Disappointment in Vampire Diaries Season 4 so far

Is anyone else as disappointed in season 4 as I am?  I absolutely loved seasons 1-3.  They were so gripping and always kept me on the edge of the seat not knowing what was going to happen next. I could never predict it.  Beware, this post will have major spoilers for this season so far – so if you haven’t seen it, don’t read this yet!

But this season, it seems like they’ve gotten lost.  Somehow the love triangle became more important.  And though we understand that the reason Elena was so attached to Damon is because she was sired to him, I still hate it.  And when Jeremy died – I think I about lost it.  It was one thing to joke last season when they posted a picture of Elena’s family plot – her mom, her dad, Aunt Jenna, Alaric, Uncle Jon – but it was always okay because she still had Jeremy.  Though this show likes to kill people off, Jeremy was enough of a main character that it blew my mind. I never in a million years thought they’d do that – and I feel like I did with Harry Potter.  That no one would really have THAT much suffering in their life.  Every single person she loves is dead.  Except for Stefan and Damon, but even that is messed up.  So firstly I’m upset about them killing Jeremy.

Secondly, I’m mad about the love triangle.  Part of the reason I loved seasons 1-3 was because there was the threat of the love triangle, but it really never came to fruition.  In seasons 1 and 2, Elena was in love with Stefan and though we knew that Damon loved her, she never had those feelings and wouldn’t betray Stefan. She was a strong and engaging character who had morals and compassion.  But with the love triangle, I feel like some of her morals and strength have gone away.  I was excited at first to find out it was just that she was sired, but they dragged it on too long. To the point where I was just sick of it.

Which leads to the third thing I’m mad about – Elena turning off her humanity switch.  Okay, I know she was completely falling apart with the fact that she has NO family left.  But I thought it would just last an episode or two.  And to me, turning off your humanity just means that you would be cold and distant – not evil.  But this Elena is so much like Katherine it’s hard to tell who is who.  So I guess they’re trying to tell us that Elena’s compassion and love were the only thing keeping her from being evil?  I don’t buy it.  Now, if we said that about Klaus, okay, I completely agree.  Only his love for Caroline keeps him from being completely evil.  But that’s not true about Elena.  So why has she become this person?  I can’t even believe it, so it’s making me not want to watch it.  And she’s trying to act all tough, and honestly, Stefan, Damon and Rebecca could all take her down easily if they tried.  They’re so much older and experienced.  I’m so sick of it.

Finally I have not really been surprised by much in this season.  Unlike other seasons where I couldn’t predict anything that was going to happen, I have predicted many things in this season.  And it’s demoralizing because I love guessing and being wrong. But I’ve been right so many times this season, I feel like they’re losing their touch.  The biggest thing that I was frustrated with was that for some reason everyone thought there was going to be like a fricken jug of the cure.  I couldn’t understand that.  Why didn’t anyone expect there to be one dose?  I’d been thinking that for so many episodes not knowing why everyone thought that they’d get to take the cure too.  I always expected only one dose.  So it was not shocking to me at all when the big twist was….wait for it…there’s only one dose!  Now it’s a fight to get the cure for each reason they want.

                -Stefan and Damon want it for Elena

                -Rebecca wants to become human

                -Klaus wants to destroy it

                -Katherine wants to give it to Klaus to make him human

                -Silas wants it to bring the dead back so he can be human and be with his wife

So I’m about ready to blow a gasket.  There are only a few episodes left in this season and I’m not sure if they’re going to close this evil Elena out – or drag it into next season.  If they drag this into next season, it’s going to be hard for me to watch.

And speaking of Silas – I don’t even know where this is going!  I think he just tricked the cure out of Elijah.  So I guess he’s going to bring the dead back?  And there’s going to be a war.  But it almost seems kind of a side plot.  Which is also weird, because in all the other seasons there was this main bad guy and then a side bad guy or two.  But that’s not the case in this because they mention Silas and she shows up here and there, but he almost doesn’t seem important.  We’ll see how the season ends though.

On the bright side, I’ve fallen completely in love with the original vampire.  Obviously at this point in the season, the only ones left are Rebecca, Elijah and Klaus.  But those are my favorite anyway.  I love Rebecca because even though she does evil things, she has really good reasons for them.  She has been stabbed in the back so many times, you can’t help but feel bad for her.  It was like poor Caroline in season 1 where everything bad seemed to happen to her.  But she came out so strong after that, and is now one of my favorite characters.  Elijah has always been on the good side, for the most part.  I’ve always liked him.  The only reason he might do something that might be evil is because he cares about family.  So even though his family is pretty messed up, he still loves them and wants them to all come together.  And Klaus. I don’t even know what to say about him.  I love to hate him.  And I actually don’t really hate him anymore.  We’ve really gotten to know that character, and he’s so interesting.  Such a story there.  And I love that the thing holding him back from being completely evil is Caroline. He looks out for himself.  But if it might make Caroline mad at him, he actually thinks it through and might make a different decision that he would normally have.  I love him.

And Bonnie.  What can I say about her? I have despised her since season 2.  And I’ve noticed that especially over this season, she really doesn’t show up unless they need a witch for something.  So it seems I’m not the only one who doesn’t like her.  She’s so annoying and always feel put upon and holier than thou.  UGH.  And why is she always related to every witch??  They always need a Bennett witch or a witch related to this person or that person, and it always is Bonnie?  I am so sick of her. I wouldn’t mind if they killed her off…but where would they get another witch?  So instead, they’ve killed off character I DO like, like Alaric, Jenna, Jeremy, and keep Bonnie?

I recently found out that the episode that aired last week titled, “The Originals” was a back door pilot episode of “The Originals” tv spin off.  And as excited as I am to watch that show, it makes me wonder how they’re going to leave Mystic Falls.  And then what is left on the Vampire Diaries?  Evil Elena and love sick Stefan and Damon?  Boy.  That sounds like a winner.  If Klaus, Rebecca and Elijah all leave, they better think of something quick to make me love Elena again, because right now, she’s pretty much suffering from Bella Swan syndrome – where I loved her at first, but she got so annoying and did bad things and suffered in a love triangle that I didn’t like her by the end.  But I am very excited to see The Originals.  The only thing is that I’m not sure how the baby will play into this.  I’m worried it’s going to change Klaus too much.  I like the fact that Caroline is his hold on not completely losing it to the dark side.  But I’m worried the baby is going to turn him into a good guy, and that just not who Klaus is – that’s not why I love his character.  So that will be interesting.  And what of him and Caroline?

Anyway – that is my rant about this season. I’m hoping that they figure it out over the next few episodes, because if I stew over this stuff over the summer hiatus (they just got renewed for a 5th season), I just might not come back to it.  Which is sad because seasons 1-3 were one of my favorite TV shows ever.  Right up there with Gilmore Girls and Castle.  Sigh.