Posted by Crissy Calhoun | February 13, 2011, 21:58 (EST) | 66 Comments
Category: TV Series

Mystic Falls is vampire territory again! The episode began with a werewolf-corpse cleanup, and by the end of the hour, Team Werewolf was down to two and headed out of town. Which means more tea parties with Elijah, Damon, and Alaric, right?

Making it Worse: There’s never been a shortage of liars on The Vampire Diaries, from the first episode where Stefan struggled with keeping the truth from Elena and covering up his brother’s bloody tracks to this latest installment of Loveable Liars. Matt calls Caroline and Tyler out for lying to him again and again; Alaric laments having to lie to Jenna all the time, and John plants the first seed of suspicion in her, calling Alaric a liar and raising questions about the not-so-dead Isobel. Damon and Alaric don’t trust the ash-and-dagger solution Uncle John gave them; Bonnie tricks Luka into sipping that roofied blended; Damon makes Andie Star lie to herself about her feelings for him; Tyler does some texting espionage after stealing Caroline’s phone; and Brady and Jules keep reminding Tyler that the vampires lied to him; and, in the end, Stefan points out (between groans of pain) that they’ve been lying to Tyler by leaving out rather pertinent details about that pesky Sun and Moon curse.

On a subtler note, Elena realizes her parents were keeping that world-changing secret from her and Jeremy their whole lives when she discovers that vampire slayers’ closet hidden in the lake house that’s otherwise home to happy childhood memories for her. The dark truth in her life was in her parents’ lives too. The newly found journals of the original Johnathan Gilbert promise more trips into family history for Elena and Stefan, and it’ll be interesting to see just how big a break from Gilbert tradition Elena and Jeremy are making by allying with the vampires. Nobody likes the weaselly and puritanical Uncle John Gilbert, but judging by that well-stocked weapons closet, he may be more like Grayson and Miranda Gilbert than Elena would like to think.

No one believes a liar, even when they’re telling the truth — that’s the moral of the Boy Who Cried Wolf story and it’s a lesson some of our Mystic Falls friends are taking to heart in Crying Wolf. Tyler makes Jules promise “no more lies,” echoing Matt’s earlier insistence that Caroline and Tyler stop lying. With the exception of Jenna and Matt (you go, Team Human), every one in Mystic Falls is leading some kind of double life — some hiding the truth from others to protect them, others for their own gain. Though Elijah is lying to the ladies of the Mystic Falls Historical Society by masquerading as a gentleman of letters, he keeps his word and chooses them carefully. In Rose, Elena witnessed the consequences of making a deal with Elijah that you don’t fully understand — Trevor lost his head. And Elena was clever enough to realize when she made her bargain with him that Elijah made no guarantee to save her from Klaus — just to spare her loved ones. That choice — whether heroic or tragic in Stefan’s eyes — has already saved her friends’ lives.

Lockwood Out: The good thing about living in Mystic Falls is if one day you choke in a crisis situation and fail to save your friend, the very next day you’ll get a chance to step up to the plate again! Tyler’s swayed by Jules’ promise that there’s a way for him to be free of the werewolf curse; he even goes so far as to shoot Stefan in the leg — before finally learning the true implications and consequences of his actions. The cost of his freedom from the curse is Elena’s life. Once Tyler knows the whole truth, he asks Elena for forgiveness (which in true Elena fashion she granted instantly and with a hug). Tyler also makes amends with Matt, clearing up the weirdness between them and, potentially, paving the way for Matt and Caroline 2.0. I’m feeling pretty conflicted about Tyler’s departure: depending on what Jules is like when she’s not trying to kill our favorite characters, this could be a really good thing for Tyler — figuring out how to live with the werewolf curse and coming into his own. But, man, season 2 has been so Tyler-centric, it will be strange not to have him around.

