The Vampire Diaries: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with a Hint of Blood and Fire

Welcome back fans of The Vampire Diaries!

This season has kicked off to a strong start and the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries, titled “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” was no exception! Remember, The Vampires Diaries airs on The CW Network at 8 pm E/P.

Below, is the complete “Smells Like teen Spirit” episode video courtesy of the CW Network via Hulu. Join in for the fun on Twitter using the hashtag: #TVD to tweet with other fans of the show.

Smells Like Teen Spirit:

The episode started as Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) trained with Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) so that she could better defend herself against the newly evil, emotionless Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). He showed her how to use a number of special vampire-killing weapons that he designed himself, with the specific purpose of doing away with the blood-sucking creatures of the night. While Elena was dedicated to the task at hand of learning how to defend herself, Alaric worried that she just was not strong enough.

Alaric was concerned that she ultimately would not be able to defend herself if attacked by Stefan. Despite his worries about her physical strength though, Alaric commented that Elena had “found a way to get out of bed this morning,” and that this still had made her the strongest person he knew. Alaric believed because of this that Elena could do anything if she would put her mind to it.

Right off the bat in “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” this scene did a great job of establishing just how different the relationship between Elena and Stefan was now. It showed that Elena was slowly coming to grips with the fact that it may never be the same again with her boyfriend. This was showing us viewers that more than just presenting a physical danger to Elena, Stefan also presented an emotional danger to her too.

Later that morning; Elena arrived to school with her friends, Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola) and Bonnie Bennet (Kat Graham), for their first day as seniors in high school. The three girls remarked at how different things were one year previously, before any of them knew anything of the supernatural elements in Mystic Falls.

Elena realized that the day marked the one year anniversary of her meeting Stefan. Elena expressed to her friends that she could not let it get to her, because she needed to move on from Stefan and get on with her “new life.” The conversation between them was a nice callback to the first episode of the series as it reminded the fans of just how much things have changed, without being heavy-handed while pointing out the differences.

Meanwhile back at the Salvatore Mansion, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) walked in on his brother in the middle of a bloody and perverse version of the classic party game Twister with a group of compelled human women. These scantily clad women were being used by Stefan as a little bit more than just food. Damon attempted to seem nonchalant about his brother’s activities.

However it seemed pretty clear that the whole thing bothered him quite a bit. This was evident as Damon asked Stefan if “this was what Klaus (Joseph Morgan) had in mind,” when he asked Stefan to stay in Mystic Falls to keep Elena protected. At that moment, Rebekah (Claire Holt) arrived at the Salvatore home and was expressing anger about Klaus for leaving her stranded in Mystic Falls. Rebekah demanded, despite Stefan’s momentary protest, that she stay at Salvatore home with the two of them until Klaus returned. It was a good way of letting us know that Klaus’s presence would still be felt in the town with his sister still firmly in place, despite he himself not being there.

The scene was also a great reminder of just how drastically Stefan and Damon have reversed roles as shown with Stefan as he now played the “evil bad boy vampire” role that his brother inhabited for much of the show’s freshmen season.

Back at Robert E. Lee High School, Bonnie was approached by Jeremy Gilbert (Steven McQueen), her boyfriend and Elena’s brother, who asked her why she had been avoiding him. She admitted to him that she was uncomfortable about him speaking to the ghosts of his girlfriends, Anna (Malese Jow) and Vicki Donovan (Kayla Ewell). Bonnie reminded him that he could stop seeing them if he really wanted to.

The episode then cut to outside in the school parking lot, where Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) had just arrived and was sitting in his truck. Matt was talking to the ghost of his sister, Vicki who was sitting in the passenger seat. Vicki confessed to Matt that there was a way that he could help bring her back into the world of the living. Before she told him what exactly that way was, the two were interrupted by Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) who pounded on Matt’s car playfully as he asked him if he was “talking to [himself].”

Then the episode moved to Katherine Petrova (also portrayed by Nina Dobrev), as she was attempting to awaken the vampiric-vampire hunter, Mikael (Sebastian Roche), with little success. As she tried (and failed) to get him to drink the blood from a live mouse, she received a call from Damon. Damon told Katherine to speed up the awakening process, so that Mikael could kill Klaus and Rebekah. This suggestion gave Katherine the idea to feed Mikael a human instead, thinking that he would be more willing to feed off of a human host.

After he hung up on Katherine; Damon called Elena and told her to stay away from the Salvatore house, because Rebekah (a.k.a. nicknamed “Barbie Klaus”) was staying there with them. It would be dangerous, emotionally as well as physically, for Elena to be around this type of situation at the moment. Elena asked Damon what Stefan was up to, but he refused to tell her. Damon did not want to reveal just how far gone his brother had strayed from his true self to Elena.

