This Is John Varvatos, dude. Dick, move!
Vampire Diaries "Family Ties" Review
Even though it took a while for the episode to officially sink in, I liked it. But I did not love it (due to the apparent lack of Damon/Elena.) Damon had some fantastic one liners: "This is John Varvatos, dude. Dick, move!", "Some girls just can't resist my good looks, my style, my charm, and my unflinching ability to listen to Taylor Swift." "Because I live in the real world where vampires burn in the sun.", "I mean, in the 70's he went ivy league! Harvard I understood, no wait, I didn't understand that either.", "I'm not some drunk sorority chick, you can't roofie me!".
I still don't see any passion at all between Stefan/Elena, they are too rushed, to sickenly sweet, too... I don't know. And although Paul Wesley (if you see any of his other work) is a very good actor, and brutally attractive (when he pulled that knife out of his chest after Damon stabbed him I totally pressed pause), Stefan needs to get a personality that doesn't seem to derive completely from his own special edition of "101 Brooding Comments." And although mildly impressed with Stefan tricking Damon into drinking Caroline's vervaine soaked blood, you would think that Stefan would have gone to greater lengths to keep his brother in captivity (for more than maybe 1/4 of the next episode, you know Damon's going to get out of there), even if it meant showing of a darker side to himself which I would have gladly welcomed.
The scenes between Elena/Damon were poignant and wonderful, we saw a bit of Damon's humanity as he shortly revisited how Katherine died, and although the episode didn't end well for them, did any of you honestly think that Elena would have been kept under the illusion that Damon was just this damaged, normal guy? The whole amazing part of their relationship is going to come when Elena sees this man who exacts these acts of violence and brutality, but then sees the reasoning behind it, and begins to feel for him and eventually fall in love with him despite herself. (That is one element of the books that I enjoyed.) Some are freaking out, that after the Damon/Elena high that episode three gave us, we are now at an incredible low. Do not get depressed, people. D/E is far from over. And they are in no way going to push Damon in a corner. Everyone is already claiming that he is the Spike for the new generation.
Whoever is the music supervisor on this show I need to commend him for doing a spectacular job this episode. The song playing when Damon confronted Caroline about Elena's knowledge of her wounds made for a chilling moment, and rest of the music for the episode did not dissapoint, either.
Another qualm I had about the episode was that they seemed to cut that one scene between Stefan/Damon that was heavily featured in the promo. Some people were expressing that they were confused about the diamond. I think the diamond had something to do with the people who lived in the house, the ones that seemed to know what was going on at the end of the episode. In the promo, Damon referred to them as being the people who killed Katherine and that someone should "suffer justice". He told Caroline that he put that diamond there "a long time ago". I think it was some tool that would help him avenge Katherine's death. It would have been a lot more clear if that scene was actually in the episode, I was like wtf?
Overall, a good episode. So what do you think will happen next episode? Will Elena discover Stefan's vampire identity? Will Bonnie be the end of the birthday candle industry? Will Zack finally bite the bullet? (No one locks Damon in a cage and gets away with it!)