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Vampire Diaries: Crying Wolf

“Elena has to die.”

Isn’t this show wonderful? I experienced nearly every emotion watching this episode: fear, trepidation, glee, sympathy, rage... you get the picture. (Maybe Anna from V just needs to watch some sexy vampires.) In the middle of all that emotion-laden mythos, there were some delightful character moments. I love this show.

Damon: So Andie Star, reporter, isn’t dead. And she’s oddly compelled: she has been compelled not to fear Damon, but she hasn’t been compelled to forget he’s a vampire. Does that mean he wants her to be free to talk to his friends without revealing that she’s under compulsion? Or does he, in fact, want a relationship with her—or something close to a real relationship?

Either way, Damon’s relationship with Andie pales in comparison to his brewing rivalry with Elijah, who is even stronger than Katherine. Like, a lot stronger. It’s a good thing, too, since those werewolves really had it in for him. Poetic justice, indeed. Take that, lycanthropes!

The Werewolves: Tyler doesn’t get his own section, because I’m not as forgiving as Elena. Sure, he’s an adolescent boy in the midst of a serious identity crisis. Welcome to life, dude. That’s what being 16 or so is all about—and it doesn’t give you carte blanche to abandon your friends, even under the sway of lupine peer pressure. I’m glad Tyler is taking some time away with the sole remaining pack member.

And, hey! Those werewolves are bad doggies. No snausages for them. Angry Male Werewolf just stabbed Alaric in the stomach without a second thought. Werewolves can detect vampires, so he could tell that Alaric was human—just a casualty in the completely made-up vampire/werewolf war that has been entirely manufactured by the werewolves. Grrr.

Elena: Elena got some funny moments in this episode, which was a nice delight. She also showed her kindness to Tyler, about which the least said the better. But in the middle of all this in-the-moment stuff, Elena was the center of a maelstrom of foreboding. Obviously, I’m a little freaked out by all the “Elena must die” blather going on. Elena can’t die, obviously. But how will our heroes prevent her death? Will someone have to sacrifice themselves to save her, as she’s so willing to sacrifice herself? If we get to vote, I vote Tyler off the Mystic Falls island.

At least Elena got a few hours with her boyfriend, even though it was quickly ruined by Scrawny Male Werewolf and the creepy closet of weapons and secrets. That closet…well, I suspect that the new set of journals might be important down the line. In the meantime, though, Elena’s fight with Stefan—well, it was the worse kind of fight, wasn’t it? Not two people shouting, but one person’s (Stefan’s) astonished disappointment in another. Stefan can’t believe that Elena is willing to sacrifice herself, and he’s made a very good point. I can think of a solution, though. Can you?

Bonnie: Bonnie decided to fight on the side of good this week, which is nice. I’m still a bit disturbed by her occasional hatred of vampires, and I’m a little worried that Jeremy is just asking for trouble as he falls for one more really complex girl with issues. But Bonnie’s pragmatic cruelty was good news for our heroes, since in enabled her to find out how to kill Elijah.

Caroline: I loved Caroline’s few lines in this episode. I think vampirism agrees with her. She seems to have much more distance on emotional issues, and I was quite charmed by her talk with Bonnie about Jeremy. I hope things work out with her and Matt. It’s not that I much care for him, but I want Caroline to be happy. And I especially don’t want her to die. Ever.

Alaric: What was better—Alaric and Damon talking about their girlfriends and how to kill Elijah, or Alaric telling off Sark, or Alaric trying to figure out how to deal with his adoration of Jenna and his inability to be truthful with her?

Sark!: That smarmy little s.o.b. just won’t quit, will he? Trying to break up Alaric and Jenna, trying to claim his parental rights just to mess with Elena…whatever game he’s playing, it can’t be good for anyone. (Although I will say this: have any of you noticed that Sark has paired up with our heroine’s mother in order to take down the good guys and work some nefarious scheme of his own? Alias, anyone?)

Bites:

• Andie Star: “This is such a crazy day. I’m covering the Historical Society’s high tea.” I must admit, I’m incredibly jealous of her, that a high tea would constitute a crazy day.

• Damon: “My new girlfriend, Andie Star, Action News.”
Alaric: “It’s not called Action News.”
Damon: “I know, I just like saying it.”

• Angry Male Werewolf: “Let’s go get our doppelganger.” The first time through, I heard this as “Let’s go dopplegang her.” So much funnier, although that style of verbal humor would have been out of character for him.

• Jeremy: “What kind of witch roofie was that?”

• Alaric: “You’re a dick.” Yeah, Alaric!

• Caroline: “Would you rather be with traitor warlock over here?”

And Pieces:

• I love that they undercut the potential sexiness of three girls sharing a bed during a slumber party with Elena falling out of bed onto the floor.

• What torture porn movie was Scrawny Male Werewolf referring to? Does anyone know?

• Luka’s sister is his excuse for helping Elijah. Well, that and: Elijah is scary!

• Scrawny Male Werewolf tried to hide under his jacket. From an original. ???

