Source:
TV Guide [follow link for complete column]
TV GUIDE: Matt's TV Week in Review: Game-Changer Edition
May 11, 2012
by
Matt Roush
With season finales, cliffhangers and reality-competition showdowns abounding as the TV season nears its end, here are some of the turning points that caught my attention...
...
BITE THIS: "
It's Mystic Falls. Nothing bad ever happens here." Those were the days. That's a younger-and-much-less-wise
Elena talking to then-stranger
Damon — an encounter he would wipe from her memory, leaving her thinking
Stefan met her first — in a
Vampire Diaries flashback, part of a wild season finale that saw just about everything change. Most notably
Elena, the victim of yet another watery car accident, but this time she makes
Stefan save
Matt first, and her drowning means the end of
Alaric's reign of terror (his resurrection as a vampire/vampire slayer is tied to her doppelganger blood). But because she was fed vampire blood earlier by
Dr. Fell — to fix the cerebral hemorrhage from last week's accident —
Elena wakes from the dead. Welcome to the vampire ranks, dear, what took you so long? And though we saw
Alaric thrust the magic stake into
Klaus' paralyzed body, which bursts into flames,
Bonnie's latest spell somehow puts
Klaus into poor hybrid
Tyler's body, meaning
Klaus is still alive and all those from his bloodline continue to live. A relief, but how confusing!
But what of the romantic triangle?
Elena's heart-to-heart with
Matt (the mortal she strung along back in simpler times) is illuminating, describing
Stefan as "
the person that makes you glad that you've alive" and
Damon as the "
problem," because "
when I'm with him, it just consumes me." Believing the clock may be ticking on both brothers, when
Klaus is presumed dead,
Elena decides to return to
Stefan, who she never stopped loving even when she fell for
Damon. She tells the odd vamp-brother out "
I have to let you go," and
Damon's heard it all before. But what
Elena doesn't realize is that when
Damon met her first, he read her perfectly: "
You want a love that consumes you. You want passion and adventure and even a little danger." Now that
Elena's immortal like the rest of them, will that change how she feels?
Bonus points to
Matt Davis's moving final scene as Ghost
Alaric, appearing to poor
Jeremy (the last undead Gilbert for now) to assure the angsty teen "
I'll always he here to look after you. You'll never be alone" — even if his sister is now about to start playing for the other team...
