The Vampire Diaries - Beginning of Fourth Season (Growing Pains/Memorial) *

The first two episodes of The Vampire Diaries definitely sets Elena’s vampire issues as the central focus, as to be expected by the conclusion of the third season. Stefan realizes she doesn’t want to feed from a human vein so he tries [and Damon is assured and correct in his belief that it will fail] to start Elena on animals, like deer in the wilderness of Mystic Falls. “Growing Pains” has Elena having to come to terms with ensuing vampirism, as Damon is furious with Stefan for rescuing Matt at her behest. Of course, when Damon is pissed he takes his anger out on the one he considers at fault: Matt, whose life was chosen before Elena’s. Elena wanted this and Stefan did as she wished. Damon freely admits to her that he would not have saved Matt because her freedom as a mortal human meant more to him; yes, he’s selfish, and her life meant more to him than Matt’s. So there’s that.

Elena dealing with the blood thirst is first and foremost the main melodramatic device of the beginning of the fourth season. I figure any Vampire Diaries fans could anticipate that as she awakened in bed as the screen faded to black. The opening episode has an “antagonist” in Pastor Young (Michael Reilly Burke; “Bundy”), head of the town council’s vampire hunting team. Stefan, Rebekah, and Elena all eventually end up captured, left inside special cells in Young’s barn, pumped of vervain. It is up to Damon to determine where they are, getting a lead from Matt, of all people, where they might be: in the remote environs of Young’s farm. Elena, captured when she attempted to run from Young and his men as her heightened senses are extreme, needs to feed or she will die. Of course, Rebekah delights in watching her die but as she remains in her cell, I think many viewers realize that Stefan and Elena’s love for each other (communicated in the lovey-dovey way that will make visceral horror fans cringe) sort of convinces her to help them injure (and kill) one of Young’s gunmen. Elena gets his blood and engages an enraged Damon before he chokes the life out of Matt (having bitten Matt as a threat to Young in an attempt at negotiation). So one of the pieces of melodrama that I’m sure will be elaborated further is Matt wanting to “pay it forward” since Elena wanted him saved. Damon’s anger at him and Elena’s rebuttal that it was her choice to keep Matt alive is a source of intense exchange about that. Damon later goes to Alaric’s grave at the end of the second episode, “Memorial” (which has Stefan gathering the Vampire Diaries young cast together to light sky lanterns to commemorate the dead, each one offering a memorial to those lost over the last three seasons of the series), angst-ridden about having to “babysit” those he once took care of. Damon’s memorial is downing a bottle of Jack at Alaric’s grave, venting about being left alone with them knowing that he is always tasked with trying to stir them in the realistic direction while they fight against it, as Alaric’s ghost is there to listen. The memorials at the end of “Memorial” were often dedicated to Alaric’s memory, so Alaric telling Damon he missed him to, I imagine left many a viewer going, “Aww.” Yecch, haha.

The end of “Growing Pains” has Pastor Young assembling the council together, opening up the gas lines and striking his Zippo, blowing them all up! He was sure that this was a plan of salvation for them all! I did not see that coming. In “Memorial”, there is a funeral and the pastor’s daughter, April (Gracie Gillam), arrives from boarding school, not knowing what to say about her estranged father. When she is later “bled” by a bounty hunter who arrives in town, Connor Jordan (Todd Williams), in the church of the memorial service, it is the ultimate test for Elena, who fails to control the blood thirst, without Caroline’s help. Elena, though, is convinced by Caroline to control it and even influence April to forget about what happened to her by Connor…so Elena is starting to adapt to being a vampire, even as it continues to torment her.