped back into their old habit of laying on the sappy music too thickly. There were a couple of tunes I could've done without. I especially would've enjoyed Delena's bed scenes better without the music.

P.S. Vampires on this show sure love to slam each other into walls! Cool.

OH MY GOD!!!!! This was SO EPIC!
I can't even decide where do I start? okey, you did started with Stefan. Don't underestimate my love and admiration for younger Salvatore. You have no idea! I love him, ... I'd like to say I always did, okey.... I didnt always enjoy Stefan, but i think somewhere near the end of s1 and especially during season 2, I fell for him. He's awesome with his calm, thoughtful himself, he thinks a lot, he tries to do the best possible thing. He's way too hard on himself and him blaming himself for Damon being a vampire (okeey, there was this pushy moment where he brought the girl and begged him to drink, but.... ) is just as tragic that it took Damon such a long time to say it out loud that it wasn't Stefan fault. Poor boys, they should've talked about this earlier and not wait until one of them was dying...
Stefan really rocked this episode and I'm really afraid of what he might do with Klaus. I don't want to stop loving him. I'm afraid writers will go and cross certain line.... I forgave Damon enough, so yea please remind me that when I bash Stefan. Also remind me everytime that it was Stefan doing the right thing - Stefan trying to save his big brother. I just hope writers can bring him back on teh good side. BUT even if we forgive him (im certain i will eventually - although you have a point that when Stefan is on blood, he's a real monster), how he's ever gonna forgive himself? I'm sure Damon and Elena will try to tell him that he did it w/ good intentions, but you know what they say.... "road to hell is pawed with good intentions" or somethng... I might enjoy it for awhile, but as yoiu nicely mentioned parallels between TVD and SPN, I don't think I'll be fan of evil Stefan. I fell for his calm reasonable caring personality. I don't really like rippers.
OH! Alaric and Jeremy and Caroline and Bonnie..... and sheriff. OMG! I'm so happy it all went okey. I expected Bonnie to die tonite, but I'm glad they didn't kill her. that'd be the last drop for Jeremy. ANd if Jeremy died, I don't know what Elena would do with that. Alaric really was awesome. I melted when he was right back in action in a second Stefan told him Damon's dying. Also he handled Damon really well, while he was saying all that "im guilty crap... " Plus I also don't think Damon is to blame for Jenna's death. I think Damon might meant the fact that Klaus would have used him as a vampire if he wasn't "useless" bitten by werevolf. But it's a lot of "if"... we can't know that, maybe Klaus would keep Damon alive and would choose Jenna anywya. Sheriff killing off Jeremy. WOW. Bitch.... good that he survived, but then... is he seriously going to see all dead people now? or is it just dead he knew? anyways, it'd make sense as he was literally on the other side and then came back. SO i guess that's it - he's poor kid seeing dead people I'm happy that at least one good thing happened - Caroline and sheriff reunion. I was melting all the way through the episode....
KLAUS!!! You might like him, but...... he's so .....fulsome I don't know. He's clearly not my type. It's not about him being evil. You know, there are some delicious bad villains I love, but this one. I don't know. He doesn't do that for me at all. Though, the acting is good. I think he really killed Elijah and he's not coming back. Too bad, because I liked him... Poor bastard should ahve known that Klaus won't stop and wouldn't just tell him where is their family.
Finally DELENA and DATERINE? XD
Katherine is really bitch for saying Damon that she couldn't care less about him and now.... the revelation she loved him,too. Pfff.... I think she was just bored and didn't want Damon cute puppy with her, because we know he can really be sweet when in love and it's obviously not Katherine's cup of tea. Plus she really is kind of selfish... ANYWAYS, I was really happy that she didn't run away and brought him the cure. But we couldn't loose Damon, now could we Poor idjit was so broken and dying and desperate. Those moments were horrible and beautiful at the same time. I was relieved when Elena told him she forgives him and that she likes him the way he is now. That was so nice of her and he needed to hear that. Oh and kiss!!! Okeeey, I agree it might not be all alright, but really as you said 1] he was dying, apologising, revealing his feelings [plus admitted he knows its always gonna be stefan] 2] it's really not that much of a true that she doesn't feel anything for him now is it? it was obvious that she realized she might really like him a bit more than friend and why wouldn't she kiss him when he was in this horrible situation? ....
Now, I'm not blind!Delena fan. I expect nothing less but Damon trying to pay this one back to Stefan and get him back home. I also expect that Damon and Elena won't be all hot and naked in the bed during few episodes. I want this to make sense, I want them to think of Stefan,too. I want this to happen spontaneously, I want Delena to be real and earned. I don't need Stelena to ever happen again, not really, but I need Salvatores to be back together.... Family is supposed to be stronger than just romance ... I hope Damon will do anything to get Stefan away from Klaus. Tho, I'm well-aware it might be very hard and dangerous,too. But..... it's Damon's turn. I hope ALaric will join him and they'll be a team...We will have to wait and see, but yep, I'm excited for Delena, but I need it to be real and believable .... and maybe thoughtful - anyways, Team Stamon all the way

