The Vampire Diaries October 6 Episode Recap: Klaus and Stefan return to Mystic Falls.

Who is the vampire hunter trailing Klaus? Can Katherine and Damon find him?

October 6  – The Salvatore brothers, who’ve been swapping good vampire/bad vampire roles lately, show a welcome return to form as we learn more about a plot Stefan is working on to stick it to Klaus and Damon runs amok in Mystic Falls after feeling pressured to assume his brother’s saintly mantle in his absence. While Stefan and Klaus take Rebecca shopping in Chicago for a contemporary – and slightly slutty – new wardrobe, Elena struggles to settle back into life in Mystic Falls after Stefan’s apparent rejection. Damon doesn’t make it easy for her with his teasing of her attachment to the necklace Stefan gave her. Caroline and Alaric are leery of the flirty new chemistry between Elena and Damon. They need to worry more about how Elena’s new necklace is bringing Gloria closer to learning the reason why Klaus can’t make new hybrids. Using Rebecca as a vessel to trace the necklace’s whereabouts, Gloria spooks Elena and Bonnie, who has just returned from a boring summer vacation. Her tracking spell makes the necklace burn Elena’s skin and shows Gloria visions of them talking about Stefan, making her suspicious of Klaus’s reluctant henchman. Sensing that Gloria is close to discovering Elena’s role in the hybrid curse, Stefan attacks her but she stops him cold with a mind zap that paralyzes him with searing pain. Gloria’s got her own agenda! She wants the necklace, a talisman of an Original Witch, for herself, and subjects Stefan to her “old school” voodoo torture techniques using vervane to unlock from his essence the images of Elena threatened by Klaus during his sacrificial ceremony back in Mystic Falls. Just as Gloria celebrates learning this juicy bombshell, Katherine shows up and kills her by stabbing her in the neck! She wants to team up with Stefan in his plan against Klaus but he says no deal. He only tells her that there’s a vampire hunter hot on Klaus’s trail who is enough of a threat to make the powerful hybrid worry. A dejected Kat will need to find another partner in crime. Back in Mystic Falls, Jeremy’s dead girlfriend #2, Anna, finally makes contact with him and warns him about dead girlfriend #1 Vicky’s spectral visits. She senses a dark presence in ghost Vicky. Mind you, that girl was always on the bad side of things when she was alive, which is why I miss her. A lonely Anna tells Jeremy that he can see her because he wants to, which can only mean that he still loves her. Jeremy, however, chooses to be with his current girlfriend Bonnie, leaving Anna brokenhearted in limbo. Somehow I doubt the visits from his ghostly girlfriends will end that easily. Sheriff Forbes enlists Damon’s help in getting rid of her ex-hubby Bill, but Damon’s attempt to compel him to leave town fails, we learn, when Bill shows up later at a Mystic Falls Council meeting. Bill threatens to make trouble and a steaming Damon attacks him. Caroline, whom Elena tears away from a frisky daytime encounter with Tyler, tears Damon off her dad and does an admirable job of kicking his vampire butt. Bill relents and hits the road, for now, anyway, and tells Caroline he can’t accept that she could ever be OK living as a vampire. He’s lucky Damon didn’t snap his neck like he did to Alaric, who was trying to keep him from attacking Caroline’s kill-joy pop. Damon knew Ric was wearing his protection ring when he “killed” him, but he’s raging at everyone’s attempt to rein him in. He’s not Stefan, Damon reminds a bothered Elena, who admits to Caroline that she’s drawn to the bad boy. “What does that say about me?,” she wonders. Caroline replies that it makes her human, as millions of fans on Team Damon stand up and cheer. Damon accepts Katherine’s invitation to join her on a mysterious road trip bound to be filled with mayhem and mischief. Will they find the vampire hunter after Klaus? When Ric recovers from his temporary “death,” he tells Sheriff Forbes, mother of a vampire, and Mayor Lockwood, mother of a werewolf, that he’s joining The Council as a representative of the relatively normal Gilbert family. Time will tell if Alaric ends up in bed with one of the two ladies, or both! In Chicago, Rebecca makes her play for Stefan and is incensed when he doesn’t respond to her kisses. She accuses him of being disloyal to Klaus, who clocks him. When Stefan comes to, he realizes that Klaus has returned him to Mystic Falls. Has Klaus discovered that Elena’s alive or is he just in town to find his sister a more modest wardrobe?

