The Vampire Diaries March 22 Episode Recap: Damon finds wood from the Original Tree!

Will Sage's betrayal of Damon cost her the love of her undead life?

March 22 – Damon plays cat and mouse with Sage and Rebekah in a kinky triangle that leads to a series of doublecrosses. Alaric, meanwhile, wrestles with his major Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde complex, putting his loved ones in great peril. Meredith submits Ric to an MRI to determine if there’s a physical cause of his murderous episodes and during the procedure his dark side proves a tricky one as it takes over discreetly, waiting just below the surface to pounce on his next victim. While Ric’s normal half is seemingly in control, he asks Elena to find his wedding band to use as a device for Bonnie’s enchantment to control his murderous alter ego.  Bonnie is having trouble supporting Abby as she transitions into being a vampire, even with Caroline’s help. Abby can no longer feel the bond witches have with nature and walks around like a husk of her former self. When Caroline brings Jamie around to see her, Abby’s vampire urge kicks in while they embrace and she bites him! Abby explains to Bonnie that the many deaths and resuscitations Alaric has endured have chipped away at this psyche, allowing the same psychotic rage that doomed Elena’s ancestor Samantha Gilbert in 1912 take hold of him. Although she’s proven helpful to her daughter, Abby is disgusted by her new undead life and leaves town despite Caroline’s pleas to stay for Bonnie’s sake. Alaric gives Elena all his personal financial information in case the latest efforts to save him from his killer personality end in tragedy. Elena is alarmed to remember that Ric gave one of his protection rings to Jeremy. Is her baby brother at risk of developing a killer personality to match his killer good looks? Stefan, still awkward around Elena after she saw him feed uncontrollably on an innocent girl, helps her piece together the mystery of her ancestor’s fate. Turns out Samantha killed herself in the loony bin and victims of the curse of the protection ring don’t necessarily stop having deadly blackouts because they took it off. Cue Alaric’s latest shift to the dark side, folks.

It turns out that Dr. Fell is a good gal after all. Or is she?

As Meredith fixes some coffee, Ric confronts her about being a Mystic Falls council member, the organization whose founding families he has targeted in his killing spree for failing to protect the town’s citizens from vampires! Meredith successfully evades Alaric’s lunges and locks herself in the bathroom, but notices a gash he inflicted on her just before she got away. When Elena drops by, Ric attacks her as well but is overpowered by Stefan, who controls his bloodlust and saves Meredith from bleeding to death. When he comes to, Damon tells him they’re going to send him to detox from his experience under the treatment of an enchanted remedy Bonnie prepared to keep his alter ego in check. Time will tell if her spell proves strong enough. Damon has been keeping busy with a new project: tracking down the remaining wood from the ancient oak tree that was the source of power to kill the Original vampires. He suspects that Rebekah is hot on the wood’s trail and raises an eyebrow when he spots the bloodthristy blonde bombshell at a ceremony commemorating the restoration of historic Wickery Bridge. Does every spot in Mystic Falls have historical significance? Damon spots a contemporary Sage snooping about, too. After the two she-vamps have a bitchy confrontation, Damon learns that Sage is in town to track down her beloved maker, Finn. She convinces Damon to work his charms on Becky and exploit her feminine weakness to learn her secrets. This leads to a booze-fueled encounter in which Damon and Becky hit the sheets again. While Rebekah snoozes in the afterglow, Sage plays mindreader and discovers her plans to find the wood from the Original tree and dispose of it before the good guys can use it to kill Klaus and his siblings. Sage shares this information with Damon — naked in the shower, of course — but sneaks out on him with Rebekah, determined to prevent him from using the wood to end her precious Finn. Sage knows that the Originals are bound by their mother’s witchcraft and cannot let Damon act against any of them. Damon is peeved to find Rebekah enjoying a bonfire from the wood in Wickery Bridge. He can’t hurt Sage for her betrayal — she’s much older than him — but promises to start with Finn when he finds a way to destroy the Originals once and for all! As the residents of Mystic Falls close out another fun-filled day, Elena calls Jeremy to check up on him. He’s still cute as can be whether or not he’s a raging psycho hunk. Bonnie finds it in her heart to forgive Elena and a smirking Damon shows Stefan a sign he salvaged from Wickery Bridge with just enough wood to create a set of deadly stakes meant for each of the Original siblings. Time to throw down, folks!

