This week’s episode of the Vampire Diaries, The Sun Also Rises, will forever be known to me as The Naked Tyler Lockwood Show, and for that reason it’ll always hold a special place in my ovaries.
Be warned, smutty innuendo aplenty will feature in this recap. Dangle Naked!Tyler in front of us going “here fangirl, fangirls”, writers, and we will come a-running and a-panting with naughty thoughts.
There was an actual plot in the Tyler/Caroline/Matt parts of the episode, so let’s tackle that shall we?
So, last week Matt grew on me like E Coli on a piece of rancid meat with a side of rotten mashed potatoes (TM Price).
I really, truly didn’t want to let go of my new found appreciation for Matt. It was like growing as a recapper. But he pulled some shiz this week that was about as annoying as a werewolf humping your leg.
Therefore, I am going to hold a one-episode drinking game where you have to take a shot/swig every time Matt Donovan is a douche.
Image nabbed from TV Recappers Anonymous, where incidentally you can find an awesome Vampire Diaries drinking game by KJewls 😉
I guarantee you’ll be drunk as a skunk by the end of the recap.
It is only fitting really that I incorporate a drinking game into my recap of the episode where Aunt Jenna bites it, given she enjoyed a bit of sauce every now and then.
This week, Caroline and Matt face down a rabid Wolf!Tyler, but Matt turns out to be the real dog this episode.
When faced with the dramas of having a vampire girlfriend, Matt chooses himself, doing teen soap foremother Kelly Taylor proud. Beverly Hills 90210 is kind of like one of the founding families for Vampire Diaries, along with Buffy and Dawson’s Creek, dontcha think?
I learn that Caroline desperately needs a stint on Jerry Springer (episode entitled “Vampires And The Werewolves And Humans Who Love Them”) and have someone tell her, “drop that zero and get yourself a hero” because not only doesn’t she do the dumping in the Matt/Caro break up but she ISN’T REALLY THAT MAD that her mother and Matt were double crossing her.
Forwood unicorn stomper Jules bites the dust. Huzzah!
But we have to ask the question: does any of this really matter when Tyler gets to play couch commando?
I taught him everything he knows!
Here are all of the Tyler/Caroline scenes:
We open up with Wolf!Tyler gangsta-ing it up (TM Gen) and trying to chow down on Matt and Caroline.
Matt, who last episode somehow went from being Natefused to being able to take down an uber witch with a crack shot, FIRES AT WOLF!TYLER!
Take your first swig!
I know, I know, blah blah werewolf emergency blah.
I get that Tyler would probably rather die than put his friends in harm’s way.
But Matt didn’t seem conflicted in shooting Tyler AT ALL. I don’t care how scared he was, he knew that was his friend he was firing at.
When Caroline tells him to stop, Matt tellingly says “It’s trying to kill us”. He’s had difficulty reconciling Caroline the vampire with her remaining humanity, so it’s not surprising that he can’t accept Tyler as both wolf and man.
Credit where credit is due: the bullet DOES knock Wolf!Tyler out, giving Caroline and Tyler the chance to escape to the Lockwood mansion while Wolf!Tyler catches some Z’s.
Yup, that’s right, they hid from Tyler at TYLER’S HOUSE, admittedly the closest place to the cellar but also the first place Wolf!Tyler would likely go.
This is what happens when two blondes date you guys (says a blonde who knows). Really bad life/death decisions get made and unicorns get cock blocked.
Tehe! I got an email this week from a Spidey reader asking me what Matt is to Caro, if Tyler represents a unicorn to me. Stallion or mule, you decide.
Anyway, Matt does have some second thoughts about shooting at Tyler (too late bozo!) and asks, “You don’t think I killed him do you?” The fact that he shot not knowing whether or not it would be fatal for Tyler, without a second thought, is pretty gnarly to me.
Shot number two!
Prepare to take a double shot, because when Matt tells Caro about faking being compelled so that he could spy on her for her mom, Sheriff Forbes, he isn’t the slightest bit apologetic.
Far from that, he throws out the douchiest douche to ever douche lines.
Who, me?
Matt: “Your mom hates vampires. She grew up hating vampires. She’ll probably always hate vampires.”
And
Caroline: [in tiniest, saddest voice ever] Do you think my mom wants to kill me?
Matt: [disgust in tone] I don’t think your mom knows what to do about you.
Caroline: Well, I really don’t know what to do with me either.
Matt showed last week that he had accepted Caro isn’t a soulless monster just because she is a vampire, so way to go below the belt with these comments, Donovan. He could have given Caroline some reassurance, telling her that Sheriff Forbes had called Caroline “her baby” and found it tough to view her with the same hate she has grown up feeling for vampires. For a girl who is known for being insecure, feeding her obvious self-loathing about being a vampire by not giving her a crumb where her mother is concerned was just cruel.
Luckily, this awkward conversation is interrupted by a loud thump that marks the entrance of Naked!Tyler! Yippee!
Having a hot werewolf best friend is kind of like a lucky dip – only instead of never knowing what you’re gonna get, you never know when, and where, he’s gonna show up naked. Caroline seriously needs to get him a collar with a little bell on it for when he wolfs out.
OK, so that lucky dip analogy doesn’t really make much sense, but TYLER IS NAKED AS THE DAY HE WAS BORN AND STARTED GETTING RAISED BY WOLVES, YOU GUYS.
I may have wished for a second that Caroline was a transparent ghost rather than a badass vampire chick because she was totes blocking the view.
In a moment that has perfect symmetry to the “Caroline?” Tyler uttered in By The Light of the Full Moon, Tyler looks up and says her name in the dazed way a person might the morning after waking up from smokin’ hot baby were on baby vamp action.
Oh yeah, it should also be mentioned that Caro got Matt to shrug off his jacket so that she could cover the shivering Tyler up.
Matt’s reluctance to do so was his one major redeeming moment in this episode, because he was obviously thinking of us fangirls who were despondent at the thought of Naked!Tyler being covered up.
Caroline tucks Tyler up in bed and later talks to Matt, who dumps her because his human life is oh so hard and he can’t handle a vampire girlfriend and the baggage that comes attached. On the one hand, fair enough. On the other hand, within this episode alone I can think of people with much suckier lives to contend with. For example, Jenna learned she had transitioned into a vampire and was staked, Elena and Jeremy lost two more parental figures. Also, Matt complaining about an absentee mother when Caroline’s mom is contemplating murdering her daughter just made me go O_O
So all I have to say is CRY ME A MOTHERFUCKING RIVER, MATT DONOVAN about your hard life and kindly accept the tampons I throw in your general direction to wipe up the tears. They’re the super absorbent kind.
Despite finding out that Matt had been double crossing her with his mother and a complete lack of apology from him, Caroline is upset when he dumps her. Oh, c’mon BB! Playing tonsil hockey with Tyler would be so much better – he’s a three letter varsity athlete!
To be honest, I was disappointed she wasn’t more indignant about Matt’s betrayal. I can only rationalise that she was emotionally spent from worrying about Tyler and couldn’t muster up the energy to care. Ha!
Some of us like to eat Chunky Monkey ice cream when we’ve been dumped and need to wallow. On this show, Chunky Monkey comes attached to a naked man…
…so you just KNOW Caroline fossicking around and ate some ice cream while waiting for shirtless Tyler to wake up so that she could have the best of both worlds.
I love how Caroline just plops down HARD on the couch next to the sleepy Tyler, who is naked aside from a blanket. I’ll give you a moment to process that.
So, we know from the episode title that the sun rises. Does the blanket too, what with Caro being so close and all, and Coed Naked Forwood Cuddling (TM KJewls) going on? Oh please, like you weren’t all thinking that too 😉 Maybe we’ll find out in a similar scene in season three AKA The Year of Forwood and Delena, right Amy and KJewls?
Joey/Pacey fans know that’s when awesome dark horse ships happen on Kevin Williamson shows. (BTW, don’t miss KJewl’s awesome take on this episode). I am expecting no less than hot Tyler/Caroline sex, is all I’m sayin’.
Remember the days when Caroline got flustered at the mere sight of Tyler’s bare chest? Ah, the innocence of youth!
The line “you’re not gonna get naked, are you?” before Tyler’s transformation was definitely foreshadowing for a relationship that is sure to be filled with post-wolfing-out nekkidness.
Caroline, having seen Tyler’s junk a couple of times by now, and having shared emotionally intimate experiences with him, is refreshingly unfazed by cuddling underneath the blanket with him. Plus, for all the UST and eye-sexing that has been happening between the pair of late, this scene wasn’t played to be sexual or even flirty – it was just about one friend comforting the other.
Caroline: Hey. [Tyler groans in pain] Oh, yeah, you got shot. It’s healing.
We get a great example of what a Tyler sex face would look like.
Tyler: You were right. I shouldn’t have come home.
Caroline: No, you just should’ve never left. And you shouldn’t leave again.
I liked having Tyler say that line from last week with a different spin but from an equal place of concern as Caroline. When Caroline told Tyler he shouldn’t have come home, it was because she realised they were going to be used as part of the sacrifice ritual. Here, Tyler is clearly regretting coming close to hurting the girl he loves.
Tyler: You’re kidding, right? This is the second time I’ve tried to kill you.
Caroline: Well, no friendship is perfect.
Tyler’s laugh here was so free and un-selfconscious I was completely taken aback. The only other time I can recall Tyler laughing without any sense of irony, sarcasm or contempt was when he was talking post-transformation with Caroline in The Descent. It is just beautiful watching him light up around her, as she does with him.
Caroline: Matt broke up with me.
Tyler: I’m sorry.
Tyler, to his credit, does look genuinely sad for his friend, but you can see a definite internal struggle on his face not to feel happy that his rival for Caroline’s affections is out of the picture.
