My Review of The Vampire Diaries 6.10- Christmas Through Your Eyes

Caroline finds out some shocking news, Matt obsesses, Liv shows her true colors, Kai continues to be a psychopath, and Elena makes a decision…

Poor Caroline.  Her mother has a glioblastoma that has potentially metastized to her spine.  In case you are wondering, that is really bad.  Glioblastomas are highly aggressive tumors that have a relatively low survival rate.  I am not sure about tumors, but when cancer metastizes, there is not a whole lot that can be done.  I think the only thing that might save her mom is to turn her into a vampire and I don’t really see that happening.

I have to say that as much as I want to hate Liv for helping Kai, I find it hard to fault her.  While I definitely think Jo did the right thing to protect Liv and Luke, I get why Liv decided to help Kai.  Was it the wrong thing to do?  Absolutely, but she was protecting herself and Luke from one of them dying.  The issue is that in doing so, she was potentially empowering Kai, who is insane and would not do any good with the power he might get.  Balancing the amount of harm he could do versus her potential loss would make an objective person choose to have her do the merge.  Basically, the whole situation was a no-win scenario.  Doesn’t make me like her, but it does make her choice understandable.

I was glad when Jeremy told Matt that he needed to stop what he was doing before he destroyed himself.  While Jeremy is all for protecting people, what Matt wanted was revenge and when it is a human versus a vampire, that revenge is rarely going to work out, as Matt found out.  Granted, he couldn’t have predicted that Kai would absorb the magic from the anti-magic spell the Travelers cast, so his plan was not that bad, but it was still dangerous.  As I said last week, he let Tripp and Enzo get into his head and now he is paying the piper.

Now that Kai has absorbed the magic from the anti-magic shield, he has got to be powerful.  I honestly don’t know if Jo stands a chance when they go to merge.  I actually don’t think she stood a chance before he absorbed the magic.  Since Kai can absorb magic, I don’t see how she could have beat him, which sucks because I like her.  Hopefully the gang will figure out something to do about Kai.

You had to feel for Bonnie.  She was stuck in Kai’s hell during Christmas.  It was nice to see that she was doing her best to keep traditions up.  It was also fun seeing the flashbacks to the early days of the show when Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline were basically carefree and didn’t have the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Elena (apparently) finally decides to be with Damon and she is kidnapped by Kai.  Talk about bad timing.  I wonder why he kidnapped her because it’s not like Damon has anything that Kai needs anymore.  Maybe he just wants to hurt Damon by taking her.

See you when we return in January!

My Review of The Originals 2.09- The Map of Moments

There’s revenge galore, a family reunited, passion consummated, wishes granted, and motivations revealed…

Well, Rebekah got the one thing that she’s wanted for a long time.  Only problem?  Her wish was granted as revenge by her brother Kol.  Rebekah has always wanted to live a normal human life.  Well, now she has the chance to do so except for the fact that she is trapped in a witch’s body in a house that cannot be escaped from.  Yeah, talk about being careful what you wish for.  That, my friends, is what you call a double edged sword.  She betrayed Kol’s plot to make a dagger that could hurt Klaus 100 years ago, so Kol betrayed her by trapping her in the house.  Lovely family here…

It was interesting to finally see how Kol views his place in the Mikaelson family.  Finn is a mama’s boy who hates everything that he and his siblings are; his father is out to kill them all; Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah are a singular unit; and his mother is a twisted witch.  Given all that, it is not hard to see why he came out all twisted.  He has been mostly cut out of his own family and Klaus has systematically done what he can to keep his siblings under his thumb.  Kol seems to have honestly loved being a witch and his mother took that way from him.  So he is on his own in the world.  To make it even worse, Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah have taken Marcel into their circle while excluding him.  Yeah, there is definitely some bitterness there.

Klaus’ revenge of Esther was absolutely delicious and completely fitting.  He used Davina to block Rebekah’s being moved into Cami and then forced his mother into a position that is beyond untenable.  Since he killed her after she had unwittingly ingested Rebekah’s blood, she is in transition.  So she either becomes that which she despises above all else or she dies.  And with no Other Side, she will be gone forever.  That revenge was absolutely perfect and a wonderful thing of absolute beauty.   While you may hate Klaus for what he does, he does revenge like no one’s business.

Unfortunately, Esther managed to team up with Mikael before she died and he freed Finn.  Finn revealed to Cami tonight that he sees his siblings as irredeemable, which makes him more dangerous than Esther.  Finn will not be content with merely moving his siblings into new bodies, he will want to destroy them, particularly after what they did to Esther.  Putting him together with Mikael is going to be dangerous.  Both of them are exceedingly unbalanced and powerful.  Fortunately, Klaus does have a protector in the form of Davina because he has sired her friends.  And I suspect that she can drag Kol along with her.  Between the two of them, I suspect that they can handle Finn.  Mikael may be a different story.  And if Dalia and/or Freya come back, hands will be full.

Hayley and Elijah have consummated their passion for each other right after he told her to marry Jackson in order to help her people and bring peace to New Orleans.  Can’t say I’m surprised at either development.  Things have been building to a head between those two for a while now and Elijah is noble enough to urge Hayley to do what is best for her people even if it hurts him.  As for that scene…YOWZA!

We’ll be back with new episodes on January 19th, so I’ll see you then!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.09- I Alone

Damon and Elena secure help (both witting and unwitting) to get Bonnie back, a truth is revealed, Matt and Jeremy leap to conclusions, and Tyler meets the devil...

Somehow I can't bring myself to be mad at Damon for compelling Alaric to help him.  He is obviously feeling guilty about Bonnie still being stuck in the hell dimension and he desperately wants to help everyone out by bringing her back.  Compelling Alaric was not the best option, but I do think it was the only viable option.  In spite of how much he has changed, Damon is ruled by expediency and will take all sorts of shortcuts in order to do the right thing.  And that is part of the reason I love him.  I don't always like or agree with him, but he does have a moral compass (of sorts) and he does follow it.  Granted, part of the reason he did what he did was to help Elena, but that is always part of the reason he does what he does now.  Her happiness and love are two of the most important things to him and he will do what he must to ensure that she is happy.

I'm not sure telling Jeremy what they were going to do was smart on Elena's part.  He has just gotten to the point where he is able to function without Bonnie and then Elena drags him right back into the pit.  What she should have done was gone through with the plan and then present Bonnie to Jeremy once she was back.  That way she wouldn't risk Jeremy slipping back into the funk he just got out of.  Also, he wouldn't have assumed that she left Bonnie behind to save Damon instead of finding out that Live pulled them out of the dimension because of Kai's return. 

At least Matt has something constructive for Jeremy to do: kill Enzo.  Despite his protestations, Enzo couldn't be more different from Stefan.  I always get annoyed when people look at the surface similarities between an hero and a villain and then assume that they are the same.  Enzo relishes killing and will do it without a second's hesitation.  Stefan, on the other hand, will only kill if needed or, like tonight, allow a death in the name of a greater good- in this case protecting the real Sarah Salvatore from Enzo.  Enzo is a master at coming up with rationalizations for why he does what he does, but the real reason is that he is a sociopathic vampire and needs to be put down.  He babbles on about looking for the truth, but he is really just looking for an excuse to kill people.  And the fact that Matt bought into Enzo and Tripp's lies is just sad.  He should know Stefan better than that.

You have to feel for Bonnie.  She was *THIS* close to returning home, but Kai ruined it again, this time by finding Liv and attacking her and then destroying the Ascendent.  The one thing I did not get is that he didn't seem to recognize Liv at first (basing this on his "Isn't this ironic?" line) but he figured it out somehow.  That was more than a little jarring and should have been explained better. And Tyler gets home and discovers Kai in his house.  That is not good...

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 2.08- The Brothers That Care Forgot

Klaus and Marcel try to persuade Finn and Kol to join them against Esther, Hayley and Jackson work on getting the wolves, Elijah leaves to protect Rebekah and Hope, Davina has her own plans, and Rebekah and Cami each discover an unpleasant truth…

Marcel and Kol *REALLY* do not like each other.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen Marcel seem to take such joy in torturing someone as he did when he was trying to “persuade” Kol to join him and Klaus.  Honestly, I don’t know if Marcel was the best person to turn loose on Kol, but he was the only real choice.  With Elijah and Hayley both gone elsewhere and Klaus taking care of Finn, there wasn’t another option.  Fortunately for Kol, he let slip his feelings about Klaus and Marcel which gave Klaus his opening to confess how he tried to get revenge for Kol’s death at Jeremy Gilbert’s hands but couldn’t and to reaffirm that they are brothers “always and forever.”  Kol was already inclined to betray Esther and that seemed to tip him decisively into Klaus’ camp.

Unfortunately, Finn was not nearly as tractable.  This personification of a mama’s boy wouldn’t turn against Esther and even told Klaus the truth about Freya and Dalia’s curse.  His reward for being a faithful lap dog for his mother?  He got himself locked into a coffin which Klaus assured him had air holes in it.  Is it wrong that I find that an almost amusing punishment?

Davina and Klaus are going to make for *VERY* uneasy allies.  She hates him and he isn’t too terribly fond of her.  Unfortunately, they need each other in order to take down Esther.  And with Kol, Marcel, and Cami as buffers between the two of them, I think the fireworks will remain at a minimum.  Davina’s magical powers are nothing to sneeze at, look at how easily she took down both Marcel and Klaus.  I am honestly not sure if she can take down Esther, but if she manages to work with Klaus, there is a definite chance.

