The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries

Episode 1: Growing Pains

By: Carlos Uribe

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

Spoilers Ahoy!

Let's recap what happened at the end of the last season: Alaric died but not before telling the council what was really happening and Elena died with vampire blood in her system. These two deaths and the details surrounding them are immensely important to the events of this premiere. It means that Elena is going to have to either transition into a vampire or really die. It means having to become something that she has perfectly made clear that she doesn't want. She would have rather died than to be forced into transition and this is a big defining moment for her. It completely is going to change her just as it has changed Caroline and as it had killed Vicki. This move by the writers is a big bold one. It's a huge risk for the show but that's part of the reasons I love this show: they like to take risks and they almost always pay off. Alaric telling the truth to the council about the supernatural situation creates a new threat for our characters. They have to not only deal with their weekly situation but with a council who is making their move. A season premiere is about setting the pieces for the coming season and this premiere kind of does that. It manages to set up Elena's vampire arc but it doesn't really do that with making the council the season's bad guys. This is why the season premiere might have been a good episode but it does have some setbacks.

Let's start with Elena: she begins this episode with being introduced to the idea that she's dead. She doesn't like this. She's told two different things. The first is that she needs to feed by Damon. He's accepted her new situation and he thinks that she needs to accept it as well. Stefan has an alternative plan. He believes that Bonnie is going to be able to somehow fix Elena. This means that Elena will be able to live on as a human being but not as a vampire. He's holding out hope that there's a chance for Elena to live the life that she wanted. That she'll be able to grow up and have kids. That she won't be stuck as a vampire for the rest of her existence. We know Elena's stance on this and she decides to try and see if Bonnie can help her. It makes sense that the characters would try and delay the inevitable in an attempt to avoid it. The series itself gives credence that Bonnie might be able to pull this off. Bonnie has a new power source and this dark magic might be enough to save Elena. She almost succeeds but she's stopped at the last minute by Grams with a warning to not use dark magic again. Elena is stuck with the choice of drinking blood or dying. It's interesting that the show actually gave itself an out with this plot but it chose not to take it. This isn't a show that's afraid to shake things up and it would have been disappointing if Bonnie had succeeded. It would render last season's ending to be pointless. It would have done more harm than good. By giving itself a way out and refusing to take it, the writers reaffirm their commitment at playing things loose.

Elena's predicament is made even worse by the council. The council captures just about every character. They take in the human council members who have sided with the vampires for questioning. They have captured Caroline, Rebekah, and Stefan. They got Elena but it isn't until she tries to escape that they put her in the cell blocks with the other vampires. There isn't a human guard inside this prison which leaves her with very little chance at getting human blood. When Bonnie's spell fails at fixing her, Elena realizes that it's hopeless. She bids farewell to Stefan in a really good scene where they talk about their love together. Just when it's about to be too late, Stefan manages to attack a guard who came in to check on them and kills him with a head injury. A head injury that gives Elena the blood she needs to live but she has to struggle to even get a drop into her mouth. She's able to magically escape her prison in time to save Matt from an angry Damon. Damon's mad at Matt because Elena's the one who died even though it was her choice.

Elena's a vampire. She drank the blood but it was out of necessity to live. She didn't chose to become a vampire but it was forced on her. Her escape from her physical prison isn't explained (I guess the guard must have had a key on him) but she isn't able to escape her new existence. She does seem to accept it at the end of the episode in a scene with Stefan because she'll always be with Stefan and because she gets to survive. This would have worked much more effectively if the show was able to get us there better but it still worked. I do hope that we continue to see her emotionally struggle with her vampire side a bit more. This is a big turn for the character and the personal cost was largely in the background for the sake of the plot. This makes sense for the premiere but it should be addressed in future episodes. This would have been a good episode except for that ending.

What the hell? The council was being set up as the villains for the entire season by the finale and by this episode. They were a threat and their plan almost worked. It truly seems like the characters were going to have to deal with them. Oh, what's this? The episode ends with the leader (a pastor) blowing up the entire council that is still opposed to supernatural beings? This is a show that has constantly surprised me and has had some pretty good nail-biting cliff-hangers. This was a move that surprised me but it also left me perplexed. The entire threat of the council is taken out in a single scene after just one episode? The pastor claims this is just the beginning and future episodes might redeem this ending but right now I'm just confused. There's shaking things up and then there's leaving the season without the promised villain. I'm not saying this is a bad move on the writers part because it might lead to something good but it wasn't as executed as well as they might think it was. The ending is mind-boggling because it's just way too unexpected.

The Vampire Diaries had a season premiere that wasn't bad but it wasn't what it needed to be. Elena's transition should have had more of an emotional focus than it had and the council's sudden death seems to be too abrupt. What comes after this episode might be golden but it doesn't improve this episode's impression on the fans. The season premiere was thus a disappointment. This is shocking: I'm not exactly excited to see the next episode of the Vampire Diaries. I think this is the first time in a long time where the show didn't get me pumped for the next episode.

Other Notes:

The episode also deals with Klaus being in Tyler's body. Klaus ends up going back into his own body but this causes Bonnie to literally damn her grandmother in the afterlife. Klaus was a gentleman, though, and refused to use the time in Tyler's body to trick Caroline into sleeping with him after he rescued her.