The Vampire Diaries - The Departed

 

“The Departed” is the kind of episode that is just a series dynamo, one of those you point and say, “That right there is when the show was at its very best”. A good wallop final scene when Elena opens her eyes when for intents and purposes she should be dead right after Meredith informs Damon that she had to give Elena vampire blood due to suffering a cerebral hemorrhage at the end of the previous episode. And even before that, Alaric’s ghost visiting Jeremy, no longer Esther’s Vampire Hunter, telling him that he would always be there for him…both realizing that if Alaric is dead, Elena must also be. And then there is the big pivotal scene where it is revealed that Klaus’ spirit is in the body of Tyler because Bonnie couldn’t afford to lose anyone he might have personally turned or whose blood line follows after him. Klaus’ body is destroyed by Alaric, Vampire Hunter, with Esther’s special “magic kissed” oak stake, pissing Rebekah off again, causing Matt to drive the truck (with Elena inside, having spiked her tea, in order to knock her out and carry her supposedly safely out of Mystic Falls) off the very bridge that drowned Elena’s parents, now responsible for drowning Elena, too. “The Departed” hasn’t got a single scene that is padding…it is busy, busy, busy, but not just moving parts around all willy-nilly. There is no fat on the bone. Even the teen romance aspects are very specific to the overall series’ ongoing arc, such as who Elena would choose between Damon and Stefan, and there is good use of Matt—who, quite frankly, has been mistreated by the show, more or less a background piece to flittingly offer now and again—as the one who will help her decide. And there is some really great use of flashback and history, including a neat surprise involving Damon meeting Elena before Stefan, complete with a conversation he takes away from her memory in order to keep his arrival at Mystic Falls a secret (he believes she is Katherine, even bringing that long forgotten character back to mind). What I really liked was the use of irony in the bridge, the drowning Elena experienced with her parents, and the drowning in Matt’s truck that would inevitably lead to her beginnings of a vampire transition. You get to see memories of Elena before Stefan and Damon, still a cheerleader dating Matt (but almost ready to tell him that she had been stringing him along, not really wanting to be anything more than friends), Elena with her parents and a visiting Jenna, and the aforementioned dialogue with Damon (who had been laid out in the road, awaiting a victim to bite) about Matt and not knowing what she really wants…Damon could tell she desired true passion. The episode does have Stefan kissing Elena, Elena deciding on Stefan, and Damon accepting that she prefers him, realizing “it will always be Stefan”. You have Vampire Hunter Alaric and Damon in combat, Alaric weakening as Elena drowns…how the episode juxtaposes these two and Alaric visiting Jeremy is expertly and impeccably crafted. Even Elijah returns, wanting to make a deal with Elena that he would take Klaus’ body and make sure he isn’t reawakened until her human death, while Vampire Hunter Alaric meets with Jeremy about putting an end to vampires once and for all, also wanting Klaus’ body. You have the parents telling Tyler and Caroline that they will need to leave town because Alaric has told the Counsel they are vampire/hybrid. But Tyler and Caroline won’t be able to do so that easy as Klaus is now in Tyler’s body while Caroline flees from him as Bonnie tells Klaus she kept him alive because she wanted to have some control…and if Klaus is the one whose bite is linked to the Salvatores, he must remain alive. So this episode gets all the characters involved. Not a single major character isn’t given something important to do…and I like that. Too often you can go several episodes without even seeing Matt or Bonnie, and even then they are confined to mere minutes. So seeing them in the thick of it is most welcome. Plus the episode seems to have one surprise after another, and the pace is often quite motoring it. This is a really solid setup for the next season. I can just imagine the woah that ending of the episode must have generated for the series’ biggest fans. 4/5