The Vampire Diaries – Recap & Review – The Lost Girls

photo: cw

The Vampire Diaries
The Lost Girls

Original Air Date: Oc 15, 2009

Zeba – TwoCents Reviewer
zeba@thetwocentscorp.com

Can someone explain to me what the hell was going on in tonight’s episode of the” Vampire Diaries?” Bueller…Bueller? A lot of drama went down in the town of Mystic Falls this week (so bear with me), especially between our lovebirds Stefan and Elena. Badboy Damon, however, manages to once again infuse the show with a dizzying cocktail that is one part sex appeal, one part twisted humor, and a whole lot of messed up. So let’s get to it.

We pick up more-or-less where we left off last week, with a frantic and thoroughly freaked-out Elena showing up on Stefan’s doorstep, demanding to know “what” he is. Stefan doesn’t toe around the issue like he has with everything else before this. His eyes go all puppy-dog like they’re about to start streaming any minute, and he admits matter-of-factly, “I’m a vampire.”

I said it last week and I’ll say it again: Elena’s reaction to the entire situation is thoroughly refreshing in the sea of vampire-falls-in-love-with-human stories out there nowadays – she FREAKS. She backs away from Stefan the minute he takes a step towards her, and races to her car when he uses his super-fast-walking vampire power to corner her as she tries to get away. At home, she’s still wigging out – pacing up and down her room, raking her hands through her hair – the whole bit. Because let’s be real. I don’t care how perfect a guy’s jawline is – if I find out he’s a bloodsucker I am not going to be thrilled about it.

Of course, Stefan is desperate to make Elena understand that he doesn’t want to hurt her. So he sneaks into her bedroom (and scares the crap out of her again), insisting that he only feeds on animal blood, and that the recent attacks were all the doing of his big fat meanie brother. Elena isn’t listening. “If you truly do not intend me any harm you will leave. Right now.” Poor Stefan.

Actually, Poor Vicki. The girl just cannot seem to get a break – and tonight’s episode really takes the cake in that respect. If you recall, last time we saw Vicki she was being attacked (for the second time) by a very weak and very thirsty Damon. When we return to the part of the cemetery where she and her friends had been hanging out, Damon has finished gorging on all of them, burning their bodies to sloppily cover his tracks. It’s after making an angry call on one of the deceased’s cell phones to Stefan, demanding his special ring back (the ring being the only thing that protects him from daylight) that he notices Vicki is still alive. “You just really don’t want to die, do you?”

The next day, Stefan manages to convince Elena to meet with him at a café. He wants to tell her everything she may be curious about regarding his “condition” and, most importantly, convince her not to blab his secret. He dispels all the common myths – aversion to garlic, crosses, and mirrors. He says that, long ago, the existence of vampires was a well-known fact in Mystic Falls. Apparently, this didn’t end well, which is why she needs to keep mum about him and Damon. “Just give me one day, and then you can make your decision.”
Back at the Salvatore house, Damon, trapped inside till it gets dark, has a dying Vicki bleeding on the couch. For kicks (and do you think in some twisted way, out of pity?), he lets her drink his blood. Instantly her bite wounds are healed and she’s off the wall, dancing around with Damon in her underwear (this is, I assure you, thoroughly hilarious). Damon sends her on a roller-coaster of emotions, at some points euphoric and at others, well, not. She tearfully confides in him how much she hates herself and envies her brother Matt. Damon’s response?
He breaks her neck.

But quickly, back to Elena and Stefan. Now, tonight was the much talked about “flashback” episode (though, sorry to say, there was something off and oddly laughable about our three leads in their 19th Century garb, trying to be all old-timey and whatnot). After the café, Stefan takes Elena to the old foundations of a building, the house he and Damon were born in. “I’ve been 17 years old since 1864.” Even though he definitely looks about 29, but that’s neither here nor there. He goes on to tell Elena the true story (or, at the very least, his version of it) behind Katherine Pierce, the woman he and Damon each fell in love with centuries ago.
Stefan’s story goes like this: In 1864, he and his brother (a Confederate soldier) were best friends. Katherine Pierce was a beautiful lodger staying in their boarding house. She also looked mysteriously like Elena, while behaving like a female version of Damon. Charming, flirtatious, and totally manipulative. Both brothers fell for her, and when she chose Stefan to accompany her to the Founder’s Ball, Damon was enraged. Stefan, however, was too enamored with the fiery Katherine to care. That is, until she fed on him while they were having sex. Before he could even breakout the pitchfork and wooden stake though, she brainwashed him into forgetting the whole incident, while doing the same to Damon, making sure that neither brother knew about the other’s involvement with her. And that’s when the problems began…

