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!

Tyler shows up at Caroline’s house, still wanting to know what the hell is going on.  He thinks that Caroline is a werewolf too since she’s stronger than him.  When he comes right out and says it, she dissolves into giggles.  That sets him off and he shoves her against a wall, demanding that she stops lying.  But she retaliates, shoving him back against the wall hard, her face changing and fangs descending.  Uh oh, so much for Damon’s warning!  Tyler seems pretty freaked out,

Elena is taken to an abandoned house where the vampire quickly unties her.  He looks like he might go for a taste when a female vampire shows up and orders him to stop.  “My god you look just like her.”  She gasps.  Lady vampire asks her to be quiet three times but Elena keeps the questions coming so eventually she backhands Elena who falls back, passing out again.  I have to say… she kinda had it coming this time.  When a vampire tells you to be quiet more than once?  You’d better do it. 

Elena wakes to hear them talking about turning her over to someone named Elijah.  They’re sick of running and apparently handing Elena over to him will be the key to their freedom.  Elena presses her luck by asking more questions (did she learn nothing the last time?  Apparently not…) But apparently she’s learned something from a typical five year old.  You ask enough… eventually you start getting some answers.  Elena learns that they are going to turn her over to Elijah to try and make up for something that Trevor (the vamp who picked her up in the dark SUV) did 500 years ago because she’s the Petrova dopplegangler and she’s the key to the breaking the curse.  Or at least her blood is, she has to die and the moonstone is what binds the curse.  We also learn that the lady vampire, whose name is Rose, has heard of the Salvatores, in fact her friend tried to set her up with him about a hundred years ago because he’s one of the good ones but she’s a sucker for the bad boys.  Elijah is one of the “originals” the first family of vampires from the old world.   It seems that Trevor was tasked with keeping Katherine safe for Elijah’s purposes in the past, but he helped Katherine to escape and they’ve been hunted ever since. 

Stefan wants to know if Damon really put Katherine in the tomb since Elena’s gone missing.  Damon says she’s absolutely in the tomb but that she did mention that Elena’s in danger.  Stefan is livid that Damon didn’t mention this before but Damon rightly points out that everything that comes out of Katherine’s mouth is a lie, so how was he supposed to know she’d start spouting the truth now?   Stefan asks Bonnie if she can remove the tomb spell but she says no way.  Instead she uses Jeremy’s blood to do a tracking spell to try and find Elena.  Stefan and Damon set out on a road trip to find her based on the general town that the spell pointed out on the map.  Jeremy offers to try and check out the area on aerial maps to try and pick out likely spots where she might be. 

On the road trip, the brotherly bonding ensues, even though the cliché of it makes Damon itch.  They speculate that someone from Katherine’s past probably took Elena, though they can’t guess why.  Stefan thanks Damon for helping him and tries to get Damon to admit that he loves Elena too.  Damon refuses to answer but looks distinctly uncomfortable with the topic. 

As they near the house, Damon pulls out a blood bag for a little snack and jokingly offers it to Stefan who accepts, much to Damon’s surprise.  Damon’s face when Stefan reveals that not only has he been drinking a little human blood every day but that it’s Elena’s blood is priceless.  “How romantic.”  He says.  Damon goes on to remind him of the days when Stefan used to rip people apart, wondering aloud if Elena would be so quick to offer her blood to that kind of guy?  “What happened to that guy?”  Damon asks.  “He found something else to live for.”  Stefan answers. 

Jeremy and Bonnie are waiting together in his room to hear if Elena is okay.  Bonnie works another spell to get a message to Elena and starts bleeding from the nose again, obviously in pain midway through the spell.  She promptly passes out just after the spell is complete and now Jeremy has something new to freak out about.   Bonnie explains that the magic wears her down, witchcraft has its limits.  If she pushes too hard it pushes back.  She begs him not to tell anyone because she doesn’t want the vampires to know she has a weakness.  He promises not to tell anyone.  They bond over how alone they both feel all the time, and it’s kinda nice to see Jeremy having someone to talk to and Bonnie continuing to be helpful for a change.

Elena magically finds the message that Bonnie sent to her.  Literally it’s a piece of paper that says “Stefan and Damon are coming for you, B.”   Trevor comes in, announcing that Elijah is there.  He is freaking out big time but Rose asks him to calm down, insisting that Elijah is a man of honor and that he’ll keep to the deal.  Elijah shows up, comfy in the sunlight, so we can either assume that he’s got a magic ring or the Originals are all daywalkers.  Rose goes to greet him, brokering the deal.  She tells him that Katherine didn’t burn in the church and she doesn’t know where she is but she has something better, the new Petrova doppleganger.  She asks for his word that he’ll pardon her.  He says “you have my word that I will pardon you.”  (oh he didn’t say Trevor, Rose!  Watch out!)

Damon and Stefan show up.  Damon points out that whoever it is that’s got her is likely over 500 years old and if Stefan goes in the house after Elena, there’s a good chance he’ll never come out again.  Stefan seems unconcerned, saying “I can’t think of a better reason to die, but if you want to stay here I’ll totally understand.”  Damon hesitates for only about a half second before he follows him to the house.

As soon as Elijah sees Elena, he immediately invades her personal space, (apparently he’s trying to sniff out whether or not she’s the genuine article).  Elena looks pretty scared, but manages to beg the other vamps not to let him take her.  They don’t even consider her pleas, focused on finally getting their freedom.  As soon as Elijah approaches Trevor (who’s doing a pretty good job of groveling) we can tell what’s coming, but I wasn’t expecting the speed and sheer ruthlessness with which he takes Trevor out.  It basically looks like a karate chop to the neck which sends Trevor’s head rolling.  Rose looks utterly devastated.

