From here on out, I’ll be posting my reviews of each new episode of ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Friday nights. I know the show airs on Thursdays but I always get my vamp on with my best friend, Ashley and it just wouldn’t be the same watching without her. While we don’t live in the same province, we discuss the episode as we watch via text message.
Normally, this is the part where I’d put a quick recap of what’s happened so far in the show, but there’s just too much going on in ‘The Vampire Diaries’ for me to even consider that. If you haven’t seen the show before and are still reading this review for some reason, you’re probably going to have no idea what I’m talking about at all. Check out what you’ve missed (season one is available on DVD and Blu-Ray), and then come back to get my reviews each week. With all that said, let’s dive in.
What We Learned In This Episode:
First and foremost we learn that, surprise! Stefan (Paul Wesley) used to be a pretty bad guy. He loved being a vampire and took great pleasure in drinking human blood. In past flashbacks to the good old days, we’ve gotten hints that Stefan may be more responsible for how Damon (Ian Somerhalder) behaves than he’s willing to admit, but this was by far the clearest picture we’ve gotten of how these brothers really ended up falling out. Damon, it seems, was against Stefan’s pure blood lust, preferring his brother to keep his eating habits more low key. When he couldn’t get through to his ravenous brother, Damon left and, somewhere along the way, became exactly what he hated seeing Stefan becoming.
One of the most pleasant surprises that came with this episode was guest star, Arielle Kebbel, reprising her role as Lexi. While it felt at times like the back story in this episode weighed it down a little bit, it’s always great to see Lexi again. We learned Lexi played a huge role in Stefan becoming the vampire he is today. Unfortunately, we also learned that while Stefan was still being ruled by his blood lust, he ‘killed’ Johnathan Gilbert. Johnathan survived and wrote about it in his journal which Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) is now reading. Awkward. “Gee, honey. Sorry I tried to kill your ancestor.” Not a pleasant conversation.
It sure seems Stefan and Elena have a lot of trouble in their relationship. I suppose that’s what happens when a human dates a vampire. Beyond the whole Stefan attempting to eat her ancestor issue, Stefan’s still a little steamed Elena tried to sacrifice herself to save her loved ones. Personally, I thought it was rather brave of her, but I can see his point. He loves the girl and she was willing to let herself die.
While there is nothing but turmoil and strife in Stefan and Elena’s relationship, Damon and his new girlfriend, Andie Star (Dawn Olivieri), seem to be getting along swimmingly. It’s amazing what a little mind control will do for a relationship. While sharing a drink with Alaric (Matthew Davis), Damon sees bad ass vamp Elijah (Daniel Gillies) arrive with Jenna (Sara Canning). Being the friendly, social and scheming individual he is, Damon calls the pair over and proposes a dinner party. Of course, Damon wants to do a lot more than have a pleasant meal with friends. He wants to kill Elijah. Yeah. That sounds like a wonderful idea considering the only tool he has to kill one of the original vampires was given to him by this man…
Yes, John Gilbert. You know what they say – fool me once, shame on you and all of that. I don’t blame Damon, though. I believed John too. Regardless, the dinner party invitation is put forth and accepted. He fills Stefan in on his plan, gets his tools together and sets out to take care of business. Stefan decides to hide the event from Elena because, well, he doesn’t want to get in trouble. He decides to share the information with Damon, however, when Elena reads about the tool in one of Johnathan’s diaries and learns that it will not only work to take out Elijah but will also kill Damon in the process. Odd that John wouldn’t mention that, isn’t it?
Stefan races to call Damon to let him in on the information he’s just learned from Johnathan’s journal only to find out Damon’s phone is off. Bad news, right? No! Alaric has his phone on. The only problem with that is that Damon insisted he had no intention of hurting Elijah at the dinner party. It seems Alaric, being a decent guy, didn’t want the kill to happen with Jenna in the house. He rushes to tell Damon what Stefan’s just told him and, thankfully saves the lecture about lying for later. Damon aborts the ‘kill Elijah’ plan and returns to dinner. Everything’s going well aside from all of the tension. Ric excuses himself, retrieves the dagger and takes out Elijah. Hey, he said he didn’t want to have it happen while Jenna was in the house and, technically, she wasn’t in the house when it happened. No hypocrisy there.
