Review: Vampire Diaries S3, Episode 6

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

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Oh, yes! It's VD time again. And what a time!

Last week, we ended with Klaus forcing Stefan to turn off his emotions. Unfortunately, Klaus then gets Stefan to stay behind in Mystic Falls to watch Elena, whose blood Klaus needs in order to make hybrids. Tyler becomes Klaus' first test of that and gained the title of "first successful hybrid." Meanwhile, Matt kills himself temporarily in order to talk to Vicky, but gets more than he bargained for when he keeps seeing her after Bonnie revives him. Lastly, off on another adventure, Katherine finds Mikael, the vampire who hunts other vampires, and attempts to revive him in order to get him to kill Klaus.

Now we pick up from there.

This episode begins with the first day of senior year, and everyone's excited! Except not. Elena has to deal with truly ripper-jackass Stefan, who is now attending school again in order to "watch Elena." Bonnie has to deal with Jeremy continuing to talk to his dead ex-girlfriend, Anna. And Caroline, of course, has to deal with Tyler's new hybrid status.

"I mean, really, what do we have to be happy about?"

So, no one's happy.

And things just get worse from there.

Damon's stuck in the Salvatore house with jackass Stefan and--who could've guessed?--Rebekah, who's been ditched by Klaus. Both Stefan (as mentioned) and Rebekah, end up going to school, apparently just to make themselves even more irritating.

Cool in school.

"This school thing, it's so amusing!"

 After a day full of annoyances that grate on our main characters' haggard emotions even more, we finally make it to the bonfire party that everyone goes to to celebrate the start of the school year. I'm sure you remember it from the first episode of the show.

Anyway, Elena and Alaric make a plan to capture Stefan and lock him away until they can get Mikael to kill Klaus. Katherine, unfortunately, can't get Klaus to really awaken, and she quickly gets frustrated (and kills some poor mourner at the cemetery in response).

"Wakey, Waky, Mikey, Mikey."

 Back at the bonfire, we have several plots unraveling at once. Matt, in his idiocy, decides to attempt to "bring Vicky back" at her urging, which ends in her going to kill Elena because, of course, practically resurrecting people comes with a price. In this case, "restoring the balance."

Matt, why you so dumb?

 Meanwhile, Elena and Alaric's plan goes off without a hitch...until Vicky('s now powerful ghost?) sets Alaric's car on fire. Elena almost dies, but since she's the main character, she walks away mostly unscathed.

Ooh, pretty Fire!

 At the same time, we have tension building up between Caroline and Tyler, who we find out has been "sired," which basically means he's now Klaus' fanboy. Oh joy. Another problem.

"Yep, I'm the awesome hybrid guy! That's me!"

Bonnie and Jeremy, who are having relationship problems because of Anna, don't really resolve too much. Instead, Bonnie and Matt (after waking up from a nasty Vicky-induced head wound) work together to send Vicky back where she belongs. Poof! Bye, bye Vicky!

Where do they get all of those candles?

And all is well.

Except not. That was the only thing that resolved in this episode.

And at the end of it all, we are treated to the nice, calm awakening of Mikael. You know, the one where he bites Katherine after proclaiming how he's going to kill Klaus?

Yeah, that one.

Oh, and this:

Submitted without comment.

So, once again, VD has impressed. Everything is getting pretty complicated at this point, but the writers typically pull all the sub-plots together nicely. I can't wait to see where the season goes from here!


Overall Grade: A-