Vampire Diaries: 1x07 - Haunted (spoilers through 2x11)

[butterfly]

1x07 - Haunted
Tyler is getting out from a late practice of some kind - a couple of his teammates drive off and he's alone in the parking lot, heading toward his car. Ah, Vicki is waiting in his car for him - confirmation that vampires do not need invitations to cars. He tries to comfort her and figure out what happened and what drugs she might be on that are making her freak out so much, but when she finally goes all veiny, he really freaks, stumbling out of the car. She's just about to bite him when Stefan grabs her and pulls her off.

When Tyler gets up and tries running, Damon is there behind him. Tyler demands to know what's going on, Damon wonders why they can't just kill him ("Who's going to miss him?"), and Tyler takes a swing at Damon. Damon grabs Tyler by the neck, compels him to forget that the three of them were ever there, and tosses him away, hard.

The next morning, Elena wakes up. She sees Jeremy in their shared bathroom and she's surprised that he's up so early - he's planning on going to the police station, where a search party for Vicki is being organized. Elena tries to talk him out of it, but that's useless.

At school, people are setting up for Halloween. I'm guessing that's around when the episode was airing, because it doesn't make too much sense for the actual timeline they've set up (school generally starts back up in early September and we've only had about two weeks of time covered in the show - I guess you could put the rest of the time in between FNB and FT, so Stefan and Elena's first stab at a relationship lasted about a month and a half instead of a week or so, none of which we got to see?).

Matt gets a call from Vicki, who is holed up at the Salvatore mansion again. She tells him not to worry about him but refuses to tell him where she is, and then she hangs up.

Vicki asks why she can't just go home. Stefan tells her that she shouldn't face her first days as a vampire alone, while Damon reads the paper and wonders why Logan's death wasn't reported. He's also concerned that Logan had the vampire compass.

"Well, if you're so concerned, why don't you just leave town, Damon?"
"We should all be worried."

Vicki asks for something to eat and Stefan brings over a cup of (animal) blood. Damon argues that Vicki needs people blood right now, and Vicki seems quite interested in that idea.

V: "Yeah, why can't I have people blood?"
S: "Because it's wrong to prey on innocent people, Vicki."
D: "You don't have to kill to feed. Just find someone really tasty and erase their memory afterwards. It's so easy."
S: "There's no guarantee that you can control yourself. It takes years to learn that. You could easily kill somebody and then you have to carry that with you for the rest of your life, which if I haven't make clear, is eternity!"
D: "Don't listen to him. He walks on a moral plane way out of our eyeline."

Also, blood bags. You know what vampires could potentially set up - a blood donation system that takes blood from people who are willing donors but aren't allowed to donate blood for whatever reason (like living in Germany during a certain time period). Donate your blood in order to help keep potentially murderous vampires off the street!

"We choose our own path. Our values and our actions... they define who we are."

Damon has had too much of Stefan's philosophizing, and heads out (Vicki asks for more blood). The doorbell rings and Damon smiles, heading over to open the door up to Elena. He keeps smiling and leans against the door.

"Is Stefan here?"
"Yep."
"Where is he?"
"And good morning to you, little Miss I'm On A Mission."
"How can you be so arrogant and glib after everything you've done?"
"And how can you be so brave and stupid to call a vampire arrogant and glib?"
"If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead."
"Yes, you would."
"But I'm not."
"Yet."

Elena takes that in for a moment, and then pushes it away to ask after Stefan again. He tells her that Stefan is upstairs, then he walks past her and, once she's shut the door and gone inside, he smiles again. Yes, he likes the very brave (sometimes stupidly so) Elena Gilbert.

Elena calls for Stefan and he comes down. He tells her that Vicki is upstairs and tries to explain how Vicki needs to be kept separate right now - she's volatile, and the part of her that led her to drug use is likely to be a factor as well.

"So, she's a vampire with issues?"

Ha, Elena. It seems that most of them are.