So overall, I loved everything about this one, very emotional moment, I'll watch it again, but wow..... Ian was amazing, I loved flashbacks,too. It's incredible how sweet and NAIVE he used to be (DAMON).... also everyone in the cast... they were amazing. I support Delena, because I agree -it's okey to love them both...(and when one is gone XD)... It's really horrible to know that we have to wait HALF YEAR for this story to continue. it makes me so sad....

PS - was stefan this evil ripper before or after he met Lexi,toO? im just wondering... but he met lexi in the beginning so what now? i mean, he couldn't control it and she was teaching him the basic stuff... i'd be surprised if he did this all before he met her... thoughts?

I'd have to go back and hear the date Klaus said the migrant village thing happened. He probably did do that after Lexi. Klaus said he was on and off the wagon for decades so, apparently, Lexi's fix for him wasn't permanent. Poor Stefan. Apparently hublood is an incredibly addictive thing. As to him freaking out so much on it though, I'm a tad confused. Hadn't he gradually gotten back on it lately? I thought he was taking a bit of Elena's blood daily in order to gradually work his way up to being able to drink it in a controlled manner that would keep him from monstering out. I thought they figured his problem before was his not being able to find a middle ground between freaked out monster and Sweet Stefan, so this gradual, controlled way of getting on it was the solution. What did I miss?!

BTW, I hope that "blood" that the actors drink is tasty or at least not gross, cuz it sure seemed Paul had to drink a lot of it! (Not the amount Stefan did, of course, but a good many gulps it seemed.) Joseph, too.

Why don't you like Klaus? You do understand what I mean by saying I do, right? I don't mean I think he's a good guy, I mean he's very bad and I enjoy his style. We have to have someone to love to hate and I love to hate him. He's got this big, evil agenda and he handles everything with this jovial smile and evil, calm glee. What's not to like?

If Elijah were permanently dead, I don't think that dagger would be left in him and that he'd be stored away "with the others." Nope. I think that was the white oak ash-tipped dagger and, apparently, Klaus was at least not lying when he told him that their family wasn't scattered across the ocean. They must all be in that reversibly dead state. Cool! And now Stefan knows where Elijah is. How hard would it be for him to text a message to someone on our team as to his location and for that someone to get in there and yank that dagger out of Elijah? Not too hard, I'd think (why didn't Klaus think of that?). I think this will happen. And, when it does, I hope the gang chastizes him like crazy. "Have you learned your lesson about trusting your brother?" That very well may be the end game: Somehow, Stefan gets the word out as to Elijah's location, then someone in our gang undeathifies him and then Elijah and/or our gang person undeathifies (new word, yay!) the other family members and they gang up to take Klaus down. BTW, I still think Klaus's eyes are so pretty when they wolfvamp out. I wonder if Tylerine is going to make a werevamp baby later.

