Well after the 2 month hiatus The Vampire Diaries is back and stronger than ever. This has a lot to do with the deviously charming Damon, which should come as no surprise. He’s as funny as ever with his snarky, sexy, sinful allure. This episode is full of laughs when he’s on screen, adding so much life and spark during his scenes. I’m thrilled that now that they’ve established Damon as this dangerous, selfish character, especially in Elena’s eyes, that they’re starting to move on by pairing the two with each other for majority of the episode. Elena isn’t fooled by Damon and he doesn’t even try mind control on her. She is fully of aware of who he is and the things he does (plenty of murderous cases come back to haunt him in this episode). Still, it’s clear she’s starting to let herself go a bit more around Damon and does care for him in a way she hasn’t really come to terms with yet.
During the last episode we were left with Elena getting in to a massive car crash right after finding the picture of Katherine, the Salvatore brother’s ex-lover and the spitting image of Elena. She doesn’t know if he is trying to relive his days with Katherine through her or how she is connected to her in the first place. When she crashed her car, she ran over a man, who she later realizes was a vampire. She is only conscious for a matter of seconds before Damon appears by her side and catches her when she faints. Elena assumes Damon should know who it was, but he informs her that it’s not like all the vampires get together and hang at some vamp bar. (What there’s no Fangtasia in Mystic Falls?) She wakes up in Damon’s car in Georgia . Elena demands Damon takes her back, but he convinces her that she can get back to all of her problems anytime and she should embrace the break away from her life while she can. They go in to a bar where Damon is reunited with an old friend and former fling, Bree. Bree also happens to be a witch and Damon is back to convince her to cast a spell for him to override Emily’s spell, which is keeping him from his long awaited revenge. In trying to find out the truth, he manages to get Elena to loosen up quite a bit, causing her to get kidnapped, leading Damon right inside this trap.
Meanwhile, Stefan is trying to get a hold of Elena, desperate to explain about Katherine. Damon cockily answers Elena’s phone and tells him Elena doesn’t wish to speak to him. Desperate to find out if she really is okay, Stefan turns to Bonnie in hopes she can use her witching abilities to find out if Elena is safe. She’s hesitant since she’s not used to sharing her abilities with other people, but tries for Elena’s sake. When she does, nothing happens, and she learns that she’s being blocked from her powers. Until she faces what she’s been running from she won’t be able to access her powers.
In Bloodlines we also get some more investigation in to the vampire myths of Mystic Falls . Jeremy is doing an extra credit research paper on the civil war in Mystic Falls , specifically focusing on the material he found from his ancestor’s journal. While venturing out to the library for more information he meets Anna, a girl who tells him about all of the vampire stories her grandfather told her, specifically mentioning that he kept a journal very similar to the one Jeremy has. Jeremy is convinced that it is just mythology and metaphors, pinning vampires as their enemy in combat because it was easier to blame a mythological figure than the enemy they actually had to face in battle. When Anna finds identical cases of a series of animal attacks with victims completely drained of blood over the past 75 years, even he has to wonder whether there was any truth to the stories their ancestors told. More people are becoming aware of the vampires that surround them, even Jeremy, who had his mind erased of all vampire affairs after his nearly fatal vampire encounter with his girlfriend.
Bloodlines gives us the answer to the true connection between Katherine and Elena and her family history. In the book this was never really gone in to, at least not in any concrete sense. It was assumed that Elena was Katherine’s descendent and there were several conversations centering around this, but it was never stated for sure. The show goes ahead and takes a stance on this issue and it actually makes a lot more sense that they would have a connection, something tying them to one another. Along with Elena we learn the full truth of Stefan’s attraction and history with her, once again going back further than the original source material did. Some of the alternative back stories and directions the show has been going in to have been interesting, some even fitting better than in the book, which I didn’t expect.
This week we were introduced to a few new characters, including a new vampire. With The Vampire Diaries, you never want to get too attached to the new ones since you really don’t know how long they will actually last before they’re given the kiss of death. I guess this is better than killing off the regulars and it does make things a little more suspenseful, knowing bloodshed could be just around the corner. It really became clear how many people, vampires, and other supernatural creatures Damon has pissed off and it’s coming back to haunt him. Damon doesn’t just kill for craving or need of their blood. He doesn’t even kill just to exert his power and dominance over them, although he does have fun doing this as well. Sometimes, as we witnessed with Vicki, he simply kills people out of nothing short of boredom. He figures everyone is just there for his own entertainment or desire. In this episode he is faced with death and seems helpless for a chance, never even seeing it coming. This is clearly not something that is going away as many vengeful vampires are after him, out to make him suffer for all of the harm he has caused. Between others’ schemes against him and his own diabolical plans, his building bond with Elena, and Bonnie’s fear of the darkness she faces, there is plenty more to look forward to on The Vampire Diaries.