If you thought taking out Elijah was a little too easy you were right! Damon returns to the basement dungeon and finds it empty. Around the same time, we learn that the dagger must be left in the vamp’s body in order for the vamp to stay dead. Oops. Maybe Stefan should’ve let Elena finish reading before calling Ric.
While all sorts of stuff is going down with the Elena storyline, Bonnie (Katerina Graham) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) have a bit of drama they have to deal with as well. Remember that whole drugging Luka, putting him in a trance and forcing him to give up his secrets thing? Bonnie can’t be entirely surprised that came back to bite her. Luka confronts her.
When that goes nowhere, his Daddy -pays her a visit busting up the romantic she’s having with Jeremy. He steals her power but tells her he’s doing it for her own good. Considering the trouble her powers have brought her, I’m inclined to agree. She’s getting herself in a world of trouble and dragging Jeremy down with her. That poor kid has been through enough already.
One has to assume Dr. Martin (really, guys? Doc Martin? Anyway), is having a bad night as well considering Elijah shows up to pay him a visit as soon as he returns home. Elijah says he needs to know where Elena is. We’re on the home stretch now. You know something crazy is about to happen. This is ‘The Vampire Diaries’ after all. Every episode is like the season finale.
Oh look! Elijah has arrived at the cabin! Elena decides to take matters into her own hands, literally – demanding Elijah stick to their original plan or she’ll kill herself. When Elijah points out Stefan won’t let her die, she points out he’ll just save her using his blood at which time she’ll just kill herself, thereby becoming a vampire and ruining Elijah’s plan. Elijah calls her bluff. She stabs herself.
Elijah tries desperately to get into the house, pleading with Elena to let him save her. She demands he give her his word and he does. She then lunges forward and stabs him. That takes care of Elijah – as long as they leave the dagger in, anyway. Am I the only one that didn’t see that coming?
Meanwhile, Ric confronts Jenna about whether or not they’re okay. Jenna, thanks to John’s meddling, asks about Ric’s dead wife. Not able to tell Jenna that his wife is now a vampire – turned by none other than Damon – they part ways. Sad face. I liked Ric and Jenna together, but it’s alright. I’ve a feeling Ric is not long for this world.
Witnessing the scene between Jenna and Ric, John offers to straighten everything out if Ric gives up the ring that protects him from being killed by the undead. For some reason, Ric thinks it’s a good trade off; saying John will probably need it more than him anyway. I really hope Ric has a plan here. Jenna’s a great girl, but I’m not sure she’s worth dying for.
Earlier in the episode, Damon visits Katherine’s tomb to find out whether original vampires can be killed. While it’s true that she’s looking a little worse for the wear, she’s still Katherine – the evil, sneaky woman that will do anything to get what she wants. I can understand Damon seeking out information, but I’m pretty surprised he didn’t think she was smart enough to trick him. Then again, I wasn’t because when this happened, I was shocked…
Damon goes home and finds Katherine in his shower. How? When Elijah died, so did her bonds to the cave. She insists she wants to help, but I know I don’t believe her. This is Katherine after all.
Overall Impressions of the Episode:
Ashley and I both gave this one a resounding ‘meh’. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination but it was bogged down with a little too much history. Still a great episode, just not one of my favorites. The episode was also sadly lacking in the Caroline (Candice Accola) department. I think in the grand scheme of things, this episode is going to be seen as a the episode that a lot of big things were spawned from; especially with Bonnie losing her powers. Even so – less history guys. It’s nice to learn more about Damon and Stefan’s back story, but it slowed the episode down significantly.
What Can We Expect:
In the coming weeks, Klaus will arrive Mystic Falls so expect all kinds of mayhem. Klaus will be played by Joseph Morgan so we can also expect even more sexy on the show. I also think it’s time for Aunt Jenna to figure out something isn’t right around her. I don’t know how much longer she can conceivably stay in the dark. Finally, I think you’ll see Tyler (Michael Trevino) and Jules (Michaela McManus) return in the final episodes of the season to help the vampires take out Klaus.
What do you wan to see happen? Did you like Thursday’s episode and are you looking forward to next week’s episode? Let me know in the comments section below!
