Writers: Julie Plec and Brian Young
Grade: A
Despite Pearl’s semi-explanation to Frederick about how they can’t live for vengeance and the town’s residents aren’t their enemies, I have no clue what she’s planning. That’s probably partly because I’m not sure whether she’s lying to Frederick because he’s got no self-control, or if she’s genuinely telling the truth. Just how long did they live in Mystic Falls back in the 1800s? Considering that Anna is a perpetual teenager, it can’t have been that long, so why does Pearl think the town belongs to the vampires? How are they going to get the town back without hurting anyone? Why would they even want to, considering that they couldn’t even stay more than 5 years or so due to the non-aging issue? I am completely baffled, but I hope it ends up making sense in the end.
I enjoyed Damon’s interactions with Elena, Alaric, and Stefan in this episode. He didn’t spend a lot of time with Stefan, because Stefan spent most of the episode tied up and tortured, but Damon’s worry for him was clear. He and Stefan may have a dysfunctional relationship, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. Damon was also surprisingly good with Elena—he was a little snarky with her at first, but he sobered up and gave her a legitimate explanation, which was that he couldn’t get Stefan out and worry about protecting her at the same time. He and Alaric alternately bickering and working as an effective team was also quite fun. Damon’s reaction after Alaric shot the vampire attacking him was hilarious—he very quickly realized that Alaric could have just as easily killed him, and he wasn’t about to push his luck, so he booked it out of there to “find Stefan.” Hee.
I’m a bit torn on how I felt about Elena’s actions. On the one hand, I think Damon was right in that it was too dangerous for her to enter the house. If Damon were human and Alaric didn’t have an invincibility ring, I would have found Damon’s insistence that she stay behind sexist, but the bottom line is, Damon and Alaric were more qualified because they essentially have superpowers. Still, I admire Elena for exercising her right to risk her own life to save a loved one, and she ended up being useful rather than the dead weight Damon thought she would be.
I felt pretty bad for Anna, defending Jeremy to her mother only to find out he was using her to try to be with Vicky again. And how could I not empathize with everyone who lost Vicky? Matt refusing Caroline’s comfort only to fall into Elena’s comforting arms right in front of Caroline was slightly irritating, but I can’t really blame Matt. Grief does weird things to people, and Matt has known Elena since they were babies. It’s not like he was in his right mind or did it specifically to hurt Caroline, though I think it’s a pretty clear sign that Caroline needs to end their relationship. Matt’s too hung up on Elena and too unwilling to lean on Caroline emotionally to be good for her.
As much as I enjoyed this episode, I’m not too keen on this “Stefan is a human blood junkie” storyline that it seems to be setting up. It’s just too reminiscent of similar storylines on Buffy and Supernatural, neither of which worked particularly well.
Other Stuff
-It was a dark and stormy night… Hee, nicely used horror cliché.
-It’s been up in the air as to whether Anna is really Pearl’s biological daughter. Her anecdote about Dracula hints that maybe she really is Pearl’s daughter because if true, it would line up with Pearl’s claim at having 400 years on Damon. Then again, if she’s almost as old as her mother, I don’t understand why Anna and Damon were evenly matched in a fight. Even if gender still plays a role in the physical strength of vampires, she should still wipe the floor with him if she’s 400 years older.
-I know it’s nitpicky, but where did Frederick and his cronies get the vervain? Last we knew, Damon-via-Zach was the only supplier around, and the tomb vamps have only been back for a week or two at most. They did have a human slave in Miss Gibbons, so I assume it was she who did all the prep work (like soaking the ropes in vervain water), but it’s not like they’ve had time to compel her to grow them a secret stash of vervain!
-Some minor praise to accompany the minor nitpick: loved Jeremy and Anna’s grammatically correct text messages. No dropped apostrophes or lack of punctuation from those two!
-I should probably be angry about Damon killing Miss Gibbons, but honestly, she was a brainwashed slave who probably would have died anyway from being fed on so much. Maybe it was as much an act of mercy as it was an act of murder, not that Damon would ever admit to that line of reasoning entering his brain.
-I’m not sure what to make of Tyler Lockwood’s blatant stare after Anna as she left the Mystic Grille. Was it because she’s pretty? Because he’s a werewolf and senses something off about her (and her mother)? Because she hangs out with Jeremy?
Quotes
Stefan: “What do you mean? I’m perfectly safe—I have Damon the ‘self-serving psychopath’ on my side.”
Elena: “That’s comforting.”
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