It’s the first day of senior year. Elena, Matt, Caroline, and Bonnie can’t help but think how much their lives have changed in the past year. Matt’s sister was alive, not a ghost trying to get him to meddle with supernatural elements to bring her back from the dead. Bonnie didn’t know she was a witch and didn’t have a back-from-the-dead boyfriend who was seeing his ghost ex-girlfriends. Caroline wasn’t a blood-thirsty vampire with a vampire-werewolf hybrid boyfriend; the first successful hybrid that is now having master dependency issues with his evil maker, Klaus. It was exactly a year ago that Elena met Stefan, which changed her life forever in too many ways to count. Now she is foolishly trying to get stronger and learn self-defense against a vampire who she still loves, but nearly killed her.
Even though any strength Elena can hope to gain will still leave her powerless I respect her for trying to be strong; to be her own protection rather than relying on anyone else. This is more in line with her character in the books. Of course, Damon’s undying devotion to her is her best form of support. He shows his fierce loyalty once again, giving us some more intimate Elena-Damon moments, which likely had many viewers screaming at the TV screen. Really? What will it take for Elena to let go and act on her clear feelings for Damon. Hopefully, the build-up will pay off before too long.
I love evil Stefan. His complete lack of care is amusing. He’s nearly a different character, a far more entertaining one. Still, we can see there is a shred of the same person there no matter how small. This will clearly be built up until he is finally free from Klaus. Katherine is working on this in her attempts to bring Mikael back from his corpse-like state. There is a great moment, when he is able to get Katherine off her guard and give her a chance to be the victim, a role she isn’t used to playing.
Jeremy continues to see Anna, thinking about her and opening up the portal despite Bonnie’s disapproval. They have a touching moment where they blur the lines of humanity and the paranormal, giving Anna closer contact than she has had since she died. I absolutely love Anna. She’s driven by determination and loyalty, is genuine, and an all around interesting character. Bonnie’s not so bad when she’s off her anti-vampire self-righteous kick, but she’s one of my least favorite characters and no match for Anna in my book.
With Klaus’ blood inside of him, Tyler begins feeling a fierce loyalty to him. He begins acting out, more in Klaus’ nature than his own. Damon immediately recognizes this, Tyler won’t be able to help but put Klaus’ needs before all else. Elena and Damon are already dealing with Stefan and Rebekah as Klaus’ watchers. Not to mention when Vicki comes back she sees Elena’s fiery death as the only chance of her holding on to her return.
