Last week’s episode was pure entertainment, the kind of episode reminiscent of season one. Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything I asked for in my last blog (Delena, a Barbie vampire fight, or Aunt Jenna), but hey, it was Halloween not Christmas. But there were plenty of little treats I did enjoy!
Damon wakes up chained to a chair with a hot poker through his chest- the same disturbing little set up in which he killed Mason Lockwood. Too distressed to immediately make the connection, he blames Ripper Stefan. Ripper Stefan however denies guilt and even laughs a little at his brother’s odd predicament. He is kind (?) enough to de-poker Damon before wondering away, distracted. Thanks, Brother. Mason, invisible, throws open the blinds to roast a ringless Damon. He’s definitely enjoying his little revenge.
In town, Mystic Falls is celebrating YET ANOTHER “Worship the Founding Families” day. Overkill. Mayor Lockwood is at a podium saying something about a night of Illumination. Blah blah blah. Applaud old guy Fell, a founder progeny. Blah blah blah.
Alaric, Jeremy, and Elena are gathered watching the festivities and just when I wonder how on earth they find the time, Alaric kindly informs us that he’s forced to be there since the event is lead by the History department and has therefore made his- friends? kids? roommates? comrades in arms?- join him. What they don’t know is that everywhere Jeremy goes, Anna follows. This time she’s murmuring founders history jokes under her breath, making Jeremy laugh and hold her hand. So weird. Slash adorable. Slash OMG what about Bonnie? Speaking of, Bonnie is hanging lanterns (for the Illumination event) with Caroline nearby. If only all towns had this many loyal volunteers. She explains that her spell in last week’s episode only blocked Vicki from having a foothold “here” and that it doesn’t block Anna, too. A freed Damon drives up and informs Bonnie that she must have gotten her spell wrong and she needs to fix it. He just got “spit roasted” by Mason’s ghost.
Awesome Damon line: “When I kill someone, they’re supposed to stay dead.” Except you have to smolder when you say it.
The little twisted family, Alaric, Jeremy, and Elena, goes for lunch at The Grill. Elena asks her brother if he can contact Lexie since in the past, she’s been able to bring Stefan back from the dark side. Alaric and Jeremy seem unsure. When Jeremy spends too much time listening intently as Anna says she thinks some Vampires find peace on the Other Side unlike her, he covers for himself by going to the bathroom. That’s when Stefan shows up wondering why he didn’t get an invite to the family summit. Weird choice of words. He sees that Elena has his diaries- whoops- and smirks: “I forgot how much I used to care.” Elena: “I didn’t.” Sad.
Just after Bonnie and Caroline rule out Vicki as the ghost culprit, Bonnie’s Grimoire flies open to a spell that will reveal veiled matter aka ghosts. Bonnie, ever the careful Witch, seams to think it’s a great idea to try the spell ASAP. Off to the very old house where hundred of witches died and Bonnie spent weeks last season pretending to be dead. Bonnie begins the spell.
In the bathroom, Jeremy and Anna discuss their situation. He makes Anna swear that the Witch who helped Vicki and wanted Elena dead isn’t helping her now, too, since they can suddenly touch. She swears and I believe her- Anna was always in love with Jeremy in a good way. Vicki simply toyed with him. Jeremy suddenly realizes that he’s going to have to let Anna go soon and grabs her for a last, swoon worthy make out sesh. Outside the door, Alaric tells Elena that he’ll go grab Jeremy, but gets pulled aside by Damon. He tells Alaric they have “trouble,” which Alaric vehemently denies.
Great Alaric line: “No, you’ve got trouble. See, we’re not a team. You tried to kill me. We’re not friends. I don’t like you anymore.”
AWWW. Alaric admits for the first time that he liked Damon! Bromance priceless moment #1 of the night.
Damon follows up with a friendly reminder of when they were friends and conspired to kill Mason together. I guess then Alaric agrees to be filled in- but only if they’re sitting at the bar of course.
