Episode 7x01 "Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take"

[Doppelgänger]

LIFE WITHOUT ELENA — After a twisted plan left the life of his girlfriend Elena linked to that of his best friend Bonnie (Kat Graham), Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is forced to navigate his new reality without the love of his life. A newly empowered Bonnie has decided that she will be Damon’s moral compass and keeps a close eye on him as he, in turn, cautiously keeps tabs on Alaric (Matt Davis), following the loss of his fiancée Jo. Meanwhile, as he waits for Caroline (Candice King) to sort out her emotions, Stefan (Paul Wesley) takes an active role in protecting the town from Lily (guest star Annie Wersching) and her family of Heretics, who have wasted no time wreaking havoc in Mystic Falls. Elsewhere, Enzo (Michael Malarkey) struggles to find his place in Lily’s new life, and is quickly forced to decide where his true loyalties lie. Finally, with the stakes higher than ever, Matt (Zach Roerig), who has recently completed his deputy training program, teams up with Stefan and Caroline to put a stop to the Heretics, but an unexpected turn of events leaves one of them in a dangerous position. Pascal Verschooris directed the episode written by Caroline Dries (#701). Original airdate 10/8/2015.

[Somerhaldered]

Sept 19, 2015 10:51:44 GMT -5 Doppelgänger said:

LIFE WITHOUT ELENA — After a twisted plan left the life of his girlfriend Elena linked to that of his best friend Bonnie (Kat Graham), Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is forced to navigate his new reality without the love of his life. A newly empowered Bonnie has decided that she will be Damon’s moral compass and keeps a close eye on him...

I still can't wrap my head around this and laugh every time I read this stuff. It is just so funny that they fast forwarded them to best friend status when in reality they didn't need to! We all know they did it to make it seem like Damon had a tough decision to choose the love of his life or let his best friend live out her life. Please. They could have left it status quo and let Damon be Damon and "do it for Elena" because she would hate him if he let Bonnie die just to bring her back. Then they wouldn't have to write this dribble. 

OR, have their relationship build organically - there's a concept! Instead of showing us nothing in the AU and bringing them back like "oh we are besties now" I would have liked to have seen the friendship build up. I don't know why this bugs me so much. I guess I just appreciate when writers have the talent to build relationships (like Kate and Sawyer) and you feel something. I just don't feel anything for their friendship outside of "Ian and Kat". 

And why does Damon need a moral compass? He's been alive hundreds of years with more crap that's happened to him than we can talk about - all of a sudden he can't deal with his girlfriend sleeping? He's already done the "off the deep end" thing when Elena dumped him (via Katherine). This time, she's only sleeping, and he knows she's coming back - so I don't buy it.


 

[Charlotte]

Here's something that has never happened before: I didn't watch the entire episode. I forgot to DVR it so had to watch On Demand. I made it through the first 40 minutes, but then paused, and when I went back to finish watching, I would have had to start at the beginning again as OnDemand doesn't let you fast-forward through the episode.
Needless to say, that gives a clue to my thoughts about the episode. I was frustrated with the sloppy writing throughout. JP said they were looking forward to the challenge of writing without Elena. They failed. Some of my complaints:
In what universe should we think it is funny that people are cheering on 30-year-old men to "drink, drink, drink." That was appropriate in Elena's newbie vamp kegger but couldn't they find a more original way to say Dalaric was drinking.
In what universe would two teens run over someone and then run away? I don't even know what the guy's reasoning was because I wasn't paying attention, but it was stupid.
In what universe would Bonnie say, "either resent me or love me..." The opposite or resent is accept, not love. BS writing.
Heretic vamps couldn't hear Matt open door? LAZY WRITING.
The only characters I found interesting were Caroline and Enzo, and I am sure they are going to screw up Enzo again.
Maybe the last 20 minutes will pique my interest when I do get around to watching, but I was thoroughly not interested. And it appeared in some spoiler commentary that someone actually TOLD Damon it was OK to sleep with someone else? Please tell me I read that wrong.

[Doppelgänger]

Oct 12, 2015 9:54:38 GMT -5 Charlotte said:

Here's something that has never happened before: I didn't watch the entire episode. I forgot to DVR it so had to watch On Demand. I made it through the first 40 minutes, but then paused, and when I went back to finish watching, I would have had to start at the beginning again as OnDemand doesn't let you fast-forward through the episode.
Needless to say, that gives a clue to my thoughts about the episode. I was frustrated with the sloppy writing throughout. JP said they were looking forward to the challenge of writing without Elena. They failed. Some of my complaints:
In what universe should we think it is funny that people are cheering on 30-year-old men to "drink, drink, drink." That was appropriate in Elena's newbie vamp kegger but couldn't they find a more original way to say Dalaric was drinking.
In what universe would two teens run over someone and then run away? I don't even know what the guy's reasoning was because I wasn't paying attention, but it was stupid.
In what universe would Bonnie say, "either resent me or love me..." The opposite or resent is accept, not love. BS writing.
Heretic vamps couldn't hear Matt open door? LAZY WRITING.
The only characters I found interesting were Caroline and Enzo, and I am sure they are going to screw up Enzo again.
Maybe the last 20 minutes will pique my interest when I do get around to watching, but I was thoroughly not interested. And it appeared in some spoiler commentary that someone actually TOLD Damon it was OK to sleep with someone else? Please tell me I read that wrong.

Well...they said Elena told him he could 'date' but in the adult world we know what that means, right?  Of course we never saw her say anything vaguely like that to him.  As I recall it was, "Wait for me.  You waited for Katherine," but now the story is changing to suit the writers agendas.  

[Somerhaldered]

Oct 12, 2015 10:03:11 GMT -5 Doppelgänger said:

Oct 12, 2015 9:54:38 GMT -5 Charlotte said:

Here's something that has never happened before: I didn't watch the entire episode. I forgot to DVR it so had to watch On Demand. I made it through the first 40 minutes, but then paused, and when I went back to finish watching, I would have had to start at the beginning again as OnDemand doesn't let you fast-forward through the episode.
Needless to say, that gives a clue to my thoughts about the episode. I was frustrated with the sloppy writing throughout. JP said they were looking forward to the challenge of writing without Elena. They failed. Some of my complaints:
In what universe should we think it is funny that people are cheering on 30-year-old men to "drink, drink, drink." That was appropriate in Elena's newbie vamp kegger but couldn't they find a more original way to say Dalaric was drinking.
In what universe would two teens run over someone and then run away? I don't even know what the guy's reasoning was because I wasn't paying attention, but it was stupid.
In what universe would Bonnie say, "either resent me or love me..." The opposite or resent is accept, not love. BS writing.
Heretic vamps couldn't hear Matt open door? LAZY WRITING.
The only characters I found interesting were Caroline and Enzo, and I am sure they are going to screw up Enzo again.
Maybe the last 20 minutes will pique my interest when I do get around to watching, but I was thoroughly not interested. And it appeared in some spoiler commentary that someone actually TOLD Damon it was OK to sleep with someone else? Please tell me I read that wrong.

Well...they said Elena told him he could 'date' but in the adult world we know what that means, right?  Of course we never saw her say anything vaguely like that to him.  As I recall it was, "Wait for me.  You waited for Katherine," but now the story is changing to suit the writers agendas.  

Yes, I recall Elena saying "live your life" which could mean anything depending on who you talk to but, date my best friend probably wasn't on that list, lol. I think it was more along the lines of - don't be ridiculous, you can't wait for me in a coffin, continue to live and enjoy your life while you wait for me.

The kid was apparently "high as a kite" that's why he wanted to run, but his line before that was that he just smoked a joint. Um...I wouldn't think that one joint would make you that high - please someone correct me if I'm wrong. I guess he just didn't want to get arrested and test positive for drugs in his system. It was dumb, and the girl went along with it.

[de4good]

Oct 12, 2015 9:54:38 GMT -5 Charlotte said:

Here's something that has never happened before: I didn't watch the entire episode. I forgot to DVR it so had to watch On Demand. I made it through the first 40 minutes, but then paused, and when I went back to finish watching, I would have had to start at the beginning again as OnDemand doesn't let you fast-forward through the episode.
Needless to say, that gives a clue to my thoughts about the episode. I was frustrated with the sloppy writing throughout. JP said they were looking forward to the challenge of writing without Elena. They failed. Some of my complaints:
In what universe should we think it is funny that people are cheering on 30-year-old men to "drink, drink, drink." That was appropriate in Elena's newbie vamp kegger but couldn't they find a more original way to say Dalaric was drinking.
In what universe would two teens run over someone and then run away? I don't even know what the guy's reasoning was because I wasn't paying attention, but it was stupid.
In what universe would Bonnie say, "either resent me or love me..." The opposite or resent is accept, not love. BS writing.
Heretic vamps couldn't hear Matt open door? LAZY WRITING.
The only characters I found interesting were Caroline and Enzo, and I am sure they are going to screw up Enzo again.
Maybe the last 20 minutes will pique my interest when I do get around to watching, but I was thoroughly not interested. And it appeared in some spoiler commentary that someone actually TOLD Damon it was OK to sleep with someone else? Please tell me I read that wrong.

i think that line from bonnie you can love me or resent me will some how fore shadow the season finale..like in season 2 elena said to damon that she cant even imagine kissing damon but in season finale she kissed damon...same thing here bonnie said you can either love me or resent me. the episode ending with damon saying he deeply care about bonnie and love her (no IN LOVE with her but love her).. i think towards the end knowing the damon character it will become harder and harder for him to live without elena and will end up resenting her and it will become harder for him to control his urges to not kill bonnie.. it think that is why he desiccated himself in the end because he will be afraid he will snap anytime and would end up killing bonnie...and he desiccated himself knowing fully well that he will never be able to see bonnie again...

[Somerhaldered]

Oct 15, 2015 7:37:24 GMT -5 de4good said:

Oct 12, 2015 9:54:38 GMT -5 Charlotte said:

Here's something that has never happened before: I didn't watch the entire episode. I forgot to DVR it so had to watch On Demand. I made it through the first 40 minutes, but then paused, and when I went back to finish watching, I would have had to start at the beginning again as OnDemand doesn't let you fast-forward through the episode.
Needless to say, that gives a clue to my thoughts about the episode. I was frustrated with the sloppy writing throughout. JP said they were looking forward to the challenge of writing without Elena. They failed. Some of my complaints:
In what universe should we think it is funny that people are cheering on 30-year-old men to "drink, drink, drink." That was appropriate in Elena's newbie vamp kegger but couldn't they find a more original way to say Dalaric was drinking.
In what universe would two teens run over someone and then run away? I don't even know what the guy's reasoning was because I wasn't paying attention, but it was stupid.
In what universe would Bonnie say, "either resent me or love me..." The opposite or resent is accept, not love. BS writing.
Heretic vamps couldn't hear Matt open door? LAZY WRITING.
The only characters I found interesting were Caroline and Enzo, and I am sure they are going to screw up Enzo again.
Maybe the last 20 minutes will pique my interest when I do get around to watching, but I was thoroughly not interested. And it appeared in some spoiler commentary that someone actually TOLD Damon it was OK to sleep with someone else? Please tell me I read that wrong.

i think that line from bonnie you can love me or resent me will some how fore shadow the season finale..like in season 2 elena said to damon that she cant even imagine kissing damon but in season finale she kissed damon...same thing here bonnie said you can either love me or resent me. the episode ending with damon saying he deeply care about bonnie and love her (no IN LOVE with her but love her).. i think towards the end knowing the damon character it will become harder and harder for him to live without elena and will end up resenting her and it will become harder for him to control his urges to not kill bonnie.. it think that is why he desiccated himself in the end because he will be afraid he will snap anytime and would end up killing bonnie...and he desiccated himself knowing fully well that he will never be able to see bonnie again...

Interesting theory, and I like it much better than what I've been thinking. My thing is, I have faith in the "character" of Damon, but I'm not sure they'll stay true to it. I hope they do though.