Posted by Crissy Calhoun | September 18, 2011, 10:37 (EST) | 46 Comments
Category: TV Series
And we’re back! Our favorite show has returned with a killer episode (pun intended, sweet peas) that jumps ahead two months from the finale to a Mystic Falls that’s trying its darnedest to be a normal, boring human town. But moving on from the past proves to be impossible — and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
The opening scenes at Gilbert house reminded me of the very first episode of The Vampire Diaries: in the first of a number of echoes of the pilot, a grieving Elena forces herself to face the day, makes sure her brother’s on track (“Aim high”) and helps out her slightly inept pseudo guardian. In As I Lay Dying, Elena told Jer that they had to start going through the motions of their lives, so that at some point it would feel normal again. And it seems like that’s how they’ve spent the summer. Jeremy working at the Mystic Grill, Elena . . . waiting for clues from Sheriff Forbes. It’s no wonder that Caroline is concerned about her friend not living her life: Elena seems to be stuck in a kind of Stefan-less limbo, holding on to the shred of hope that Stefan is still alive and not already one of Klaus’s innumerable victims.
And as much as Damon has scoffed at Elena’s attempts to track Klaus, he’s actually just as determined to find his brother — and by keeping his efforts from Elena, he’s protecting her from the truth about Stefan, letting her hold on to the Stefan she loves, the Stefan who would never dismember and reassemble victims or kill Andie just to drive home his point to his brother.
Meet the Ripper: Who knew that Stefan’s nickname would turn out to be literal? Shudder. The role reversal from season 1 to 3 is complete with Stefan delivering Damon’s “Hello, brother” line and racking up an impressive body count, while Damon covers up Stefan’s bloody tracks. It’s more than a little bit cool to see the transformation from the Stefan we know and love to this unflinching killer. But as much as Stefan plays his part as Klaus’s dutiful henchman (killing the women in the farmhouse, torturing Ray, and who knows what else in the past two months), it’s clear to Klaus that Stefan is doing just that — playing his part. He hasn’t given in to his dark side; he’s still holding on to his moral compass, his love for his brother and for Elena — however tenuously. Damon warns Stefan that it’s a fine line he’s walking, that if he goes on too much longer or gets any deeper into his ripper self, there won’t be a Stefan left to save. And Stefan knows it. As if on a leash tethered to Klaus, Stefan can only escape as far as the parking lot; his façade is breaking after his encounter with Damon and Klaus’s words that ring true — every time he feeds, the blood makes it easier to let go.
It’s a testament to the writers and Paul Wesley’s command of his character that we are still sympathizing with Stefan after watching him gruesomely murder three women and torture a werewolf. Stefan’s phone call to Elena was perfectly heartbreaking. (Was anyone else terrified that she was going to miss his call?) She knows it’s him though he can’t speak to her, and she says just what they both need to hear: never let go. This show is never more amazing than when it goes to dark twisted places while maintaining its firm grasp on the emotional heart of the story, the motivating forces that drive its characters to such extremes.
Elena’s faith in Stefan is solid at the end of The Birthday despite Damon coming clean to her about what Stefan’s done — those are his victims up and down the eastern seaboard, not Klaus’s. But having witnessed a murder firsthand, Damon’s faith is shaken, if not destroyed. Stefan had been Andie’s defender and, while it seems like Damon’s “complicated dynamic” with his “fake compelled girlfriend” was on slightly more equitable terms than last we saw them, the safe bet would have been on Damon killing Andie one of these days, not Stefan. In a quiet moment before the raucous party, Damon returned Elena’s necklace to her, the symbol of the “good Stefan” and the love shared between Stefan and Elena if ever there was one. But by the end of the night — after Andie’s death and Stefan’s insistent growl that he let him go — Damon loses it with Elena, finally telling her that they were idiots to hope for Stefan’s safe return. Elena doesn’t want to hear the truth about Stefan’s victims, and tellingly clutches her necklace. She chooses to hold on.
Alone in Stefan’s room, Damon tears up the place that stores all of Stefan’s memories, revealing how upset Damon is by Stefan’s dark turn. Though it wasn’t his choice, Damon is the cause of Stefan losing himself — all to save Damon’s life, his little brother has given up his identity, his values, and the woman he loves and he’s descended into a dark prison guarded by the biggest and potentially most indestructible baddie of all time. No wonder Damon’s drinking champagne before breakfast.
The new normal: The rest of the Mystic Falls gang provided the much-needed levity in The Birthday — though, being The Vampire Diaries, no one gets to have too much trouble-free fun. Caroline and Tyler have spent the summer together, with people (notably Matt) making the assumption that they’re together-together. Not quite yet. In a hilarious series of scenes, the tension between these two supernaturally horny teenagers is palpable. And thank god that while they had to wait for two months, we didn’t even have to wait a full episode before they exploded (so to speak). As much as I loved Matt and Caroline together, Caroline and Tyler have serious sparkage. May Werewolf Road and Vampire Boulevard meet again. . . .