Now that Hayley and Jackson have peeled the wolves away from Esther, that is one less group to stand in Klaus’ way.  I can’t believe that the wolves are still trying to insist that they rule the city.  Their bites don’t do anything to Klaus and he has shown that he can take them apart with astonishing speed and ferocity.  And by joining their two bloodlines, Hayley and Jackson will help empower the wolves without their needing to depend on witches.

Rebekah had an unpleasant surprise when she realized that Esther had found her and was watching her.  Or was it actually Dalia?  If Dalia is really that much more powerful than Esther and she has been promised the firstborn of every generation, it is entirely possible that she is looking for Rebekah and Hope.  Then there was Rebekah’s discovery that Elijah had slaughtered all of those people in the restaurant.  That was not pleasant.  We know Elijah is no saint, but that slaughter and his loss of control around Finn shows that he is clearly damaged from his time spent with Esther.

And poor Cami discovered that she has been prepared to serve as a vessel for Rebekah’s consciousness.  Yeah, that is exactly what I would want to learn from someone I might have had feeling for at one point.

There is no Originals next week, so I’ll see y’all in two weeks!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 6.08- Fade Into You

Damon reveals the truth about Bonnie, Elena makes a decision about her love life, Stefan talks with Caroline, and we have a new contender for most screwed up family ever…

Well, everyone now knows that Bonnie is still alive in Kai’s hell.  Astonishingly, no one seemed particularly upset that Damon didn’t mention that he was with Bonnie, but we haven’t seen Jeremy react yet, so that could change.  Everyone seemed to appreciate that Damon actually thought she was dead and that is why he didn’t reveal that she was there with him.  That is a sign of progress for everyone, so that is good.

Speaking of Bonnie, that poor girl had a rotten day.  Not only did she have to eat dinner with a psychopath, but she then got herself stabbed in the gut because he got his hands on his sister’s magic (more on that in a moment) and only needed her blood.  And then he took the car he promised her, leaving her stranded in Portland (presumably Oregon, but they never actually said).  Yeah, her life pretty much sucks at the moment.

Jo is (as I predicted last week) Kai’s sister.  What I didn’t expect was the revelation that they are twins and that Liv and Luke are their siblings.  Turns out the Gemini coven is led by a twin.  When the twins up for the leadership reach their 22nd birthday, they merge their powers and the stronger one survives with both of their powers while the weaker one dies.  Kai wanted to be the leader and he wasn’t eligible, so he went to kill Luke and Liv, but failed because Jo protected them.  She then put her magic into a knife and hid it.  That is the magic Kai got and the reason he went to Portland.  Oh, and when Jo’s dad found out that Damon wanted to bring Bonnie back, he decided to do a spell to kill Jo so that Kai couldn’t merge with her.  And Jo used Kai’s desire to merge with her to lure him into the woods so that their dad could send him to the hell.  Definitely contenders for the most screwed up family tree.

You had to feel for Elena.  She has a good thing going with Liam, but he is getting too inquisitive and doesn’t seem to be handling the whole supernatural thing very well, so Elena decided to compel him to forget all about her.  In his defense, she didn’t exactly give him time to adjust before compelling him.  Regardless, I do think it was the right move because, while nice, he just didn’t seem to fit in well.  Elena also made the decision that she wants to get Bonnie back and is starting to reconnect with Damon as a friend, particularly after seeing that he does truly miss Bonnie himself.

Stefan and Caroline also seem to be on a good path.  He acknowledged why he pushed her away and seemed to hold out hope that there might be something in their future.  Not everything Caroline was hoping for, but it is definitely better than nothing, so there is a faint light at the end of the tunnel for Steroline.

Not quite sure what to make of Tyler and Liv.  She is making him almost tolerable to me, which is a miracle given how much I dislike him.  He definitely cares about her and will help her if he can, so maybe he is redeemable.

I’ll see y’all in two weeks.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

My Review of The Originals 2.07- Chasing the Devil's Tail

Klaus sets out to free Elijah from Esther’s spell, Cami proves her worth, Hayley takes a page out of Esther’s book, and Davina and Kol have some serious chemistry…

I have to admit that I was very surprised when Kol mentioned that he was a witch before being turned.  It does make sense given that magic runs in families, but you would have thought it would have been mentioned before now.  That would explain why he seems to get so much sheer joy out of magic.  Well, that and the fact that he is a sadist.  All that being said, I am impressed that he seems to be as close to Davina as he is.  I never really saw him being that close to anyone.  You know that he is using Davina, but there is definitely something else there.  I do have to agree with him, her resistance to his charms is somewhat baffling (particularly with the open shirt on display!).

So it was Kol who go the witches to create the dark objects that Cami got from Kieran.  That would explain the almost sadistic edge that some of them have (remember the star of 1,000 cuts from last season?).  It also gave him the opportunity to use magic again without having magic of his own.  Davina does need to be careful with him because he seems to be playing a very deep game.  It may not rebound on her, but you never know.

These past few weeks have not been good for Esther.  In the past few weeks, she has discovered that Mikael is back, Klaus refused her “offer”, and Kol lied to her about Mikael.  Then this week Finn and Kol are kidnapped, Ansel is killed by Klaus, and Elijah is brought out of his coma by Klaus.  Yeah, things are not looking great for her at the moment.  I have to admit to a certain perverse pleasure that Hayley is using the playbook of taking what means the most to your enemy on Esther.  She richly deserves it.

I ws very impressed with Cami and her willingness to play bait for Finn.  I think the best line of the night was hers.  You know the one, "I always thought having a woman's mouth on my neck would be more erotic."  When she clapped those magical handcuffs on Finn and let him know that she knew who he was, he looked almost completely shattered.  He honestly thought he had her and she disabused him of that particular notion in a spectacular fashion.  I just wonder how Klaus will feel about Cami putting herself in danger that way.

I am not sure who to feel sorrier for, Klaus or Ansel.  Klaus could have reconnected with his biological father, but his parental and trust issues run too deep.  Well, those and the fact that Ansel figured out that Hope is still alive.  Say what you will about Klaus, but if he counts you as a part of his family, he will protect you.  Right now that family includes Elijah, Hope, Hayley, and Cami.  I suspect that he’ll extend his protection to others who are particularly important to his family, but that will happen slowly.  Ansel is brought back for another life and loses it at the hands of his own son.  That has to seriously suck.

Josh and Aiden continue to flirt and be seriously cute together.  Please don’t kill either of them because they are the one semi-normal (if star-crossed) couple on this show…

Until next week!

My Review of The Vampire Diaries 6.07- Do You Remember the First Time

Damon tries to help Elena remember what they had, Enzo clues Stefan into Caroline’s feelings, Jo and Alaric have a good date, Kai and Bonnie have a confrontation, and Matt is shaken…

Wow, life really does suck for Damon right now.  The love of his life cannot remember what they had and is dating someone else.  In the good news category, she is trying to remember what they had and is even willing to risk death in order to force the memories to come to the surface.  I think the most frustrating thing for him is that he would not have erased the memories if their situations had been reversed.  Honestly, I do believe him.  That being said, I do think he would have turned off his emotions or done something else to dull the pain, so I don’t think he was being totally honest.  Leaving Elena at the end of the episode must have been one of the hardest things he has ever done, particularly since she was starting to have vague memories of their time together.  In the other good news category, he does know that Bonnie is alive and he is in possession of her bear which contains her magic.  I am curious as to how that is going to change things.

I feel almost as bad for Elena.  She likes Liam a lot, but she has the huge hole in her memories of something that she knows should be there but isn’t.  That has to be immensely frustrating for her.  I shouldn’t be surprised that she went over the border in an attempt to break Alaric’s compulsion, but I was.  She can be so focused on what she wants that she will harm herself in order to accomplish it.  Then you have her advice from Caroline, which is nowhere near unbiased.  Caroline (for good reason) has never approved of Damon and Elena together, so I am not expecting much from her right now.

Speaking of Caroline, I would have felt bad about the embarrassment she underwent at the hands of Enzo if it hadn’t been for the fact that the embarrassment was an honest attempt to help her.  A little mean spirited, but still an attempt to help.  Stefan has been so clueless about Caroline’s feelings that someone needed to give him that good solid smack upside the head with a 2x4 to get him to see what has been the elephant in the room.  I do think she was being a little unfair to Stefan when she said that if he felt the way she did he would never have left.  He did think he had lost his brother and his hometown, so he wanted to get away.  I don’t think he feels quite the same way about her that she feels about him, but I suspect that he has also never really thought about it because (until recently) he has been in the middle of Salvatore-Elena drama and hasn’t thought about *ANYONE* that way.  They do say that hate and love are two sides of the same coin, so the fact that she hates him is not necessarily a bad thing…

Bonnie was really smart.  Since Kai can drain magic to use on his own, she put her magic into her bear and sent it back to the real world.  Presumably, that should trap her and Kai in the hell they are in, but I am betting that Jo is somehow going to be instrumental in bringing Bonnie back.  I just hope that she can do it without bringing Kai back or somehow prepares herself to bring him back because, unless I am very mistaken, he is the brother who tried to kill her.  That is going to be incredibly awkward.