You kids already posted so much! But I want to get rid of some thoughts before reading through your posts (gonna print them out, too much to read on screen for me).

I love this ep, and very much love the set up for S3. I have always wanted to see Evil Stefan. I do have one gripe though: I remember Stefan started taking small doses of hublood to build up a tolerance to it. Now I can suspend enough disbelief that the huge OD Klaus made him drink, cancelled that out. But did they ever explain why Stefan goes beserk on hublood, while Damon can control himself relatively easily? I very dimly remember they did adress that, but can't remember what they said about it.

What's up with Jer? Did he now develop some kind of supernatural powers for himself? Is he really dead and only Bonny (as a witch) and Alaric (for whatever reason) can see him? What price will Bonny have to pay for draining so much energy from the dead witches? Surley there'll be some dire consequences for her.

In any case, with much grappling with guilt and sadness and whatever, Delena will surley happen now.

And I want Elijah back. Poor Elijah!

Very cool and fitting that Klaus' blood heals werewolf bites. I love nature, too!

Like I said, I don't get that, either. I don't even see why a large amount of it would make him lose control, if he's used having it. Maybe that's some part of vampire lore they've yet to disclose.

Last I knew, Elena started feeding him daily doses. I thought he'd gone on to drink from bags, like Damon, after that. I thought that was all about making him strong while avoiding the monstering out. I don't get it.
Could it be that, since being a vampire intensifies personality traits, that when Stefan was "alive" he was so caught up in being the good son and trying to do everything right, defend Damon, etc. that he secretly was full of pent-up rage or something? They need to explain this stuff!

BTW, drinking from blood bags is still harmful to humans. We set aside that blood for a reason. If there's an emergency and doctors go to grab some blood for a transfusion and it's not there, that patient will die. So . . . yeah. I actually think, in light of that, that Damon's compel, drink and release is more humane! Go, Damon! They should stop the blood bag thing from here on, unless Elena and Alaric want to regularly donate theirs to keep on hand for emergencies. Do I actually think T.V.D. will devote this much deep thought to this subject, though? Nope.

I'd be very happy if they ever solved the mystery of the Stefan freak out on HB, but there are equal chances it's just a huge plot hole. Which would suck ( ), because it is major component of the developments that are currently ... developing.

So . . . yeah. I actually think, in light of that, that Damon's compel, drink and release is more humane!

Really? You, the defender of FREE WILL think that using living people is humane? Well, I choose so believe they don't rob a blood bank completely dry in one go, and always leave a substantial supply behind. I doubt that 2 humans could give enough blood to keep even one vampire well fed, let alone 3 (Stefan, Damon, Caroline). Maybe they don't rob blood banks, but buy it from a supplier (it would be black market of course, but the bags wouldn't even end up in hospitals, so no bad surprises when blood was needed)

No, I think it's the lesser of two evils. At least Damon's way, the human isn't seriously harmed and doesn't even remember what happened. Stefan's way means humans may DIE. I don't know about in your country, but, in the USA, we're always short on blood. There're always desperate pleas for blood donations. Hospitals do not just have extra blood bags lying around. They inventory them carefully and are counting on exactly as much blood being there as inventory states.

Black market wouldn't correct this situation unless the blood was from willing donors selling directly to them. Which wouldn't even be black market, as no theft would actually be going on, right? If they come up with THAT as the explanation, then, yeah, that'd be better. However, I think the show has made it pretty clear that vampires are a big SECRET. Very few humans know they exist & most of the few who do want to annihilate them, so I can't see where they'd find enough for such a thing to happen.

Blood lasts for a while; they refrigerate (or freeze?) it. I didn't say they should have enough on hand to sustain them for years, but surely 2 or so humans could donate monthly to have enough on hand for emergencies, as in a one-time thing or a day or two thing for one vampire.

