“I am every parent’s worst nightmare. I am the chaperone teacher from Hell.” – Alaric at Elena’s party, full of teenaged drinking and drugs
It’s interesting that I’m feeling the way I felt after I watched almost every season premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of my favorite shows of all time … but I never ceased being slightly disappointed by the season openers. After such amazing season finales, followed by a summer of longing, the first episode of the season never quite lived up to expectations.
Maybe The Vampire Diaries and Buffy have more in common than I thought they did.
Like Buffy‘s, there was nothing wrong with this season premiere; in fact, it was quite good. I’m glad they skipped a couple of months so we didn’t have to watch everyone mourn Jenna for episodes, and watch Elena pine over Stefan (though the poor girl has had a bit of loss in her life; I guess she’s entitled to some pining). All in all, they did an excellent job of setting up what promises to be a pretty great season.
I love how the whole Stefan changing thing isn’t black and white. He’s evil, yeah, but he’s torn, he’s doing it for the right reasons but temptation is too much. Can Elena’s love bring him back, or keep him from getting worse? Will he be able to problem-solve his way out of Klaus’s clutches? How will the (heart-wrenching) phone call to Elena change things next week?
Can Damon save Stefan? Does he want to? I’m not sure how much Damon actually cared about Andi, but now that he has Elena all to himself and Stefan was less than brotherly, he may just write him off. Although his angst at the end of the episode may say otherwise. Damn if that Damon doesn’t have a heart. …
And with The Vampire Diaries, always a few surprises. Never a show to beat around the bush, Caroline and Tyler hopped in the sack far sooner than I thought they would. As Caroline was sneaking out, I figured the worst problem we’d get out of the hook-up was some teenaged angst over the morning after. I never expected Mrs. Lockwood to go all Buffy on Caroline!
This and that: