The Vampire Diaries – Episode 3-17 Review – “Break On Through”

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So this week’s episode confirmed what we were told last week, that Alaric may be responsible for the murders of the Founders Council members.  I apologize if this was already answered, but why exactly are these people who go crazy targeting the Founders Council?  Of all the supernatural entities out there, witches seem like the only group not in the council’s crosshairs.  I assume that witches are behind the insanity, since they created the rings in the first place, so why all the hostility?

 

Oh, and I was really intrigued by the conclusion of Alaric’s episode arc.  I found it extremely interesting that we not only didn’t actually see the spell Bonnie did for Alaric, but Damon was also very vague when telling Alaric what had happened.  And for that matter, the Salvatore switcheroo was noteworthy as well.  Stefan was the one who was present during Alaric’s night of terror.  Yet when he awoke, Damon was watching over him.  Was this just an excuse to give us another Alaric/Damon scene (if so, that’s fine)?  Or was there a bigger reason for not concluding the story with Alaric and Stefan?

 

Speaking of Stefan, I really enjoyed his scenes with Elena this week.  Throughout the season he and Elena have had such a tumultuous and typically contentious relationship.  At the beginning of the season Stefan still loved Elena, but in order to protect her he needed to act like he didn’t care.  Then his feelings were turned off and it seemed he legitimately didn’t care.  And once it seemed like these two were at their worst, we discovered that Stefan does still love her, and he attempted to make amends.  However, by that point, Elena was keeping him at a distance.  Now, things are especially interesting.  Stefan is committed to winning Elena back.  Elena seems willing to forgive him.  And, perhaps most important, she’s drifted notably from Damon over the past couple of episodes.  All of those factors resulted in a unique (this season, anyway) chemistry this episode.  After the sorta-tease we’ve been getting between Elena and Matt, it was nice to see the build towards a Stefan/Elena reconciliation.

 

As a loyal Smallville reviewer and recapper, it was great seeing Cassidy Freeman on my television again.  And much like her Smallville character, she was a tough book to read.  Was she good?  Was she bad?  Ultimately, she was somewhere in the middle (just like Tess).  She betrayed Damon, but only because she wanted to protect the person she loves (like Damon and Stefan have done numerous times in the past).  And I didn’t expect to, but I’m actually really beginning to like Rebekah.  Who’da thunk it?

 

I don’t know much, but I do know that when a guy and a girl, roughly the same age, enter into a smiley conversation by reminding the viewers that they’re not related, it’s a pretty strong indicator that they’re going to be getting together.  Abby leaving may throw a bit of a wrench in that development, but there was some severe eye-effing going on there between Bonnie and Jamie.

 

By the way, there were a couple of scene-enders that I thought would happen, but didn’t.  The first was when Elena and Bonnie embraced, and Elena asked Bonnie for her forgiveness.  Bonnie smiled and said “of course I forgive you.”  I thought the scene would end with a shot of Bonnie’s face, showing that she wasn’t quite ready to truly forgive her yet.  The other scene was at the conclusion of the episode, when Elena was speaking with Jeremy.  After Jeremy hung up the phone and left the room, I thought they’d pan over to Jeremy’s room, where we’d see a letter from Alaric (showing that they actually have been in contact with each other, and either Jeremy doesn’t realize it due to his own black outs, or he simply lied about it).

Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into various popular television shows. Be sure to visit his blog at [a case of the blog] and follow him on Twitter.