The Vampire Diaries -- Taking A Closer Look At 3.19

While the DEs are squeeing over the kiss Elena laid on Damon in Heart Of Darkness; per usual, they're ignoring the less than positive aspects of just why their girl Elena kissed Damon. Just like in 3.14 they were squeeing about Damon telling Elena he loved her and ignoring the fact she had his neck broke and coldly told him his love was his problem. After a couple of days reflection, I've realized the show had a general theme, although it wasn't a very nice one: it was people, Damon and Rebekah, being used with no regard for their feelings.

The Puppeteers

In both cases, there was someone pulling the strings and siccing Elena and Matt on Damon and Rebekah. In this case it was Saint Stefan and Little Miss Sunshine.

In the case of Vampire Barbie there was actually no reason to even sic Matt on Rebekah. She was just doing it to be a mean girl. She had a fit that Matt went to Klaus' Ball with Rebekah to the point she went there to keep an eye on Matt, but everything was all great when she knew she was getting Matt to play Rebekah into thinking he was actually on her side. Rebekah could care less if Barbie was heading off to the woods to have sex with her werewolf Ken. No one did, not even Matt. So having Matt toy with Rebekah's feelings was done out of pure malice and nothing else. Vapid Barbie seemed to think Rebekah deserved to have her feelings toyed with; she thought it was cute that they were making a fool out of Rebekah. In the world of Vapid Barbie she thinks Damon and Rebekah deserve to be used and abused and that's why this plastic little vampire has become so unlikable this season.

As for Stefan, he can't get past the fact Damon kissed Elena and she didn't reject him. It's why he was so willing to break Damon's neck just because Elena asked him to. Why he ridiculed Damon for having feelings when he's been at Damon to have feelings for years. And didn't lift a finger to rescue Damon when Rebekah kidnapped him and tortured him. He has such a problem with it he's drawn a line in the sand with Elena that he won't even think of getting back with her as long as she has feelings for Damon and can't define them to him for what they are.

The irony of the situation is Stefan isn't in any position to be giving her ultimatums on what she has to do to get him to take her back after all he did to her. He went off with Klaus and didn't have the guts to explain to Elena the deal he made with Klaus. Because of that, she put herself and everyone else in danger chasing after him and trying to save him when he didn't need being saved. Elena learned the vervain necklace she cherished so much that Stefan gave to her actually belonged to his ex-girlfriend and she didn't make a peep about that. After Klaus released him from service and uncompelled him, Stefan had the choice to go back to Elena, but he chose to steal Klaus' coffins which put everyone's lives in danger. Because of what Stefan did, Jeremy almost got run down by a car. Then Stefan added insult to injury by telling her he didn't care if her brother lived or died. Of course, the greatest wrong he committed against her was when he shoved blood down her throat and made her believe he was going to kill her on the same spot her parents died. So Stefan is in absolutely no position to make conditions, but he is and she's letting him do it.

Elena is a complete ninny when it comes to Stefan and free passes him for everything he does, so she's letting him call the shots and not calling him on any of his past actions that he's done nothing to try and make up for to her. She's also the one who is working to get him back, while Stefan has done absolutely nothing to try and get her back. And still she's desperate to get him back.

Then there's Damon, who accepted Elena didn't want him and told Stefan that and stepped aside, but that's not good enough for Stefan. No, only Elena realizing Damon means nothing to her will be good enough for him. Damon even killed Abby Bennett when Stefan was the one who was supposed to kill Bonnie so Elena would hate him and nothing would be standing in the way of Stefan getting back with Elena. And again, that wasn't good enough for Stefan. Only knowing Elena doesn't want Damon is good enough for him, so he set up this whole trip with Damon so Elena can explore her feelings, not caring the least bit about how it's going to hurt Damon or stir his feelings up for her, again. After all, this is all about Stefan. Stefan is the only one who matters to Stefan. His ego can't tolerate the thought of Elena having feelings for Damon.

The Users:

Anyway, Matt and Caroline stage this fake fight in front of Rebekah to make it seem like Matt has taken Rebekah's side over Caroline and once she's out of earshot they laugh over how they've fooled her. Matt even takes Rebekah home and he's nice to her and she thinks he means it when he's only pretending and she has her crush reignited again. But in the eyes of Matt and Caroline, someone like Rebekah deserves to have her emotions played with like this.