Then there is Liam.  Meeting a supposedly dead ex is very awkward.  And then said ex compels him and leaves with Elena.  Yeah, that is definitely going to be awkward.  Compound that with his knowledge that the girl Elena helped has undergone some seriously radical healing and that Elena knows something and the awkwardness gets ratcheted up another level.

Matt has been caught is a really bad situation.  He wants Mystic Falls to stay safe, but at the same time he wants his friends to be safe too.  Tripp, unfortunately, is not helping with the second and that is why Matt turned on him.  But when Enzo turned Tripp into a vampire so he would die when he stepped over the border, Matt was definitely upset and shocked.  I hope this doesn't portend some kind of revenge story for Matt, because that would end badly.  Also, when the heck did Enzo have time to turn Tripp?  The process normally takes a while, and wouldn't Tripp notice that his throat had been cut?  The other thing that gets me is that most new vampires feel different, so why didn't Tripp?  Sorry, but as much as I enjoyed Tripp getting his comeuppance, it felt like *REALLY* lazy and shoddy writing.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 2.06- Wheel Inside the Wheel

We see someone who scares Esther, Cami discovers the truth about Finn, Esther learns the truth about Mikael and Kol, Klaus meets his father, and Hayley sets out on a mission...

Wow, this was so not Esther’s week.  She may have her hands on Elijah, but Klaus (as always) is infinitely slipperier.  He also lays some truth on her that obviously has her rattled.  When he told her that Mikael was back and that Kol knew, she was shaken and he managed to twist the knife just a little bit more for good measure.

Seeing the past about her and her sister was definitely interesting.  Turns out Esther was having trouble conceiving and had given up magic, so she went to her sister Dalia to get a fertility spell.  As everyone knows, magic comes with a price.  The price for fertility?  Esther’s firstborn and the firstborn of every future generation of Mikaelsons.  Which, up to now, has not been an issue what with them being vampires and all.  But now that Hope has been born, she belongs to Dalia.  If Dalia does not get her price, she will come after all of the Mikaelsons and that has Esther worried.  If someone can worry Esther, that is someone who is so not to be trifled with.  Oh, and Freya (the first born of Esther and Mikael) did not die of the plague.  Rather, she was taken away by Dalia.  I so hope we don’t have another Mikaelson sibling on our hands because this is bad enough as it is.  Throw in another sibling and things will be even worse.

So Klaus’ true father is back from the Other Side, dragged back by Esther before it collapsed last year.  And he is one badass mofo.  He is also apparently a king among werewolves because he has no qualms ordering Hayley around and is super protective of his wolves, although he will kill them if he needs to.  Klaus, naturally, is not thrilled with the prospect of another parent coming back.  If Ansel ever runs into Mikael…I shudder.  Those two would have to hate each other with a passion that would be of a similar magnitude of Klaus and Mikael, particularly since Mikael killed Ansel and then hung him on a stake.  I don’t know if Ansel would stand much of a chance against Mikael, but he would probably make a good showing of himself.

So Cami now knows that her advisor is Finn and she is not happy about it.  But she also has a weapon she can use against Finn: herself.  Bat her eyelashes a few times and give him some winsome looks and he will be in her power.  Wonder what Esther is going to make of that development.  Cami does need to be careful about inserting herself in the middle of this Mikaelson war because she is the most likely to end up as collateral damage.  Everyone else has a supernatural advantage of some sort, which she definitively does not.  But she does have 2 protectors in the forms of Klaus and Marcel, so she might stand a chance.  And Davina seems fond of her, so she may not be so bad off after all.

Hayley is definitely stepping up to the plate.  She rescued Oliver this week and tried to get Jackson to help her (which is where she found Ansel).  While she couldn’t get Jackson to help, rescuing Oliver seems to have an impact on him, so hopefully he’ll step up now.

Oh and Esther, slitting your son’s throat is *NOT* good parenting.  Just FYI.

Until next week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.06- The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get

Damon returns to some serious surprises, Jeremy deals with losing Bonnie, the gang sets out on a rescue mission, Jo has a big surprise in store for Elena and Alaric, and Alaric experiences a life-changing moment…

Poor Damon.  He has been struggling to get back for so long now and when he finally does, he discovers that his best friend (Alaric) has compelled his girlfriend (Elena) to forget all about him and everyone (including his brother Stefan) had given him up for dead and stopped looking for him.  To top it all off, he feels compelled to lie to everyone about what happened to Bonnie in order to spare them the pain, so he has to deal with it on his own.  Welcome back Damon, you moved right from one hell to another.  To make for a wonderful topper to all that, when Elena finally decides to see him (after fleeing out a window at one point), he is attacked by a group of vampire hunters and nearly killed after being taken into Mystic Falls.  Yeah, wonderful welcome back.

After Damon, I think Jeremy had the roughest week.  Fortunately, I suspect that this was rock bottom for him.  If he can finally accept that Bonnie is gone, maybe he can move on.  My heart absolutely broke when he broke down at the pool table.  That poor guy has been through so much and he really deserves a break of some sort.  The only thing is that when (not if, but when) Bonnie returns, he is going to be seriously pissed at Damon.  To be honest, I think Damon is doing the right thing.  Since there is presumably no way out of that hell now, he is giving everyone the best chance they have to move on from losing Bonnie.

Alaric’s week wasn’t great either.  At least he is still alive and no longer a vampire.  The downside to this is that he can’t do anything to unlock Elena’s memories of Damon.  She knows that the memories are real, but I am curious if she can (or will) do anything to restore them.  Since they were within the town limits and anti-magic border when Alaric almost died, I am assuming that Jo didn’t do anything magical to save Alaric’s life.  If she did, then she is one freaking powerful witch or she knows some way around the gypsies’ anti-magic spell.

I can’t really blame Caroline for not wanting to be friends with Stefan.  He seriously needs to wake up and smell the coffee.  She is so hurt because she loves him and things ain’t gonna be right until he realizes that and figures out what he wants to do.  At least Caroline and Elena have each other right now.  They are going to need each other to get through the final “loss” of Bonnie.

Hopefully Matt’s warning to Sarah will be heeded.  While I get that she wants to know about where she came from, if she ever figures out that Damon was the one who killed both of her parents, it is not going to be good.  Then again, she may be able to help Jeremy move on, so maybe she should stick around for that.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 2.05- Red Door

Esther plays mind games with Elijah, Mikael and Klaus continue their feud and others get involved, and Davina realizes who she has been hanging out with…

So, according to Esther, Elijah killed Tatia and it was only then that Esther used her blood to seal the curse that locked away Klaus’ wolf side.  Forgive me if I am more than a little skeptical about this new development.  Is it possible that it is true?  Sure it is, but given Esther’s powers and her oft-stated desire to convince her children that they are abominations and monsters, I wouldn’t put it beyond her to make that up in order to try and break Elijah down.  So until there is verification from a more trustworthy source, I am going to take this new development with a healthy helping of salt.

I must say that I found it interesting how quickly Davina accepted Kaleb as Kol and worked with him.  Granted, he did save her life, but given her dislike for all things Mikaelson, it was rather sudden.  Then again, Kol does have as much reason to hate his parents as Davina hates Klaus, so maybe it is not all that surprising.  Then there is the old trope about how the enemies of my enemies are my friends, so she may simply be being practical.  Or it could be good old fashioned hormones.  After all, Kol has always been devastatingly cute, no matter what body he happens to be inhabiting at the time.  Maybe it is a combination of these different factors or none of them, so we’ll have to wait and see what she does.

I was impressed with how Cami handled herself with Mikael.  He is a pretty scary dude, but she still managed to throw in a few good zingers and some psychoanalysis.  Granted, none of that really had much of an impact on Mikael, but it was still impressive.  What the kidnapping did manage to do was convince Cami that Mikael is beyond redemption and force the whole group to gang together to fight Mikael.  While Hayley and Marcel siding with Klaus was unsurprising and Kol siding with him only mildly surprising, Davina saving him was very surprising.  I get that it was the only way to save Marcel and Josh, but it was still surprising.

And Davina continues to show us why she is someone to be feared.  She has figured out how to delink Klaus from his line and would have accomplished her goal had Kol not interfered.  She also managed to keep the white oak stake from killing Klaus while simultaneously holding off Mikael for a good period of time.  She is smart, powerful, and determined, so it is best to be on her good side.  While I wouldn’t place high hopes on her lasting long in a contest with Esther alone, she would probably last long enough to allow others to try something to take Esther down if they worked together.

That cooperation is going to be vital to taking down both Mikael and Esther.  No one in the group is strong enough to take on either individually, but if they work collectively (like they did tonight), they have a better than even chance of taking them down.  Finn is a bit of a wild card, but I bet that he could be taken out of the situation early if they tried.  The wild cards at this point are going to be Elijah and Kol.  Kol seems to have thrown his lot in with Davina, but who knows what will happen with Elijah now that Esther is messing with his mind.

Until next week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.05- The World Has Turned and Left Me Here

Damon and Bonnie confront Kai, Alaric and Jo have a date, Stefan and Caroline have words, Tyler and Liv have a moment, and Elena gives Liam another chance…

Stefan has officially turned into the species known as douchebagus majorus.  Yes, that is what you call someone who keeps on dumping all of their problems onto other people and not dealing with the problems themselves.  Normally I’d be inclined to side with Stefan over Caroline, but in this case she was right.  He just doesn’t want to deal with anyone who reminds him of Damon, so he is cutting and running at the first possible moment.  I do get that he is in pain, but dumping your crap all over other people is just a bad idea, particularly when the person you keep dumping the problems on has feeling for you and you are taking advantage of them.

Stefan did have a point when he said that what happened to Ivy was partially Caroline’s fault.  If Caroline and Enzo hadn’t come looking for him, Enzo wouldn’t have killed Ivy.  That being said, if Stefan hadn’t run off and lied in the first place, Caroline wouldn’t have gone looking for him, so ultimately this was Stefan’s fault.  He just has to suck it up and deal.  Fortunately, Damon is now back and Stefan may be able to recover from his recent attacks of douchiness.

Of course, Damon being back does present a problem.  Elena has definitely started to move on thanks to the fact that she is refusing to allow Alaric to restore her memories.  I am seriously worried that when Damon finds out about what Elena has done, he will revert to his former ways and cause major issues.  I really hope he won’t, but given the fact that he does not react well to rejection, I fear the worst.

The one thing that may distract Damon from any revengey type thoughts is that he owes it to Bonnie to do his best to bring her back from Kai’s hell.  That is assuming, of course, that she is still alive.  She did take an arrow to the gut and Kai is pretty pissed, so it is possible that she is dead.  Honestly, I doubt it, but it is possible.  And did I detect a rather massive thaw in the relationship between Damon and Bonnie?  Methinks I did.

Alaric could potentially be in big trouble.  After the disaster that was a first date, he tried to compel Jo into leaving him, but it didn’t work.  So, is she on vervain or is she simply immune to compulsion for some reason?  I seem to remember Caroline’s dad also being immune to compulsion, so it could be someone taught them to discipline their minds or something else entirely.  If she is on vervain and knows about vampires, I am betting she is going to put the attempted compulsion together with Alaric’s reaction to blood and figure out what he is.

Is it weird that I thought that Liv smothering that guy was almost romantic?  Feels kind of twisted, but it was understandable.  Tyler was stressing out over the curse being activated again and she took the necessary steps to stop the possibility.  He’s right, he does owe her big time.  I just hope he doesn’t come to regret owing her.

And Tripp now has Ivy, which is so not a good thing.  She will probably break fairly easily and lead Tripp to Stefan and Caroline, which would be very bad.  Someone needs to deal with Tripp at some point.  I am also intensely curious as to who killed his wife.  I hope they don’t go predictable and make it Damon.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 2.04- Live and Let Die

Klaus goes to confront Mikael and drags Cami along, the wolves start to rebel against Esther, Elijah continues to mentor Gia and is involved in a massacre, and Kol finds Davina.

So much happened that I am not exactly sure where to start.  So let’s start with Klaus and Cami.  Searching for Davina, Klaus overhears her calling Cami and gives Cami the choice of talking Davina down or an unspecified something worse.  It was nice to see that Cami is still able to get through to Klaus.  She is the one human that he is comfortable around.  I think I might even go far as to say that she is the person he is the most comfortable around because she challenges him and doesn’t accept what he says at face value.  She knows who and what he is, but still tries to help him, which is totally cool.

Facing Mikael had to have been good for Klaus.  Despite everything, he still seems to need to prove himself to Mikael.  I suspect that Klaus let Mikael put the stake into his shoulder in order to be able to stab him with the knife.  Maybe I’m wrong, but it happened so fast that I can’t help but suspect it was purposefully.  Unfortunately for Klaus, he didn’t count on Mikael being able to suppress the pain of the knife long enough to actually remove it, which is so not a good thing particularly since Kol freed him from Davina’s bracelet.

Watching Elijah train Gia was interesting because he seemed to take bits and pieces of Mikael’s training without the almost sadistic edge that Mikael used to train Davina.  Like I said last week, Elijah is a good teacher and relating fighting to music was good for Gia because it gave her a frame of reference to use.  I have to admit that I laughed when he entered Marcel’s after the wolves left and snapped the vampire’s neck.  It was almost expected and definitely amusing.

Esther and Finn finally pushed the wolves too far.  Forcing the kids to kill in order to activate their curse was heartless by even the standards of their depraved standards.  The contemptuous disregard for the lives of the werewolves seems to have finally opened up the wolves’ eyes to how far they’ve fallen.  The worst part is that all of this is done to hurt Klaus and capture Elijah.  Sending the wolves to confront Elijah when they didn’t have a chance was almost as bad.  Wolves cannot stop Elijah or Klaus if their ire is raised.  The only beings able to stand against them are powerful witches or Mikael.

Hayley does need to realize that as long as the wolves are in Esther’s pocket, they are the enemy.  I get that they are her people, but since Esther is controlling them, they may need to be killed if necessary.  Taking down Esther is not going to be easy and there are going to be wolves killed unless more of them revolt like they did tonight.

Watching Josh make a love connection with Aiden was interesting.  Is this going to be a Romeo and Juliet style storyline?  Or maybe the two of them will somehow work to help bond different factions together against Esther and Mikael.  If Josh can bring along Davina and the vampires and Aiden brings along the wolves, they might just be able to defeat Esther.  Mikael is a completely different story.  Taking him down would require Klaus and Elijah working in tandem, possibly with a witch.  And if Davina can turn Kol against Esther, that would be even better.  Watching a witchy fight between Esther and Finn v. Davina and Kol would be interesting.

Until next week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.04- Black Hole Sun

Jeremy gets a much needed reality check, Elena learns how to start over and more, Stefan has a big mouth, Damon and Bonnie learn about Kai, Matt and Stefan both find themselves in WTF moments, and a parental bombshell of epic proportions is dropped…

Let’s start with that bombshell.  Dear readers, Sarah (aka the girl Elena drank from and Caroline compelled) is a Salvatore.  Her father is Zach Salvatore and her mother was Zach’s girlfriend who was killed by Damon.  Yeah, her many times great uncle killed both her mother and father.  Does that mean that the Salvatore mansion is now hers?  I assume not given the fact that I believe it was given to Matt (if my memory serves), but I could be wrong.

Speaking of Zach, turns out that Damon returned to Mystic Falls in 1994 in order to get back in Stefan’s good graces.  After Stefan rejected him because Damon fed off of Zach’s girlfriend, Damon killed her.  Somehow Sarah survived 3 months premature and spent time in the NICU.  Yeah, this is seriously messed up.  But that is why Damon and Bonnie are in 1994 Mystic Falls.  Not entirely sure how killing Sarah’s mom qualifies as Damon’s worst thing ever though.

But that point is moot because it turns out that Damon and Bonnie are not in Damon’s personal hell.  They are in Kai’s.  He was a member of a coven who cannot cast magic, but instead can suck it out of any witch he touches and then use it himself.  He killed his family and then the Gemini coven exiled him to this dimension as punishment.  So if Damon and Bonnie want to come back, they have to bring Kai with them because only he knows how to get back.

I cannot express how incredibly happy I was that Alaric finally decided to give Jeremy a badly needed 2x4 upside the head.  Jeremy is right, he has lost a lot but, as Alaric pointed out, Alaric has lost just as much, if not more.  It was good that Jeremy vented his frustration and rage on Alaric and just got it out there, because if he had kept on drinking, it would have ended badly.

I loved the scene with Elena and Stefan in the restaurant.  I had heard about the proposal and was seriously curious about it.  The whole invented dialogue was absolutely hilarious and appropriately over the top.  It’s too bad that Stefan has a big mouth and told Elena about what she had Alaric do.  To her credit, she didn’t get mad at anyone but instead went to Alaric to get answers.  That was a very good thing for her to do.  I don’t know if she’ll get her memories back, but if she doesn’t drama is guaranteed.

Poor Matt.  He pretends to know nothing about vampires, only to have Tripp take him to a location where Tripp is holding Enzo prisoner.  That is so not a good thing.  I so hope that Enzo reins in his mouth and doesn’t give away that he knows Matt.  I am really worried about who killed Tripp’s wife.  Given the fact that no one knew he was a Fell, I assume that he has been gone for a while, so presumably it isn’t any of our gang.  Damon is a definite possibility though.  As if he needs more trouble on his plate.

And Stefan’s dead girlfriend?  Not so dead after all.  Enzo fed her his blood before he killed her and she is back and hungry.  Oh boy…

My Review of The Originals 2.03- Every Mother's Son

We get a bit more Mikaelson history, the dinner party from hell, some seriously twisted “love”, and an effort to ensure the past doesn’t repeat itself…

Wow, Esther is seriously twisted.  The part that really weirds me out is that I think she honestly believes herself when she says that she is doing what she is doing out of love.  She is worse than Mikael is.  At least he is honest about being a monster.  Esther, on the other hand, has deluded herself into thinking that what she is doing is about loving her children and “releasing” them from the curse of immortality she laid upon them.  She is so convinced that she is doing the right thing that she is willing to destroy everything Klaus and Elijah hold dear to force them to submit to her wishes.

Finn is almost as bad.  He has drunk deeply of the Esther kool-aid and is shocked when he thinks she might be letting up on Klaus and Elijah.  And he claims that Elijah kept him daggered because he was jealous of the fact that Finn is older?  Talk about delusions of adequacy!  Those two are seriously scary if only because they will never let up because they are convinced they are right and if you don’t agree with them, you must be forced to submit.  Kol, Klaus, and Mikael may be sadistic and monstrous, but (like I said) they own up to what they do.  This family needs serious therapy.

Klaus and Elijah had a good idea when they decided to keep track of who Esther hops to.  What would be even better would be if they could somehow bind her to one person.  Problem is I don’t know if any of the New Orleans witches have the power needed to bind Esther.  Davina probably has the power, but there is as much chance of her helping out Klaus and Elijah as a snowball has of surviving in the fires of perdition.

At least we know that Esther was a good mother once upon a time.  Well, sort of.  When I saw the necklace, I assumed it was a charm to keep the werewolf side of Klaus suppressed, which it was (sort of).  The fact that it weakened him so that he wouldn’t kill anyone thereby activating the werewolf curse was ultimately at the root of his problems with Mikael.  Well that and the fact that Klaus is the product of an illicit affair between Esther and a werewolf.  This is almost enough to make you feel sorry for Klaus.

Watching Elijah be a mentor to Gia should prove interesting.  He is patient enough to be a good teacher if he can manage to survive the onslaught that his parents will bring.  Elijah sees a chance to help Gia and save her from a fate similar that which befell his family and Marcel.  He and Klaus need to figure out a way to stand firm against their parents, which is not going to be easy.  Throw in Davina and this is not going to be pretty.

Ultimately, I hope Davina and Kol do the right thing and side with Klaus and Elijah against Mikael and Esther.  While both Klaus and Elijah may be ruthless, they are both infinitely better than either of their parents.  And since Kol is no longer a vampire, there may be a chance that he can be somewhat tamed.  Slim, granted, but hope springs eternal.

Then there is Hayley.  Unfortunately Esther got into her head and that is not a good thing.  It seems that Hayley is shaking it off, but I am worried about her now.  She is tempted, with good reason, but Klaus and Elijah do need her.

Until next week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.03- Welcome to Paradise

Post-Damon wiped Elena worries about everyone else, Caroline makes a confession, Enzo continues to be a dick, Stefan makes a surprising move, Matt and Tyler make a disturbing discovery, and Damon and Bonnie meet someone new….

Was anyone else slightly disturbed by Elena tonight?  I totally get why she is acting the way she is, but it is still odd to see her so happy all the time.  It is also really sad that it took a mindwipe to make her that happy.  At least she was able to notice that Caroline was not happy and tried to take steps to take Jeremy in hand.  Unfortunately for her, Sarah remembers everything that Elena did because the compulsion Caroline laid on her ended when she crossed the Travelers’ border spell.  This is not good.

That being said, I cannot blame her for running away.  Well, mostly.  To be honest, if I were hooking up with Jeremy, I don’t know if I could tear myself away.  Shameless?  Yes, but damn, is he good looking without a shirt or what?  (Ok, back to the episode now.)

I really hope Jeremy doesn’t just blow Elena’s words off.  I totally get why he is acting the way he is (look at what I said in the premiere about his history with girls), but he needs to buck up and help his sister out.  I hope that he, Matt, and Tyler can work together to figure out what is going on in Mystic Falls and maybe even find a way to bring down the barrier.

Which leads me to Caroline.  That poor girl is having some serious issues right now.  Her remaining best friend has been mindwiped (at her own insistence), her other best friend is (supposedly) dead, she can’t go back home, and the guy she likes is completely ignoring her and seemingly oblivious to her feelings.  At least Elena can concentrate on helping her out.  And unless I am very much mistaken, Elena has cleared the way for Caroline to pursue Stefan if she wants to.  Which is a good thing, because the guy Elena tried to hook her up with is more interested in Elena than her.

Half the time I want to kill Enzo and the other half I want to thank him.  I am glad he saved Stefan, but he is also almost as big of a dick as season 1 Damon was.  He has serious impulse control issues and seems to revel in the damage he can cause.  Caroline tried to warn him to keep a low profile, but Enzo really doesn’t care.  And Stefan certainly got a measure of revenge by shooting him with the stakes and leaving him for Tripp.

I must admit that Stefan is almost as big of a dick as Enzo is right now.  Granted, the revenge thing is totally understandable (or, laudable), but the way he is treating Caroline is just stupid.  He is so wrapped up in his need to get away that he is oblivious to the fact that she has serious feelings for him and has for some time.  Hopefully someone will slap him across the face with reality soon.

Tripp is training others to be vampire hunters?  Oh boy….  Well, at least Matt knows now, so he can keep an eye on things.  And Tyler needs to be careful with Liv.  That is a pairing I really don’t care for, but then again I can’t stand either character….

Bonnie has her magic back, which is good.  The bad news is that she and Damon have made a new acquaintance who claimed that he forced her to get her powers back to get out from whatever hell they are in.  Raise your hand if you actually trust this guy.  No hands?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Bad, bad, bad news…

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 2.02- Alive and Kicking

Klaus and Elijah find out some disturbing information, Hayley takes charge, Esther continues to plot, Kol begins to waver, and we find out more about Elijah and Marcel’s relationship…

You have to feel for Elijah.  He is a fundamentally decent individual, but he keeps doing things that he would rather not do because he thinks that they will be in the best interest of his family.  This week showed him walking away from two individuals he cares deeply for because he thinks that these individuals may be able to help Klaus.  When Marcel was still young, we saw that he was very close to Elijah, but Elijah walked away because he wanted to keep Marcel close to Klaus, hoping to help Klaus keep some semblance of balance.  In the present, he walks away from Hayley for the same reason and because he thinks that Hayley needs Klaus.  Is he right?  Who knows.  Hopefully he’s right, but his unending quest to help Klaus become a better person seems to be futile given Klaus’ temperament.

Klaus has got to be terrified.  Not only is Esther back in the body of a young Harvest witch, but Mikael is also back and he has the white oak stake.  Those two are the two people he fears the most in the world and they are both back and out for his blood.  Davina has a tenuous hold on Mikael thanks to her bracelet, but as we saw tonight, if she loses it, Mikael is dangerous to her.  As much as she might hate it, she would do well to work with Elijah.  Klaus?  Not so much, but Elijah can be trusted as far as any Original can be trusted.

Esther has cause to worry too, but I don’t think she realizes it yet.  Kol is so ready to slip away from her.  The only thing keeping him close to her is the fact that she seems to control his existence in Kaleb’s body.  Other than Klaus, Kol is the most dangerous and unpredictable of the Original siblings.  He enjoys killing and is very uninhibited in his use of violence.  He also bears no love for Esther and would betray her in a heartbeat if he could do it and not suffer the consequences.  I suspect that he may try and use Davina to help him get away from Esther’s control.  The only problem is that he would probably have to tell her who he is and I don’t see her helping him under those circumstances.

You have to admire how Klaus played “good Hybrid, bad Hybrid” to get Hayley in with the pack.  He purposefully made himself into a menace that only she can hold back.  It was incredibly obvious, but effective.  She may not have full control of the pack, but she is in charge of a part of it and that is important.  Now she just has to figure out how to peel the rest of the pack away from Esther.  I suspect that will be easier said than done.  Anyone want to bet that Esther has done something to the moonlight rings that would harm any wolves who leave her?

What is there to say about Finn other than the fact that he is still the same Esther-whipped, will-less, self-hating flunky that he has been since we first met him?  Will he ever change?  Doubt it, but hope springs eternal.

Until next week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.02- Yellow Ledbetter

We explore Elena’s feelings for Damon, get to see where Damon and Bonnie are, Caroline and Enzo team up, Enzo and Stefan have a disagreement, Jeremy continues to spiral, and we learn some interesting information about Tripp….

It’s official, Elena’s feelings for Damon have officially been excised thanks to Alaric and Caroline.  After some serious exploration of her feelings for Damon, Elena hits a wall and can’t find the key memory that is at the root of her feelings for Damon.  Unsurprisingly, she was ready to give up and go back to Luke to get more drugs in order to get her feelings under control.  Fortunately, Alaric was persistent and decided to ask Caroline for some help.  Caroline told Alaric that Elena actually fell for Damon while she was still with Stefan and that the wall is her refusal to admit it.  After a very sweet talk about how lucky she was to be in love with two people in her short existence, Elena figures out that she fell for Damon when he gave returned the necklace Stefan gave her even knowing how important it was to her and Stefan as a couple.  After that?  Damon went from “He was my boyfriend, I loved him and he died.” to “He was Stefan’s brother.  He was a monster.  And he died.”  That sound?  That would be Delena fans screaming about that line…

Did Elena do the right thing?  Despite everything, I would say yes.  She was having trouble holding everything together and we all remember what happens when Elena the vampire starts to fall apart.  She turns off her emotions and turns into another Katherine.  This is going to be more than awkward when (yes, when not if) Damon returns unless Alaric can somehow reverse what he did.  I just wonder who Damon will be more pissed at: Elena for asking for the memories to be removed or Alaric for actually doing it.  And how will Enzo react to what Elena did given how he reacted (snapping Stefan’s lady friend’s neck) when Stefan moved on?

