it explains why he was the way he was with her when we thought they 1st met in s1. the look he gave her in 1x2 and why he felt comfortable enough 2 stroke her face when she was sleeping and how he was busting stefan's balls about her looking like katherine instead of being all curious and ass kissy like stefan. he had already met her so she wasn't a question 2 him or a replacement!!!

In the beginning of season one, because he was set up as a villain, we didn't get to see many scenes of Damon just being alone and chilling out. We only saw him while he was acting out against Stefan because he was angry and of course, in those moments, we only saw the worst of him. But there's a scene in 1x3 where Damon tells Stefan that he wants him to be happy and that maybe there's still hope for both of them to be close and live normally. When Stefan only stares at him like he's crazy, Damon passes it off as a joke, but it's so obvious that he was actually pouring out his deepest wish but was just too aware of his painful history with Stefan (not to mention his belief that he was nothing more than a monster) to stand behind it. Above all else, Damon's deepest dream is to simply be human and have a normal life with people who love him for exactly who he is.

I believe that those dreams were what he was thinking about that night he was lying in the road. I think he was staring at the sky, wishing that it could all be different...wishing that he and Stefan had never become vampires and that he had never become the monster he was now. And then Elena was there, looking at him with sincerity and openness and treating him exactly like the human he wished he could be. When he looked at her, for just a few minutes, it felt like his dreams had a possibility of coming true.

To me, this moment proves that Elena has always, from the very first instant that they met, been able to reach the humanity inside of him that he didn't even think was there anymore. Even though he was at his darkest and most hopeless point, all she had to do was look him in the eye and smile and he felt like everything would be okay. And even though he erased her memory, the emotions behind it remained with her so much that when she met him again all those months later, she saw right through his anger and horrible actions to the decent, desperate heart that was underneath.

I think the ultimate point of their meeting scene was to show that that's who Damon has been all along. At first glance, his behavior seemed a bit incongruous with the Damon we knew from season one because back then, all we knew about him was that he was angry and determined to make Stefan pay. But, despite what he (and Stefan) believed, he wasn't all evil, even in his worst moments. Deep down, there was always that version of him that longed to reconnect with humanity and be given a second chance. It was everything he dreamed of but was too broken and afraid to hope for. But from their first meeting, Elena gave him hope for that. The Damon that we know now was there even in season one, it's just that Elena's the only one who was able to bring that part of him to the forefront. That's why his actions in that scene don't seem OOC to me. When he's with Elena, he is his true self - the man he always dreamed he could be but didn't think was possible.

no i think it was perfect, it reminded me of season 1 Damon tbh.. it was just right!

xElvenPiratex said it perfectly !

Agree with xElvenPiratex. I think fans forget that the Damon we met in S1 was never really who he was underneath. He had all the good qualities we know him for all the time, but they were buried beneath the surface. That's why it makes me sad whenever we hear interviews from Julie or Ian who say that we'll see 'the old Damon' from S1 return. It was never who he truly was. Circumstance and the hand fate had dealt him made him that way. In the flashback, he's lying in the middle of the road waiting for some unsuspecting car to jump - we saw him do that at the beginning of the Pilot, so I don't see why his behaviour in the flashback was out of character. It made sense of a lot of things that happened at the beginning of the series and explained why/how DE had this connection from the start.

well said, xElvenPiratex! i agree completely! and i agree with delenasalvatore as well. i don't like the idea of damon regressing back into who he was in S1. that's not who he is anymore, and going back to that would be destroying all the development they've put into his character since the beginning.

^ Thanks! I agree with the two of you as well. Damon has come so far, it would be horrible if they brought him through all of this just to let him fall back into what he was doing in season one. He's finally starting to believe he's not the monster he's always thought he was, and I couldn't stand to see the writers mess that up. I mean, sure, I love the idea of him being a badass and don't care a bit if they want to focus on that a little more, but only if his aggression is aimed toward the villains and not helpless teenage girls.