Now that the Michaelson family is back together, of course the next step is to throw a party for all of the whose who of Mystic Falls. This of course means no regularly occurring Black people around, but one or two background people for ambiance is acceptable. There is the briefest mention of Bonnie recovering from her injuries from last week, but now that her servitude is temporarily over, there is no need to include her as an invited guest. Back into the plot box with you Bonnie, the White people do after all have to party. Even Matt, who has no storyline whatsoever got an invite, but an integral part of the team like Bonnie, hell no.
It turns out that Elena got her prized invitation because the original witch, herein to be referred to as mommy dearest wants to have a chat. This of course sets the Salvatore brothers swarming and fighting. Damon thinks its ridiculous to walk into the lion's den, and Stefan supports Elena's ridiculous acceptance of the invitation -- in part because he still wants to get Klaus somehow. Elena announces that she is going stag, but of course they both show up to guard over her.
Caroline gets an invite because it turn out that Klaus fancies her. Awww isn't that sweet. Isn't one ridiculous love triangle enough for this show? Caroline is absolutely hostile towards Klaus and demands that he release Tyler from his sire bond. She tells him that she forces people, but he makes no effort to have a real connection with them, or to try and understand them and storms off, tossing the bracelet on the floor. For his part, Klaus does his best to woo her with his artwork, attempting to show her that there is a soft vulnerable side to his nature. If they turn Klaus into a good guy, who has just been misunderstood, I swear I am going to scream. It sends the message to young woman that you can change a man with the magical power of your love, and we all know how this works out in the real world. Duly chastened, Klaus draws a picture of Caroline and the horse that she was admiring and sends it to her with a note, thanking her for her honesty.
Cheerleader vampire aka Rebekah, chose to invite Matt with the intention of killing him, because it would hurt Elena. It seems that she is still bitter about being stabbed in the back. As much as I am usually in favor of anyone not falling head over heels for Elena, I cannot help but wonder why more of her ire is not aimed at Klaus. He did after all leave her trapped in a coffin for almost a century. Blame the woman in this case just seems too convenient, but then the writers have never invested in making Rebekah behave like the thousand year old vampire that she is.
Rebekah takes Matt for a walk, but after he notices the temperature and gives her his jacket, she suddenly cannot find it in her to kill him. Cole approaches Rebekah, because though he waited as promised, she did not deliver Matt to him. He accuses her of being pathetic and falling for a human who paid her five seconds of attention. Yes, Rebekah is needy, who would have thought. He decides that he's not done having fun, and introduces himself to Matt. When they shake hands, Cole squeezes Matt's hand, causing it to break. Matt is saved by Damon jumping to his rescue. Elena sees this as Damon being self destructive, now that she has told him that he cares too much.
After using Stefan to knock Damon unconscious, Elena sneaks upstairs to see mommy dearest. It turns out that mommy dearest has not forgiven Klaus and believes that she has to kill her own children because they are evil. She tells Elena that she turned them into vampires to protect them from the werewolves, but her children being immoral, decided to make meals of the villagers around them. It is her goal to set the balance of nature right and kill them. To do this, she must first join them together using a drop of Elena's blood. It's always about Elena and her blood isn't it. I am so sick of the elevation of this character. If that were not enough, we find out that the BFF of mommy dearest was a direct ancestor of Bonnie. This means that Bonnie's family has been serving the White folks for a thousand years. Really? I don't even have the words to describe how disgusted I am by this revelation.
In the end, Elena asks Stefan to feel again and being the emo vampire that he is, he says he cannot deal with the pain that he inflicted on her. Ummm yeah, what about dealing with the pain of being a mass murderer and feeding so viciously that you decapitate people? Yeah, none of that is any big deal, because he bit Elena. When Rebekah shows up to comfort Matt, he rejects her. He is pissed to discover that he has no health insurance (note: Matt is the only character who lives in the real world) and has no patience for vampire politics. This of course drives Rebekah right into the arms of Damon and they end up having some steamy sex.
If I had to reduce this episode to one word it would be ANGST. Holy hell, are the writers ever going to run out of angst?
