The Vampire Diaries - Bloodlines

This is quite a loaded episode, for sure. Lots happen.

Matthew Davis' Alaric, Mystic Falls' new History teacher, came to get revenge on the vampire that killed his beloved wife...Damon. Damon's never been held liable for his actions. Elena's starting to be more than a bit of a drama queen. She sees the photograph of Katherine Pierce and her remarkable resemblance sends Elena fleeing in her SUV, hitting someone/something, and being pulled from the wreckage by Damon. The series up until here has given us little reason to consider Damon worthy of any leeway. Except for Jeremy, that is. On his way to a bar on the outskirts of Atlanta, he found Elena in her wrecked vehicle and the other vampire approaching speeds away.

I have to say this, even though I realize it would never come to be, but I liked Bonnie and Stefan together, even if just for a brief episode in the series. Stefan still so pines for Elena, just wanting to talk to her, maturely, about how he loves her, realizing she was the absolute opposite of Katherine. He hopes Bonnie can somehow reach her with her witchcraft but something is “blocking” her powers. Jasmine Guy is her “gran”, a witch herself and we learn she knew Stefan, back when she was a student in 1969. Guy was an activist and Stefan offering her gran witch a handshake impressed her because he showed courage in allowing her to see him as he really is. No secrets. Bonnie goes off by herself to the old church where the tomb underneath it has Katherine and vampires are sealed inside. Bonnie falls inside and it is Stefan who rescues her. Damon, during his visit to former lover/bartender, Bree (Gina Torres, USA Network’s Suits), learns of a possible way to open the tomb housing Katherine, by way of a certain grimoire. This told to him before he punctures her torso causing immediate death.

Elena could have allowed Damon to be killed. She begs Lexi’s vampire boyfriend (called by Bree who was a dear friend of Lexi’s) not to set Damon on fire. He has the petrol doused on Damon and a match lit. Elena just begs and begs and uses Lexi as a reason he shouldn’t do so. This causes the vampire in deep sorrow to reconsider and not minutes later Damon kills Bree. So Elena, bless her, is responsible for Damon not only gaining knowledge of possibly releasing dangerous vampires upon Mystic Falls and the world at large but Bree is killed because of her. And at the very end we get a final scene involving Damon having a passionate drinking from Alaric’s wife…as Alaric sees him in bliss killing her! I for one would like to see him punished a bit. He deserves it, the bastard.

And the ending conversation between Elena and Stefan sure turns the entire show on its head. Elena was adopted she learns. Yep, it seems she might just be related to Katherine, and that knowledge being kept secret from her leaves Elena…well, a drama queen. Aunt Jenna is a bit miffed at Elena for disappearing and lying to her over where she was that day (not at school, or having spent the night at Bonnie’s, but was elsewhere), and Elena responds with the jaded frustration of someone who learned that she isn’t who she thought she was. Stefan informs Elena that he had been studying and investigating her even before actually meeting her *officially* at school. He had actually rescued her from the wreckage of her car at the urging of her adoptive father as the vehicle was submerging in the lake off the bridge. Her resemblance to Katherine inspired him to see if she could possibly be linked in genealogy to her.

So a lot of plot thickens although the subplot involving Jeremy and a girl his age he meets at a library while researching Civil War history and their dialogue involving vampires just functions less interestingly as compared to everything else going on in this packed episode.

Oh, Bree is a witch who knew Damon twenty years ago and could have something on how he can grant Katherine her freedom. For most of the episode she bums him out on any way available, that Emily was the witch who could do that. Only when facing danger as Damon approached closer does she offer the grimoire possibility.