Elena tries to negotiate with Elijah, saying she knows where the moonstone is.  I give her points for gumption, but did she really think that would work?  He rips off her necklace and immediately compels her into revealing the moonstone’s location.   A noise from the other room draws their attention before they can talk any more about this and Elijah goes to investigate, dragging Elena with him.

The Salvatores make the opening move, shooting him in the hand with a wooden stake.  Elijah looks annoyed but not particularly hurt.  Elena shows up at the top of the stairs saying she’ll come with him if he doesn’t hurt her friends.  He draws closer and she lobs a vervain hand grenade at him that Stefan gave her (nifty!)  Only no one presses this advantage.  Instead, Stefan waits until Elijah has completely recovered from the hand grenade to jump out and start shooting him with wooden projectiles which Elijah absorbs like the Terminator.  Stefan tackles him and they fall down the stairs but Damon is waiting with a big wooden coat rack, pinning him to the door.  Elijah gets all gray and dead looking and Rose runs off. 

There is a moment where Elena starts running down the stairs in relief and Damon’s face as he watches her run into Stefan’s arms… oh poor, poor Damon!  Elena looks up to see his stricken face and has the grace to mouth “thank you” to him, and Damon gives her a tight smile and mouths “you’re welcome”. 

Last ten minutes of the show:

Bonnie is asleep on Jeremy’s bed, and he’s lying there awake, still waiting for news about Elena.  Please, someone tell me that Elena or one of the brothers called ahead and told them she was safe… no?  Super.  Instead Elena herself comes home (alone) looking pretty tired and beat up, reminding us that she still hasn’t healed from the attack on Katherine.  They share some hugs (does anyone else find it a little weird that Jeremy kissed her on the neck and was holding her like that?  Just me?  Okay).

Back at the Salvatore Mansion…
Damon: Where’s Elena?
Stefan: She’s at home.
Damon: “And you’re here why?”  (just what I was thinking!)

Damon offers Stefan a drink and pours one for himself.  Again Stefan tries for the brotherly bonding.  Stefan says that the only way they’re going to keep Elena safe is if they don’t let her come between them.  And that he’s sorry for being the one to make Damon drink human blood all those years ago and turn into a vampire.  He says that in the end, he was selfish and didn’t want to be alone, he just needed his brother.  Damon absorbs this thoughtfully, but doesn’t reply.

Caroline and Tyler are sharing a drink because she says that alcohol helps take the edge off.  (interesting message they’re giving teens here).  Tyler wants to know how she can be a vampire and she does a pretty good job lying and saying that she’s the only one.  She tries to explain that he can’t tell anyone about either of them.  She wants to tell him all about the council and founding families but needs him to promise that no one will find out about them.  “I have no one else to tell,” he says.  He’s worried about what will happen on the next full moon and admits that he’s scared.  Caroline gives him a comforting hug. 

Rose shows up at the Salvatore mansion and tells Stefan that Lexi told her that he was one of the good ones so she wants to help him, because she’s tired of running.  She says this isn’t over just because Elijah is dead.  The Originals will come for Elena because they’re doing it for Klaus.  (Uh oh, who is Klaus?  I have a feeling it’s Katherine’s maker)

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Far better to watch the scene above, but in case you can’t access it; here it is in a nutshell because my words can’t do it justice.  Elena comes into her bedroom to find Damon waiting for her.  He has her necklace, but won’t give it back until he says something to her first.  She looks pretty nervous about this, like maybe she’s worried he’s going to try and compel her.  Instead, he tells her that he loves her but knows that he doesn’t deserve her but that Stefan does.  He just had to tell her once how he feels.  Damon leans in and it looks like Elena is expecting him to kiss her, (and not at all pulling away) but instead he kisses her on the forehead.    “God I wish you didn’t have to forget this,” he says, a tear falling from his eye as he compels her, “but you do.”  Elena blinks and then the camera pulls back to see her standing alone in her bedroom, the window curtain fluttering in the breeze.  She looks suitably confused as all of us are crying our eyes out at home.

Last shot of the episode: Elijah starts to regain his color and pulls the stake from his heart.  Uh oh.�
Random thoughts I had:

Interesting that we’ve never seen Bonnie so much as waver after using her powers and all of a sudden she’s getting nosebleeds each time.  That’s never a good sign, but it’s good to see they didn’t make her all powerful.

Stefan seems oddly unperturbed by the idea that Damon is in love with Elena too. 

They are really pushing Jeremy and Bonnie together again.  Why did they have to wait things out sitting on his bed if Alaric took Jenna out to get her out of the house?  Something wrong with the living room sofa?

Ditto to Tyler and Caroline, though I thought it was kinda sweet, them bonding over how out of control their bodies are when going through the transition. 

The whole time Elena was clutching onto the note that Bonnie sent her I was yelling at the tv for her to get rid of it!  Hello, you are being held by dangerous vampires, shove that note between the couch cushions, girl!  But no, she kept wadding it into a smaller and smaller ball in her hand.  I was really expecting something to come of it.  Guess I was wrong. 

Will someone please explain to me how they managed to find the house Elena was being held in so easily?  Jeremy took a look at some pictures and guessed it was the right one cause it seemed isolated?  Really?  This was a weak plot point for me.

Holy crap Elijah is tough!  Why did nobody cut off his head?  They were just content to leave his body there?  And there’s a whole family of these guys?  This sooooo doesn’t look good for our team! 

All kinds of reveals in this episode!  I was not expecting to hear that Katherine was the original Petrova doppelganger.  So who’s side is she really on?