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Vampire Diaries Recap Roundup: "The Descent"

To help you prepare for the new episode tonight, here are some of my favorite recaps of last week. (Starting this week, I'm going to try my own twist on a recap - we'll see how it goes.) And hey, let's have some quotes.

(Bonus: a transcription of the recording from "Isobel's" number.)

Television Without Pity:

When Jessica again begs him not to kill her, Damon de-thralls her. So she runs to her car. Damon turns to watch her go, and then Stealth-Salvatores up behind her and sinks his fangs into her throat. NOOOoooooooooooo. Okay, actually? YES! I love a good redemption story, but a good one isn't a smooth one. I don't want Damon to be a woobie. If he's going to end up a real boy, I want him to get there the hard way.

Then a girl is driving down the road, and there's a guy lying in the middle of it. And it's Damon! And he's really having a bad day, what with all of his feelings.
George: (imitating girl) why can't I move? (as Damon) Because I'm so handsome.

Tyler kissed Caroline! "Everyone just needs to stop kissing me!" I WANT THAT ON A SHIRT RIGHT NOW, CW. (Also, while I like Matt, I am totes on Team Tyler/Caroline. I would pay real money if they lasted like a billion years and had awesome adopted kids who knew not to go in the basement when Daddy's a wolf and understand about Mommy's dietary eccentricities.)

Like Tyler, Matt trusts Caroline but he sees that there's something she isn't telling him, the something that's keeping them apart. (Besides Dana.)

There are good scenes, there are great scenes, and then there are scenes that are so unforgettable they'll be recalled by fandom for seasons to come and seasons after the show has passed. Damon's "This Is My Secret" scene in "The Descent" is one of those scenes. There is something equally eerie and excellent that happens when Ian Somerhalder slips into the true guise of Damon Salvatore. Not the cheeky one-liner, sexy smartass Damon Salvatore, but the tortured blood-lusting bad boy antihero lost between the man and the monster, desperate to be saved but knowing he can never be. That is the Damon Salvatore who made me his diehard defender. That is the Damon Salvatore that, without question, stole the show.

Yes, being evil "hurt" Rose. This earned some eye-rolling from me. I imagine that it hurt the people that she killed even more. Help! I'm a vampire and I don’t like it! This makes a lot of sense for a new vampire, but after five hundred years? Seems like sometime in half a millennium one should either get comfortable in one's skin, or move on. How did she even survive for so long? And if she hated being evil so much, why didn't she change her ways? Try to help people? Or just end things by stake or sun?

It's so telling that he lets her go and then attacks her anyway. He genuinely can't decide who he's supposed to be in this moment. I know that a lot of people are going to be upset that Damon seems to be regressing back to his old ways, but I think there's a clear difference between then and now. Then, he was flippant and cold and cruel because it was easy. Now, he's going to be flippant and cold and cruel despite the fact that it's difficult. He's fighting for his life, essentially.

I bet when Macy's asked him what threadcount he wanted, he just said "TONS." . . .
He was so pathetic and in need of confessing that he compelled the poor woman to stand in place and listen to his existentialist ramblings. It was a sad, scary scene - the guy really seemed to be struggling with his identity, like for centuries he's been perfectly fine as a murderous jerk, but now he's not so sure that's how he is. Why didn't he just tell her that he's reading Gone With the Wind?

(Somerhalder filmed this episode while sick. Really? Maybe he should be sick for every episode.)