Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: C+ | 367 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Race For The Cure
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 4 | Aired on 2012.11.01
I don't think I realized this when writing the recaplet, but one thing that screams out at me right now is how frigging exposition-heavy this episode is. Elena mopes that college may no longer be in her future. Damon tells her to stop the pity party. If he can go to college, Elena surely can. Taking the bait, Bonnie expresses surprise as she questions if Damon really went to college. He eye-things at the girls and says, "Sure. Plenty of times. I always had a thing for sorority girls." Elena rolls her eyes at him. Bonnie says, "You're disgusting." Damon whispers, "I know," as he eye-things some more. As they take off, he leers at a young co-ed who passes them.
Bonnie leads Damon and Elena into a lecture hall, where Anthropology Professor Shane (David Alpay) is giving a lecture on witches. The girls agree he's hot as the professor talks about how every culture "in reality, or in this reality at least" has witches who are the architects of everything that goes bump in the night like ghosts, etc. He includes doppelgängers in his short list, which is our first clue that he doesn't believe what he's saying about it not being real. I mean I watch a show which features two doppelgängers, and yet doppelgängers don't spring to mind, when I'm talking about popular beliefs on the supernatural.
When Damon cracks something about the professor being "Witch-a-pedia," Elena laughs, but soon starts fretting that she too may be a ripper. Damon assures her she isn't, but when she continues to worry, he tells her to pick a victim and they'll find out. He follows her gaze and tells her the stoner she's looking at is a bad idea. Stoners are too paranoid and a vampire doesn't want the extra buzz. Geeky girls are suspicious when someone is too nice to them. He points out a pretty blonde, and says pretty girls are easy prey because they tend to be self-absorbed. That's kind of mean, Damon. Way to stereotype people. Then there's obligatory moment where the professor calls them out for interrupting, which I have never, ever experienced in a lecture hall. Between this and parking on the frigging quad, I have to wonder where our writers went to college. Right now, I'm thinking Convenient Cliche U. We cut to...