by Michele Pearson:
The Vampire Diaries: “We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes”
Original Air Date (The CW): Thursday November 15, 2012
Season 4 Episode 6
Hello fellow Vampire Diaries fans! Tonight we have a special episode that should have been entitled “How many people will Elena Gilbert try to kill tonight?” You may be asking yourself what I mean by that. On that note, let’s begin.
Elena is feeling a bit restless. I can’t imagine why. She just killed her first human and is now plagued by hallucinations calling her a killer. Anyway, she goes downstairs to nuke herself a cup of warm blood. Suddenly, she is confronted by Connor himself. She figures he’s either dreaming or he’s a ghost. She calls out to Jeremy for help and Connor puts her in a choke hold. Breaking free, she runs for a butchers knife and stabs Connor in the neck. Removing the knife, she realizes that she actually has stabbed…Jeremy! She calls Damon over for help. He says it’s a good thing Jeremy didn’t ditch the family ring after it drove Alaric crazy. As they wait for Jeremy to wake up, Damon tells Elena she should call Stefan. She refuses, saying he’s been lying to her and she doesn’t trust him. Ummm..too late…Damon has already called Stefan. Jeremy wakes up and Elena goes upstairs to shower her brother’s blood off of her hands.
Stefan follows her upstairs but she brushes him off, saying she doesn’t need his help. But you need Damon’s help, he pouts. Elena gets pissed and says that it has nothing to do with Damon and everything to do with Stefan working with Klaus. Stefan tries to play the whole “Elena, it’s not what you think” card but Elena is having none of it. She storms into her bathroom to shower.
At Chez Lockwood, Hayley and Chris (another Hybrid) have apparently stayed up all night mourning Dean with a booze party. When Tyler walks in, surprised that they are still drinking, Hayley gets flirty with him. Tyler seems surprised until Klaus walks in the room. He is, to be expected, seriously pissed that Dean failed and that Elena killed the Hunter. An angry Caroline appears with a box of Tyler’s stuff. Klaus seems sympathetic and orders Chris to follow him to leave the three alone. After Klaus and Chris leave, Caroline and Hayley look at each other and laugh. They pulled it off! Tyler pulls Caroline into his arms and Hayley looks away sadly.
In the shower, Elena finds the water has turned to blood. Downstairs, Damon was so kind as to do the dishes while Stefan freaks when he sees Klaus is calling him. Klaus tells him that it’s not a big deal, they’ll find one of the other four hunters but the biggest problem will be Elena. See, when a vampire kills a hunter, he/she is haunted by said hunter until he/she eventually kills themself. Klaus wants to take Elena somewhere so she can’t hurt herself and appears on Elena’s doorstep. Good thing neither Jeremy nor Elena ever invited Klaus in so Stefan meets him on the porch. Klaus reminds Stefan that he killed the original five hunters. He knows what’s going to happen to Elena.
In the meantime, Elena again sees Connor standing behind her. He taunts her, calling her a monster and tells her she deserves to die. She runs downstairs to see Damon but instead sees Connor. As Damon approaches her out of concern, all she can see is the Hunter. She runs outside where she is grabbed by Klaus and whisked away before either Stefan or Damon can say “Wha happin?”
So, remember my question last week about whether or not Jeremy would blab about seeing the hunter’s mark appear on his hand? Turns out, he blabs. To Matt. He tells Matt that Connor told him that Jeremy was a Potential and that was why he could see Connor’s mark. Matt asks “So what? Does that make you the next Chosen One or something?” (Wow…The writers aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they’re ripping off old Buffy storylines anymore are they?) April interrupts with Professor Shane, who is setting up an exhibit on the supernatural. April asks Matt (again) if he has seen Rebekah, since Rebekah was supposed to help her investigate what happened on her dad’s farm. (See, that’s what happens when you compel people to forget things…they get to say the same line over and over.) Matt walks away in disgust.
Damon and Stefan go to Bonnie for help. She tells them that she can’t help because the spirits won’t let her do the magic to break the curse but she can ask Shane since he knows everything and can probably help.