Also, having Caro so close, I bet his inner soundtrack was along these lines:
My goodies, my goodies…
He’s only a werewolf, after all.
Now, some people have asked why Caroline is more concerned about her boy troubles than her friends potentially getting sacrificed at that exact moment. The way I see it, in the tomb Tyler and Caroline thought that they were going to be Klaus’ sacrifices and didn’t realise that Klaus had a back up wolf and vampire. Given that Tyler wolfed out before Caroline and Matt could touch base with the rest of the group, Tyler and Caro are probably oblivious to the fact that the sacrifice still went ahead. Also, for most of the night Matt and Caro had to lock themselves inside so that they wouldn’t become Tyler!Wolf chow, and Tyler needed someone to look out for him once he’d morphed back into being a human.
Having said that, it would have been nice if they writers could have had Caroline try to call Bonnie or Elena or something, and express concern about only reaching their voicemail.
Caroline: Yeah, well, you know, instead of just bailing on me again, you could just say ‘thank you Caroline, for taking care of me’. And, ‘I’m sorry that I tried to chow down on you again’.
Candice Accola knocked it out of the park when she went from her cute laugh to dissolving into tears about Matt. The fact that Caro and Tyler can slip between laughter and seriousness shows how much they just “get” each other.
Caro has been the emotionally dominant one in the relationship, in the sense that previously the dynamic was her comforting the scared Tyler as he prepared for his first transformation. It was nice seeing her be so vulnerable with him for a change.
Tyler: Hey, hey. C’mere. Easy. Thank you Caroline, for taking care of me.
Caroline: You’re welcome.
One of Caroline’s key neuroses is her control freakiness and attempt to script and plan every part of her life. Unlike Matt, Tyler seems to find this endearing and responds in a positive way, by giving her what she needs – in this case, the exact words she needs to hear. Contrast this with vintage Matt lines like, “I told you how I feel about you Caroline, what more do you need?” Based on his past reactions to Caroline’s “neuroticness”, Matt would find Caroline giving him this little direction annoying, whereas Tyler not only repeats her words but says them with such appreciation and adoration that they sound like his own.
Isn’t it just satisfying that Matt’s douchery LITERALLY pushed her into Tyler’s super buff, super shiny arms?
All this left me screaming at the screen, “Just have baby Klauses already, you guys!”
Which is a neat segue to me officially joining Team Klaus because he de-hearts Jules as part of the sacrifice this ep. So long, Forwood unicorn stomper!
Jules claims before she dies that she just didn’t want Tyler to be alone, to which Gen from txgirl0302 tumblr so rightly said, “He wasn’t alone, he had Caroline, bitch!”
Now, 12_12_12 raised the interesting point that Caroline probably is oblivious to Tyler’s feelings because he hasn’t made a move on her since The Kiss, and has more than likely overanalysed the situation as in her typical Caroline way and written it off as an impulsive moment that resulted from him feeling needy after his transformation.
I wonder, how do you think Tyler thinks Caro feels about their kiss? I mean, she responded to him, but then slammed a door into his face. Do you think he just thought she got caught up in the moment of it all, or knows she is denying her feelings to herself? Or that feelings were there but have now simmered down to friendship after all that has happened since?
Matt has walked away from his friends for the time being because he can’t handle their supernatural baggage. Do you think that he will re-think this decision next season? Or do you think this was the first step in Matt potentially going dark and working against them in the future?
Update: I was hoping for some fanfiction that kicks off from the Coed Naked Forwood Cuddling Couch scene. Boy, do T/C fans work fast! A new fic from Susan at A Heart of Glass called I Didn’t Have to Lie to You When the Daylight Came is amazing and well worth a read!
myspideysenseistingling 
May 7th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
“This week’s episode of the Vampire Diaries, The Sun Also Rises, will forever be known to me as The Naked Tyler Lockwood Show” AMEN!!!
First, thank you for putting my gifs in your wonderful recap, I’m very honored.
Second, omg, everything you said. Spot on.
Matt is the biggest douch in the universe, I just felt like punching myself when I heard him talk to Care this ep. And when he shot Ty without even blinking…. I’m surprised I still have a computer. I had the urge to throw it out the window.
And also, Care must be the only woman in the world that would cover Ty’s body. lol If it were up to me, that man would walk around naked. Just sayin’.
I was kinda mad that Matt was the one who broke things off. I wanted Care to break up with him. But as long as Ty gets to put his sweet moves on my bb girl, I’m ok. But the fact that she was upset, made me mad. He has been nothing but douchy to her, since they got together. First, he was still hung up on Elena. Then, he found Care to be insecure and it annoyed him (Tyler accepted her for what she is and I bet he’ll make her feel beautiful. She will never be insecure again). And then he just gave up on her. Then he was disgusted with her (when he found out she is a vamp). Girl, he doesn’t love you. You can do so much better.
But the last scene was epic. TC cuddling under. omg. What was Care doing with her hands under the covers? lol, sorry.
That scene was so cute and I LOVED the way he looked at her. I just want season 3 now!!!!
Sorry this comment is stupid, it’s almost 3 am here.
Again, this recap is amazing, I’m addicted to your blog now.
And wow, rude, I forgot to tell you. It’s Cath here. And I hope you don’t mind that I’ll say hello to Jules too.
Hey Julie, hey. ILY. small world. lol
May 8th, 2011 at 2:11 am
SQUEEE! Hey CAT! It’s great to see you on this blog. I am SO EXCITED that you met, Cherie! You guys are just going to ADORE eachother! Just think of all the Forwood bonding you can do during hiatus time.
You know, the minute you wrote me and sent me the link to your Caroline Forbes Tumblr (which I immediately added to my blogroll, by the way), I started thinking, I should REALLY introduce her to Cherie. She is going to LOVE Cherie’s blog.
And I kept reminding myself, that I HAD to introduce you two, if you didn’t know one another already. But then, I got so busy with blogging, work, and home hunting, that it slipped my mind. But it looks like you guys went, and met all on your own. SO COOL! 🙂
It’s a small world, indeed.
May 8th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Yikes, wrong place for my post!
May 8th, 2011 at 5:58 am
OMFG! I had NO IDEA that you were Je t’adore, Cath! To think, all this time we’ve been commenting on KJewl’s blog and I had no idea!
Thank you for making the amazing GIFs that I put in this recap!! One of the best parts of writing these recaps, aside from getting out all of the comments running through my head while I watch episodes, is looking at Tumblrs and blogs like yours to find the hottest Tyler/Caroline GIFs and images I possibly can. The hilarious editorial notes that come attached to your images never fail to put the hugest smile on my face! I love how many people share the same enthusiasm for T/C.
Of course, a major part of the pairing’s attraction for me is that Caro will FINALLY be able to be with someone who chooses her first. Caroline’s position as back up best friend and girlfriend (though not vampire sacrifice – aww, Klaus, you sensitive man you ;)) makes her so eminently rootable. When Tyler tells her, “I love you”, likely the first time that he has expressed this sentiment to a girl in his life, I will be so happy for our bb girl, you have no idea! The best part of Caroline being with Tyler is that she becomes an empowered, confident, take charge woman around him, whereas for some strange reason Matt just brings the worst out in her, making her all demure and simpering. It’s like she knows on some level Matt will never truly accept her as is so she is constantly proving herself, while Tyler obviously has nothing but respect for her.
I also can’t wait to see Tyler in his first committed relationship. As much I love his sweetness of late, I hope that we see some delicious awkwardness when he becomes The Boyfriend and has to come to terms with the ins and outs of relationships. Of course, Tyler and Caroline are never just reduced to the role of significant other with each other. It wouldn’t hurt if Matt tries to get Caro back (probably assuming she would come a-running) and she just flatly rejects him because there is a hotter, superior option for her! 😉 Having said that, it would be kind of cool if he ended up being a better friend to Caroline when she is with Tyler as opposed to a sucky boyfriend, and resumed a strong friendship with Tyler. Hey, Matt and Tyler could joke around like Team Badass (Damon and Alaric) about that time Matt shot Tyler, like Alaric joked about that time Damon killed him!
The Coed Naked Forwood Cuddling Couch (TM KJewls) scene was just awesome on every level! I didn’t even notice that one of her hands was AWOL 😉 Don’t be sorry about any smutty innuendo, BB, the writers are practically begging for us to be like this with the set up of that scene. Although, like I mentioned in the recap, it was very non-sexual and non-flirty for a naked scene, aside from Tyler’s eye flicks and little upturned tug of the lips for the briefest moments! The way Trevino looked at Candice in this episode, much like the half smile last week, liquefied my insides and I am officially goo.
This comment was AWESOME – thank you so much for the sweet words! There is plenty more T/C coverage to come, even during hiatus. I still have to post a whole bunch of Got Forwood rewinds, plus play catch up on Tingling Trevino Tuesdays. I think I might even do a Top 10 T/C Moments, much like KJewls does for Delena. Seriously, the blogger community for TVD is so big and yet so small at the same time!
May 8th, 2011 at 2:07 am
This was your most hilarious recap EVER, Cherie! I was literally dying laughing through the entire thing. And every time I saw that picture of Tyler taking a shot, it made me smile (1) because it involved indirectly bad mouthing Matt Donova$$hole, one of my personal favorite pasttimes; and (2) because I LOVE that picture of Tyler drinking from that flask, and always use it to represent the guy, when all else fails. It’s just SO HIM!
I literally couldn’t WAIT to see how you would analyze the Coed Naked Forwood Cuddling Couch scene. (THANK YOU, by the way, for helping out with my campaign for this phrase to catch on in the TVD fandom. I will send you a t-shirt, as soon as it is ready ;)). Anyway, I am pleased to report that you ABSOLUTELY did this watershed moment for T/C justice. (Not that I had any doubt that you would.)
