The Vampire Diaries reminded us in “Bringing Out the Dead” that it’s truly best never to get to attached to any character or any idea of a status quo, because just when you think you’ve fingered out a person’s motivation or their, or the state of their undeadness, they’ve changed directions.
The Vampire Diaries Review “Bringing Out the Dead”
Klaus: The worst thing for Elena Gilbert is the two of you.
It’s an interesting time on The Vampire Diaries when the big bad (grouchy) villain is actually the one thinking logically with the best idea. In truth, Elena (Nina Dobrev) could live a happy, drama-free life without the Salvatore Brothers (she’d go down fighting, but they could compel her) and marrying a human like Matt. I mean, maybe they’d have drama about what movie to Netflix for Saturday Date night, but Matt is pretty low key. And Klaus would leave them alone and let them have kids and buy a Prius and other assorted normal things. Elena might even start wearing brighter colors and get a hair cut. The possibilities are endless.
Stefan: I love her, Damon.
Damon: So do I.
But, of course, neither Stefan (Paul Wesley) or Damon (Ian Somerhalder) are ready to be that unselfish. They love Elena. They’ll fight about her forever. She’s too good and too beautiful and too wonderful. (I know she’s great, but sometimes you do have to wonder why she’s the only girl these guys can love. Then again, I guess I have theories about that… like how Stefan fell for her as the Katherine he never truly got, and Damon has never gotten close to anyone else like this, and he challenged himself and now he’s done so.)
Klaus: Help me destroy Stefan and I promise you our family will be whole again.
It’s hard to trust Elijah (or anyone, especially an original) and throughout this episode it seemed like he had screwed Damon over. But, nope! He didn’t trust Klaus anymore than anyone else does. So now that he’s reunited his entire family, who knows what he’ll do next. He probably figured his Mom would destroy Klaus, but she seems into forgiveness. (I wonder if she knows that Klaus just killed her husband.)
Very Important Hair Related Sidenote: I know we’re not supposed to say anything about Ian Somerhalder at any time, but his hair is bordering towards mullet territory and it distracts the hell out of me. Anyone else see this and feel disturbed?
Speaking of the coffin, I can’t have been the only person who thought the person inside of that would be Tatiana the original Petrova doppelganger. Right? And that would have been awesome.
Emotional Witches
Witches have to hang out in caves, apparently. Seriously, how often is Bonnie regulated into hiding? I’m not sure why Bonnie and her Mom were knocked out, but now that the original witch is here, there’s bound to be some conflict for them.
We are FAMILY
One of the issues I have with the show is something that I also have to just grin and bare, and that’s how so many things are going on at once so that certain friends aren’t with each other or calling each other when major events happen. Bonnie didn’t get a chance to talk to Elena or Caroline about her Mom. Caroline didn’t get to talk to Bonnie about her Dad. Elena didn’t get to talk to either about Alaric (and the whole killing him in hopes it’d regenerate him thing, and man that is a crazy sentence…) etc. I just want more of a sense of unity between these human friends! (Not that Caroline is human…uh…)
Candice Accola Wins all the Awards, Okay?!
Speaking of Caroline. Oh man. God, there is such loss on this show! Although I do appreciate how much of a horror movie this show can feel like, it’s exciting without being too scary. (The scene in the hospital where Caroline discovers her Dad, and the scene where Elena and Matt discover Alaric were both super tense!) I very much feel Kevin Williamson’s influence in those types of moments. He’s always loved merging teenage stories with horror elements. (I don’t know what that says about him as a person, but it does make him a damn good storyteller.)
The Alaric storyline was pretty intense, wasn’t it? We know his supernatural ring has been malfunctioning. So when Elena took the risk to stab him (can you even imagine being asked to do that?! I’d probably vomit) she knew there was a chance it wouldn’t work at all.
Murder in the Woods, and the Hospital, and the House… and stuff!
And who is the freakin’ killer?! And I’m sure they’ll be suspicious when they see Alaric is actually not dead… but they obviously have some kind of grudge against council members. But if they were a vampire, they probably wouldn’t be killing so ironically… So, it’s a pretty interesting plot to follow.
Damon: I say go with the black. It makes you look all villainy.
All in all, amazing episode! I’m really glad Alaric wasn’t killed off. Right? I do miss Katherine though, just throwing that out there. And while Tyler is MIA, I suspect we’re heading towards some Caroline/Matt action, don’t you think? The biggest problem we have is that Rebekah (Claire Holt, yay) wants to kill Elena. (But it’s a good thing she picked such a pretty pink dress that oddly didn’t wrinkle in the least while she was daggered! It must be made form jersey fabric…)