The Vampire Diaries "The Sacrifice" Review

"The Sacrifice" wasn't the best episode nor the worst episode. Some of the episode dragged while other parts of the episode had tremendous amount of energy, tension and anticipation. Elijah, labeled by me as one of the worst villains introduced to the show, got some depth tonight. The man isn't a henchman who only does what Klaus tells him to do. The vampire-who-can-destroy-cafes-with-quarters has his own agenda. Meanwhile, the werewolf story that I've dreaded since the first season may not be so terrible after all.

The A story belonged to Elena. Elena possesses a great memory. She recalls what Katherine almost did to the people she loves a few episode ago, and the girl's resolved to protect everyone she cares about even if she has to sacrifice herself to Klaus to keep the people she loves safe. Elena forces Rose to take her to Slater's where she wants to make Klaus aware of her willingness to surrender herself willingly; however, the plan doesn't evolve smoothly. Elena and Rose find the corpse of Slater but manage to deceive Slater's self-involved girlfriend into accessing the various files Slater kept on vampires, in hopes of finding a Klaus contact. Indeed, Elena succeeds and the girlfriend makes the call. Of course, Rose made Damon aware of the situation so Damon bolted to Slater's where he prepares to do anything to protect Elena.

Inevitably, Elijah arrives at Slater's after a wild spell that allowed the vampire to locate Elena. Elijah conveniently arrives as soon as Klaus' men arrive. Elijah quickly rips their hearts out after learning that Klaus does not yet know about Elena, and he leaves. Elijah tells the elder warlock (whose name I forget of course) that he did not rip the heart out of Damon because Damon will protect Elena. The plot thickens.

The A story doesn't have much meat. The majority of the A story exists as set-up for the season, and possibly, the cliffhanger episode next week before another hiatus. Elena's plan is noble, and Elena continues to be (possibly) the most heroic female on television presently. The most interesting aspect of the A story was Elijah and his agenda. Why exactly does he want to keep Elena safe? Perhaps yet another layer of the doppelganger will be revealed, or maybe all vampires are in love with Elena. I enjoyed the reveal because it surprised me. The episode opened with minion warlock gathering personal things of Elena's for a spell. One assumed that Elijah would simply whisk Elena away himself to Klaus but no. Good job, show. Good job indeed.

Meanwhile, Katherine does not want to remain in the tomb as she said she did in the last episode. Though the tomb provides security, Katherine feels bored and hungry inside the tomb alone; however, she gets company by episode's end. The Salvatore brothers, Bonnie and Jeremy devise a plan to steal the moonstone so Bonnie can de-spell the moonstone to save Elena's life. Jeremy, because he's portrayed by Steven R. McQueen and McQueen always portrays annoying, dumbass characters, decides that he'll get the moonstone himself without risking injury to a not-strong-enough-for-the-tomb-spell Bonnie. Jeremy's plan backfires which eventually forces Stefan to enter the tomb to push Jeremy out. Unfortunately, he's a vampire and can't leave which leaves him all alone with Katharine, and she loves Stefan. Blah.

The Stefan/Katharine-in-a-tomb story has plenty of potential. The two are similar to Angel and Darla. They literally have over a century of sexual tension built up. Stefan's the stoic, heroic vampire while Katherine's the evil vampire temptress who can wrap Stefan up her in web. Angel and Darla had a similar past. However, this is The Vampire Diaries and the storyline feels like a contrivance especially after Katherine warned Stefan he made the biggest mistake of his life when he asked Damon to protect and take care of Elena. Stefan hasn't watched Dawson's Creek because Dawson asked Pacey to do the same thing for Joey. Of course, by season's end, Pacey and Joey were together and Dawson seethed with rage before developing a photography habit.

In the C story, Caroline helped Tyler prepare for his first werewolf transformation. They found Mason's old journal and a video of his first transformation. The transformation is unbearably painful and lasts for hours. Tyler's scared. Matt shows up at Caroline's house, explaining that he misses her and then Tyler walks to the door. Don't tell me another love triangle begins, Williamson and Plec. I know this is a CW show but enough love triangles. ENOUGH.

Some actual thoughts:

-Katerina Graham's shirt was quite flattering. Very good, wardrobe department. She's a beautiful girl.

-Speaking of her, Bonnie and Jeremy feels terribly forced. It might be the whine that McQueen uses in such scenes or perhaps the characters don't fit. It's both actually. Luca and Bonnie had a whole lot of chemistry in their one scene when he let her channel him. The scene reminded me of Tara/Willow magic scenes from season four of Buffy.

-I hope The CW doesn't pay too much for their generic alternative rock songs that plays during TVD. Absolutely horrendous and the songs make the already overwrought scene MORE overwrought.

-Carolines Dries wrote the episode. Ralph Hemecker directed it.

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