In the creepy old house, Bonnie’s spell works and in a series of shots, our ghost friends come alive. Including GRAMS! Yay! Unfortunately for Jeremy and Anna however, Elena got impatient and went into the bathroom to get Jeremy (I mean really, what’d she think he was doing in there for so long?) and walks in on him still kissing Anna. Stefan gets a nasty hello from “towel girl” Lexie, who bashes his head into a van, knocking him out. (Cringe: shoddy special effects. Shake it off, Jenna. But I can’t help but wonder if anyone in town saw that go down…) Mason joins Alaric and Damon at the bar, helping himself to a shot of whiskey and then smashing the glass against Damon’s forehead. (Double cringe: shoddy special effects. Shake it off, Jenna. But seriously, did anyone in the bar see that?? Damn!)
Poor Bonnie is crying- oh my God if that was my Nanny I’d be a blubbering idiot for the entire episode- and Grams and Caroline say hello. Grams is all business. Apparently bringing Jeremy back from the dead cracked open a door to the other side, which the dead, presumably Original, Witch took advantage of. When Bonnie sent Vicki back, the Original Witch wedged the door open, allowing any ghost with unfinished business to run free. When Bonnie asks what the Witch wants, Grams tells her not to get in the middle of all that. I’m sorry, don’t we already know what the Witch wants: Elena dead and the balance restored? On the other hand, we finally have our ghost presence explanation from Plec/Williamson. Caroline immediately calls Elena about the situation: Grams and Bonnie need to destroy the necklace (damn, all-important necklace). In return, Elena fills in Caroline that Jeremy and Anna kissed. Not cool, big sister.
In The Grill, Lexie takes a hold of Elena and drags her off to “fix” Stefan. At the bar, Mason demands an apology from Damon. The best he gets is: “I do a lot of things I don’t have to do.” Oh, Damon. Weirdly enough Mason accepts the “apology.” It seems that Mason is really back to help Tyler. Damon declares that Tyler will basically be a mindless Hybrid minion that can’t be helped:
Second favorite Damon line of the night: “At least not while Klaus is alive. Which is, like, always.”
Not so fast. Mason Lockwood may have a weapon to kill Klaus. Game changer. Damon agrees to meet Mason in the Lockwood cellar, reasoning that since the Mikael plan fell through he’ll see what this new one’s about. (Katherine’s not dead, she can’t be, right?)
Lexie and Elena enter Stefan’s new hold, one of Mystic Falls’ many torture cells, and Lexie proceeds to somehow get inside his mind and make Stefan hallucinate being starved. I’m assuming this is a ghost trick and it’s very convenient. Caroline calls Elena from the mansion- she can’t find the necklace where Damon said it was. (Where’s Rebekah- couldn’t she have taken it?) Elena asks them not to send the ghosts back just yet while Lexie is helping Stefan. Caroline mentions that Bonnie has boyfriend/ghost drama, too. Bonnie forces Caroline to tell her to what boyfriend/ghost drama she refers. This is a leap- were they not just talking about how annoying it is to have Anna around? But Caroline tells her about the kiss anyway. Her face crumbles and it hurts me a little bit, too.
It’s night now and everyone is gathered in the town square for the Illumination ceremony. Mayor Lockwood and Alaric can’t find Tobias Fell, so we know he’s dead. Jeremy is busy looking for Anna in the crowd when they bump into the old tomb vampire leader Frederick. I guess we found the culprit! As Alaric fills in for Tobias Fell, Frederick informs Jeremy and Anna that he still has unfinished business with the founders of Mystic Falls. Very reminiscent of the season one finale. As the townsfolk light up the lanterns, the very dead Tobias Fell is illuminated, bludgeoned and hanging from a tree crucifix style. Gross.
