Posted by Thomas C. Galvin | November 21, 2011, 11:00 (EST) | 148 Comments
Category: TV Series

If you’re anything like us, you live for the frenzy of Vampire Diaries recaps that emerges every Thursday night/Friday after the show airs. We decided it would be fun to ask some of our favorite Vampire Diaries recappers to share their top three moments of Season 3 so far – oh, and we were right! It is fun.

First up, Thomas C. Galvin emerges from his Novelist Nook of Noteworthiness (check out his TVD recaps here) to kick things off with a bit of sexual tension, a dash of swagger, and someone acting their face off.
 

And don’t forget to vote in the Mid-Season Finale Poll: Your 3 Favorite Episodes of Season 3 (So Far)?

Alaric Joins the Council (EP304 – Disturbing Behavior)

God, the Mystic Falls Watcher’s Council. Has a more incompetent group of people ever been assembled? Except Congress?

Let’s recount some of their greatest hits. The Mayor – who apparently inherited the position from her dead husband? – has a werepire for a son. The Sheriff has a vampire daughter, and shot Jeremy Gilbert point-blank in the chest. The high school’s mortality rate is second only to its truancy, and the go-to guy for all of these problems? Damon, who’s a freaking vampire.

These are not the brightest bulbs in the hardware store.

And then there’s Alaric. Let’s be honest: Alaric is kind of a mess. He’s lost two lovers to vampires, he’s a (usually) functional alcoholic, he spent a good chunk of Season 2 as Klaus’ meat suit, and his best buddy is the guy who ate his wife.

But the man gets things done. Thousand-year-old vampire sitting at the dinner table all menacing-like? Magic dagger to the heart. Find a bunch of cave-art drawn by a Viking with a Hebrew name in pre-Columbian America? Dude took an online course in Viking runes just last month. Guy from 7th Heaven come down with a case of unfortunate facial hair and werepire rabies? Anti-werewolf grenade.

Let that phrase sink in. Alaric built an anti-werewolf grenade. And the anti-vampire equivalent. And a pneumatic stake launcher. And a vampire trench knife. And a set of wrist-mounted, Wolverine-style stake-claws. And he’s a good enough teacher to get Elena, who wouldn’t show up for school if she was kidnapped, compelled, and dragged there, through an AP History class.

This is the guy you want in your corner. And I’m absolutely thrilled that the self-admitted chaperone teacher from hell just went ahead and elected himself to the council.

And that he knows when the next super-secret meeting is.
 

The Way to a Vampire’s Heart (EP306 – Smells Like Teen Spirit)

Guys? We need to talk.

I get a lot of Delena traffic on my blog. And that’s cool. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and I love the discussions we all have in the comments.

But me? I don’t sail on that ship.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Damon. I love every eyebrow-wagging, heart-ripping, insult-dishing, coed-eating second that he’s on screen, and if I wasn’t married, I might-

Sorry. Moving on.

I like Damon. I love Damon. He’s easily my favorite character on the show. But I don’t ship Delena, because seventy-five percent of the time, Elena Gilbert comes across as a special-needs kid trying to do Calculus with a solar-powered calculator. At night.

I mean, her big, day-saving plan for Season 2? Give the Horribly Evil Big Bad Werepire everything he wants, and trust the guy who they murdered – twice! – to stab his own brother in the back. Oh, and suicide. Lots and lots of suicide. An Elena Gilbert plan isn’t complete until there’s a good chance that she’s going to die for the cause.

But something happened in the six months Stefan was away. Brain-addled suicide bunny Elena went away, and Elena the Vampire Slayer took her place. This Elena gets up at five in the morning to train. This Elena has vervain coffee for breakfast, a stake and a salad for lunch, and murder for dinner. This Elena isn’t a victim, and she isn’t an idiot. This Elena is the real Elena, the role model for young girls with crushes on vampires that we met in Season 1.

This is an Elena I could see Damon being interested in.

And in a season full of meaningful looks, brushed cheeks, and touched foreheads, this may have been the single hottest moment. Her skin glistening with a fine sheen of sweat. Her heart racing, her chest heaving. And the look on her face when Damon took hold of her and showed her exactly how to get through the bony shell around a vampire’s heart …

I nearly got pregnant watching this. I don’t know how Elena was still standing at the end.
 

Stefan Flips the Switch (EP305 – The Reckoning)

Stefan. Oh Stefan.

He’s had his moments of badassitude. When he came crashing through the motel room door and calmly, quietly told the baby vampire that had kidnapped Elena and Bonnie to leave town, or he would personally murder him? It was thrilling. And when said baby vampire assumed Stefan’s diet of Bambie and Bunnies made him a milquetoast flyweight? The guy pulled out a damn flamethrower and proved him wrong. And when he drank Elena’s blood, and went on a Miss Mystic Falls bender? We saw glimpses of tortured awesome.

But for the most part he’s been Elena’s yes man, and since Elena’s questions are usually something along the lines of “hey, should we play directly into the Big Bad’s plans, and possibly get half of the town murdered in the process,” I’ve been less than thrilled with Saint Stefan.

And then Season 3 rolled around.

As Season 3 opened, we caught up with Stefan and Klaus, merrily murdering their way down the East Coast. The brothers in blood left a trail of bodies that should have had the FBI on their tail and their names on the evening news. And let’s be clear about one thing: Stefan did this willingly. It wasn’t compulsion, and it wasn’t a trick. Stefan decided to become evil in order to protect his lover and his brother.

But that wasn’t enough for Klaus. You see, some traces of humanity remained, a lingering attachment to Damon and residual love for Elena. And those few pieces of decency kept Stefan from truly being the friend and partner Klaus desired.

So Klaus took them away.

I’ve been hard on Stefan in the past, but Paul Wesley? He is absolutely amazing. Without saying a single word, Paul showed us just how bitter a struggle Stefan was fighting. His humanity was struggling to hold on, but the Ripper was fighting to be free, and Klaus’ compulsion was burrowing deeper and deeper into his mind.

You can literally see the moment Stefan’s humanity loses, the switch gets flipped, and the vampire takes control. The battle is over, the pain is gone, and the Ripper is in control.

And then Stefan smiles.

A small, cruel, chilling smile, and you know that Elena’s lover is gone, and the game has changed.

This scene, this one moment of oh-my-god acting, sent a shiver down my spine, and it is, hands-down, the best moment of Season 3.

 
You can read more of Thomas C. Galvin‘s thoughts on all things supernatural on his blog and Twitter. His debut novel, Sire, is now available.

 
 
Thanks to Vampire Diaries Web for the HQ screen captures!

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