The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries

Episode 12: The Ties that Bind

By: Carlos Uribe

The Vampire Diaries is a show about Elena's love triangle with two vampires.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Poor Bonnie. Not only did her mother ditch her when she was little, but she hasn't heard from her since. When she gets a dream that her mom might help her open the coffin, Bonnie decides that now is the best time to find her. No time like the present! Once her mom, Abby, is found, Bonnie and Elena go see her. At first Abby seems like she's really nice but the show ruined it's twist by having a hybrid arrive earlier. It's no surprise then when Abby ends up drugging her own daughter. This is right after Bonnie learns that while Abby didn't bother to raise Bonnie for some stupid reason, she did raise a kid who she didn't even give birth to. In fact, she drugged Bonnie because this kid had been compelled to kill himself if Bonnie didn't reveal the location of the tomb to Abby, and therefore to Klaus. This is possibly the first episode where I actually felt bad for Bonnie. Anyways, the location of the tombs is revealed to Klaus and he manages to get his family back. The locked tomb that has who knows what inside it isn't with Klaus because Damon had time to hide one tomb elsewhere.

Even though Bonnie's mother did betray Bonnie, she was doing it to protect a person she loves. She does seem to actually try and get closer to Bonnie as she gives her daughter the chance to warn Damon that Klaus has discovered the location of the tombs. She offers to help Bonnie in any way to open the fourth tomb, but her ability is limited by the fact that she no longer has magic. She does believe that if she sticks around with Bonnie she will get her magic back. She doesn't want her magic back but is willing to become a witch again for her daughter. It's a nice attempt to try and redeem herself in the eyes of her daughter and the viewers, but considering that she has failed completely as a mother to Bonnie it's hard to take the mother on her word. The mother can earn my trust and I can even get to like her. At this moment, I don't like her. I may understand why she drugged Bonnie. The problem? I still don't understand why she ditched Bonnie. That is simply inexcusable and almost unforgivable. She's going to have to try hard to win my graces.

There's also some advances on the Elena/Stefan relationship. Until this episode, it seemed like Stefan has completely gotten over Elena. It's as if he didn't even care about her at all. When he finds out that Damon kissed Elena, he reacts with emotion. He does feel betrayed, or at least he feels sad. He even punches his own brother. This is an interesting development. It does seem that the Stefan that we have gotten to know over the first two seasons is there, under all that evil and attitude. The Stefan that cares and loves still exists. He hasn't come back, at least I hope not. I'm enjoying this evil Stefan and I hope he stays that way for at least a few more episodes. It's simply essential that the audience know that he can still feel for Elena, especially since a huge part of the show's existence is built on the love triangle. Him showing emotions over this kiss was simply great. Heck, even seeing his emotions as Elena tends to him was good to see. He notes that she has changed and has become a stronger and better person since he left her.

The Tyler story had some developments as well. Realizing that since Bill, Caroline's dad has managed to make himself resistant to mind control, then it might be possible to sever the sire bond. So he calls the expert on who should be able to do it: Bill. Bill does come and reveals that the only way to break the bond is to break the gratitude that Tyler feels towards Klaus for breaking the curse. The only way to break this gratitude is to go through the transformation over and over again until it has become utterly painless. This way, transforming is not a bad thing and Klaus' hold is apparently broken. It was good to see the return of Bill, and this could be interesting if it works. Tyler has had the disadvantage of always having divided loyalties that being able to work for only one side would truly be great for him. That side should preferably be of that of our heroes.

The other big story was that of Alaric and Dr. Fell. Their getting closer. This causes Damon to ensure that Dr. Fell isn't a completely and total psychopath. His findings? She's a psychopath. He came to this conclusion after she attacked him with vervain and stole some of his blood. She did it for a somewhat good reason. She's planning to use the blood to save the lives of her patient. She doesn't seem to think that there is something that could go wrong with this plan. Also, I think it's amusing how she considers it cheating to use vampire blood to medically save a person's life. Apparently it's possible to cheat the field of medicine with vampires. A small complaint I have of this story is the murder story was barely advanced. Dr. Fell claims she had nothing to do with it to Damon, but it's not like she was going to confess.

Overall, this was a good episode of the Vampire Diaries. It had good sub-plots, but the main plot with Bonnie had some issues. It simply wasn't that unpredictable. On this show, that's kind of what I have come to expect. The character-based drama is great, and I enjoyed this episode but when I guessed some of what was going to happen, it felt wrong. The issue I think is that the show kind of telegraphed the twists. First, they had the hybrid visiting the witch before Bonnie and Elena could get there. Second, Bonnie was given a device to warn Damon. The show is usually better at being able to hide the twists.