Episode 2.13 – “Daddy Issues”

This episode was jam packed with goodies!  Soooo much better than last week in my opinion.

Tyler pays Caroline a visit, looking very intense when he tells her they need to talk.  Oblivious, Caroline tells him that they can’t “go there” meaning the kiss they shared.  He’s a little more concerned with the fact that she’s been lying to him about there being no other vampires in town and that she’s known all along that they killed his uncle Mason.  She tries to explain, but he flips out, pressing her against her car.  “I trusted you!” He yells before stalking off.

Cut to Damon in the shower, never a bad place to begin! (thanks TVD for answering my request for a shirtless Damon!)  It seems like everyone in town is watching the news which is covering the slew of murders, thanks to Rose, Jules and Damon’s recent activities.  The Mayor announces they will be holding a memorial service at the town square.  John is watching as well at the Gilbert household but turns it off when Elena emerges looking cute in a ponytail.  But that’s the only thing cute and cuddly about Elena today as she comes out swinging, demanding to know what John’s doing in town.  He insists that he’s there to protect her.  Elena gets some great lines in this episode, basically getting to tell John off at every opportunity, all those things that I shout out to my TV on her behalf in the past.  He has no right to be in her life, she neither wants nor needs him there, etc.; it’s glorious.  Jenna and Alaric come down and she demands to know what John’s doing there too.  Oops, guess they forgot to tell her about his arrival the night before.  She demands that he leaves, but John points out that it’s not up to her because despite her being Elena’s legal guardian, he is her biological father.  She looks suitably stunned. 

Stefan seems to be the only one who is happy about John’s return to Mystic Falls.  Not so for Damon who wonders if Stefan has blown a mental gasket for trusting him.  Stefan defends his decision, listing out all the ways they’re currently screwed, they can use all the help they can get.  He believes that John knows how to keep Elena safe – even though he refuses to divulge how to any of them.  Damon is less trusting, more ticked off about the new development than anything else.  “As if I didn’t have enough problems.” He grumbles, heading straight to Elena’s house.

Damon and Elena bond over mistrusting John, regardless of what Stefan says.  When Elena asks what they’re going to do, Damon responds by saying they’re going to kill him – but that he’s not serious – well, okay a little serious.  He promises not to hurt him because he’s a good guy now.  Elena comes with him just to be sure all he does is talk to her father. 

Episode 2.12 – “The Descent”

And we’re back!

Thank goodness for the recap at the beginning of the episode as I’d forgotten just where we left off!

We begin with Jules waking up naked in the woods; her mouth artfully smeared with dirt and dried blood.  How lucky that she stumbles upon some campers… well, what’s left of them after she tore them apart the night before.  Is it just me or wouldn’t there be less parts if they’d been savaged by wolves?  Why would a wolf need to chop them into so many pieces anyway?  But there are body parts galore as she piles them onto the campfire.  Jules whips up some fast crocodile tears when the law shows up, and before he can call it in, she beats him to death with a handy piece of wood. 

Elena comes to see Stefan and we’re treated to a gratuitous shot of his bare torso.  (psst, where’s our shot of Damon with his shirt off?  It’s been a long hiatus!)  The couple seems just as lovey dovey as usual.  She doesn’t want them to be apart anymore, ever.  (where is this girl’s parental supervision?  Doesn’t Jenna care that she’s out all hours of the night?)  Stefan feels like he should talk to Isobel to ask her about Klaus, but Elena isn’t sure it’s a good idea.  Next on the bad idea list is Stefan chugging back some vervain dosed water to try and build up a tolerance to it.  It looks painful, but he seems to recover pretty quickly after all.  It’s nice to see Elena take a sip as well, hopefully affording her a small modicum of protection herself. 

Rose looks like crap.  They did a great job making her look like she’s weak and dying.  Damon has no sympathy for her depressing talk, telling her in typical fashion, “You know if you’re going to be maudlin, I might as well just kill you myself, to put me out of your misery.”  He tries to lift her spirits, intimating that she might not be dying after all, but as he takes a look at her wound, it’s obviously much, much worse.  Damon lies and tells her it’s definitely looking better, enlisting Elena to reassure her as well.  He asks Elena to play nursemaid to Rose for a while so he can go out and run some errands, knowing that she won’t say no.  Elena asks if Rose is going to die.  Damon replies that she probably will, explaining about the infection that seems to be spreading from the werewolf bite.  “The sooner she dies the better, it’s gloomy as hell in here.”  He adds.  We all know that just means he’s repressing his emotions as he tends to do when he’s being that glib, which also means that he actually cares about Rose on some level.  Interesting.

Episode 2.11 – “By the Light of the Moon”

The episode opens with Tyler getting some supplies together, mostly chains, into a duffel bag while the video of Mason writhing in agony is running on his computer.  He calls Mason’s home number, leaving a voicemail about how it’s the full moon tonight and how he’s freaking out.  Cut to a girl in Mason’s apartment listening in to the message, and I’m thinking… werewolf girlfriend? 

Just as Tyler is leaving the house, the mystery girl shows up at the Lockwood mansion introducing herself as Jules, a friend of Mason’s.  She lets them know that he never returned to Florida and Tyler’s mom calls the sheriff to report him missing.   Jules seems awfully interested in Tyler and calls someone to report that not only is Mason missing but there’s another werewolf; his nephew.   (I’m thinking Elijah, what do you guys think?)

Jeremy, Elena and Bonnie are talking about how to try and de-spell the moonstone now that they’ve got it.  Elena flunks the test they’ve set out for her by stealing the moonstone to try and sneak out with it the first chance she gets.  But Bonnie’s already anticipated that she would try this and spelled the house; Elena can’t leave, just like the vamps in the tomb. 

