It was a busy weekend at Casa Elena (and I don’t mean Gilbert), hence my belated watching/commenting on the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries. Here’s what my Facebook status currently reads, five minutes post finishing the show: “I will admit it. I was totally wrong to be trepidatious about the CW making Vampire Diaries. It is officially awesome.”
This episode was, yet again, rocking. It was about the aftermath of Vicki’s turning into a vampire after drinking human blood from Logan the vampire-hunting reporter. Stefan is trying to talk her into following his way of life while Damon teases her with his own, less humanly moral, lifestyle. Elena is trying to keep Jeremy away from Vicki, while Bonnie is learning about her witch heritage from her grandmother.
The school’s Halloween party becomes the nexus of events as Damon tries to grab the old pendant off Bonnie’s neck (Caroline gave it to her for her costume) only to have his hand burned, and Vicki lures Jeremy outside alone only to lose control and start to attack him. Elena intervenes just in time to turn Vicki’s bloodlust onto herself, and Stefan has no choice except to stake Vicki with a piece of broken board. Jeremy witnessed Vicki’s attack on Elena and her strange vampire death (she turned gray and her veins got dark and she looked like a days-old corpse). In the end Elena asks Stefan if he can erase her brother’s memory, and when he admits that because of his “lifestyle” he can’t, Damon steps up to play the hero and offers to do it.
So, wow. Talk about an emotion-jerking episode.
First you have anger at Damon for egging Vicki on in her recklessness and disregard for the safety of everyone she knows, and for killing her because he “was bored,” and for not caring that she died and that she died in front of Jeremy and traumatized him all over again since he has so recently lost his parents. Except you can’t hold your anger at him because of his compassion at the end for Elena and her brother…and you’re kind of glad that he maintains a different lifestyle than Stefan so that he actually can tamper with Jeremy’s memory.
Then you have Matt, who spends the entire episode worrying about where Vicki is, then how she is, then where she is some more. As he puts it, “Is this how I’m going to spend my whole life? Always worrying about her?” Except you know that she is now dead, and he is alone, and he may never know what really happened to her. And poor Matt, he is such a stand-up guy and such a good brother and such a good friend, and he really just keeps getting shat on. Somebody give him a break!
Then you have Elena, who is still trying to hold herself emotionally away from Stefan while needing to stay involved in the Vicki rehabilitation process because of Jeremy’s inextricable link to her. She is distraught at lying to everyone, terrified for her brother, grieved for Matt’s sake because she knows he’s lost his sister, and just looking sort of beaten down from the burden of knowledge that she’s carrying alone. Since she’s not carrying it with Stefan. Except that at the end of the episode, when she starts telling him how much she wants to forget, she says that she can’t because she won’t lose what she feels for him…so it looks like she’s going to let his broad shoulders take back some of that weight of secrecy, after all. I knew they weren’t going to stay apart for very long—but, seriously, CW? One episode? Just hook them up already!
Other interesting tidbits involve Damon’s investigations into the vampire hunters club, AKA the Founders Council. He overhears the mayor and his wife discussing Logan’s death—which, it was also interesting to discover, has not been made public—and knows they are deeply involved in the hunt. He flirts with Mrs. Lockwood on Halloween night when her husband leaves her to finish her last martini alone, and learns that she had contacted Zach Salvatore about getting enough vervain for her whole family and the Council (whose numbers and identities she is at least smart enough not to name). He also learns that the Council doesn’t know vampires can walk in the sunlight with proper warding, so he and Stefan are under no suspicion at all.
The conspiracy of the Council is getting more interesting—in part because we don’t really know what they’re up to, who they are, or what crazy secrets might come creeping out…I’m thinking something like a significance to Elena’s parents or at least mother having been deeply involved in it. I’m also curious to learn more of Bonnie’s heritage. According to her grandmother they are witches (in the books it is strictly a psychic power, so this could be a very interesting twist), and she is obviously a witch of some power if she can do things like set a car on fire or make a vampire’s hand smoke just from the strength of her emotions and willpower.
Interesting times all the way around. I am pleased to see the show continuing to get better and continuing to add more layers of depth and interest to its characters and story.
