The Vampire Diaries – “Friday Night Bites” – review

This week kept up the momentum for the roll this show seems to be getting on. Now that the story’s in place, the focus is staying smaller.  This episode brought more of a high school feel to the show, with the focus on the upcoming first football game of the season. 

Before school one morning Tyler intentionally throws a ball past Matt and at Stefan’s head; when he catches it like a champ, Elena encourages him to try out for the team.  Which, apparently, has sucked for a long time.  At practice that afternoon, Stefan has to overcome Mr. Tanner’s dislike of him for showing him up in class again, because he went after Elena, again; we learn through this that Mr. Tanner is not the dedicated history buff he appears but rather a coach teaching social studies.  This probably explains why Stefan keeps making a fool of him.  Anyway.  Stefan pretty much romps ass at practice and gets a spot on the team as a receiver, while Elena sucks it up at her first cheerleading practice since her parents died and decides to quit the squad. 

In an effort to improve Bonnie’s opinion of Stefan, Elena has them both to dinner.  Bonnie keeps having possible psychic flashes, and Caroline and Damon (now “dating,” if you can call him sucking her blood regularly and controlling her mind dating) crash the dinner party.  Damon gets himself invited into the Gilbert house, much to Stefan’s dismay.  Meanwhile Jeremy calls Tyler’s bluff to fight him at the restaurant, except that Matt holds Tyler back—“next time I see you, Gilbert.”

Before the game Stefan gives Elena a necklace filled with “an herb” and asks her to wear it for luck.  We find out after Damon tries to control her mind and make her kiss him (she demures with a slap and a pointed observation that she is not Katherine, whom Elena realized at dinner Damon had also been in love with) that it protects her mind from vampiric control.  Tyler leaves the pre-game bonfire to fight Jeremy, who is sloppy drunk, and Stefan breaks up the fight at expense of a cut on his palm.  Elena glimpses it, only to have him show her a completely unmarked hand when she presses him.  Matt appreciates Stefan’s help and makes his peace with him.  Damon confronts Stefan about giving Elena the vervain and threatens to seduce her the old-fashioned way—or simply drink from her when he wants, because that “is normal” for a vampire.  Stefan accuses him of having humanity still buried deep inside, to which Damon responds by attacking Mr. Tanner.

We see nothing further until Matt finds Mr. Tanner; we learn he is dead when the coroner drives away the body amidst a triad of numbers that Bonnie had been seeing all day long.  The ending scene is Damon standing in Elena’s bedroom, tenderly watching her sleep in a stark contrast to his brother’s harsh journal assessment, that “all humanity in Damon is gone.”

Another good episode overall—it kept me engaged, and I’m starting to wonder where they’re going to take the story.  As I predicted, it is starting to separate itself from the books’ story by this point, mainly through using events that happen much later this early on. 

I thought this installment had more humor than the others; Caroline at the dinner party was priceless.  Damon suggesting she go help Elena with the dishes—“Do I look like I do dishes?” she snaps in a genuine Princess Snot fashion.  I giggled.  I’m not sure if I’m supposed to hate Caroline or not, but I will say that this actress is pulling her off pretty well.  As in, she’s a little annoying and a little catty, and yet still sympathetic.  I also thought it was funny that she’s driving Damon crazy already.  And I really liked watching Elena school Damon when he tried to hit on her.  That was fun.

Also (and here is where I dork out like the football fanatic I am, sorry girls!), there was some serious hilarity going on with the depictions of the football team.  First of all, is this show’s budget seriously so low that they couldn’t afford any back-up players?  There was no one on the sidelines of their practice scrimmage, which means the only guys on the team are the ones playing…and 11 might be how many you need on the field, but it isn’t nearly enough to make a team.  Maybe that’s why they’re so bad, they don’t know you have to rotate players and have a back-up plan for What If someone gets hurt.  And another thing—I have lost all respect for Tyler (who, admittedly, had none to begin with, but this was an irredeemable low).  He sees Stefan making the team not as an opportunity for them to win some games but an opportunity for him and Matt to humiliate and/or hurt him.  Um, dude.  Priorities.  And then, him getting bored of the coach’s pre-game fire it up speech and going to start a fight right before kick-off?  Where is your head?  Clearly not on the game.  Tyler Smallwood, you, sir, are unfit to wear that jersey.  Loser.

I thought the big winner this episode was Matt.  He’s a class act.  I don’t really understand why it took him this long to confront Tyler about his behavior toward Jeremy, the little brother of the girl Matt is still in love with and very protective of, or Matt’s own sister…but it was nice to see him make nice with Stefan and tell Tyler that he was just a bully.  Second runner-up was probably Damon.  I am loving his mood swings and his absolute sincerity with both the serious answers and the mockery; that is exactly what he is like in the books (not to harp on them), and it is a pleasure to see that character brought to life in such a true-to-the-source kind of way. 

Speaking of Damon, I thought the ending scene was rather poignant.  He has his own inscrutable reasons for doing what he does, but the fact that he left when Elena started to wake hints that he might still have that shred of humanity left, after all; that he hadn’t been there to torment her but rather to torment himself.  The only question is whether he was seeing Elena lying there, or Katherine?

About Elena Nola

Elena Nola reads things, watches things, and edits things. She writes her BSC Review column, Elena's World, to tell you all about it all.