The Vampire Diaries: Upping the Ante Before Another Hiatus

When we last left the residents of Mystic Falls a week ago things were going downhill fast. Stefan and Elena betrayed Damon, which obviously made him pretty angry and then Elena and Bonnie were both kidnapped by the evil Anna and her vampire in training, Ben. We also learned that Anna has roughly the same goal as Damon – open the tomb that holds the vampires who perished in 1864 and bring them back to the land of the living. Damon is after his true love, Katherine. Anna is after her mother, Pearl (Kelly Hu). But there are others that no one particularly wants to see released, which is where it gets complicated.

In order to open the tomb a witch is needed (hence kidnapping Bonnie) in combination with the Grimmerie (book of spells). Damon has the book but refuses to help Stefan rescue the girls; Stefan refuses to collaborate with Anna; and Bonnie’s grandma, Sheila (also a witch), refuses to help let any vampires out of the tomb. Needless to say, it’s a predicament.

But as the episode progressed it really started moving toward a big climax. Stefan manages to rescue Elena and Bonnie away from Ben and Anna, Sheila (Jasmine Guy) agrees to open the tomb if only Katherine is allowed out and all other vamps are killed, and Elena is able to convince Damon to work with them again despite recently betraying him. It all seems like it should work out for the best but Anna isn’t going to let it go that easily. She and Ben snatch Elena’s brother, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), from a big party and plan to use him as leverage in a showdown at the tomb. Bonnie and Sheila succeed in opening the tomb so Damon goes storming in with Elena in tow so he can finally bring his beloved Katherine back from the dead. But there’s one problem – she’s not inside! Gasp!

Meanwhile outside, Ben shows up with Jeremy as a hostage to keep Stefan at bay while Anna rushes into the tomb to resurrect her mom. Stefan dispatches Ben with relative ease (flamethrower, anyone?) and hears Elena screaming inside so he rushes in knowing that the witches haven’t completely broken the spell yet and that he might not be able to come back out again. Inside, he finds Damon extremely upset about Katherine’s absence but is able to convince him to get out before it’s too late. They get out safely but not before Anna escapes with Pearl. A little while later a depressed Damon confronts Anna and Pearl about Katherine’s missing body and learns that she was never put in the tomb at all and is in fact still alive and kicking somewhere. She just didn’t care to seek out Damon. Insert sad trombone music.

And on top of that sad revelation – Sheila passes away peacefully after using too much power to keep the tomb open for Stefan to get out. It would have been an emotional scene but it was directed a little too over the top with some cheesy light rock tune blasting instead of something a little more tender. It then harshly cut to a scene back at the tomb where apparently one of the dead vamps has stirred to life and is making his way out…guess we’ll have to see what happens next week.

Oh wait, did I say next week? Because I actually meant six weeks from now. Yep, you read that right. The show is going on ANOTHER month and a half long hiatus after airing only four new episodes! I’m sure they have good reasons but whoever is doing the scheduling over at The CW needs to let this play out a little bit longer than four episodes at a time. They just get us all excited and then hang us out to dry.

Anyway…this week’s award for random plotline of the week goes to the horribly lame burgeoning relationship between Matt (Zach Roerig) and Caroline (Candice Accola). Neither of them have anything particularly interesting to do with anything else on the show, which makes every appearance a true head scratcher. We can only hope they get turned into some kind of monsters sooner rather than later. Matt might make a nice werewolf…

For another opinion on this episode, check out After many a-summer dies the swan by Mallory Elis.

Season 1, Episode 14: Fool Me Once (originally aired February 11, 2010)

For more on The Vampire Diaries, click here.

Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW

Photographs courtesy of The CW and Quantrell Colbert.