A Case of the.... The Vampire Diaries - Episode 2-3

I believe it was last season’s “Bloodlines” that I originally made this observation, but I really enjoy the episodes that mix up the pairings we’ve grown accustomed to. Sure, Elena shares a number of scenes with Damon in any typical episode, but for the most part she’s paired up with Stefan. Yet this episode, we saw Elena grouped with Rick and Damon, while Stefan was coupled with Caroline. And it was a fun departure from what we’re used to.

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This episode also started to delve into a matter I criticized in the season premiere, which is that Elena and Katherine are just a bit too identical. I’m glad that the show is acknowledging this anomaly. The fact that they’re making it a story point is an added bonus.

One of the highlights of last week’s episode was the tender bathroom scene (wow, that sounded bad) between Stefan and Caroline. I really enjoyed their interactions this week as well. In an odd way, Stefan’s personality really shines when he’s not sharing scenes with Elena. When he’s with her, he’s all sweet and romantic – which is fine – but when he’s talking with other people he’s a lot looser and free. I also appreciated the explanation that vampires aren’t inherently evil, their personalities as humans are just intensified.

While I sympathize and understand Damon’s emotional pain, I have to say that his anger towards Elena for “using” him is a bit of a stretch. I mean, the primary purpose of their mission was to find out about the werewolves, which Damon was just as interested in as anybody else. Attaining information on Katherine seemed like a byproduct. And this intel doesn’t solely benefit Elena, either. So, no, I don’t think she out-and-out used Damon. And even if she did, it certainly wasn’t to anything Katherine had done. Yes, I know that we’re not supposed to see it Damon’s way – he was hurt and irrational – but it seemed like a stretch even for him.

Having said that, I did appreciate the fact that he was honest with Elena, and I do always enjoy his brief moments of humanity. I’ll repeat what I said last season: Who knew that Boone was so charismatic and personable?

By the episode’s conclusion, we received confirmation that Tyler’s uncle – and presumably Tyler – is a werewolf. I was a bit surprised to see that they, too, took the True Blood route by using an actual wolf (or, at the very least, the appearance of an actual wolf) instead of a wolfman hybrid. And I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I never once made the connection between vampires/werewolves and the sun/moon. I’d never heard that interpretation on the werewolf/vampire legend, but I thought it was pretty clever.

As a side note, I’m glad that this Rick/Jenna thing is a go. When they had their kinda/sorta let’s put this on hold moment at the beginning of the episode, and then had Isobel’s old assistant flirt with Rick, I thought, “Great, Jenna’s not even going to get her shot.” But I was glad that Rick was able to put his past behind him, and chose the proper future. But now the sister of Elena’s adoptive mother is dating the husband of Elena’s birth mother. Well, I guess that’s still not as bad as the fact that the sister of Elena’s adoptive mother slept with Elena’s biological father, who is the brother to Elena’s adoptive father. Right?