Recap: The Vampiaries, Episode 3.14, “Dangerous Liaisons”

On February 13, 2012 at 1:00 pm in New Show Recap

In this week’s episode, the “previously, on The Vampire Diaries” spiel was all about relationships—oh, and something about a ball? But before we get to the dresses and the dancing and the violence, ZOMG, we have to do a little plot exposition.

Matt and Elena are in the hospital, having brought Alaric there. Elena also manages to slip in that she’s talked to Bonnie, and she and Abbie are both fine (Bonnie doesn’t get to dress up for the vampires, which makes me sad, because I’m sure she’d look fabulous). So far, so normal, and Elena even manages to ask Matt how he’s doing, but what they don’t know is SOMEONE IS WATCHING THEM. Someone in a hooded robe:

A blurry figure is silhouetted against a hospital window

Are they doing a subtle TVD/Secret Circle crossover or did the CW costume department just run out of money that week?

Anyway, here are long lingering horror-esque shots of Elena getting into her car, starting the car… and then she runs over someone. Or does she? Because there’s no body. Except—there is Rebekah, who is pissed and all about drinking Elena’s blood, but Elijah turns up to fend her off. (Elijah, you’re my favourite.) Somehow I doubt that the person who was watching them in the hospital was Rebekah, though…

Back at the newly-renovated mansion, Klaus is angry with Rebekah for attacking Elena, until Esther breaks up the sibling bickering. Klaus still doesn’t quite believe that Esther wants peace, but she reassures him:

Forgiveness is not a chore, it’s a gift.

Later, Elena fills in the brothers Salvatore on what Elijah told her: Esther wants peace and no one will be hurt. In excellent timing, Elena receives an invitation to a ball at Klaus’s (my, that calligraphy is really something), with a personal note from Esther, wanting to meet Elena. Damon is dead-set against her going, but Stefan thinks she should. There is a bit of boring who-cares-about-Elena-more banter, and Stefan offers to accompany her, but Damon overrules him.

Caroline also receives an invitation—complete with a dress, and a handwritten note from Klaus. She’s not at all inclined to go, especially because Klaus invited her:

It’s some twisted Cinderella fetish, that’s what it is.

But Elena wants allies there, and when Rebekah invites Matt, Caroline is angry enough to go. She also lets Elena know that she knows Damon kissed her—and Elena is in the friendship doghouse for not telling her herself. Also, Tyler is AWOL, but he did leave Caroline a voicemail: he’s heard that Bill died, and he’s off—somewhere—doing what Bill wanted him to do so he can come back and be with Caroline. Tylorine 4eva!

At the ball, Damon is the first of our beloveds to show up, and passes the time by throwing a few verbal daggers at the Mayor, who deflects them with sheer pragmatism:

When the oldest, deadliest family of vampires moves in to your town, you welcome them, with a smile

and he finds something better to do (i.e., drool) when Elena walks in in a dress I can only describe as odd. Let’s face it, Nina Dobrev would look good in a second-hand plastic bag, but the spangles on that thing hurt my eyes. Of course, Stefan is there too, and they both escort her in.

Elena walks in to the ball, arm-in-arm with Stefan and Damon

You can see from our faces how much fun we're all having

Caroline shows up in the dress Klaus sent, and he is delighted, but she is not inclined to be grateful.

Creepy Original Finn finds Elena and tells her that if she wants to meet Esther, she must do it alone. Elena isn’t totally down with this, given that Esther already tried to kill her once from beyond the grave, and there’s another boring Salvatore debate about what Elena should do, which is thankfully interrupted by an olde-stylee waltz, which handily allows for a lot of partner-swapping and snark from everyone. Caroline dances with Klaus, who compliments her on her dancing skillz, and her reply is both hilarious and poignant:

I’ve had training, I happen to be Miss Mystic Falls.

Oh, Caroline. You’re a long way from Miss Mystic Falls. Cole is unimpressed at Rebekah for bringing Matt:

Settling for mortals is the first sign of weakness

but she has her reasons: since she’s not allowed to hurt Elena, she’ll do it through Matt, by killing him, and Cole is happy to help, and even suggests making a spectacle of it. But Rebekah is not a fan—Esther would kill them, she says, do I smell dramatic irony?—and her plan is a little more subtle: she will lure him outside and Cole will meet them there for some Matticide.

Elena starts out dancing with Damon and ends up with Stefan, and she wants to talk to him outside, so out they go. She’s decided to meet Esther alone, as requested, and wants Stefan’s help to make sure Damon won’t interfere, because

You care about killing Klaus more than you care about anything…. Am I wrong?

Cue Stefan’s I-am-hurt face, but he agrees to help, and she compliments him on being a reasonable humanoid:

When we were together you let me make my own decisions… at least that hasn’t changed.

(Cue Stefan’s hurt-puppy face again, and a contrast to Damon in giant, sparkly letters.) So Stefan breaks Damon’s neck, and Elena goes to find Esther. On the way, she encounters Elijah, who, like Klaus, doesn’t quite trust in Esther’s total forgiveness and wants Elena to tell him what she says.

Elena finds Creepy Finn with a dagger, and Esther with a bunch of burning sage, but Esther quickly dismisses Creepy Finn and she and Elena get down to business. Esther’s body was preserved by Ayana (the other witch we saw in the flashbacks), who was an ancestress of Bonnie’s. Esther is back to undo the crime against nature that she committed when she made her children vampires a millenium ago. Elena only has one thing on her mind—kill Klaus—but Esther finds that unambitious. She has a plan to kill all of her children, and she needs a drop of Elena’s blood to begin the multi-stage plan, so that:

If one goes, they all go… I love my family, Elena, but they are an abomination.

The first stage is the champagne, and each of the Originals must drink if the plan is to work, so when Elijah asks Elena what Esther wanted, she lies to him, and each of the Originals all drink the toast.

Close-up of Elijah drinking the spelled champagne

A dry fruity vintage, with notes of doppelganger

Klaus keeps following Caroline around, making for some interesting back-and-forth. First, he finds her outside with a carriage horse (as you have around your mansion), and Klaus goes for the obvious when Caroline asks him why he invited her:

I fancy you… you’re beautiful, you’re strong, you’re full of light. I enjoy you.

I suppose when an immortal vampire-werewolf has a millennium to chat up the laydeez, he’s bound to get it right some of the time. Then they banter a bit over whether Caroline is still with Tyler or not and compare their dead fathers: Mikael killed Klaus’s favourite horse once, as well as pursuing his children for centuries, and all-in-all it seems Bill comes out on top in the father department. Later, he brings her to admire his artwork (not a euphemism) and Caroline is duly impressed:

Caroline: I take it that the curators at the Louvre aren’t on vervain?
Klaus: That’s their mistake.

Klaus, again, offers to take her anywhere she wants, and it’s almost sweet for a few moments; it seems like Caroline might be warming to him and his promises of a Grand Tour circa 1780, but actually she’s just leading up to a smackdown. Klaus collects people who have to obey—hybrids, Tyler—just because he’s spoiled, and selfish, and he doesn’t try to connect with people because he doesn’t believe they’ll ever love him. Bam! Caroline for the win.

Damon wakes up, very annoyed, and after smacking Stefan around a bit, finds Elena, tries to make her leave by force, and then makes his n+1th mistake of the evening: telling Elena how he feels.

Damon: I’m mad at you because I love you.
Elena: Well, maybe that’s the problem.

And Damon realises what Stefan had been saying is right, and asks what I presume is a rhetorical question:

I care too much, I’m a liability — how ironic is that?

Before the toast of doom, Rebekah managed to lure Matt outside as planned, but when he gets his coat and puts it on her—even though she doesn’t need it, being a vampire and all—she changes her mind on the Matticide, much to Cole’s disappointment. After the toast, Cole finds Matt alone on a balcony, and is just about to start having fun, breaking Matt’s hand, when an enraged Damon shows up, throws Cole off the balcony, jumps down after him, and breaks his neck. Damon really knows how to make friends and influence people.

