The Vampire Diaries Review: The Rager

Spoilers for the episode below!

So this week’s Vampire Diaries continued the awesome streak they’ve got going on. It didn’t thrill me in quite the same way as last week’s, but it was still a really fantastic episode. I’m loving the storylines coming together and the character developments we’re starting to see already. So here is my compiled list of the top five moments/things about this episode that I loved.

“Tell me that is not a bomb.”
“Ok. It’s a kitten. An adorable, exploding kitten.”
“Why didn’t you call your brother?”
“Because I’m proud. And stubborn. And, oh look! You’re already here!”
This whole scene was just fantastic. We’ve never really gotten to see Meredith and Damon together without Ric to act as a Damon buffer, or Meredith attempting to steal Damon’s blood. And they just had this fantastic dynamic between them. Not romantic in anyway, but I could totally see Meredith and Damon teaming up and being awesome – they have witty banter, medical skills, and bad assery on their side after all. It’s also really good to see someone  really see Damon, he’s seemed so lonely since Ric died and Meredith looks like she could really be a good friend for him.

Speaking of awesome teams, who’d have thunk that Damon and Klaus could be quite so fantastic together? I’m a bit sad that Klaus was brought back so quickly, not because I don’t love Joseph Morgan, every episode he’s in makes me unbelievably happy, but I thought that a bigger break from Klaus would have probably been a good thing and given his return more of an impact. That said, I love The Damon and Klaus team up, it was absolutely fantastic. It wasn’t so much good cop, bad cop, as ‘bad ass and more bad ass.’ Which always makes me smile.

It was great to see the werewolf venom hallucinations – both the hot make out with Stefan turning into Damon (and then giving her some sound advice about why she keeps seeing him) and that heart stopping (literally) moment with Rebekah and Matt. Oh my god you guys, I thought Matty was a goner for a second. I loved that the hallucinations were a bit more about home truths rather than just random things. We never really knew what Rose saw, and Damon saw a lot of mixes of Katherine and Elena, so it was really great to see Rebekah realize how quickly she resorts to violence when she feels hurt and Elena finally beginning to show the first glimmers of recognition that she isn’t human now, and she needs to start to learn and understand the difference in her and her outlook and beliefs and world. (Although I really felt awfully squicky at the start of the episode – did you see the size of that needle!!??)

I’m so excited to see the rekindling of the Stefan and Caroline friendship. That was such a fantastic element in Season 2 and then we lost it and we haven’t see the two of them interact really since then, which is tragic given how fantastic they are, so it was lovely for Stefan to come to her and acknowledge that Caroline really blossomed as a vampire and to ask for her help in his dark moments.

And finally, I am loving Elena’s vampy rage. We saw hints of it in episode one, and it definitely started to surface a little last week, but we’re really getting to some of the darker elements of her character now. It’s so fantastic to see a more selfish and darker side to her because human Elena had started to feel a little bland for me. The scenes with Rebekah were fantastic, that showdown in the bathroom? And Rebekah stealing Elena’s daylight ring? It’s so good to see Elena standing up and fighting for once, and actually getting angry about it. We saw it briefly last season when she stabbed Rebekah in the back, but it looks like it’s really coming out to play now, and I love it.

Was it just me or was Stefan being kind of condescending? Given the rage/blood bender that he was on for a good portion of last season, he really seems to be on Elena’s case an awful lot. I get that we don’t want her to go on a bender and kill people because the guilt might then cripple her, but he seems to be keeping her on an awfully tight leash – particularly at moments when the darker elements of her personality come through. The point is that those darker elements have always been a part of Elena – they didn’t surface very often when she was human – but they were there, and maybe it’s just that they came out more often when Stefan was off on his blood bender so he isn’t used to seeing them, but to me it feels like he’s trying to stifle those parts of her for fear of how she might change. I mean the way she reacts to him finding her when she’s feeling murderous is like a child about to be scolded. Yes ok, he was right and it was great watching him talk her down, but something about the two of them just doesn’t feel quite right to me at the moment.

I loved Stefan and Elena together when she was human, they were one of my favourite tv couples to watch, but after how Stefan treated her last season, and how Elena relinquished a lot of her self-respect begging him to come back, I’m a little tired of their relationship. I want to see her grow into herself and experiment – be that with Damon or another character. Although let’s face it, Damon is a very sexy option. And given the promo for next week’s episode it looks like we’re going to get plenty of darker Elena and plenty of sexy Damon. I loved him finally stepping up and saying to Elena at the end of the episode, this is silly, you’re not adjusting, and I can help, and her finally admitting that she does really need him. He can offer that support and guidance that Stefan can’t, because he has learnt moderation, whereas if she were to go to Stefan he would either demand they hunt bunnies or over indulge and go back to being a rippah, which is never good. 

So for me, I’m loving this development between the two of them, the development of both characters and where this might lead in the next episode. Somewhere very, very sexy from the looks of it… And it really felt like Damon offered to teach her how to be a vampire with no ulterior motive, other than a love and desire to see her not destroy herself.

So that’s me. What did you think? Any moments that I’ve missed that you loved? And are you loving this new darker side to Elena that we’re seeing? And are you excited about next week’s flashbacks! Elijah!

And in the long, long wait for next week, check out these other fantastic reviews: Postcards from Mystic Falls by Price Peterson and Zap2its Carina.