I have to admit, I’ve been putting off my Vampire Diaries review this week. This show has always known how to hit us hard with the big, sweeping, emotional scenes but considering Alaric is one of my favorites (and at risk since he’s not a lead that we know won’t die), I pretty much lost it. Of course knowing that Matt Davis just filmed the pilot for “Cult” and it might get picked up by The CW doesn’t help either.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the latest twists. Alaric, who’s evil side is first present, decides to go along with Esther’s diabolical plot. She’s the one that’s been contacting him on the other side every time he died, trying to get him to embrace his inner ruthless vampire hunter. He helps Esther go back to her own body and the fun begins.
Just in case you forgot that these people are still in high school (and man I wish they would move on from that), Caroline during the dance prep declares herself a fanatical Stelena shipper and convinces Elena to bring the younger Salvatore. Stefan likes this, Damon, not so much. Damon’s a little concerned with other issues though, like his bestest buddy going evil. He’s figured out Alaric hasn’t been taking the herbs.
That sets up all the fun in the ancient Salvatore crypt. Alaric surrenders his special ring so it can melt and wrap all that magic around the final stake, making it indestructible. “The ultimate weapon for the ultimate hunter.” Oh, but there’s a catch coming. Isn’t there always?
Esther ruins the love triangle dramas at the dance between Elena/Stefan/Damon, Bonnie/Jamie/Jeremy, and Tyler/Caroline/Klaus (that’s a lot of triangles) by showing up. She locks in all the vampires behind a salt ring (really?) and convinces Elena to come with her for Alaric’s sake. It’s really so she can use Elena’s blood to turn Alaric in Mikael 2.0, a vampire hunting vampire. I’m still trying to figure out how that’s different than a regular vampire, but I never quite figured that out when Mikael showed up. I’m still bitter they killed him off so easily (I do love Sebastian Roche). It’s explained that Alaric will become an original, the vampire to end all vampires, but I’m with Elena, Esther’s creating another monster. Vengeance as a motivator never goes well.
Poor Bonnie in the meantime can’t get it on with her new boyfriend because she’s the only one that has the mojo to break the binding of the salt ring (really?). I did love Stefan stepping in to help Jamie when Klaus tried to choke him as a motivator for Bonnie to break the spell. “Aww, don’t be stupid Klaus, Bonnie doesn’t give a damn about us. The only reason she’s helping is to save Caroline and Tyler. You start killing people she cares about, she’ll tell us all to go to Hell.” Score one for Stefan!
Since Jeremy and Matt are humans not affected by the spell, they go to rescue Elena. They’re too late, for Esther completes the ritual, Alaric drinks the blood and then he gets the stake through his heart. Let the transition begin! Jeremy and Matt though do prove to be useful, as they distract Esther long enough for good Alaric to come back and kill her with the new powerful stake. Maybe. Something tells me that bitch will be back. Alaric doesn’t know what happened, so it’s now time to fill him in.
The tissue alert can begin! Alaric is toast. He either drinks blood to complete the uber vampire killer transition or he doesn’t and dies a painful death. Since this is good Alaric, he opts for the latter. Elena and Jeremy give their long, drawn out tearful goodbyes and go away (really?) while Stefan, Damon, Caroline, Tyler, Matt, Bonnie, and Meredith stand outside and give their tearful yet silent goodbyes before Alaric goes back into the crypt to die alone.
Klaus removes Rebekah’s stake and goes off on his mother’s body about how he can’t be defeated (whoa, some pent up mommy issues there), Matt and Jeremy don’t worry about underage drinking at the grill and toast their fallen mentor/teacher, and Elena and Stefan have a poignant, teary moment after Elena cleans out Alaric’s classroom of all his vampire hunting tools. I don’t know, I’m still shipping Delena. They just have more spark!
Meredith, after sedating Alaric so he’ll fall asleep before dying, convinces Damon to go to him rather than take her place by Alaric’s side. Really? I guess I don’t mind, because the moment is sweet. When Damon shows this side of himself, we all melt. Alaric asks him jokingly if he’s going to give him a sweet dream a la Rose. Damon – “I was drunk when I told you that.” Alaric – “Yeah, and I told you I’d use it against you.” Then Damon finally apologizes for killing him, twice. About friggin time! “Do I actually have to die to get a real apology out of you?” Sure, now Alaric’s forgiving. He takes a drink of Damon’s whiskey, cries, and falls asleep. Damon looks pretty upset and finishes the whiskey in his honor. I swear, of all the weepy scenes in this episode, this one got to me the most.
It’s not over, so a twist must be coming. I do watch this show after all. Esther comes to Bonnie in a dream and sure enough, Bonnie shows up at the crypt, disables Damon and feeds Alaric her blood. He bites into her neck, and we have a new uber vampire hunting vampire in town! Poor Alaric and Bonnie. Those two are always the pawns in this pissing contest of everyone’s.
What did we learn? There’s some serious crap going down in the final two episodes of the season. I know it won’t be enough.