Meanwhile, since Stefan has made such an issue of Elena's feelings for Damon, that's all she can think about when she's around Damon. What are her feelings for him? She knows Stefan has arranged this little trip for her to find out and report back to him on the matter. So the whole thing just gets amped up when they have to share a motel room together. She knows why she's there for and what Stefan expects her to do.

Have you ever tried to breathe naturally when you become aware of breathing in or out? It's impossible And I think that's the same thing that happened in that motel room. She couldn't act natural around Damon when she was obsessed with what does she feel for him. Nothing that happened between them was natural or normal or genuine. It all resulted from Stefan making such a big deal out of Elena's feelings for Damon and wanting her to find out what she feels by sending the two off together. Elena has laid in bed with Damon before and not become so overwhelmed by her feelings for him she had to bolt from the bed. It was only after Stefan made it become the elephant in the room that her feelings for Damon were supposedly overwhelming her to the point she couldn't even breathe being in the same room with him.

It wasn't overwhelming sexual tension that made her bolt from the motel room, but the overwhelming tension of wondering what if anything she felt for Damon. Then when Damon followed her she finally decided to be brave and do what Stefan sent her on the trip for: find out just what her feelings for Damon really were. So she leaped on Damon and put everything she had in the kiss but it still didn't work, she still doesn't know if she has feelings for Damon or what they are. And that pretty much says it all. You pretty much know if you have feelings for someone or you don't. You don't need your ex-boyfriend to tell you that you have feelings for his brother. You just know if you do or don't.

Parallels Between 3.14 and 3.19

I don't know if it was intentional there were some strong parallels between Damon and Rebekah in 3.14. They both were ridiculed by their sibling for feeling too much and they both got rejected by Elena and Matt. And in 3.19 they're feelings were toyed with by Elena and Matt and a rival was behind setting them up to do it.

In 3.14 they ended up in bed together; unfortunately, in this episode nothing so pleasurable happened to either one of them. Rebekah went into her house, not suspecting she'd been played by the captain of the football team and got further played by her own mother who wanted to possess her body so she could kill Rebekah and all her siblings. While Damon found out Elena kissed him as an experiment to see if she felt something for him; that he was basically nothing more to her than a lab rat because Stefan thinks she has feelings for him. Then she pulled some BS about how Damon always ruins everything between them. Yeah, in 3.14 Damon broke his own neck and rejected your love for him, right?

Damon actually had the last laugh so to speak when he told her he wasn't going to make it easy for her to blame him by acting out, even though what this piece of crap and his craptastic brother did to him he had plenty of reason to act out. For once in her miserable life she was going to have to make a choice without being able to take the easy way out by blaming him for his unacceptable behavior. I wish the writers would take it one step further and have Damon realize even if she chooses Damon she's just not worth it and have Damon kick her foul ass to the curb. Unfortunately, this is the Elena Show, so that's not going to happen.

I'd like to think that there's a reason why they're having similar things happen to Damon and Rebekah at the same time. That maybe they're building rowards a real romance between Damon and Rebekah once Damon is finally free of this POS. Unfortunately, the way this show writes Damon's feelings with no regard and has the other characters treat him the same way, I highly doubt it. All I can hope for is the doppelbitch picks her selfish beloved Stefan and Damon is finally set free of her.

If I wrote this show, instead of Julie Plec, I'd have Damon spray Princess Elena with mace the next time she comes slithering within ten feet of him. If he sprayed her enough times, I think she'd stop leeching on to him as her back-up boy, and find a new back-up boy to use when Stefan is giving her the cold shoulder and wants nothing to do with her.

Anyway, Julie Plec finally gave the DEs the big moment they've craved for, but per usual, it was wrapped in some kind of ulterior motive for happening that they refuse to see or acknowledge and they begin chanting, "Game over and end game." And SE fans cry their hearts out over poor Stefan and declare he deserves so much better than the woman he's stalked and treated like crap this past year, refusing to acknowledge Stefan set this whole thing up and Elena was only doing what he wanted her to do. That instead of Damon betraying his brother, it was poor Stefan victimizing his own brother because his ego can't stand the possibility a woman could care for Damon more than him, even when Damon stepped aside and left the field open for Stefan.