Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 4 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Family Ties That Bind And Gag
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 13 | Aired on 02.04.2010
Mystic Falls; Present: Grimoire in hand, Damon looks down at his father's open grave with nothing but contempt. He leaves Stefan's torches burning and walks away. [Leaving an open grave of a Salvatore ancestor for anyone to see won't arouse any suspicion towards the brothers at all! I'm sure of it. -- Angel]
Gilbert Gables: Stefan and Elena are at her house. She wonders if the headache she has is from ingesting Damon's blood. Stefan gives her the non-answer that she'll be okay. "That was just a small amount of blood. It should pass out of your system by tomorrow." When she asks if he's okay, Stefan goes about flogging and punishing himself. "Damon was right. This is my fault."
1864: We flashback to the townsmen carrying Katherine out to the police wagon. Stefan stops Damon from outing himself and making a scene, and tells him he'll help. Damon throws him off. "Help me? Don't you think that you've done enough? You promised you wouldn't help him." Instead of saying, "I didn't help father," Stefan inexplicably says, "I didn't think this would happen." I throw up my hands in disgust. As the wagon drives away, Damon stands back and glares at his brother. "You did this. This is your fault." He runs off, leaving Stefan alone with his guilty conscience. I'm not sure how I feel about his reaction. I mean girlfriend is a stone-cold killer, but I'm not sure Stefan knew that back then. I don't know how far over him her thrall extended. On one hand, I think he didn't break his promise to Damon at all. On the other hand, I think he didn't break it soon enough. It seems I'm a three handed freak though, because I do think he was wrong to make the promise in the first place, particularly if he wasn't going to keep it.
Present Day: Stefan says he put his faith in his father, "But Damon put his faith in me, and I destroyed that. This is my fault." Elena assures him he did nothing wrong. "Don't forget that." Okay, forget what I said in the last paragraph. Yes, Stefan did something naive and telling -- by pleading the "hypothetically non-evil" vampire's case to his father, but he did not intentionally out Katherine to Papa Salvatore. He was just stupid and underestimated his dad. So while I can understand Damon's anger and Stefan's guilt, I don't think Judas needs to be worried about losing his exclusive circle in Dante's hell. Oh... wait. That said, the moron did run and get the sheriff, didn't he? But he was enthralled. And then Vervain-ed. Oh, hell's bells. I don't know what to think.