After being hung up on by Damon, Elena was confronted by Caroline. Elena promised Caroline she would attend the annual “Back-to-School Bonfire.” She realized it was an important part of being a student, especially now that they were seniors. Then, Tyler approached the two girls and gave his girlfriend Caroline a big kiss. Before he could say anything to the two of them, they noticed that Tyler had a drop of blood on his shirt.

The two girls pushed Tyler into the bathroom as they scolded at him angrily that he needed to be more careful about hiding his vampirism. They asked Tyler where he got the blood in the first place. Tyler responded that Rebekah had “hooked him up” with a blood bag and expressed how “awesome” he thought it was that he was Klaus’s first successful hybrid.

As a worried Caroline was dealing with Tyler; Elena ventured back into the hallway, where she was greeted by Stefan. Stefan had made it clear that while he had no desire to be attending school as a high school senior for “the hundreth time,” he would fulfill his duty to Klaus by keeping an eye on Elena. Then, Stefan grabbed Elena and attempted to drag her off to class forcefully.

Alaric stepped in and told Stefan to get away from Elena. Stefan reacted by slamming Alaric into a locker and told him not to “get in [his] way.” This was a surprising move by Stefan to be acting out in public as such. It should also be kept in mind that Alaric was a teacher at school, so Stefan pushing him was sure to have drawn attention.

Luckily, Stefan backed down and Elena followed Alaric back to his classroom. As class was settling down to begin, Elena whispered to Alaric that “Stefan being here isn’t good for anybody,” and that they needed to figure out a way to get him out of the school and Mystic Falls for good. Alaric turned and began his lecture for the day when he quickly realized that none other than Rebekah herself was in his class. It became apparent that Rebekah had decided she would be passing herself off as a student until Klaus decided to return to the town.

As Alaric was having to deal with “Barbie Klaus” giving him sass, The Vampire Diaries shifted over scenes as it followed Matt toward the back of the school to the “stoner pit.” Matt was talking to Vicki’s ghost out in the open where anyone could have noticed. Just as Vicki began to explain to Matt that she had “help from the other side” that could bring her back to life, the siblings were interrupted by Jeremy. Jeremy asked Matt curiously what he was doing out back in the stoner pit, not seeming to notice Vicki at all. Matt answered that he was looking for his lab partner as an excuse to Jeremy. Jeremy nodded, but was feeling suspicious of Matt.

Jeremy walked away and then quickly ducked in a bathroom, where he confessed to ghost-Anna that he could obviously see that Matt was talking to Vicki. Jeremy told Anna that he overheard Matt in his seemingly one sided conversation with Vicki and shared the information that mentioned having “help from the other side,” that would bring her back.

As Anna expressed surprise that Vicki was talking to someone else on the other side; at the same time outside, Vicki was explaining to her brother that this “help” was in the form of a dead witch. This powerful witch had told Vicki of a ritual that could be performed with Matt’s help and would bring her back into the world. Vicki would be able to transcend her ghost-form and could come and go as she pleased.

Vicki explained further that she would even be able to effect the objects around her. Matt expressed concern about the ritual, but ultimately agreed to help his sister due to the desire to have her in his life again. Just like last episode; I could not help, but to feel as if Matt was getting himself involved in something much bigger and darker than he really realized by agreeing to help out his sister.

Meanwhile, outside on the track; Caroline watched in horror as Rebekah arrived to cheerleading practice. Caroline tried telling the Original that she could not just “infiltrate all of [their] lives.” This spurred Rebekah as she responded that not only could she do so, but she planned on stealing Caroline’s popularity and maybe even her boyfriend while she was did so.

As if that was not enough, Caroline then spotted that her newly changed hybrid boyfriend, Tyler as he just so happened to be recklessly using his ability to compel humans and was forcing his football coach to have practice end early. Tyler would rather everyone go to the bonfire than continue football drills. Caroline approached Tyler angrily as she told him that he could not do that to a human in plain sight.

Tyler would have to be more careful about controlling his abilities in future situations. Tyler assured her that he was completely in control, which Caroline doubted soon after when he told her about how he was grateful to Klaus. Tyler was saying that being turned into a hybrid was “a gift.”

At this point, I started to become somewhat wary about Tyler. I really started to wonder exactly where his allegiances lay and which side he would pick in a battle if forced to choose between his friends or with his “creator,” Klaus. As one of the more powerful people in the town, it definitely would not fare well for his friends if Tyler decided to turn on them. Elsewhere on the track; Elena was approached by Stefan who reminded her once again that he was not going anywhere, even going so far as he called her a “human blood bank” that needed guarding.

