The Vampire Diaries: Bring It On (4x16)

Nina Dobrev is a great actress. Despite the fact that nothing really changes about her outward appearance, she manages to make the characters of Elena and Katherine very distinctive. And now we get to add a third sort of "character" to the list. That being: Vampire Elena with her humanity turned off. Kudos to this actress for her portrayal of Elena as an unfeeling vampire. Sometimes it's truly frightening to see how far our heroine has fallen.

So... this episode. It wasn't my favorite on record, or anything, but I enjoyed it perfectly fine. Usually my favorite episodes are the ones where we get some Salvatore brother cuteness, and that was conspicuously lacking this week. However, that's a personal preference, and I'll definitely look at this episode on its own merits.

I've already praised Nina Dobrev's performace this week, but I wanted to give a shout out to the little-appreciated Paul Wesley as well. His portrayal of Stefan this week was excellent. I finally started to see what everyone's been talking about between Stefan and Caroline. I was staunchly wishing for them to just remain friends, but now that it looks like Tyler is out of the picture (no!) I would definitely support a relationship between Stefan and Caroline. I honestly don't care one way or the other about which brother Elena ends up with, as long as the two brothers can still be together and love each other at the end of the day. I hope both of the Salvatores are happy by the time this thing wraps up.

Some problems with the episode: The Klaus/Hayley thing? What? Okay... this show has a problem with introducing new mythology clumsily when they need it for the plot. Hayley's strange marking was really odd. I'm thinking about shows like Supernatural, where the expanding mythology is very cleverly weaved into the narrative. The Vampire Diaries hasn't been as successful at this. It felt strange to see the two of them hook up. I mean... good for Klaus for finally getting some, I guess, but it came out of left field.

Another minor problem, and here I'm nitpicking, was the conversation between Damon and Elena before they decided to take off together at the end of the episode. Damon was telling Elena to cool down so she wouldn't hurt Caroline, and Elena's response was to ask Damon flippantly how many times he'd tried to kill Stefan. Uh... never? If I recall correctly even when Damon was the evil of all evils at the beginning of this show, he did not ever seriously attempt to end Stefan's life. Isn't that sort of the point of his earlier character? He seems super unfeeling but then gets all bad-ass protective whenever anyone threatens the baby brother? I mean, it's not Dean Winchester level protectiveness, but it's still there. Ah, whatever. I'm being too picky, but I didn't appreciate that comment.

Some good dramatic moments: Caroline and Elena's fighting, culminating in an almost-dead Caroline. Wow. The odd chemistry between Damon and Rebekah, and how Damon killed that one random vampire dude. (I'm curious about this guy's back story, now.) Also, the scene at the very end where Damon and Stefan are talking on the phone... Stefan is going to kill you, Damon! Running off with Elena like that... yeesh.

I also really liked that although Silas wasn't in this episode, his presence was still felt. The hints here and there about the blood being stolen were well placed and interesting. Can't wait to see where it all leads!

7.5/10