New problems are sprouting up for Vicki, too. What with her being undead and all. She’s drunk Damon’s vampire blood, so the snap of the neck was not an end but a beginning. She wakes up, totally out of it, wanting to go home. Damon half-heartedly insists that she stay inside because in a few hours her “transition” into a vampire will begin, and if she doesn’t feed on human blood, she’ll die.

But Vicki doesn’t pay attention, ending up at the Gilbert household. The girl is going through it. The sun is burning her eyes, her gums and jaw hurt, and she feels “hungry” but no amount of food can seem to satiate her. Jeremy, at a complete loss for what to do calls her brother Matt over. Matt doesn’t know what to do either, but then Stefan and Elena show up.

Stefan knows exactly what’s going down the minute he looks at Vicki. Taking control of the situation, he orders Jeremy and Matt to take her upstairs and let her rest with the blinds closed. Elena isn’t amused, and she’s even more unamused when Vicki bolts out of the house minutes later. Stefan runs after her, promising Elena to track her down and teach her the joys of his “vegetarian” lifestyle.

Of course, there are those in Mystic Falls who really don’t care whether or not a vampire is “vegetarian.” They just want them dead. Namely, reporter Logan Fell, Sherriff Forbes (Caroline’s mom), and Mayor Lockwood (Tyler the Jock’s dad). After the discovery of the burnt up bodies in the cemetery they decide it’s time to take action. With the stolen Gilbert watch (which apparently is some sort of compass that helps you track down vampires), Logan ventures out into the woods to go a-huntin’, armed with a wooden stake and wood bullets.

And one of those wood bullets finds its way into Stefan Salvatore’s stomach. He eventually does track down Vicki, crying, near the old cemetery. As a by-product of her transitioning into a vampire, all the memories she’s lost over the past few weeks due to being brainwashed are coming back to her. She’s now fully aware that she’s becoming a vampire, and weighs her options. To be, or not to be? Just when Vicki begs a remorseful Stefan to take her back home, Logan turns up and shoots him.

Stefan is writhing in pain on the ground, bracing himself for the stake Logan has raised right above his heart when in comes Damon! He bites the crap out of Logan’s neck, kills him, and fishes the bullet out of Stefan’s gut. Is that brotherly love? Or did he just want to ensure the safe return of his magic ring?

Before Stefan can even process that, though, he is dismayed to find Vicki, feeding on the dead Logan Fell. The girl just couldn’t help herself, I guess. But damn. She’s annoying enough as a whiney teenage junkie, how much worse is she going to be as a whiney teenage junkie vampire??

With a heavy head, Stefan returns to Elena’s later that night with the bad news. On the same front porch where they shared a kiss only weeks ago, he now tells her that couldn’t stop Vicki. She fed. She’s a vampire. Unsurprisingly, Elena is all over indignance and disappointment. Stefan starts on his whole spiel about being “sorry” and promising to “make it up” to her but it is too late. Elena lets him know that, even though she doesn’t plan on divulging his secret to anyone, she simply cannot be with him. Stefan is left standing on the porch with a broken heart, and the minute Elena gets inside the house she breaks down crying because, well – I guess she just had a really bad day.

So there you have it! Damon is back, Vicki’s life just got ten times suckier, and the cutest couple in Mystic Falls are officially over! Aside from the much hyped and hardly satisfying flashbacks into the origin of the Salvatore brothers, I’d say this episode was pretty decent. What do you guys think? Will you be able to stomach Vampire Vicki next week? How do you think Elena and Stefan will get back together (because, inevitably, they will)? As always, feel free to give me your TwoCents!