Photos courtesy The CW Network, LLC.

The Vampire Diaries March 29 Sneak Peek Photos: The Murder of One

Stefan and Elena are headed for more heartbreak.

Get set for a tense March 29 episode of TVD as the Salvatore brothers hatch a new plan to get rid of Klaus and recruit the help of Elena, Caroline and Matt.  Klaus had better watch his back because he may be distracted with two plots of his own. He threatens someone close to Bonnie (hmm, I wonder who that could be?) to force her to work on a spell he needs and he works with Rebekah to convince wayward brother Finn (guest star Caspar Zafer) to cooperate with them. Rebekah, meanwhile,  has a brutal plan to take revenge on Damon. Like brother, like sister! Last but not least, Stefan’s emotional turmoil leads him to a dangerous confrontation with Klaus (is there any other kind?) and another heartbreaking moment with Elena.  Photos courtesy of The CW Network, LLC.

Caroline looks ready for action!

The gang mobilizes against Klaus yet again.

Rebekah plays a deadly game of revenge with Damon.

Like brother, like sister.

The Vampire Diaries March 1 Sneak Peek Preview Pictures: “1912″

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, The CW takes care of its actors. Arielle Kebbel, loved by TVD fans for her feisty portrayal of Lexi, is now giving Annie a run for her money as Liam’s new girlfriend on 90210, and tomorrow,  Smallville’s Cassidy Freeman pops up in another retro episode of The Vampire Diaries, “1912.” Viewers who love to see the Salvatores all gussied up like gentlemen are going to have a field day when Damon and Stefan flash back to 1912 for clues to solve the murder spree plaguing present-day Mystic Falls. It seems that Damon recalls a similar set of killings back in the day when he encountered a feisty female vampire (is there any other kind?) who taught him a new way to live. An undead way, that is. The CW’s preview pictures reveal that Freeman’s character is not above using her vampire strength to gain advantage over a hunky opponent in the boxing ring. She may look dainty but she packs a mean whallop! Will Freeman pop up in contemporary Mystic Falls? Depends on fan reaction and ratings, of course. Start those tribute Twitter feeds now, folks! In other TVD news, Sheriff Forbes warns Damon not to get involved in her investigation, but Damon is convinced she’s going after the wrong suspect.  Elena and Matt resort to breaking and entering in their search for evidence to prove hot doctor Meredith is a killer while Rebekah snoops around one of the town’s oldest landmarks.  Finally, Elena comes to a new understanding of the path her life has taken, and Damon makes an emotional confession to Stefan. Sounds juicy!

 

 

Photos courtesy The CW Network, LLC.

The Vampire Diaries February 16 recap: Damon makes Abby a vampire!

Turning Abby into a vampire is one of the worst things Damon has done in a long time, but he did it to spare Stefan from doing the dirty work.