In closing, just to keep things straight, I want to keep track of the threats to Elena, because so much is going on that I’m worried we’ll lose sight of some pending danger:

• She’s willing to die to protect her friends and family.
• Sark and Isobel might have it out for her.
• Katherine is still in the tomb, thinking all kinds of evil thoughts.
• The werewolves think Elena is Katherine, so they want to kill her. They also think she’s the doppelganger (that part is correct), so they want to kill her.
• Elijah.
• Klaus.
• Is that all?

So much happened. (The disorganization of my review pretty much got that across, didn’t it?) So, of course, I award it four out of foreboding closets.

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

14 comments:

  1. Another great episode! This show is really addictive!

    I dont't think Damon want's a real relationship with Andie. In the bath scene last week he said "Just kiss me, be my distraction", so I think that's what she is to him. But I wonder if she remembers what he told her about being in love (with Elena)..?

    I was really glad that Alaric survived, but I'm a little confused about his ring; I though it only kept him safe from being killed by vampires, but clearly it worked on werewolfs too.. Can't he be killed at all? In that case I'm glad Jeremy has the other ring, not Sark..!

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  2. I'm pretty sure the ring keeps you from being killed by "evil things", which I'm taking as supernatural things, not serial killers who ARE evil, but are also human. The ring was Jeremy's father's ring and it didn't stop him from drowning in a perfectly, non supernatural way, so I don't think the ring stops death, just death by vampire, werewolf or any of the dozens of monsters we have seen on Supernatural, none of which that will ever appear here.

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  3. I love VD and as always your great review!
    But could you please stop referring to "John Gilbert" as "Sark"?! I loved/hated him in Alias and I love/hate him in VD but it seriously is confusing the hell out of me during your synopsis/review.

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  4. Loved the review Josie!
    This episode was definitely action-packed, VD just keeps getting better and better. Elijah is becoming a very compelling character. Usually he scares me, but sometimes i almost like him, like when he killed all the wolves, who definitely had it coming. I'm glad that the werewolf/vampire war has been somewhat resolved, but I'm sure that Tyler will be back at some point to cause more wolfy trouble.

    Also, I've been thinking about ways that Elena might be able to get around dying. For the ritual, does she necessarily have to die and stay dead? If not, Jeremy or Alaric could let her borrow one of their rings, and she could die in the sacrifice, but then come right back to life. Who knows if this is the route that VD will take, but it is a possibility.

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  5. That's a real interesting thought! I like it!
    Doesn't she also have to "die" to turn into a vampire? If she's fed vampireblood, then killed, she will turn..? Then she'll be a vampire without any curse :)

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  6. The only thing that would make Sark more Sark-like is if he had a British accent.
    Or, you know, John Gilbert is actually Sark and "John Gilbert" is just an alias.
    Hmmm....

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  7. I chuckled at that Morgan :)

    Josie, surely you don't want to know what torture porn film SMW was referring to! In fact I hope that that 'device' that Damon was made to wear doesnt really exist.

    This was definitely an outstanding VP episode :)

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  8. Loved the review, thanks!
    Oh, and I have to chuckle each time I read Sark, so I vote to keep using it ;)

    I wondered, why does a vampire learn to cook?
    I mean, don't think he learned in the time Stefan comes from... and later? Did he get that bored?

    (or is he like Spike, and eats?)

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  9. Those vampires don't have a problem with eating and drinking, and they can even get drunk so i guess they can taste the food.

    Bonnie didn't find out how to kill Elijah, only Klaus and it way vague apart from he will be weak after the sacrifice.

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  10. As much as I love this show, I am over Elena getting chased through a house by a bad guy.

    I actually fast forwarded through those scenes this time as we had just seen the same thing with Rose.

    Big yawn!

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  11. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure John has no legal standing to claim guardianship rights. He gave those up when he elected to not have his name on Elena's birth certificate.

    By the way, I never watched Alias so when you first started referring to him as "Sark" I was totally confused and thought I missed a character. Now I'm used to it, but if people tried to start reading these reviews in the middle, they might also be completely confused. In the interest of not scaring away new readers, I vote call him by his name on the show or the actor's name.

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  12. Tyler has never been a likeable character, but I think you're being a little harsh. Caroline's his friend now, but that's a new development and the rest have never really been his friends. Even though it was the "killing Elena" part that finally pushed him to turn on the werewolves, it's telling that he didn't say "Elena is my friend" or even that he particularly liked her, just that he'd known her his whole life. He only knows Stefan because he was a former teammate and not for very long. I can't think of any reason for him to know Damon at all. So it's not that shocking to me that he could be persuaded to turn on his uncle's murderers, even if he didn't know his uncle all that well either.

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    Replies
    1. I'm definitely willing to concede that I was really harsh on Tyler. I don't remember how much I talked about this in the reviews, but he's one of the very small number of actors that just really rub me the wrong way , through no fault of his own. I was not unbiased.

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  13. @ChrisB--I didn't mind Elena being chased around by the bad guys this time nearly so much because she responded intelligently and fought back. The other episode drove me up the wall because all she needed to do was stay in the sunlight.

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