The Vampire Diaries: Yellow Ledbetter (6x02)

Oh yeah! Enzo! I sort of forgot about him. But not because I didn't like him. He's enjoyable! Let's take a look at the plot of this one, which gave me all sorts of feelings but also made me furious but also made me happy but also made me sad. This was a bit of an emotional roller coaster, actually.

Elena and Alaric start going through Elena's memories, altering them so she can forget about her love for Damon. Alaric can't get her to stop loving him until she admits the moment when she first loved him. She doesn't want to, because it was when she was still with Stefan. Finally, she is able to admit the moment. She also remembers that Damon killed Jeremy in front of her. This finally gets her to let go of Damon, forgetting about her love for him.

Meanwhile, Caroline is furious to find out from Alaric that Stefan hasn't been working on a way to get Damon and Bonnie back. Turns out, the only person following up leads now is Enzo. Enzo and Caroline track down Stefan and meet Stefan's new girlfriend. Caroline is incensed that Stefan never listened to any of her messages, and just abandoned them all. Enzo is likewise furious that Stefan has given up on his own brother. Stefan insists that he tried to find a lead to bring Damon and Bonnie back, but he eventually realized that it wasn't possible, and he had to move on, and get away from anything that reminded him of his dead brother. Enzo kills Stefan's girlfriend Ivy and tells him that he'll be giving him the lifetime of misery that Damon once promised him.

The girl that Elena bit in the last episode, Sarah, has been hooking up with Jeremy. Tripp, the head of the town's new safety watch, discovers that Sarah came to town in a stolen car. Matt insists that Sarah can't stay in the house anymore, since she's a car thief. Jeremy and Sarah leave to go somewhere else. We learn that Tripp is actually part of the Fell family, one of the founders of Mystic Falls. We see him drive a truck full of vampires over the line into the town, which kills them all, since supernatural creatures are still not allowed in Mystic Falls.

Finally, we check in with Bonnie and Damon. The two of them appear to be stuck in a completely empty Mystic Falls, reliving the same day in 1994 over and over again. They make breakfast, Bonnie fills out the same crossword, and they lament their fate. Bonnie is trying to learn how to do magic again so she can hopefully get them out, but no luck so far. At the end of the episode, when Bonnie and Damon notice that the last part of the crossword, "Yellow Ledbetter" has been filled in, they realize someone else must be there with them. Neither of them had figure out the answer.

I honestly don't think I have any complaints, except for one giant one.

That was when Elena fell in love with Damon?! Seriously? Yikes. I did not see that coming at all. As someone who has never been all that passionate about which Salvatore Elena ends up with, I'm not pissed about it or anything... but I am sort of miffed. Does anyone else think that this new piece of information undermines Elena's connection with Stefan a little bit? I think she sincerely loves/loved them both, and I feel a little duped about the timeline of this whole thing now.

But honestly, other than that, I thought this episode was fantastic. It was a lot simpler than some episodes of this show tend to be. It drove the plot forward, it added intrigue... let's go through some of the elements that worked really well.

Enzo! He's sort of this throw-back version of Damon, in a way. He can afford to be a little bit more bad. His loyalty to Damon is touching, though, even though I know for a fact that Damon would disapprove of Enzo torturing Stefan. It's fun to watch Enzo vacillate between homicidal maniac to concerned friend, as he actually murders Ivy, just because he was upset on Caroline's behalf.

Caroline and Stefan's relationship was interestingly explored here. You know, I'm mostly on Stefan's side, here - I think it's perfectly acceptable that he needed to get away from his old life to move on from the crippling loss of his brother, and of Lexi for that matter. And yet at the same time, the fact that he left Caroline without saying goodbye is pretty messed up. He did what was best for his own healing, but not what was good for any of the people he cares about.

Of course, it's adorable that Stefan's grieving for Damon like this. It seems right that he would try to run away from his problems. I'm just excited for the inevitable reunion!

I'm not quite as interested in this new Tripp character as I am with some of the other things going on, but I do like seeing Matt get his own story. I'm excited to figure out how Sarah, who claims she has family in Mystic Falls, ties in with the mysterious Tripp, who clearly knows a lot more than he's letting on.

And then there's Damon and Bonnie. These scenes were probably the strongest, in terms of acting and pacing and overall atmosphere. I love the idea of the two of them stuck in a ghost town. Ostensibly they could be avoiding each other and minding their own business, and yet they're choosing to stick together and try to find a way out. I loved Damon dancing in the kitchen, and Bonnie's crossword puzzle fixation. And that cliffhanger at the end... very menacing! Who else is there with them? And why are they stuck on this particular day? I can't wait to find out more!

8.5/10