The Vampire Diaries - Episode 3.03 - The End of the Affair - Review

Hello, not Tales from inside the Blue Bubble Box here with this review. I'm sure she, or he but I believe she's a she, will be offering her, or his, take on the episode shortly! Here's mine, if you're interested:

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"It came to me in a dream. I was naked. You would have loved it." —Damon

Ladies and gentleman, a celebration is in order. We are now three episodes into a season of The Vampire Diaries and there has yet to be a single town gathering. That is definitely a new record. In the first season, the second episode everyone was getting ready for the comet to pass. In the second season, the second episode was about the school's carnival. Wow, I don't know how the show has waited this long let alone had two consecutive episodes without a town party of some sort.

Wait a minute. Elena's birthday in episode one of this season, does that count? I would say no… but Caroline did plan it, and we all know she's always planning practically every town gathering!

I suppose we'll have to celebrate about something else, like the fact that a diary appeared in this episode at all. How long has it been? Thankfully, quickly into the first season, the show realized how annoying the diaries were (and how dreadful Elena and Stefan's voiceovers were, just the same) so they dropped that act. But I do believe we've seen them writing or mentioning their diaries at one point or another — not for a long time, however. So it was good to know that the Diaries part of the name still had some sort of function, and in this episode, it was used as a vehicle to take us to the Roaring Twenties. It's one of the episodes I like to call "History Lessons."

I don't know if it's because I like the 1920s more than the 1800s or because the mythology was particularly good or if it was just more fun, but this History Lesson was one of my favorites. Everything about it was fantastic: the set, the cinematography, Stefan's ruthlessness. His scene where he compels the guy to drink a glass of blood is one of the creepiest moments I've witnessed on TV (perhaps above on my list is the scene in Veronica Mars's third season when Veronica is hiding in the closet and she pulls a shoebox above her and all that hair falls on her). And I loved every second of it.

We learn through a series of flashbacks that Klaus and Stefan were actually quite close, but the former compelled the latter to forget every second of their friendship together. The last scene when he compels Stefan to remember was a bit chilling, I'm ready to finally get to watch "Ripper Stefan" during this time period. And not only that, but we meet another original: Rebecca, Klaus's sister, whom Stefan was in love with… because, y'know, if you spent four flashbacks with someone in the same setting, you'd be mad in love with them too. Rebecca is then killed, well "killed," when she decides not to choose Klaus's side. And she's been "dead" for almost a century now; the only reason Klaus decides to awaken her is because he needs to know what he did wrong during his hybrid sacrifice.

He enlists the help of Gloria,* a witch, who needs Rebecca's necklace. But Stefan gave that necklace to Elena a long time ago, and I love what the show has done in terms of mythos here. Sometimes shows like to write their characters' history in the episode in which it makes sense, and that happened in "The End Of the Affair" when Stefan sees a picture of him and Klaus. But this necklace has been on the show for some time now — and while it probably wasn't the original intention, at least they are trying to fool us into believing this was somewhat planned all along. Good enough for me.

*Is it a rule for all witches on this show to own bars and have some sort of flirtatious past with Damon?

And in this episode, Elena and Stefan got much closer, in terms of physical location. That scene where he's staring at her hiding in the closet practically made my heart stop beating; I had to laugh it off when he says "Look what I found," referencing a bottle of wine (or was it something else, I don't remember). It actually made me forgive the fact that the show wants me to believe an apartment would still be in tact for almost a century or that Damon asked Elena to think up a plan. Obviously, Damon doesn't read my reviews or he would know that Elena's plans always suck. And towards the end of the episode when he's explaining that they can't ever see each other, it was heartbreaking. Never mind the fact that his attitude completely changed from one scene to the next when she's about to inject him with vervain and he explicitly tries to scare her away from him (and then out of no where becomes same ol' sweet Stefan).

We haven't even discussed Caroline at all. I don't know about you, but if my father kept me chained up in some dirty dungeon-type room, I'd stop calling him "Daddy." And I almost lost it when she offered up how vampires can walk in the sun for two reasons: (1) She's giving them information that can now affect all the others; (2) Now it truly doesn't make sense how Carol Lockwood knew she was a vampire. But regardless, she's saved by Tyler and her mom (whom I hav enever liked more than now) and the result was one of the most not-intentionally-funny scenes where she's sipping blood in her bed like a young girl drinks juice at night before bedtime.

Such a good episode, much better than last week's I'd say. I don't know how they do it, but keep it up. The only disappointment, really, is that Katherine showed up but did little more than stay in a phone booth all episode (though I'm looking forward to her later on) and provide us with more evidence that Nina Dobrev is really Selena Gomez's doppelganger (or vice-versa).

Who says you're a human; who says you're the only one who's craving?

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My Vampire Diaries reviews:
Episode 3.01 "The Birthday"
Episode 3.02 "The Hybrid"