Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 4 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Dear Feelings Journal...
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.10.2009
The Grill: Matt and Bonnie have a heart-to-heart about Elena's well-being, but Bonnie refuses to get involved in their tattered relationship. She advises Matt to give it more time as it's only been four months since Elena's parents died. Just then, Elena walks in with Stefan. Caroline's talking to a pool-cue wielding Tyler, who, for just a moment, looks like the love child of Eric Balfour and Zach Braff. I don't know who looks more disappointed to see Elena and Stefan together -- Caroline or Matt. But Matt surprises me (pleasantly) when he introduces himself (sans attitude) to Stefan and tries to be civil toward Elena, too. Later, Stefan sits with Caroline, Bonnie and Elena, who are pumping him for information. Bonnie's psychic or thinks she is, so she makes a knowing face as she looks from him to Elena, after he reveals his parents are deceased. Elena apologizes for his loss and asks if he has any siblings. Stefan says, "None that I talk to," and explains that he lives with his uncle. The girls convince him to come to the back-to-school party tomorrow night at the Falls. And we cut to...
Mossy Manse: Hello, Salty Goodness. We're treated to a quick shot of Stefan's shirtless self, before Zach (Chris William Martin) rudely bursts in. Talk about buzzkills. I expected Zach to be the uncle to whom Stefan was referring, and he will probably be passed off as such, but Zach refers to Stefan as his uncle. Confronting Stefan with the startling newspaper headlines of a local animal attack, he upbraids him for not having himself under control, and feeding off humans, again (Darren and Brooke). Stefan denies it, but Zach's not buying, and tells Stefan it was a mistake for him to return. "Please Uncle Stefan. Mystic Falls is a different place now. It's been quiet for years, but there are people who still remember." He wants to know why Stefan chose now to return, but Stefan asserts that he doesn't have to explain himself. Once Zach leaves, Stefan moseys over to his bookcase crammed full of his vampire diaries and removes a well-worn journal. He opens it to reveal a sepia tinged picture (daguerreotype? tintype?) of Elena, but her hair is curly. Then we see the handwritten caption on the page below. "Katherine 1864." COMMERCIAL!
Mystic Falls High; History Class: The Battle of Willow Creek. The teacher asks who knows how many causalities there were, then browbeats Bonnie for playing the cute card when she doesn't know the answer. Next, he asks Matt if he'd like to shed his dumb jock image. When Matt declines, the teacher sets his sights on Elena. She doesn't know the answer either, so the teacher says, "I was willing to be lenient last year, for obvious reasons, Elena, but the personal excuses ended with summer break." Oh, all the way from late May to September -- with the summer off? How generous of you, asshat. Stefan breaks in and answers that there were 346 casualties in the battle, not including civilians. The teacher is impressed, but contradicts Stefan -- saying there were no civilian casualties. Stefan corrects him -- there were 27. Stefan says, "The Confederate soldiers -- they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founders' archives are housed in civic hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner." The class enjoys Mr. Tanner's comeuppance, and we cut to....
The Falls; Nighttime: Stefan arrives at the party, but can't see Elena, so he uses his bionic vamp hearing until he tunes into Elena and Bonnie comparing him to a romance novel hero. He smiles, but before he can get to them, he's waylaid by Caroline -- who is trying way too hard. I'll just add here that I keep seeing comparisons between Caroline and BtVS's Cordelia Chase, but really? I think she's just a Harmony. Anyhow, when Bonnie pushes the psychic angle with Elena -- Elena grabs an empty beer bottle to serve as a crystal ball. Bonnie grabs onto the beer bottle and Elena's. She feels something akin to a charge move through her and opens her eyes wide. Pulling her hand back as if from flame, Bonnie tells Elena that when she touched her, she saw a crow, fog and a man. As Elena tries not to lose it, Bonnie insists that she's just drunk and needs another drink. That should help. After she disappears, Stefan shows up and once again surprises Elena.
Across the party, Vicki and Ty make their way into the woods, as Elena and Stefan walk across the (Christmas-light) lit footbridge, and dither about what qualifies as acceptable party conversation. After it's clear Stefan's not into chit-chat, Elena admits that last spring, her parents' car drove off a bridge into the lake. Seated in the back, Elena survived, but her parents did not. Stefan likes his crows' feet, so he squints. "You won't be sad forever, Elena," and we cut to...
The Woods: Ty is forcing himself on Vicki when Jeremy approaches and breaks it up. After Ty insults Vicki, he leaves, and then Vicki berates Jeremy for...saving her. Okay. In her view, Tyler's drunken attempt at date rape bothered her far less than Jeremy's kindness. "You want to talk to me, get to know me, see into my soul, and screw and screw and screw, until you're done with me." Jeremy asks if that's what she thinks. Vicki says, "That's what I know."