Blood lasts for a while; they refrigerate (or freeze?) it. I didn't say they should have enough on hand to sustain them for years, but surely 2 or so humans could donate monthly to have enough on hand for emergencies, as in a one-time thing or a day or two thing for one vampire.

Ok, that makes sense.

It still seems awfully un-free-will to do it the Damon way, but maybe you do have a point. It kinda maybe satisfied the hunter in the vampire a bit, too. So, bonus! Of course Stefan can't do that. Maybe Stefan is just kinda handicapped or something, that he can't keep himself in check on hublood. Isn't it amazing how Damon, who seemed so out of control initially, is actually the one who who IS in control of his own behaviour way more? I mean sure, he kills the occasional human in bouts of depression, but he doesn't go on "decade long benders".

Yep, it is an affront to free will, but it's the lesser of the two evils. There is no humane way to acquire human blood except to have humans freely giving or selling it to them. That'd be great, but I highly doubt the show will take that route. So, between taking some blood but leaving a human only slight damage that she or he will recover from and causing a human's death, compel-drink-release wins, no contest.

That's what's confusing. Stefan should be able to do that, same as Damon. As I've said, what the show has given us so far is that Stefan's problem is that he binges and purges . . . he's bloodlemic! I thought that what they've been telling is that, if Stefan just partook regularly, he could be stable. The problem is that he stays completely off of it for so long that his system freaks out when he gets some. I guess it's also comparable to an alcoholic or drug addict. This is what often happens to them. They stay "clean" for a long time, then when they relapse, they relapse HARD, whereas, while they were on the drug, their regular doses weren't as much. I thought this was the whole point of him going back on daily doses. All I can guess right now is that he needed a longer adjustment time than what he got.

If that's not it, then, yes, there's something else going on that they really need to explain, and shame on Damon for not doing so already, rather than just dropping hints.

Whew, the writers have their work cut out for them if they ever want Stelena to happen again. Clearly, some seriously BAAAD shit is about to go down with him. Then again, she knows he did seriously baaaad shit before (and not even to save anyone's life at that) and loves him anyway, so, there ya go. Whatever he does from this point on, it was all because he didn't want his brother to die. Now it remains to be seen if that can eventually be enough to overcome her almost-sure-to-come feelings of being sacrificed. Katherine is such an uber bitch!

Now it remains to be seen if that can eventually be enough to overcome her almost-sure-to-come feelings of being sacrificed.

No way Elena is gonna hold saving Damon against Stefan! How egoistic would that be? Also, she loves Damon, too, so... Like Katherine said, it's ok to love both.

Well, that's the age old dilemma, if someone takes drugs, is he then responsible for his action when being high. In the case of Stefan as it was now, I'd say no, because he didn't willingly take the drug. So all the blame goes to Klaus.

So I don't think Stefan doing as evil vampires do is gonna be a hindrance to Stelena, with the one exception of Stefan then being all "I'm not worthy of your love".
I see the scene as follows:
Stefan comes back reformed after having done horrible deeds for a while.
He meets Elena, confesses he's been naughty, tells her he still loves her so much, but he's not worthy of her love, thus has to GO AWAY. Elena answers: "That's fine, I'm with Damon now anyway"

Nah, what will happen is that when Stefan gets back both Damon and Elena will also feel very guilty for having hooked up. Gawd, I take back about what I said about season 3 looking good, it'll be one long guilt trip!

I have to say it again, they better resurrect Elijah. However, if Elijah can be resurrected, the whole family could be, right? Hm, that might get interesting.

Hmmm... about Stefan falling over the edge?! I think that 1] he didnt take enough blood and for long enough, so he wasn't that used to it 2] he probably really just drank little at time 3] Klaus made him drink A LOT!!!! of blood which they made clear.... Perhaps after drinking THAT MUCH blood, Damon would turn into a monster himself? We don't really know. But that's just my idea of what writers were trying to say - it was too much for Stefan. Especially because he wasnt used to drinking. Damon on teh other hand sucked all those girls all the way LOL