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. 

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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!

Caroline is still trying to spy on Elena and Stefan, offering terrible advice as Katherine’s stooge.  Elena is still in misdirection mode, steering her in the wrong direction as Caroline and Damon listen in.  They deliver their promised lines, fighting while really professing their love to each other.  (gag)�
After a brief exchange with Mason by the lemonade stand, Damon takes a sip and immediately starts to choke… it’s been laced with vervain.  Liz looks on, and we know that Mason has found a way to offer his proof.  She starts making some calls and Caroline keys into the idea that something’s up with her mom. 

Stefan agrees that they need to put Mason down before he exposes them.  They set off after him into the woods together.  Just when they corner Mason, they’re gunned down by the sheriff and her deputies with wooden bullets and then follow up with injecting them with vervain.  With Mason’s help, they carry the Salvatores down to the old Lockwood slave quarters and try and get a few answers out of them.  Classic villain mistake!  If she’d just staked them right there, they would have won.  Not that I wanted them to be staked of course!  But this stood out to me as a serious flaw.  She even insists that Mason leaves, so he’s not a party to what happens next.  There is no longer any danger that the brothers will be staked now, everybody rest easy.

Caroline and Elena use her vamp tracking skills to follow their trail and run into Mason.  He admits that he can tell that Caroline’s a vampire, threatening to tell her mother.  As Caroline lunges for him, he grabs Elena into a chokehold, warning that he could easily snap her neck.  Caroline warns him “I can take you.” But he seems unconcerned.  In my favorite moment of the episode, Caroline rushes him, easily breaking Elena safely from his hold and then whaling on his family jewels with her vampire strength before crowing “Told ya!”   You go girl!  Beat down that nasty wolf!  How’s he gonna live that down later?  Being taken out by a baby vampire and a girl at that!  God that was awesome! 

Liz is playing hardball now, shooting Damon with more wooden bullets and asking how many vampires there are in town, and how they walk in the sun.  Stefan is dead to the world for all intents and purposes, but she shoots him again anyway for good measure.  Damon seems shocked that she would do this, pleading with her, “But you’re my friend!”  She’s not having any of it, calling it all a lie.  “Answer me and I’ll kill you fast.”  She says.  No Liz, that’s not how you get what you want! 

Caroline hears her mother in there, but doesn’t want to go in there for fear of her mother finding out that she’s a vampire too.  So Elena goes charging in, and doesn’t do a whole lot of good to stop them.  Luckily Caroline gets over her doubts and rushes in, taking out both deputies in a flash!  Liz’s face as she realizes that the vampire who just tipped the odds against her is her own daughter is priceless.

Damon feeds on the downed deputies and recovers quite a bit quicker than Stefan who refuses to touch the human blood even though he’s in bad shape from all the vervain and wooden bullets.  Now he poses the question, what is he gonna do about Liz?  He can’t compel her, due to the vervain in her system, but for some reason he seems hesitant to kill her. Caroline makes a plea for her to keep their secret in order to save her life.  But Liz pleads for Damon to kill her, rather than her having to deal with a secret like that and for a moment it almost looks like he might do it.  But he says relax, no one’s killing anyone.  “You’re my friend.”  He says to Liz, and my heart makes a little noise that sounds like awww. 

They decide to keep Liz in the basement at the boarding house until the vervain wears out of her system and Damon can compel her into forgetting the whole thing.  (about three days).  She calls someone , (who?  All your deputies are dead, aren’t they?) and tells them she’s got a flu bug and will be out for a few days while Damon gets her settled in all cozy like.  He even brought her a good thread count for her sheets.   

Liz:  Keep Caroline away from me, I don’t want to see her
Damon:  She’s your daughter, Liz
Liz:  Not anymore.  My daughter’s gone
Damon:  You have no idea how wrong you are about that.

Poor Caroline!  She overheard that exchange and runs off.  Before Elena can chase after her, she comes upon Stefan staring intently at a blood bag from Damon’s basement fridge.  He wants to start drinking human blood, little by little each day to build up his strength in order to fight Katherine.  Elena objects, not wanting him to lose control like he did before but his mind seems set.
Jeremy is totally eye stalking Tyler at the Grill.  Random girl we’ve never seen before notices Jeremy and starts looking at him like a piece of candy.  Oddly enough, Tyler and Jeremy are suddenly best buds, having bonded over both losing their fathers, and they head off to Tyler’s house with a pair of girls for some drinks and a good time. 

New girl goes clepto on Jeremy’s sketch book and he shows what he’s been drawing, scary demon looking werewolves.  Tyler looks at them with interest, offering to show him some sketches she’s been working on himself.  But instead of showing him his etchings, Tyler pins him to the wall by the throat, demanding to know what the pictures are about.  Jeremy admits that he knows what he is, but claims it’s from his ancestor’s journal.  Uh oh, how long before he starts spilling secrets about vampires in Mystic Falls as this new bromance develops? 

Tyler shows him the magic moonstone that Mason’s been looking for, and now the girls put in an appearance and new girl snatches it up playfully.  Tyler chases after her and in the struggle that ensues, she falls down the stairs and we all have an Oh crap! Moment when we think she might be dead and Tyler now a werewolf!  But it turns out the little faker was just messing with them, she’s fine!  Yeah, that’s a good way to get a guy to like you… smooth move, honey.

Last ten minutes of the show – bring on the drama!

Caroline admits to Elena that she’s afraid to go home because Katherine will be waiting there, wanting to hear all about the day.  Elena admits that she knew all about it, but understands the position that Caroline’s been in.  Caroline acknowledges that Katherine threatened to kill Matt if she didn’t help her.  Why is she doing this? What does she want?  Caroline asks.  Elena replies, “That’s the million dollar question.”
Tyler gives Mason the moonstone, not wanting to have anything to do with the family curse after the near miss with the drunk girl falling down the stairs.

After getting Caroline settled on the couch, Elena heads for home, pausing to exchange a few words with Damon by the door.  “What you did for Caroline’s mom, that’s the Damon who was my friend.”  She says, with a  long look.  Uh oh, is she starting to thaw again?  I’m almost afraid to get my hopes up!  It looks like Damon is too, he gives her an almost smile, and then tells her that Stefan didn’t drink the people blood, but he needs to, and deep down she should know that. 

Instead of leaving, Elena goes to find Stefan sitting alone in a parlor.  She tells him that she understands his need to drink human blood but if he’s gonna do it, she doesn’t want him to do it alone, and she cuts her hand and offers it to him. “It’s you and me Stefan, always.”  She says.   He drinks from her hand, and he vamps out a little.  Channeling Buffy and Angel, she kisses him and his face smooths out and they start making out in earnest.  I guess she’s not going home after all. 

Best plot twist of the night:

Mason goes out into the woods where a parked car is waiting for him.  Inside is Katherine!  “I’ve been waiting.”  She says.  Flash back to a year ago when he killed the guy that activated the curse.  Katherine was there!  A hundred bucks says she compelled the guy into attacking him and provoking the curse for Mason.  Back to the present, and she chides him for pulling that stunt with the vervain and getting the Salvatores shot and nearly killed and he tries to shrug it off, saying he’d thought it would make her happy.  He doesn’t understand why she even cares about them.  She doesn’t want him to get distracted from finding the moonstone and they kiss passionately in celebration as he tells her that he’s got it.

Random thoughts I had:

Woo hoo, Grr Stefan is back!  Loved, loved, loved when he threatened Mason!

Boy I thought that Damon was just playing Liz as part of his bid to keep up on the Council’s plans.  While I thought he was softening to her a bit, I never dreamed that he actually held her in that much regard.  It was nice to see that touch of loyalty from him, even after she’d treated him so badly.

How badass was Caroline in this episode?  I almost want her to have her own show!  My heart just broke for her when her mother rejected her like that too, she got to show some great range this week.

Wouldn’t you have thought that the deputies would have vervain in their system too, preventing Damon and Caroline from feeding on them?  Seeing as how Liz had access to it, wouldn’t that have been a smart move?  I’m just sayin…

Does anyone else see the flaw in the logic of Stefan building up a tolerance to drinking human blood?  Sure it’ll make him stronger, but he could be draining a co-ed a day and still not be as strong as Katherine, she’s much older and stronger than he is! 

If it’s a boarding house, why is Caroline sleeping on the couch?

Mason has got to know that Katherine’s a vampire.  So how the hell did he end up in bed with her?  Can vampires compel werewolves?  Somehow I’m thinking no, or Damon would have tried that with Mason.  And how did Katherine’s plan seriously take a year to get to this point?  But I guess she does have plenty of time on her hands.  I was thinking that the moonstone would somehow allow werewolves to shift at will, but now that Katherine wants it?  All bets are off!

How lucky is Nina?  She gets to kiss the hottest guys on the planet!  She has the best job in the world…

I was much, much happier with this episode, I feel like they’re back on their game now, what did you guys think?