The Vampire Diaries Review: Caroline the Wolf Slayer

There is nothing like finding out your daughter is one of the blood sucking undead that really kills a mother-daughter relationship. Such is the fate of poor town sheriff Liz Forbes and her newbie vampire daughter Caroline. Caroline’s character has been fascinating to watch ever since her conversion to the supernatural, previously her high school cheerleader antics had been a little tiresome.

There is a historical society volunteer day where Stefan confronts Mason, asking for a truce if he’ll keep away from Damon and he’ll make sure his brother does the same. The werewolf isn’t so sure though but after a manly handshake and a subtle threat from Stefan the two part ways.

Stefan and Elena continue their fake fight for Damon and Caroline to hear so that the other two believe and hopefully so does Katherine. It doesn’t fool Damon though who knows that the two lovebirds never fight about him especially.

Earlier that day Elena tells Jeremy that Mason is a werewolf and the younger Gilbert is all ready to jump into the action. Big sis says no way of course, but young Jeremy has his own plans and starts to believe that Tyler might be one as well. He finds the other Lockwood brooding over at the town bar and strikes up a conversation. Tyler is feeling a little vulnerable since his chat with Mason, where his uncle finally came clean and told him the truth about the family curse. We learn that he had accidentally killed a friend in high school during a parking lot fight and that triggers his full moon condition. Tyler then fakes Mason out by pretending that he thought the moonstone was in a hidden compartment underneath the floorboard.

Meanwhile Mason goes to Liz and tells her that Damon and Stefan are vampires. She’s shocked of course, not Damon her bff! But Mason is insistent and says he’ll prove it to her. So after a little macho banter between Damon and him at the lemonade station, the older Salvatore brother takes a sip of the drink and abruptly spits it out, reeling from the effects of vervain. Nearby Liz observes and is convinced that the brothers are vampires.

She rushes off to call her deputies in when Caroline stops her, asking if she’s leaving already. Liz apologizes but claims it’s important, her daughter then retorting that it always is. Caroline though knows something is wrong and is followed by Elena to higher ground so that she can hear better.

Once Damon recovers, Stefan and him both agree that they have to take Mason down and follow him into the woods. Just as they corner him though they are shot multiple times by Liz and her deputies. Mason leads them to the old Lockwood slave quarter hole/werewolf holding pen. The sheriff tells him to leave because he’s not part of the council and doesn’t need to see it. Liz shoots Damon in the knee, as she demands to know how they walk in the sunlight. Damon looks at Stefan who’s still unconscious and doesn’t say anything.

In the woods Elena and Caroline run into Mason who knows that Caroline is a vampire. He grabs Elena and puts her in a choke hold threatening to tell Liz what she is. My my, Mason isn’t all that good if he’s willing to snap Elena’s neck right then and there. In one of my favorite scenes in this episode Caroline stares him down and says she’s pretty sure she can take him, then proceeds to kick his ass. Go Caroline!

They rush to the underground pit when Caroline hears her mom threatening Damon. Elena rushes down to stop them from killing the brothers and is about to be subdued by one of the deputies when Caroline in a whirl takes them down, sinking her teeth into one of them. She finally comes face to face with her mother with blood covering her mouth.

The group decides to take Liz back to the Salvatore house where she’ll stay in one of the cells while the vervain works its way out of her system then Damon will compel her so that she forgets what happened today. Caroline overhears her mother telling Damon that she doesn’t want to see her daughter anymore because she can’t stand the fact that she’s a vampire. In another one of his good guy moments, he defends Caroline saying that Liz was wrong about Caroline.

Elena tries to comfort her friend who finally admits to being a spy for Katherine because the other vampire was threatening to kill Matt. Elena says that she knew Caroline had been spying but tried to put herself in her shoes to understand. They both agree that they are terrified of Katherine but still don’t know what her real reason is for being back at Mystic Falls. This has been the question everyone’s been asking, but I think asking it aloud over and over again won’t make the answer appear.

Back at the Lockwood manor, Tyler, Jeremy and the two girls are drinking. They check out Jeremy’s sketchbook where the teen has drawn a lot of freaky looking wolves. Tyler manages to get him alone and proceeds to start choking him, courtesy of that Lockwood temper. Jeremy chokes out that he knows what he is and Tyler lets him go. The two then have a sort of male bonding moment where Tyler tells Jeremy what Mason told him and even reveals that his uncle is looking for the moonstone. Then one of the drunk girls grabs the stone and tries to get Jeremy upstairs with her, presumably to make out. Tyler looses his patience and forcibly gets the stone back from her and she tumbles down the stairs. Uh oh! No worries though, she was only kidding and young master Lockwood won’t be turning furry in the next full moon, not yet anyways.

At the Salvatore house, Stefan opens his cooler full of human blood and tells Elena that he needs to drink it to build a tolerance and get stronger otherwise he’ll never be able to protect her from Katherine. Elena is pissed off but Damon says that he thinks Stefan should and deep down so does she. So she goes to him and cuts herself because if her boyfriend has to drink human blood, it better be hers. It was a rather sexually charged moment because next thing you know they’re making out.

Mason in the meantime goes to back to the wolf pit where he figures out that the Salvatore brothers are still alive. In this episode’s major twist of the evening, Katherine sits waiting for him inside the car. Turns out that she had been enrolled in high school when Mason was attending, maybe ten years ago or so. In another flashback, we see what happens to Mr. Lockwood after he kills his friend and it turns out that Katherine probably compelled the poor guy into attacking Mason. Just what other tricks are up her sleeve? In any case now that Mason has the moonstone back (Tyler giving it to him after realizing that he never wanted to go wolf), it turns out that Katherine had been the one to instruct him to get it. Inside the car she gets pissed off with him momentarily for getting Damon and Stefan shot but soon they’re making out as well.

The plot thickens! This was a good episode mainly because of Caroline. She’s my new favorite character on the show and I’m glad that they are allowing her to grow. It’ll be interesting to see the relationship between Liz and her now that she knows how her mother would be unable to see past the vampirism and detest her own daughter. Their already tenuous relationship probably won’t survive this season. But that’s just my guess. As for Mason we’ll have to wait and see whether he turns out to be something else other than Katherine’s lap dog. Katherine in the meantime really might be in love with Stefan still, which is okay by me. She can have him and Elena can end up with Damon. I’ll be a happy camper.

Season 2, Episode 5: Kill or Be Killed (originally aired October 7, 2010)

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Photographs courtesy of The CW, Bob Mahoney