With Caroline and Tyler, sometimes HOW things are said, and, more importantly, what facial expressions and eye movements are used WHEN it is said, is more important than what was actually said.
NO WHERE is that more apparent than when Caroline told Tyler that Matt dumped her, and he just said, “Sorry.” I think Gen described it as Tyler’s eyes shifting inward. They definitely do that. And, maybe its just my own interpretation, but did I see a little subtle upturn of the lips, as in a HIDDEN SMILE? I think I did!
You can’t fool me Tyler Lockwood! Donava$$hole is out, and you are in. And it makes you THRILLED, as you should be! 😉
Now, aside from Season 3 of TVD CLEARLY being Season of Forwood and Delena, I was also REALLY intrigued by your speculation about Tyler’s main plotline in Season 3, which we discussed via e-mail. (If you ever need a hiatus post idea, this might be a good one . . . no pressure . . . just sayin. ;)) I definitely agree with you that the Lockwoods have SOME connection to the Originals. And it is THAT connection that made Jules so interested in Tyler, and why she claimed she needed to “protect” him. Imagine if Tyler ends up being the “Petrova Doppelganger” of Were-World. How cool would that be?
I also agree with you that Tyler was up to some shady were business at Were Camp, during his month off from the show. When this information comes to the surface, it will inevitably cause friction between Caroline and Tyler. And that’s a GOOD thing. Because, fighting makes the heart grow hornier! 😉
Maybe that’s why Caroline never got mad at Matt for all the douchey things he did to her. She was just too BORED to fight with him. Now, Tyler on the other hand, she’s going to fight him all the time. And with the fights, comes the Makeup Sex. 🙂
Oh, and as I mentioned, I predict that Klaus’ dad is a Lockwood, which, I guess, makes Tyler and Klaus related. ICK. 🙂
Thanks again for making me smile, giggle, and drool, all at once, and all on the same computer screen. YOU ROCK!
May 8th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
First, I appreciate the pictures of Trevino half-naked of course. He probably hit the gym before filming. 🙂
However, I have to stay serious:
I know I asked this before but I simply have to do it again after reading this recap and the comments:
Where does all this Matt hating come from?
Is it due to the whole Forewood-thing? Because that would be the only explanation in my eyes, considered that Damon did much worse and he is practically always forgiven. Which if you ask me doesn’t speak for Elena’s character.
“It’s trying to kill us”.
Sorry, but I think you made a mistake. I rewatched the scene three times and Matt clearly said “he” and not “it”. Later in the Lockwoods Mansion he says “that thing” but also “a friend”.
“giving Caroline and Tyler the chance to escape to the Lockwood mansion while Wolf!Tyler catches some Z’s.”
You mean Caroline and Matt right?
” Yup, that’s right, they hid from Tyler at TYLER’S HOUSE, admittedly the closest place to the cellar but also the first place Wolf!Tyler would likely go.”
Blame the writers (they designed the town after all); it was the closest thing nearby that at least was some sort of shelter. But I think everybody can cope as long as Mystic Falls doesn’t turn into the new Sunnydale.
” The fact that he shot not knowing whether or not it would be fatal for Tyler, without a second thought, is pretty gnarly to me.”
There was a snarling, blood thirsty beast in front of them. Only an idiot would not shoot in such a situation. If the writers really care about the relationship between Tyler and Matt they at least let Tyler go to Matt and make it clear that Tyler was ok with how Matt acted in that situation. If they let it come down to “prejudice” like they had with Uncle John it would be crap. Vampires and werewolves are feared for a good reason and not because of prejudice. To be forgiving is one thing, to be stupid something entirely different.
” Prepare to take a double shot, because when Matt tells Caro about faking being compelled so that he could spy on her for her mom, Sheriff Forbes, he isn’t the slightest bit apologetic.”
Why should he? It’s not as though Caroline shows that much guilt (or emotion) and he is still on adrenaline. No matter how much many people want it, the human body doesn’t react the way we wish it to be. And in that situation it was still life or death for the two, so it was one of the worst times for apologizing.
” For a girl who is known for being insecure, feeding her obvious self-loathing about being a vampire by not giving her a crumb where her mother is concerned was just cruel.”
Have you forgotten the sheriff’s attitude in the last episode? Her whole acting was so ambiguous that Matt’s statement was the closest thing possible without resorting to lying. And he is still on edge due to the whole crazy stuff going on. Try to be sensitive in that situation and you probably fail.
And since when is Matt a psychic? How should he know whether Caroline loathes herself or not? She mostly acted like her usual self, not the best behavior to signal self-loathing.
” Luckily, this awkward conversation is interrupted by a loud thump that marks the entrance of Naked!Tyler! Yippee”
Really weird. Shouldn’t there have been some yelping from changing back into human?
” rather than a badass vampire chick”
I gotta be honest, no matter how often you write that and state your reasons for calling her that, I simply don’t get it. She is not “badass” at all in my eyes.
” Matt’s reluctance to do so was his one major redeeming moment in this episode, because he was obviously thinking of us fangirls who were despondent at the thought of Naked!Tyler being covered up.”
When I saw that scene, I again wondered what the writers had in mind when they wrote this.
” Caroline tucks Tyler up in bed and later talks to Matt, who dumps her because his human life is oh so hard and he can’t handle a vampire girlfriend and the baggage that comes attached. On the one hand, fair enough. On the other hand, within this episode alone I can think of people with much suckier lives to contend with. For example, Jenna learned she had transitioned into a vampire and was staked, Elena and Jeremy lost two more parental figures. Also, Matt complaining about an absentee mother when Caroline’s mom is contemplating murdering her daughter just made me go O_O”
I was happy that Matt reacted like this. And he seemingly had to fight much more for much longer than the other characters (Elena’s image as the popular perfect girl didn’t come from nowhere) and every person has his/her breaking point where they can no longer fight. The characters were so far all in all way too accepting of their situation and all the supe stuff. Do the math: There was no hint of any full moon between Mason’s and Tyler’s transformations. So at the end of the season it was very likely, that barely more than two months had passed and look at all that happened. This is just insane. And you mentioned yourself in earlier comments that the characters don’t have any time to grief. So this rejection (or seeming rejection, since it’s still unclear based on Matt’s statements) was way long overdue.
Of course the main characters could just be repressing at the moment. If yes this whole thing might get ugly. But considered what Plec wrote about Season 3 being in the hands of the Originals this might never happen. What do the Originals even want in Mystic Falls anymore?
“So all I have to say is CRY ME A MOTHERFUCKING RIVER, MATT DONOVAN about your hard life and kindly accept the tampons I throw in your general direction to wipe up the tears. They’re the super absorbent kind.”
I don’t get this attitude at all. Just don’t get it.
“Despite finding out that Matt had been double crossing her with his mother and a complete lack of apology from him, Caroline is upset when he dumps her. Oh, c’mon BB! Playing tonsil hockey with Tyler would be so much better – he’s a three letter varsity athlete!”
Statements like this make it even weirder for me that you consider her “badass”.
“To be honest, I was disappointed she wasn’t more indignant about Matt’s betrayal. I can only rationalise that she was emotionally spent from worrying about Tyler and couldn’t muster up the energy to care. Ha!”
Why is it that you can come up with all sorts of explanations for Caroline’s behavior to let her appear in a good light? Maybe she simply didn’t care or didn’t process what happened, yet.
” Joey/Pacey fans know that’s when awesome dark horse ships happen on Kevin Williamson shows. (BTW, don’t miss KJewl’s awesome take on this episode).”
I totally forgot that he was responsible for that show. Never liked it and I hope TVD will not go down that road. I only watched it because of Ker Smith’s butt and not even regularly. Hey I was a hormone-driven teenage boy back then. 😀
” Remember the days when Caroline got flustered at the mere sight of Tyler’s bare chest? Ah, the innocence of youth!”
Yeah, I remember. It happened about one month ago in the show. Really long time *sarcasm*
Seriously when do the writers cover some time in the show? If they keep up at that snail’s pace even Dobrev and Graham will be in her thirties before they graduate.
And since I am at it, did you notice how fast the Grill had opened again? Man I would love to know who they hired for that instant repair. 😀
” Plus, for all the UST and eye-sexing that has been happening between the pair of late, this scene wasn’t played to be sexual or even flirty – it was just about one friend comforting the other.”
And maybe that is all that will ever be there. At least I hope so. That “romantic” pairing would be crap and uninteresting. In addition, the show needs some new blood that is a) not related to any of the main (supposedly Caro’s dad will be introduced in season 3, so we have or obligatory gay character, but still a relative) and b) survives longer than a few weeks. I think everybody agrees that this is a necessity.
” Tyler, to his credit, does look genuinely sad for his friend, but you can see a definite internal struggle on his face not to feel happy that his rival for Caroline’s affections is out of the picture.”
If that is what he wants that is.
” He’s only a werewolf, after all.”
Come on, we both know that is not what defines a werewolf on this show. Although the last episode trivialized the werewolf topic in my eyes, so maybe you will be right in the future.
” Having said that, it would have been nice if they writers could have had Caroline try to call Bonnie or Elena or something, and express concern about only reaching their voicemail.”
I think everybody who has ever written something on this site already noticed that the writers often seem to come up with stuff that doesn’t make sense. Considered the target group of the show this is rather puzzling if you ask me.
” The fact that Caro and Tyler can slip between laughter and seriousness shows how much they just “get” each other.”
I don’t see it. They “get each other” because both of them have trouble facing reality in my eyes. But to be honest it looks rather as though the writers just rewrote the characters to suit their whims. If they keep it up at least halfway realistic asshole-Tyler will be back pretty soon.
” One of Caroline’s key neuroses is her control freakiness and attempt to script and plan every part of her life. Unlike Matt, Tyler seems to find this endearing and responds in a positive way, by giving her what she needs – in this case, the exact words she needs to hear….whereas Tyler not only repeats her words but says them with such appreciation and adoration that they sound like his own.”
