Review of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – The Ties That Bind (2012)

The things we do for family and those we love

It was a rough night for everyone.  Tyler tried to prove he could break the sire-bond by working with Bill Forbes by forcing himself to willingly transform.  Bonnie tried to reach out to and forgive her mother, who had abandoned her 15 years before and chose a life raising another child.  Stefan tried to protect Elena and got shot in the chest, only to have his heart ripped out (figuratively) by Elena’s confession that she had kissed Damon.  Damon tried to prove Alaric’s new love-interest was a diabolical psycho, but got vervained in the process.  And Bill Forbes tried to help Tyler and was nearly ripped to shreds.

It was a losing night for Tyler, Elena, Stefan, Damon, Bonnie and Bill.  The only winners were Klaus, who got three more of his coffins back, and Elijah, who was resurrected after Damon removed the dagger from his chest.  But even Klaus didn’t get everything he wanted, as Damon managed to snatch one before Klaus arrived — and the return of Elijah may not be the blessing that Klaus or Damon thought it was.

Though it could be argued that Alaric did better than expected when he found out the real reason Dr. Fell vervained Damon and stole his blood — she’s a philanthropist only wanting to save her patients by any means necessary.  But I suspect by how fascinated she was by Alaric’s invincibility ring, her altruism may only extend to her goals and not a genuine desire to help others.

So much pain — physical, emotional and mental.  The scars from this night are going to take a while to heal.  Tyler discovered that one transformation was not enough to break the sire-bond.  Bonnie may not ever fully understand and forgive her mother for abandoning her.  And Stefan may never get over the pain of learning that he is losing Elena.  Who is to say who experienced the greatest pain and which will heal?  Tyler looked pretty shell-shocked to hear that he would have to keep transforming until the process became painless — a future he simply cannot see right now.  Bonnie will always wonder what kind of mother can abandon her child for years, never wondering if she was okay.  And Stefan may never get Elena back now that he has lost her.

It is said that fighting a war is only half the battle, to truly win is the healing that takes place afterwards.  Can the victor forget the cost of battle — the memories, the pain, the losses?  If one cannot get past the pain, memories and the grieving for what is lost, then did they truly win?  Our heroes are haunted and battle-weary.  Are they winning if they lose so much in the process?  Will Tyler endure torture, over and over again, just because he loves Caroline?  Will Bonnie be able to forgive her mother? And will Stefan ever feel like he won the war with Klaus, if it cost him the love of his life:  Elena?

Winning may cost them everything.  Is that then really winning?

Points of Interest

1.  Always fun to see Stefan’s cherry red hot rod car make a cameo appearance.  It is such a nice reminder of how wild Stefan is.  The blood red color, yet in a style that screams of elegance.  It speaks to the duality of Stefan — red hot, yet classy cool.

2.  Elijah is back!  Can’t wait to see what fun and games there will now be had with his return.  Elijah could be friend or foe, but it is impossible to guess which at this stage of the game.  What on earth was Damon thinking to unleash Elijah?

What Worked

Addressing the elephant in the room, it was great to see Bonnie straight up ask Elena, “What’s going on with you two?” To which Damon nonchalantly replied, “We kissed.  Now it’s weird. Have a great trip.”   Later when Bonnie continue to prod Elena for information about the kiss with Damon, she asked the question millions of female fans were dying to know:  “Was it good?” When Elena refused to give the details and simply said, “Doesn’t matter,” Bonnie smiled and said, “That means it was.”  Hey, maybe we didn’t get the juicy details on that kiss, but unlike Bonnie, we all got to see it.  Whatever that kiss was, it absolutely looked like it was good.  So we know that Elena is now wondering about that kiss more than she would like to admit.

