Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Evan Bleiweiss and Julie Plec
Directed by Wendey Stanzler
Picking up right where the previous episode left off, Elena continues to see hallucinations, mostly starring Connor, the Hunter that she dispatched just hours earlier. This causes quite a bit of consternation when one hallucination results in her stabbing Jeremy in the neck with a kitchen knife. It’s a good thing he has one of those resurrection rings, regardless of the risk of insanity. In the Gilbert home, it’s a necessity!
As it turns out, Klaus is well aware of what is happening, because he’s gone through it as well. Apparently, when a Hunter is killed, there is a curse that drives the offending killer insane to the point of suicide. Nice payback for the Hunter, not so good for Elena. (Though the audience had to appreciate the shower scene.) And thus the gang must find a solution to the problem.
Damon and Bonnie (the world’s most unlikely team-up) go talk with Professor Shane about Hunter lore. They’re not all that good at making it seem casual, so I suppose it’s a good thing that he’s the one behind the arrival of Connor in the first place. He tells them that the only way around the issue is to get someone with the potential to be a Hunter (conveniently called Potentials) to kill a vampire, generate the Hunter’s mark on his body, and thus reset things back to normal, since there will now be five Hunters again. It all makes sense within the show’s mythology, even if one is tempted to wonder if Joss Whedon is considering a lawsuit over the whole Potential thing.
Klaus, meanwhile, has abducted Elena and trapped her in a nice safe room where she can be watched over and kept from killing herself. This distracts him from realizing that Tyler, with his new friend Haley, has started helping other hybrids break the sire bond. Caroline is more than happy to embrace Haley as a mere helper, not Tyler’s friend with animalistic benefits, when she gets to meet the other hybrid that has broken free.
One can easily guess how wrong all of this is going to go. Stefan is an idiot, so he conspires with the gang to break out Elena. Let’s set aside the fact that Klaus is keeping her safe at the moment; getting her into the open where she can try to immolate herself in the sunlight is a much better option! Still, that means sending Caroline to Klaus to do a bit of flirting as distraction. (And in that outfit, she’s a damn fine distraction!)
Elena’s hallucinations are perfectly designed as an expression of one’s own mind tearing itself apart. Connor, Katherine, and Elena’s mother all rip into Elena and lead her towards a rather nasty end. Damon runs to her side to keep her from doing the deed before Klaus (who isn’t stupid) can get Jeremy to the nearest vampire, who just happens to be the recently liberated hybrid. Jeremy gains the next piece of the Hunter’s mark, and Elena is saved.
It fulfills the expectation that Jeremy would be the Hunter who would start getting the full mark, and thus point the way to the cure for vampirism. And since Professor Shane wants to be the new Hunter’s mentor, it’s not hard to guess that his head will be filled with all sorts of things to turn him against his friends and family. Oh, and he still has that ring, and we all know how well that worked out for Alaric.
In the short term, however, the damage is more substantial. Anyone looking for a Klaus/Caroline love connection might get their wish. Caroline and Tyler are on the outs, and that means Tyler is probably going to rethink getting closer to Haley. (And who can blame anyone for considering getting close to Phoebe Tonkin?)
More central to the series, of course, is Elena’s confession that she’s now a lot more into Damon, especially since Stefan just can’t stop being a total idiot when it comes to relationships and communication. Damon lies through his pointy little teeth, but at least he’s consistent and open about it! Elena’s reminder about emotions being heightened when becoming a vampire not only serves to justify the switch (which is rather nice for Nina and Ian, I imagine), but also brings up that little matter of increased libido that Caroline and Tyler indulged in a while back.
This episode made a point, of course, of showing how much Elena doesn’t want to become Katherine. Yet what is likely to happen if Elena really embraces her new nature, even knowing that there might be a cure? Can she find a balance between her humanity and her new desires? Would Damon be content with that? Lots of fun questions to ponder!
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Score: 8/10