by Cassie Title
Picture this: The camera pans in on a scene we've seen many times before, in season one, when our characters actually went to school. The sun is shining, teenagers are laughing and they’re doing this all in front of the high school. And then, Caroline starts telling Elena she’s valedictorian! And Elena can help her with her speech! And Elena should be excited because everybody’s graduating! And then everyone disappears because this scene is really the Salvatores’ latest ploy to get Elena to turn her emotions on. Damon’s doing the whole mind-control-in-your-head thing, which definitely needs explanation, because didn't the show kind of get rid of that power after season one? Or two?
Elena quickly realized this was all in her head, because she felt nothing; why would she want to be at school, with all the excitement of last days? Except, she should’ve realized it wasn't real when Caroline said she was valedictorian. I’m sorry, but what? I love Caroline as much as the next fan, and I get that the show’s made her into a type A I-need-a-project-overachiever girl, but how many of you ever thought that Caroline was supposed to be, well, smart? Or a straight-A student? Apologies, but I was floored.
Another time I was floored? When Damon killed Matt. Yeah, you read that right. Damon killed Matt. To stress this fact, at the time that it happened, I gasped, saying aloud to no one but myself: "DID DAMON JUST KILL MATT?" Yes, friends. Yes, he did.
Why did he do this? Well, Damon’s always had this weird thing with Matt. He thinks he’s useless or something, which isn't exactly true. I mean, sometimes he’s useless to the plot of the show, but usually he’s useful to his friends. Do you think Damon’s secretly jealous of Matt because Elena lost her virginity to him? Or is Damon a secret Rebekah-type, and he’s envious of how “beautifully human” Matt is? Or maybe he finds Matt as boring as I find Elena. Either way, he snapped Matt’s neck, right in front of humanity-less Elena. This was after Damon and Stefan tried to torture her with sunlight, after she tortured herself with sunlight, after Katherine was brought in to torture her and let her run away because she was bored, and after Elena drank a lot of Matt’s blood. And, i the end, it did the trick—snapping Elena back to humanity. Also, despite the fact that I’m sure you all really thought Matt died, he didn't. Damon had him put on a Gilbert ring! Don’t you hope that Matt goes Samantha Gilbert/Alaric on us? And also, how has it taken this long for Matt to wear a Gilbert ring?
They’re all questions that deserve answers, but really all I’m thinking about is what Silas looks like. I know that we saw him for a millisecond and the entire blogosphere is treating it like a big reveal, but really, I have NO IDEA WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE AND I WANT TO KNOW. I guess he’s onto me, because he’s been making it reallllllly difficult. Like, showing up as Klaus, or Liz (she’s Caroline’s mom, in case you forgot). I’m thinking we hadn't seen her in AGES before today. Don’t you miss the days of Damon and Liz? Is that inappropriate now that he’s slept with her daughter’s best friend? AND OH MY GOD HER DAUGHTER TOO! DID LIZ KNOW THEY SLEPT TOGETHER? I know she knows they dated, or whatever you want to call that season one situation, but all I can think about now is how weird their crime-fighting friendship was considering he slept with her much younger (read: over 100 years younger) daughter. Whoa.
Another glossed-over whoa? Caroline’s meeting with Silas/Klaus. Yes, it turned out to be Silas, who "Scream"-ed her—minus those weird face masks—all over town. He was trying to find Bonnie, but I’m just trying to find what’s in Caroline’s heart. Because, Klaus is leaving for his own show, and Tyler’s either coming back because of that or getting some secret new show of his own, unrelated to "The Vampire Diaries," and despite the fact we know how strong Klaus’s feelings are for Caroline, I don’t think we've ever really gotten a clear indication of her feelings for him. Of course, she was sort of able to tell Klaus how she felt when it turned out not to be Klaus at all!
And Klaus was really Silas because Silas was looking for Bonnie, who was apparently in a restaurant meeting with Katherine. This was really exciting, because Katherine is really exciting. I mean, when she’s trying to torture Elena and Elena out-Katherines Katherine, that’s pretty exciting too. But I digress. Bonnie had previously told Silas that she would drop the veil to the other side for him so he could die and be with his one true love. (Which is slightly nonsensical, right, because if he dies he won’t actually “be” with that girl, but whatever.) But ever since, Bonnie’s been in hiding. This has been good for two reasons: 1) it’s given her time to be able to tell when someone is actually Silas, which comes in handy, you can imagine, when Caroline mistakes Silas for her mom and 2) it’s given her time to set up meetings with Katherine. Katherine still has the headstone, which contains Qetsiyah’s blood. Silas was banking on the full moon for Bonnie to do the spell (as you will recall, serious spells require serious sources of power), but Katherine pointed out that Qetsiyah’s blood will do the trick. This is apparently because Qetsiyah’s super-old and powerful and related to Bonnie and performed the spell they’re trying to undo. Anyway, Bonnie go Katherine to agree to give her the headstone by promising her immortality. Apparently, when she drops the veil, she’ll be able to communicate with Qetsiyah, who will be able to do the same for Katherine that she did for Silas. This seems like something that won’t happen at all.
Obviously, this immortality thing is not something that Rebekah was fond of. Homegirl’s desire for humanity is slightly crazy. She was zeroing in on Matt again, and offered to compel his way into straight As and college because he’s failing. Jeez, Bex—for someone who wants so badly to be human, try acting like one! When she offered to help him study, it seemed she may have been finally heading in the right direction.
Oh, and everyone kept saying (including humanity-less Elena) how our protagonist was going to choose Stefan again once she turned it back on. I can’t even talk about the ridiculous nature of this statement. So I won’t even qualify it with another word.
But now that Elena’s humanity is back on, she’s focused on hate. And rage. And wants to kill Katherine, because she thinks that villain created everyone’s pain. Not only will this put a damper in Bonnie’s plan and Elena’s attempt at reclaiming her life, but it seriously threatens my viewing pleasure. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens next week.
Were you happy that Elena finally turned her emotions back on? Were you shocked when it looked like Damon killed Matt? Do you think that Liz somehow had vampire blood in her before she went unconscious and now due to Caroline’s transfusion, is going to be a vampire?! What is Bonnie’s plan in regards to the other side anyway? (I got lost.) When will Elena settle down enough to pick which brother she wants to be with? Let the thinking flow! In the comments below! Or on Twitter. (Wasn't going to try with the rhyming. I sensed it getting old.)
Intrigue? Check! Text messages? Check! Killer fashions? Quadruple check! KILLINGS? All the checks!
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