Esther is annoyed at Rebekah and Cole for attacking Matt; Elijah promises to deal with them, and she tells him she wishes the rest were more like him. But Finn is her real ally: he is ready to die and take his siblings with him, and she uses his blood to complete the spell.

spelled parchment, showing a tree drawn in Finn's blood.

Klaus draws with pencils; Esther's media are blood and magic

After Damon legged it, Stefan takes Elena home: she fills him in on what Esther told her, and she’s feeling guilty for lying to Elijah. Stefan, however, is firmly on the side of Kill All the Things, especially since they’ve meant nothing but darkness for Elena. He asks why Damon went after Cole, and she tells him it’s because earlier she said something she didn’t mean. Me too! says Stefan. Oh, you crazy kids. He leaves, but Elena comes out after him: she wants to know how he can pretend to feel nothing, when she thinks he does feel something. He does, of course; he hates himself for hurting her. She’d rather he’d show something rather than nothing, but he disagrees:

If I let myself care, all I feel is pain.

Back at home, Caroline leaves a voicemail for Tyler: she misses him, and wishes he was there. But on the bed there’s another package from Klaus — a drawing, and a note:

Klaus's drawing is Caroline with a horse. His note in the right-hand corner says "Thank you for your honesty".

Klaus also designed the poster for War Horse.

After being assaulted through no fault of his own, Matt goes to the Grill; Rebekah follows, tries to apologise, but Matt just wants to be left alone. Damon, of course, is there to rub salt in the wound:

Burned by the captain of the football team – welcome to adolescence!

and make it alll better…

Rebekah's dress totally didn't deserve what happened next.

All right, team: so I think we all knew Stefan was still in love with Elena: does it matter now that she knows too? Do we believe Esther’s spell will do what she says it will? Is Elena going soft on the Originals — or, at least, Elijah? Caroline seems to inspire vampire-werewolf hybrids to be better vampire-werewolf hybrids, but how far will Klaus let his affection for Caroline go? Is the Damon-Rebekah thing just sex, or the beginnings of an alliance? And predictions, please, for the last two episodes of the season: who is the serial killer, and why?

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Tags: costume department fail, sibling love, The Vampire Diaries, vampiaries

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22 responses to Recap: The Vampiaries, Episode 3.14, “Dangerous Liaisons”

Courtney said on February 13, 2012 at 4:37 pm

I really don’t want them to kill Elijah! I’ve been waiting for him to get un-daggered, and killing him off right away is not what I was hoping for. I was trying to will Elena to tell him what his mother said, but alas, she did not.

I was so hoping that when Elena walked into the ball, it would actually be Katherine. I’ve been dying for her to come back, and for some reason I wonder if she’s behind the murders (I mean, wouldn’t she and Elena have the same fingerprints?) so I guess I’m looking for her everywhere.

I’m about as conflicted as Elena about the Damon vs. Stefan thing. I love Damon as a character, but I’d be annoyed with him too if I were Elena. And it’s not like Stefan is a knight in shining armor either. Klaus was right last week. They really should just leave her alone to marry a human and get on with her life. Leave it to Klaus to have the best life coaching skills? Perhaps it’s a “do as I say, not as I do” scenario…
- crazylady said on February 13, 2012 at 7:01 pm
  
  You know, I’m surprised she’s talking to Stefan. I still remember him trying to drive her off on the bridge her parents were killed. And then he left her there! What a jerk.
  
  It’s funny that Klaus is apparently the love guru.
  - Courtney said on February 14, 2012 at 12:12 am
    
    Yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t even notice that during the last episode. I think I was too distracted wondering what was going to happen with the ball. Why did she even let Stefan anywhere near her after that? She’s got such a weak spot when it comes to him, it’s kind of ridiculous. She’d never let Damon off the hook for something like that. Perhaps she’s giving Stefan the benefit of the doubt with his whole “feelings are turned off” thing? Still, it is strange.
    