Which is exceptionally weird. It’s either like the writers simply forgot the characters they originally created or they – like many fans – fail to realize how little time has passed in the show.
For the main part of the two seasons the guy was portrayed as an emotionally immature and inexperienced character and now all of a sudden he is Mr. Sensitive and the Master of Communications? In addition you could also interpret it as a sign of Tyler being whipped later on.
And again, I say that it’s not Matt’s “douchery”, as you call it, that’s the real problem. It is Caroline’s inability to look outside her own view and accept the facts of life, not to mention her control freakiness. She romanticizes the whole situation she is in, to escape what she can’t or won’t face (similarly to Tyler), partly understandable since she is a vamp for what three months now? So I won’t judge her too much and wait what happens. Another reason why I want some time to pass in the show, character development needs time.
I also want that the situation redounds on her, or any of the characters. Despite what Plec said in an interview about the end of season 2, I personally don’t see that the show takes the supernatural aspect seriously.
People died … big “supernatural” deal.*sarcasm* We need it that the main characters trust bites them in the ass when it comes to supe stuff. So far they were extremely lucky. Or the fans were extremely lucky, depending on your point of view.
“He wasn’t alone, he had Caroline, bitch!”
Really, no offense, but comments like that are what make me question the author’s skills when it comes to recaps. No matter what a bitch Jules was, or how blind, she could provide the opportunity of someone who really would know where Tyler is standing. Caroline can never do that. So yes, Tyler is alone for now. No matter how much people want to be it that way, Caroline can never truly understand what he is going through. But considered how much the werewolf condition was trivialized in the last episode that might never be an issue.
“Do you think that he will re-think this decision next season? Or do you think this was the first step in Matt potentially going dark and working against them in the future?”
Well if it goes along like this, several of the characters will snap one day.
May 8th, 2011 at 9:30 pm
OK, first things first. I write this as someone who did not have a particularly fabulous day, so my rebuttals are gonna be filled with run on sentences and no holds barred. Sorry if it comes across snarkier than intended.
Honestly, no, the Matt hate is not the result of the Forwood thing. To invert the question, is your dislike of Forwood due to a Matt thing? (or possibly a reaction to how annoying I know us Forwood fangirls must be in our unabashed worship of the sexy godliness that is Tyler Lockwood and our love of his pairing with Caroline, which is so gorgeous to me that I metaphorically refer to it as being a unicorn in some form in every recap? ;))
It is not hatred of Matt per see as it is Matt with Caro because she just brings out his worst sides and he treats her like crap IMO – part of why I like Forwood so much is because I just want Caroline to have a relationship with someone who counts their lucky stars to be with her. Trevino himself has admitted that while he would like Tyler with Caroline, he doesn’t feel like Tyler particularly deserves Caroline and may not necessarily be good for her… yet. In my opinion, I don’t know if there is any boy in Mystic Falls who deserves the BAMF awesomeness that is Caroline Forbes (more about her badassery below). The least she should get though is someone who knows how lucky they are to be with her. Can you honestly say, all things considered in the Matt/Caro relationship, that he has ever been particularly appreciative of her?
If you said yes, please, please read this post and this post by 12_12_12 at her livejournal which expresses, in a nutshell, the extreme douchiness of Matt WHEN HE IS AROUND CAROLINE (I think I’ve always made it pretty clear that I enjoy other Matt relationships like the Matt/Tyler friendship, when we are shown them – considering this is very rare, you’ll forgive me for generally focussing on his douchery when the majority of his scenes are with Caro). Even if you didn’t say yes, you should read that stuff, because it provides a lot of food for thought. My annoyance with Matt is not solitary thing, believe me.
The character of Matt aside, this is a Forwood-focussed recap. By its very nature, I am going to be naturally biased not just towards this pairing, but also the Tyler and Caroline characters, because I obviously love them enough to dedicate a recap each week to them. So last week when I saw Matt feel real confliction about double crossing Caroline, it was easier to warm to him. When he can’t even give Caroline a crumb of hope about her mother still feeling maternal towards her (e.g. like when Sheriff Forbes call her “her baby”) or break to her more gently her mother’s feelings than “she’s always hated vamps, probably always will”, it is extremely hard for me to feel anything but intense dislike for his character, particularly as, I personally believe he has never treated Caroline the way she deserves to be treated when she was still human anyway. If you go back and analyse every scene from Caro and Matt getting together onwards, you CAN COUNT ON A HAND, the nice things he has said that weren’t couched as backwards compliments or in a humouring/patronizing tone. Ugh! Obviously, this is up to personal interpretation, but again, I think that 12_12_12 does a good job of highlighting the horrible way that Matt has treated Caroline.
I don’t care if Caroline was annoying in her neuroticisms with him either – if you don’t like the whole package of the person you are dating, just dump them already, rather than slowly undermining at their confidence because they don’t meet your ideal model of a woman. At least in The Sun Also Rises Matt finally does just that; he dumps Caroline. Before though, he was content to stay coupled up with someone he often expression derision about to his friends (I mean, for chrissakes, how many times over the past season and a half has Tyler asked Matt “are you guys on the outs already?” – Bad Moon Rising and the episode in season one where Matt jumps down Caro’s throat for having the audacity to take his hand in front of Elena are just a couple of instances that come to mind).
Notice that my hatred of characters who are awful to either half of my beloved Forwooders is not just limited to Matt. Jules might have had good intentions for Tyler – but until I see flashbacks of his month away with her, I will speculate that it is possible she got him to do some shady shiz. Like you said yourself, many of the werewolves in TVD are sociopathic and I can’t really see the lessons she taught him to be wholly healthy for him, even though obviously there are benefits in learning from someone who is the same creature as you. Jules not only killed a human in cold blood and as a seasoned supe who should long ago have learned to control her werewolf temper like Mason, but she organised the torture of Caroline and would have killed my fave baby vamp if Jonas hadn’t brain migrained all of the werewolves at the scene. So, yes, I have unabashed hatred for the character, and resented the hell out of the implication that Tyler would be alone without her. Jules could understand him in a unique way because they are both werewolves, but Caroline understands Tyler in a unique way because they are both baby supes at the same time – Jules was obviously a baby supe once upon a time but people going through similar experiences as you at the same time are more likely to form a strong bond with you. For example, my dad went to university, but it was the group of first years experiencing the difficulties and excitement of being a newbie studend who I went to for the most support during my college years, with the occasional bit of advice from my dad. Us newbies shared the highs and lows together.
Now, I don’t know how Damon factors into your comment, to be honest, because aside from a throwaway reference to The Year of Delena, I don’t cover Damon in this recap at all. I love Damon, yes, that is true, but I am well aware of his flaws, and I think that Gen will attest to me ranting on her blog after Crying Wolf aired about my annoyance at disproportionate fan reaction to Tyler’s hesitation – it annoyed the shiz out of me that people were saying Tyler was dead to them because of that, whereas they seemed to have come to terms with the Jeremy neck snapping incident. I found that pretty hypocritical, to be honest. I would rather just enjoy ALL of the characters in their many shades of grey. So while Tyler’s hesitation disappointed me keenly and I let rip against his character in that recap, I also discussed my understanding of why he did what he did, which is not the same as justifying it. Similarly, after the Damon neck snap incident, I discussed on KJewl’s blog my understanding of what drove him to this impulsive action, and while it can never be excused, in the context of a supernatural show and one like this which is populated predominantly with anti-heroes IMO, I look forward to seeing how the hell the writers tackle his redemption arc. This is particularly true because Damon is an extremely well developed and well acted character, and that is all I need from a show. I suspect if I were interested in real world morality only, I wouldn’t be drawn to so many shows in the supernatural genre.
Also, should vampires and humans be held to the same moral standard? That is a loaded question for another day and another post, but it is worth considering. I would say no, unless the supe wants to be integrated into human society and therefore they should abide by human rules. Damon lived as a rogue vampire in effect while searching for a way to free Katherine from the tomb, and is only now becoming integrated into the Scooby Gang and rediscovering his humanity, so for him to abide by human codes and mores completely without any issues would be OOC for me. Plus, Stefan, the “good brother” is not above showing his dark side when it suits his aims, and he struggles with his human blood addiction to present day, so it just goes to show how difficult it is for a vampire to conform to human norms.
“It’s trying to kill us”.
Sorry, but I think you made a mistake. I rewatched the scene three times and Matt clearly said “he” and not “it”. Later in the Lockwoods Mansion he says “that thing” but also “a friend”.
I honestly thought it was “it’s”, but my hearing honestly isn’t that great and my internet downloading stream did not have great sound, so I could concede that point. I also thought he called Tyler “your friend” to Caroline?
“giving Caroline and Tyler the chance to escape to the Lockwood mansion while Wolf!Tyler catches some Z’s.”
You mean Caroline and Matt right?
Yep. I write these recaps ultra late so mistakes do creep in.
” The fact that he shot not knowing whether or not it would be fatal for Tyler, without a second thought, is pretty gnarly to me.”
There was a snarling, blood thirsty beast in front of them. Only an idiot would not shoot in such a situation. If the writers really care about the relationship between Tyler and Matt they at least let Tyler go to Matt and make it clear that Tyler was ok with how Matt acted in that situation. If they let it come down to “prejudice” like they had with Uncle John it would be crap. Vampires and werewolves are feared for a good reason and not because of prejudice. To be forgiving is one thing, to be stupid something entirely different.”
