The Vampire Diaries Recap: “After School Special”

by Michele Pearson:

The Vampire Diaries Recap: “After School Special”
Original Air Date (The CW): Wednesday January 18, 2013
Season 4 Episode 10

Happy New Year!  So to do a quick recap of the last two episodes before the mid-season break: Hayley and Tyler were de-siring the hybrids to finally be able to take out Klaus.  Unfortunately for Tyler, Hayley was a bit of a selfish, backstabbing witch monster and made a deal with Professor Shane to provide him with twelve hybrids to be sacrificed in exchange for information on her real parent’s whereabouts.  Klaus killed all his hybrids, Tyler went on the run and Klaus killed Mayor Lockwood.

Elena is sired to Damon.  This is not ok with Stefan and Caroline who order Damon to invoke the sire bond and make Elena stay away from him.  After much soul searching, Damon finally does so…but not before Caroline tells Stefan that Damon and Elena had some hot vampire action going on.

Then there is Jeremy.  Poor kid is now a slayer…sorry…hunter and wants to kill his sister so she has to stay away from him.  Bonnie, Damon & Professor Shane are trying to get him to be able to kill more vampires (just not, you know, friends or family) in order to complete the mark so they can find a cure for Elena.

And last but not least, Miss Mystic Falls, April Young.  She’s wearing a vervain bracelet given to her by the hunter Jeremy.  Caroline doesn’t know this when she allows April to see her survive a broken neck and give out the secret location of a staked Rebecca.  April goes to the tombs and opens Rebekah’s coffin….

Which leads us to tonight…

It’s Mayor Lockwood’s memorial (in the freaking high school gym!) and Tyler can’t stand to be there so he leaves.  Elena looks over and notices Rebekah in the doorway.  She excuses herself from the memorial and goes in search of Rebekah.  Instead, she finds April Young crying in the hallway.  Concerned, Elena asks her if she’s ok.  Sure, April says, it’s just the situation with the Mayor dying is bringing up memories of my dad…and, oh yeah, I know you’re a vampire…

Uhhhhhhhh….not….good….

Rebekah comes up behind Elena and snaps her neck.  Rebekah and April are besties again…or so it seems.

Caroline nags Stefan over the phone about how he’s supposed to be helping not wallowing in booze.

Elena wakes up in the library and is confronted by a very angry April who demands to know how many times Elena compelled her.  Elena explains that it’s complicated and tries to leave with April.  Rebekah stops them and compels Elena to take a seat, that the rest of the class will be joining them soon.

Damon is hanging out with Matt and Jeremy at the Gilbert Lake House.  He listens to a message from Elena claiming that even though he sent her away, she still wants to be with him.  He deletes the message and is acting very un-Damon like.  I think he’s trying to play brooding vampire…too bad Angel’s got him beat by a couple hundred years!  Anyway, Damon apparently has Matt and Jeremy in some kind of hunter boot camp since Jeremy can stand to be around Damon without attempting to kill him.

Stefan is brooding as well in the Mystic Grill when he receives a call from the ever popular Unknown Caller…who turns out to be Rebekah, telling him that she is holding Elena hostage.  He then calls Caroline and tells her it’s finally time to actually kill Rebekah.

And the new mayor is…Bonnie’s dad!!!  He of course knows all the town’s secrets; claws, fangs and all!  As he starts laying down the law with Bonnie, she reminds him that she can help protect the town.  He says that while he’s well aware of her “gifts”, it’s his job now to protect her.

Stefan and Caroline are at the high school looking for Rebekah.  She finds Stefan first and tells him that she already has Caroline.  She compels them as well and forces them both to the library.  She then begins questioning them about what has happened since Rebekah was staked.  She discovers that Stefan and Elena broke up and demands to know why.  She slept with Damon, says Stefan.  (Actually no Mr Incorrect Timeline.  Elena wanted nothing to do with you because she had feelings for Damon so you broke up.  Then she went to Damon and they slept together so don’t pull the whole “Oh she cheated on me” crap because that’s not what happened!  Good lord…does continuity mean NOTHING to the writers on this show????)  Any-who, ten points to Elena for the bitchy “you told him??” glare to Caroline who tries to look innocent.

Damon is teaching Jeremy how to take apart a gun and put it back together when up walks a chipper Klaus.  (What’s funny is that I had to pause my tv to catch up at this point and the expression on Klaus’ face is priceless!  Had to take a picture.  I’ll post it on my twitter page.)  So, Klaus wants to know how many vampires Jeremy has killed as he needs Elena’s blood to create new hybrids…since he went and slaughtered all the ones he had.  In response, Damon grabs the gun and shoots Klaus, saying it’s payback for killing Mayor Lockwood.

Back in the library, Rebekah continues to push for answers regarding the demise of Stefan and Elena’s relationship.  Stefan says that it’s not all Elena’s fault since she didn’t know that she was sired to Damon at the time.  Rebekah, sensing there’s something more, compels Elena for the whole truth.  Elena says, right out loud, “I didn’t sleep with Damon because of the sire bond.  I slept with him because I’m in love with him.”  The look on Stefan’s face is priceless.  (You know, I’m really getting tired of saying I told you so but….) In order to change the subject, Stefan tells Rebekah that good professor Shane knows where to find the cure.

