A Case of the.... The Vampire Diaries - Episode 3-12

This was a strangely sweet episode of The Vampire Diaries, actually. Between Elena and Stefan, Bonnie and her mom, Alaric and Dr. Fell, and Alaric and Elena, there were several legitimately tender moments – more so than usual.

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I should probably start with Bonnie reuniting with her mother, since that was the story that drove the episode. I actually really appreciated the fact that they didn’t sugarcoat her mother’s abandonment and that they didn’t turn it into something noble and altruistic. Quite simply, she made an exceptionally selfish decision and left her daughter, forcing her to grow up motherless (and without an understanding of why). And while she did redeem herself near the end of the episode, it wasn’t without a price. While she was just protecting her surrogate son, her actions did allow Klaus to reclaim three of his four caskets.

Also, did anybody else expect a little twist regarding Abbey and the hybrid? Sweet, innocent looking Abbey answers the door, I thought we’d discover that she actually overpowered the hybrid and was holding him captive someplace.

In last week’s review I talked quite a bit about the development of Stefan’s character and how it relates to Elena. I thought this week did a great job of picking up the momentum, and for the first time since his emotions were “turned off,” we got a genuinely sweet Stefan/Elena moment (and it wasn’t without the new Stefan edge). When the episode began, the two were clearly adversarial. Stefan was annoyed that Bonnie involved Elena (why exactly did Bonnie need her to find her mom? I didn’t quite follow that) and Elena was still angry that Stefan had kidnapped her. From there Elena lied to Stefan, and Stefan responded with intimidation. Things changed when Stefan was shot and Elena was forced to rescue him. Yes, he was important to her survival, but you could tell there were some lingering feelings there. And for his part, that was also the first time post-turn off that I recall Stefan taking a moment to compliment Elena without provocation or motive. And when Elena (somewhat unapologetically) told Stefan that she had kissed Damon (important distinction – she did not say that Damon kissed her), you could tell that Stefan was really hurt and bothered by it. And when Elena confronted him about it (this time more apologetically), he didn’t respond with anger or guilt. Instead, he apologized to her, telling her that he shouldn’t have held her captive and used her as bait against Klaus.

It was with Damon, however, that he did show anger – and I have to say, I loved that scene. It was great how Stefan just hit him, and without saying a word Damon already knew what it was about (loved the way he simply said, “I guess you two had a heart to heart”). And instead of harping on it, or getting into a huge fight, they just move on to more important business. They might possibly have the most fun connection on television.

So, what does everybody make of Dr. Fell? They were laying on her devious acts pretty thick, so I suspected we would see a twist where she’s REALLY doing something good, but I’m beginning to think we’re in for a double turn, where we discover she really is slightly disturbed. But, like Jeremy last season, Alaric is a good guy and has been screwed around an awful lot in the love department. The guy deserves a break and some happiness.

And actually, perhaps my favorite “sweet moment” was the brief one at the end of the episode, with Alaric and Elena, where Elena gave Alaric her blessing for moving on. Alaric has stuck around to watch over Elena and Jeremy, and he really didn’t need to do that. And with Jeremy now gone, Alaric is probably the closest thing Elena has left that can be classified as family.

It was also pretty great seeing HRG back on The Vampire Diaries (for those of you who didn’t watch Heroes, I’m referring to Caroline’s dad). His Pavlonian outlook on supernatural abilities and limitations is clever and interesting. It’s also good to see that they’re making efforts of redeeming Tyler after turning off several of his friends.