Last week on The Vampire Diaries the Originals made their public introduction and Esther’s (Alice Evans) true motives for returning were revealed; she does want to reunite her family but reunite them in death to restore the balance in nature after what she did 1000 years ago. “All My Children” begins the day after the party as Esther’s plan gets put into motion thanks to the timely full moon and certain vampires do not wake up alone.
There was a shift last week thanks to Elena (Nina Dobrev) rejecting Damon’s (Ian Somerhalder) declaration of love; this sent Damon into the arms of Rebekah (Claire Holt) and now on a path to return to his former self as the ‘bad’ brother. Elena is clearly jealous of the Original sex that Damon had but does she have any right to be annoyed with him? Elena’s relationship with Damon is complicated thanks to her relationship with Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon now thinks that any attempts he made with Elena are futile, especially as Stefan is regaining his humanity despite protesting that he isn’t.
Stefan is no longer drinking human blood after what he did to Elena on Wickery Bridge and this seems to be Stefan’s first act of contrition on this very long and brooding road. There are plenty of Damon and Stefan scenes thanks to Elena’s not so brilliant plan of going with Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and as we have seen on several occasions Elena might want to do the right thing, but this often ends with her in danger. These Damon and Stefan scenes were mostly fun and I’m a big fan of when these two have to work together against the clock, it’s just a shame that Elena was the main topic of conversation for most it. Is Stefan right in echoing what was said a couple of weeks ago at the dinner party; Elena is better off without either of them?
Killing Klaus (Joseph Morgan) has been the main agenda since he first appeared last year, with Stefan leading this project in the last few weeks. Esther’s plan would ensure that Klaus would be killed, but Elena’s compassion and terrible lying face (and heart) ensures that this plan falls through pretty quick. This leads to Stefan and Damon scrambling to find ways to prevent Esther’s spell which will in turn save Elena.
The person who ends up in the middle of all of this Bonnie (Kat Graham), who didn’t score an invite to the swanky ball last week but was important enough this week to Esther thanks to her bloodline. This also involved Bonnie’s until recently absent mother Abby (Persia White), who ended up as collateral damage in the ‘save Elena’ plan. This is another parent who has been turned into a vampire; will she go through with the transition? Caroline (Candice Accola) rightly points out that Bonnie is always the one that gets hurt, how will their friendship recover from this incident?
As I mentioned last week Esther has a different bond with Finn (Casper Zafer), thanks to his hatred of what he is and this is likely why Klaus daggered him first 900 years ago. It’s a shame that Esther’s plan went down as quickly as the Original family are now scattered and I was rather enjoying the banter between the siblings; particularly when Rebekah returned home from staying out all night.
The similarities between Elijah and Stefan were on show last night and it would seem that Elijah could teach Stefan a thing or two about brooding and feeling guilty. Esther’s words hit hardest with Elijah and this was most evident in the heartfelt and beautifully composed letter that Elijah left for Elena. The bond and trust between Elijah and Elena is a really interesting aspect as they have both deceived the other, but still have a connection despite these moments.
The murder storyline took an interesting turn as we were left with a cliffhanger involving Alaric (Matt Davis) and Meredith (Torrey DeVitto) that would indicate that Meredith really is a ‘sexy psycho doctor.’ Alaric ended up getting hurt (again) and went back to Meredith’s place; she is a doctor after all. Alaric ended up snooping through Meredith’s files and came across crime scene reports and a rather large knife. Unfortunately for Alaric, Meredith discovered him and fired a gun after saying “You weren’t supposed to see that.” Is Meredith really the killer? I’m still going to lean to no as things on The Vampire Diaries are never as they seem, especially when it is the big moment at the end of the episode. What do you think Meredith is up to?
Other Observations
-For a show that is called The Vampire Diaries we have seen not much diary writing for some time, so it was good to see Stefan working on his at the moment. I’m pretty sure it would make for some pretty bleak bedtime reading.
-Does it mean much of anything that Elena rang Stefan first the morning after the party? Not that he wanted to talk and rejected her call.
-Like any good mean girl Rebekah knows how to hurt Elena, unfortunately for Rebekah, Elena does a pretty good job of reading her back; that’s what being in high school does for you.
-Would love to have seen Rebekah’s walk of shame the morning after, but thanks to her vampire super speed skills she could probably make sure that no one sees her on the way home.
-The backwards headbutt that Elena delivered to Rebekah was pretty awesome and a total Buffy move which I’m always a fan of.
-The markings on the cave come into play again as Rebekah caught some on her video of Elena, these ones reveal that another white oak tree grew after they burnt the other one; they are all vulnerable once again.
-Caroline had some really great moments in this episode; acting as a Klaus decoy as he continues to try and charm her. Klaus did burn his drawings of Caroline after this, but I don’t see this as the end of his pursuit. The scene was incredibly charming and they have great chemistry. The manner in which Caroline handled Elena wanting to see Bonnie also shows how far this character has come and she uses her personal and recent experience of a parent in transition to cool the situation. Basically Caroline is awesome, no wonder Klaus fancies her.
This has been a hard episode to review and it isn’t easy to put my finger on why exactly, all the pieces were there for it to be a great instalment before the mini hiatus, but it just didn’t gel completely. I really like the introduction of the Originals so it is a shame to see them scatter so quickly, hopefully when we return so will they. The love triangle aspects also fell short after the epic confrontations and truths revealed last week and for once it would be good for Elena’s plan to not have her ending up as the girl who needs to be saved by the heroic brothers. Elena tells Rebekah that she “never said I was tough” but as we have seen she really is, so hopefully when we return on March 15 (yep it’s that far) we will get to see Elena not falling foul of terrible plans once again. The standards of this show are so high that sometimes expectations are perhaps too high and this is definitely an episode to add to the tiny list of episodes that I liked but didn’t love.
What did you think of the episode? Am I being unfair or were you somewhat dissatisfied as well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
To watch a promo for the flashbacktastic next episode “1912” head here.
