Vampire Diaries – “Unpleasantville” – review

This week’s episode was a play off Pleasantville, of sorts.  The school was throwing a 1950s throwback dance (one of several “decade dances” according to Aunt Jenna), and so we got to see everyone dressed up in stylized interpretations of youth culture from half a centry ago.  The full cast was back this week, with subplots involving Bonnie (unrelated to the Salvatores) and Caroline and Matt back into the mix.  We saw more Alaric and Jenna developments, and more Jeremy and his new friend Anna intrigue.  The biggest part of the story was Elena being stalked by the vampire she hit a few nights ago.

So what exactly happened and what did I think about it?  Let me break it down by plot elements.

Elena’s stalker:  He certainly made for a very creepy situation–he had her phone number, he was following her around and calling her to tell her that, he had been inadvertently invited into the house by Jeremy so he had free access to her and her family…. I am still not sure his motivation for stalking her quite added up from a human logical/emotional point of view, but, as Damon has proven, vampires get bored and impulsive and so the fact that she looked like Katherine or the fact that she was dating Stefan Salvatore would either of them have been enough of a reason.  Both?  Made her an irresistible target.  I liked seeing Elena exposed to the consequences of being involved with a vampire–not the blood temptation for him sense but rather the dangers of dating him as a lifestyle choice.  She is going ot be a target for any of his enemies.  Lucky, in my opinion, that she’s made a kind of peace with Damon, because he’ll be protecting her when Stefan can’t.  I kind of hope the show doesn’t turn it into an actual love triangle the way the books did, where Damon gets his heart broken by Elena. I kind of like him still being obsessed with Katherine and not falling for Elena precisely for the reason Stefan did–because she isn’t Katherine.  Damon seems like he knew exactly who Katherine was all along and loved her for it; she really was his true love.  Will it destroy his relationship with Stefan beyond repair if Stefan prevents him from resurrecting her? 

Anna being a vampire/Alaric’s involvement:  Poor Jeremy.  Brother can’t get a break with the girls, can he?  I’m just glad that he’s been brushing her off and trying not to get involved with her, so at least his heart won’t get trampled again when she either disappears or gets killed (which I guess to him would probably still just like disappearing).  I am very curious to know who “Anna” really is and what her relationship was to Katherine.  She is trying to get the Gilbert family journal, which Jeremy lent to Alaric after he expressed an interest in seeing it…and how funny was the way he put it? So not teacherly–”first-hand Civil War account? That’s like a history buff’s wet dream.”  Ha!  Also the wet dream of a vampire buff, considering the Gilbert journal contains the information about where Emily’s grimoire was put, which Damon wants to resurrect Katherine and which the other vampires in town also want for the same reason.  Interesting to see how they will be working at cross-purposes to one another, which of course they will be now that Damon watched his brother stake one of their own and not raise a hand to stop it.  Interesting also that Alaric saw that scene, so now he knows that Elena knows what her boyfriend and his brother are.  I wonder if his interest in Jenna is a genuine interest in her, or if it is an interest in her based on the fact that she is a descendent of one of the Founding Families and/or that she is the aunt and guardian of a girl tangled up with vampires.  Depends, I suppose, on whether he pulled a Stefan and stalked the community of Mystic Falls before joining it.  Also.  Can I just point out that Alaric has balls of steel?  He approached Damon in the first place to make small talk–the guy who killed his wife in front of him!–and didn’t bat an eye or look more than an overfriendly small-town teacher.  And then he lied to Damon’s face without raising any suspicions when Damon tried to mind-control him into revealing his purpose there, only to be foiled without realizing it by the vervain Alaric was holding.  Sneaky, sneaky bastard. He better not be up to no good with Jenna.  She deserves a good guy in her life. I want to trust him with her, based on the books (he was thoroughly good in the books), but I just…quite…can’t.  Not yet.

And speaking of Alaric and what he may or may not have known coming into Mystic Falls…did the biggest reveal of all, namely that Jenna suspects Elena’s mysterious birth mother (a 16 year-old girl name Isabelle who disappeared after bearing her child in secret at Dr. Gilbert’s) is Alaric’s dead wife have anything to do with…anything?  Like did Damon target Isabelle because of her family heritage (which would make Elena the same target) or did Alaric know about Isabelle’s past enough to go dig it up?  Is that why he’s focusing on the Gilbert house?  So many questions!

Bonnie/Caroline:  Continuing what I experienced with Jenna and being all protective of her where Alaric the vampire slayer is concerned, I was really offended on Bonnie’s behalf when that bartender who “graduated” a couple years back revealed himself as a vampire, working with Anna, and totally playing Bonnie because they need something from “the witch” to make their plan work.  I hope Elena gives Bonnie that vervain jewelry as fast as she did with Caroline.  Speaking of Caroline, I was glad to see her back this week and up to her old trick of putting her foot in her mouth at all the worst times.  She is complaining to first Elena and then Bonnie that she doesn’t know what’s going on with Matt, that she thinks the friendship part has peaked (meaning it’s take the next step into being romantic or back off from spending time together) but he keeps avoiding her and trying to push her away.  Then she criticizes Bonnie for liking the “washed up jock who pushes drinks for a living,” which Matt the new busboy at the grill overhears.  It’s one of those most cutting remarks of all, because it wasn’t personally directed but applies to him as much as it could to the guy she was deriding.  Matt really needs to work on his self-esteem before he ends up in some Spring Break video somewhere.  When Caroline confronts him to apologize and just confront him, he tells her she’s the only good thing he has going right now and he doesn’t want to take the chance of losing it by “taking the next step” too soon.  Caroline calls him on his bullshit and says that he’d taken that step in his head and found it not good enough and so she was done now.  Good girl. She has obviously worked on her self-esteem since Damon’s treatment of her.  We see her walking home and Matt pull up next to her–”Caroline, get in the truck.”  It was a very Legally Blonde moment, and I half-hoped he would make a crack about ruining her shoes.  But good old Matt did better than that.  He parked his truck and ran up and kissed her.  Like he meant it.  Thumbs up.  I like them together, especially as portrayed in this series:  Caroline’s less of a bitch than she was in the books, and Matt…well, Matt’s the same, and Matt had it rougher than anyone in the books, so I’m glad he’s getting a break in this story.

In all I thought this was a really exciting episode with a lot of plot developments and mysteries getting half-solved and then made deeper because of that little bit of new information.  I can’t wait to see where things go from here.  And next week is another historical episode, and from the previews it looks AWESOME.

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.