The Vampire Diaries - "Stand by Me" - Review

The Vampire Diaries has proven itself capable of handling death very well. When Jenna and Alaric died, "The Sun Also Rises" and "Do Not Go Gentle" provided incredibly well the emotional heft these particular moments deserved. For both these episodes, the series set aside large amounts of time just to have people mourn for the loss of the people they loved and cared about.

“Stand by Me”, however, is an episode about a dead person that doesn’t feel like it’s about that death, and that’s a bit disconcerting at times. 

Part of the problem is that other plot wheels keep turning in the background, such as the rise of Silas and Damon’s search for Bonnie. Other problems arise from how Elena deals with this situation. So though it’s an episode about the death of Jeremy, it becomes an episode primarily about Elena. 

This isn’t entirely unreasonable. She did just lose her brother and in turn her last human connection. Some of her reaction in theory is interesting and plausible, but the writers keep driving it further and further to a point where it feels overstated.

Not only that, but I’m not sure this is a direction that the show necessarily wants to take the character in. We end with Damon using the sirebond to shut off her humanity and Elena burning down her house to cover up Jeremy’s death. 

Now I liked the idea of Elena becoming a vampire; it felt bold and decisive and suggested exciting potential directions for the future of the series. Indeed, the season three finale is one of the show’s brightest moments, and yet nothing has ever been as well-realized as that momentous plot decision seemed to point towards. 

To an extent it’s brought out interesting aspects of her character that I really like, but it’s largely been poorly handled. First with the sirebond misstep, and then with the cure, both of which undermined the very premises of the series at large and the plots advanced up to that point.

But Elena as a vampire and Elena with no humanity are two polar opposite character decisions. Her becoming a vampire almost feels inevitable now, but her losing her humanity feels wrong even as it remains shocking and unexpected. Elena has always been defined by her humanity; her need to help and care for others is a defining trait; what happens now that that’s gone? 

Don’t get me wrong; perhaps it’ll end up being an absolutely ingenious decision. But for now I’m not sure the show can surefootedly deal with such a huge changeup (It really hasn’t seriously been capable of such a major shakeup since the third season). 

Mourning elsewhere isn’t entirely off. Matt gets some great moments where he confronts Jeremy’s death. Bonnie’s reaction to the news is also nice and believable, even though it’s undermined by how batshit crazy Bonnie is starting to become. 

But everywhere else it’s nonexistent. Damon and Rebekah are off in their own stories, too busy to consider or care about the matter. Stefan makes one passing comment about feeling sad but never really shows any outward emotions towards the death. Caroline is still too concerned about Tyler to even really notice the death.  

And thus the death passes without the weight it deserves. Elena would be the one to react the most and the hardest to this, but it’s played up to the point where I stopped buying it.  

May be this comes down to intention versus execution. I can understand what the writers intended (in fact, I find what they intended to do to be brilliant), but in execution, it just doesn't work as gracefully as it feels like it could. 

Stray Observations:

-Don't get me wrong, this is a very good episode that moves forward with clarity and efficiency, but I couldn't stop shaking how forced it felt in places. 

-Silas can take up the appearance of other people (in this case Shane) and is manipulating Bonnie to do his bidding.

-Caroline is uncertain about what to do and suggests “make a casserole” amongst her list of how to help.

-“That’s Damon Logic: you’re mean to the ones you love.”

-The use of the music to drown out everything else while Bonnie talks and the camera closes in on Elena is wonderful. It’s very atypical music for this series. I got a very Breaking Bad vibe. 

Grade: B+