Episode 2.7 – “Masquerade”

Sorry this one is a little late, Halloween weekend is getting away from me.

This is a jam packed episode!  Let’s get right to it.

We start off with Caroline all shaky, recounting a run in with Katherine to Damon.  Stefan shows up looking like Mr. Rogers (really Stefan?  A cardigan and checked shirt?  I know you’re a hundred and fifty, but do you have to dress like it?).  It seems that Caroline was at the Grill, making moon eyes at Matt when Katherine appeared wanting Caroline to deliver the message “I want the moonstone or I will rip this town apart until it rains blood.  Tonight, at the masquerade ball.”  Damon wants to kill her, Caroline wants to give her the moonstone so she’ll leave.  “You’re not gonna kill her,” Stefan says.  “Because I am.” 

Jenna comes home from the hospital thinking she walked into a knife.  Jeremy wants to know what they’re gonna do about Katherine.  Elena doesn’t want to do anything, thinking she’s already won, best to just leave it that way.  Jeremy thinks she’s being naïve and leaves.  Elena invites Matt to hang out with them that night too, but he declines, he’s going to the party.  (don’t forget, Katherine compelled him to go there and provoke Tyler into killing him)

Katherine comes home from a shopping spree, and finds an old witchy friend waiting for her in her room.  Well sort of friends.  The witch Lucy says she’s her buddy but they also come out and say that she doesn’t have a choice but to come when Katherine calls.  So clearly there is a debt owed there.   They get ready for the masquerade together, with Katherine straightening her hair so she can impersonate Elena more effectively.  Lucy guesses that she wants the moonstone so she can break the curse, but Katherine doesn’t say why, she just wants to focus on getting it back. 

Back at the Salvatore mansion, they’re getting the wagons into a circle.  We’ve got everyone there conspiring together except for Elena.  Bonnie brings the grimoire, but asks what’s going on?  Quick shot of Alaric and Damon going over some weapons, and Caroline bringing them supplies and Jeremy shows up, all in the know to say “We’re gonna kill Katherine.”  “I can explain…”  Stefan pipes up when Bonnie seems stricken by the notion and then clarifies with:  “We’re gonna kill Katherine.”  (Oh man I laughed so hard when he said that!) 

Episode 2.5 – “Plan B”

We begin with Stefan and Elena in bed together and I’m thinking… they’re being kinda risky aren’t they?  In broad daylight?  Pillow talk centers around what might happen if Katherine finds out they’re still together. 

Cut to scenes of Katherine and Mason rolling around in the sheets as well.  Katherine wants to know where the moonstone is and Mason says that he doesn’t trust anyone (i.e. her), but he’ll give her the moonstone later that night.  Is it just me or is this a little gimmicky with all the back and forth?  Saying some of the same lines to each other but in different couples?   

Jeremy shows up at the Salvatore mansion, wanting to join in on Damon’s reindeer games.  Damon tries to shut the door on him repeatedly, so Jeremy keeps dribbling out pieces of intel where the Lockwoods are concerned.  He tells Damon that Tyler’s not a werewolf yet, and that he’ll have to kill someone to activate the curse.  Also that Mason’s looking for the moonstone and that he knows where it is.  Damon relents and lets him into the house.  Why do I think Elena won’t be too thrilled at this development? 

Alaric comes over with a box of goodies and doesn’t look too happy to see Jeremy there cutting in on his bromance time.  He thinks the moonstone is the key to breaking the curse that keeps werewolves from shifting on only full moons.  Jeremy agrees to get the moonstone for them from Tyler.

At the Lockwood place, they’re prepping the house for a Masquerade ball, so the house is positively swarming with people.  Jenna confronts Stefan and lets him know that she’s heard him in Elena’s bedroom that morning, apparently she’s a light sleeper. 