Now, I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this point, because it comes down to personal morals. It is like asking whether a person believes abortion is okay or not. I believe that, if you know that a creature is your friend, you should show at least a split second of indecision, remorse or pain at the thought of shooting them, rather than reacting instantly. Is this instant reaction on Matt’s part as repugnant as Tyler’s hesitation? I think they were equally bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. The difference is that Trevino is an infinitely better actor that Roerig, IMO, so I could feel Tyler’s confusion and paralysis of fear, whereas with Matt it was such a clinical motion and I couldn’t believe he could be so emotionless about hurting his friend. Intellectually, maybe Matt was in the right. But emotions don’t care for the intellect.
So Matt’s seemingly easy decision to shoot his friend hints at an extremely dark side of him. For that matter, out of nowhere, having been thrust into the world of vampires and werewolves, Matt kills a human witch last week. Unlike Tyler, who killed Sarah by accident to trigger his curse and has only actively tried to kill in his wolf form, Matt has found it disturbingly easy to kill as an ordinary human. He didn’t seem to feel any remorse, like Bonnie did with Jonas and Luka or Caroline did when she expressed regret to Tyler in The Sacrifice about having accidentally killed someone. Time will tell whether this changes.
Look, having a relationship chat right after fleeing Wolf!Tyler wasn’t Caroline’s most intelligent moment, but they were locked in doors, relatively safe, they had had time for the adrenalin to start coming down, so I think it is a bit nebulous to use bodily reactions as an excuse for Matt’s lack of apology. He seemed to muster the energy to express disgust in his tone when telling Caroline he thinks her mother isn’t sure what to do with her. Really, I would have preferred this conversation with Matt/Caro to have happened the following week. But ultimately, Matt was caught in a despicable act, spying against Caroline and, to her knowledge, considering murdering her. Matt had told Sheriff Forbes last week he thought that Caroline was the same person she always had been despite her vampirism or else she was putting on an exceptional act, and I loved him for that sentiment. It obviously wasn’t a strong enough feeling for him to tell Sheriff Forbes he didn’t want to double cross Caroline anymore though.
” For a girl who is known for being insecure, feeding her obvious self-loathing about being a vampire by not giving her a crumb where her mother is concerned was just cruel.”
Have you forgotten the sheriff’s attitude in the last episode? Her whole acting was so ambiguous that Matt’s statement was the closest thing possible without resorting to lying. And he is still on edge due to the whole crazy stuff going on. Try to be sensitive in that situation and you probably fail.
And since when is Matt a psychic? How should he know whether Caroline loathes herself or not? She mostly acted like her usual self, not the best behavior to signal self-loathing.
You don’t have to be psychic to be able to read self-loathing into the line “I don’t know what to do with me either”. Even Matt should have been able to get that. I just feel like he was too bald and matter of fact about an extremely hurtful thing like “your mother probably hates you and might want to kill you”. If you are too het up from a life/death situation to act decently to a creature you admitted the week before still seems to have a lot of goodness left in her, then tell her “let’s talk about this later” rather than being an insensitive clod.
” Luckily, this awkward conversation is interrupted by a loud thump that marks the entrance of Naked!Tyler! Yippee”
Really weird. Shouldn’t there have been some yelping from changing back into human?
Umm, not necessarily. Transforming INTO a wolf is painful and yelping is inevitable, but we’ve never been shown whether it hurts to morph back into human form or not. Tyler seemed physically spent and exhausted at the end of every transformation, so it is possible that by the end the crossover from wolf back to human involves a creature so exhausted that any loud noise is unlikely. At the end of By the Light of the Full Moon, the best Tyler could manage was a faint “Caroline?”
” rather than a badass vampire chick”
I gotta be honest, no matter how often you write that and state your reasons for calling her that, I simply don’t get it. She is not “badass” at all in my eyes.
Again, it is a personal thing. I just think that badasser-y, like feminism, can take many different forms. Caroline is badass to me because she has adapted incredibly well to being a vampire, and in fact her flaws as a human (e.g. control freakiness) may have served her in doing so. I think someone is badass when they stick by a lonely werewolf during the worst night of his life at personal risk to their own life, and I don’t think that is diminished by Caroline having vamp superstrength. She stayed until the very last moment with him, and was almost bitten. Moreover, I’ve been thinking about vamp superstrength, and, look, it is inconsistent in its portrayal on this show, but we have seen well-organised humans be able to take vamps down. So I know you don’t feel this way, but I can definitely see a werewolf, being a creature with a bite that is fatal to vampires, posing a real risk to Caroline regardless of her strength.
Caroline is badass to me because she manages to retain positivity even though life throws so many hurdles her way. The day after being tortured by werewolves, she jumps in immediately to help Bonnie and Jeremy find out Luka and Jonas’s intentions for Elena, and despite the tatters her own relationships are in, acts as a matchmaker for them. In Know Thy Enemy, Matt tells Caroline, “I can’t stand looking at you and seeing what I’m seeing” when he discovers she is a vampire, an extremely hurtful remark whether you are insecure at the best of times or not. Although obviously she thinks she compels him into forgetting, the memory of his words remains with her, yet in the next episode she gets over herself and isn’t in a funk, and when Stefan tells her Klaus has tracked the gang to the 60s dance, immediately asks what she can do. So yeah, I think she is a sweetheart, and badass at the same time. Her ability to drop both Damon and Mason on their asses was pretty badass too, as was her pulling A MOTHERFUCKING BULLET OUT OF HER OWN HEAD in Daddy Issues after being tortured.
” Matt’s reluctance to do so was his one major redeeming moment in this episode, because he was obviously thinking of us fangirls who were despondent at the thought of Naked!Tyler being covered up.”
When I saw that scene, I again wondered what the writers had in mind when they wrote this.
I think the writers were just trying to stir up us Forwood fangirls as much as possible, personally. These scenes had “smutty yet sweet fan fiction” written all over them.
” Caroline tucks Tyler up in bed and later talks to Matt, who dumps her because his human life is oh so hard and he can’t handle a vampire girlfriend and the baggage that comes attached. On the one hand, fair enough. On the other hand, within this episode alone I can think of people with much suckier lives to contend with. For example, Jenna learned she had transitioned into a vampire and was staked, Elena and Jeremy lost two more parental figures. Also, Matt complaining about an absentee mother when Caroline’s mom is contemplating murdering her daughter just made me go O_O”
I was happy that Matt reacted like this. And he seemingly had to fight much more for much longer than the other characters (Elena’s image as the popular perfect girl didn’t come from nowhere) and every person has his/her breaking point where they can no longer fight. The characters were so far all in all way too accepting of their situation and all the supe stuff. Do the math: There was no hint of any full moon between Mason’s and Tyler’s transformations. So at the end of the season it was very likely, that barely more than two months had passed and look at all that happened. This is just insane. And you mentioned yourself in earlier comments that the characters don’t have any time to grief. So this rejection (or seeming rejection, since it’s still unclear based on Matt’s statements) was way long overdue.
“This rejection was long overdue”. Don’t agree with that, I’m afraid. Matt has had a sucky home life for a long time, and Caroline, more than anyone else, including Elena who pretty much dropped him once Stefan arrived, has been the one offering support as his girlfriend. When she distanced herself from him and instigated a break up as a baby vamp, she was also providing another form of support, by recongising that at that point she wasn’t good for Matt because she could potentially hurt him.
Saying the rejection is long overdue implies that Caroline had something to do with his earlier problems mounting, with her vampirism being the final straw. It was long overdue for Matt to complain about his awful life. It wasn’t long overdue for him to break up with Caroline, because he had only just found out about her vampirism AKA the factor that led to his decision to split up. He only dealt with the knowledge of her being a vampire for a few days, so I could actually believe the break up was more a “heat of the moment/week” thing, and that after a few episodes of cooling down in season three he will try to win her back. Obviously, I hope she rejects him blind.
I do like that we have a character having a realistic reaction to finding supernatural stuff overwhelming. I just find it hard to feel sorry for him when he knows how much harder many of his friends’ lives are, especially as Caroline filled him in on everything before she “compelled” him – so he not only knows about Elena’s struggle of losing her parents, but Tyler’s crappy life of dealing with a dead dad and the fear of an impending painful transformation that marks his sole human identity forever being ripped from him.
“Despite finding out that Matt had been double crossing her with his mother and a complete lack of apology from him, Caroline is upset when he dumps her. Oh, c’mon BB! Playing tonsil hockey with Tyler would be so much better – he’s a three letter varsity athlete!”
Statements like this make it even weirder for me that you consider her “badass”.
See above about her badassery. I think that in this day and age, we should be at the point where, if a woman can be a feminist while being feminine, and post-Buffyverse where the juxtaposition of Buffy The Fashion Plate And Boy-Crazy Twit with her identity as kickass slayer and incredibly brave and generous woman, it should be entirely acceptable for a character like Caroline to exist, where she can take down a werewolf like Mason with a kick to the groin one week and then be upset about boy dramas the next. Plus, I WAS JOKING. I think when you read these recaps, you should bear in mind that every single remark I make is written tongue in cheek. Even my serious points are couched in jokes. I never, ever adopt a sombre tone. Heck, I didn’t even when Forwood were obliterated in Daddy Issues and Crying Wolf. If you re-read my recaps, you’ll see that I was joking the hell out of episodes that actually mad me cry and feel incredibly sad, cause that is just how I roll.
“To be honest, I was disappointed she wasn’t more indignant about Matt’s betrayal. I can only rationalise that she was emotionally spent from worrying about Tyler and couldn’t muster up the energy to care. Ha!”
Why is it that you can come up with all sorts of explanations for Caroline’s behavior to let her appear in a good light? Maybe she simply didn’t care or didn’t process what happened, yet.
Well, to be honest, I have seen more examples of Caroline being selfless and helping her friends than Matt, so I am just naturally inclined to believe the best of her and give her the benefit of the doubt than Matt. Apart from promising early episodes where he displayed incredible maturity and some choice friendship scenes with Tyler, his douchery with Caroline has been such a mainstay that I am just conditioned by this point to be surprised when he actually does something I like.