I am torn between annoyance at Caroline for making what Stefan did about her and feeling sorry that she was the only one who seemed to hold it together and then to find out that Stefan lied about what he was doing for months.  I get why she was upset that Stefan didn’t return her calls, but remember that he was on his way out of Mystic Falls anyway in order to give Delena room and he lost his brother.  While his way of moving on was harsh, it was also completely understandable.  Should he have lied?  Probably not, but if he hadn’t, people would definitely have come looking for him, so I can’t blame him for lying and wanting to put distance between himself and Mystic Falls.

Watching Damon and Bonnie be forced to be together and arguing over just whose hell they were in was amusing.  Turns out that they got put into some sort of weird time pocket where they are reliving the same day in 1994 (April 10th, I believe) over and over again.  Bonnie theorized that this was supposed to be just for her, but when she and Damon held hands, he was dragged along for the ride.  Apparently someone else was dragged along as well because Bonnie heard a sound and there was a crossword puzzle that she couldn’t finish that was inexplicably solved on its own.

Jeremy continues to drink to dull the pain of losing Bonnie.  He is also calling her phone (which he is paying for how?) and leaving angry voicemails.  He is also sleeping with Sarah, the girl Elena fed off of last week.  Turns out that her dad lives in Mystic Falls and she has decided to look for him.  Anyone want to bet that her dad is (was) Bonnie’s dad?

Tripp (the head of the civilian protection force) is a Fell and full well knows about vampires.  How do I know this?  Well, he said he was a Fell and the truck full of vampires he brought into the town and then burned to a crisp was a great indicator.  Given the history of the Fells on this show, this cannot be good.

Until next week!

My Review of The Originals 2.01- Rebirth

We reminded why the Originals are not to be trifled with when Klaus and Elijah execute a plan of revenge, we find out just who exactly Esther brought back with her, and why Marcel continues to fight for New Orleans….

When Esther came back at the end of last season, I suspected that it was Finn who came back with her, so I was not at all surprised when it was revealed that he was with her.  To be honest, he is my absolute least favorite Original, mainly because he is the least developed and also because he is such a slave to Esther’s will and plans.  But I nearly fell off of my bed (yes, I watch TV on my bed) when Kaleb was revealed to be Kol.  I was also seriously excited because aside from Elijah, Kol is my favorite Original.  It was also really nice that Daniel got to use his native English accent and not try to sound American like he did when he was Isaac on Teen Wolf.  Since Kol is (after Klaus) also one of the more unpredictable of the Originals, I am really curious as to why he has teamed up with Esther.

Now that the entire family (aside from Rebekah) is in New Orleans, there is going to be a particularly ugly war that is going to take place.  Davina has Mikael under her thumb, Esther has Finn (as a human) and Kol (as a witch), and Klaus and Elijah have Hayley.  This family feud is not going to end well for anyone particularly since neither Klaus nor Elijah seem to have an inkling that the rest of their family is back and in a bad mood.

At least Klaus and Elijah no longer have to worry about the werewolves.  Between Elijah, Hayley, and Marcel, the werewolves leaders have been taken out and the moonlight rings have been destroyed, restoring Klaus to his full power.  No matter how often it happens, I am still shocked at the sheer ruthlessness that Elijah is capable of.  He is normally so cultured that it is easy to forget that he can be as vicious as Klaus when his ire is raised.  And having all of the historic buildings declared public was a good move.  I would almost feel sorry for Francesca and her wolves, but they brought this entirely on themselves.  Family is of the utmost importance to Elijah and when they threatened Klaus, Hayley, and the baby, they crossed a serious line that demanded a response from Elijah, not to mention the personal offense that both Klaus and Hayley felt because they were targeted.  Yeah, that pretty much extinguished any twinge of pity that I may have felt for them.  And as for the painting in blood?  Yeah, Klaus took that one very literally (eeewww…..).

Cami is never going to escape the supernatural beings of New Orleans.  Not only has she been sleeping with Marcel, she helped Klaus and Elijah, and she has been targeted by Finn and Esther.  I am not sure why she is important to them, unless it is a matter of the fact that she is close to Klaus and Elijah.  I doubt it is that simple, but you never know.  And because Kol is getting close to Davina, Mikael is now within reach of Esther’s influence.  Having the two of them team up is even worse that what is happening right now.  Mikael has the stake and bears a hatred for Klaus that boggles the mind.  Esther has already tried to destroy her children during season 3 of The Vampire Diaries, so putting the two of them together will not be a good thing.  Of course, that assumes that they will actually work together and not try and destroy each other, which is almost as likely as the two of them teaming up.

Watching Klaus, Elijah, and Hayley navigate their way through the complicated relationship they have is going to be interesting.  Only Klaus has the experience to advise Hayley about what it is like to be a hybrid, but the two of them can barely stand to be around each other, so that is going to be interesting.  Add onto that the fact that Hayley is pushing Elijah away and you have the potential for a very, very complicated story.

I have to say that Marcel’s reason for sticking around is a good one.  He is fighting to preserve the city and all that it has to offer.  As such, he is a serious wildcard in the upcoming fight.  I suspect that he will team up with Klaus, if only because that is the best way to keep himself alive, but if Davina somehow manages to break the bond between Klaus and his line, then Marcel will probably align himself with whoever is more likely to win in order to make sure that New Orleans manages to stay around.

Speaking of wildcards, I honestly suspect that Kol will turn on Esther unless she somehow has him under her direct control.  Unless my memory is very bad, he turned on her when she tried to destroy him and his siblings and I don’t think that Klaus has done anything so bad recently that would cause Kol to want to kill him.  I could (of course) be wrong, but that is my suspicion.

This looks to be a very interesting season with the plethora of Originals in New Orleans.  Until nest week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 6.01- I'll Remember

Welcome back to a new season of The Vampire Diaries.  Tonight Elena goes to extremes to avoid mourning, Jeremy does some serious wallowing, Caroline is obsessing, and Stefan has given up.  Everyone else?  They’re dealing….

Not entirely sure if I am surprised that Elena is living in severe denial.  Granted, the lengths she is going to in order to avoid her pain is extreme, but remember what she did when Jeremy died?  Yeah, so not surprised here.  Using witchy herbs in order to give herself hallucinations of Damon, hunting humans on the periphery of the Travelers’ anti-magic spell, and utterly refusing to accept that Damon is gone is par for the course for vampire Elena in mourning.  Her request to Alaric to compel her to forget Damon?  Slightly surprising, but not out of character.  I am surprised that she hasn’t already turned off her humanity in order to avoid the pain.

Jeremy also deals with his loss in a completely unsurprising way.  Drinking, sitting around playing video games, and sleeping with different girls sounds like something someone in severe pain might just do.  Don’t forget, not only did he lose Bonnie, he also lost Elena and Alaric to the spell as well as his hunter abilities.  So yeah, not too surprised.  Then there is also the fact that every girl he has dated has been killed, so it is probably easier for him to me Ms. Right Now in order to avoid pesky emotional attachments.

Caroline’s method of dealing is actually fairly healthy.  She is looking for a way to shatter the Travelers’ spell, thereby enabling everyone to go home.  Not entirely sure that dropping out of school was the smartest idea, but given the amount of time this crew does not spend in school, I am not exactly surprised.  At least she gets to see her mom for picnics.

Stefan has fled to Savannah in order to start over.  I wonder if he was ever actually searching for a way to bring Damon and Bonnie back or if he simply decided early on to just forget it.  I’d like to think that he was actually searching for a way at first, but I can’t say that I would be shocked if he decided not to.  He definitely seems to want to wash his hands of Mystic Falls and start all over.  Yeah, so not gonna happen, but you can tell that is what he wants.  Maybe he think that he is finally giving Damon release after being the one to have turned him into a vampire in the first place.

Everyone else is pretty much dealing with their issues.  Alaric is teaching about the occult at Whitmore, Tyler is a student now and trying to avoid triggering the curse again, and Matt is working with a civilian protection group to protect the town.  The whole group has lost so much over the years, so it is not terribly surprising that they’re dealing with everything fairly well.  Tyler just really needs to learn how to keep that temper of his under control because if he wolfs out, it will be bad.  I wonder if he can remain in Mystic Falls as a werewolf.  I would assume he could because I believe that werewolves are naturally occurring and not magically created like vampires.

And what the heck was up with Damon and Bonnie at the end?  They appeared to be alive somewhere but with the Other Side gone, where the heck are they?

Until next week!

Change of Plans....

Ok, there is a slight change of plans for my reviews.  While I will still be writing reviews for both therogersrevue.com and pop-topia.com, I will be continuing to put reviews for The Vampire Diaries and The Originals on this blog as well.  My reviews for therogersrevue.com will be slightly different than the reviews on here, so it would be well worth checking both out.

So, starting next Thursday, look for new reviews to start coming up here.  See y'all then!

TV Review Sites

I will no longer be putting new reviews during the regular season on this site unless Teen Wolf comes on during the regular season.  Tonight I finalized plans to put my new reviews of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals on therogersrevue.com.  My reviews of Arrow will continue to be on pop-topia.com as will my reviews of The Flash.  All of my reviews already here will stay here unless something major changes.  So keep an eye on those two sites and I will update this blog as needed.

Thanks and love y'all!

My Review of Teen Wolf 4.12- Smoke and Mirrors

We have a face-off that has been 4 years in the making, Derek has a surprise for us, and everyone gets involved in the battle....

