The Vampire Diaries ‘After School Special’ review: Breakneck Club

You guys, I just realized why I’ve been so frustrated with The Vampire Diaries. It’s not a show about good guys versus bad guys, not at all. It’s just a show about people murdering other people and double crossing everyone. I always knew that it was a soap opera, but I’ve been enlightened — it’s not just a romantic one, it’s in the leagues of Dallas and such. What more can you say about a show that asks you to root for someone who knowingly murdered an entire bar full of people for his own gain? Or that asks you to root for the guy who just heard his ex-girlfriend say she feels like a project and doesn’t like that, and then just decides to continue doing that anyway? The secret answer is that the show isn’t exactly asking you to root for any of that, because there’s always another plot twist waiting just a few seconds away. Forget that Stefan didn’t heed any of Elena’s emotional truth, because he’s about to team up with Rebekah against the others in Mystic Falls!

There’s a good reason for this episode to exist, I suppose. Everyone needs to hear the supposed secrets that they’re keeping from everyone else. However, I just watched “Once More, With Feeling,” about three weeks ago… and while that episode was also just about everyone airing their dirty laundry, at least they did it as a musical. Though, that’s not the issue with this episode of TVD. The real problem here is that we only got like half a new episode tonight. Rebekah locks everyone in a room so that they could all explain to viewers who forgot, or who are just casual viewers, what has happened on the season thus far. If I have any real complaints with this new hour, it’s that. And don’t get me wrong, Rebekah is a great character and she exposed everyone’s secrets in a typical Vampire Diaries fun-ness, but I know all of this.

And for the most part, so do all of the characters.

That said, I suppose we should discuss what was stated. Rebekah’s compulsion causes Elena to reveal that she is in love with Damon and she’s no longer “in” love with Stefan. Somehow, I feel that we already know this. Elena has had actual feelings for Damon for some time, and that feeling was obviously love for some time, too. That said, I don’t know if we should be taking Elena at her word. We don’t have any information that compulsion is greater than a sire bond. That said, the sire bond is a bit muddy at this moment, anyway. Would it not make Elena at least satisfied staying away from Damon knowing that’s what he wants? Or is that where the sire bond ends — she wants to be close to him because she actually loves him? So many questions.

Mainly, what this episode is… is moving towards the cure at what seems to be a breakneck pace (this episode solely), as opposed to last season which sort of split half of its season in two. And the way we get there is having all of our characters sort of competing in a supernatural rat race. Bonnie — whose dad apparently DOES exist, by the way — is toying with expression, something Stefan and Damon have decided to stay mum about, I’m guessing because they just want someone to find The Cure one way or another. Damon and Elena will decidedly work with Jeremy, at any costs, to grow the map. Will Elena be okay with how many people have had to die to just “save” or “fix” her? And now we have unlikely pairing Stefan and Rebekah coming together, fueled by “hate.” I can’t shake that Stefan and Rebekah don’t hate as much as they just want revenge. (“Now you know how I’ve felt for 900 years.”)

Which brings me back to the fact that whether or not it was always intentional, The Vampire Diaries really IS just a show about people with hazy moral compases racing towards the goal the season has set in front of them. I think a huge weight has been lifted. I’ve thought about it so much that I went around in a circle of analysis to my original stance. But I’m still expecting for an all-out, badass war.

Update: By the way, soap operas aren’t bad. I like me a good soap opera. I think it’s just time that I tweak my brain from what I want the show to be in my mind to what it actually is in execution, you know?

Bites:

• This episode also continued the trend of having people actually reflect when characters die. In that sense, I’m glad Tyler got a moment to mourn his mother’s passing.
• But still, Elena has the WORST manners when it comes to funerals.
• AGENCY!!!! Was Damon’s phone call icky or not icky?
• I was hoping that April and Shane being linked had something to do with her father and would make her… uh… useful, but alas.
• Missed you, Beks.