Youch. Not a good week to be Tyler. Or in the Lockwood family at all, really. Michael Trevino is always fun to watch in a Tyler-centric episode, even if werewolves are basically stupid territorial pricks who are forever jockeying for dominance and direction. Save for the occasional traitorous lone wolf like Hayley, who’s only out for herself. Which we should have known, you don’t cast Phoebe Tonkin if you want a nice, reliable girl.
That is instead April’s job, as Miss Mystic Falls 2012 witnesses Caroline reviving from Hayley snapping her neck (hilariously, this only pisses Vampire Barbie off; like the rock star she is, she immediately dispatches the troops, loudspeakers the betrayal, leaps into action, and compels April to forget all the horror). Only she doesn’t know that Matt and Jeremy, human loyalists that they are, gave her a vervain bracelet, and the compulsion doesn’t stick. Which is only too fortuitous, because this way April finally finds out what’s become of instant BFF Rebekah (she’s staked in a coffin awaiting Klaus’s demise, planned by Tyler and Fake Phoebe). She decides that’s the part of the problem she wants to work on. Will Rebekah be grateful for the revival, one wonders?
Damon spends the episode helping Atticus and Bonnie train Jeremy not to kill Elena on sight (while his conscious mind loves her, his unconscious will strive to kill any vampire, always, which almost makes sense in a pop psychology sort of way, and definitely gives Mr. R. McQueen Jr. some fun intense thousand yard stares to deliver, not to mention dude has bulked up for his new slayer duties! More Jeremy, show, constantly!). What’s fun about this part is seeing Damon seethe at Atticus (who points out that he’s threatened his life at least three times lately, but he obviously still needs the stuff only he knows, so he knows he’s safe despite the bluster) openly, while Elena and Bonnie rely on him a little too guilelessly.
Dobrev does a really good job this episode of being “sired” while still having some semblance of free will (she doesn’t always agree with Damon’s choices, but she will do what he asks her to), and works hard to keep him from asking her to leave him forever. Which he finally does, but too late for Stefan, who throws a Caroline-instigated hissy fit.
But then it’s a pretty craptastic day all around, though mostly for the Lockwoods. Klaus goes on a rampage when he finds out what’s been going on, sending even pack co-Alpha Kimberly whimpering to her demise, and even that isn’t enough for the Immortal, who also finds Carol Lockwood in an unfortunately vulnerable moment. God, I hate Klaus. Didn’t these wolves realize they were playing with the devil himself, who considered their souls already sold?
Even when he’s making surprisingly touching and sad lonely winter snowflake paintings (which are in no way postmodern, just abstract; you’re too old-fashioned, Klaus) for the Winter Festival or tolerating Caroline when he knows full well she’s just distracting him from the day’s rebellion again, he’s intolerable.
Shawn Hill knows two things: comics and art history. Find his art at http://cornekopia.net.