Bonnie and Elena have a little bonding moment, while setting things up for the party.  Bonnie is still resistant to have anything to do with Caroline since she’s become a vampire and Elena urges her to give her another chance.  Elena realizes how far apart she’s grown from Bonnie (given Bonnie’s attitude towards vamps, that’s not exactly a shocker) and fills her in on all the happenings lately, including the fact that she and Stefan have been pretending to fight.  Bonnie asks her “I know where I stand Elena, and I know where you stand.  But where do we stand?”  “You’re my best friend.”  Elena replies.  Personally, I don’t see a whole lot of a future for this friendship unless Bonnie can take the sanctimonious stick out of her…

Episode 2.5 – “Kill or Be Killed”

We start out with a flash back, seeing how it is that Mason activated the curse of the werewolf.  His buddy picked a fight with him and Mason accidentally killed the guy during a brawl in the parking lot.  Now on every full moon he’ll kill anything in his path unless he sedates and chains himself down.  Uh Tyler… better watch that temper of yours!

Thanks to Elena deciding to keep him in the loop now on all the mystic happenings in Mystic Falls, Jeremy knows that Mason’s a werewolf now and that Tyler might be one too.  Stefan pays Elena a visit and they agree to keep up the farce of being broken up.  They even go so far as to come up with alternate meanings to their argument.  When Stefan says “I can’t do this anymore, Elena.”  It really means he loves her.  And when Elena says “Fine Stefan, whatever.”  It means she really loves him too.  Hold on a sec… have to go and eat something salty to counteract all the sugary sweetness in the room.  Back now.    Is anyone else totally bored by this pairing?

Sheriff Liz is planning on spending the whole day with Caroline doing community stuff at the historical society volunteer day.  Caroline seems less than thrilled at the prospect of spending the whole day with her and pushes her away when her mom asks what’s going on with her.  I feel sorta sorry for Liz there since she’s trying to connect to her daughter and Caroline’s bitchiness seems to get in the way. 

Stefan goes to talk to Mason, also at the volunteer day, offering an apology. 

[youtube]_Xqd_1h3d_Y[/youtube]

In case the above link doesn’t work, I’ll tell you what goes down.  Mason isn’t interested but Stefan presses for a truce, telling him that he’s there to make sure neither him nor Damon make any more mistakes that might end up with someone getting hurt.   Mason tries to blow him off but Stefan boils it down to a simple fact: “There’s one of you, there’s two of us.  I think you’re the one who needs to watch his back.”  (rawr!)  They shake on it, but does anyone out there expect this truce to hold?

Damon shows up asking what’s going on.�
Stefan: Negotiating peace on your behalf.
Damon: But I don’t want peace. (Damon pouts in an ‘I don’t wanna go to school!’ little boy voice)
Stefan: Well, consider it opposite day.

Mason approaches Liz, telling her that she’s got vampires right under her nose, Damon and Stefan Salvatore.  Liz is loathe to believe him, Damon’s been her right hand man in the crusade against vampires for a while, but Mason says he can give her proof.  Uh oh, this doesn’t bode well for the boys!

Episode 2.4 – “Memory Lane”

We begin with a flashback to the Founder’s Ball – the original one, where Stefan is escorting Katherine.  Damon watches from the sidelines with doofy looking hair until he’s seen smiling and talking to Elena… wait… ah dream sequence, got it.  Moving on.  Magically we’re at the Grill now and Elena and Damon are playing a very cozy game of pool.  Stefan seems pretty upset about it, but Katherine says “You loved me once, you can love me again”, urging him to give up on Elena and pick her.  I wouldn’t hold your breath honey…

Stefan wakes up, a little discombobulated, which is compounded by the realization that Katherine’s actually snuggled up in bed with him.   She’s been getting inside his head, trying to convince him that she’s back in town for 3 reasons:
1. you.  2.  you.  3.  you.   (i.e. Stefan)