If you think it was tough for Bonnie to accept Elena’s love for the Salvatores, just imagine what she’s going to go through with a vampire mom! That’s the question in the air after Damon and Stefan went to extremes to stop Esther’s plot to wipe out her children with an ancient spell that required the combined powers of the Bennett witch bloodline, putting Abby in a pivotal spot that will test Bonnie’s tolerance. If the history of past TVD newbies is a good sign, Bonnie won’t have to adjust to having a vampire mother for long. The drama began with Elena arriving just in time to catch a very satisfied Rebekah leaving Damon after their vigorous revenge hookup. Elena recognizes that an inebriated Damon’s one-night stand with Becky was his lashing out over her rejection of his love and concern for her. He’s determined to reclaim his bad boy crown and is off to a good start. Elena’s dismayed that neither Salvatore brother supports her plan to head off Esther’s plan, which she feels unfairly lumps Elijah with his wicked siblings. The Salvatores change their attitudes when Elijah, suspecting something’s afoot, kidnaps Elena and holds her for ransom when she tells him about his mother’s scheme. Either Damon and Stefan help him stop Esther or Elena’s going to be Becky’s next meal! The Salvatores team up with Alaric to split up Klaus and Kol at the Grill. Caroline lures a smitten Klaus outside while Kol puts the moves on Dr. Meredith. Ric daggers Kol, which sends all the siblings into comas, except Klaus, that is. The Klauster dashes over to toss aside Kol’s assailants and undaggers him. Down in the caverns where Elijah had left Elena with Rebekah as her guard dog, Elena takes advantage of Becky’s momentary paralysis and makes a break for it, entering the area with the hieroglyphics which vampires cannot enter. A crafty Rebekah tosses a convenient can of gasoline all over the room and sets it ablaze. Either Elena leaves the room or burns inside it! Becky’s brothers, meanwhile, confront their mother and traitorous brother Finn. Esther’s not budging, but the Salvatores put a twist on the proceedings when Damon snaps Abby’s neck, ending her life as a witch and weakening Esther’s incantation. In a flash of fire, Esther’s gone and the Original siblings are safe to continue their tyranny over Mystic Falls, for now at least.

"We're monsters," a guilt-ridden Elijah tells Rebekah.

Elijah feels guilty over having to endanger Elena in order to force the Salvatores to do his bidding. Rebekah is happy to let Elena live so she can gloat over the suffering that’s to come her way. Damon and Stefan have their own heart to heart, noting that their temporary role swap seems to  be coming to an end. Stefan thinks it’s too late to reclaim his title of resident good guy while Damon remarks that he’s better at being the bad guy. Speaking of bad guys, it turns out that Meredith may be one after all after Alaric finds incriminating evidence regarding the recent spate of murders in her apartment. “You weren’t supposed to see that,” she says as she shoots him.

Photos courtesy The CW Network, LLC.

The Vampire Diaries February 2 Recap: The Originals return!

Is Elijah (Daniel Gillies) going to take over as head of the Originals family now that everyone's back?

February 2: The Salvatore brothers discover how much they share in common with Klaus and Elijah, Caroline loses her dad and the Original vampire clan is reunited at last in the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries “Bringing Out the Dead.” A resuscitated Elijah is understandably upset with his brother and the two have a brief scuffle before Klaus convinces him they should join forces to get the remaining coffin back from the Salvatores. Klaus needs to keep an eye on his brother, though, because Elijah meets with Damon, who offers him his own deal. Will Elijah betray his bloodline? The mystery of who killed Meredith’s ex, the medical examiner, deepens when Caroline and Elena visit Mr. Forbes in the hospital and find him with a knife sticking out of his chest. Bill isn’t dead — yet anyway — and is dismayed to learn he must drink blood to finish the process of turning into a vampire. No way, he says, to his daughter’s horror. Stefan takes Bonnie and her mom to the remaining coffin and orders them to open it at all costs. The witches are successful and are shocked at what they find inside. Perhaps I should say whom they saw inside? When Sheriff Forbes reveals that the knife used to kill the medical examiner belonged to the Gilbert family, Elena and Alaric compare theories on who may be the crazed killer who’s offing members of the town council. Elena confronts Stefan and he asks her whether she posed the question to Damon, too. Stefan and Damon’s rivalry over Elena is mirrored in a story Klaus and Elijah share over dinner about the original member of the Petrova bloodline, Tatya. It seems that Tatya’s mother was a powerful witch who refused to let her end up with either Klaus or Elijah and took her life. It was Tatya’s blood the brothers drank the night they became vamps. When the Salvatores reject Klaus’ offer to protect Elena as long as they let her marry a human and make baby doppelgängers to maintain his source of hybrid juice, he tosses aside all politeness and overpowers Stefan, commanding Damon to retrieve the coffin with Elijah tagging along as a watchdog. Elijah, however, has other plans. Elena and Matt return home after accompanying Caroline on her vigil over her dad and discover that Alaric is the latest victim of the Mystic Falls’ killer on the loose! Luckily, Alaric’s regenerative power brings him back to life.