Back on the well-lit bridge, Stefan tells Elena he likes her friend Bonnie, but notes that Matt can't keep his eyes off them. Elena confesses that Matt is a childhood best friend. They dated, because they owed themselves the what-if. But after her parents died, everything changed and she realized the relationship just wasn't.... Stefan supplies the word, passionate. When Elena agrees, rather than pointing and laughing, Stefan's eyes go all bloodshot again, and Elena asks if he's okay. He covers by leaving her on the bridge alone and goes to get some fresh drinks.
Vicki wanders alone through the woods -- when a fog settles in upon her. She calls out for Jeremy, sure he's following her, but as the fog thickens, Vicki is confronted by something far worse than a freshman boy with a crush and stalker tendencies. A vampire sets his sights upon her, and goes in for the kill. Oh frak, Vicki. You're the most interesting girl on this show. Grab a pointy stick and fight him off, mama. Fight him off. COMMERCIAL!
Party: Elena looks around for Stefan, but all she finds is Matt who pours his heart out. She told him she wanted some time alone when they broke up, but he's not giving up on them. Thanks to his bionic vamp hearing, Stefan takes this all in. As he makes his way back to Elena, he's confronted by Caroline who's decided to do the hard sell. When she ignores his soft brush-off, Stefan says, "Caroline -- you and me -- it's not going to happen. I'm sorry." Incredulous, Caroline searches for words or the right expression to hide her humiliation, but Stefan walks off -- away from her -- toward Elena, who assures him that Caroline will back off eventually. Before they can work their way back to flirting, Elena spots a drunk Jeremy stumbling off into the woods. Stefan offers to help her track him down, but Elena chooses to go it alone.
Elena tries to stop Jeremy -- or at least to get him to say where he's going. But before he unleashes the full force of his teenage angst upon her, he trips over something and lands right on top of it. That something is Vicki's still form -- blood oozes from her savaged neck. Jeremy touches her and her eyes spring open, as she gasps for air. When the severity of her wound sinks through Elena and Jeremy's skulls, they carry her back to the party, where brother Matt freaks out and someone calls for an ambulance. "Squeamish" Stefan makes a hasty retreat, which does not escape Matt's notice. We cut to...
Mossy Manse: Stefan informs Zach that there's just been another attack, but that he (once again) was not the perpetrator. Retreating to his room, he eyes the open balcony doors. And I'm sorry, but if you lived in Virginia, wouldn't you have screen doors up, too? It's not like Virginia is bug-free -- or crow free for that matter -- because our favorite black bird swoops right in and settles on the rafters. Behind Stefan, a male figure appears at the balcony door. Stefan turns to find..."Damon!" Damon (Ian Somerhalder; Boone, Lost) smirks. "Hello, brother." Hello, cutie. Everything just got even prettier! COMMERCIAL!
Now, I've never read the books, but I've read this and that in preparation for watching the series. What follows won't spoil the plot, but does discuss the premise. I was given to understand that Stefan had the whole fog thing going on, and that he was a shape-shifter that often took the form of a crow. But it seems the crow is Damon's trick, and yet it doesn't seem he took the form of a crow, because the crow is still right there in Stefan's room, cawing away. I won't pretend to get that yet, at all, but now I'm thinking that it was Damon-Crow that caused Bonnie's almost-accident, and spooked Elena at the cemetery, too. What do you think?
Anyhow, it's been 15 years since the brothers have seen one another, so they do a verbal tango, with Stefan pointing out that Damon left Vicki alive tonight. Damon says, "That could be a problem...for you." He admits he's back in town because of just one thing -- Elena.
Party Aftermath: Matt watches as Vicki is loaded into an ambulance, then climbs in with her. Bonnie tells Elena that she and Caroline are going to "mainline coffee" 'til they're sober enough to go home. I do not ask them if they're driving to get their coffee, because I don't want to know. Kids, please don't drink and drive. Call your parents. Call a cab. Call a cool aunt. Just don't do it. Elena begs off; she has to tend to Jeremy. Before she leaves, Bonnie confesses that -- psychic gifts aside -- whatever she saw or thinks she saw, "It's only the beginning."
Mossy Manse: the brothers Salvatore bicker about Elena, and then her circa 1864 doppelganger, Katherine -- the original thorn between these lovely roses. Damon's not satisfied with that, though, and starts berating his brother for swearing off human blood. The exchange soon devolves into fisticuffs. Stefan, eyes bloodshot, goes all vein-y, and pounces on his big brother, pushin