The Vampire Diaries - After School Special

 

When Atticus Shane gives Bonnie a necklace of bone as a graduation present I liked to celebrate because the end of high school is at hand. I told my daughter, who watches this with me, that I will be so glad when they are FINALLY out of high school. How this show could keep these characters in high school so long is beyond me, but I guess that kind of melodrama is part of the CW brand. Bonnie conjures a protection spell for Shane when it appears Klaus' brother Kol, resurrected by Rebekah (who was resurrected by April, for revenge against Shane who was responsible for the death of her father and the town counsel due to the explosion in the gathering place), had killed him through a stick stabbed deep inside him. Okay, a lot of melodrama involved in this episode thanks to Rebekah. I have to admit: I really get a kick out of Claire Holt as Rebekah. There is a lot of pain and she is using that to motivate her to find the same vampire cure Klaus is after.

So the vampire cure is the beating heart of the fourth season. Four seasons and Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, and Matt are STILL in high school! Okay, I just had to screech that like a banshee one last time because, ugh. Okay, so Shane's motivation is finding Silas, equipped with an immortality spell. Shane unearthing Silas is a big no-no for all involved (Bonnie still doesn't realize how dangerous he is) because he'll "unleash hell on earth". Alright, so Shane being a bad guy while Bonnie is tied to him adds to all the melodrama as Jeremy is off being trained by Damon (with Matt helping) to kill vampires, with Klaus emerging to "speed things up". Klaus, wherever he goes, is ALWAYS a monster. That's the whole point of the series: Klaus is the villain you love to hate while Morgan makes him compelling enough that killing him off is just not in the cards. Klaus will stop at nothing to achieve whatever objective is in sight. He'll go on a rampage at the nearest watering hole so that Jeremy can kill enough vampires and get the map completed on his body to lead them all to the cure.

"After School Special" does something I actually appreciated: it got us to the point where Elena is compelled by Rebekah to tell Stefan the hard truth. That hard truth: Elena is in love with Damon and only loves Stefan. Elena doesn't want to be seen by Stefan as a broken toy needing fixed. Damon allows her to "be free". Good. Finally. Shows sometimes take quite a while, especially if they are formatted as a soap opera, to get us to a pivotal moment for characters. It feels like it took FOREVER to get there, but thanks to Rebekah, looking to pull bandaids for kicks, Stefan's hurt and Elena's truth are just out there. Stefan urging Rebekah to just compel all of Elena from him, every desire, love, and memory (all feelings), and her not doing so is my favorite scene in the episode. I think it is probably one of the best of the entire series for me personally. I think Rebekah smiling and leaving Stefan in pain because she was that way thanks to him and Klaus after offering to do that is a fantastic moment of real viscerally emotional potency...she has the very power to alleviate Stefan of his suffering but if that means Stefan is more interesting in the long run I'm all for it. I have to be honest, I'm done with sappy Stefan always trying to save Elena. I want Elena to go off to bad boy Damon (who she calls all ready to come to him if he'll say yes) and Stefan be free of her. I get that Stefan will always pine for Elena, even if he denies it, but the idea that he uses that as fuel to go after the vampire cure in association with Rebekah just sounds like a rad development. I think out of the entire episode, that new alliance just seems like something I can sink my teeth into.

Because I was checked out of the Stefan and Elena on-again/off-again romantic entanglements, this episode finally decided to make their split official-official. I will say that if Damon and Elena endure a lot of trouble I'll have little delights in their pain. I don't know what it is, but I just want them to suffer. Not sure where that is coming from, to be honest. I guess Stefan being dragged along for four seasons when Elena and Damon was inevitable might be it. I can't see Stefan and Rebekah becoming an item, but it wouldn't shock me, either.

Anyway, poor Pizza Delivery Girl...wrong place, wrong time. Klaus really wants that map so Jeremy's training needed to provoked to the next level. Damon and Klaus have a lot of tensions, to say the least. I do wish Matt wasn't anywhere near these people, though. It almost feels like they needed to give Matt more to do, so they shoehorned him into Jeremy's map-storyline. Caroline, meanwhile, is off trying to be a source of comfort to Tyler, who lost his mother in the previous episode to a Klaus drowning. However, Caroline is always endangered somehow -- a running gag for the writer's room, it seems -- so she is "brought" into a school room with Elena and Stefan by Rebekah in order to catch all of us (including Rebekah) up to date with Shane, the vampire cure, Stefan and Elena's breakup, and the sword in Klaus' possession. Tyler is brought to the school due to Caroline's safety in jeopardy. He's "encouraged" by Rebekah through compelling to turn into a werewolf in order to pursue (and kill) Caroline, Elena, and Stefan. Come on, though: that ain't happening. 

One of the more fascinating developments to me is Bonnie using a protection spell that seems to link April to Shane, using salt as a natural element inside a chemistry room. As Shane is dying, April also suffers the same injuries (Kol nearly drowning Shane and stabbing him with the stick). Eventually Bonnie's spell works, saving both Shane and April. April is a character that would appear to be a bit malnourished from a development standpoint. So this episode addressed that a bit more by having her be the reason Rebekah is once again walking around causing trouble and going to Bonnie's dad and Caroline's mom about all the lies needing to be addressed, including the death of her father and the town counsel. Bonnie's dad, Rudy Hopkins (Rick Worthy), is the newly interim mayor and he's been away because he hates witchcraft. Rudy not liking vampires and witches in his town is an introduced complication for Bonnie, who is a witch. April wants her father's name and those who died with him to be rehabbed, obviously. I like that as a thread going forward. 5/5