The Vampire Diaries - Blood Brothers / Isobel

My family is nearing the end of the first season of The Vampire Diaries and it is getting really interesting as Katherine’s ghost haunts the show through and through. Her involvement, even if not physically being in Mystic Falls, is ubiquitous in that the tips of the tongues of so many characters mention her or they remember her or pine for her. She seems to have such tentacles that extend from near and far. The wife of Alaric Saltzman, Isobel (Mia Kirshner), is an agent-of-sorts for Katherine, in Mystic Falls to make sure John Gilbert, “an old boyfriend”, secures a “vampire weapon” that resembles a pocket watch, made by his inventor ancestor. John is working in concert with Isobel because the weapon will supposedly kill off the “tomb vampires” released along with Pearl. Pearl had the weapon, gave it to Damon, and meets with John about the transaction at the Grille.

The Grille is quite the hotspot for big encounters and conversations that define major plot developments. Isobel is a big episode of the first season. It finally gives us the character instead of just hearing others talk about her. But the one talked about and what shows up in Mystic Falls to confront Alaric, Damon, and Elena isn’t the personable, emphatic, and warm soul her husband always mourned agonizingly for. This Isobel has a French model and gay cowboy under her spell to do whatever she wants, approaches her husband and daughter with demands and threats (she will kill his students and destroy her friends!), and is willing to go hot and heavy with Damon who is willing to flex his muscle against her. Isobel doesn’t give a shit about the weapon except that she is doing as Katherine asks. Uncle John, who Elena has purposely avoided, toys with Pearl about his ancestor’s feelings for her, which doesn’t exactly work to help negotiate the device into his possession. So Isobel tells Elena to get it from Damon or else. And Elena eventually does, but not before Bonnie agrees to remove the power of the device to kill vampires, because Damon providing a weapon that kills “his kind” to those he has problems with would be out of the question otherwise. Isobel meeting Alaric in the Grille and just brushing aside his feelings to set up a meet with Elena really sets the tone of her character throughout the episode of Isobel. She appears as this ice queen without “redeeming qualities”, fully embracing her own lifestyle of a heathen, and when others (like Elena) try to figure out why she’s so cold, Isobel discourages the efforts. John, for instance, addresses Isobel about kidnapping Jeremy so that Elena would get the weapon, appealing to whatever humanity might still exist inside with her proceeding to order her minions to assault him. Or Isobel pressing Alaric against the car, with her hands on his throat. Elena’s audience-pleasing moment thanking Isobel for reminding her of how special her other mother really was and how her real mother was such a monumental disappointment does momentarily put Isobel in her place. Only when Isobel meets Alaric secretly in the school when no one else was around does the “old Isobel” show herself and she uses that humanity, buried deep inside, to remove the pain of leaving him from him so he can move on with his life. She soon communicates to John with an order…to kill the Salvatores so that *their* daughter would not be associated with vampirism!

Stefan also has an order for his brother, Damon. Isobel declares during the weapon exchange that she knew Damon would give it to Elena because he’s in love with her. Stefan can only stand there and listen. But he does make it quite known that Damon will not go after Elena…that this time, unlike with Katherine, Damon will not go after his girl. Damon shrugs it off as he always does.

In Blood Brothers Stefan has fully recovered from his human blood addiction but remembers how he transitioned to a vampire by feeding from his own father. His father admits that he was the one who shot both his sons, and purposely has their attempt to rescue Katherine held from any reports on the human attack on the vampires. His guilt and shame for accidentally hurling his father across the room with a stake in hand impaling him and then feeding from the blood on said stake had been a driving force in his self-loathing and decision to feed from animals instead. But Stefan, when under the spell of the transitioning stage and blood addiction, encouraged Damon to feed when he was planning to just die because he thought Katherine was dead. The show has that ability to hide just enough character detail as its importance later gives us the reason to continue on. Stefan has appeared primarily one way (soft-spoken, gentle, sympathetic, and humane) so when history gives us some revelations that casts him in a different light, the show indicates it has this vast timeline of unreported events just waiting to unfold. Kudos for that to those who write the show. Stefan avoiding the feed as Elena and Damon both try to purpose him towards not inviting his demise and the history of why he aches inside due to his impure past gives us better understanding of this character…he’s got baggage but Elena won’t give up on him. All the while, the show won’t allow us to just discard the idea that Damon is not too far from being romantically tied to Elena eventually.

Pearl being staked, and Anna finding her dead, bookends the story arc involving the mother and daughter’s integration within the society of Mystic Falls. Anna had even said goodbye to Jeremy after the two made love to each other knowing that Pearl knew their safety would no longer be guaranteed. Anna spending time with Jeremy and both of them totally giving in to their desire seems the start of quite a relationship but returning home she finds Pearl already packing. John Gilbert’s behavior at the Grille is all she needed. Now Anna had lost the very person she had helped escape the tomb…nowhere else to go except into Jeremy’s arms.

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As can happen when writing out this long, drawn-out write-up on two important episodes, I left out a subplot involving a parade float organized by Caroline, where Isobel orchestrates an injury to Matt just to prove a point to Elena regarding how dangerous she is. I think the show is ready to leave high school behind as so little now resides there. I'm ready for this. This is a show with its focus away from teenage angst and more aimed towards adult themes. Caroline is in dire need of some love from the writer's room. She's quite a doormat. Bonnie is becoming a character of considerable weight...her witchcraft is certainly not to be taken lightly.