Meanwhile, in Shane’s office, Shane tells Bonnie that she is ready to go out and practice magic on her own.  YAY!  To celebrate, he gives her a necklace made of human bone…ewww!  It belonged to a 2000 year old witch and he really mumbled the rest of the answer so I don’t know what to tell you.  Do they not teach projection in acting school anymore?  Bonnie leaves the office and passes a familiar looking person…Kol!!!  She runs back to the office but the professor appears to have disappeared.  Which takes us back to…

…the high school library where Rebekah is trying to lure Tyler down to save Caroline.  Kol drags the good professor inside and compliments his sister as being just like Klaus…

…who sits down next to a stick whittling Damon.  Klaus mocks Damon’s refusal to turn the people living nearby into vampires for Jeremy to slaughter, choosing instead to help him train to take out already evil vamps.  Klaus says that he understands…Damon is doing this to impress Elena.  No worries, he’s already made the appropriate corrections.

The cute pizza delivery girl the boys have been crushing on arrives at the house, claiming car trouble.  First, Matt tells her she can wait inside while he gets his phone however, she realizes she can’t cross the threshold.  Jeremy walks by & vampire pizza girl tells him that Matt just went to get his phone.  Jeremy invites her in and this time, she can walk in just easy peasy.

Kol and Rebekah interrogate Shane who is in awe of being in the presence of two originals.  Rebekah tries to compel him to tell her the location of the cure.  He tells her that compulsion won’t work on him.  Fine then.  She commands Kol to beat the professor until he tells them what they want.

Back in the library, Rebekah makes Elena tell Stefan how much happier she is with Damon since Stefan appears to see her more as a project that needs to be fixed.  She does admit that while she loves Stefan, she is not in love with him.  Rebekah asks Stefan if hearing the news hurt and he admits that it did.  At that moment, Tyler arrives and Rebekah compels him to turn.  “But he’ll kill us.”  Well, you see loves, that’s kind of the point since Rebekah wants to cure all to herself.

Back at the lake house, Matt is attacked by vampy pizza girl who is immediately killed by Jeremy.  Jeremy watches as his tattoo grows.

Bonnie arrives at the school looking for Shane and runs into April Young.  April asks her if she did a locator spell since Rebekah told April that Bonnie was a witch.  April tells Bonnie everything and Bonnie figures out that Shane will be tortured to get the information.  She casts a protection spell.

Meanwhile, Kol is waterboarding Shane when Shane tells him that they (Kol & Rebekah) can have the cure.  Shane just wants Silas.  Since he’s the oldest immortal being and just happens to be buried with the cure.  As Kol continues to drown Shane, April begins to choke and cough up water.  In the other room, Shane admits that he blew up the council.  He also tells them that Silas will raise the dead of everyone that died on his behalf.  Kol grabs a pipe and stabs Shane, which causes the same wound to appear on April.  (Methinks Bonnie might have messed something up.)

In the library, Tyler is fighting the urge to turn but he can’t stop.  The three vampires run away as the wolf chases them.  Stefan and Elena barricade themselves in a room as Tyler-wolf lunges at the door.

Rebekah is upset that Kol wrecked her only chance of finding the cure.  As the originals leave, Shane wakes up and offers thanks to Bonnie.  Meanwhile, Bonnie tries unsuccessfully to heal April when Elena and Stefan hurry in.  Stefan feeds April his blood and orders Bonnie to get April out of the building.  Meanwhile, Caroline finds Tyler, who is once again in human form, and comforts him as he finally cries over his mother’s death.

Rebekah confronts Stefan and Elena again, threatening to wipe Stefan’s memory of all the happy times he spent with Elena.  Stefan tells her to do it.  Rebekah refuses, saying it would be far too easy to take away that pain.  She tells him that his eternity of pain is her revenge and that they are now free to go.  Stefan leaves without looking back at Elena.  She runs after him but he won’t even turn around.

Bonnie finally finds Shane.  Bonnie was very angry with him since she almost killed April.  Bonnie says that she doesn’t want to use black magic but Shane tells her that he will teach her how to use an unlimited magic source that comes from within and is neither good nor bad.  Bonnie looks intrigued.

Elena calls Damon as he is burying vampire pizza girl (which, coincidentally, is the name of my new goth punk band) and breaks the news that Stefan knows and is not happy.  She asks about Jeremy and Damon says he’s fine.  Elena tells Damon that she actually loves him and that it’s not the sire bond.  Damon tells her that he is going to find the cure for her and that he’s going to have to do things that she might not like.  He then tells her to get in her car and come to him.  She smiles, saying that she’ll be there soon.  After hanging up the phone, Damon looks skyward and smiles.

Stefan calls Rebekah to make her a deal.  Since Shane survived and has Bonnie, Klaus has the sword and Damon has Jeremy, Stefan and Rebekah should partner up to get the cure first.  Rebekah agrees and tells Stefan about Shane confessing to the council explosion and setting up the hybrids as part of a ritual.

April tells the mayor and the sheriff about how it was Shane who arranged the council explosion.  Furious, April declares that it’s time everyone in this town starts telling the truth.

At a bar, Damon, Matt and Jeremy find Klaus has turned every patron.  Jeremy tells Damon that he though Damon was going to get Klaus to do this another way.  Damon replies that the thought about it but he really liked Klaus’ way better.

So, that’s it for this week kiddos!  A little more like the last few seasons with the whole drama thing going but these writers have GOT TO WORK ON SERIES CONTINUITY!!!  Seriously people!  You can’t establish things and then change it and expect that your fans won’t notice.  Did you learn NOTHING from the whole Erica Kane/Kendall Hart debacle of ’93???  You can’t re-write history, even in a fictional timeline.

Catch you on the flip side.  I’m out!

Michele Pearson is a contributor for DarkMedia. She covers Vampire Diaries and any other films, books, etc that come her way. She reads everything from Lonesome Dove to Game of Thrones and loves epic tv series like Doctor Who and Star Trek: TNG. Michele also loves a good horror film and was able to channel that love as a judge for Shriekfest 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @GirlInRowB and check out her blog at http://www.girlinrowb.com.