Just as in last season, Caroline is a standout in the episode from her friendshippy moments with Elena to her drunken use of her vampire skills at the party — out of the way, random jock guy. Matt reminds Caroline that she and Tyler are supposed to be, like, mortal enemies — as much as they’re pretending to be normal, they’re actually quite subversive with their inter-species relationship. The new normal in Mystic Falls is quite abnormal. Even Sheriff Forbes has changed alliances: she’s feeding information about vampire attacks to Caroline and company to help them find Klaus and Stefan. And that leaves Carol Lockwood to maintain the old founding family way: vampires are still the enemy to her. Does she know better than to turn to Sheriff Forbes for help with outed vampire Caroline? Is Mrs. Lockwood acting alone or does she have a new anti-vampire posse? Will people ever quit with the surprise attacks on Caroline? Please?
Jeremy’s been playing at normalcy all summer, keeping the fact that he sees his dead girlfriends from everyone, including out-of-town Bonnie. In the same way that Elena is drifting, purposeless except in her hunt for Stefan, Jeremy seems to be in a kind of limbo — his attempt at a mundane human experience interrupted by his ghostly companions. Matt describes Jer as on a “downward spiral” and himself as “out of it;” neither one can let go of the past or quite figure out where they fit in the new supernatural normal. Jeremy opens up to Matt about seeing things he’s not supposed to, but Matt isn’t ready (or sober enough) to hear that Vicki’s ghost is real and not imagined. I loved seeing more of Matt in this episode, and hopefully with his new friendship with Jeremy and the sure-to-be complicated ghost business, there will be even more over the season.
And what of Alaric? The self-proclaimed parent’s worst nightmare, the chaperone teacher from hell. I literally yelled at my TV when he packed up his things and told Elena he was leaving. As much as I feel like the Gilbert kids do need Mr. Saltzman as a role model, no matter how much bourbon he drinks, he’s not going to let go of Jenna and move on with his life while he’s sleeping on their couch. Another heartbreaker of a scene.
Elena’s on her own for now, holding down the Gilbert fort and holding on to hope that Stefan will come home — in her lifetime. It’s the dawn of a new day for The Vampire Diaries, and with The Birthday it promises to be even more gruesome and heartbreaking than it was in seasons past.
Compelling Moment: Elena and Stefan’s phone call. That crack in Elena’s voice, the way Stefan holds back his tears and says nothing — it’s almost cruel how powerfully emotional this short scene was. Our show is back!
The Rules: Klaus appears to be turning Ray into a hybrid by following the usual human-to-vampire three-step transition: Klaus feeds the werewolf his blood, kills him, and presumably once Ray resurrects, he’ll be forced to drink human blood. Caroline and Tyler experiment with an alternative method for creating werewolf-vampire hybrids. . . . Klaus leaves the wolfsbane torturing to Stefan. As a hybrid, Klaus is vulnerable to both vervain and wolfsbane.
Foggy moments:
- Klaus hunts down werewolf Ray Sutton, torturing him for information on his pack’s location. Is that why Klaus has seemingly forgotten about the werewolf in Mystic Falls who escaped sacrifice — because Tyler has no pack of his own? (Is the old Jules and Brady pack completely wiped out?)
- Do locator spells work on vampires? Bonnie could have used Damon’s blood and something of Stefan’s (you know he styles that hair somehow) to track Stefan the way we’ve seen people track down Elena in the past. Too bad Bonnie’s on vacay with her uber-boring muggle relatives.
Other thoughts & questions to ponder before The Hybrid (302):
- Two months at the Gilbert house, and Alaric still can’t work the coffee maker.
- Klaus letting Stefan leave and trusting him to return nicely parallels the similar moment in Elijah and Elena’s relationship. In Klaus, she had to leave him to deal with Jenna but returned as promised. Here, instead of being tentative allies like Elijah and Elena, Klaus and Stefan are master and slave.
- “You know I died, right? And Bonnie used magic to bring me back to life.” “Ya, Elena told me.” Matt is hilariously deadpan about supernatural stuff.
- R.I.P. Andie Star, Action News. At least she spent her final days exercising a little more independence and control over herself, if those moments in the morning were any indication. Will Damon tell Elena about his run-in with Stefan and how Andie died?
- No mention of Katherine. Has she been seen since leaving the Salvatore house at the end of As I Lay Dying?
- Vicki asks Jeremy to help her. What does she need him to do? Are she and Anna on their ghostly quest together? Will they wear the same outfits for all eternity?
How happy are you that TVD is back?! Sound off below with your likes/dislikes, theories, and predictions!
Crissy Calhoun is the author of Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to The Vampire Diaries and Love You to Death 2: The Unofficial Companion to The Vampire Diaries. When not obsessively re-watching CW shows, she works as managing editor at ECW Press in Toronto. She blogs at crissycalhoun.com and tweets @crissycalhoun.
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