    Klaus should really give up his day job of being a whiny supervillain and become Mystic Falls’ new romance and advice columnist. It would put his talents to much better use.
    - crazylady said on February 14, 2012 at 10:07 am
      
      It’s true. She lets a lot of shit slide with Stefan.
      
      It’s kind of nuts. Dude almost drove you off a bridge.
      
      But I bet that’s it. Because she believes it isn’t really him. He’s just lacking his feelings.
      
      Also, I would totally read that column.
- [M] QoB said on February 14, 2012 at 5:01 am
  
  If we can hang on to one Original, Elijah has to be it.
  
  And that is one of the annoying things about Klaus – he is very probably right about the Salvatores. He’s very perceptive. And those sweet flirty moments with Caroline in this week’s episode actually made me go ‘Awww’ a little bit before I mentally slapped myself across the face.
  
  I agree with you about Katherine. I get uneasy when she’s AWOL, better to keep her where we can see her…
  - Courtney said on February 14, 2012 at 7:26 pm
    
    Amen. Elijah is the best original. And technically, he was the first original in the show, so he gets seniority.
    
    I was trying so hard to remind myself how evil Klaus has been, but apparently being into Caroline makes anyone a better person. I hope they pursue that relationship in the show, because it could be so interesting, and a nice distraction from the whole two-brothers-are-torn-apart-by-a-doppelganger business they’ve had going on apparently since the beginning of time.
    - [M] QoB said on February 15, 2012 at 6:36 am
      
      Being into Caroline and stealing Monets at least means the man has taste!
      
      It seems like the writers are working in a secondary Tyler-Caroline-Klaus dynamic.
Meg Bo said on February 13, 2012 at 1:33 pm

I’m getting annoyed with Elena. She keeps harping on about how important it is to have choices (for herself, last week with Caro’s dad), but she had no problem compelling Jeremy… twice. What a hypocrite.

It’s a testament to the writing and acting on this show that I find Klaus so extremely likable and real, despite the horrible things he’s done. There hasn’t been a villain like that for me since Spike.

And I’m also not sure if Elijah actually drank… rewatching it, it doesn’t really look like he or Klaus actually drank any of it.
- crazylady said on February 13, 2012 at 1:38 pm
  
  Not going to lie…I’m glad he was compelled to go away. His character always annoyed me so much. Haha.
  - Meg Bo said on February 13, 2012 at 4:18 pm
    
    Haha yes he can be really annoying and emo. But he was just starting to get hot and bamf-y!
    - crazylady said on February 13, 2012 at 6:54 pm
      
      This is true. Haha. He was getting a bit edgier, finally.
- [M] QoB said on February 14, 2012 at 5:03 am
  
  Ooo. Klaus -v- Spike… who would win?
  - [E] Slay Belle said on February 14, 2012 at 12:46 pm
    
    I haven’t read the article, I don’t know who Klaus is, and I saw this comment while I was moderating from the dashboard. Despite all that, I can confidently say Spike. The answer is always Spike.
    - [M] QoB said on February 14, 2012 at 12:51 pm
      
      I’m sure there’s a Tumblr somewhere dedicated to this very question…
      - Meg Bo said on February 14, 2012 at 11:28 pm
        
        Events could include glowering, pithy remarks, vengeance planning, and cheekbone measuring. And just for funsies, a dance-off.
        
        But I think Slay Belle is right, that Spike would win everything. Billy Idol DID steal his look from him.
        
        [M] QoB said on February 15, 2012 at 6:38 am
        
        The cheekbone section would be close! Plus Klaus can walk in sunlight, which may allow him more time for vengeance planning.
crazylady said on February 13, 2012 at 1:22 pm

I think Stefan and Elena will end up together even though I carry a torch for Damon.

And why did she have to be so awful to him anyway? She’s always telling him to be the better person and then when he finally rises to the occasion she takes a dump on him.

I think there will be a snag in Esther’s plan somewhere along the line. Things never go as planned.

