The Vampire Diaries – Just an ordinary girl, from an ordinary family

At the beginning of season three of The Vampire Diaries, I felt sympathy for Klaus, the lonely hybrid with the failed plan for total domination with his hybrid army (when written like that, I’m questioning my sanity …). Now, somehow, the writers got me to feel for Rebekah, the whiny, bitchy, bratty vampire sister … how can this be? Because the writers took the title of the episode to heart and wrote the original family as “Ordinary People.”

I’ll admit, when I saw the previews for this episode, I wasn’t all that jazzed up about it. I didn’t feel like sitting through the flashbacks of Rebekah and Klaus, without any of the characters I’ve grown to adore over two-plus seasons; I might as well be watching The Finder. But when they got to the scene where Rebekah cried over her dead brother, I was hooked. And that was nothing compared with her reaction when Elena told her that Klaus, not Mikael, killed her mother. Everything she held as true for the last 100 years was a lie. Well done, Claire Holt; it was clear how much Rebekah loved her human family, and how she’s just looking to have some family with her for eternity.

That brings me to the story itself, the original family’s story, that is. It was smart, compelling, full of twisty goodness and so much heart. I know you were like me going into it, thinking that Mikael was the baddie, but it’s all back on Klaus now. Yet, I still don’t hate him because I understand the hurt and disappointment he’s had for the last 1000 years. It’s very easy to root for Mikael and Rebekah and a father-daughter reunion now (hopefully it will be more fulfilling than the Elena-John reunion); Mikael was, after all, just trying to protect his family by turning them all into vampires. The shades of gray and complex layers to all of the characters are so fascinating. I love that just when we think we know a character, we learn about another aspect of them.

This episode was so much about family and the bonds that family provide. I’m so glad they took the time to draw the line between Elena and Rebekah, and how much they really have in common … an ordinary girl who lost her mother too early, loves recklessly, just looking for that connection. Stefan and Damon’s bond is so strong that Stefan broke through, just for a moment, to save Damon’s life in the bar. Where else will the familial bonds take these characters?

This and that:

• I can’t be the only one who got Buffy flashbacks when Giles … ahem, Alaric was doing research and Damon and Elena were training. I like to think of it as more of an homage than a blatant theft of an original formula. …
• And another favorite show of mine, Supernatural — Mikael’s Sebastian Roche played Gabriel. Love that guy.
• Just an offhand mention of Katherine … but she can’t be dead! Did Mikael do something fun with her, or will the reveal be anticlimactic?
• What do you make of Elena saying that Stefan will be saved by Damon’s love, not hers? It makes me rethink the entire basis of the series — is it human-vampire love, or the love of family?

I’m not sure I’m ready for the midseason finale next week … The CW’s hiatus is so god-awful long. Only one more Vampire Diaries in 2011 … that’s just not right.

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Nov 03, 2011 @ 22:35 EST5EDT