The Vampire Diaries Season Two Finale

Photo credit biddi2.

Ern was not blown away by the season one finale like just about everyone else. They killed off the people it was convenient to kill off, plus Anna, even though she had a huge fan following and she was a great character. The cliffhanger was pretty cool, but the build-up to it was all action and few memorable moments. Leeard respectfully disagrees and thinks the season one finale is one of the best hours ever on the CW. But we're not here to talk about last year. We both agree - this season finale had it all. Closure, set-up for next season, and the coolest cliffhanger we never could have predicted. This show is making mincemeat out of oversexed True Blood AND Amish Twilight, and it doesn’t even have to try as hard as either of those things. We will recap in paragraphs and give you our reactions regarding those events by copy/pasting chat portions out of our aim logs.

Right into the discussion then: Damon got bit by Tyler, a werewolf, so he’s dying. He tried to get Elena’s forgiveness for last week’s events, but she (rightfully) pretty much told him to go pound sand. The show plays a beautiful song with lots of piano while he tries to kill himself by standing in a window, sans magic ring. There’s no reason to suffer, right? But Stefan ruined that plan by tackling him and locking him into that room they always lock each other in at the Salvatore mansion. Bonnie found out from Emily Bennett that the cure for a werewolf bite is the blood of Klaus. Stefan told Elena that Damon was bitten. She looked mildly concerned.

Leeard (8:01:53 PM): <3 Damon
ern (8:02:18 PM): He. Is. Wonderful.
Leeard (8:02:27 PM): Mmmmmmmmmmhmm. As is every other guy on this show. Basically. I still can’t believe that last week wasn’t the season finale. I mean, I’m GLAD it wasn’t, but last week was crazy. WTF Damon?
ern (8:04:13 PM): He didn't want to suffer
Leeard (8:04:27 PM): Um, that would still be suffering. Well, hellooooooo Klaus
ern (8:05:00 PM): Your TV is like five seconds ahead of mine
Leeard (8:05:05 PM): Good
ern (8:05:33 PM): Klaus has my pet peeve in actors :-(
Leeard (8:05:43 PM): Looking sexy?
ern (8:05:51 PM): Obviously not. My pet peeve is whispering in a normal conversation. I don’t mind when Damon does it much. It fits him.
Leeard (8:06:00 PM): Um everyone on this show does that. I’ve actually heard Paul Wesley talk about that in an interview with Ryan Seacrest
ern (8:06:38 PM): Nina Dobrev doesn’t do it. What did Paul say about it? GONE WITH THE WIND
Leeard (8:07:50 PM): http://ryanseacrest.com/2011/05/09/you-will-see-more-bad-stefan-says-vampire-diaries-star-paul-wesley-audio/ If you had told me a year ago that Caroline would be one of my favorite characters, I would've had you committed
ern (8:08:09 PM): She is quite possibly my number one fave.
Leeard (8:08:18 PM): I honestly think that's in my top 5 for things that have happened on this show (changing Caroline)
ern (8:08:27 PM): I'm starting to like Bonnie again. Not like her. But not hate her
Leeard (8:08:34 PM): Finally
ern (8:08:50 PM): Her willingness to try to kill Klaus to save Elena is admirable, as is her taste in hotties (Jeremy). Elena is NOT upset enough that Damon is dying.
ern (8:14:56 PM): Elena is NOT upset enough
Leeard (8:15:25 PM): I agree

The town event in the background of this is a big excuse to get people in hoop skirts, reminding a delusional Damon of when he used to live in the hoop skirt days. It was a Gone with the Wind event, and they were playing the movie on a big screen outside. While everyone was distracted by this event, Sheriff Momma took the opportunity to stop by the Salvatore house to try to get rid of Damon. This is how he escapes. While the movie was playing, Damon wandered the town, hallucinating both Elena and Katherine. Elena goes looking for him, finds him, and helps him. He bites her neck, thinking she’s Katherine, but then he comes to his senses. He goes to the Grill. Sheriff Momma finds him at the Grill and tries to shoot him, but she hits Jeremy. Caroline and Bonnie rush in and Caroline tries to feed him her blood to save him. It’s too late. He’s really dead.