I can’t believe she didn’t say something while we watched Elijah drink. Though…I’m also not sure he took a drink. He kind of pursed his lips.

I’ve always liked Caroline and Klaus is growing on me. I liked Tyler but ever since the sire thing, he started getting on my nerves.

I loved the ending of the episode. Sigh. Rebecca’s a lucky woman!

As for the serial killer…Meredith possibly?
- Courtney said on February 13, 2012 at 4:26 pm
  
  I didn’t really think Damon rose to the occasion, and I’ve been kind of confused as to why everyone is annoyed with Elena for not appreciating what he was trying to do. Yeah, he had good intentions, but as usual, he went about it with no respect for her or her wishes and he repeatedly tried to order her to do what he wanted her to do. Yeah, it’s nice that he wants to keep her safe, but I don’t blame her for not wanting to be controlled by someone she’s not even in love with. *shrugs*
  
  I’m a huge Damon fan, so I’m not just saying this out of hate for his character. I’ve really been wondering why people saw what she did as such a bad thing. Obviously I feel bad for him, but I’d probably have done something similar. I mean, thank him for trying and all, but I wouldn’t want to be ordered around like that.
  
  Sorry if that sounded confrontational or argumentative! I’m not intending to be, but I’ve seen the same sentiment pretty much everywhere I’ve seen the show talked about, and I wanted to ask why. :)
  - crazylady said on February 13, 2012 at 5:00 pm
    
    I think why I’m siding with Damon is because I find Elena does what she wants with no regard for others. She puts herself in danger all the time (in my opinion). Someone always tends to get her out of the mess she gets in, though she’s been getting better lately.
    
    So I can see why he’s so protective. He sees this time and again and is usually the one who is right when it comes to having a hunch at how things will play out. Or at least that’s the impression I get.
    
    I think I’d side with him even if he didn’t have a romantic interest in her. It’s like seeing someone continually put themselves in harm’s way. You have to try even if they won’t listen. And if something happens, you did the best you could.
    
    Haha, and that is my lengthy explanation of how I feel. The funny thing is, I agree with you in principle, but given all the trouble she gets herself in, i can see where he’s coming from.
    - Courtney said on February 14, 2012 at 12:07 am
      
      I can definitely see your point, too. Elena doesn’t have a particularly great track record when it comes to making decisions that are best for the safety of all involved. She’s so incredibly stubborn and tenacious, so I get why Damon tries to do the things he does. I just wish he’d go about it in a more diplomatic way, I guess? Haha, I know that’s asking a lot from him, but I don’t think he deserves to get off the hook just because he’s made a ton of progress in the arena of not being a total jerk. I think I’m approving of the direction he’s taken in general (being very trustworthy and helpful while Stefan was gone), while still picking on the little ways that he’s controlling and disrespectful because I basically want him to be the perfect guy for Elena. I can’t root for her relationship with someone who doesn’t respect her, so I really want him to so I can cheer them on. I think that may be my main problem.
      - crazylady said on February 14, 2012 at 10:05 am
        
        That’s a good way to look at it, actually. And you’re right, even though he’s getting better, he doesn’t get off the hook just because of that. He has to keep getting better.
        
        At the same time, who else will be the bad boy of Mystic Falls? Haha. I feel like they’re going to always keep him a bit domineering because that’s his shtick. Then again, remember how he was before all the Vampire stuff? Such a sweetheart.
        
        Courtney said on February 14, 2012 at 7:18 pm
        
        Yeah, he was such a sweet guy before, and I like him better that way. Stefan can be the bad snarky one. I find him so much more attractive as evilStefan, and I find Damon more compelling when he’s nice but still sarcastic. To some extent, I think Damon has less capability for evil than Stefan, and more capability for love, but he has put himself out there too much and gotten hurt, so he has ended up going on the offensive and hurting people before they can reject him.
        
        If I thought he was meant to be a bad guy, I wouldn’t mind if he were. I just think better of his character, and I’d like to see him get to the place where he’s the best he can be.

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