The Vampire Diaries is back, and the mid-season premiere did not disappoint. The first half of the season left off with a bang and the smell of revenge in the air, and tonight we got the first glimpse of what that could mean for our favorite Mystic Falls characters.
The episode starts with Bonnie’s (Kat Graham) eerie return to the haunted house where she used to contact the 100 dead witches before she was banned for overstepping her connection. Surprise, Surprise! This is exactly the location that Stefan (Paul Wesley) chose to hide the original family – or is it? Just kidding. Bonnie was just having a rather chilling nightmare. Sounds like emotional conflict is keeping her up, or waking her up, these days.
Elena (Nina Dobrev) has her own demons to run from this morning with a mystery man hot on her tail. It turns out what she’s running from is her own paranoia. And, she’s not the only one with a weight on her shoulders. Alaric (Matt Davis) is failing miserably in parenting 101. He finds out that Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) is not only failing school, hiding that he lost his job, and what he doesn’t know might be worse. Spiraling downward after his breakup with Bonnie – Jeremy hits the woods with Tyler (Michael Trevino) to train his wicked ways.
Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is back. A very public homecoming in the Mystic Grill leads him straight to the couple of the hour – or couple hopeful – Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena.
Klaus puts a new deal on the table, one that he is quite eager for them to comply with. With Stephan hiding out in who-knows-where land, Klaus is left with few options in his search for his family. And, as predicted his first stop is to find his little sister, Rebekah (Claire Holt), who is still out of commission in the basement of Salvatore Manor.
Bonnie heads to the house to see if her dreams have any witchy backing only to run into missing in action himself, Stefan. Meanwhile, Tyler comes under the gauntlet in the Gilbert kitchen after buddying up with an emotional fragile Jeremy starts to come to notice.
Klaus tries again, this time alone with Damon, and pleads for information on Rebekah – in his own confident, stubborn way. Bonding over Stefan as a disappointment doesn’t work, so Klaus takes another approach. It looks like Jeremy might have fallen prey to Klaus’s evil ways when Alaric steps up in a very real way – getting hit by a car seems like a pretty serious show of parental devotion. Good think you had your ring on, Ric!
Klaus shows us that Tyler was in on the plan. Well, sort of. Klaus’s message was received loud and clear, and now, everyone is in the know about what Stefan took that brought the wrath of Klaus.
Connecting the dots, Elena goes straight for Bonnie now that her dreams have come to fruition – more or less. Damon still hasn’t gotten a free pass from the dead witches, but Elena isn’t convinced enough to leave. She heads straight for Stefan, who is unwavering in his own revenge plan. If he doesn’t change his tune soon, we might have front row seats to Jeremy Gilbert’s family.
In a show of love, just the way we like it, Damon takes one for Elena and heads in to talk some sense into Stefan. Or stab him with a branch. Big brother is angry and not afraid to let his emotions show. Stefan admits he screwed everyone over to save his brother, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to smooth things over. Yet, they come to an agreement over their mutual desire to keep Elena out of dangers way.
Jeremy comes home to save the day after a hybrid threatens things at the Gilbert homestead. The siblings rush Alaric to the hospital after his ring seems to have had a glitch.
Elena is up to no good of her own, inviting Klaus over to collect Rebekah in exchange for the safety of Jeremy. Klaus thought he could turn the tables on her by threatening other loved ones, but Elena had the upper hand – informing him that his sister was well aware of his secrets.
An intense moment between Damon and Elena bring us that much closer to getting what we want – another hot kiss!
Much to my chagrin, Klaus puts the dagger back in Rebekah’s heart. For once, it doesn’t seem like an easy choice for him to hurt someone else.
Damon compels Jeremy to leave town. Elena decides that it’s better for him to get out of dodge, than end up dead. What will life be like without the resident hottie little brother around?
And, yes! Damon steps up and makes his move on Elena! It’s been half a season since the last time they smooched and things have only been heating up since. Fireworks went off, at least in my head, when their lips met and this time no one was on their deathbed!
What will happen now that Damon has made good on his feelings for Elena? Will the road to happiness be paved in gold or wooden spikes?
Let us know what you think!