Stefan is talking crazy talk in the pit of desiccation. Lexie instructs that the next step after starvation is torture. Elena can’t handle it, so she leaves. Outside, old guy Fell is being taken away on a gurney. Worried, she goes to find Jeremy. Jeremy is on the phone with Caroline, who thinks Anna took the necklace. Anna denies it and Jeremy believes her (aw). Everyone can’t really believe that Jeremy is being so loyal to Anna, but I get it. Elena definitely does not. She’s found Jeremy and tries to convince him that Anna has the necklace.
Jeremy makes me melt with: “But. I can touch her, Elena. And I can kiss her again.”
And then with: “I love her. I’ve always loved HER.” Emphasis on her. As in, he doesn’t love anyone else. Ouch.
Elena shuts him down, saying the love isn’t real because Anna’s dead. What?! Just because someone’s dead doesn’t mean you don’t love them. Anyway, Anna overhears and joins the siblings. Elena rounds on her telling her that Jeremy’s just at the beginning of his life and that she’s holding him back. Anna, in a sign of understanding, hands over the necklace. At first I’m disappointed in Anna, but then Jeremy- who obviously knows her so well- states that she just took it because it might have helped her find her mother. Anna is totally forgiven in my book!
Still in the Lockwood caves, Damon falls prey to various anti-Vampire traps Temple of Doom style. Surprisingly enough, Mason helps him out of all the traps and they continue on.
On the way from the mansion back to the Witch house, Bonnie and Caroline encounter a car accident. It’s the tomb Vamps and they’ve obviously caused Mayor Lockwood’s car to crash.
Caroline to the rescue: “You’ve got your ghost/boyfriend drama and Elena has her’s. And right now the mother of mine is about to be ghost bait.” She’s not Vampire Barbie- she’s Vampire Barbie Badass.
It’s time for Jeremy and Anna to say goodbye.
Jeremy: “You’re not gonna be alone. I’m not gonna let you be alone.”
And yet, I feel like Jeremy’s not going to have much to say about it pretty soon. This seems like the real goodbye this time. He brings the necklace to Bonnie. Her and Grams start the spell and the ghosts disappear pretty quickly. Mayor Lockwood wakes up to find Caroline kicking major ghost ass (wonder what she thinks about that!) just before they all disappear. Mason finds what they were looking for in the tomb, but before he can tell Damon what it is, he disappears. Lexie hands the reigns over to Elena and disappears, but not before telling Elena that Stefan’s still in there somewhere.
And then my favorite: Among the lanterns, Anna finally finds her “Momma.” They run into each other’s arms and cry with joy and I tear up unabashedly. It’s the happiest ending in all of TVD history. Then they disappear together.
Back at Witchy base camp, it’s Grams’ turn to go. How fitting that in Bonnie’s terrible day, Grams is there to tell her that she’s stronger than “all this.” And “I’m so proud of you.” Bonnie needed that.
Alaric shows up in the cave to help Damon out.
Damon, in the #2 Bromance moment of the night: “Other than Elena, you’re pretty much the only one I trust.”
Damon next offers the same apology, if you can call it that, he gave Mason. Alaric clearly doesn’t appreciate the recycled line.
Damon then says the #3 and best Bromance line of the night: “I didn’t mean it with him.” Except you have to smirk adorably when you say it.
Elena decides not to be a hypocrite and tells Stefan: “I won’t love a ghost for the rest of my life” and that he better find his hope again. Good girl.
Bonnie is in the Witch house being a good girl as well. She points out to Jeremy that Matt let go of his SISTER before he let go of Anna. She’s got a point and shows great maturity by pretty much kicking him to the curb. Anyone else see a pattern? Jeremy still loved Vicki when he first got together with Anna. History is repeating. Once he leaves, Bonnie is surprised to see the necklace pretty much explode back together. I guess we haven’t seen the last of it.
Alaric finds what Mason was so excited about: cave drawings.
What we’ll see tonight: FINALLY the background Original story. I want to see Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah again!! And meet the Original mother! But, alas, I have to DVR tonight (why this is such a rushed recap) so no spoilers please!!