At this point the episode shifted back to Katherine, who was attempting to wake up Mikael by feeding him human blood. At first, it seemed to work, the blood caused color to return to Mikael’s skin as the blood hit his lips. However, as soon as Mikael awoke, he demanded that Katherine get the bloody, dead human body away from him.

As Katherine was remarking to Mikael that he did not seem nearly as “bad ass” as he was rumored  to be, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” moved back to the Salvatore estate. Here, viewers were shown that Elena was lifting weights, attempting to “put some meat on her bones,” as Alaric had suggested at the beginning of the episode. Elena was interrupted by Damon, who took the weight from her as he jokingly calling her “Buffy,” a fun reference to the fictional vampire slayer.

Damon grabbed Elena, holding her close and sensually caressed her side down to underneath her ribcage, as he pointed out that this was the best spot to drive a wooden stake into Stefan’s heart. He then promised Elena that no would would hurt her, “especially not [his] brother.”

Later that night at the bonfire; Elena, Alaric, Caroline, and Damon went over their plan of attack to capture Damon right then and there. While Elena was outlining the plan, Tyler arrived onto the scene, asking what he could do to help. When Tyler had heard that the group was planning on taking out Stefan, he then expressed a surprising concern as he stated that they could not do that to Stefan.

Tyler continued on as he explained it would be bad for Klaus, whom he pledged his loyalty to. Tyler also said that he owed him everything for making him what he was. As the group realized that Tyler had been “sired” (inflicted with an intense loyalty for Klaus, his creator, against all logic and reason due to Klaus’s blood creating him), Tyler was stabbed with a needle filled with vervain. It was for Tyler’s own good, because there would be nothing they could do to “fix” this sire-problem and that his infliction made Tyler dangerous.

Later, Elena approached Stefan and Rebekah as she made it clear that she planned to get incredibly intoxicated over the course of the evening. It was all a part of Elena’s plan to make herself look very drunk, so as to lower Stefan’s guard long enough to take him down.

Elsewhere in Mystic Falls, Matt Donovan was performing his part of the ritual that would bring his sister back to life. After cutting his hand open, Matt dripped the blood into a dish surrounded by candles. He then said “I will accept you,” and it appeared that the ritual worked as Vicki was then able to touch and hug her brother as if she were alive again.

Back at school, Jeremy informed Bonnie of Matt’s plans to bring back his sister through the ritual. Bonnie became mad at Jeremy, because he was talking to Anna again instead of her. Bonnie made clear she would have been the better choice to have discussed these matters with since she was a witch, thus this made her the best source of information that concerned the witch helping Vicki to cross back over. Bonnie left Jeremy as he stood in the hallway and she rushed off to deal with what Matt. Bonnie was worrying that this ritual would upset the balance of nature.

Meanwhile, Matt was betrayed by his sister when she knocked him unconscious. Matt had objected to what Vicki had to do in order to stay in the living world, as a part of her deal with the dead witch. Vicki had to kill Elena so that the balance of nature could be restored. The Original Witch did not want Klaus to be able to create anymore hybrids. I was not surprised Vicki turned on her brother and I did not really feel sorry for Matt. Perhaps, Matt should never have ventured into the murky supernatural waters alone to begin with.

Heading back to the events at the bonfire, Damon attempted to distract Rebekah by flirting with her relentlessly, as Elena watched from afar. Stefan approached her and claimed that she was jealous. Also at the party, Vicki was wandering around the bonfire enjoying her new found ability to interact with the world once again, even though she was still invisible to everyone but Matt.

Elena walked away while she pretended (or was she?) to be in a jealous rage to lure Stefan into following her, Rebekah caught on to Damon’s ploy to distract her with flirting and stabbed him in the stomach with a long wooden stick. There was a lot going on in this scene with quick cuts back and forth between six different characters, but it was handled amazingly and never once was I confused as to what was going on.

After a quick jump to the Lockwood residence, where Tyler had just woken up from being vervained by Damon and was apologizing to Caroline for being a “dbag” (leading them to a steamy make-out session); us viewers were brought back to the Bonfire with Elena and Stefan. Elena had lured Stefan all the way out to the football field, where she pretended (or did she?) to be extremely drunk and took a dive off of the bleachers. Elena knew that Stefan would catch her, making him be off-guard long enough for Alaric to sneak up behind him and shoot him with vervain-soaked arrows.

