Kickoff time in mystic Falls
9.5
"Superb"
If last week's ep moved at a slow pace, this week's made up for it in the speed department. But it was still very good. Right off the bat, we get to see what became of Caroline's end encounter with Damon last week. Sure enough, dude bit her, and he's evidently freaking her out. And from the way the ep opened this week, he's not about to let her go that easily. At least she doesn't seem to be turned....yet. But he's def putting the trance whammy on her, same as he did with Vicki. But his intentions with Caroline still seem trivial compared to his growing obsession for Elena.
Fortunately, by ep's end we have gotten more info into Damon's grand plans. He is hellbent on destroying Stefan - be it getting him out of his life for good, or bringing him back to his "animalistic" ways by being the vampire he is meant to be. But Stefan will not budge. In fact, he even pleads with Damon that there is still some basic humanity left inside him that cares. And by the ep's end, despite the horrific incident involving Damon and Mr. Tanner, too bad for Stefan, we see that there actually is. That was kind of a powerful last scene there: Stefan writing in his journal about Damon's humanity totally gone and labeling him a pure monster, when Damon showed signs indicating otherwise while he strokes a sleeping Elena's cheeks. Not to mention his and Elena's discussion over Katherine, something that clearly struck a nerve with him. I love it when bad guys have feelings, too! To further complicate things, Damon has now been invited into Elena's house, once more giving him more leverage over Stefan. Damon is also not wasting any time. He makes a surprisingly fast couple of maneuvers toward Elena, the last of which results in her slapping away his advancement to kiss her - thanks to a tactic used by Stefan by giving her a necklace with vervain inside, which is evidently used as a repellant against the vampire trance whammy thingy. So while Damon seems to be rushing into his plans for Elena, Stefan is applying a few tricks of his own to stay ahead in the game. Or at least trying to.
Stefan's decision to join the football team was touching, as well as Elena's to rejoin cheerleading. He's really making an effort to connect with her through their mutual loneliness, and it's working. Although she ends up quitting the cheerleading gig, she still encourages him and he accepts her decision, but also encourages her in return to move on. She really genuinely feels for him and she even goes so far as to invite him to dinner with her and Bonnie so that Bonnie can get to know him as well. Of course, Bonnie is a little skeptical toward the hottie, especially given the weird psychic vibe she got from him last week. And with good reason, I suppose. Seems Bonnie is getting more in tune with her abilities than she realizes. And even more, we finally get a glimpse of what she saw in her vision regarding Stefan: coldness, like death. Girl is good, whether she realizes it or not. Also, she gets the freaky symbolic thing going on with this whole seeing numbers deal. We don't know the actual significance of such yet, but it still begs the question: what's up with the numbers 8, 14, and 22? And as a matter of fact, she sees said numbers at the end of the ep, cue the obligatory wig out on her part after the fact, and it still leaves us with the above burning question. Bottom line is I was happy to see some of Bonnie's psychic thing come to some fruition sooner rather than later since I remarked last week that it was driving me crazy not knowing what she was seeing in these visions of hers. Aside from that, her interaction with Stefan proved fairly enjoyable. Especially the implied historical note between them, meaning he finds out her witchy lineage derived from Salem and not druidic. Since he's a kind of history buff (so to speak) it will be interesting to watch how his relationship with Bonnie will unfold once these two histories collide. Perhaps there was something there in their pasts? Can't wait to see.
The whole Vicki/Jeremy/Tyler thing was kinda stale this week, Tyler bullies Jeremy into staying away from Vicki, Vicki playing to both sides, yada yada....But that's not to say it didn't go anywhere. Vicki needs to get over herself. Jeremy, messed up as he is, cares for Vicki very much whereas she sees him as merely a sort of safety net when things get hairy with Tyler but conveniently tries to hide the fact, and /or she needs a quick fix of drugs. However, this changes when she admits to Jeremy that it wasn't just the drugs that drew her to him. So maybe there's some hope after all, for both of them. Tyler, being the ass hat that he is, shifted his focus onto Stefan this round. Sure, he had that nasty fight with Jeremy toward the end, but he also taunted and bullied Stefan on the side. I guess it's a bully's natural instinct: he sees these guys, Jeremy and Stefan, as threats to his current love interests (Vicki and football, respectively), therefore the logical thing to do is rough them up a bit. He may have a bit of a lead over Jeremy, but Stefan's a different story. I was thrilled to see Matt finally get pissed at Ty and tell him off. How any of this will change the creep is hard to say right now, but it will come back on him.
Speaking of Matt, he had quite the round himself this week. I'm really loving this character. Okay, yes, he's one of my faves in the hotness department, which does help, but he's really much more than that to me. Most obvious, he's still got feelings for Elena, thanks to his little slip o' the tongue about so to Tyler. But in the end, he is able to accept Stefan into the team as well as into Elena's heart. His concern to Jeremy regarding Vicki was cool, and his eruption on Tyler over Ty's meanness was awesome. And as if all this wasn't enough, he's the one who finds Tanner's body after Damon bites him, which will undoubtedly bring back his feeling of something eerie going on in town. This makes him a very well-rounded character with so much on his plate to deal with. I'm very intrigued with how Matt in particular will fit into the overall arcs as he seems to have some connection to each.
Odds and Ends:
- No Zach or Jenna this week. Bummer.
- I don't know why, but the title to this episode just tickled me. Very cute and clever.
- Still down with the soundtrack, especially the last song during the closing montage ('Temptation' by Moby). Very nice choice and it fit neatly with the closing of the ep.
Overall, I was very satisfied with the faster pacing and structure of this episode. As such, I'm gonna give it a 9.5. Next week looks as if the good peeps of Mystic Falls throw a party, and Damon steps up his game plan against Stefan. It's getting good....moreless