” Remember the days when Caroline got flustered at the mere sight of Tyler’s bare chest? Ah, the innocence of youth!”
Yeah, I remember. It happened about one month ago in the show. Really long time *sarcasm* Seriously when do the writers cover some time in the show? If they keep up at that snail’s pace even Dobrev and Graham will be in her thirties before they graduate.
And since I am at it, did you notice how fast the Grill had opened again? Man I would love to know who they hired for that instant repair. 😀
I read an interview with Julie Plec where she basically said the writers don’t care about the timeline and fans who try to work it out will drive themselves crazy. To be honest, I found it a little patronizing the way that she said we shouldn’t care about the timeline – just because she and the other writers are too lazy to keep track of this detail, doesn’t mean we should just “accept” it. I overlook a lot because I love the show and it is a fun ride, but I think the writers can be amazing when firing on all cylinders with plot twists AND keeping an eye on continuity, and therefore will continue to hold them to a high standard and therefore keep highlighting plot holes and time discrepancies on this blog.
” He’s only a werewolf, after all.”
Come on, we both know that is not what defines a werewolf on this show. Although the last episode trivialized the werewolf topic in my eyes, so maybe you will be right in the future.
I wasn’t actually being literal. I was making a play on the term “He’s only human after all” and using the word werewolf in what I guess was an unsuccessful attempt to be witty.
” The fact that Caro and Tyler can slip between laughter and seriousness shows how much they just “get” each other.”
I don’t see it. They “get each other” because both of them have trouble facing reality in my eyes. But to be honest it looks rather as though the writers just rewrote the characters to suit their whims. If they keep it up at least halfway realistic asshole-Tyler will be back pretty soon.
Um, I am curious how you can back up the point that “both of them have trouble facing reality”. Caroline romanticizes things and I would agree with you there. I would argue she hasn’t faced the reality of what being a vampire means yet. In contrast, Tyler left town because he understood all too well the realities of his situation, and as a result he actively learned about his heritage with Jules (according to him in the tomb talk with Caro in his first ep back). Tyler has shown many examples of understanding his reality. His father’s douchey treatment of his mother was evident in Tyler’s EXTREME distaste of his father blatantly checking out Pearl’s ass and flirting with her in season one. When his first transformation was fast approaching, Tyler may not have experienced it himself, but he saw a tape of Mason that showed his future reality playing out before his eyes. He told Caroline, “I can’t do that”, which is the statement of someone who to me really and truly understands what a shitstorm they are in for. The fact that he found the best chains possible to lock himself into the cellar with the transformation and his planning after reading Mason’s diary, down to having Caroline obtain wolfsbane so he could weaken himself and lower the likelihood of breaking free while transformed, indicates someone who knows their reality and is taking pains to deal with it. I could go on with more examples but I’m feeling lazy by this point, but let me know if you need more convincing and I’ll work up another head of steam 😉 Also, if you are referring to Tyler and Caroline not facing the reality of the sacrifice situation specifically, just check out my recap for my understanding of why they felt comfortable just chilling and recuperating.
” One of Caroline’s key neuroses is her control freakiness and attempt to script and plan every part of her life. Unlike Matt, Tyler seems to find this endearing and responds in a positive way, by giving her what she needs – in this case, the exact words she needs to hear….whereas Tyler not only repeats her words but says them with such appreciation and adoration that they sound like his own.”
Which is exceptionally weird. It’s either like the writers simply forgot the characters they originally created or they – like many fans – fail to realize how little time has passed in the show.
For the main part of the two seasons the guy was portrayed as an emotionally immature and inexperienced character and now all of a sudden he is Mr. Sensitive and the Master of Communications?
In addition you could also interpret it as a sign of Tyler being whipped later on.
Well, I’ve already done a bit of a rebuttal on KJewls blog regarding this. I’ll repost parts, but I’ll expand. I would argue that Tyler and Caroline as they are now compared to their characters in the pilot is the result of extremely well developed character growth – indeed, aside from Damon, I would argue that their character arcs are the two most well fleshed out in the series. We’ve seen a gradual change in both of their characters all season, and Tyler has obviously undergone significant life-changing experiences while away on wolf camp. Until we find out what went down while he was gone, it is really hard to judge whether his current disposition is really so unfathomable.
I know we’ve disagreed about this sort of thing before. I believe that something like going through the experience of the transformation together is an intense experience that could bind Caroline and Tyler together as much as love could develop slowly over many, many years of two people knowing one another. It was almost like a love at second sight for Tyler, because he experienced such a life-altering event that he could see a lifelong acquaintance in a new light, which is almost harder than falling in love with someone you know nothing about, if you ask me. If we can believe in an intense passion like Elena and Stefan’s, which occurred almost instantly, or even that of Damon and Elena, which has happened in a similar timespan, then to me Caroline and Tyler’s connection is entirely believable.
Equally, Tyler could have gone through intense experiences that resulted in this new aura of maturity and confidence. If he came back the same old Tyler, I would have been disappointed, because what would have been the point of taking him off screen? His character growth could have happened before my eyes, and more Trevino walksexing could have occurred on my screen.
To be honest, I don’t see Tyler’s character growth or that of Forwood all that sudden in terms of TV verse anyway. We saw foreshadowing in the season one finale of Forwood, and we saw Caroline stick up for Tyler when his dad intimidated him in a way that Matt didn’t, despite standing in the same room. Caroline and Tyler spent a reasonable tract of time purely as friends this season, and aside from one kiss haven’t gone all couple-y anyway. Though I forgive you for seeing the awesome eyesexing going on of late as being an anvilicious indication of where things will be going.
Tyler expressed pain and confusion about his personality as early as The Turning Point, half way through season one, where he said, “I don’t know” in a deeply pained voice in answer to Jeremy’s q of “what’s wrong with you, man?” In an early season two ep he expressed his desire to Mason to no longer be the way that he is, has been self-aware about being an “angry guy”, and also felt disgust about the part of him that hoped Sarah had died when she fell down the stairs. All of this points to the gradual evolution of Tyler. The writers reminded us with his cowardly hesitation in Daddy Issues and initial moves to sell out Elena that he wasn’t just a heroic nice guy by a long chalk, but that he had certain moral boundaries he wouldn’t cross.
Losing Caroline (or so he thought) had to have had a profound impact. He fell for her, and has unlikely done the same with any other girl. She had also been there for him more than anyone ever had, so when she slammed the door in his face after saying, “you didn’t do anything!” and “we’re not friends anymore”, I wouldn’t be surprised if he spent a month chastising himself and thinking about what kind of person and friend he wants to be. I think he is just so happy around Caroline and happy she has let him back into her life that he has been acting all glowy in recent episodes. Because as far as he knew before he came back, she was gonna hate him forever.
Having said that, I hope that Caroline and Tyler retain a lot of the snarkiness that marked their earlier relationship, because their ability to be real with one another while maintaining respect is one of my favourite aspects of their relationship.
Can’t a guy be nice and be there for his friend without being called whipped? I guess you have to give a girl douchey, back-handed compliments not to be branded with this unfortunate term. If Tyler’s arc is only about his romance with Caroline next season, go ahead and use the term. Even if they are coupled up for much of the season and deal with problems together, if they exist as fully formed characters separately and together, them being loving and respectful towards one another is not my definition of being whipped.
And again, I say that it’s not Matt’s “douchery”, as you call it, that’s the real problem. It is Caroline’s inability to look outside her own view and accept the facts of life, not to mention her control freakiness.
Do you know how close that sounds to an abuser saying that it is the victim’s fault for the way they are treated? See earlier for more on me believing that if you can’t accept someone for their whole package, in Caro’s case control freakiness, don’t freaking date them. Again, it is douchery plain and simple when Matt couches pretty much every statement to her as a backwards compliment. Emotional abuse doesn’t have to be loud and brash, it can be subtle, small things over time that undermine a person’s confidence. The thing I don’t get is that he is so great to every else.
“He wasn’t alone, he had Caroline, bitch!”
Really, no offense, but comments like that are what make me question the author’s skills when it comes to recaps. No matter what a bitch Jules was, or how blind, she could provide the opportunity of someone who really would know where Tyler is standing. Caroline can never do that. So yes, Tyler is alone for now. No matter how much people want to be it that way, Caroline can never truly understand what he is going through. But considered how much the werewolf condition was trivialized in the last episode that might never be an issue.
See above re: my opinion on Jules and why her remark annoyed me so much. I’m just gonna lay this down straight – your kind words of my recap as being fluent last week when I had warmed up considerably to Matt versus you questioning my skills this week as a recapper when I express disdain for him suggests that maybe you are just as biased as me when it comes to the Tyler/Caroline/Matt storyline, hmm?
Rant over. 😉
May 9th, 2011 at 12:08 am
Yikes! Post links weren’t working first time but now are.
May 12th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Ok this comment would be long and important, and I have to work overtime at my job, so it took more than my usual time with it. I also had to restructure my comment several times so not to make it too long or confusing.
The serious stuff first:
You being positive about Matt had nothing to do with my evaluation of your recap. I think you got something wrong. My comment was really only regarding this piece: “He wasn’t alone, he had Caroline, bitch!” It was not your whole recap. And I understood it the way that this wasn’t a sentence from you. Anyway, sentences like that, if meant seriously are questionable in my eyes, because it seems to ignore the simple fact I mentioned: Tyler is a werewolf and Caroline is a vampire, neither can ever truly understand how it is to be in the other’s skin, plain and simple. Jules at least could have provided info (which you said yourself), no matter what a character she was.
But this might never be an issue in the episodes to come, because currently I can’t see what importance Tyler’s condition will have in the future and it is called TVD anyway so I guess we all know on whom the focus will be.