Let's start with Derek.  He managed to morph into the full black wolf that seems to be indicative of the Alpha of the Hale pack.  Both his mother and sister were able to become full wolves, but Peter was not, which tells me that Scott was right when he said that Peter was never truly an Alpha.  Derek also managed to single handedly destroy a Berserker, which in and of itself indicates a fair amount of power.  Derek went to Mexico ready to sacrifice himself to save Scott. I wonder if that is what finally enabled him to manage the final transformation.

Scott spent most of the episode as a Berserker until Liam managed to break through to him by reminding Scott of what he told Liam when Liam was first turned: "You're not a monster,  You're a werewolf, like me!"  I can only assume that because Scott is a True Alpha, he was able to break the hold that the ceremony Kate performed (to transform him into a Berserker) had on him.  And Peter was right, Scott is incorruptible.  All season, Scott has been fighting with his animalistic side to maintain control and this week he showed that he could definitely do it when things were at their worst.  Could he have killed Peter?  Sure, but Scott will not kill.  Well, he won't kill unless a life depends on it and then he might be willing to save the life if he has no other option.  So far, he has not been put in that position, so if he would kill is merely speculative.

I was happy to see Liam get his wolf side under control.  While Derek's chant didn't work, the chant from Satomi that Stiles had him use did.  It worked so well that Liam was able to summon the claws at will.  And as Scott's Beta, he managed (as noted above) to get through to Scott so that Scott could break free from being a Berserker.  He has come far from where he started and has even improved over the past few episodes seeing how he managed to stand and fight BerserkerScott when he has spent the last few episodes petrified of the Berserkers.

Kira managed to get her first tail and figured out how to trigger her healing abilities.  I am not sure where that sword came from (don't think it's a tail!), but I was glad she had it so that she could save Scott from Malia and Liam.  She needs to work on continuing to control her abilities, but she is doing a decent job with just that sword so far.

Poor Mason got a serious case of being thrown in the deep end of the pool.  He has known that something weird is going on with Liam, but now he has seen a Berserker and I suspect that he will be skirting the periphery of Scott's pack next season.  While he may become the second human in Scott's pack, I would be a little surprised.  I was impressed that he was willing to attack that Berserker with a baseball bat.  That took some serious guts for someone who is brand new to the whole supernatural thing.

Lydia also gets kudos.  I do get keeping her away from Mexico in order to prevent her from realizing that Scott was the Berserker.  While I was impressed that she was willing to attack the Berserker, I was less so than with Mason because Lydia has been dealing with the supernatural for a while now.  And here's looking forward to her and Parrish working together to find out what the hell he is.  I still say phoenix, but nothing is sure yet.

Stiles is rapidly becoming the wise man in the group.  Along with Scott, he seems to be acting as the balance for everyone.  He got Liam to get control of the wolf, working with Kira he managed to stop Scott from being killed, he is helping Malia look for her mother (who was apparently being hunted by Braeden), and he helps plan things.  He just needs to get through to his dad that he does know what he's doing, not that I expect the Sheriff to worry any less or anything.

When Peter is scared of someone, it is bad.  I am glad that Peter is locked up now (even if it means we'll see less of him) because he is very, very dangerous.  He isn't going to get out of Eichen House anytime soon, so the pack is safe for now.  Unfortunately, Kate is still out there blaming Scott and his pack for Alison's death, so that is not good.

I believe that Teen Wolf is coming back in January or February for the first part of Season 5, and I will (of course) be back with my reviews then.  I'll be on break until the beginning of October when TVD and The Originals come back.  I will also be reviewing Arrow and The Flash for Pop-topia.com, so I hope you'll read those there.  I may write something in the next week or two with some thoughts about what I hope for in Season 5, but that will depend on how much time I have and if I have enough to say.

So, I 'll see you when I see you!

My Review of Teen Wolf 4.11- A Promise to the Dead

Liam is having major issues, Deaton shows a new side to himself, Peter and Kate ratchet up their plans big time, and Scott gets in some major trouble....

Liam is having some serious PTSD or something.  He is seeing Berserkers all over the place and every time he sees one, he freezes up.  This is having the undesirable side effect of causing him to push Mason away rather than accept any help.  While I understand not cluing Mason into what is actually going on (Liam is still sorting this out himself), Liam does need Mason as a friend to help him stay balanced.  He is pushing everyone away and for any werewolf (particularly one with anger issues!) this cannot be a good thing.  Scott had Stiles to help him through the first few months, and while Liam has Scott, he isn't letting Scott help him.  Fortunately Brett is trying to help Liam, not the least by making sure Liam knows how rare and special Scott truly is.  Unfortunately, Scott's absence isn't helping Brett's case.

And Scott isn't absent by choice.  Being kidnapped by Kate and her Berserkers is not a good thing.  Scott actually did a pretty good job holding his own against Kate.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have anywhere near the amount of training she does nor does he let his wolf side take control the way she does with her cougar side.  He was also handicapped by the fact that the Berserker had Kira and he acted to preserve her.  Can I just say how annoyed I was by the fact that Kate and the Berserker interrupted a totally cute date?

Scott's conversations with his mom and Derek about the money went a whole lot better than I could have imagined.  Melissa was very understanding about why Scott kept the money, and let's face it, he did have some good points.  Unfortunately, the money was stolen and does need to be returned.  But as Derek pointed out, the money is Peter's which makes the return less urgent in Derek's eyes.  Fortunately, Stiles and his father no longer need the money since Eichen House decided to forgive their bills.

Who knew Deaton was such a badass?  He fought that wendigo with some serious skill.  The fact that Eichen House keeps a floor for supernatural creatures is seriously disturbing.  I have the awful feeling that we are going to revisit that floor at some point, quite possibly by having the various creatures escape.  And what exactly did Deaton see when he was in the comatose state and how exactly did Lydia wake him up?  I assume (given what she said) that she did her banshee scream or something.  And how exactly did she know where to find Deaton?  Is a comatose state close enough to death to trigger her banshee abilities?

Parrish apparently possesses normal human strength given the fact that he couldn't unbend the rebar Peter stuck in Chris.  But his eyes did glow an orangish color which would seem to indicate that he was doing something with whatever his supernatural abilities are.  I am going to guess that Parrish is a phoenix.  How that will play out in the Teen Wolf universe is up for anyone's guess.

Peter and Kate are definitely not playing out of the same book given that Kate kidnapped Scott and is turning him into a Berserker and the fact that Peter wants Malia to kill Kate.  These two are going to be each other's undoing unless they are very careful.  Both of them want power, but both of them cannot have it.  Kate is also trying to figure out how Scott could cause the downfall of the Argent's.  The problem is that she doesn't get that Scott did not cause their downfall, they did it themselves.  Allison and Chris chose to change the focus of the family's efforts to protect those who needed to be protected and this seems to have caused other hunter's to desert them.  And Kate herself played no small part in the downfall by her perversion of the hunter's code.  Same with Gerard.

How incredibly cute was it to watch Malia try and wake up Stiles?  I loved her ultimate method to just start making out with him.  That definitely got him to wake up.  :-)

Next week is the finale.  I think I saw that it was 75 minutes, so plan on that.  I expect that BerserkerScott will face off against Liam or Kira and that either Peter or Kate will kill the other one.  Until then!

My Review of Falling Skies 4.11 and 4,12- "Space Oddity" and "Shoot the Moon"

Tom deals with the Lexi situation and the Espheni power core, the Espheni unveil a new weapon, and we deal with some serious deus ex machina....

All in all, not Falling Skies greatest season finale.  While not awful, the episodes were awfully predictable for the most part.  I made some predictions last week which all came true, which (I think) says less about my predictive abilities than the predictability of this season.

The first hour dealt mainly with Tom coming to terms with the fact that he needed Lexi on the mission and that he ultimately had to work with her and help her.  I cannot blame him or Anne for the way they treated Lexi.  She did some horrible things and betrayed both of them, which makes it doubly hard to work with her.  But, as Weaver said, Tom and Anne had to lay aside their anger and pain and think about the mission.  Would having Lexi along increase the mission's chances of success?  The answer was yes.  While there was the risk that Lexi was playing some sort of game with them and would betray them to the Espheni, the potential benefits to having her along more than made up for the risks.

If anyone actually believed for more than a second that the dream sequence was real, I will come and smack you upside the head.  It was so incredibly obvious that Tom was dreaming, even before all of the little things about how perfect it was.  Did anyone seriously think that the show would skip over an event they spent several episodes building towards?  Didn't think so.  I did like that it was used to expose just how unnerved Lexi was by everything that was going on.  Like any kid, she wants her parents approval and love.  She was also vividly aware of everything that she had done wrong and couldn't forgive herself for what she did.  I was glad that she admitted that she knew what she did was all her and that she didn't try to deflect any of the blame.

The second hour dealt with the new bomb the Espheni developed and Tom and Lexi getting to the power core on the moon.  This is where things really went off the rails.

First off, the explanation of why Lexi's powers wouldn't work made no sense.  While there is not a lot of gravity in space, there is still some, not to mention the fact that the power station itself would have potential energy in it that she should have been able to harness to destroy it.  It's almost like they realized that they made her too powerful and came up with spur-of-the-moment limitations on her powers for (supposed) dramatic effect.  Sorry, so don't buy it.  Since she can harness any basic form of energy and manipulate it, she should have been able to do something.