We cut over to Bonnie with her Grams. Bonnie is asking about their Salem ancestors and their history. Grams practices the 'hiding in plain sight' method - everyone knows that she's 'a witch' and they also don't take it at all seriously. Bonnie tells us that Grams has been 'talking history for two days', so they've missed all the Vicki stuff that's just happened.

Over in the Mystic Grill, Mayor Lockwood is meeting his wife for lunch. Her shirt has all these images of belts and chains on it. It's kinda weird. Anyway, the Mayor thinks that they never should have trusted Logan. The coroner thinks that there's only one vampire - bad coroner. But I wonder if that's partly due to how messy Vicki was in biting Logan. Mrs. Lockwood is trying to figure out how much danger they're all in. Damon is at the bar, listening in to the whole conversation.

Back at the school, Tyler meets up with Matt at his locker. He offers to help, but Matt tells him that Vicki already called and said she was okay.

Caroline delivers a witch costume to Bonnie, who is less-than-amused, and Damon's crystal is part of the costume. Bonnie asks about it and Caroline tells her to do whatever she wants with it, because Caroline does not want it anymore. Bonnie tells Caroline she was 'with Grams all weekend' and hasn't talked to Elena about her costume.

Stefan tells Vicki that caffeine warms vampires up and makes them less cold to touch (Elena is also sitting at the table with them, listening). It's kinda hilarious, but, okay. New chemical reactions based on changes in the body. Vicki asks about human blood again and Stefan tells her that she'll have to fight it 'one day at a time'. This is something that Vicki has heard before, and she rolls her eyes.

"So, you've never tasted human blood?"
"Not in a long time."
"How long?"
"Years and years. I'm not proud of my... past behavior."

And he probably doesn't want to say exactly how long, with Elena there. Stefan goes off to get Vicki more blood. Vicki starts to call Jeremy and Elena tries to warn her off doing that. Vicki does not take that well. She grabs Elena by the throat and backs her up against the wall, accusing Elena of always thinking Vicki wasn't good enough for Jeremy and screwing over her brother, Matt, by dumping him. There's also a death threat.

Outside (where Vicki can't reach), Elena is telling Stefan about what Vicki said and did, and he's making justifications. Hey, Stefan, before you start getting uber-defensive of vampirism as a whole, maybe at least tell Elena that you're sorry for stepping away for long enough for her to get choked and threatened. No? Okay, then.

"How long before you learned to control it?"
"A while. But I didn't have anyone helping me. I had to do it on my own."

Vague, Stefan. He really doesn't want to say how long it was, which makes me think it was quite a while.

"The thing is, it's hard to resist certain people, especially when you're new. It's difficult to separate your feelings. Love, lust, anger, desire... it can blur into one urge - hunger."

And we saw that happening with Stefan in the early parts of S1 with Elena - when he felt lust for her, it was turning into hunger and making him go veiny. She's 'hard to resist', for him. But, in this case, it means that it could be very dangerous for Jeremy to see Vicki.

Damon finds Vicki lying on a bed and she tells him that she's "contemplating the next hundred years". He tells her that he turned her out of boredom and she's a bit offended by that, I think. Anyway, she wants blood, all the time, and it's driving her kinda crazy. Damon tells her that that'll ease up after a while, but that she needs to get out of the house. He sympathizes with the easily bored.

Stefan, naturally, is not a fan of plan Let Vicki Out, but he can't stop Damon (this is where I do see Stefan's point - Stefan can't stop Damon, as a general rule. But where Stefan goes wrong is thinking that this is the same as Damon always 'getting what he wants'. It ties back into Stefan's general problem of assuming everything is about him, though).

Damon shows Vicki how to superspeed and she sees how awesome it is - and decides that she needs to go superspeed somewhere that she actually wants to be. Damon is faux-apologetic about this.

She goes home but, even with the key, she can't get in. Not until Matt invites her. Matt hugs her and makes her food and is generally very relieved to have his sister back in the house. But he gets concerned and then frustrated when she refuses to tell him anything about what happened.

Stefan calls at the Donovan house and Vicki tells her brother not to let him in.

Elena is trying to get her brother to move past Vicki, which is not something that he's down with. He tells her that, for him, Vicki was what made the grief over his parents' death just a little bit better (just like Stefan was that for Elena, as she told her diary). After he walks away, he gets a text from Vicki for them to meet at the school's Halloween party that night.

At the school, we see again how into their events this town is. The students have the school all done up and they're all dressed up. Tyler offers Caroline and Bonnie some cider, Bonnie passes. And we see that Bonnie and Caroline are in matching witch costumes (I'm going to guess that they'd decided to match and then Bonnie left the choice of actual costume up to Caroline; it's pretty cute, actually). Caroline accepts and she and Tyler clink glasses.

Back in the Mystic Grill, now the Mayor and Carol Lockwood are having dinner (and Carol is drinking up). They eat there a lot. I wonder if they own the place. I mean, this is twice in one day. The Mayor heads off to the Halloween party while Carol stays behind to finish her drink. But, hark, what is this cute boy at the booth behind her? None other than Damon Salvatore, who lifts a glass to her. He slides into the seat across from her. He guesses that she's dressed as Daisy Buchanan and compliments her 'Great Gatsby' look. Hmm, wasn't that one of Stefan's favorite books?

Carol remembers Damon as "Caroline Forbes' boyfriend", which Damon brushes off as a school girl crush on Caroline's part. When she finds out his last name is Salvatore, she asks if he's related to Zach.

So, the other Salvatores, all through history, did not reveal that Stefan and Damon have become vampires, despite being part of the council and providing vervain to the council families. This deception of theirs is what makes it so easy for Damon to slip into the inner circle of the vampire hunters. He tries to compel her, but it doesn't work. It's all right, though, because she's happy to answer. She asks after Zach, says that she's left messages. He tells her that Zach's left town.

"But, if it's about the vervain..."
"You know about the vervain?"
"Well, I'm a Salvatore. Of course, I do."

And he's just set himself up as her replacement Zach.

At the party, Elena is dressed in a nurse's outfit (with a severed hand) and Jeremy is wearing a black hoodie. There's a moment where he gets annoyed at a kid and she smacks him hard on the shoulder, very big sister. Matt spots Elena at the party and we learn that they're both wearing their costumes from last year - bloodstained doctor and nurse. They high-five with their severed parts. Jeremy stalks off. Elena explains that they had a fight and Matt says he had one with Vicki, too, and Elena freaks when she realizes that Vicki is at the party (dressed as a vampire). Elena heads off to look for Jeremy.

Vicki is overwhelmed by all the people around her and Stefan finds her, pushing her into an empty classroom. "It's called hunger and it's only going to get worse and worse every minute that you pretend it's not controlling."

Man, I really hope that they have something interesting planned for Stefan re: drinking human blood again in the back half of S2, because I am so disappointed that it seems like it's being brushed to the side after being such a huge deal in S1.

Carol and the Mayor only have left 'what his parents left him' re: vervain, and Zach had been promising more. I think that people probably having been bothering with the vervain for the last few years - it had been a while since anything big had happened and they'd relaxed.

After some flirting, he asks Carol how the vampire search is going, and she reveals why she was willing to trust him - anyone who arrived during the day for the Founders' Party was eliminated as a potential vampire. He escorts her to the Halloween Party.

Elena and Matt run into Stefan and Vicki. Vicki, seeing her chance to escape, tell Stefan to stop bothering her and asks Matt to protect her from Stefan. This works well enough as a distraction that Vicki is able to escape, and now Elena and Stefan must search for her again.

Vicki, though, has managed to find Jeremy. They kiss and then she leads him out of the school and into the parking lot for the buses.

Damon walks up to Bonnie (who is in charge of some kind of cauldron of candy? I'm not sure). He asks after Caroline and Bonnie warns him away from her. Is this the first time they've had a conversation? I can't remember them interacting before. Then Damon notices that his crystal is around Bonnie's neck. He tries to take it and it burns his hand. I wonder if he'd known her last name already or if this is him realizing that she's a Bennett witch. Do we get any kind of confirmation on that?

Vicki backs Jeremy up against a bus and kisses him, while Elena and Stefan search for her inside. Vicki is telling Jeremy that she has to leave, she can't stay, but she asks him to come with her. They're pressed up against each other, kissing and touching. Can't get enough.

"If you come with me, we can be together forever."

And this is what Jeremy was thinking about, consciously or un, when he was first trying to get Anna to turn him - finding Vicki (who he, at that time, hopes has run off because she's become a vampire) and being with her forever. She bites his lip and sucks away the blood and, you know, between this and what happens with Anna, I almost think Jeremy has experienced 'sexy' vampire moments more often than Elena has. The blood-related moments seem a lot more sexually intense with Jeremy/vampire girlfriends than they do with Elena and Stefan.

Vicki licks up the blood from Jeremy's bitten lip and starts to get overwhelmed by the temptation, tugging on his mouth and biting again. Stefan, listening hard with his vampire hearing, catches Jeremy saying Vicki's name. Elena still finds Vicki and Jeremy first.

Vicki has vamped out and is about to bite Jeremy when Elena finds them and yells at her not to. Elena tries hitting Vicki with a board but Vicki pushes her away, hard. Now Stefan arrives, slamming Vicki up against the buses, but Vicki manages to push him away and escape. Elena is bleeding from the pile of junk that Vicki pushed her into. Stefan tells them to leave and Elena grabs Jeremy's hand and tries to hurry inside while he tries to find Vicki again.

But Vicki is there, grabbing Elena and biting down. Elena screams - when Vicki is about to go back for another bite, Stefan stabs her with a stake before she can. When vampires die in this universe, they leave behind what looks like a days-old corpse. Stefan holds Jeremy back when he tries to go to Vicki's side. Elena tells Stefan to get Jeremy out, so Stefan calls to ask for his help (Damon's face totally goes all serious when Stefan says those words. It's interesting, because Stefan is trusting Damon around Elena - a bleeding Elena).

Elena stares at Vicki's body, overwhelmed and hurt.

Bonnie's run back to her Grams, to ask her about the crystal. Grams recognizes it and pulls down a book to show Bonnie. Ah, and now we see a picture of Emily Bennett, wearing the crystal in question. She was "one of the most powerful witches in our family".

Damon arrives at Vicki's body. He tells Elena to leave, that he'll take care of this, but she can't just do that. She stands up, looks him in the eye and tells him, "You did this. This is your fault."

"You confuse me with someone with remorse," he tells her and, angry and frustrated, she pushes at him, not getting very far. She tries to slap him, but he catches her hand and forces it down.

"None of this matters to me. None of it."
"People die around you. How could it not matter? It matters and you know it."

She reaches out again, and successfully slaps him this time. Or, it's probably more accurate to say that he lets her slap him. He stares at her, shifts toward her, and she flinches back. He makes this considering noise in the back of his throat and his face tenses up, for just a moment.

"You need to leave. Your wounds are bleeding and you need to leave."

She catches the seriousness of what he's saying (the danger that she's in) and turns to go. He watches her, tilting his head slightly, and swallowing back his hunger.

Matt catches Elena before she leaves the party, is concerned about her (she says that it's fake blood) and Vicki (she says she doesn't know where Vicki is). When Elena gets to her car, she takes a moment to let herself be overwhelmed and beat on the steering wheel to get her pain and frustration out.

When she gets home, Stefan is waiting for her on the porch. She asks after Jeremy and goes inside to check on him; Stefan stays outside. Elena tries to comfort Jeremy but he's just hurting too much. "Why does everybody have to die on me?" She reaches out and holds him while he cries against her shoulder.

Matt comes home to a dark house. No Vicki.

Elena comes back out to the porch, a blanket wrapped around her. She's so upset over Jeremy's pain, over Jeremy needing to mourn someone he loves yet again.

"Elena, what can I do? I'll do anything."
"Can you make him forget?"
"Elena..."
"Stefan, please. I don't know how he'll ever get past this. I just want him to forget everything that happened."
"If I did it, there's no guarantee that it would work. Because of who I am. Because of how I live. I don't have the ability to do it right."