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The Vampire Diaries September 29 Episode Recap: Katherine Returns!

Stefan was devilishly handsome - and just plain demonic - back in the Roaring Twenties.

September 29 – In an episode full of glamorous flashbacks, The Vampire Diaries explored dysfunctional family dynamics as Caroline literally got some tough love from her father and we met Klaus’s twisted sister Rebecca. In the wake of his failed attempt to create a community of hybrids inTennessee, Klaus takes Stefan to their old haunts from the Roaring Twenties – Chicago – to get answers about why the curse wasn’t broken from a powerful witch named Gloria. Little does Stefan know that he’s going to find out a lot more about his past – and his relationship with Klaus – then he bargained for. Chicago was the site of some seriously bad vampire action for Stefan during his Ripper days. He was a dapper demon who enjoyed making his victims suffer and memorialized his victims by keeping a list of their names in a wine closet he kept in his apartment. Worse still, he and Klaus were friends back then! Also delving into Stefan’s colorful past are Damon and Elena, who are tipped off about Stefan’s location by Katherine. Klaus’s witch friend tells him she needs to speak with his sister Rebecca in order to make contact with the Original witch who could reveal why the hybrid transformations aren’t working. Are you still with me? This hybrid curse mythology is getting more and more convoluted. The problem is that Rebecca is dead. Klaus, who went by the name Nick in the Twenties, staked her after she had fallen for Stefan and chose him over remaining with her brother. Klaus finds Rebecca’s coffin and removes the stake, leaving a compelled guard to serve as her first meal upon her resurrection. Arriving in The Windy City, Damon and Elena check out Stefan’s old pad and Elena is spooked by the alarmingly long list of Stefan’s victims. Like Damon said, Stefan’s not in town to visit Oprah! While Damon drops in on Gloria at her bar, Klaus takes Stefan on a trip down memory lane by stopping by his apartment and nearly catches Elena hiding in the wine closet. Luckily, Stefan is the one to peek in and covers up for her. The Stefan she knows and loves is still there… for now, anyway. Outside Gloria’s bar, Stefan reads Damon the riot act about bringing Elena to Chicago and demands he get her out of town. Elena, however, tries to convince him to return to Mystic Falls with her. Not only does Stefan refuse, but he catches her trying to drug him with a tranquilizer. He’s over her, he lies. Elena is finally starting to believe him.

Will Gloria uncover the fact that Elena is still alive?

Inside, Damon distracts Klaus to give Elena time to rescue Stefan, but the ornery hybrid tires of their witty banter and tries to stake him but Gloria intervenes. She won’t have blood spilled in her establishment, she commands. I like that gal! Back in Mystic Falls, Caroline is having a very bad day. Her dad is hell-bent on curing her vampirism by giving her aversion therapy. He triggers her hunger by showing her blood bags then, after removing her protection ring, repeatedly exposes her to searing sunlight as she screams in agony. Luckily, Tyler enlists Sheriff Forbes’ help in finding Caroline and they rescue her from her deluded dad. Safe at home, Caroline breaks down while Tyler comforts her in his arms. When Rebecca finally wakes from the dead, she’s understandably peeved at her bro for staking her but she’s even more freaked out that a special necklace she needs to contact the Original witch is missing! Is there no single piece of jewelry on this show that doesn’t have a mystical purpose? Maybe Tiffany needs to get in on this vampire legend stuff. Elena, who has a growing collection of magical bling, is now in possession of the necklace, which of course gives Klaus and his growing band of merry monsters even more reason to be hot on her trail. Sure to complicate matters further is our favorite evil twin, Katherine, who is also in Chicago (big shock) and happened to be at the Cotton Club-style establishment that Klaus and Stefan frequented the night it was raided by the cops  in the Twenties. The cops were shooting wooden bullets, revealing that somebody was hunting vamp siblings Klaus and Rebecca.  Kat looked super cute in a flapper wig like the one Catherine Zeta-Jones wore in the musical Chicago. It’s a great look for Nina Dobrev. What’s Kat up to this time? Is she still chasing after Stefan? With Rebecca back in action, she’ll have to get in line.

