The Vampire Diaries "Plan B" Review

Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec and their band of merry writers waste no time raising the intensity of the season just six episodes into this 22 episode season. The latest episode of The Vampire Diaries, titled "Plan B," accomplished one important thing: make the big bad an actual threat. In other words, the writers stopped telling the audience how evil and bad Katherine is. They finally SHOWED it.

Friends and well-wishers, Katherine is a badass vampire who doesn't mess around. Should someone kill her werewolf boyfriend, she'll simply dig into her pocket to pull out Plan B--a plan that began as Plan A was in action. Katherine wanted to show Damon, Stefan and Elena that she means business. For the last few weeks, Katherine used compulsion on Jenna to spy on Stefan and Elena. Apparently, Katherine wants Stefan back and Elena thinks her relationship with Stefan is central to appeasing her. I doubt Katherine's master plan ends with a doting Stefan in her arms. I accept that she likes the guy and would prefer that he be hers rather than Elena's but that seems secondary to her actual plan; however, the motivation for every character in the show involves romantic relationships so maybe her masterplan is winning back Stefan's heart through chaos and violence.

Several of my millions of readers might wonder, "what exactly caused Katherine to use Plan B?" Well, Mason Lockwood got his heart ripped out (literally) by Damon. Damon, obviously fuming about the attempt Mason made to kill him last episode, wants revenge. With the help of Jeremy and Bonnie, he learns Katherine and Mason were involved in the biblical sense and the moonstone has importance to Katherine. Bonnie uses her witch mojo to weaken Mason as Stefan and Damon bring him to their house for a torture session. Damon eventually receives answers and he learns that Mason is actually a guy who had the bad luck of falling for a crazy woman. Damon still rips out the heart of Mason, prefacing it by saying Katherine would've done it too. The murder is motivated mostly by Damon's obsession with Katherine. Remember, the central motivation of every character on this show is a romantic relationship. Sure Damon dislikes Mason for the plan to kill him but Damon's the same vamp who vowed to make his brother's life miserable because Katherine liked Stefan more.

For good measure, Damon calls Katherine to tease her about the death of Mason. Katherine's momentarily surprised. She responds quickly by calling Elena and compelling Jenna to stab herself in the gut with a knife. Also, she begins using compulsion on the most useless character in the show--Matt. Kat wants Matt to fight Tyler for as long as he can until Tyler kills him. Katherine wants a werewolf. Matt agrees.

Meanwhile, Caroline and her mother make a tremendous amount of progress in their understanding of one another; however, Caroline compels her mother to forget about the last few days because she doesn't want her mother to remember she is a vampire. The B story worked. Caroline's currently the most valuable character of the season.

Also, the three girls (Elena, Bonnie and Caroline) hung out together for the first time since the carnival episode. Bonnie became less of a bitch, which is nice.

And Elena and Stefan broke up.

Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain wrote the episode. The duo worked on ANGEL and Dollhouse. And the episode delivered. An A+ effort and strong performances from the entire cast.

SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY

Six Feet Under--"Pilot"--Written By Alan Ball--http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Six_Feet_Under/Six_Feet_Under_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK