Four Damon and Elena Moments of Goodness: The Vampire Diaries “Smells Like Teen Spirit” 

There were four excellent Damon and Elena moments in “Smells Like Teen Spirit”:

#1 The phone call

Damon’s trying to protect Elena — like it’s his job or something — and he calls to check up on her while she’s at school and lets her know she may not want to come to the mansion anytime soon. He knows his brother is currently in debauchery mode and he’s got tons of girls/victims occupying his attention. He doesn’t want to tell Elena exactly what his brother’s up to so when she inquires, all of a sudden he’s all: “Is that the bell? Uh Ring! Ring! Don’t wanna be late!” And he hangs up. Hilarious. But, seriously, she doesn’t need to know the specifics. I’m sure her imagination is doing a bang up job on its own.

#2 The Buffy/Xena Moment

Elena gets serious as Alaric starts training her to be strong and take on Mystic Falls’ resident vamp population. She’s attempting to lift weights when Damon walks in and decides to help. He refers to her as “Buffy” and “Warrior Princess!” So apropos. And so freakin’ funny. Don’t know if Elena will ever reach Buffy territory, however. Buffy was so incredibly badass. So was Xena. I loved how she did stake Stefan at the end of the episode, though. That was kind of badass. Let’s consider her a Buffy-in-training. It’ll be a while before she hits warrior princess territory.

#3 The Rewind and Repeat Moment: Elena gets jealous

It was all part of the plan to take care of Stefan. Elena assigned Damon with the task to keep Rebekah occupied while she and Alaric knocked Stefan out and locked him up so they could help him find his humanity. Cut to Damon and Rebekah bonding over roasted marshmallows and s’mores (a steamy moment in its own right, by the by). Elena’s spying on them from afar and the look on her face isn’t exactly expressing her satisfaction that Damon’s doing his job well. Stefan sneaks up behind her and notices Damon getting his flirt on and Elena lookin’ all jealous:

“I’m not jealous.” “It’s all right. Be jealous. By all means. I’m sure Damon will be thrilled.” “I’m not jealous, Stefan.” “All right. It’s my mistake.”

The lady doth protest too much if you ask me. I really felt like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the closest we’ve come to realizing that something could happen between these two. I know they kissed in last season’s finale but there were extenuating circumstances then that are not there now. I loved Elena being the one to be jealous for a change. I tweeted this recently but I don’t get how every girl in town isn’t all over Damon. So Elena showing some jealousy is good in my book. I couldn’t get enough of this scene. I kept hitting rewind to re-watch all that delicious jealousy unfold. I’m sorry. Couldn’t help it.

#4 The First Aid Scene

After Elena almost died, thanks to Vicki, Damon made sure he tended to Elena. Her jealousy again reared its oh so awesome head when she said one of my favorite lines of the hour:

“You played your part of the plan really well tonight.” “Oh yeah?” “Yeah, you had Rebekah drooling all over you and your marshmallows.”

Damon let Elena know all was good until Rebekah skewered him. But, then again, he thought she was too drunk to notice. According to Ms. Gilbert, she faked most of it. Damon said he did too. Wow. I think these two were on fire in this episode. It obviously helps that Stefan’s humanity is completely gone; and Elena doesn’t even recognize him. She still says she’s not going to give up on her ex, but man, how much longer is she going to manage to stay out of a relationship with Stefan’s big bro? I don’t know if a relationship would even work between the two. But I’m immensely enjoying the slow build up. Everything else is so quick to happen in Mystic Falls. The slow rise of Damon and Elena is satisfying and entertaining. The writers are doing a great job setting the stage.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8/7c on the CW.