THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: History Repeating

So much happened last night on The Vampire Diaries that I almost don’t know where to start, but as when you find out you are dating a vampire, it all may be a little overwhelming but you’re already committed so you might as well just dive in head first, right?

Let’s start with Alaric, because that seems easiest. I really wasn’t sure I’d be able to like him because I thought I might just look at his face and see Werner from Legally Blonde, but not so—he was actually really cute and charming, and I like that he both shared and tossed the jackass folder. I think I might need to keep a jackass folder. See? When Mr. Tanner wasn’t busy teaching, coaching, chaperoning, and generally being the only adult in town, he had a couple of good ideas!

It made sense to put him and Jenna together, since they are of about the same age and hotness (although I think she might be just a tiiiiiny bit hotter), and so we could find out more about his back story. What did you guys think about that part at the end where he was waiting to be invited in? Billy thinks it’s a red herring, but I just don’t know—it’s almost like a red herring is too obvious so maybe he IS a vampire. But then, I’m getting into a Dwight Schrute-like circle of logic.

However … LOGAN showing up? Definitely a vampire, because he was totally dead. But this begs the question, WTF? Who brought him back and why and what is he doing at Jenna’s? INSANITY. Are vampires just starting to descend on this town or what?

Moving on, we finally got a real, solid story out of the Bonnie stuff. And you know, I really get that they’ve been trying to build up to it and make it mysterious and stuff, which is fine in theory but the execution just missed it for me. It happens. But this episode was pretty good, and a lot of the Emily haunting stuff, I actually found genuinely scary, like when she was walking around in the periphery, and when she was sitting next to Bonnie in the dream classroom. And, OMG, when she possessed Bonnie and you saw Emily in the mirror. WHAT! Weird/wrong/different reflections in mirrors ALWAYS scare me in movies.

This story finally tied into everyone else’s (in a solid way, and not just via hints) because Emily was Katherine’s handmaiden. Apparently she used the energy from the comet the last time it passed to round up enough magic to seal Katherine and a 26 other vampires in a tomb under a church, and now that the comet passed over AGAIN, the crystal had enough energy to reopen it. (Also, how awesome would that have been as a Supernatural crossover episode?) Damon made some deal back in the day for Emily to do that in exchange for him protecting her bloodline, which he has done (and interesting—Damon has honor). But Emily decided it was too dangerous to Bonnie for Damon to let all the vampires loose, so she put the kibosh on it, burned a pentagram in the ground and threw the crystal up in the sky, where it exploded. Damon got REALLY mad and REALLY scary, and once the pentagram fire went out, he went for Bonnie’s throat. Stefan pulled him off of her and saved her with some of his blood while Damon stood around and watched, which I was mildly confused about, but maybe he had already moved onto plotting his next move.

The Bonnie stuff ended with Elena telling Stefan she was going to tell Bonnie the truth, because she needed someone else to talk to because she couldn’t live in secret. Stefan agreed that this was the right thing to do, and told Elena she was right to stay away from him. Elena told him that she could do it and that she thought she couldn’t be with him but she can, but Stefan had already gotten it into his head that this was the best thing (sound familiar, Twilight fans?) and he left her standing there yelling after him. He told her the next day that he wouldn’t be coming to school anymore and that he had to keep his distance from her, which she was of course emo about (again). But the episode did end with her telling Bonnie, and everyone crying, and I’m glad that Elena was finally able to share that. Obviously, she and Stefan won’t be able to stay away from each other, but I think it’s good that she rely on someone else for a little while, both to get it out AND to not be “that girl” who loses all of her friends over her hot vampire boyfriend. Because who HASN’T had that problem, right?

Stefan and Damon had a lot of brotherly bonding this episode, which I loved, and I loved them doing impressions of each other (brooding forehead, anyone?). I like how Damon knew Stefan was up to something but I think he was kind of enjoying it anyway, and the football scene was really good too, especially with Damon reminding Stefan who taught him the game—nice callback, there. Stefan tried to have a heart-to-heart with Damon about Katherine, and how she compelled them and it wasn’t real, but Damon claims she never compelled him and he knew everything the whole time, so it was real to him. Whether that was true or not … I assume we’ll find out eventually, but he did end up revealing his master plan to Stefan, which I thought was interesting—why would Damon do that? Was he just excited? Did Stefan have a part to play? I still don’t know—does anyone have any thoughts on that?

Obviously, a lot happened in this episode and a LOT of it advanced the plot, which was cool to see. There’s so much to talk about it, so I’m going to turn it over to you guys to discuss in the comments. What do you think about Damon saying he’ll leave? What’s up with that journal Jeremy picked up and started reading? Was the Bonnie story a satisfying enough result for all the “build up”? And how about all of Jenna’s are they or aren’t they vampire boyfriends? Chat below!

SB loves recapping, vampires, hotness, and recapping vampire hotness. She can also be found writing for her own blog, www.offcolortv.com.