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

The Vampire Diaries September 29 Episode Preview Pictures: Stefan and Klaus visit Chicago.

Stefan and Klaus check out a bar called Gloria's in Chicago.

On September 29, The Vampire Diaries takes another trip back in time to flash back to Stefan’s past in the Chicago of the Roaring Twenties when Stefan and Klaus take their werewolf hunt to the Windy City.  Stefan runs into a vampire, played by Claire Holt of “Pretty Little Liars,” who is nursing lingering feelings for him. The skinny from The CW is that this sequence will show us more shocking facts about Stefan’s Ripper days. While Stefan takes a trip down memory lane, Damon and Elena get a hot tip about his whereabouts and hit the road to find him. Tyler, meanwhile, takes his concerns about Caroline to Sheriff Forbes. He should just ask his mom.

Photos courtesy The CW Network LLC. All rights reserved.

Charmin Lee guest stars as Old Gloria. I wonder just how old she is?

 

Paul Wesley cuts a dashing figure as Stefan in a sequence set in the 1920s.

 

Will Damon and Elena find danger in Chicago?

 

 

The Vampire Diaries May 12 Season Finale Recap: Vicki and Anna Return!

Will Stefan give in to his dark side now that he's with Klaus?

May 12 – Is anybody really that surprised that Damon and Elena kissed on last night’s season finale of The Vampire Diaries? The writers have been softening our favorite bad-boy vamp all season long and giving us juicy scenes of him being more naked with his feelings for Elena despite her devotion to Stefan. Last night’s episode seems to have set the stage for a major role reversal between the Salvatore brothers that will no doubt complicate the Stefan-Elena-Damon love triangle to the nth degree. But plenty more went on in the slam-bam finale. Let’s just say Bonnie is gonna find her romance with Jeremy complicated by ghosts from his past. Damon is of course starting to feel the deteriorating effects of the wolf bite he sustained during his tussle with Tyler. Determined to clear his conscience before meeting the same gruesome fate as the late, lamented Rose, he apologizes to Elena for force-feeding her his blood. When an understandably hesitant Elena refuses to forgive and forget, he moves on to his next agenda: removing his protection ring and burning himself to death in the sunlight. Stefan won’t have it, though, and locks Damon up to protect him from his suicidal self while he figures out a way to cure him.  Stefan feels guilty about being responsible for Katherine turning Damon into a vamp in the first place and feels he owes it to his brother to save him.

Is Jeremy going to be a vampire next season?