Even Stefan noticed that Elena was not the same.  After watching her resolutely pull out the wood chips out of his chest, he curiously noted, “You’ve changed. Something’s different about you.  You’re stronger, tougher.”  Elena tried to brush off his curiosity by admitting, “You’re not the only one who changed, Stefan.  We all had to.”  Then as Stefan continued to stare with admiration and said, “It’s good though,” with a resolute sigh, Elena said, “There’s something I have to tell you — and it’s not because I feel guilty that it happened.  It’s just that I feel guilty that you don’t know.”  As Stefan looked expectantly, she confessed, “I kissed Damon.”  The look of pain that etched into Stefan’s face in that moment was mesmerizing.  It was not overt.  It was a subtle change as he clenched his teeth and his eyes glistened.  (BTW, that was fantastic work by Paul Wesley in that scene!)  Seeing the expression on his face, Elena looked with wonder — not sure if she dared believe that he could truly care and still loved her.  But the spell was broken when Stefan got up and just walked away.  Perhaps giving him a moment to collect himself or a moment to grieve, Elena finally approached him to check on him and he was forced to admit his greatest fear, “I shouldn’t have kidnapped you.  The car, the bridge, it was too far.”  The deadly, risky game Stefan was playing with Klaus had come at too high a price.  He had not thought he would actually lose Elena.  That he may have was a harsh wake-up call.  So when  Elena told him, “I didn’t plan on kissing him,” all Stefan could say was, “You’re better than him, Elena.  You’re better than the both of us.”  It was an acknowledgement that neither he, nor Damon deserved her — though they both wanted her.  When a vampire can live forever, there is really only one thing they want:  someone to share it with.  They crave love more than they crave blood.  But to protect Elena, Stefan had made a choice.  He chose to win the war — even if it meant losing Elena’s heart.

Though it was good to see Stefan’s immediate response when Damon asked after Elena.  In fact, his violent reaction was a dead giveaway.  So as Damon wryly said,  “I take it you two had a heart to heart and I take it you don’t want to talk about it.  Noted,” it capsulized a much longer conversation.  Stefan did not need to say a word to express his anger and grief, and Damon heard Stefan’s broken heart loud and clear.  Damon knew he would feel guilty for kissing Elena, but he did not expect to feel Stefan’s pain.  Was it worth it?  Earlier Klaus had asked Stefan, “Crazy Stefan — how is that working out for you?  Any friends left?”  The facade of being “crazy” and not caring about others was definitely not working out the way Stefan wanted.

Fortunately, Damon threw Stefan a bone and tried to distract him by saying, “So why don’t we talk about this,” as he held up Elijah’s dagger, prompting Stefan to ask in horror, “What did you do?”  Despite the Salvatore brothers’ conflicted feelings about Elijah’s return, it was definitely cheer worthy when Elijah ripped out the heart of the hybrid and casually asked Klaus, “What did I miss?”   Gotta love how the show brings back its villains in such grand and memorable fashion!

The other story involving the high price of love for the night was Caroline and Tyler.  Tyler had reached out Caroline’s dad to get his help in breaking the sire-bond.  While it made sense that the root of the sire-bond is gratitude — breaking the mind of the feeling of gratitude is much harder than one would expect.  For Klaus had freed Tyler from the monthly werewolf transformations — from the constant cycle of pain and torture.  Every fiber in his being screamed with gratitude that it did not suffer anymore.  So as  Bill Forbes explained, “He freed you from your pain and you feel indebted to him.  To break the sire bond, you’ve got to make yourself turn.  Own your pain, then you’ll owe Klaus nothing and you’ll be free. . . You asked for my help, this is the only way.  Ask yourself, how badly do you want your freedom?”  It was agonizing watching Tyler force himself to transform, but he was willing to do it for Caroline, and Bill was willing to do it to protect his daughter — though it put him in the hospital because of it.  (Very handy that Dr. Fell had just taken some of Damon’s blood as a medical back-up just for such an emergency.)  Unfortunately, when Tyler visited Bill and heard the fateful words, “Then we’ll continue tomorrow,” it was a wake-up call of a different kind.  As Tyler tried to protect, “What are you talking about? I turned,” Bill sadly told him, “Once.  To break the sire-bond, turning needs to be painless.  And from what I saw today, we’re still a long way off.”  With dawning horror, Tyler said, “I can’t put myself through that again.”  The real nightmare had only just begun.  Once was not enough.  Tyler would have to transform repeatedly to break the sire-bond and the prospect of it terrified him.  To torture himself, possibly to death, for love.  He doubted his strength to do it.  But with Bill’s words ringing in his ears, “You will, because until you’re capable of acting on your own free-will, I’m not going to let you anywhere near my daughter,” it remains to be seen whether Tyler chooses the hard path of repeated agony to finally be free of Klaus’ sire-bond.