Then, from behind them, it's Damon - "I can do it."

"If this is what you want," he says, and she turns to look at him as he comes closer. "I'll do it."

"It's what I want," Elena says, turning away to look at Stefan as she says it. Stefan nods, just slightly.

"What do you want him to know?" Damon asks. Elena turns back to him, takes a step closer.

"I want you to tell him that Vicki left town... and she's not coming back. That he shouldn't look for her or worry about her. He's going to miss her but he knows it's for the best." He nods and goes inside and she lets him. The amount of trust that Elena is handing Damon is something that I don't think she let herself think about - he's going in there to mess with her little brother's head and she's not even going to supervise. Partly because I don't think she wants to see, but there's also a part of her that must find some measure of security in the fact that that she's gotten up in Damon's face several times and yet he still hasn't hurt her.

"Part of me wishes that I could forget, too. Forget meeting you, finding out what you are and everything that's happened since."
"If that's what you want."
"Yes. It is. Because I don't want it to be like this. I don't want to feel like this. But I can't. With everything that's happened, I can't lose the way I feel about you."

Would that be them getting back together? Or not. I'm not sure, so I'll wait to see how they act in the next episode (I think not, actually, thinking back). I do feel like they didn't deal with Elena's feelings about all this stuff, after she and Stefan do get back together. But I guess that they wanted to get to Elena sleeping with Stefan and then the Katherine reveal. I don't know. Something about this feels rushed to me - I think it might have been better/stronger writing if the reason that Elena gave for wanting to remember was more about not wanting to be defenseless against things like the vampires.

Damon comes back out to let Elena know that it's done, and she goes inside and shuts the door.

Deaths:
1. Stefan stakes Vicki.

Damon's current kill count: 9
Vicki's total kill count: 1
Stefan's current kill count: 1

Vamp Bites:
1. Vicki bites Jeremy's lip a couple of times. Not much blood, but she licks it away.

2. Vicki bites down on Elena's shoulder.

Damon's current bite count: 15
Katherine's current bite count: 1
Vicki's total bite count: 3

Compelled:
1. Damon compels Tyler to forget about seeing Vicki and the Salvatore brothers.

2. Damon compels Jeremy re: the Vicki situation.

Stefan's current compelling count: 2
Damon's current compelling count: 9
Katherine's current compelling count: 1

Bechdel:
1. Bonnie and her Grams talk history and powers.

2. Later, Bonnie goes back to her Grams and finds out about Emily's crystal.

Stefan/Elena Relationship:
Together: "Night of the Comet" - "Family Ties" (3 episodes; exact time frame uncertain)
1st Breakup: "Family Ties" - "You're Undead to Me" (2 episodes; 4 days)
1st Reunion: "You're Undead to Me" - "Lost Girls" (2 episodes; 2 days)
2nd Breakup: "Lost Girls" - (2 days)

Timeline:
We start on the night that we left off on - Stefan and Damon finding and stopping Vicki from feeding on Tyler

The next day, Elena goes over the Salvatore boarding house and gets threatened by Vicki. That night, Vicki runs away and meets up with Jeremy, and ends up staked.

Time covered: 2 nights (one the same as last time)/1 day

Total time; pilot-FNB: 6 days/7 nights

Total time; FT-: 9 days/9 nights

Shirtless shots:
1. Tyler wears a cape and no shirt for Halloween. We appreciate him taking one for the team in this episode where neither Salvatore goes shirtless.

Bonnie's Visions:
None.

Comments

[scy]

This episode is very interesting both for what happens to Vicki, and the decisions Elena makes about vampires, her brother, and her life.

She puts a great deal of trust in Damon, even though she is angry with him. It's a mark of how things are changing.

[butterfly]

i>This episode is very interesting both for what happens to Vicki, and the decisions Elena makes about vampires, her brother, and her life.

Definitely.

She puts a great deal of trust in Damon, even though she is angry with him. It's a mark of how things are changing.

She really does. It's interesting.