The Vampire Diaries – Recap & Review – Let The Right One In

photo: cw

The Vampire Diaries
Let the Right One In

Original Air Date: Apr 8, 2010

Zeba – TwoCents Reviewer
zeba@thetwocenstcorp.com

Things got a little crazy on last night’s episode of the Vampire Diaries, and if you guessed that most of the craziness came from Miss Pearl’s gang of misfit vampires, lead by the sketchy Frederick – then you are so right.

Plus, there was the Jeremy/Anna plot that got more convoluted, and some bad, bad news at the end of the episode for everybody’s favorite working jock, Matt.

At the top of the episode, Stefan, Damon, and Elena are securing the house after Frederick’s home invasion. Naturally, Damon wants to get revenge right away, and even more naturally Stefan wants to be cautious before they make any rash decisions. Well, it looks like his particular method backfires when, while out in the woods hunting for “food,” he gets cornered by Frederick and his cronies. Oh, no!

Stefan disappears, and on a very good hunch Damon goes to the house of Mrs. Gibbons, the poor human caretaker covered in vampire bites and clearly under compulsion. Sure enough, Stefan is in the house, being tortured and beaten up. And for one of those rare times we see some actual, brotherly love coming from Damon as he tries to save his brother – only, he can’t get in. Frederick uses compulsion to make sure Mrs. Gibbons never lets Damon into the house.
While all this is happening, Jeremy and Anna are getting closer. At the Mystic Grill, Anna refuses to turn him, citing his complete lack of knowledge as just one of the many reasons she might do it. What is Jeremy getting at, here? He says he wants to be turned because he doesn’t fit in and has nothing to live for (oh, OK), but I think it has something to do with Vicki…

Later, Pearl turns up at the Grill to meet Anna, and runs into Mayor Lockwood. While she’s flirting it up with him and trying to get on his good side (to better serve whatever plan she has up her sleeve), she notices Anna flirting with Jeremy. She finds out Jeremy is a Gilbert (as you may recall it was a Gilbert who betrayed her and had her sealed in the tomb), and suddenly she’s whisking Anna into the bathroom and warning her about him. Anna tells her that Jeremy already knows she’s a vampire, which gets a slap from Pearl. Next thing you know, Anna leaves Jeremy a text saying, “I’ll do it,” as she stalks out of the Grill. Ah, teenage rebellion never dies.
Meanwhile, Damon and Elena are trying to figure out how to bust Stefan out of his torture session and certain death – so they enlist the services of Alaric Saltzman who is handy because a) he’s human and b) his trusty little ring somehow has the power to bring him back from the dead. Alaric is hesitant at first, but when possible information about the whereabouts of his wife are dangled before him by Damon, he relents.

Of course, Elena insists on going into the house, too. She is so annoying. We get another flickering of Damon’s sensitive side when he grabs her by the shoulders (gently) and tells her that he gets it, he really does – but she can’t come in the house.

The plan is set in motion. Alaric shows up at the house and pretends to need use of a phone. The vampires let him in, and before they got start snacking on him he whips out his trusty stake and gets to…staking. This gives Damon the chance to get in (he ends up killing Mrs. Gibbons to make it easier) – he finds his brother in the basement, tied up with ropes dipped in vervain. Harper is also there, staked to a chair for trying to save Stefan earlier.

And I guess Elena being annoying helped this time around, because she decides to come into the house anyway and is able to untie the ropes for Stefan. She and Stefan flee for the getaway car whilst Damon causes a diversion.

It looks like they’re home free, until – oh noooooo – Elena realizes that the ignition has been tinkered with. Frederick is there! He starts beating up an already weak Stefan, and is ready to kill him – but Elena stakes him in the back. This doesn’t kill him – he’s still stirring and Elena needs Stefan to get up and fight. So what does she do? She gives Stefan her blood. It was very Twilight. But way less hilarious.

With some human blood, Stefan is able to defeat Frederick but he also goes a bit crazy and almost hits Elena in his frenzy, before coming to his senses. It was scary. But, as Damon points out earlier “love lifts us up where we belong” and by the end of the episode Elena and Damon are just as happy as two peas in a pod. Whatever.

And now for the tragedy of last night’s episode – Jeez, Matt really can’t seem to get a break, can he? His childhood sweetheart has moved on to an infinitely hotter and better-jawed vampire boyfriend. His mother is in and out of his life. His sister is missing. Can it get any worse? Yes, it can. Early on in the episode Caroline gets stuck in the rain on the way to her father’s boyfriend’s daughter’s birthday party. She gets out of the car, goes sliding down a hill, and finds…Vicki’s body.

The news comes as a hard blow to Matt and his mother – especially when they had just reconciled and were trying to get a bit of normalcy. But the worst part? Matt tells Caroline, who broke the news to him, that he just needs “to be alone right now.” And then he promptly turns around and goes crying in Elena’s arms! Poor Caroline! Okay, I know her sister wasn’t just found dead in some bog but still.

And that’s that! This episode was certainly more thrilling than last week’s, and I’m dying to see what develops in the Anna/Jeremy storyline – especially since Jeremy now knows that Vicki is dead. Is this going to change his mind about turning into a vampire? What do you think? Feel free to shoot your TwoCents!

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