Meredith (Torrey DeVitto) has an alibi for the latest attack. Does she have a partner in crime?

Elena learns from Sheriff Forbes that Meredith was in surgery, giving her an alibi in the latest attack. I think she may be working with an accomplice. When Elijah returns, he’s accompanied by his revived siblings Rebekah, Koll and Finn, who take turns stabbing Klaus with the magic daggers. Elijah frees the Salvatores to contemplate their complicated love triangle with Elena. Who will win her love in the end? Back at the Originals’ home, Mama Original shows up alive and well. She’s not after revenge on her treacherous son, however. She wants them all to be a family again. Next up, we’re all invited to attend a ball thrown by the Originals. Hope you survive the night!

Photos courtesy the CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Vampire Diaries January 19 Recap: Damon resuscitates Elijah!

Will Abby let Bonnie down again?

It was parents’ day on the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries as Bonnie tracks down her long-lost mother Abby and Caroline’s father Bill turns up to set Tyler straight about putting his daughter in danger. Bonnie has been plagued by nightmares about those pesky coffins and her inability to open them with her magic. In one especially spooky dream, she is buried alive and is rescued by the mother she hasn’t seen in 15 years. Could it mean her mom holds the key to opening the coffins? Damon pulls some strings and gets Abby’s address in North Carolina but Elena forbids him to join her and Bonnie on their road trip. Bonnie picks up on the tension between Elena and Damon, who gleefully clues her in on their kiss. Klaus confronts Damon about getting the coffins back but Damon holds on to one that he figures out contains something more valuable to Klaus than his relatives. Klaus sends one of his hybrid henchman to put Abby under Klaus’ control by compelling her handsome young charge Jamie (played by Richard Ri’chard) to kill himself if she fails to help get the coffins back. Things get ugly fast as Stefan shows up only to get shot by Jamie, who ties up Elena while Abby overpowers Bonnie. Talk about a Mommy Dearest!  As the hybrid looks on, Abby begs Bonnie to help her find the coffins to save Jamie, but discreetly shows her a text message on her cell phone to warn her friends. She’s good after all, it seems, but is practically powerless since her magic has slowly abandoned her over the years. Can Bonnie really trust her? Elena tricks Jamie into untying her and knocks him out. As she removes the bullet shrapnel from Stefan’s body he comments on her new strength. She counters with the news that she kissed Damon. Awkward moment alert! Stefan pops Damon in the face when he returns to Mystic Falls and is peeved to learn his brother returned the coffins to the Klauster. On top of that, Damon pulled a dangerous move involving one of those mystical daggers.  Tyler apologizes to Caroline for biting her, telling her he suspected Klaus compelled him to do it even after Tyler had refused his orders to kill her. Realizing he needs to break Klaus’ sire hold on him, Tyler recruits Caroline’s dad Bill to administer some of his aversion therapy on him. To free himself from Klaus, Bill says, Tyler must willfully transform without pain thereby attaining full control over his lycanthropic half. That’s easier said than done and Tyler nearly kills Mr. Forbes when his chains prove too weak to hold his werewolf form. At the hospital, Bill tells Tyler he has a long way to go before controlling his curse and won’t be allowed to get near Caroline until he succeeds.

Is The Vampire Diaries' sexy doctor Meredith a healer or a killer?

Daddy Forbes was saved by hot doc Meredith, who turns out to have a few secrets of her own. While Alaric remains warm for her form, Damon thinks she’s a homicidal maniac who kills her lovers. When Damon confronts the good doctor she shoots him full of vervane and draws his blood, using it to save Bill’s life when Ric comes calling for an explanation on her attack on Damon. It seems the healthcare hottie uses the regenerative powers of vamp blood to heal good folks on their death beds. This is why she’s fascinated by Alaric’s protection ring but he wisely stops her from removing it from his finger. Just because she uses vamp blood for a good cause doesn’t mean she’s not a crazy-pants black widow! At Casa Klaus, the Viking vamp barely has time to celebrate the return of his siblings’ coffins when the heart of his hybrid lackey is ripped out by a resuscitated Elijah, freshly un-daggered and sporting a sleek new haircut!  This cannot be good.

