The Vampire Diaries - Growing Pains/Memorial **

The opening of the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries had the town’s council coordinating off the local hospital, making sure Meredith understood no blood bags would be removed or “come up missing” and that she should look for another job. They also made sure to “remove” Liz Forbes from being sheriff and Carol Lockwood from being mayor. I laughed because in the second episode, “Memorial”, Liz and Carol are back in their town roles as if Pastor Young and his cohorts never stepped in to “remove them” in the first place.

Connor has a system that spots vampires—he does this when he shakes Tyler’s hand, shooting him with special “marked” wood bullets—with a “vervain hand shake”. He stabs April upon introduction so he can lure out the vampires among the memorial in the church and shoot them from a perch above the congregation. And an attempted handshake with Damon (denied because he says he is a “germaphobe”) who is bringing Elena clothes (Elena has a bad reaction to animal blood or blood bags, realizing she’ll need to feed from a source, certain to create plenty of conflict) is denied so Connor won’t be able to just pick off the vampires so easily. I especially liked how Matt steps up inside the church to offer his throat to Elena in the memorial so that she can feed without Connor noticing it, using a “comforting hug” as a clever cover. The show never ceases to amuse me with how they keep Elena safe from harm…although she suffers thanks to knowing and loving vampires. And the love triangle continues to be the arc the series never wavers in exploiting for dramatic effect. Damon and his angst, Stefan just wanting Elena to always be honest with him, and Elena confiding in certain conflicts she has with Damon because she didn’t want to worry or hurt Stefan. This isn’t confined to them. You have Caroline in relationships with the likes of Matt and Tyler (with Klaus even showing interest, rescuing her in Tyler’s body while leaving Rebekah in a turned over van he crashed, choosing a girl he’s barely known very long over a sister he’s known for quite some time), Bonnie with her own relationships with Jeremy and the missing Jamie (who is a no-show since late in the last season), Tyler and Jeremy once involved with Matt’s sister, and so on and so forth. The show even flirted with Matt and Rebekah, which I always thought was doomed to failure but intriguing if just because it would have given Matt some love interest. Speaking of Rebekah, she confronts Klaus about why he left her behind and chose to help Caroline, and brother pretty much tells sister he wants nothing to do with her…not only that, but she’s dead to him, no longer a sister, nothing. Klaus once again is moved back to his body after threatening to rip Tyler’s heart out, so just when you think he might finally be out of the series, the Writer’s Room brings him right back. He’s a petulant child, a selfish nuisance always threatening violence to somebody Elena loves. Bonnie was his object of threat, forcing her to engage the dark side of the “other” after being warned by her grams (Jasmine Guy) to not do so after trying to lure Elena out of death back to life, desperately hoping to “cure” her of vampirism. Grams’ punishment is to tell Bonnie that there are certain kinds of magic she must never attempt…and Klaus, of course, is the instigator that forces Bonnie to return to the very magic her grams told her to leave alone. Caroline rejected Klaus in Tyler’s body, and Klaus wanted out of this host into his own…one way or another, Klaus gets what he wants (well, most of the time.)

Who Connor is gets a bit more interesting when Jeremy sees a tattoo on his arm Matt doesn’t…and Connor is startled that Jeremy sees it. Connor had found the letter to April from Pastor Young, and his ability to escape the clutches of Damon offers the viewer a fresh antagonist and threat besides Klaus.

That Bonnie was willing to die in order to locate the “spirit” of Elena in the cell, as Jeremy looks on, having disputed even the idea of such risk, and the subsequent body switch that sent Klaus back into his old shell, allowed for us to see through Jasmine Guy the dangers of using forbidden magic. Stefan coming over to visit her, and Bonnie letting him in her own home for an embracing hug, in discussion of—who else but—Elena, all of the episode of “Memorial” allows for that ending where Caroline, Matt, Jeremy, Bonnie, Stefan, and Elena to just grieve. Elena’s vampirism not only released all the Damon memories kept from her by his “influenced memory mask” but her grief is also heightened. The tears, abundance and ongoing, couldn’t allow Elena to breathe. So the sky lanterns Stefan decides the VD crew needed to free the loss of their loved ones felt needed. It is just hard not to see the fingerprints of Twilight’s influence all over this show, complete with the teenage mood rock that underlies all the melodrama.

Growing Pains 3.5/5
Memorial 3.5/5

*When Elena feeds from Damon, I wonder how many series' fans found it quite erotic, as Damon comforts her as she sinks her teeth in. And then Elena feeding from Matt's neck, getting just enough and unclinching. I could imagine this leaving quite an unusual sensual reaction. Vampirism in film and television is indeed sexual and sensual, the very process of feeding lensed to be.