Vampire Diaries – Is Elena as strong as Buffy?

“But you think that I’m crazy, to believe that I can protect myself from a vampire who flipped the switch on his humanity.” – Elena

“I think you found a way to get out of bed this morning, and that makes you the strongest person I know. I think you can do pretty much anything.” – Alaric

What a well-balanced episode — mingled in with the callbacks to season one and several OMG moments were some really moving scenes … OK, some of them were just stolen glances, but my heart’s pounding all the same.

First, the callbacks. The first thing I noticed was Tyler acting like a d-bag, as Caroline so eloquently put it. Before Caroline even said it, I picked up on the fact that Tyler was acting like his season one self: cocky and obnoxious. When Caroline reminded Tyler that being a vampire heightens everything about one’s personality, I couldn’t help but laugh, because that really is a part of who Tyler is. Caroline has tamed him and brought out his sweet side, and I’m hoping it wins out, but with Rebekah there to tease out the d-bag, we may have an interesting battle ahead of us.

Just seeing Vicki reminds me of season one, but the way she let down Matt was another callback. That Matt is such a sucker; I can see why he wants to trust Vicki, but that’s never really gotten him anywhere in the past and getting Elena nearly killed was one of the worst repercussions yet. I’m thinking we’ve seen the last of Vicki, since The Vampire Diaries does such a nice job of finishing out their storylines, but it also wouldn’t be beyond their realm of having her leap in again from time to time to try to convince Matt to do evil.

And then there was bitchy Bonnie. I thought once we got her and Jeremy together that Bonnie could finally stop being herself. Wait — that didn’t come out quite right. The gal’s a righteous witch with a smokin’ hot boyfriend, one who’s finally gotten past the “all vampires are evil” thing … and her self-esteem is so low that she’s jealous of Anna’s ghost?

Yeah? I don’t care if she’s got a right to be or not … but tell me your heart didn’t skip a beat when Anna and Jeremy could feel each other. Chalk this one up to a shoe-in for MTV’s most awkward love triangle award.

For the moving scenes, I loved Alaric training Elena in the beginning; it was so reminiscent of Giles and Buffy and the mentor / father figure. Then, when Stefan caught Elena from falling off the bleachers — I really think he was back for a second, do you? I felt that at the end of the episode too, when Elena told Stefan she was never giving up hope (and that it made her strong … a nice full-circle to where the episode started, with Alaric telling her she wasn’t strong enough) and he paused for a good while before deciding to join Tyler in his douchebaggery. Stefan’s humanity isn’t completely gone, and he’ll find that Klaus’s compulsion can be overcome.

Um … Elena and Damon? I was moved in a very different way when he was teaching her where to find the vulnerable spot on a vampire. The way those two look at teach other. …

We’re left with my favorite OMG moment — Mason Lockwood is back! Clearly, he’s a ghost who can touch humans, which leads to the big question: Why? Matt’s spell let more than just Vicki through … hopefully they’re not all out to kill Elena.

This and that:

• Barbie Klaus!
• “You know Stefan — journaling, reading, shaping his hair….” – Damon
• I saw it coming … I just knew Mikael was going to eat Katherine. How’d she miss that?
• Did you hear Damon call Elena “Buffy” and “Warrior Princess” while she was training?

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Oct 20, 2011 @ 22:38 EST5EDT