The Vampire Diaries: True Lies (5x02)

Okay, yeah. I liked this one. I'm a bit annoyed about a few things, but in all I thought the episode had a lot of good moments.

The plot: Elena and Caroline are trying to figure out what the heck is up with their dead roommate, and they come across a really rude Biology teacher who seems to have something to do with it. They also have further interactions with Jesse, the upperclassman who seems to enjoy flirting with Caroline. (Caroline doesn't have much to do in this episode other than grapple with the Tyler issue and reject Jesse's advances).

Then, "Stefan" shows up. It's not him, of course, but rather Silas. Elena is so relieved to see him, but he ends up mind controlling her to kill Damon. She nearly does, but she manages to stop herself once Damon realizes what's going on. Elena actually stabs herself through the leg to prevent herself from killing him, but unfortunately her anger at Damon is acting as a trigger for her homicidal thoughts. She's angry because of all the chaos going on back in Mystic Falls that Damon didn't tell her about. Eventually, the only way to stop Elena's crazy thoughts is for her to think of something stronger than her anger at Damon. What emotion is stronger, you may ask? Well, these intense feelings she's been having about Stefan. She can sense that he's in a lot of pain, and is just trying to call out to her for help. This helps break the mind control, and her and Damon are able to start looking for Stefan.

First, I should clarify that when it comes to Delena vs. Stelena, I really couldn't care less. In fact, more than anything I want the Defan bromance to be the center of the show. I just want the two of them to be friends. And be okay. And be happy. And if that means Damon is with Elena and Stefan is with someone else, then cool. Bottom line, I want the brothers to be okay.

So. That being said, this episode was still pretty hot on the Delena front. And a girl would have to be blind not to notice how good Ian and Nina look together. I mean, really. All of their moments together were really intense, especially when it came to Elena's mind control stuff. I understand some Delena shippers might be upset that the only thing that could break Elena's desire to kill Damon was thinking about Stefan. But I don't personally think it threatens their relationship. I'm much more annoyed that Damon's feelings regarding Stefan aren't being addressed. Sure, he had one moment where he asks Liz Forbes for help and he seems pretty worried. But I want him to be more worried. I want him frantic. In the end, when they find the box he was trapped in and find someone else inside, I'll admit I was very disappointed. I wanted a brotherly reunion moment.

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Matt have been tasked with keeping Katherine away from Silas. I had a lot of fun with this plot line. I actually thought it was stronger than the Damon and Elena stuff. I cannot express to you how amazing Nina Dobrev is when she's playing Katherine. I find myself forgetting it's the same actress sometimes. She was wonderfully sassy and put out by everything, and I found it super believable that Katherine would be a whiny human.

In any case, Silas does catch up with them, and tries to kill Jeremy. Jeremy totally kicked ass in this scene, because of his mad hunter skills. Anyway, Silas actually stabs something through his own body to get to Jeremy, when Katherine shows up and shoots him. It was quite a fun scene, actually. Silas also kills Matt, who was wearing the Gilbert ring, thank goodness.

Silas then comes across the girl who earlier got inside of Matt's head, and she kills her partner, announcing that she has her own agenda, separate from that of the "Travelers," a group hell bent on getting rid of Silas. I'm skeptical about where they are going with this, but I'm willing to bide my time.

While on the Other Side, Matt sees Bonnie and learns of her death. He does what nobody else has done so far, and apologizes for the crap she's been through. He tells her that it's okay to not be okay, which is honestly a super helpful thing to hear sometimes when life gets you down. (Or... death gets you down? I don't even know anymore). When Matt makes his way back to his body, he will forget having seen Bonnie, so he's sure to give her a big hug.

Jeremy goes to talk to Bonnie too, and she's finally able to admit that she's not handling things so well. Jeremy says he'll always be there for her.

This plot with Jeremy, Bonnie, Matt, and Katherine was brilliant. It explored some really fascinating character dynamics. I particularly liked Jeremy's compassion towards Katherine, despite all the evil she's done, and of course Matt giving Bonnie the hug she's been needing.

So. Yeah, this was a good one. I'm not happy about the lack of Damon and Stefan broments, but I'm optimistic that I'll be thrown a bone in the near future. From the promo for next week I can see that we're back to the Ripper business, which is a big bummer in my opinion. However, I won't judge this episode based on what I fear will happen in the next one.

8/10