Damon brings Stefan a care package with candles, lanterns and blood but Stefan refuses the blood, not wanting to have to share it with Katherine.  Once again Stefan says not to worry about trying to get him out of the tomb; just worry about keeping Elena safe and the moonstone.  I have to think – he sure is calm about being trapped in the tomb with Katherine!  Maybe the promo will really be about a steamy moment between them?

Episode 2.10 – “The Sacrifice”

We’re back with another episode!  We start with Elena waking up in her bedroom to some strange noises coming from the hallway.  Suspenseful music plays, and we see a flash of Jonas (Luka’s dad, remember?) stalking her.  Elena gets up to see who it is but after a few tense moments she runs into Alaric and Jenna on the way back from the kitchen with some Chunky Monkey ice cream.  Assuming that they’re the ones making all the racket, they stand out in the hallway making awkward conversation long enough for Jonas to steal some very personal items from Elena’s bedroom like hair from her brush and jewelry.  Uh oh… this does not bode well in the hands of a warlock.  (Can I just mention again how much I hate the use of that word?)

The next morning Stefan and Damon pay Katherine a visit in the tomb to ask for the moonstone back.  Did they really think this would work?  Katherine wants out of the tomb now because she’s bored out of her mind in there.  She offers to give them the moonstone in exchange for her freedom and her promise to leave Mystic Falls forever?  Anyone else not believe her?  I didn’t think so.

They tell the plan to Elena to release the spell from the moonstone which they figure will keep Elena from being sacrificed.  Elena doesn’t believe that Katherine will just give it up.  “We will pry it from her cold dead hand.”  Damon tries to reassure her.  They want Bonnie to release the seal long enough to get the moonstone and get out, leaving Katherine trapped inside. 

The only problem is… Elena wants no part of this plan.  She isn’t ready to risk Klaus’ wrath and possibly get everyone she loves killed in the bargain.  Interesting to note that she is definitely including Damon in that group of people she loves.  Damon looks a little stunned by the admission.

Bonnie admits to Luka that it’s become a lot harder physically to work spells lately.  He tells her that it’s because she’s not drawing power from the available resources around her.  Luka shows Bonnie how to channel their energy together.  They exchange personal trinkets and raise up a little wind at school and Bonnie looks almost giddy with the rush of power.  Luka leaves just as Jeremy walks up, but before they can talk much, she gets a text from Damon.

Episode 2.9 – “Katerina”

So many reveals in this episode!  That almost makes up for the fact that we have to wait a while till the next episode.  Almost.

We start off the show with a flashback to Bulgaria 1490 where Katherine or should we say Katerina, is giving birth to a baby girl.  Her father immediately gives orders to have the baby taken away, not even letting her hold it despite Katherine sobbing and pleading to her mother.  I guess that explains how the Petrova line has continued over the years. 

Back in the present, Elena comes to see Stefan at his request, because Rose has some truths she wants to share.  Elena seems very uncomfortable to be confronted by her former kidnapper (I’m betting she’s got some lingering issues over that backhand Rose gave her that knocked her out, but maybe I’m just the petty type?), but sits down to listen to what she has to say.  Rose goes on to tell her about Klaus and the Originals and how they’ll stop at nothing to get her since she’s the Petrova doppelganger.  Apparently Elijah is the Easter Bunny compared to this Klaus.  The short and the skinny of it is, the oldest vampire in history in time is after her and if she’s not afraid of him than she’s an idiot. 

Elena takes the news fairly well, no histrionics; instead she just grabs her bag and heads off to school – sans Stefan by the way.  Where has the love gone?  Stefan looks as baffled as I am.  But instead of going to school, she drags Caroline out to the tomb to get her to move the giant stone so she can talk to Katherine.  Elena swears Caroline to secrecy, but I think we all know how that’s going to turn out; even Caroline admits that she’s horrible at lying.  But Elena pulls out the big guns and asks her to keep the secret as her friend.  Caroline reluctantly promises to keep her visit to the tomb a secret from Stefan.

Episode 2.8 – “Rose”

We start off with Elena being delivered by the guy who snatched her to what is obviously a vampire in the darkly tinted SUV.  Nice to see vampires operating without the magic rings.  I guess he’s not worried about leaving a body behind though, as he feeds on the guy and leaves him for dead.

Jeremy is slow to figure out that Elena isn’t at home (why didn’t he notice she didn’t come home the night before?  Hadn’t she called him and said she was on her way?)  He tries to tell Stefan that if Elena wants him to cover for her with Jenna then she has to let him know.  They manage to puzzle out that Elena’s gone missing. 

Caroline tells Damon all about what went on with Tyler accidentally killing Sarah and going all wolfy.  Damon can’t understand why Caroline would have covered for Tyler since he’s such a tool.  But she maintains that the werewolf road leads straight to vampire boulevard and by helping Tyler she was helping to keep their secrets too.  Damon tries to impress upon her how much she needs to keep what they are a secret from Tyler since he can’t be trusted.  Caroline felt bad for Tyler because he was freaking out so much but she understands that she shouldn’t try to be friends with him, it’s too dangerous for all of them.

Tyler is freaking out about Sarah’s death at school once he comes upon the memorial for her at her locker.  He seems a bit worried about Aimee’s disappearance too.  He spots Caroline and demands to know how she knew he was a werewolf, but she plays the airhead card and pretends she doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  He confronts her again after school, demanding to know why she lied to him.  His temper is showing and he tries to keep her from leaving by grabbing onto her but her temper kicks in too and she reveals that she’s strong enough to push him away.  Really not the best way to get him to drop his questions!