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Vampire Diaries: Handle with Care

“Elena, meet Crazy Pants.”

And so the plot thickens. In fact, plot-thickening is the order of the day for TVD: the writers are at their happiest when the fleeting happy moments our characters hope to enjoy are completely ruined by a new twist. Or (in keeping with our metaphor of thickenation), a new dose of cornstarch in the chocolate pudding of life.

This week’s thickener: girl in a box (a classic), put there by Tessa. Tessa is a writer’s dream character: that wacky vengeful witch loves nothing more than a healthy dose of irony. The complications she creates are fun—don’t get me wrong—but I’m starting to feel a soap-opera sense of “And then…and then…” Is it weird to wish for a bit of closure? A paring-down rather than a series of additions?

Perhaps my discontent is due to the little that actually happened in this episode. Tessa withheld information about Amara from Stefan for no particular reason, except that if Tessa revealed the big surprise, we wouldn’t be in the dark about it for most of the episode. Silas, Damon, and Jeremy took the world’s fastest road trip to Snooki’s backyard only to discover that Silas could not kill the anchor. Bonnie’s resurrection is once again postponed.

That’s not to say the quest wasn’t amusing. Silas and Damon have a great rhythm that is subtly different from Damon’s repartee with Stefan (amnesiac or not). Katherine and Caroline bleeding Dr. Enfield was funny; Katherine’s apparent fast-aging is interesting, although I could have done without the tooth thing. Elena’s discovery that Stefan still has her best interests in mind was sweet.

I could get all analytical and point out that Amara was boxed up and Elena was equally trapped in a cabin. It’s Katherine, however, who rejects the constraints of her situation: she stopped Caroline from boxing up the dorm room and demanded Dr. Enfield save her. Of all the doppelgangers (triplegangers?), Katherine is the one least likely to give up on anything. Of course, maybe Crazy Pants Amara will turn that idea on its head: she was willing to sacrifice Silas to kill herself.

Katherine is an interesting addition to the Whitmore College plot, which is either A) irrelevant, B) going to coincide with the Tessa/Amara/Silas plot, or C) what the show will focus on once they get done with the Tessa/Amara/Silas stuff. A secret society (Caroline: "I've never heard of it." Enfield: "That's the point.") with a vampire of its own is interesting, although it makes me wonder if all of Virginia is in on some massive vampire conspiracy.

Bites:

• Damon: “It’s called being secure. I assume you know a little bit about that by the way you wear your hair.”

• Damon: “You do realize that by destroying the Other Side you are personally moving heaven and earth to be together. That’s not fate, you idiot, it’s you being a crazy person.”

• Silas: “It binds a spell to a supernatural hell dimension. It’s not going to look like a freaking IKEA sink.”

• Tessa: “So sad! Let me guess. Gluten-free?”

And Pieces:

• How does Amara know English? She’s been in a box for 2000 years, right?

• Do you think Tessa really lured a duck into the cabin?

Two out of four IKEA sinks

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

7 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying this doppelganger-mad season. For some reason, it's just working for me.

    Maybe Amara learned English the same stupid way that Ampata on the Buffy ep "Inca Mummy Girl" and Nefertiri in the Highlander episode "Pharaoh's Daughter" did. :)

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  2. I am confused about how Katherine is still alive. I figured her daughter had given her vampire blood, but she is clearly not a vampire.

    As for the Whitmore College plot, I suspect it is C.

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  3. M, I think it has something to do with the cure. Katherine was drained of blood with the cure in her system and didn't die; the same thing seems to have happened to Silas, who is (according to Damon) wandering around MIA and not dead. I guess we'll find out next week if Silas starts to age quickly, too.

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  4. Thanks Josie, that makes sense, in a VD kind of way. So the cure for immortality makes you...immortal :) Also, a glutton with no teeth. A sad irony, there.

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  5. Can we please have a Damon doppelganger? While we're at it, can they PLEEEEZE bring Alaric back before scrubbing the other side? Lexie too.

    Just saying.

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  6. I'm confused by what destroying the other side really means. Will it bring all those people back to earth like in Graduation? Whatever it is, it sounds really serious, and our "heroes" are acting as if it's unimportant.

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