Meanwhile, Klaus drags Elena down to the basement dungeon/guest room and tells her that he’ll keep her there for her own good. He tells her why she’s seeing what she’s seeing and that he dealt with the same hallucinations daily for over fifty years until one day they just stopped. Klaus warns her that the hallucinations will show up in the most interesting manifestations and leaves, locking her in the room. Connor immediately appears and begins taunting Elena to commit suicide. When she ignores him, he says that maybe she’ll listen to someone else…Katherine!
Back at Chez Lockwood, Stefan asks Tyler and Caroline to help distract the hybrids so he can get to Elena. They say no problem: Chris was underwent his sire-neutering procedure and is now on their side. Tyler and Caroline explain to Stefan the plan to de-sire all the hybrids.
Back at the supernatural expo, Professor Shane is telling the story of Silas, an immortal, who wants to regain power and take over the world…or it could just be another BS legend. (I swear writers…if you don’t have it turn out that Shane is this Silas guy, I’m going to hunt you down!) April remembers that she knew Shane through her dad. Damon brings Bonnie to the expo to talk to the good professor, who seems very happy to see her.
Katherine’s first words to Elena? “Poor Elena. Do you ever stop crying?” (Thank you! The very question I’ve been asking all season!) Katherine asks what Stefan thinks of the “New Elena”. Katherine tells her that Elena is just like her and once Stefan learned about the “real” Katherine, he hated her, just like he’ll hate Elena. Elena tells her to shut up but Katherine says “at least you’ll still have Damon” and disappears.
Damon goes to Alaric’s old classroom and drinks a toast to his old friend. Bonnie brings Shane to see Damon , who shows the good professor the sketch of the hunter’s mark. Shane asks where he got it but Damon brushes it off. He then asks about the Hunter’s curse. Shane tells them how when a hunter is killed, his spirit haunts his killer until the vampire dies or until another hunter is awakened and the legacy is passed on. “They’re called Potentials”, he says. (No, I believe the word you are looking for is ripoff. Now is the time to thank Joss Whedon.) Shane leaves to go get all the info he has on the whole Potential/Slayer…I’m sorry…Potential /Hunter dynamic. Bonnie asks Damon how in the world are they going to find another Potential? Damon responds by making a call to young Jeremy.
Caroline goes to delay Klaus at the Mystic Grill. She flat out asks Klaus to give Elena back. Klaus expresses remorse for Caroline’s relationship troubles, saying that if Tyler were still sired to him, Klaus would not have allowed him to hurt Caroline. While Caroline distracts Klaus, Tyler and Stefan ask Chris to help them rescue Elena. Tyler promises Chris that both he and Hayley will help Chris get away.
Katherine continues to taunt Elena. She ticks off all the things that have happened to Elena’s friends and tells her she deserves to die. Chris gets the two hybrids guarding Elena to leave based on a phony order from Klaus. Chris then let’s Stefan into the room. Elena is curled up in a ball on the floor and doesn’t even see that it’s Stefan, seeing instead Connor. She stabs Stefan and runs away.
Bonnie is mad that no one told her about Jeremy being a Potential but Damon tells her that a witch who loses her powers gets left in the dark. When Jeremy arrives, Bonnie tells him the way to save Elena is for Jeremy to kill a vampire. Of course, he quickly chooses the easy target (Damon) but Damon rolls his eyes at Buffy Junior. Bonnie gives Jeremy the information they received from Shane so Jeremy will know what he’s getting in to. Stefan calls Damon to inform him that Elena escaped and Damon is the one that can talk her down.
Back in the Mystic Grill, Caroline receives a text from Stefan. “I lost Elena. I need a vampire to kill. I’ll turn someone if I have to. Get an answer fast.” Thinking on that , Caroline quickly turns to Klaus and tells him the truth: she’s distracting him to allow Stefan time to free Elena and he lost her. Klaus begins to storm out of the Grill but Caroline stops him by telling him that they know how to stop the hallucinations. (How the frak she picked that up out of that text I’ll never know.)
