The Vampire Diaries February 17 recap: Katherine is freed from the tomb!

 

Stefan's friend Lexi appeared in a flashback to his savage days.

February 17 – He may be Elena’s biological daddy, but Jonathan Gilbert is one major jerk. Weaselly, as Damon likes to describe him, is most appropriate because he scurries about poking his nose in everybody’s business, claiming to have Elena’s best interest at heart (that is SO debatable), and generally causing all kinds of chaos along the way. Last week we discovered that he’s been plotting to free Katherine from the tomb and tonight’s suspenseful episode let us in on his plan.  There’s a lot of flashing back in time as the Salvatore brothers and Elena delve into the boys’ early days as vampires after being turned by Katherine. Elena reads the diary of Jonathan’s ancestor, which details his horrific slaying by none other than Stefan. In an ironic case of role reversal, it turns out that Elena’s sweet-natured boyfriend was quite the bad boy back in the old days, killing innocents with voracious glee as a reluctant Damon pleaded with him to rein in his savage nature. It wasn’t until Stefan’s dearly departed bestie Lexi came on the scene that he took a turn toward becoming one of the good guys. Still, his walk down memory lane gives Elena the shivers.  Her Prince Charming has the potential to be the Prince of Darkness.  Jeremy sets up a candlelit magic “practice session” with Bonnie after she’s confronted by an angry Luka about what transpired during his drug-induced blackout at her doing. Later, just as things are heating up between the young Romeo and his magical Juliet, Luka’s angry dad Jonas bursts in and drains her of her powers. Will Jeremy still be hot for her without her magic? Damon visits a famished Kat and she seemingly inadvertently confirms Jonathan’s claims that the dagger dipped in oak ash will indeed kill an Original vampire. Fearing that she’ll be stuck in the tomb forever if Damon kills Elijah, she begs him not to do it. Damon, of course, becomes even more determined to end the well-coifed fiend. Elijah creeps out Alaric by spending way too much time with Jenna sharing his knowledge of Mystic Falls history. He lost one lover to vampirism and is not about to risk having that happen again! 

Damon realized the gang goofed!

Damon plots to have Elijah over to Jenna’s for dinner with the gang, including Damon’s newscaster bimbo Andy, not knowing that he would destroy himself by using the dagger against the Original, a fact Jonathan conveniently left out of his explanation to further his vendetta against the Salvatores and their kind. Luckily for the blue-eyed bad boy, Stefan alerts Ric to Jonathan’s plot and Ric does the honors himself and Elijah goes bye-bye. Not so fast! Elena comes across a passage in the diary saying that the small print in all this vampire mythological mumbo jumbo says you gotta leave the dagger in the Original for him to stay dead — which Damon & Co. fail to do so next thing you know Elijah is back in action and drops by the lake house to collect from Elena. The two engage in some tense negotiations and Elena stabs herself, forcing Elijah to again promise not to hurt her loved ones in exchange for keeping her intact for the sacrifice to Klaus. Catching Elijah off guard, she stabs him with the dagger. Damon suggests they leave it in the newly dead bad guy this time.  The smug vampire’s mood changes quickly when he returns to his pad to discover an equally smug Katherine making herself at home. It turns out Jonathan’s ruse to get Damon to off Elijah was the key to freeing Kat from her tomb. The Kat is back! It’s about time.

Photos copyright 2011 The CW Network LLC. All rights reserved.

February 3 Vampire Diaries Recap: The Salvatore brothers have a showdown with werewolves!

Jules and her wolf pack nearly killed the Salvatores. Bad doggies!