In a moment that flies by this episode, Bonnie’s also faced with a choice — whether or not to make Luka tell them how to kill Klaus (well, as it turns out, when to kill him). Luka pleads with her not to, saying he’ll be killed for telling, and Jeremy briefly protests. (Perhaps feeling some momentary kinship with Luka, who’s also trying to save his sister.) But Bonnie, without much consideration, decides to press on — she decides that getting information that could potentially save Elena is worth the risk to the “traitor warlock.” Interesting, Bonnie Bennett. Very interesting. Less surprising a choice is her making the move on Jeremy. Like Caroline suggests, instead of holding on to her past impressions of him, Bonnie decides to accept Jeremy “You Think I’m Hot?” Gilbert for who he is now. They’re the first couple who have the potential to be totally honest with each other — no monstrously violent pasts, supernatural secrets, clandestine pacts, or hidden agendas. But they’re totally going to weird Elena out.

Compelling Moment: Elijah with the pencil in the study. Show a little respect, Damon.

The Rules: Bonnie’s expanded her repertoire of spells — with Mason, she could only get from scraps of information (Plan B); with Luka, she puts him in a trance (drawing power from the fire of a circle of candles) and forces the truth out of him by overpowering his will. She also has a recipe for a fast-acting witch roofie. Werewolves are particularly vulnerable to having their hearts ripped out by vampires.

Foggy Moments:

• The text messages between Elena and “Caroline” change from Elena’s phone to Caroline’s, as pointed out in TV.com’s hilarious post on Crying Wolf.
• Totally random question: do you think Mrs. Flowers is holding Katherine’s room for her at the B&B?
• Are werewolves like vampires in that their powers get stronger the longer they’re around? Relatively new-wolf Mason showed some superior fighting skills and strength (in Brave New World for example), but Jules and company have super-speed and agility that goes beyond what we’ve seen before, despite the lack of a full moon. Is that because they’ve lived many moons?
• Not that it’s the first time there have been inconsistencies in supernatural ability but . . . Damon doesn’t realize there’s an intruder already in the hallway of his house until Alaric and Stevie crash into something, but Caroline, a much younger vamp, can sense that someone (Tyler) is lurking outside of her house?
• Not that it seems unlikely that Elijah is somehow all-knowing but . . . how did Elijah know that Damon was about to get killed, or that the wolves were after the moonstone (which he conveniently brought along)? Same question goes for last episode — how did Jonas know that the gang was about to be taken out?
• Luka reveals that Elijah’s plan is to kill Klaus after Elena is scarified. Why would Klaus be weakened and vulnerable after the doppelganger sacrifice? Isn’t a witch performing the ritual? (And are the doppelganger, vampire, and werewolf all sacrificed at the same time?) This is one complicated curse.

Other thoughts & questions before The Dinner Party (EP215):

• Jules uses the same strategy to get Tyler’s help that Katherine Kathy used to get Mason’s help: convincing them that if they get the moonstone and break the curse, they won’t ever have to turn into a werewolf again — they’d get their old selves back.
• If Damon and Alaric sat around drinking and talking about their girlfriends every episode, I would be really really okay with that.
• I wonder if Stefan and Elena will wait until the Klaus and the Curse drama is over before revisiting the sure-to-be-epic conversation about Their Future Together. I like that without it becoming the focus of their relationship, the writers have given us hints that the big questions and choices are coming with conversations like this one and other smaller moments — at the career fair, with Isobel, and with Caroline (as a mouthpiece for Katherine) earlier this season.
• Has anyone told Tyler that his mother knows all about vampires and is on the Founders Council?
• Will Jenna figure out what’s going on with Alaric before that weasel Uncle John spills the secret?
• Hey Brady, what was that you were saying about not being afraid of vampires?

As always, sound off below, TVD family!

Crissy Calhoun is the author of Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to The Vampire Diaries and is writing a follow-up book that covers season 2 (due out in September 2011). When not obsessively re-watching CW shows, she works as managing editor at ECW Press in Toronto. She blogs on TVD, Gossip Girl, and other random things at crissycalhoun.com and tweets @crissycalhoun.

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