Then again he has only been a werewolf for a little more than a month, and we know next to nothing about any long-term effects or werewolves in TVD in general (if there are any left except him).
That is something Caroline can’t help, unless the writers really jump the shark. Yes she can be there, yes she can listen, yes she can theorize, yes she can be emotional support, but that’s it. Unless they find again some book that just happens to be in the next town, but you can do that only so often before people start switching the channel and they already overused that this season if you ask me. So Jules statement made sense to me.
One thing however occurred to me about Jules yesterday morning, when the last scene of Daddy Issues came into my mind: The way she asked Brady about how the life of a werewolf usually is, would suggest that she might have been pretty new as well. Considered her age she could have been a werewolf for some time, but this question suggests otherwise.
Also something came to my mind about the werewolves. Maybe being such sociopaths is the norm for them because of the way the curse is triggered. I mean even if they all had such “sparkling” personalities like Tyler how often would they unwittingly have killed somebody?
Damn, why didn’t I notice that sooner? *grummbblll*
And before I continue: Tyler’s wolf-side wants to kill Caroline. And it is that side that defines Tyler as a werewolf, not strictly as a person, but as a werewolf. So Jules was at least partly right, it is the nature of that part of him to be Caroline’s enemy.
Personally: If I would be a writer I would have broken with the tradition of TV-werewolves and make Tyler’s wolf-side more independent and smart. Because the real frightening werewolves are the ones who actually have brain and not just brawn. And so would he be, he would know what would be necessary to get out and he would make the most of the situation he is in. He would plan and scheme in Tyler’s mind. He would position Tyler with Caroline as often as possible so that his chances of killing her would be the best there could be. This is not so unrealistic considered that he always seems to lurk behind the corner of Tyler’s eyes, and tension wouldn’t die so fast. The more Caroline would be attached to Tyler the less likely she would be to leave him and then the wolf would get his chance.
In this scenario, the fact that the transformation gets faster is a sign of the wolf getting stronger and you might include a scenario where Tyler cannot get rid of him out of fear of losing Caroline because he thinks she only stays with him because of that. After all that is what brought them together in the first place. I would let the wolf take advantage of that. Man you inspired me.
Before I go further we should keep in mind what you mentioned:
Julie Plec basically saying that the writers don’t care about the timeline and fans who try to work it out will drive themselves crazy. I totally agree that this is a little patronizing – and not good for the show if you ask me – and we shouldn’t accept it. I wrote over at kjewls’ place that I read something of her talking about how far they can go and still let people forgive Damon. Considered this it seems as though the writers don’t seem to keep track of, well… reality. TVD is not there yet but in some ways it shows the signs of a telenovella or a stereotypical soap-opera: too much happens in too little time and as you pointed out, there are plot holes and things not adding up. The last thing might be good for mystery, but only for a while.
This is why I think all this ranting and google-eying is often way over the top and prevents people from seeing a situation from different angles – respectively that such an attitude of not caring on the writer’s part is worth a “recap” by itself.
So there is good reason in my eyes, that we all are wrong, or right one day and wrong the next despite saying one and the same.
And yes, maybe I am a bit biased. I had my trouble with this pairing early on since I thought that we don’t need another romantic female-male couple. That and the fact that vamp-werewolf-love is a cliché already. The show needs an actual friendship, not this awkwardness of the Matt-Elena situation. Or this immature crush of Jeremy on Bonny, Vicky or Anna; correct me if I am mistaken, but he fell in love again pretty fast didn’t he, even for TVD?
And yes sometimes you Forwood-shippers are ranging from annoying to outright maddening. But that is not any different than with any of the other pairing-fans. It is this whole “they are so right for each other and we will destroy everybody who could stand in their way”. You might not all see the characters through rose-colored glasses but many seem not simply to favor them but actually paint them better than they are and do the exact opposite with those that could stand in the way.
I don’t get it. Yes you laid down your arguments but I think that is nitpicking what you did. Of course considered the nature of the show and the statement of Plec, you might have hit the jackpot and be totally right.
But I can live with it as long as they keep it interesting. Something I hope will happen for Bonnie-Jeremy, since a normal teenage boy like him who is a constant punching back would not take it well that he is so helpless all the time. I guess nobody would.
“OK, first things first. I write this as someone who did not have a particularly fabulous day, so my rebuttals are gonna be filled with run on sentences and no holds barred. Sorry if it comes across snarkier than intended.”
Don’t worry about me. I am sure I have heard worse and have been called a troll for far less. At least you live up to your claim that you want constructive criticism. Believe me I came across men in their mid-thirties who claimed the same but woe to everybody who actually did it. 😉
I think we shouldn’t use Stelena and Delena as any comparison to Forwood. The main argument I have of Caroline and Tyler not working is that both couldn’t possible have changed to such a degree that a relationship would last or that without the whole werewolf thing they would have ever even gotten close. Otherwise they would have felt drawn to each other much earlier, if they do it now that is (as a “couple” I mean).
With the main three, well I can get Elena’s interest for Stefan (albeit you can’t deny the other way around it is a bit … odd – to say the least – due to the whole Katherine ordeal, no matter what Stefan claims). But Delena is… in real life I think Elena would be classified as mental in such a case. We all know what the guy did and she keeps forgiving him (extremely fast); that is just… unhealthy.
All in all a comparison wouldn’t add up because these three will always get the main screen time and the main focus. And my Damon reference was just an example on why I don’t get that Matt is hated so much. And since we are at it, I have my reservations about Damon’s “redemption”. I already doubted that Elena will never forgive him like Elijah said. If you ask me, she will. It would be nuts of course, but she will, even if she just wants him in her pants. Currently I think that is all there is to her in that regard. Unless you noticed more than I did.
Or maybe this “Damon and Elena” is like what the great philosopher Mr. Floppy once said about addictions and US-Americans 😀
“it annoyed the shiz out of me that people were saying Tyler was dead to them because of that, whereas they seemed to have come to terms with the Jeremy neck snapping incident.”
You have a link? I would love to read that. 🙂
“I honestly thought it was “it’s”, but my hearing honestly isn’t that great and my internet downloading stream did not have great sound, so I could concede that point.”
I use the megaupload stream on http://www.kino.to. That one was very good. Sometimes movie2k.com has some good ones as well. But mostly I have to use what I can get.
“being a unicorn in some form in every recap”
Wasn’t the medieval unicorn a being of immense physical strength and ferocity? 😛
” Yikes! Post links weren’t working first time but now are.”
I know the problem. 😉
Come on, you don’t really thing the writers will grant you that wish that she rejects Matt blindly? Maybe this song will describe their relationship in the near future 😀
(Got the pun?)
But enough with the fun, now to the part we all were waiting for. And yes I am totally aware that I will probably walk on very thin ice and not make any friends with what I will write now, but I value honesty and therefore I will be honest.
And here we go:
What if your hatred of characters who stand in the way of Forwood is what prevents you from seeing a better path and profiles for the characters? Just because your hatred is shared by others does not mean that you’re right.
In addition I read the piece of fanfiction you mentioned and I think it is bad, It’s neither in line with episode 20 and 21 nor with the overall portrayal of the characters.
That the posts by 12_12_12 express ” the extreme douchiness of Matt” is not what I see. Sorry but I still don’t get it, quite the contrary. The posts do not argue in my eyes; they search for “evidence” to back up an opinion already made beforehand.
I usually try to take a moderate stand and try to see it from all angles and therefore I cannot understand this extreme hating of the character because there is nothing to back it up in my eyes. My stand on the issue wasn’t changed at all by the posts.
What 12_12_12 regards as evidence for Matt’s “douchery” could often just as well be used as evidence against the “douche”-opinion. The posts seemed to me to rather paint Caroline as a victim and Matt as a sort of abusive dick. But Caroline was never a victim of Matt, if at all their relationship was as normal as could be under the circumstances.
Also IMO your comparison to an abuser blaming the victim is totally inadequate. Matt was in no way abusive to Caroline, he was honest, plain and simple. If he hadn’t been, Caroline would not have managed to get herself back under control so quickly (which which she also had help so she definitely wasn’t alone), being with him and telling her that he loves her was the drive she needed. Would he have just “accepted the whole package” as you called it or actually abused or left her, you would have no reasons at all now to see Caroline as mature or anything. And what makes you so sure that he was undermining anything? For me it looked as though he was trying to get the relationship to work.
And like I already made clear, I do care how Caroline reacted. Being neurotic is not a positive thing and nothing you should “not care” about. When she became a vampire she said herself that she was freaking out and a neurotic control freak on crack. I’ve met people like that and I can guarantee you, they are not people you want to have around you. The viewers might be forgiving towards her because they know what’s going on. But that is not what a 17-year old highschool boy sees. He sees a girl that wants to be with him, partially pushed in that direction actually, and then goes from one extreme to the other and is the quintessential drama queen. Not to mention that she suddenly doesn’t want to be with him anymore.
Matt said herself that she was amazing the one minute and that she was crazy the next. How would you react with such a person? And he said himself that he was used to her insecurities and that is part of what she is, but also that this whole thing was different (after her vamping out). Most guys would have already left her for that weird behaviour. But he did call her awesome nonetheless.
I personally never thought that human-Caroline was particularly likeable. She constantly tried to stake her claim all the time. You could feel sorry for her, but she wasn’t really a character you want to have around you 24 hours. That Matt developed feelings for her after all was already sort of surprising. And when she showed her usual shallowness, what should Matt have done? Swallow what Caroline said about Ben? Lie to her about being shallow? Just excepting that she all off a sudden went crazy? Caroline might have been more in control than Vicky but she didn’t have so much emotional garbage in her as Vicky did. But still she came up with all sorts of drama, she didn’t just transitioned and then was the cool badass vampire, I don’t even think she is now. All in all during their relationship Matt was mostly just reacting to Caroline’s quirks and drama and the Caroline you Forwooders seem to adore so much know wouldn’t exist if Matt hadn’t made clear that Carolines attitudes were not OK.
