Episode 2.15 – “The Dinner Party”

So many surprises in this episode!  Let’s get right to it.

Elena is reading the Gilbert journals, learning all about Stefan’s wicked past.  It feels like we’ve already tread this ground before with previous shows where the good vampire has a dark past (Buffy, True Blood, etc) but I suppose it’s a given that they have to go there.  Damon calls to let Stefan know that Tyler ran away from home.  He also shares with him his plan to get rid of Elijah with the magic dagger and ash. 

Jenna and Elijah are wandering through old ruined properties in town.  He tells her that the “founding fathers” of Mystic Falls didn’t actually found anything, the region had been settled a couple hundred years earlier by witches from Salem.  (Why do I think this is going to come into play later?)  Alaric shows up acting like a jealous boyfriend, which is making Jenna feel a little uncomfortable by the looks of it.  The moment Jenna leaves to get something from the car, Elijah mentions that Alaric is on the list that Elena gave him of loved ones to protect.  Alaric points out that Jenna is on the list too and Elijah teases that he doesn’t pursue younger women. 

Bonnie and Jeremy meet at the Grill; he invites her over to his place that night to “practice” her witchcraft to help her get stronger.  Luka shows up demanding to know what happened the night before since he can’t remember anything.  He doesn’t buy it when she denies knowing anything about it, but Jeremy gets all manly and demands that Luka back off.  (Doesn’t it seem like Luka wouldn’t be afraid of Jeremy?  Besides his powers he probably outweighs him by at least ten pounds of muscle, I’m just saying…)

When she arrives later, Jeremy has a bajillion candles lit and Bonnie freaks out a little, not having realized it was a date.  She doesn’t want to continue anything with him until she has a chance to talk to Elena first, make sure she’s cool with it.

Elena seems pretty upset about what she reads in the journal about Stefan.  Stefan takes over the storytelling about the past and we get more flashbacks into his undead life of debauchery.  (seriously, how many chicks does he need to kill in one night?)  We see Damon (with awful hair again) get fed up with him and leave after compelling some of Stefan’s intended victims to leave and never think of this place again.  Stefan promises to do better if he won’t leave, but Damon isn’t listening.  That’s what drove Stefan into switching off his emotions.  “It sounds like you were Damon,” Elena says.  “I was much worse,” Stefan admits. 

He goes on to tell her about how he would haunt the camps during the war and feed from the wounded.  There he meets a mysterious woman in a cloak who turns out to be Lexi.  He takes her home to offer shelter for the day but she balks when she sees the dead women in his parlor.  “My god, you’re a ripper…” she gasps.  But that doesn’t seem to be enough to send her packing, she just accepts it and tells him “we’re going to have to change that.” 

Episode 2.14 – “Crying Wolf”

Okay, here we go… The werewolves are burning their fallen comrades out in the woods and I’m thinking… wow, they really did kill more werewolves than I thought in that fight!  I thought there weren’t all that many werewolves to be found?  That’s why Katherine had to activate Tyler’s curse after Mason was gone?  But here comes wolf Stevie, who tells Jules and Brady that he should have known something was up when Mason started dating that hot vampire chick Katherine and asking about the curse.  So he’s obviously met her and she must have known there were other werewolves around.  But I digress…

Stevie tells them that the moonstone’s what’s needed to break the sun and moon curse and that the vampires must be working to break the curse.  “We can’t let them do that, even if we have to kill every last vampire in town.”  Brady says.  Um…. Yeah you and what army?  Cause it seems like you had your asses handed to you after coming up against just two of them last night… I’m just saying.

Tyler shows up and they enlist his help to try and find the moonstone.  He demands an explanation and they fill him in about the curse and the stone and the doppelganger.  Jules says if we can change at will, that means we don’t have to turn at all.  Yeah somehow I don’t think that’s their real desire to break the curse, but it catches Tyler’s attention because he never wants to turn into a wolf again.  Stevie shows him a picture of “Kathy”, Mason’s vampire girlfriend and he recognizes Elena right away. 

Elena, Caroline and Bonnie are all crammed in Caroline’s bed and clearly not early risers when Stefan calls to check in with Elena, but then again, I suppose I’d be tired after a slumber party too.  Elena (with perfect eye make up mind you) gets up for a little chat with Stefan who promises to take her away for the weekend to get away from everything that’s going on, especially John hanging around her house.

Episode 2.13 – “Daddy Issues”

This episode was jam packed with goodies!  Soooo much better than last week in my opinion.

Tyler pays Caroline a visit, looking very intense when he tells her they need to talk.  Oblivious, Caroline tells him that they can’t “go there” meaning the kiss they shared.  He’s a little more concerned with the fact that she’s been lying to him about there being no other vampires in town and that she’s known all along that they killed his uncle Mason.  She tries to explain, but he flips out, pressing her against her car.  “I trusted you!” He yells before stalking off.

Cut to Damon in the shower, never a bad place to begin! (thanks TVD for answering my request for a shirtless Damon!)  It seems like everyone in town is watching the news which is covering the slew of murders, thanks to Rose, Jules and Damon’s recent activities.  The Mayor announces they will be holding a memorial service at the town square.  John is watching as well at the Gilbert household but turns it off when Elena emerges looking cute in a ponytail.  But that’s the only thing cute and cuddly about Elena today as she comes out swinging, demanding to know what John’s doing in town.  He insists that he’s there to protect her.  Elena gets some great lines in this episode, basically getting to tell John off at every opportunity, all those things that I shout out to my TV on her behalf in the past.  He has no right to be in her life, she neither wants nor needs him there, etc.; it’s glorious.  Jenna and Alaric come down and she demands to know what John’s doing there too.  Oops, guess they forgot to tell her about his arrival the night before.  She demands that he leaves, but John points out that it’s not up to her because despite her being Elena’s legal guardian, he is her biological father.  She looks suitably stunned. 

Stefan seems to be the only one who is happy about John’s return to Mystic Falls.  Not so for Damon who wonders if Stefan has blown a mental gasket for trusting him.  Stefan defends his decision, listing out all the ways they’re currently screwed, they can use all the help they can get.  He believes that John knows how to keep Elena safe – even though he refuses to divulge how to any of them.  Damon is less trusting, more ticked off about the new development than anything else.  “As if I didn’t have enough problems.” He grumbles, heading straight to Elena’s house.

Damon and Elena bond over mistrusting John, regardless of what Stefan says.  When Elena asks what they’re going to do, Damon responds by saying they’re going to kill him – but that he’s not serious – well, okay a little serious.  He promises not to hurt him because he’s a good guy now.  Elena comes with him just to be sure all he does is talk to her father. 

Episode 2.12 – “The Descent”

And we’re back!

Thank goodness for the recap at the beginning of the episode as I’d forgotten just where we left off!

We begin with Jules waking up naked in the woods; her mouth artfully smeared with dirt and dried blood.  How lucky that she stumbles upon some campers… well, what’s left of them after she tore them apart the night before.  Is it just me or wouldn’t there be less parts if they’d been savaged by wolves?  Why would a wolf need to chop them into so many pieces anyway?  But there are body parts galore as she piles them onto the campfire.  Jules whips up some fast crocodile tears when the law shows up, and before he can call it in, she beats him to death with a handy piece of wood. 

Elena comes to see Stefan and we’re treated to a gratuitous shot of his bare torso.  (psst, where’s our shot of Damon with his shirt off?  It’s been a long hiatus!)  The couple seems just as lovey dovey as usual.  She doesn’t want them to be apart anymore, ever.  (where is this girl’s parental supervision?  Doesn’t Jenna care that she’s out all hours of the night?)  Stefan feels like he should talk to Isobel to ask her about Klaus, but Elena isn’t sure it’s a good idea.  Next on the bad idea list is Stefan chugging back some vervain dosed water to try and build up a tolerance to it.  It looks painful, but he seems to recover pretty quickly after all.  It’s nice to see Elena take a sip as well, hopefully affording her a small modicum of protection herself. 

Rose looks like crap.  They did a great job making her look like she’s weak and dying.  Damon has no sympathy for her depressing talk, telling her in typical fashion, “You know if you’re going to be maudlin, I might as well just kill you myself, to put me out of your misery.”  He tries to lift her spirits, intimating that she might not be dying after all, but as he takes a look at her wound, it’s obviously much, much worse.  Damon lies and tells her it’s definitely looking better, enlisting Elena to reassure her as well.  He asks Elena to play nursemaid to Rose for a while so he can go out and run some errands, knowing that she won’t say no.  Elena asks if Rose is going to die.  Damon replies that she probably will, explaining about the infection that seems to be spreading from the werewolf bite.  “The sooner she dies the better, it’s gloomy as hell in here.”  He adds.  We all know that just means he’s repressing his emotions as he tends to do when he’s being that glib, which also means that he actually cares about Rose on some level.  Interesting.