The Vampire Diaries: Double the Date, Half the Fun

It’s double date night in Mystic Falls and boy is it weird! In this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, titled “There Goes the Neighborhood,” Stefan and Elena decide to seek a little break from their dramatic lives by going on a double date with the obnoxious and pointless duo of Matt and Caroline. Things are a tad uncomfortable since Elena and Matt used to date so when the strained conversation turns to memories from their time together, insecure Caroline gets a little pissy and confronts Elena about it in the bathroom. She’s classy like that.

But before we go any further on that we must discuss the creepy vampire abode in the woods that we got a glimpse of at the end of last week’s episode. By my count there are close to ten vampires hanging out there under the leadership of Pearl and her daughter Anna as they await the right time to take over Mystic Falls once again. Their newest recruit, Harper, is content to sit around and follow orders but the grumpy Frederick (Stephen Martines) is going stir crazy with a strong desire to hit the town and bite some necks so off he goes with a glorified extra named Bethanne.

Frederick and Bethanne show up at what seems to be the only establishment in town where in addition to the double date, Damon can also be found getting hammered with Matt’s ready-for-Intervention mom, Kelly (Melinda Clarke) and Aunt Jenna. Frederick runs into Elena near the bathroom and calls her Katherine, which naturally sets off her Oh Lord It’s Another Vampire Alarm. She warns Stefan and they wisely decide to move the double date to his house. If this were Gossip Girl I would have expected an orgy to transpire but instead they look at Stefan’s busted but beautiful old car, which Matt believes he can get running again.

Things seem to finally be going well when Matt makes a joking comment about making out with Elena back in the day. It’s pretty innocent but paranoid Caroline doesn’t take it well and storms out. Instead of following her immediately, he fixes the car (within minutes mind you) and solves the relationship muck-up by taking her for a spin in it and proclaiming his devotion to her. Matt was actually quite likable in this episode so I was happy to see him work it out. I just wish Caroline wasn’t such a lame character. He could do so much better.

So once again things seem to be going well and the double date resumes only to have the four of them walk in on Damon and Matt’s mom about to do the nasty. It’s pretty messy and brings the night’s festivities to a close in prompt fashion. After everyone has left Stefan and Damon are about to chat when Frederick comes bounding through the window ready to kill with that glorified extra, Bethanne, right on his tail. Poor Bethanne gets killed by Stefan before even getting a line of dialogue and Frederick eventually bails when he realizes that he can’t take them both on but it’s pretty clear that things are going to stay ugly between him and our pretty boys in upcoming episodes.

In subplot land, Elena’s little brother Jeremy is still fascinated with vampire lore and spends his free-time chatting with some local yahoos online who clearly have no idea what they’re talking about. That’s when his old flame, Anna, shows up at the door and announces that she’s back in town for good. Jeremy isn’t entirely stupid and has had his suspicions about Anna ever since their weird encounter in the woods a few episodes back. So he calls her out on it by slicing open his hand and tempting her with the blood that comes pouring out. This instantly makes her coo coo for Cocoa Puffs and she sucks the dickens out of it before scampering away in a flash.

Later that night she shows back up in his bedroom to scold him for tempting her like that but he doesn’t back down and requests that she turn him into a vampire! Will she do it? Can Elena handle yet another vampire in her life? Will everyone be a vampire before this series is through? Tune in next week to find out!

For another opinion on this episode, check out Your Mom’s a Slut, Dude. by Mallory Elis.

Season 1, Episode 16: There Goes the Neighborhood (originally aired April 1, 2010)

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Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW

Photographs courtesy of The CW, Bob Mahoney, and Guy D’Alema.