Caroline’s very home-made problems had nothing to do with him but were only magnified when she became a vampire. And it’s not just Matt who criticized Caroline. Bonnie and Tyler made it quite clear as well. Or have you forgotten how he reacted to the whole friendship of Matt and Caroline, what he had said about her? Or how Bonnie and Elena reacted? Bonnie’s reactions herself clearly showed that Caroline wasn’t exactly the best person in the world. And it’s not as though Tyler hadn’t made snarky comments about her. Even Damon told Caroline straight in the face that she was shallow, and Kelly Donovan called her fake. And she was to a huge degree. Stefan’s and Elena’s facial expressions usually spoke a clear language as well.
And since we’re at it, are you so sure that it was always selfless what vamp Caroline did? Wasn’t it you who pointed out time and again her desire to be the Golden Girl? So what makes you so sure?
Like I said before, she hasn’t been a vamp that long so I am not so sure how well she actually adapted. Albeit the writers might see it the way you do, if it is true that they don’t keep track of the timeline. And managing positivity no matter what is also a trait of not being able to face life as it is and repressing it.
And did it occur to anybody that Damon might have been right with his second big assessment after all? That Caroline will not make it as a vampire? How long has she been a vampire now? 3-4 months? That’s nothing.
Maybe Matt was emotionless in the cellar scene, but in my eyes the whole scene focused more on Caroline and Tyler and so Matt was ignored by the writers. All in all Matt didn’t get as much screentime as Caroline and wasn’t as much involved in the whole supe-drama (Tyler probably only was because he was a more essential part of the meta-plot), so you should not confuse lack of chance with lack of virtue.
That the writers only wanted to stir up you Forwooders is actually the most likely reason I can see so far, sad as it is from a storytelling point of view. Matt was barely more than a random guy in the scene, a tool in my eyes. The whole thing makes me question again, why the writers choose to reveal the whole situation to him, especially at one of the worst possible moments. In addition you could just as easily ask why Damon didn’t just knock Tyler out before leaving (again something not adding up). The whole ordeal seems partly like they simply want another “bad guy” who won’t be forgiven as easily as their current one. Or he will die in the next season so Tyler has no competition, cheap but not unheard of. I guess time will tell whether they know what they are doing if you ask me.
It was not rejecting Caroline specifically (it is still questionable that he did) but a rejection of the whole supernatural situation was long overdue. That simply bothered me a bit in the show. I agree that it didn’t really make sense regarding Matt, it happened to fast and without real grounding (I only managed to guess a few “reasons”), but sooner or later it had to happen that at least one character says “stay away” from me. The cast was hitherto too accepting of it all.
Sure Bonnie is a witch but shouldn’t she be more antagonistic towards Damon, or Caroline? Shouldn’t Jeremy have learned his lesson? And what about Alaric? They are all supie-dupie friends now?
I am not commenting on Elena since she is the main character and therefore a “hopeless” case in that regard.
Tyler and his “maturity” might be a part of this is old issue of TVD vs. real life again. On his maturity-walk he had barely taken the first steps before the first transformation and afterwards he was only gone for one month. In real life people don’t change that fast. It would be fitting TV verse as you say, but in that case any of the characters could just as well become the next villain over the span of a few episodes – which again might only span a few days.
Also I said it could be seen as an indication for Tyler being whipped later on. Considered the nature of this show that would not be out of question. But even the most diehard fans will have a limit on what they can accept.
I understand your evidence for Tyler of course but I think that there are a few episodes that can be interpreted as Tyler having trouble facing reality as it is now and then, both inside as well as outside of him. The most obvious in my eyes were:
* After Vicky left him and died he seemed quite stoic, considered the situation. Either he was an ass or he didn’t want to face his own emotions. His making out with Vicky in general respectively with her mother can be interpreted as a flight reaction from his life.
* Instead of admitting that he has problems he attacks Jeremy, which is clearly a flight reaction in my eyes
* His reluctance to admit that he is good at arts when Alaric mentioned it.
* He says himself that his father was a dick and then acts hurt when somebody confirms it, so either way he had trouble facing his own feelings
* After his old man is dead for a while he acts like he totally loved him and acts as though he was a hero or something, while not an unusual reaction this is a sign of not wanting to face unwanted aspects of a person.
* Many things weren’t adding up when Caro was helping him but nonetheless he trusted her quickly and later refused to believe that she wasn’t the big angel he thought her to be. Afterwards he was just as quick with trusting Jules and even Brady. That speaks for a character that seeks a “shelter” very quickly.
May 12th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Let me just start by saying the thumbnail of the Ciara music video looks like a difficult pose to hold.
I completely loved this analysis. It pretty much put into words anything I was thinking Forwood-wise while watching this episode. When I read your recaps it’s basically like it’s the “Forwood Show” and other characters don’t exist. I’d actually be really interested to see your takes on other couples and characters from the show. Well, you DID do that really long Damon…But you know what I mean! And I’m still anticipating posts about VMars and LoVe! 😉
And can I just say I was more than done with Caratt by the time he broke up with her. Although I did understand his spiel as to why he was breaking up with her. Matt is just so simple that he could never handle dating a vampire. He’d be like “mortal danger, whaaaatt?” He seriously is just going to be paying the bills and bussing tables at the Mystic Grill until it burns down…again. (Actually I don’t really recall whether there was a fire when Jonas was going cuurrrazzy on the grill, but I don’t really feel like looking it up to be sure, haha.) Also does the grill EVER close? Not even when crazy warlocks have at it.
Also, I was actually really happy that the cuddle was solely friendly. I originally kind of hoped something would happen between them right then and there, but then I realized that Caroline probably only do it because of her breakup with Matt. So I was glad nothing happened with Tyler. That way when they start building their super awesome inevitable relationship it will be on stable foundation. And no unicorn haters can rain on our parade if their relationship is laid on a healthy foundation! Unlike some other couples on the show who don’t necessarily have the most stablest of reasons to be together *coughstelenacough*.
I agree that Candice Accola did a great job when she laughed and then quickly broke down into tears. I love your point about how Caroline and Tyler “get” each other. They are seriously my faaaave. I melted when Tyler was all “c’mere”… and then I thought, “wait he’s naked under there!?” Although Caroline didn’t seem to mind or notice. Understandable, obvs.
Season three had BEST be The Year of Forwood and Delena. Otherwise Plec and Williamson have another thing coming…
May 26th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Hey Sara! Sorry it has taken me over a week (that’s a second in unicorn hours!) to respond to your awesome comment. I’ve just been busy with a new job and getting my life/balance down straight. I’m pretty sure I have my routine all set and can finally return to a full blogging schedule which will include nostalgiacaps for Dawson’s Creek, Veronica Mars and possibly FNL while Vampire Diaries is on hiatus, plus some sort of round up each week for the new season of True Blood.
Ha! YouTube has been allowing people to strike ridiculous poses indefinitely since… well, since whenever it was conceived. I’m too tired to wiki it and check. True story.
I’m so glad you liked the recap. It’s true, these recaps are a fairly insular view of the show, but I like to think of it as a way for us Forwood shippers to congregate and squee out to our heart’s content. Having said that, next year I am going to do a Salvatore brothers recap each week too, so that I give slightly more well-rounded coverage. I don’t think I’ll ever have the urge to do something for Matt/Caratt, I have to say 😉
The hilarious thing about Matt breaking up with Caro is that the actor Zach Roerig must be seriously annoyed – he had a brief respite from being the resident dish washer and little else; heck he even took down a powerful warlock! – and now he has to face his character going back to his old routine. I bet they are going to get Matt all wrapped up in the supernatural saga next year with Jeremy’s new ability contact Vicki’s ghost/spirit, or else maybe Matt will become dark and an antagonist for some reason, which I think would be kind of awesome, since I think ZR does his best acting when being a jackass.
I’m actually super glad there was no Tyler/Caroline hook up on the couch because I am hoping for about half a season of crazy sexual tension next year. I LOVE the pining stage of relationships, and especially love best friends who secretly want to tongue each other. There is so much story potential in this pair. I mean, Caroline hasn’t fully come to terms with what being a vampire means. Tyler seems to have gained a better understanding of what being a werewolf means after leaving with Jules, but with the whole pack dead, will there be a situation where he desperately needs guidance from a fellow wolf? Will he confront Caroline with the fact that she isn’t fully accepting that her humanity might be intact, but she can’t play act at being a human forever? What are the long term implications of a vamp and werewolf being together? Can Tyler be turned, and would he even want to, considering that vampires are his biological enemies? Will Klaus take a sick, special interest in the Tyler/Caro relationship? Supe stuff aside, how will Tyler handle being madly in love for the first time in his life? OMG, season three, come to me bb!
Hehe! I love how Caroline has gone from being all flustered at the sight of Tyler being shirtless, something she has surely seen in the past at the swimming hole (though perhaps didn’t affect her at the time because she wasn’t attracted to him), to snuggling up to a naked Tyler without a second thought. I don’t blame her though. I would have melted at Tyler’s “c’mere” if it had been me on the receiving end of such a fantastic invitation. You know, being vamped and falling for your mortal enemy would pretty much be worth it for moments like this.
Something interesting I realised is that Caroline’s vamping was actually a result of Tyler’s werewolf condition. The Gilbert device affected Tyler when he was driving in the finale and led to the car crash that triggered a series of events that resulted in Vampire Barbie. Their supernatural identities have been interconnected from the very start 😉
Oh, Plec and Williamson will deliver hot baby vamp on baby were action, just you watch. It is season three on a Kevin Williamson show, after all!