Posted by Crissy Calhoun | September 17, 2010, 18:49 (EST) | 66 Comments
Category: TV Series

Talking forest animals. Kinky husbands. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Whittling jokes. Brave New World is definitely in the running for funniest episode of The Vampire Diaries. After the intensity of The Return, Elena’s attempt to have a no V-word, no D-word normal teenage girl day was welcome — if entirely unsuccessful.

Perhaps more than any other TVD episode, the writers were throwing winks at the audience last night — Damon’s talking animals joke foreshadows some half-man, half-beasts we’ll be meeting soon; Bonnie says that Caroline will kill them if they don’t do a good job and Elena makes a crack that she isn’t human; Jeremy says “epic”; Team Jacob shirts are a hit at the carnival; Matt calls Caroline “killer”; and Damon declares werewolves don’t exist. These self-knowing moments gave Brave New World an element of playfulness beyond what we usually get with the witty bantering. While in season 1, I was a little too overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the show to take real issue with the B-stories being disconnected from the main drama, the cohesiveness of this episode felt like a strong shift in a good direction for season 2. We’re seeing characters matched up that we haven’t seen much of before, and it helps to cement the idea that in Mystic Falls, everyone’s fate is deeply interconnected.

Caroline Vamps Out: And she’s everything I hoped for and more. Caroline’s first day as a vampire didn’t play out like a rehash of the Tragic Little Story of Vicki Donovan. Instead of Caroline facing the same key decision that Vicki did in Lost Girls — to feed on a human and complete the change or to choose death — Caroline finishes her transition before the first commercial break (courtesy of a no harm, no foul blood bag). And our girl is a noisy eater. What Caroline has to deal with are the physical limitations and the powers that she discovers come with being a vampire — sunlight, bad; compulsion, awesome — as well as her overwhelming desire for blood. She’s still the same Caroline just “more” and “different,” as Matt describes to Bonnie. Though we already know these parts of the Vampire Diaries lore, Caroline’s process of discovery felt entirely new and fresh to me — because transitioning is so driven by the person experiencing it. Since the very first episode, Candice Accola has portrayed Caroline in a way that makes you laugh and hurt for her in the same breath, and Brave New World Caroline takes that to a whole other level. As a long time Caroline fan, it was great to see this heightened version of the human Caroline we knew and loved. A big thank you to the writers for the scene with Damon in the school hallway — from the poignant “I remember” to the hilariously-Caroline “You suck” ending, it was seriously satisfying to see her empowered against Damon. My only hope is that she isn’t done giving him hell.

“Once a month, only at night?” Tyler really should’ve watched the season 1 DVDs; he might have picked up on the pattern Mason was hinting at. (Once a month, only at night — hey guys, it’s a full moon next Thursday!) It’s interesting that we’re coming at this new supernatural force in Mystic Falls totally in the dark. The Salvatore brothers don’t even know what’s going on; only Mason does. And he’s acting very cautiously with Tyler — asking him questions but not offering up any answers of his own. Why isn’t Mason more forthcoming with Tyler? Is he lying to protect him (like we’ve seen Stefan and Elena do in the past) or is there a darker, or more selfish, motivation for his deceit? Tyler responds in kind to his uncle, secretly retrieving the Lockwoods’ mystical moonstone from his father’s secret safe. Will these two become allies or rivals? Trust breeds trust, Lockwood boys. You got to give it to get it.

Being Human: In the comments from last week’s post, a lot of the discussion focused on how Elena and Damon could come back from him trying to turn Jeremy — could she, or Jeremy, ever forgive him? Is Damon entirely to blame for his actions? In Brave New World, we see the characters mulling over the same issues, making judgments and placing blame. After apologizing multiple times for biting her nurse, Caroline kills Carter and calls herself a murderer and a monster, judging her own actions. After Bonnie realizes that Caroline is a vampire and sees Carter dead, she decides all of it is Damon’s fault — and she tries to act as his judge, jury, and executioner. From Bonnie’s perspective, it’s a pretty safe assumption that Damon was the one who turned Caroline. He’s abused her in the past, and just the night before he tried to turn Jeremy into a vampire. Of course, she’s wrong in her assumption, but she felt justified in stopping Damon from doing further harm and in punishing him for his crimes. It’s Elena (who earlier in the episode expressly states that she’s human) who steps in and saves the vampire she said she hated, telling Bonnie, “This isn’t us. This can’t be us.” They aren’t cold-hearted slayers; they have to act humanely. Unlike Uncle John or Giuseppe Salvatore, Elena believes that an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind — and Jeremy proves that he believes the same thing when he decides not to kill Damon. Just as Damon and Stefan threw off their father’s belief system by being vampire sympathizers, Jeremy doesn’t want to be a hater like his uncle or father. What will Jer decide to stand for?

In terms of the audience’s opinion of Damon (and his future love interest potential), I think the writers were wise to show Jeremy’s choice to not seek revenge — and, employing a strategy they’ve used before, showing Damon take a non-lethal punishment helps us feel like he’s not completely getting away with murder. (See: eye-gouging, Pearl.)

While all is far from forgiven, the Gilbert kids have made the choice not to seek revenge on Damon. Earlier when Elena stepped in front of Caroline to save her from being staked by Damon, she not only proved again how frakking brave she is, but demonstrated the teensiest bit of faith in Damon, saying to him, “She’s my friend.” He doesn’t kill Caroline because of how much she means to Elena, but he does try to pin all of Caroline’s future wrongdoing on Elena’s conscience. For a vampire who told his brother that his actions were his own fault and not Stefan’s to feel guilty about (Blood Brothers), Damon should realize that Caroline — and every other creature in Mystic Falls — is responsible for her own behavior and its consequences. Himself included. (Ahem, apologizing to Jeremy and/or Elena would be nice.)

