The Vampire Diaries - The Killer

 Pretty good episode dealing with Elena's real "first official kill". Of course, it was to protect Jeremy, or so she thought it was. Stefan and Klaus' continued friction and rivalry is reiterated as Klaus is warned to keep Connor, the vampire hunter with a tattoo destined to reveal the vampire cure after he kills enough vampires (irony, aye?), alive while Damon and Elena are to be kept in the dark (Klaus wants no one else to know about the vampire cure). Stefan wants Elena free of vampirism while Damon is cool with her being vampire or mortal human. So Connor kidnaps Jeremy while he's in a back room at the Mystic Grille, holding him, and later Matt (and April, visiting), hostage. Connor sets traps up for any vampires that might come to Jeremy's rescue, hoping to add to his vampire body count so the tattoo could be completed, allowing him to truly realize why he has been fated to kill. Well, when you push Elena too far by threatening her brother that's enough to provoke quite the response. So Damon and Elena are talking about killing Connor while Stefan tries (and ultimately fails) to keep the secret of the vampire cure from them...but if you watch this show long enough, you realize secrets just don't last. Damon is not one to mince words and isn't afraid to confront Stefan violently in order to get secrets out of him. Too bad Stefan and Damon's conversation takes up enough time for Elena to violently put an end to Connor before he could blow up her brother...however, a gun goes off while Elena tries to talk Connor away from Jeremy and ends up attacking him, a bullet right into his stomach as a result. So Elena tends to Jeremy while eventually "listening" to Damon when he assured her that Connor needed to die. 

There is a romantic love triangle developing between Tyler, the hybrid, Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), the werewolf from Appalachia who helped him break his sire from Klaus, and Caroline, who feels suspicious of their relationship. But this is about Klaus and helping other hybrids break from him.

Elena killing someone is played up for dramatic effect, with her digging a grave for Connor and later hallucinating blood all over her bathroom with KILLER on the wall. This is essentially a new dynamic added to the season, with her "dear diary" brought back from the early part of the first season. This is Vampire "Diaries" after all. I admit that this part of the show is more than a bit campy to me personally, but my daughter seems to enjoy all of this, so I soldier through. Damon and Stefan holding the secret regarding Connor's tattoo and the cure that would've helped her won't prevent Elena from being tortured. This is The Vampire Diaries, after all. Tortured characters is this show's bread and butter.

Jeremy having the tattoo furthers along his own arc about being the next Vampire Hunter. Klaus, also, pursues a sword in Italy. Klaus, even that far away from Mystic Falls, remains quite the antagonist. He's still the topic of conversation and the motivations of almost all characters involve Klaus' downfall.

Another subplot still involves Bonnie and her lapsed witchcraft and this professor (David Alpay), who uses hypnosis to help her fight away the guilt and light candles in his office. Alpay's Shane was an architect in Connor's movements in Mystic Falls. What other plans are still afoot even though Connor is eliminated? 2.5/5