While Bonnie, Stefan, Elena, Caroline, Tyler and Bill were having a terrifying night, a fun strand of levity was woven through the episode.  Bringing back the bromance between Damon and Alaric, it was great to see their candid conversations about Dr. Fell.  When Damon first saw her with Rick, he curiously asked, “Who’s that?” and Rick impishly replied, “My doctor.”  Then they good-naturedly volleyed to see if any red flags had been raised so far, to which Rick admitted, “Her ex called her a ‘psycho case’ the other day.” To which Damon flippantly replied, “Yeah, but if it’s coming from her ex it doesn’t count.”   Then after a suspicious encounter with Dr. Fell where she vervained him and stole his blood, Damon turned up at Rick’s and as Alaric asked, “What are you doing here?”  Damon quipped, “Looking for a bunny,” as he lifted a lid on the pot on the stove.  Damon then added, “Your doctor vervained me, then she blood-jacked me.”  And just as Rick was about to get angry with him for checking up on Dr. Fell, Damon protested, “Why are you mad at me?  I proved your case.  Diagnosis: psycho case. You’re welcome.”  Vampire and vampire-hunter.  Natural enemies, but by fate and circumstance, Damon and Alaric have actually formed a friendship that has withstood the test of time perhaps better than Damon and Stefan’s friendship — and they are brothers.  Damon and Stefan are brothers and as such will always love each other.  But the continuing friendship between Damon and Alaric is a thing of curiosity.  It’s not natural, but still it is surprisingly genuine and fun.  It also adds great humor, which we all love.

Finally, Rick also is showing great chemistry with Dr. Fell.  As he told her, “You told me your secret.  This is mine,” and when she exclaimed, “You’re a vampire hunter!” Rick was forced to amend, “Semi-retired” (after all, he doesn’t go around staking his vampire friends).  Then as she pumped him for information about his accident and how he miraculously recovered, he told her about his invincibility ring.  As she tried to take it from him, Rick gently closed his hand, and she curiously asked, “Are you worried I’m a supernatural being?”  With a sly smile, Rick only replied, “One can never be too careful.”  Rick may be tentatively entering the dating pool, but he is still trying to be cautious about strangers at a time when there is so much at stake.  It’s going to be fun to see where the dance between Rick and Dr. Fell takes them.  Is it all romance, or is she still hiding something?  And aren’t we all dying to find out!

What Didn’t Work

The moment when Elena returned home and interrupted Rick and Dr. Fell’s kiss was funny enough.  But was it necessary for Elena to have to give the big speech about how the Gilbert home was Rick’s home too and that it was okay to move on? I am sure that was supposed to feel freeing, but instead it reinforced the idea that Rick needed to put the brakes on his blossoming romance.  It certainly ruined the mood just as he and Dr. Fell were starting to be honest with each other.  It would have been cool to see if she actually snagged his ring while she had him distracted.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

“The Ties That Bind” written by Brian Young and directed by John Dahl. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ stars Paul Wesley, Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder, Joseph Morgan, Steven R. McQueen, Candice Accola, Katerina Graham, Michael Trevino, Zach Roerig, Matt Davis, Daniel Gillies. ‘The Vampire Diaries’ airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.