With death and undeath and threats all around them, Elena comes close to breaking down (repeating “I’m fine” unconvincingly) and Stefan sees it. His grand romantic gesture (in an ending that in some ways brought to mind Night of the Comet for me) is just what Elena needs — and what I needed as a viewer. There’s sweetness and romance in Brave New World and it’s as much a part of what makes The Vampire Diaries a brilliant show as the scares and plot twists. What always prevents these moments from being sappy is the darkness and sadness in them: Stefan and Elena have a perfect moment, but it’s one stolen from an otherwise terrifying day and it’s colored by the knowledge of what’s to come. Matt admits his own insecurity (instead of pointing out Caroline’s again) and finally tells her he’s falling in love with her in a touching scene that reminds us how much Matt has lost. While Caroline is able to stop herself from vamping out (that Caroline determination comes in handy), she can’t just experience the joy of what should be an uncomplicated moment with her boyfriend. Matt is in love with the Caroline who Katherine killed — will he love the new Caroline as much as we do? Will she still want to be with him?

Compelling Moment: Stefan helping Caroline clean up and calm down in the bathroom. He knows exactly what to say to her: by showing her that he can control his bloodlust and stay “human,” he helps give her the strength to do it herself. Loved every word and moment in this scene.

The Rules: Caroline exhibits all the traits of a transitioning vampire: she’s hungry for blood, her senses are heightened, and her personality is more intense. Through the arm wrestling duel, we learn that Mason, the Ambiguously Supernatural Mystery Uncle, is stronger than a human but not as strong as a vampire. (Mason does beat Stefan in the match-up but Stefan doesn’t use all of his vamp strength, just more than he should have to. In the hallway afterward, Stefan answers Damon’s “Is he a vampire” question by telling him “it wasn’t that kind of strength but it was more than a human.”) When Mason attacks Carter in the parking lot, his eyes “glow” (like Tyler’s did post–car accident in Founder’s Day) and his fighting style is just a tad more animalistic than Brazilian martial arts moves.

Foggy Moments:

• The social calendar in Mystic Falls is pretty jam-packed. The Founder’s Day celebration was just two evenings before the Mystic Falls High carnival.
• Mason makes a joke about Grandma Lockwood passing Tyler on her walker, and then later mentions that the moonstone was passed down to Mayor Lockwood from their parents, which implied to me that they were no longer with us. Are Tyler’s paternal grandparents alive?
• How did Caroline get into her house? Just like Vicki needed an invitation to get back into the Donovan house in Haunted, Caroline would need her mother’s invitation to get into the Forbes house, and she mentions to Matt that Sheriff Forbes isn’t home. Should we assume Sheriff Forbes was home to let Caroline in after she left the hospital? (Was that who Caroline left the voicemail for as she was packing her things?)
• While I loved the romance of Stefan waking up Elena near dawn, with all the craziness going down in Mystic Falls — best friends turned, brothers killed and coming back to life, evil doppelgangers on the loose — I imagine Elena would wake up expecting to hear the latest crisis rather than just as her cute and groggy self.

Other Thoughts and Questions as we head into Bad Moon Rising (EP203):

• One of the lingering questions from The Return was addressed: Carol Lockwood and the rest of the Council believe it was a loose tomb vampire responsible for the Uncle John Incident, and they’ve wisely put Damon Salvatore in charge of tracking that vamp down. Oh, the irony.
• In some supernatural lore, a moonstone possesses mystical power that encourages a human to shift into a werewolf. Are the Vampire Diaries writers following in that tradition with the Lockwood moonstone?
• R.I.P. Carter, the hottest carnie I have ever seen.
• The scene between Jeremy and Damon at the Salvatore Boarding House reminded me of the good old days when Alaric and Damon had heart-to-hearts after threats of violence. While I love Jeremy as Mini Alaric, two episodes without Alaric is all I can take. Reunite the Beer and Blood Buddies!
• The return of Elena’s teddy bear! Will it be named in season 2? How else can it join the illustrious ranks of cherished TV toys like Mr. Gordo, Captain Oats, and Princess Sparkle?
• The question of why Katherine chose to turn Caroline is raised a few times. Stefan and Elena each feel Katherine did it to hurt them; Caroline also takes it personally. (Understandable.) Damon is the only one who doesn’t interpret Katherine’s action as an attack directed specifically at him — and I’m betting he’s on the right track. Her “Game on” message reminds the whole gang indiscriminately that she’ll happily create chaos when the opportunity presents itself. I don’t think she had any other particular endgame in mind when she smothered Caroline.

 
What did you think of Brave New World? Do you agree that it “won’t end well” for Caroline? Any bets on when we’ll see Katherine again? Ready for more Lockwood lore? Before you start posting away, a note on spoilers: some of us like to stay away from plot spoilers for future episodes. Let’s keep the discussion to the episode we’ve just watched and everything that came before it. I’m sure we won’t run out of things to talk about…

Crissy Calhoun is the author of Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to The Vampire Diaries. When not obsessively re-watching CW shows, she works as managing editor at ECW Press in Toronto. She blogs on TVD, Gossip Girl, and other random things she falls in love with at crissycalhoun.com and tweets @crissycalhoun.

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