After she took the dive, Stefan caught her exactly as planned, however, before Alaric vervained him, Elena and Stefan exchanged a powerful look. Despite the fact that Stefan had shut off his emotions, it was completely clear from the look on Stefan’s face that his feelings for Elena were still there underneath. Stefan’s love for Elena could never truly be shut out, even by a powerful Original Vampire such as Klaus.

This episode was not done just quite yet though! As Elena was helping Alaric drag Stefan’s unconscious body back to his SUV, Vicki was watching them while she smoked a cigarette. Spying a trail of gasoline that ran from where Vicki sat to down all the way to the SUV, she decided to take her shot at killing Elena. Vicki threw the lit cigarette down onto the gas-trail which caused the SUV that Elena was inside of to then burst into flames.

Elena attempted to escape from the car, but Vicki along with the help of the unseen Original Witch, was using her ghostly abilities to keep Elena trapped. As this was happening, Bonnie and Matt were in the school and performed a magical ritual that would send Vicki back to the other side. Just as the ritual came to a close, Matt shut his sister out and Vicki was sent back to the other side.

With no magical force upon the fire anymore, Elena managed to escape from the burning vehicle while getting herself and Stefan to safety right before the entire SUV exploded in a ball of fire. It was nice to see Matt come to his senses and send his ghostly sister back to the great beyond, however I am willing to bet that the dead witch helping Vicki is not done trying to use Matt as a pawn to kill Elena.

After the climax of the exploding car; viewers were greeted with a number of “falling action” shots, as our characters were relaxing now that the bonfire had ended. Damon applied first aide to Elena, who had suffered some cuts and burns from being in the exploding SUV. Typical of Damon, he nursed Elena up in a not so subtlety flirtatious way. Tyler and Caroline, still at the Lockwood house, had just finished the steamy “make-up” from their earlier fight.

Just as Caroline left Tyler for the night, however, Rebekah walked into the house with a bleeding woman. Rebekah told Tyler to feed on the wounded girl. At first Tyler attempted to resist, however the blood was too much for his new vampire needs to bear. Tyler could not help it and quickly gave in as he fed on the woman alongside Rebekah.

Back at the mausoleum where Mikael was being held, Katherine removed him from his coffin. As she removed his chains; Mikael confessed that he was upset at Katherine for feeding him human blood earlier, because he had been denying himself the substance for decades. Katherine, in her typical fashion, scoffed and asked him what exactly it was that he did eat. Mikael responded that he did not “feed on living things” and proceeded to rip into Katherine’s neck and feed on the vindictive vampire who had freed him.

Back at the Salvatore house, Stefan had recovered from being vervained. Stefan approached Elena and told her that she needed to stop pushing him away and let him protect her. He then asked Elena why she saved him from the burning car, when it would have been easy to just let him die there. Elena told Stefan that she saved him, because she still had hope that Stefan would one day rediscover his humanity and overcome Klaus’ influence.

Stefan called her pathetic for thinking this way. Elena replied to him that she thought it made her strong. Just to prove her point, Elena surprised Stefan and stabbed him in the stomach with a wooden stake. I enjoyed this scene, because it really highlighted just how strong of a person Elena has become. Her character has been finely developed over the past two seasons of the show.

Circling back to other characters, Jeremy was back at his house and was talking to Anna. He was confessing to Anna that he could not stop thinking about her; a sentiment that she returned right back to him. Then the two attempted to touch their fingers together and to their surprise discovered that not only could they both feel each others hands, but that they could interlock fingers also. This made me think that perhaps Jeremy and Anna are closer tied together than even they suspected. Also, that if the original witch attempted to use Matt to kill Elena, then Jeremy’s tie to Anna just might make him the only one capable of stopping Matt.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” ended as Damon attempted to clean up the mess Stefan had left from earlier in the episode during the twisted Twister session with Stefan’s “food sources.” As Damon was attempting to clean, a strange figure was darting around in the shadows and broke several priceless artifacts throughout the household. At first; Damon assumed that it was Stefan simply messing with him, but then the figure popped out of the shadows and threw Damon across the room. It was then revealed to be none other than Mason Lockwood himself; the werewolf uncle of Tyler Lockwood that Damon had killed himself during the shows first season.

Overall, this was a great episode. It featured some nice character development and set up some interesting developments for future episodes. It will be fun to watch Rebekah compete with Caroline for popularity and I am excited to see just what it is that Mikael will do now that he is awake. Is Katherine really dead? Of course, the biggest new development on the show is that I was absolutely stunned to see Mason Lockwood back and alive, given that he was very (very) dead the last time we saw him.

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-Aaron, @aLouisS