After Bonnie taps her witch ancestors to discover that Klaus holds the key to Damon’s salvation, Stefan recruits Alaric’s help. Ric, who’s drinking heavily to numb the pain of losing Jenna, straightens up upon learning of Damon’s plight. The two confront Kat for answers at Klaus’s place just in time for the Klauster and his stupid brother Elijah to arrive. Elijah, who holds out hope that Klaus can lead him to the bodies of their relatives, barely has time to say hello when his devious sibling stakes him! Now, who didn’t see that coming a mile away? Klaus then reveals the cure to a werewolf bite by munching on Kat’s wrist and then feeding her his blood, instantly healing the gaping, infected wound. In the ultimate ironic twist, the cure for a vampire mortally infected by a werewolf bite is the blood of a vamp-wolf hybrid! In order to get some of Klaus’s blood for Damon, however, Stefan has to turn to the dark side and become Klaus’s new sidekick! Klaus forces him to gorge on blood bags to unleash his bloodlust and shares an unfortunate young woman as a “re-initiation” victim with Stefan to make him revert to his original ripper ways when he was first turned by Kat.  Meanwhile, Sheriff Forbes is feeling the heat from Mrs. Lockwood to solve Mystic Falls’s vampire problem. As Caroline, Jeremy and Elena prepare a weirdly peppy picnic to watch an outdoor showing of Gone with the Wind in the town square, her mom stages a raid on the Salvatore home, but bungles it, setting Damon free instead to wander the streets. When she tracks him down again and shoots at him, she hits Jeremy instead. Poor Jeremy, always in the line of fire… literally! Caroline feeds Jeremy some of her blood while Sheriff Forbes looks on. Bonnie then manages to overcome those bitchy witches who resist helping her save him, thanks to her ancestor Emily.  Will their combined efforts to revive him have the effect that I suspect they will? When Elena finds a delirious Damon behind the movie screen, he nearly feeds on her but stops himself in time. Back at the house, Elena tends to a dying Damon as he pours his heart out to her, saying she would have liked him better before he was a vamp. She responds that she likes him just fine the way he is and gently KISSES him!  At this point, Team Delena’s cheering and hooting is brought to a screeching halt by Kat, who shows up with Klaus’s blood. It’s OK to love both Salvatores, Katherine tells Elena as she leaves. She should know. With the latest twist to the Stefan-Elena-Damon triangle fully in play, our attention is drawn to a recovering Jeremy, who awakens to an eerie feeling that someone is in the house. As he walks downstairs, he’s confronted with the sight of not one, but two of his dead vampire girlfriends: Vicki Donovan and Anna! Were they resurrected by Klaus in a new scheme that evokes Dracula’s trio of vampire brides? And if so, who will be recruited to be the third? More important, is Jeremy now a vampire? Whatever happens next, I’m sure Bonnie will NOT be amused! Tune in next season, folks, and enjoy reruns until then. The Night Bites blog is taking a break for the summer – unless some juicy news emerges before September, of course – but if you’re a True Blood fan, please consider following my summer blog Biting Remarks. Check it out at www.bitingremarks.wordpress.com and let’s obsess over Bill, Sookie, Eric and Alcide as the temperatures rise!

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

The Vampire Diaries May 12 Sneak Preview Pictures: The Season Finale!

 

Elena and Damon emerge from a dangerous encounter.

I just love how The CW teases us with a tantalizing write-up of an upcoming episode while leaking photos that shed zero light on the juicy parts. I realize it’s not cool to give away everything and spoil the surprise of plot twists while they happen but I think they should at least give me something to work with! LOL. In true Vampire Diaries fashion, the May 12 season finale features a social event that brings the community together in one spot for some innocent fun while life-or-death situations play out in the shadows. In this case it’s a screening of the classic Civil War-era film “Gone with The Wind” in the town square. I’m guessing that the episode juxtaposes scenes from the film with Damon’s memories of Katherine in 1864. The only action shot sent out by The CW shows Damon and Elena emerging from some seriously dramatic encounter. It looks like he may be injured. Did they just have a confrontation with Klaus and his goons? There are going to be a few lives hanging in the balance and the scoop has it that Stefan pays a terrible personal price for his attempt to prevent a tragedy while Sheriff Forbes makes a deadly mistake trying to keep everyone safe.  Finally, the consequences of Klaus’s sacrifice ritual come to a horrifying conclusion.  I’m scared already!

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

The gang have a nice picnic before their showdown with Klaus.

 

A great close-up of handsome Jeremy.

  

Damon and Elena's drama plays out against a raging fire onscreen.

 

Is this Stefan and Elena's final embrace?

 

 

The Vampire Diaries April 28 Sneak Preview Photos: Tyler Returns!

Stefan and Elena share a romantic day in preparation for the coming showdown with Klaus.

Things are heating up in Mystic Falls as we get closer to the season finale of The Vampire Diaries next month. On the April 28 episode, Damon will  go to extraordinary lengths to save Elena from Klaus’ wicked plan to break the curse of the moonstone.   Stefan doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Damon regarding his strategy for keeping Elena safe and the vampire brothers have a renewal of the conflict between them that made the show so juicy in the first place.  Yay! The other big news is that Tyler returns to Mystic Falls after receiving a disturbing phone call, just in time for the next full moon marking the arrival of the sacrifice ritual. Is he being lured back by Klaus?  

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

The Vampire Diaries April 14 Episode Recap: Bonnie has a showdown with Klaus.