February 3 – This episode was action-packed! The vampires and the werewolves finally got down to some serious butt-kicking and it all revolved around the interspecies friendship between Tyler and Caroline, which by episode’s end doesn’t survive the turmoil. Tyler confronts Caroline about her role in Mason’s murder and she confesses knowing that Damon and Stefan were involved. When a betrayed Tyler storms off Caroline warns Stefan so he can intervene before Tyler endangers himself by retaliating against the Salvatores.  Stefan pays Tyler a visit to reason with him but the junior wolf calls Jules for help and she recruits her newly arrived hunky mate Brady. The two kidnap Caroline and lock her in a cage, where the vampire-hating Brady tortures her with wooden bullets and liquid vervain. Meanwhile, John Gilbert finds Mystic Falls a most unwelcoming place as everyone from Elena and Jenna to Damon and Jeremy give him grief about his return. He tells a threatening Damon that he’s back to protect Elena from super vampires Elijah and Klaus. Neither Damon nor Elena believe the weasely Gilbert — with good reason — but Damon relents in leaving Elena in John’s care while he attends to Caroline’s predicament. Damon and Stefan are the picture of cool when they show up with Tyler in the woods after Jules demands to swap Caroline for Tyler. The crafty Jules has planned for reinforcements and the Salvatores face off with a band of roughneck werewolves in an adrenaline-pumping scene that has the supernatural creatures running at superspeed, doing backflips and fending off sharp wooden objects. The sexy vamps win the first round and just as it appears the wolves are turning the tables on them, Luka’s dad Jonas, who’s still bothering Bonnie, knocks them unconscious with a piercing, high-decibel spell. He tells the Salvatores he’s honoring Elena’s deal with Elijah to keep her friends safe.  Nobody’s revealed what the terms of that deal are just yet, but it gives me the shivers just thinking about what she promised him to save Stefan & Co. It’s got to be big.  John Gilbert may just have a hint since he shows up at Damon’s and tells him the Originals can be killed by stabbing them in the heart with a dagger dipped in some mystical ashes. Apparently Elena’s bookish mom Isobel discovered this fact during her obsessive research into vampire lore while searching a way to become one herself. John then gives Elena a charmed bracelet that once belonged to her adoptive mom. Elena’s touched, but still suspicious of him. Tyler visits Caroline, who is understandably upset that he stood by while his fellow werewolves nearly killed her and the Salvatore brothers. Their friendship is over, she screams. She later fibs to Matt that she’s hanging out with Bonnie, not knowing that he can see her flirting with Jeremy at the club.  Luckily for Caroline, Stefan brings Bonnie and Elena to comfort her over her trauma with a sleepover. Dejected over Caroline’s rejection, Tyler turns to Jules and Brady, sharing with them that Mason had returned to Mystic Falls to find a moonstone. Suddenly, the werewolves aren’t in such a hurry to get out of town. The question is whether John Gilbert is after it, too, since he shows up at the tomb where Katherine is biding time and tells her that he’s working on a plan to spring her from her prison! Looks like everybody was right about Mr. Gilbert. Then again, he may be luring Katherine into a trap so he can avenge her maiming of him at the beginning of the season. What do you think?

New Vampire Diaries Preview: Werewolves lock Caroline in a cage!

Just when I thought the folks at The Vampire Diaries were going to speed up the love triangle between Caroline, Matt and Tyler, they throw us a curve ball and turn the studly werewolf against his vampire crush.  The new preview for tomorrow’s episode shows Caroline getting caged and Tyler cross-examining her about his uncle Mason’s death. Could Tyler be in on Caroline’s caging? Jules recruited Tyler to her side by pointing an accusatory finger at Caroline and her fellow vampires. Now I wonder how Caroline will escape her predicament and, when she does, will she forgive Tyler for turning against her?  Damon, meanwhile, keeps a close eye on John Gilbert as John cozies up to his daughter Elena. John had better watch his step because Damon had a taste of fresh blood recently and is back in bad boy form. Any false moves could be his final ones if he hurts Elena!

Footage copyright 2011 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Vampire Diaries January 27 Recap: Damon does a mercy killing.

Damon had no choice but to put Rose out of her agony.

