About twenty minutes into the latest episode, “After School Special,” I had to check the guide for info. I could have sworn I was watching The Breakfast Club. But then I realized that Molly Ringwald wasn’t an aggressive bitch in the film, so reality set in. Rebekah was on another tirade.
Rebekah always gets so testy every time someone wakes her from her dagger induced nap, no? Thanks April. I get it, Rebekah was pissed and wanted answers. Driving the final nail in the coffin of Stelena though, did that come out of a sense of boredom or revenge? Both probably. She didn’t know what she was digging into, but once she struck gold she wasn’t going to stop drilling.
I usually like the episodes that are light on teen drama, but hey, since I’m far removed from high school (right around the time The Breakfast Club came out) I have to accept that’s exactly what this show is. I’ve just never liked it when Rebekah, who is after all an original vampire who’s thousands years old, behaves like a high school brat. She’s better than that. Still, she drove a massive wedge, and now half of the shippers are weeping and the other half are over the moon in delight.
Doesn’t it seem like this review so far has avoided the elephant in the room? I hear ya, it’s the love triangle stupid. Stefan and Elena, first through mind control and then later on their own terms, air grievances. It’s not pretty. It’s squirmingly uncomfortable most of the time. However, it’s necessary. Breakups always come with a fair amount of baggage so clearing the air is therapeutic. Yeah, right, tell that to these guys.
Let me see if I have this straight. Elena and Damon slept together, and they both didn’t tell Stefan. He finds out through Caroline. He’s pissed, but is dealing with it by drinking alone and projecting through jaded phone conversations. So Rebekah was doing him a favor, right, compelling him and Elena to bluntly share their true feelings. Wait, having Elena bluntly share her true feelings and Stefan sit there and take it.
What I found most interesting about Elena’s words is despite the harsh and honest delivery, every single bit of it was true! Her reasoning for dumping Stefan is exactly why I never gravitated toward Stelena. She was a project to him, and he treated her like a broken toy…in the need of fixing. With Damon she could be wild and free. That’s it! Thanks for saying it in a way that I could never articulate girlfriend. Oh, nice job too saying that you love Damon while Stefan is forced to admit that all this is hurting him. Twist that knife!
Elena, who decides to run with this whole liberating anthem of admitting your true feelings, calls Damon and says she loves him, and it’s not because of any sire bond. Not that I really care about Elena’s sudden epiphany, but it was Damon’s reaction that got through to me. It’s like this guy had waited for those words for 140 years. This had to be one of the most monumental moments, if not the most, in his life. He reversed his decision to drive her away and told her to come to him? Are you kidding? He should have super sped to that fast Camaro of his and hit the pedal to the metal.
No secret, I’m a long time confessed Delena shipper. So, are the writers squandering the “epic romance” by tearing apart Stefan and Elena? I don’t know, was it really all that epic? Stefan had trouble adjusting to the changes in Elena and always tried too hard to protect her, especially after she turned into a vampire. Was he partially responsible for pushing her toward Damon, or were those feelings she already had boosted to eleven by becoming a vampire? Did Stefan ever really stand a chance? She does still love him, but doesn’t want to be with him. How long before all three are living harmoniously in vampire lust at the Casa Salvatore? Yeah, it might take a few years and a few more nasty breakups and contrived confessions to get there.
After all that, Stefan wants an original vamp memory wipe? Oh yeah, that worked so well when Klaus did that to him before. Can you imagine what Rebekah would do? Doesn’t matter, she decides making him remember and suffer is the better option. Stefan has a new proposal. He decides to plot revenge against Damon and Elena by forming an alliance with Rebekah. Well, that’s one way to deal with a broken heart.
Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, ARE YOU HIGH BONNIE??? Dark magic doesn’t give a crap about good intentions. It comes back to bite you hard. Hell, hadn’t you learned that already? Ah well, she went there, and Stefan’s heroic offering of vampire blood was the only thing that prevented this from becoming a complete catastrophe via April’s homicide. Then she realizes she can’t do this with her father in town AFTER she goes down that dark path? Speaking of her father, welcome to The Vampire Diaries Rick Worthy!!! Any hope of them actually giving you a plot in the future, and um, not killing you? Fingers crossed.
Professor Shane dodged a big bullet, huh? Kol is such an evil bastard, but he isn’t as much of an insolent brat as Rebekah, don’t you think? I like his style. He’s manipulative, cold, a horrible troublemaker, but even he knows that this whole cure thing is disaster in the making. Listen to the psychopath with the experience, will you? He becomes this season’s bearer of foreshadowing that these guys are always conveniently ignoring for their own self serving purposes.
Any chance Kol is part of the new spinoff series? PLEASE? I’m ready to see Klaus spunoff for sure, because him killing people for the sake of his own agenda is getting kind of tiring. Did anyone else see a different way for Jeremy to grow that mark? Give this guy something more to do.
Turns out my favorite subplot of the week, which really wasn’t much of a subplot, was Tyler’s inability to deal with his mother’s death. He stepped out of her memorial assembly (that was mandatory for all the students?), even if the weirdest part is that the school would let her son sit up in the bleachers with everyone else. When Tyler is forced to turn into a werewolf by Rebekah, just because she again wants to kill everyone (wouldn’t a stake through the heart be more effective?), I would have never guessed that ended up being the best way to get him to deal with his grief. Caroline finds him afterward naked on the gym floor, right in front of the table bearing his mother’s picture and lighted candles. He cries, she holds him, and for once there is a genuine, tender, understated moment happening in this episode. Of course it really sucks to be Tyler right now, but at least he’s showing some humanity.
I believe there’s only one other point I needed to bring to the surface. Jeremy and Matt sparring at the lake house? Jeremy dropping Matt to the ground and making him call him a bad ass? Oh my, dreams can come true! This Jeremy/Matt shipper is squealing! What is that ship name anyway? Jermatt? Matemey? Yeah, needs some work.
So yes, this was a busy one, and I do like it whenever I see Brett Matthews as the writer. He usually gives us something different. Bring on Jeremy’s pseudo vamp killing next week, because Jeremy and Matt need to have a moment. I hope it involves hugs.
