Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 4 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT The Breakfast Club
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 10 | Aired on 01.17.2013
Inside, Matt answers the door. It's the pizza woman we met earlier. She's not plying him with more pie. She claims she ran out of gas and her phone is dead. She asks to use his and Matt tells her to come in while he runs upstairs and gets his cell. When Matt disappears, Pizza Woman is unable to enter the house, because while she's a vampire and Matt invited her in, he's not the owner of the house so his invite doesn't count. Don't worry. Jeremy's wandering by and is stupid enough to get the job done. When Pizza Woman crosses the threshold, she thanks him. We cut to the...
School. Rebekah and Kol force Shane into some supply closet. When Shane instantly identifies both of them, Rebekah turns on her compulsion eyes and asks where the cure is. Shane smiles as he tells her compulsion won't work on him. "It's a little trick I picked up in Tibet." Dear Lord, can the rest of the regulars go on retreat until they learn to resist compulsion? Because I'm powerfully tired of how often they're compelled. I know the now-exploded Council rounded up all the vervain in town, but seriously? They rounded it ALL up? Come on. And hell, the Internet exists in their universe. Just frigging Google it, guys. Here you go -- one ounce of European Vervain Extract for $3.50. If you want the herb itself, you can get a pound for $15.09. And if it's Blue Vervain you're after, here's an ounce of extract for $5.99. I'm pretty sure the Salvatores can buy enough for the whole Fellowship of the Falls, no matter what you need.
Digression over, I return you to the story. So yes, Shane stupidly admits he can't be compelled. The great thing about being uncompellable is pretending you're compelled and either lying or telling the truth -- whatever suits your purpose at the time. Shane's too crazy to remember that, though, so Rebekah orders Kol to beat their newest captive until he tells them where to find the cure.
When Rebekah returns to the library, she proposes a game of Truth or Dare. She really is a thousand-year-old teenager, isn't she? When Elena chooses dare Rebekah compels her to tell Stefan the truth about Damon. Closing her eyes, Elena says, "Being with Damon makes me happy." Rebekah scoffs at this and says, "Clowns make you happy, Elena." She does that, just to drill home my earlier contention that we're working in the horror genre, because what kind of freak is made happy by clowns? When Rebekah orders Elena to dig a little deeper, our girl must obey. Elena says, "When I'm with him, it feels unpredictable, like I'm free." When Rebekah asks how Elena feels when she's with Stefan, Caroline tells her to stop and Rebekah says, "She can't. She's compelled."