Leeard (8:33:06 PM): IHRGFOIHAEHG'FIFIOEHJG JGIKJ FG JRNBG
ern (8:33:23 PM): I just stopped breathing
Leeard (8:33:32 PM): I SCARED MY MOM. What the ****? JEREMY. YOU CAN’T DIE. NO. NO. NO. NO.. I seriously screamed, and my mom came out from her room to see if something was wrong.
ern (8:34:12 PM): nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Leeard (8:34:19 PM): He HAS to be fine
ern (8:34:33 PM): I screamed too, but no one cares if something's wrong with me, so it got no reaction. I think he’s dead.
Leeard (8:35:09 PM): No, he can’t be dead. I refuse to believe it.
ern (8:35:54 PM): He just got hot this season too!
Leeard (8:36:04 PM): I disagree with THAT. He got HOT at the beginning of this season, but he's always been good looking. I refuse to accept his death.
ern (8:37:30 PM): I’ve accepted it. He looked really dead, and vamp blood couldn’t bring him back.

Klaus killed Elijah with that special dagger, keeping his promise to unite Elijah with their family. Stefan makes a deal with Klaus to save Damon. Klaus offered a vial of his blood for Damon in exchange for Stefan becoming his new right-hand man. Of course, he had to evil Stefan up a bit first. The way to do that, as we know, is to get him on human blood. Klaus fed Stefan many bags of blood presumably stolen from the blood bank, and the mighty vampire who could kill whole villages without blinking emerged. Katherine broke this news to Elena, saying that this means that Stefan sacrificed his goodness and his relationship with Elena to save Damon, thus choosing Damon over her. Near the end of the episode, we see Stefan chow down on an innocent woman offered by Klaus. Katherine brought the bottle of Klaus’s blood to Damon and caught him cuddling with Elena in bed. Because Damon was dying and confessing his love to here, Elena had given him a kiss. Damon was cured, and Katherine left with these parting words to Elena: “It’s ok to love them both. I did.”

ern (8:18:06 PM): Noooooo. I liked Elijah.
Leeard (8:17:39 PM): GASP. Me too. I thought a vampire couldn't stake an original with a dagger?
ern (8:18:31 PM): But he's part were
Leeard (8:18:40 PM): But he's also part vamp. I mean, he's also an Original, and there seem to be a ****ton of special rules for Originals. But still.
Leeard (8:39:40 PM): mmhmm. Stefan!
ern (8:40:16 PM): Bad boy Stefan? yessss
Leeard (8:40:34 PM): awwwwww stefan! Poor thing. No, Stefan! Actually, yes Stefan. Because then Damon and Elena can be together. I can’t wait until they pull the dagger out of Elijah and he kills the hell out of Klaus.
ern (8:54:01 PM): “I like you just the way you are.” This show is so lame and yet so awesome.
Leeard (8:54:14 PM): And I'm crying again. KISS HIM. YESSSSSSSSSSS
ern (8:55:00 PM): I screamed
Leeard (8:55:04 PM): I didn't. I knew it was coming.
ern (8:55:29 PM): Katherine you wonderful b****.
Leeard (8:55:32 PM): Aw, yay Katherine. She brought him the blood.

Bonnie channeled the witches to save Jeremy, crying out to them. The witches warned that there would be consequences if they gave her the power to bring him back. Bonnie didn’t care and the show had its very first un-undead resurrection. Caroline let her mom know that Jeremy was alive, that she was still Sheriff Momma’s little girl, and then she and her mom hugged. Leeard cried. At night, sitting on his bed, Jeremy thought he saw something. He got up and wandered around the house and was followed by….Vicki. And then he saw Anna. Consequences.

Leeard (8:37:34 PM): This commercial break needs to die. Someone better kill Sheriff Momma if she killed him. He can’t be permanently dead. Man, I love Elena. Girl does NOT stay sitting down.
ern (8:39:33 PM): She's too awesome to only be 17.
Leeard (8:41:38 PM): They have to save him
ern (8:41:57 PM): Yeah, or they wouldn't be dragging it on like this. You were right, he’s coming back.
Leeard (8:42:00 PM): Power through it, Bonnie!!! I love Alaric. “He’s just a kid, tell them to shut up.” Come on old witches!
ern (8:42:40 PM): Bonnie is getting a nosebleed. YES SHOW, kill Bonnie and not Jeremy
Leeard (8:42:48 PM): I’d be okay with that. Elena can’t lose everyone in her family.
ern (8:43:07 PM): Ok, I love Bonnie now. This is really sweet.
Leeard (8:43:15 PM): YES. Thank goodness
ern (8:43:35 PM): Your instantaneous reactions are ruining my life. My TV is FIVE SECONDS BEHIND.
Leeard (8:43:44 PM): Then don't look at it
ern (8:43:54 PM): I can’t not look
Leeard (8:44:02 PM): Wipe your nose, Bonnie.
ern (8:44:06 PM): There has to be a death. This is a TVD finale.
Leeard (8:44:14 PM): There were FOUR last week. And Elijah died. If there is one, it had better be the sheriff or Mama Lockwood or both.
ern (8:44:23 PM): I don't accept that. It needs to be someone we will grieve. I need an ending that shocks me.
Leeard (8:44:33 PM): Maybe Katherine.
Leeard (8:59:17 PM): !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!
ern (8:59:54 PM): A+
Leeard (8:59:55 PM): UM NO. A++++++++++++++++++

Charlie Sheen Replaced by Ashton Kutcher on Two and a Half Men

Poor Ashton Kutcher.

There we go.....That's better

Lady Gaga released her third single from her next album, which is coming up May 23rd. It's better than "Born This Way" and "Judas". It's the first single that's not a Madonna rip-off or a shameless cry for attention. But does the first party of the chorus remind anyone else of Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You"?

Gaga said the song is about your last moment of life and that she was inspired to write it after her grandfather died. Funny, we just thought it was a love song. But it's just dramatic enough of a theme to be a Lady Gaga thing. She and her lover are going to take themselves to "the edge" together. That's healthy.

Still, we kind of like the song so far. Cool saxophone solo. We're sure the radio will edit that down/it won't make the remix.

Fringe Finale: The Day We Died recap, thoughts on the show as a whole, and ways it could be improved

Fringe ended its third and best season this week with a finale that will completely change everything. This season has been great, because it finally picked up the pacing. We love the high-concept elements of this show, but the creators could make it a little easier for most people to follow. Next season, we want some interesting side characters other than the main three, quicker pacing, some heart, a sense of urgency (the writers need to watch some 24 for the perfect example of how to do that with cold characters the viewers care little about), and more creepiness. This show has the convoluted plots just right. It needs to get us viscerally and emotionally more. It comes off as cold and a little slow.

It's rare for a show in this genre to completely swear off supernatural or spiritual elements. These things add an eeriness. Possibilities such as uncontrollable events, higher powers, prophecies, bone-chilling evil, and incredible displays of love open up when you add these elements. Unlike LOST, The X-Files, and Alias (successful shows of this type that achieved cult followings and levels of addictiveness to which Fringe aspires), Fringe is purely scientific in its world view. All of the weirdness can be explained by science. While it's cool and unique to see that, and it allows some original concepts to play out, it's less interesting to the viewer. LOST and Alias MIXED mind-bending science with unsettling philosophy and spirituality. Fringe needs to inject some of that into its formula to become less mechanical.