The Vampire Diaries January 12 recap: Tyler bites Caroline!

Is Caroline bound to Klaus now that she drank his blood?

January 12 – Klaus did a very nice thing, for a change, Stefan went way too far in his high-stakes game with Klaus and it’s hinted that Alaric’s new love interest may be a murderess in the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries. Damon and Elena deal with the ramifications of last week’s boffo kiss in drastically different ways. Damon is all smiles and shirtless as he basks in the afterglow while Elena is wound tighter than a drum, exercising like a mad woman to work off the sexual tension. Sorry Miss Elena, but I think you have a bad case of Damonitis and no amount of jogging and kickboxing is going to help you outrun its delicious symptoms. Besides, why would you want to?  Elena gets a slight respite from her guilt courtesy of Bonnie, who’s helping her plan a 17^thbirthday party for Caroline, a year the blonde vamp will be celebrating for eternity, mind you. Bonnie’s not digging that Elena had Damon compel Jeremy to move to Denver to keep him safe from Klaus. Bonnie’s been having dreams about the coffins containing Klaus’ slumbering siblings. Damon is frustrated by his inability to crack them open while Stefan pressures Klaus to send his hybrids out of town, even boldly confronting him on his own turf. The two trade threats and Stefan beheads Klaus’s henchwoman Mindy to prove he means business.

Elena (Nina Dobrev) was devastated by Stefan's willingness to endanger her to beat Klaus.

Damon is concerned that Stefan has become dangerously unpredictable, with good reason. “To beat the villain you’ve got to be the better villain,” a scarily icy Stefan tells his brother. Proving his point, Stefan grabs Elena, feeds her some of his blood and calls Klaus from his speeding car and tells him he’ll run the car off a cliff to convert her into a vampire unless he banishes the hybrids. Klaus gives in and turns his attention to Tyler, commanding him to kill Caroline. Tyler refuses but nearly does the deed accidentally when he crashes the drink-a-thon set up by Elena, Bonnie and Matt to cheer up a down-in-the-dumps Caroline, who’s feeling ambivalent about being an eternal teen vampire. Tyler finally tells Caroline he loves her but in the heat of their passion he nicks her by mistake (remember, folks, hybrid hickies are lethal for vamps)! Klaus shows up at Sheriff Forbes’ house and feeds her his blood, assuring her that life as a vampire ain’t so bad and can be filled with an eternity of art, culture and the occasional slaughter of innocent humans on the side for kicks. OK, I added that last one for fun. He later sends Caroline a more expensive piece of jewelry to outdo the cute charm bracelet Tyler had given her. Does this mean Klaus is sweet on Caroline now? At the very least, she is bound to him by blood, just like Tyler.  Elena is understandably heartbroken by Stefan’s latest descent into Bad Guy Land. Although Stefan assures her he knew Klaus would give in, his poker face is too good for Elena’s taste. He’s playing too rough and Damon is poised to catch Elena when she falls. The two almost kiss again (darn!), but Elena doesn’t think it’s right for them to proceed. “It’s right, just not right now,” Damon tenderly assures her. Last but not least, Alaric runs into Meredith, the hottie doctor who treated him for his wounds at the hospital, at a Founder’s Council meeting at Mayor Lockwood’s house. She certainly gets around. Seems Meredith is a council member and Ric steps in when he comes upon a prickly altercation between her and a blandly cute dude named Brian Walters. Brian later turns up dead with a big, nasty blood stain on his chest. Is Meredith a serial killer? Perhaps she’s a soul-sucking succubus? Given Alaric’s track record, I wouldn’t be surprised.