Elena is lucky to have a friend like Bonnie.

April 14 – How do I love Bonnie? I love her t-h-i-i-i-i-s much. I have always liked her. Initially I thought she was a bit of a grouch, especially where Damon was concerned, but I could appreciate that she was the voice of reason among the gang in Mystic Falls. Elena is the optimist, Caroline was, and kind of still is, the loony one, but you could always count on the Bonster to bring everyone back to Earth by rolling her eyes and sucking in those razor-sharp cheekbones she was blessed with. In tonight’s episode Katerina Graham took center stage and socked it – quite literally – to everyone around her, particularly her favorite target Damon and her dangerous new foe, Klaus. The oldest of the Original vampires eases into Alaric’s body – which he doesn’t care for too much – and questions “Katerina” about ways to get to his prey – Elena. Matt Davis, who I always say is underused, has a field day playing Klaus’s snooty personality. In fact, he sort of comes across like a male version of Katherine. The Salvatores set up their home as a safe haven for Elena by turning over the deed to her and she has to reinvite them in so they can look after her. With the magically muscled-up Bonnie by her side, Elena feels perfectly safe and goes to school. What the gang doesn’t know is that their teacher is possessed by a homicidal ancient vampire. The scenes where Klaus-as-Alaric is in the same room with Elena are spine-tingling! Even worse are the ones where Klaus casually strides into the Salvatore house to conveniently learn their plan to use Bonnie as the ultimate Klaus-killing machine. Bonnie is only too happy to demonstrate her awesome power by sending Damon flying across the room and Klaus is duly spooked. His warlock promises to protect him with a spell while he lures Bonnie into killing herself by using too much of her augmented magic. The trap would be set at a ‘60s dance taking place that night at school.

Can Sheriff Forbes overlook that her daughter is a bloodsucker?

Stefan and Elena sense that something’s up and Jeremy continues to fret about the warning the dead witches sent Bonnie about using her power to kill Klaus. Everyone is pretty much wound up tighter than Joan Rivers’s last facelift. Everyone except Caroline, that is. She’s on cloud nine because Matt asked her to the dance. Poor girl doesn’t realize that her handsome escort is fully aware that she’s a vampire and is serving as a spy for her concerned mom, Sheriff Forbes, who’s trying to buy more time to figure out how to deal with the fact Mystic Falls is crawling with supernatural creatures. This is a subplot that I suspect will percolate for a while. For now, it’s time for a showdown with Klaus, who plays mind games with Elena and her army of bodyguards by sending her creepy messages through clueless classmates whom we’ve never met before (i.e., day players). After the gang has fun changing partners and having cryptic conversations on the dance floor, Klaus puts his plan in motion by compelling a gang of boys to attack Jeremy and distract the Salvatores while he lures Elena and Bonnie into his trap. Sure enough, Bonnie defends her BFF and unleashes a torrent of magic on Klaus, sending poor Alaric’s body crashing against the walls and breaking the bones in his limbs. Klaus’s warlock spell does a good job of protecting him while Bonnie’s mystical attack drains her life force until she drops dead. Or does she? A frantic Elena begs Stefan to save her but he says it’s too late. Damon tells his brother to take Elena home while he deals with Bonnie’s body and informs Jeremy what happened.

Damon will ALWAYS choose Elena for better or worse.

When Damon arrives at home a grieving Elena slaps him. He then informs her and Stefan that Bonnie had cast a spell to make it seem like she had died to fool Klaus. She’s alive and well! Stefan still doesn’t appreciate that Damon had left him and Elena in the dark about his contingency plan with Bonnie. A smug Damon responds that he’s happy to play the bad guy — of course – as long as he’s the one making the tough decisions that keep Elena alive. Stefan is left speechless… and slightly emasculated. When Elena apologizes to Damon for slapping him he reminds her in no uncertain terms that he will ALWAYS put her above all others. And yes, folks, Ian Somerhalder’s reading of that line was as hot as you can imagine. Elena is visibly moved (and Team Damon is swooning). Next thing you know, Elena heads to the basement and removes the dagger from Elijah’s body. I didn’t see THAT coming!

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