You may think that it's too late to deepen and warm Fringe with spiritual concepts, because the world of science has been so firmly established. But we disagree. Take a look at The Matrix trilogy, a flawed but special series of films that fumbled the ball with its ending. Plot-wise, The Matrix was completely technologically and scientifically driven. But much of it was a spiritual allegory and it propounded religious and philosophical teachings within its scientific world. Fringe could introduce something like that into its narrative, deepening a layer of existential investigation, asking questions, commenting, and paralleling spiritual matters. Fringe needs to pretend to be about science but really be about spiritual matters. It would have to be less heavy-handed than it was in final two Matrix films, and it would have to be more emotional as well. But, done right, this could make the show relevant to actual people. This should get rid of the emotional coldness, because spirituality contains a huge emotional component. The other way to do this is to really make us love the characters and create connections between them and depth that is undeniable. But this is more difficult.

Onto what happened in the finale....

The episode started with Peter in 2026. Was Peter REALLY supposed to pass for his late 40s in this episode? It’s hard to hide that fat baby face on Peter, even with ridiculous spiked up hair. But we went with it. Olivia simply need a matronly haircut. Bleck. Peter had been taken to the hospital after suffering an injury. He’s also an agent of Fringe Division, like Olivia, Astrid, and Olivia’s grown niece, Ella. Dang, this show sure knows how to give its leads popular but still unique names. Peter is married to Olivia, and Olivia has Broyles’ old job: head of Fringe Division. Olivia also has full use of her telekinesis. Sweet. Peter wants a child, but Olivia doesn’t think it’s a good idea to bring one into the futureless world. We were Team Peter on this.

In the future, our universe is tearing quickly because of the successful destruction of the other universe that was closely linked with ours, and there is a terrorist named Moreau causing mayhem. We need to keep our eye on the French, it seems … Moreau blew up an opera house in the beginning of the episode. Some people have no respect for classical music. He is in the Walternate-led terrorist group “End of Days,” an organization that is helping our universe’s inevitable destruction along. The plan this episode? To put a wormhole in Central Park.

Walter is in prison, facing the consequences for starting this whole mess anyway. Using his connection to Senator Broyles (nice promotion), Peter gets him out and back to his lab for the purpose of stopping the mayhem. Peter gets close enough to Walternate to confront him and ask for the mercy that Walternate’s own world was denied. Walternate shoots Olivia in the forehead. So we guess that’s a no? They totally ripped that Olivia funeral off of First Knight and LOST. We consider it a bad thing that we weren’t sad when Olivia died. Maybe we knew it wasn’t permanent or even real, but when a major character gets shot in the head, we should feel something, right?

We found out that Walter was the one who sent the machine back through time (via some people who took it back for him), a choice he could not change. We found out that Walter pulled Peter from 2011 into his future body, so that when Peter’s 2011 consciousness returns to the moment he hops in the machine, he will make a different choice. Peter disappeared at the end of Walter’s explanation. Peter went back and used the machine to create a bridge between the two worlds, bringing the doubles face-to-face with each other.

There is a hole in both universes in the rooms that hold the machines where the people from the two universes can come together to fix things. Peter explained this to his fathers and disappeared mid-speech. No one noticed his disappearance. Cut to the observers, who say, “They don’t remember Peter. How could they? He never existed. He served his purpose.” Head spinning? If you are missing how this happened, don’t worry. The show has yet to spell it out for us. But theories abound. One theory says that Peter is the one who took the machine back in time, and he will come back or be found later.

Good ending. Episode Grade: B+. Season Grade: B+

Reasons We're Not Sad Summer is Coming Up

Breaking Bad, Happy Endings, Breaking In, Love Bites, Switched at Birth, Covert Affairs, Rookie Blue, The Lying Game, So You Think You Can Dance, Suits, Weeds, The Big C, The United States of Tara, South Park, Teen Wolf, True Blood, Dr. Who, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Wilfred, Alfas, Haven, A Game of Thrones, Pretty Little Liars, White Collar, The Glee Project, Outcasts, 51, and Psych.

Also, we will have time to catch up on/get into The Chicago Code, The Good Wife, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men, Nikita, Castle, Parenthood, The Middle, 30 Rock, Breakout Kings, and Supernatural.