Elena is hounded by Katherine and Connor all the way to Wickery Bridge. There, her mom appears to her to say that it’s ok for Elena to kill herself. She tells her to remove her ring and allow herself to die in the sunlight. Elena says that she doesn’t want to leave Jeremy alone but her mother tells her that she would be better off as a ghost to help him than a monster who could hurt him. Elena agrees and drops her ring in the water. Suddenly, Damon appears. He says that Wickery Bridge was the natural place to find her since she died there twice. Damon is replaced by Connor who tells Elena that the sun is coming up and it will all be over soon. Damon then realizes that Elena is no longer wearing her ring and panics a little.
Tyler and Hayley are with Chris, saying goodbye before he leaves town to escape Klaus. As Chris walks out the door, an angry Klaus walks in. Both Tyler and Hayley try to get Klaus to attack them instead. While that’s tempting, Klaus turns to Chris and orders him to leave. As Chris attempts to do so a second time, Stefan walks through the door and stabs him. Jeremy enters the house behind Stefan with an ax.
Damon tries desperately to get Elena to follow him inside. Connor continues to whisper in her ear to ignore him, that what she’s doing is the right thing since she’s a monster. Damon tries to grab Elena but she dodges him, determined to die. At the same time, Jeremy kills his first vampire by decapitating Chris. Both Tyler and Hayley are horrified. Jeremy immediately sees the tattoo begin to grow. Back on the bridge, Connor disappears as the sun rises. Elena’s skin begins to burn and Damon grabs her and dives into the water.
Elena awakes in her own bed, her ring back on her finger. Damon tells her that he fished it out of the river. Elena is feeling much better and is grateful that Damon saved her. Damon realizes that there is a definite spark between the two of them and chooses to take the high road. He tells Elena the truth about the cure and this was the reason Stefan’s lied to her.
Caroline visits Tyler to apologize but he’s furious with her. He asks Caroline how she got Klaus to agree to give up one of his hybrids and she admits that she agreed to go on a date with Klaus. As Tyler gets seriously pissed off mad, Caroline stammers that she though it would help with the ruse to keep Klaus off the scent of their big plan to free the hybrids. Tyler throws a liquor bottle against the wall.
Damon visits the grill and orders two bourbons. Matt understands that Damon is still saving Alaric a seat at the bar. Matt then tells Damon about April’s connection with Professor Shane. He tells Damon that reviewing phone records, Pastor Young called one number every day and on the day of the explosion he had called that number ten times. That number was to the office of Professor Atticus Shane.
The good professor and Bonnie are in his office. Shane asks Bonnie if her friend found all the information needed in his files and she assures Shane that Damon did. She then asks Shane how he knows so much and he tells her he’s been around the world ten times over and has found that witches are the most powerful beings there are. He then tells her that he knows that Bonnie has a new hunter and that when the hunter completes his mark, Bonnie is going to want to go to Shane because Shane is going to be the only one who will be able to help.
Stefan visits Elena who greets him with “I’m sorry I stabbed you.” (No apology in a relationship should ever contain that phrase…just sayin’) Stefan tells her that Damon told Stefan about confessing to Elena the whole story about the cure. Elena asks Stefan why he sent Damon to find her and Stefan said it was because lately, Damon is the one she turns to. Stefan tells her to admit it. Elena admits that while she loves Stefan, she’s a different girl now and that girl has stronger feelings for Damon. Stefan said he understood her feelings for Damon when Stefan became the Ripper but that he’s not going to fight with Damon on this again.
And thus concludes another episode. Rather than glaring plot holes, I’ll address the apparent “borrowing” of storylines from another vampire themed show.
1) Elena haunted by the ghost of her victim and being told to commit suicide by standing unprotected in the sunrise is eerily similar to “Amends” in Buffy season 3 where The First evil mimics Angel’s victims in order to taunt the vampire into killing Buffy. He refuses and decides to kill himself instead…by standing unprotected in the sunrise. Just like in TVD, this was a single episode story in Buffy though the First returns in season seven.
2) There are apparently a number of Potential Hunters out there who are called into action when one Hunter dies. Again, very similar to the Buffyverse where into every generation, hundreds or thousands of Potential Slayers are born and are called into action when the Slayer dies.
While I appreciate that sometimes unrelated similarities can be found in stories with similar themes but this is just too close for my comfort. I hope the writers start to get a little more original and stick to their own story.
Until next week.
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.
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