Vampire Diaries : Episode 4 & 5

First of all I want to apologize for the absence of a post last week.  It turns out my DVR has a mind of its own and didn’t record episode four so it took a day or so (after some frantic net searches and two temperamental downloads) to see the episode and by then I was thoroughly bogged down with homework and the like.  It sucked because I was excited about the return of Katherine, who is easily my favorite character (You hear that Kevin Williamson? She’d better stick around), and she came back in top bewitching form haunting Stefan’s dreams and continuing to try to manipulate his emotions.  Our boy, perpetually solemn and broody, still wasn’t biting…at first.  He did get some info out of her about werewolves and she confirmed that their bite could be deadly to vampires.  Speaking of deadly to vamps, how about the neat trick she pulled with the vervane building up a tolerance by ingesting it for years.  I guess if you stick around for a few centuries then you pick up a few things. 

Her whole confession of love for Stefan in the dungeon was totally bogus and I knew it, but I think she had Stefan for moment there.  I am convinced that she doesn’t want to hurt them, but I also know she can’t be trusted and has something bigger under her sleeve.  We got a glimpse of that this week, which brought up more questions than answers. At the end of episode five, it was revealed that she’s been in cahoots with the sexy Mason Lockwood the whole time.  Nice little twist by the way.  But we still don’t know what’s up with the damned moonstone.  I’m guessing it prolongs wolfiness or that it is part of a larger spell to make Katherine invincible.  She was the one who came up with the rings in the first place, right?  I also think that Emily is still alive and helping her with all of this.  Who’s with me on that one?

In the meantime, Wolfie Jr., is trying to cope with the fact that being cursed means that if he kills somebody, even accidentally, he’ll be “on all fours howling at the moon” once a month.  Hey, it beats having a period.  The chances of this happening are especially high in Mystic Falls since, let’s face it, the casualty rate on this show is somewhere between The Sopranos and Oz.  Since his uncle seems to be all but avoiding the issue and his mom, with constant duties as acting mayor, pageant queen smile at the ready, remains seemingly clueless, he has struck up an unlikely friendship with Jeremy, who I was glad to see back.  Jeremy, determined to find out about the Lockwood’s family curse, sets out to engage Tyler.  On another network the seduction might have been a bit more blatant, but I have a feeling that Tyler and Jeremy want to be more than just art buddies.  Their love triangle with Vicky seems to have connected them in a way that their nascent sexualities aren’t yet able to understand.  If you think I’m reaching then observe Tyler with Matt, who he’s known forever, and then watch him and Jeremy.  Anyway, that will take a while (at least a season) to fully develop.  For now, they have to liquor-up easy local girls to keep up appearances.  When one of them almost died at Tyler’s hand, he realized that he didn’t want the curse and eventually gave the moonstone to his uncle.  Never mind that tough lesson learned about the perils of teenaged drinking.

Caroline has been on a rollercoaster since being turned into a vamp, thanks mostly to Katherine, who set the whole thing in motion.  First she got her to spy on Stefan and Elena and try to persuade them to break up.   I know she was under Katherine’s orders, but what she said about their love being doomed is true and I was waiting for someone to bring it up, although, to the credit of the writers, they haven’t been dwelling on it because that would be tired and overdone.  Caroline was also forced to reveal her new life to her mother Lizzie, (where the heck has she been?) in a bold move to save Stefan and Damon.  Poor Lizzie, first she finds out her good friend Damon is really a vampire and she has to kill him, then it turns out her daughter is one too.  It will be interesting to see what happens next week when she’s supposed to have her memory erased and go on her merry way.  I don’t think for a second that that’s the way it’s gonna go down. 

Damon is usually at the bottom of everything that’s awry and this week was no exception.  If he had never tried to kill Mason, he wouldn’t have had to worry about him outing them to Lizzie and the council.  But Damon did show some mercy on Lizzie (and even got props from Elena for it) proving that he really could be a friend to someone.  Now if she will return the favor remains to be seen.  She’s already disowned her vamp daughter Caroline and I doubt she plans to leave Chez Salvatore without a fight. 

Stefan and Elena remain a tight unit.  After some fake fighting in front of Caroline to throw Katherine off the scent of what was really going on, they had to have a serious conversation about Stefan going back on people blood to build up strength to fight Katherine.  Elena initially didn’t like the idea but, with some nudging from Damon, she ultimately decided that they should do it together and she gave him some of her own blood.  It’s moments like these when I’m glad this is The CW and not HBO because the bloody sex scenes on True Blood frankly gross me out.

Next week, I’m looking forward to more being revealed about the enigmatic moonstone.  Katherine obviously needs it for something, so what is it?  I’m not looking forward to more sanctimonious whining from Bonnie when the rest of the Scoobies need her help again.  Why don’t they just train Jeremy as a warlock or something, at least he knows how to look hot and cooperate.  Speaking of warlocks, we didn’t get to see much of Alaric (who’s back to being Alaric!) these last two episodes, other than his brief appearance at Jenna’s barbecue.  He knows a little too much about everything to just be a sitting duck. And more importantly is the lucky Nina Dobrev gonna get to make out with the rest of the hot guys in the cast? She’s already kissed both Salvatore brothers and now Mason Lockwood.   Katherine has mentioned her attraction to Matt a few times and I wouldn’t be surprised if she swapped spit with her great-great-great-great-son-in-law Alaric.  Whatever happens, I’ll definitely be glued to the screen next week.