January 27 – This episode features some mighty fine acting by Ian Somerhalder, who goes from touching to terrifying in the blink of an eye as the torn Damon Salvatore struggling to reconcile his savage vampire nature with his resurgent humanity. He definitely goes through the ringer on this one and I was feeling for Damon a lot. We also got more evidence that Jules is one baaaaad werewolf chick. She may not be as powerful as Katherine, Mystic Falls’ undisputed top villainess, but Jules is trouble with a capital T. We first see her waking up in the aftermath of a particularly grisly kill at a camp site where she tries to burn the mangled remains. When an unlucky deputy happens upon the scene she bludgeons him to death to cover her tracks. After Damon leaves an ailing Rose in Elena’s care at his place he confronts the she-wolf and tries to bargain with her to find a cure for the wolf’s bite. His intimidation gambit falls flat because Jules isn’t afraid of big bad Damon. “Put a stake through her heart,” a defiant Jules suggests prophetically. Elena is thinking the same thing when a delirious Rose turns rabid and attacks her. A resourceful Elena uses sunlight to fend Rose off and locks herself in a room with a makeshift stake. When she exits the room she encounters Damon and the two head out to find Rose, finding her just as she bites big, bloody chunks out of a young couple leaving the latest festival. Damon returns Rose to his home and comforts her as she grapples with unimaginable pain and guilt over killing the innocent locals. Realizing there’s no other options, Damon lulls Rose into a dream in which she revisits her idyllic human life in England and gently stakes her to release her from her agony. Ian’s lone tear drop is an acting coup and I really felt for Rose, whom I admittedly found annoying because I thought she lacked chemistry with sexy Damon. Still, the scene belonged to Ian.

An unlucky woman paid the price for Damon's emotional turmoil.

After Elena hugs him to express her condolences over Rose’s death, a tortured Damon gets smashed and lures an unsuspecting female motorist to her doom, the whole time keeping us on pins and needles as we beg him not to kill her knowing full well that he was gonna do it. And boy did he ever! Yikes!  While Damon reclaimed his bad boy credentials, Caroline finds herself smack in the middle of a love triangle. Matt kisses her after she confesses her love for him but she pulls away without sharing the news of her bloody new diet with him. While the eternally clueless hunk scratches his head in confusion, Tyler shows Caroline his gratitude for her support with a big wet one and she responds. Pulling away, she exclaims “Everyone just needs to stop kissing me!” Lucky girl. Tyler has reason to change his tune where Caroline’s concerned when Jules reveals her werewolf status to him and implicates Caroline in Mason’s death. Join us, she tells him, adding that more werewolves are on their way to Mystic Falls for a showdown with the vampires. She’s trouble I tell ya!  Stefan, meanwhile, gets Isobel’s number from Alaric so he can enlist her help in saving Elena from super vamps Elijah and Klaus. His search reunites Elena not with her mysterious mom but with her daddy dearest, “uncle” Jonathan Gilbert!  Where’s Katherine when you need her?

Photos copyright 2011 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

Sneak Peek at scenes from the February 3 episode of The Vampire Diaries! Jonathan Gilbert returns!

Jules may be looking to recruit a vulnerable Tyler to her wolf pack.

The CW has released some sneak peek shots from the February 3 episode of The Vampire Diaries “Daddie Issues,” and it looks like Tyler is going to be smack in the middle of the action.  The pictures make me think there will be a struggle between the Salvatores and Jules for Tyler’s allegiance. If he learns of Mason’s death at the hands of Damon, it may put him in Jules’ camp. She’s got the advantage given that she’s a fellow werewolf. But does that make it right for him to be with her? She’s trouble.  She proves it in a scene that seems to depict a hostage tradeoff. Word from the CW has it things will get violent really fast during the confrontation. Will Feb 3 be the last we see of Jules? In other news, Jeremy comforts Bonnie after she has a disturbing chat with Luka’s dad Jonas, who’s in cahoots with Elijah. Elena, meanwhile, gets an unpleasant surprise when her dad Jonathan shows up. If he’s back for revenge against Katherine for maiming him we know where she can be found. Stay tuned!

Photos copyright 2011 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Salvatore brothers seem to be bargaining with Jules using Tyler. Is it a trick?

Is Jules in for a nasty surprise?

A lineup of supernatural hunks!