What a great episode. I’m still recovering from the awesomeness that went down. I was a teeny bit surprised by the revelations about the 1864 Salvatores. Giuseppe really wasn’t a great guy. At. All. He consciously killed his sons for associating with vampires. His own sons! And then knowing that Stefan actually forced Damon to turn into a vampire when he didn’t want to is really enlightening about the dynamic between the two brothers. I’m a giddy little TV-watcher right now because a show I love is actually providing answers in a satisfying way. It’s good stuff.
The Jeremy and Anna dynamic this week had me jumping for joy also, especially considering there was no Matt and Caroline puppy love present. Anna managed to convince Pearl to let her attend high school in Mystic Falls so she can spend more time with Jeremy. Creepy? Nah. According to Jeremy, it’s awesome. They both seem to have a passion for the history of vampires and now each other, which is why it was so sad to see Anna leave him when Pearl told her they had to leave town. Again. It figures she’d leave not 10 seconds after she and Jeremy slept together. However, now that Pearl and Harper are dead thanks to a very evil John Gilbert, I’m thinking Anna is on her way back to him. She’s alone again, and that is not something she handles well. And now that John knows Damon has the artifact, I can only imagine what he has in store for him. A stake to the heart, perhaps?
I’m glad to see Elena sticking up for herself in her relationship with Stefan. He says go away, let me die. She refuses. It’s a little unrealistic to think the “Stefan struggles with his human blood demons” story line is completely solved in 2 episodes though. You can’t just lock him away for an episode to deal with his issues, and then poof, he realizes what he has to do and is fine again. It was still compelling TV nonetheless. The flashback device helped illuminate how the Salvatore family functions. Stefan accidentally killed his father and fed on him, thereby turning into a vampire. It was a vampire hater’s (his father’s) blood that ultimately turned Stefan into one. And the kicker? Damon hasn’t hated Stefan all these years because he forced him to become a vampire. He hates him because Katherine was only supposed to turn Damon, but compelled Stefan to drink her blood to turn him as well. Katherine just couldn’t make up her mind, could she.
Emily also had an interesting point in telling Stefan his course would be his good nature. He doesn’t have the personality to be a vampire, but now is eternally one and has to balance his vampire qualities with his human feelings. She also is the one who gave the brothers the rings, at the behest of Katherine, that enable them to walk about during the day.
We were also blessed with another Damon/Alaric powwow. Is John Gilbert talking to Isobel? Probably. I’m definitely liking the budding friendship between these two, though. And the TV news I’ve read recently leads me to believe Matt Davis aka Alaric will be around for a while longer. Especially with that nifty “I can’t die” ring Isobel gave him. It’s pretty exciting. The end scene with just Isobel’s voice saying “Hi Rick” was fantastic. Mia Kirshner managed to kill the one line of saying hello. In the words of Dorothy Boyd, “You had me at hello,” Isobel. You had me at hello.
What do you think fellow blood brothers? Did this episode give you a greater appreciation for good television the way it did me? Considering next week’s episode is titled “Isobel,” I’m pretty freaking eager to see it already. What about you? Are you ready to see Mia kill it in more than one scene?
Lauren Strupp is an NYU grad and New York City based television addict and media professional. She’s worked at several national magazines including Us Weekly and in broadcast news at CBS. Obsessed with television, Lauren is known as a walking IMDB.com by her friends. Not only does she love all things vampire, but she’s been following Paul Wesley’s career since his days at The Guiding Light. She is thrilled to be joining TheTelevixen.com as a reviewer!
Photo courtesy of The CW
Lauren Strupp is an NYU grad and New York City based television addict and media professional. She’s worked at several national magazines including Us Weekly and in broadcast news at CBS. Obsessed with television, Lauren is known as a walking IMDB.com by her friends. Not only does she love all things vampire, but she’s been following Paul Wesley’s career since his days at The Guiding Light. Lauren is currently a freelance writer for MTV.com, and thrilled to be back with TheTelevixen.com for another season of The Vampire Diaries! 
They had me worried for a split second there … with Stefan attempting to pull a Godric!
While watching this episode I felt like re-watching Buffy. The scene where Stefan wants to kill himself reminded me big time of the episode “Amends” (third season), in fact I was waiting for the snow to come down…
Even the fact that Stefan killed his own father was like Angel’s backstory, but I’m a big fan of the two shows so I don’t think that was bad.
What I didn’t like at all was the fact that they already killed off Pearl. I think the show should stop killing that many characters, because it is in no way shocking, but became quite lame after a while. You don’t get to connect to the charcters, because you know they won’t last long anyway! And there can be more shocking things on earth than killing someone – for example a shocking backstory like Damon and Stefan!