Katherine sticks around, reading Stefan’s journal while he serves her a glass of blood from Damon’s private stash, and I’m not quite sure why he’s not booting her out.  Maybe because he wants to ask her about werewolves.  She says she knows not to pet one and it’s best to stay clear of them during the full moon.  Katherine further shares that the Lockwoods were the ones to rid the town of vampires back in the day, led by George Lockwood.  We get another flashback to the ball where we see her vow not to let anything happen to her family of vampires.   But apparently there aren’t too many werewolves left except for in really bad movies.  (anyone ever see her in Never Cry Werewolf?  Think Fright Night for the werewolf set)

It’s her turn to ask Stefan a questions now and she comes out swinging with – why does he still have that picture of her?  Why not burn it or tear it up?  But she doesn’t wait for him to answer.  Instead she says that he came back to Mystic Falls to fall in love with her all over again.  Stefan doesn’t deny it.  Instead he rushes to her side, touching her face tenderly, he asks with a touch of wonder to his voice:  “What is it about you that makes me still care?”  Just when their lips touch (and I’m thinking – what’s really going on here?), he stabs her in the back with a vervain dart.  Go Stefan!

Episode 2.3 – “Bad Moon Rising”

There’s a lot of skipping around in this episode, so I’m gonna try to condense the scenes together by shared characters, see if that flows a little better.

The return of Alaric!  He’s looking a little scruffy and what’s going on with his hair?  Still I’m so glad to see him back in action I’ll go with it.  Ric looks none too happy to be at the Gilbert place, but agrees to help them get some research on werewolves from Isobel’s old office.  Damon’s a little skeptical about the existence of werewolves, but in the interest of not being totally screwed, he wants to find out if that’s what they’re up against. 

It turns out that Elena, Alaric and Damon will be going on the road trip to Duke for Isobel’s research, and not Stefan.  Stefan seems to be okay with this and I almost wish we would have seen a little threat from him to Damon to behave or keep his mitts off his woman or something.  Ah well.  Elena seems pretty moody from the get go in this episode, vowing to bond with Alaric in their anti-Damon solidarity. 

Before they get on the road we get to see what’s happened between Ric and Jenna.  Apparently they’ve drifted apart over the summer and Jenna’s trying to be cool about it when it’s obvious she’s miffed over it.  Alaric tries to pull that “sorry things have been stop and start for us but maybe…” line where he gives her some hope even when he’s clearly still conflicted about moving on but Jenna calls him on it.  “Do what you need to do.”  She says.  Basically, call me when you get your shit together.

About to leave, Elena deliberately gives Stefan a long, lingering kiss, obviously designed to make Damon jealous and Damon’s expressive face is a treat to watch. 

Episode 2.2 – “Brave New World”

As we start the second episode of the season, Caroline wakes up in the hospital, trying to figure out what the heck is going on.  Her memory seems a little fuzzy but one thing seems clear; she’s craving blood big time!  I can’t help but think the poor girl must be confused as hell considering she has no idea about the existence of vampires at all.  (Until her memories start coming back of course)  A little sneaky sleight of the hand and she’s sipping on blood like there’s no tomorrow and officially making the transition to vampire.  Is it just me or is Caroline really hungry in this episode?  Maybe it’s just the transition thing?

Cut to the next day as Elena and Bonnie are feverishly trying to put together the school carnival.  (How come my high school never did anything as cool as that?  Oh right, because I didn’t go to high school on TV…)  Elena is bound and determined to do “human stuff or else I’m gonna go crazy”. 

Stefan gives Jeremy a crash course on Vampire 101; how to kill vampires and repel them… dangerous information for a teen who was almost killed by one to have.  But it’s nice to hear the cocky laugh from Stefan as he lets Jeremy know in no uncertain terms that he’s not the least bit afraid of Jeremy having that knowledge.  I have to say, I’m liking this new Stefan… Grr, keep it coming baby!

Elena is firmly in denial, not wanting to discuss Damon at all.  But this is not quite the rage I imagined after Damon almost killed her brother… in fact, is it just me or is everyone pretty accepting of Damon’s little temper tantrum the night before?  Even Jeremy?