The Dinner Party

Vampire Diaries Episode Review

In which Damon needs a new plan. Or a better execution. A couple of little flashbacks and more than one big surprise in this week's episode of The Vampire Diaries.

What Happened

Elena finds references to Stefan in Jonathan Gilbert's old journals, descriptions of him as a monster. Stefan tells Elena more about his past and how his friend Lexi helped him move past his guilt and pain. He hopes that it will inspire Elena to fight back against Elijah instead of going along with his deal.

When the Gilbert journal includes a description of how to kill an Original, Stefan has to admit that they already knew about the dagger, courtesy of John. Damon is planning on using it it to kill Elijah that night. He's already double-checked John's story by running it past Katherine. Her panicked reaction at the thought convinces Damon that the dagger will kill Elijah. (She's afraid of being trapped in the tomb forever if Elijah is too dead to release her.)

Getting Andi propose a dinner party, Damon invites Elijah, Alaric and Jenna to the house for drinks and murder. (Plus uninvited Uncle John.) Fortunately for him, Stefan gets through to Alaric with a warning: Jonathan Gilbert's journal says that the dagger has to wielded by a mortal. It will kill a vampire trying to use it. Damon makes pissy face and goes in to dessert.

Left unattended for a minute, Alaric picks up the dagger and stabs Elijah instead, then he and Damon dump the body in the basement before Jenna sees it. Unfortunately, they remove the dagger. Which - according to the journal - means that Elijah doesn't stay dead. (Yeah, there's a little too much "oh by the way didn't we mention" in this one.) Waking up in a very bad mood, Elijah goes looking for Elena.

Elijah tracks Elena to the lake house and confronts her. She threatens to have Stefan turn her into a vampire if Elijah doesn't reaffirm his promise to protect her loved ones. Elijah calls her bluff, so Elena stabs herself. Elijah panics and agrees to her terms. As Elena stumbles forward, she stabs Elijah in the heart with the magic dagger - killing him again. This time, they agree to leave the dagger in. Putting the body back in the basement, Elena demands that Damon and Stefan keep her in the loop on things like this in the future.

Damon goes upstairs, expecting to find Andi. Instead, Katherine is waiting for him. Elijah's compulsion faded when he died - just as she knew it would.

The Good

• Poor Alaric. The only sane one in the room.
• Damon and Katherine in the tomb. I kinda sorta suspected she was "Briar Rabbiting" him, but wasn't sure how that would play out.
• Lexi!
• Bonnie and Jeremy. Cute.
• Jonas taking Bonnie's powers. (If there's pay-off. No skipping steps, show!)
• Twisty John. Setting Damon up like that.
• Damn. Alaric for the kill.
• Elena's trick. Wow. That was good.
• Katherine!

The Bad

• That dagger is not well hid, is it? And if Damon really wanted to stab Elijah, shouldn't he be moving faster than that?
• Why does no one suggest cutting Elijah to bits? I mean, being "alive" won't do him much good if his body's in a shallow grave and his head's been mailed to Brazil or something.

The Cliche

• The Big Plan that keeps going wrong.
• Dinner parties, like birthday parties, are a bad idea if you live in a television show.
• Not telling Jenna what's going on for the sole reason that we need to drag the melodrama out for another few episodes.

What Did I Think?

I'm running out of ways to say how much fun this show is.

I mean, there was that brief period when I was sure it was going to break my heart, but they pulled that out and now I'm even looking forward to seeing what Andi does. How did that happen? I hate loathe wish horrible things at all Reporters on Television. They are inevitably self-centered twerps who spend eons insisting that their running around poking their noses into other peoples melodrama is going to save the world and stuff. The only one I ever remotely tolerated was Smallville's Chloe and that was mostly because she had such perky hair I couldn't bring myself to hate her. (Sidenote: I've been watching Popular recently. Am I allowed to reach through my television screen and stab Sam McPherson with a pencil?)

I've wandered off topic. Quick question: If Johnathan Gilbert's journal knew Stefan was a vampire, does that mean that they've know about him and Damon all along?

Anyways. I think one thing that The Vampire Diaries does better than anyone is the set-up / pay-off cycle. I spent last week wondering what Stefan's flashbacks would be about. They satisfied that beautifully (Lexi!), plus added bonus Elena killing Elijah coolness that came out of nowhere and was all the more welcome because of it. And now... now I get to wonder just how much havoc Katherine is going to cause.

Hello angsty goodness!