Catch Me If You Can--The Vampire Diaries, January 24, 2013

by the Marc Kane and Lue Lyron At the bar, where Jeremy’s opened to an ambush as part of Klaus’ plan, he refuses to kill the newly-turned, recently-innocent people. The danger to Matt, however, at the compulsion of Klaus, leaves him no choice! In the middle of their flight to safety, Elena arrives outside the cabin, and saves Matt. Inside, Damon tells Elena to trust him with Jeremy, and take Matt, “our Least Valuable Player, home!”

Shane assures Bonnie of her degree of control. Her meditation efforts are shaky; she fears her tremendous power’s too unstable. Shane’s then arrested---accused of mass murder. Damon and Jeremy arm themselves ; Damon goes over his training, at which Jeremy bristles. “I’m trying to save your life, dumbass,” Damon snarkily says. Back at the bar, Damon senses something’s not right. All dozen or so of the newly-turned vampires are found killed by Kol, who confidently takes a drink of his Scotch and tells them he’s ready to talk. Kol explains that, hundreds of years ago, he met a group of Cylas’ worshippers, who believed in his resurrection. Damon scoffs.

Kol reminds Jeremy “we were mates in Colorado” and tries to persuade him to join his side. At his refusal, he threatens to kill Jeremy, and take on the vampire hunter’s curse. Rebekah reminds Stefan of their good times partying back in the 1920’s, and breaks out some of the professor’s herbs. Bonnie’s father tries to persuade her with Rebekah Mikelson’s word of Shane’s confession. Shane confides, when they are alone---the confession’s not a lie. Matt’s disgusted that Elena’s left Jeremy in Damon’s charge; he apologizes, just as a call comes in that Damon’s been taken captive.

Elena confronts Klaus, who tells her she can’t demand his brother to back off. She begs his help with their common goal, the cure; liking this, Klaus relents and threatens Kol for sabotaging his plans; “stay away from the Gilbert boy.” Kol delights in compelling Damon to stake himself slowly, and tells him that Jeremy is the source of her last bit of “annoying humanity” ---he believes this is what Damon really wants! He compels him to hunt Jeremy down. Jeremy talks to Elena and she tells him that he doesn’t need his tools anymore because Kol has killed all of the vampires that Klaus sent. His killing urge “is on overdrive.” Rebekah brandishes a Polynesian sacrificial knife, as she works her wiles on Stefan. The libertine values of feeding, sex, and freedom from care is the salvation Rebekah offers for Stefan’s sorrows. “Stop caring,” she says, smiling, pulling him closer. They’re interrupted by a compelled spy, caught by Rebekah. “The question is,” she asks, “Who are you?” Damon offers to apologize to Jeremy—a means of wheedling from Elena, Jeremy’s location. So Shane begins justifying the resurrection of Cylas, begun with the ritual death of the eleven people at the Town Council. He assures her “your friends can be brought back from the dead by Cylas.” Matt reveals Jeremy’s in the back of the bar, to Damon, who stalks towards him relentlessly---until Elena asks if he’s all right. As she can tell by his dazed look, he’s not---but Damon realizes and reveals he’s been compelled to kill her brother!

AT this point, we wonder: if Jeremy happens to kill Damon instead…! Will Elena even want to be cured, then? Ominous. How whole would anyone resurrected by Cylas be? We may find out. Jeremy hears Damon’s voice down in the caverns beneath Mystic Falls, warning him to run. He retreats, keeping his weapon at ready.

“Run, Jer,” Damon shouts, “Kol’s compelled me. I find you, I’m going to kill you, and there’s nothing I can do about it!”

The compelled spy for some unknown party takes a cyanide tablet. They wonder who this third party is; I wonder if it’s part of Kol’s plans to prevent the resurrection of Cylas? Shane begins telling Bonnie about her grandmother’s suffering on “the other side” until Bonnie, wounded by guilt, loses it and begins hurting Shane’s hand, then starts a fire with her powers. Between her father and Shane, she regains control. Shane offers her father to help Bonnie; “she’s a prodigy…I could help her become one of the most powerful witches in the world…but without me…” Elena calls Stefan for help. “I know you don’t care about me anymore,” she says, but she tells of the compulsion predicament. Jeremy cuts himself, to bring Damon to him. Damon bites him, then Jeremy shoots him…but doesn’t finish him off. “In the heart, Jeremy,” he warns him, agitated. A shot is fired…before commercial break!


 With all this wall-to-wall action, we don’t have as much character development-based speculation, this week. A lot of weeks have set up the psychological quandaries that give the show its spirit, but this is one of those pulse-pounding episodes where the pieces move in constant play. Speaking of moving, Damon sits up, and pulls a bullet out of his forehead. It’s apparent Jeremy probably really likes Damon somewhat. “Stupid idiot!” he swears. “Borderline brain dead moron! You should have killed me when you had the chance!” Rebekah uses a dagger in Kol’s back to try to end the compulsion. “A dagger in your sibling’s back?” he asks. “What has become of this family? Elijah won’t even show his face.” Kol then nearly kills her in return, until Klaus arrives, mocking her. “Then you need lessons,” he says cooly, in how to properly dagger a sibling.”

Elena believes her love will convince Damon to break his compulsion. Jeremy fires again. It’s Stefan’s speedy arrival that saves Damon—as though it is for her. “You’re welcome” he says coldly. I can’t help but think, he’s hurting her for hurting him, but he has reasons to save Damon for himself: he’s his brother, and he loves him…whether he wants to, or not. Who wants to become like the Mikelsons? (Ah, a bit of character development after all!) Damon awakes to Stefan’s coaxing. “You bled me out?” he asks. “This was the only way I could weaken you,” Stefan explains, as he has no vervaine. He prepares to lock Damon away “until we find the cure…then you’ll be free, the sire bond can be broken…and you two can do whatever the hell you want.” He stops Elena from seeing Damon; he explains she won’t be able to resist freeing him. “What are you doing with Rebekah?” she asks. “She tried to kill me!” “And Damon tried to kill Jeremy twice, so I guess no one’s perfect,” retorts Stefan. “You don’t know what I look like,” he says, “when I’m not in love with you. I’ll tell Damon you stopped by.” She walks away, forlorn. Bonnie’s dad describes how disturbed he is to have seen her use dangerous magic, and that she does in fact need help, whatever she believes.

“Hello Gilbert Clan” says Klaus, like a snake, at their cabin door; “I’ve come to fetch my hunter.” He offers to take Jeremy under his wing---which is refused. “You think you’re safer here?” he queries.

He points out the danger. “But when Kol does come---and he will come---let me know before he burns your nice little home down.” He tells Jeremy “you have no shortage of friends to endanger or compel…so sleep tight…and we’ll begin our work again in the morning!” Stefan shows up at Rebekah’s place and rags on her for not daggering Kol; she explains that he had a white oak stake at her heart. He wants to know what she did with the headstone and she says “It’s in a safe place.” “That was not our deal,“ he replies. She explains that she felt it was best because he “betrayed me twice” and she “betrayed you” never. Then they discuss their lack of feelings for each other and they begin to disrobe each other for “crazy sex.” Elena reveals to Jeremy an alternative plan: if he kills an Original, all the vampires sire bonded to that one will perish---hundreds, if not thousands---completing the map easily. “Kol compelled Damon to kill you,” she suggests, “why don’t you kill Kol instead?” NEXT WEEK: Looks like Kol’s other target…is Bonnie!