Thank you Julie Plec, that was awesome. Last night’s episode of The Vampire Diaries was the first one in awhile to hit the TVD trifecta. It had blood, it had sex, and it had angst up the wazoo. From Rebekah and Stefan’s anti-knocking policy to Damon’s obsession with proving he is not his brother to the Jeremy/Matt/Kol fauxmance “Catch Me If You Can” struck gold. Since Rebekah and Stefan have been so kind as to separate the race for the cure into distinct teams, this recap will be split up accordingly.
Team ShadyPants
Let’s get the main annoyance of this episode out of the way first. Until April Young came along, Bonnie Bennett held the crown for “most unlikable TVD character” and since April was not in last night’s episode, Bonnie reverted to her old thrown. Not only is she totally hot for sketchy Professor man, but now he has some weird voodoo over her that controls her “Expression” (for the record this expression thing is still confusing). We commend Bonnie for finally calling ShadyPants like he is, CRAZY, but the thing is Bonnie, you’re crazy too. Bonnie’s magic is the key to getting the cure and waking Silas in the process. How many times must they repeat that fact?
Despite the awesomeness of this episode, this whole Silas thing still seems unimportant. He better be super badass and interesting. So after Bonnie calls ShadyPants crazy her witchy voodoo breaks his hand and sets a fire, but Shady brinks her back to the light and everything is sunshine and rainbows. Except it’s not, because they are both CRAZY. Are Bonnie and ShadyPants on the outs now? That was unclear. If that is true does Bonnie revert to Team Damon? Bonnie obviously needs ShadyPants’ Kool-Aid to calm her witchy nerves or she will blow. When Bonnie inevitably explodes hopefully ShadyPants and April are by her side. Have I mentioned how much I don’t like them?
Team Damon
Klaus’ vampire babies have been compelled to hunt Jeremy, and Damon provides Jeremy with some sound advice, “get your hunt on”. Jeremy is more concerned with Matt Donovan’s well being than his own. Can Matt not be the victim just once, what happened to ninja Matt from last season? They run back to the lake house to hide from the vamp babies, but not before Jeremy calls Klaus a dick. Classic mini-Gilbert. Next morning Spike and Buffy Damon and Jeremy go hunting for the vamp nest, because unlike every other vampire in Mystic Falls the vamp babies don’t have daylight rings. Who should they find in the ice box, but Kol (sans peacoat) and a bunch of dead babies, which brings us to a new subsection.
Team Kol (not a real team)
Kol’s main initiative is to stop everyone who wants the cure. Unfortunately for Kol, this is an impossible feat. The crew has been discussing Silas so much we have to see him eventually or what was the point? Also, younger brothers never win. Kol does reveal some more ominous news about Silas, apparently raising Silas will trigger the “end of all time” or so his vampire bedtime stories have taught him. He also apparently killed a clan of Silas worshippers back in the day. Kol has an afternoon snack of vampire babies and follows it up with some compulsion. He compels Damon to find and kill Jeremy.
Back to Team Damon
Team Damon reconvenes at the grill where Matt has gotten over last night’s blood loss and is hard at work. Damon goes to find Jeremy but Elena’s voice stops in. It’s all ethereal and stuff and it stops him right in his tracks. Damon quickly realizes that Kol must have compelled him to kill Jeremy and runs into the tunnels after him. Really, life in Mystic falls was way easier before the L’Occitane* store closed. After some kerfuffle Jeremy gets away, sort of by shooting Damon in the head. Meanwhile Elena calls Stefan cause she’s in way over her head, but he doesn’t really care. Elena and Damon find themselves standing across from each other and Elena tells him to fight the compulsion and that he can do it. Sound familiar? It does to Damon, who has his best line of the night “why, cause Stefan did?” Elena says no that it’s because they lurve each other, but Damon takes off after Jeremy anyway. See the thing is, we know that he can fight the compulsion. Remember earlier when Elena’s voice was all heavenly? Damon could have fought the compulsion if he wanted to, but he is so determined not to be his brother that he gives in. It was awesome. (Side note: Elena says in plain english that she doesn’t care about the cure. I mean hello, duh! Wouldn’t it be really great if everyone would just stop looking for it.)
Anyway, Damon is all prepared to die for the cause and asks Jeremy to shoot him, Stefan swoops in and saves the day. Then Stefen, bless his soul, says “you’re welcome” with as much sass as he can muster. Classic Ripper. Damon wakes up in the Salvatore basement where Stefan has bled him out. Paul Wesley was ridiculous in this scene. He’s said in countless interviews that he wishes Stefan was “ripper Stefan” all the time and it shows. Not that he’s full on ripper quite yet, but the enjoyment he got from bleeding his brother out was palpable. Stefan makes a good point that Elena shouldn’t come visit because Damon could invoke the sire bond and have her let him out. Thing is, Damon can control the compulsion if he tries. In any case, it seems that we won’t get more Team Damon sexy times for another couple of episodes.
Stefan instructs Damon to stay put until they find the cure and break the sire bond, then Damon and Elena can do whatever they want. You go Stefan! Stefan goes upstairs to find Elena on her way to the invalid and advises her that going to visit Damon is a bad idea. In a moment of Stelena, she says she’s scared of seeing Stefan like this, to which he responds “you don’t know what I look like when I’m not in love with you”. Mega burn. That’s right Stefan, we don’t know, but so far we like.
Back at Casa Gilbert Elena comes up with the best plan Team Damon has had all night. Jeremy has to kill vampires + Damon is compelled by Kol = Jeremy should kill Kol. Knocking out Kol’s vampire line would be the quickest way to grow the mark.
Team Klaus
Kind of down for the count. Both his siblings are plotting against him and he seems to be losing interest in the whole thing. The slight of hand with the white oak stake was questionable. Does Klaus have it now? Does Kol? Jeremy will need it to kill Kol. Seeing as that would be the easiest way to grow the mark, Klaus should not object.
Team Crazy Sex (aka Team Rebekah and Stefan)
WINNERS! Congratulations Rebekah and Stefan despite the fact that you started out the episode with no props, you are the winners of “Catch Me If You Can”. Not only did you earn a headstone and a clue to another team being in the mix, you are the only team having fun. Stefan is a little bit more of a winner than Rebekah for calling out Elena on her crap (see above). R & S start the day rummaging through Shadypants’ stuff to find the big rock. They get their flirt on as Rebekah reminds Stefan how much fun they had in the 20s (seriously we know, that is still one of the most amusing episodes of the series). They give up the search and decide to smoke some of ShadyPants’ never ending weed stash instead. Just when R & S are about to sloppy make out they’re interrupted by the most normal looking guy ever to enter Mystic Falls. Turns out he’s after the headstone too. When R & S tie him up he bites out his own tongue then kills himself to hide his secrets. LOTS OF BLOOD. R & S are super confused as to who this rando is and so are we. Our first thought, TEAM KATHERINE! That’s more of a wish though; she wouldn’t even want the cure, she loves being a vampire and she definitely wouldn’t have any interest in bringing back the dead. Oh Katherine, where are you? Perhaps the tongueless dude is a surviving descendent of the Silas worshippers Kol thinks he killed (see above).
R & S split up and while Stefan saves Damon and Elena again, Rebekah fails to dagger Kol. They reconvene at Casa Salvatore and with Damon safely locked away downstairs, there is nothing standing in the way of their fun. And thus the partnership of R & S becomes partners with benefits. Rebekah assures Stefan that there are to be no feelings, no attachments, just some crazy sex. What will Stefan’s other blond think of this? Oh, Caroline’s face is going to be hilarious. Just remember folks, “crazy sex is always good”.
So much angsty goodness in this episode. “Catch Me If You Can” had us at the edge of our seats, as every episode of The Vampire Diaries should. It had the perfect balance of plot and emotion and reminded us how much we love this show. The predictability was thrown out the window with Kol’s compulsion and the crazy sex. We have no idea what is going to happen next, and that’s the best part.
What did you think of last night’s episode? Would you pick a different winning team? Who was that random dude? Can Damon control his compulsion? We want to hear your thoughts in the comments.
The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday at 8/7c on the CW.
*Vervain is one of the main ingredients in most L’Occitane products. It smells really nice.
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