Review: Vampire Diaries S3, Episode 3

Warning: This review will contains spoilers. And opinions. Lots of them.

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Oh, yes! It's that time again.

Last time, we were left with several lingering questions. What exactly is happening with Jeremy? What is Caroline in for now that's she stuck in that basement cell with her father, who seems to be about to torture her. Meanwhile, a disappointed Klaus heads off to find out why he can't create hybrids. 

This episode, we're greeted to quite a few shocks. Elena and Damon go Stefan hunting and get more than they bargained for. Their journey leads them to Chicago, where (surprise, surprise) Klaus and Stefan have showed up to question an "old" witch, Gloria, about contacting the spirit of "the original witch" in order to find out why he can't create that hybrid army that he wants.

This spirals into another massive, intermittent flashback about Stefan back in hey-day of Chicago, along with some era-appropriate music and flapper dressers. As the flashback goes on, we discover some things that make VD the great show is.

Namely, the fact that Stefan knew Klaus. And not just knew. They were friends. Really good friends.

If that's not the biggest twist this season so far, then I don't know what is.

But it gets better than that. In order to contact the original witch, Klaus is forced to resurrect his sister, Rebekah, another original whom he killed himself after a disagreement. He uncovers her body and removes the special knife and then goes off to mind-screw Stefan some more. And what a mind-screw it is.

The flashbacks gradually reveal that Stefan, then still a "ripper," starting running with Klaus back in the day, along with Rebekah, who fell in love with him. They would trick people into becoming vampires, kill people whenever they wanted, and create chaos all around. And Stefan never batted an eyelash about it.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Elena and Damon end up at the apartment where Stefan used to live during his ripper days. Damon proceeds to show Elena a seriously creepy remnant of Stefan's old self: a wall filled with names of the people he killed.

Then, Damon, in typical Damon fashion, decides to leave Elena alone in the ripper-Stefan's apartment while he goes out to find out where Stefan and Klaus are.

Cue Damon showing up at the same bar, aka, Gloria's.

Elena, in the meantime, reads Stefan's diary and learns all about his struggles to escape his ripper tendencies.

And then Klaus shows up.

Turns out he thought going to Stefan's old place would be a good idea too. Whoops. But, of course, Elena hides in the hidden room with the homicidal graffiti wall. Klaus, once again in a moment of suspicious lack of vampire senses (or feigned ignorance for some higher evil purpose) doesn't notice Elena there, and Stefan pointedly ignores her presence in order to keep Klaus from catching on. Eventually, they leave, and Damon comes back (at a leisurely pace) to see if Elena's okay (his concern is so evident (or is it?)).

Klaus and Stefan end up back at Gloria's in preparation for the original witch summoning, but Damon and Elena show up too, and Damon changes with places with Stefan to distract Klaus long enough for Elena to attempt to convince Stefan to come back. Which backfires miserably. Stefan, in typical Stefan-denial style, tells Elena he no longer wants to be with her that the part of his life with her is over. End of discussion. Cue Elena being left all alone on an empty street to contemplate her misery.

 

Our flashback to the good old times ends with a few hefty revelations. First off, that special necklace that Stefan gave Elena? It belongs to Rebekah. Secondly, the reason that Stefan doesn't remember Klaus and Rebekah? Turns out Klaus compelled him to forget them when he and Rebekah were found out (which consisted of unseen assailants shooting wooden bullets from machine guns). Unfortunately, Rebekah didn't take it well, and she decided she wanted to stay with Stefan. So Klaus killed her.

Our episode rounds up with the newly revived Rebekah attacking Klaus because she's seriously pissed. But Klaus attempts to appease her with Stefan's presence. After that (seemingly) works, Klaus asks Rebekah for the mysterious thing that will allow him to summon the original witch.

It's the necklace.

Which Rebekah no longer has because she dropped it the night they were attacked. A newly compelled and confused Stefan ended up finding it, and decades later, gave it to Elena.

Now there are two targets on Elena's head. And if Klaus spots them, she is so dead.

Oh, but what about Caroline, you ask? Well, her sub-plot in this episode was pretty much expected. Her father attempts to "fix her" via conditioning. The conditioning being to burn her with sunlight until she learns to associate vampirism with pain. Yeah, like that's going to work. Anyway, Caroline's scenes consist of her burning and screaming and burning and screaming and pleading and crying and pleading and crying. And then her mother and Tyler save the day.

A rather anticlimactic sub-plot there.

But I personally think the rest of the episode makes up for it. I've been wondering for a long time why Klaus seemed to want Stefan so badly, and now all the pieces are falling into places. And it seems with every episode that goes by, Elena shifts further and further back into the spotlight. The spotlight being the center of all danger, of course.

So, yet again, Vampire Diaries succeeds to make the grade.

Overall grade: A-