Second, the appearances of both Sara and the Volm was just too convenient.  They both show up at exactly the right time to save everyone?  That was stretching credulity more than a little bit.  While it was nice to see them, it felt like a serious case of deus ex machina.

I did think that the bomb was an interesting idea.  The fact that the Espheni figured out a way to skitterize humans with a weapon is sort of terrifying.  Just drop these near any suspected human outposts and let them do what they will.  I'm not entirely sure how the fog (smoke?) did what it did and I didn't completely understand what it did.  It seemed to not allow people to move from where they were on their own, but (like Hal or Ben) they could be moved by an outside force.  It didn't paralyze anything that it touched; witness Pope biting the tube (hilarious!), or Matt throwing the knife, or other peoples actions.  So that didn't make a lot of sense.  The idea was cool, but there seemed to be some flaws in how it operated.

Lexi's suicide to destroy the power core was obviously meant to get rid of her before next season.  As I said before, her powers supposed limitations made no sense.  If she had her full powers the suicide would have been unnecessary and she would have been around next season, which could have potentially been problematic given her godlike abilities.  So they wrote nonsensical limitations on her powers in order to get rid of her.  Sigh....

Where exactly is Tom?  That figure in the mirror didn't look particularly pretty to me, so I assume there was a camouflage of some sort going on.

Until next season!

My Review of Falling Skies 4.10- Drawing Straws

Tom's plan to go to the Moon hits a small snag, tension continues between Hal and Ben, Matt continues to assert himself, and Lexi makes a surprising move....

So, we finally find out how Lexi does the things she does.  Somehow she has been engineered so that she can control the basic forces of the universe as she demonstrated vividly on several occasions tonight.  First, she used gravity to turn a tree into a pile of matchsticks.  Basically, instead of having gravity keep the tree together, she reversed gravity and hid it cause the tree to fly apart.  Then, after overhearing a conversation between her Espheni "father" and the Espheni Tom attacked where her death was ordered, she glew the Espheni apart.  Finally, she took out 5 or 6 Beamers which were attacking the 2nd Mass.  Considering how much easier it is getting for her each time she uses her abilities, I shudder to think what she can be capable of when she reaches her full potential.  Honestly, I suspect that she is going to die next week, probably sacrificing herself to save Tom and/or Ben.  If she does survive, she has to be stripped of her powers or else she will become too powerful to keep around (storywise).

Hal and Ben had some more trouble tonight.  Fortunately, they worked it all out.  Hal has recognized that there is attraction between Ben and Maggie and that Hal himself is partly responsible for what is going on because he is the one who insisted on putting the spikes in Maggie to save her life.  I must admit that when I saw Hal on the ship at the end, I half expected him to either take off with Ben to keep Tom on the ground or somehow knock Ben out and take his place.  He didn't do either, for which I am grateful.

I was very surprised that after Cochise said that the ship may recognize him as a Volm, no one immediately thought of using Ben or Maggie.  Since they both have Espheni spikes in them, the ship would be more likely to recognize and follow one of them.  Since Lexi is now with the 2nd Mass, she should definitely go along, both as protection and because the ship will definitely recognize her as Espheni.  She is honestly their best chance of getting to the Moon and back in one piece.

Was I surprised that Tom rigged the name draw?  No.  Was it planned from the beginning?  Maybe.  I would like to think that Tom only used his name from his sleeve because Ben's name was drawn, but it is entirely possible that he planned on rigging the thing the entire time.  And regardless of what Pope says, Tom is not doing this because he is a gloryhound.  Tom has an immense sense of responsibility for everyone and will never ask anyone else to do what he cannot/will not do himself.  Pope's problem (as always!) is that he sees his own personal motives reflected in everyone else's actions.  Since Pope would only do this for selfish reasons, Tom must be doing it for the same selfish reasons.  Pope cannot seem to comprehend that Tom does things for reasons that Pope does not think of.  While Tom ain't perfect, he is a good leader.

I was surprised that Pope admitted to Weaver that he felt like he needed to go to the Moon because he wouldn't be missed by people here and that he took Weaver's name out of the hat because Weaver was needed.  I do think Pope is right (to a degree), but he misses the fact that; despite his many flaws; he is a good fighter and could be a decent leader if he let himself grow just a little bit.

And Matt continues his march into adulthood by learning all the wrong lessons from last week.  He figures that he needs to keep all of his emotions completely bottled up and he overcompensates for his behavior last week by rebelling.  While his experimentation was vital to figuring out how to fly the Beamer (was anyone else having flashbacks to Starbuck learning how to fly the Cylon Raider?), he does need to learn to use his passion more constructively.  Tom was wrong when he denied Matt he opportunity to take part in the mission.  I totally get where Tom is coming from, but Matt has done a lot of growing up very quickly and Tom does need to recognize that.

Next week, the 2 hour finale.  Until then!

My Review of Teen Wolf 4.10- Monstrous

A slight twist is thrown into the case of the Benefactor courtesy of Lydia and Peter; Scott, Derek, Kira, and Chris take steps to protect Satomi's pack; and Stiles and Malia work together to find out how to stop the assassins.

Wow, I was not exactly expecting Meredith to have been influenced by comaPeter to start the killings.  She was in the hospital at the same time as him (right after the fire) and he was apparently broadcasting his rage at what was going on and decided to wipe out all of the supernatural creatures in Beacon Hills in order to remake everything in his own image.  So Meredith used a list of creatures put together by Lydia's grandmother and used Peter's money to hire the assassins because she believed that all of the "monsters" in Beacon Hills (herself included) needed to be wiped out.  Given Peter's reaction, I have no doubt that what happened was the ranting and raving of a mind that was hovering on the edge of madness out of revenge, anger, and sorrow at what happened to his family.  Meredith didn't put her plan into action until she heard Lydia scream around the time that Allison was killed last season.

In a way, this makes a lot of sense.  Meredith is not cold and calculating.  Crazy?  Absolutely, but not as cold and calculating as needed to pull off what happened this season.  But if she was carrying out what she thought was Peter's plan, that would explain how she could be so calculating.    Given the fact that Stiles and Malia managed to shut the machines that were distributing the dead pool and money down, I don't think Meredith is a danger anymore.

I am finding it hard to be mad at Liam.  Should he have been there with Scott, Kira, Derek, and Chris?  Absolutely.  But he just came into this supernatural world and he is still adjusting.  The reason that the whole gang continues to do what they do is because of Scott.  He is so focused on doing the right thing and protecting people.  Stiles sticks by his side out of loyalty and friendship; Lydia has come to trust that Scott will do what needs to be done; and Derek, Chris, and Deaton have come to respect Scott's power of belief and value him.  It's what Derek said last season to Aiden and Ethan.  If you want to be in Scott's pack, put others before yourself and protect the innocent.  As I've been saying for years, this is Scott's pack and his purpose animates them all.  To make an analogy to Buffy, Scott is the heart; Stiles and Lydia are the brain; Kira, Derek, and Chris are the claws of the pack.  Without Scott, the whole pack would fall apart, and not just because he is a True Alpha.  They follow him because of who he is.  Malia is along for the ride because of Stiles and Peter is trying to take his power back.  Liam just needs to find his place and find his reason for staying.  Scott has lost Allison, Aiden, Erica, and Boyd to death and lost Ethan, Cora, Isaac, and Jackson to leaving. All of this has made him even more determined to save as many people as he possibly can.  He has taken the Hale's place as the Protector of Beacon Hills and takes this very seriously.

Peter's plan is to kill Scott?  Out of everyone currently alive, I think he is the one best equipped to pull a plan like that off.  He is close to Scott and is burning with an almost unholy desire to get his power back from the Beta he himself turned.  To take a True Alpha's power would probably be a serious power trip and for someone like Peter, that is a dangerous thing.  Throw Kate into the mix and I worry for Scott over the next few episodes.

Calling everyone in to protect Satomi's pack was smart.  Even though Derek no longer has claws, he has been learning how to shoot and that is helpful.  Throw in Chris and Braeden who are incredible with guns and Kira who can use a katana very nicely, and you have a formidable group of protectors.  Scott was scaring me.  He really let the wolf out when he was fighting.  I don't think I have ever seen him quite that vicious.  I swear he was on the verge of ripping that guy's throat out before the guy took his mask off and the fact that he was a human penetrated Scott's brain.  This is what really worries me if Peter attacks Scott.  If Scott were to completely let go and let the wolf out, that could be more dangerous than anything.  If Peter gets that power....<shudder>

I love that Stiles and Malia managed to talk out their issues.  Melissa (presumably) locking them into Stiles' room at the hospital was a good idea.  Stiles made a mistake and knew it.  Fortunately, Malia chose not to hold a grudge and decided to work with Stiles in the end.  Without her, Stiles would never have found the machines behind the wall and the fight at Chris' hideout would have been much bloodier.

A little later tonight, I'll review Falling Skies and then next Monday, Teen Wolf at its normal time.  Until then!

My Review of Teen Wolf 4.09- Perishable

We have a recurring character burned alive, someone clued into the supernaturalness of Beacon Hills, some more assassins, and the revelation of the Benefactor.  And boy, was I shocked when the Benefactor was revealed!

And the Benefactor is....Meredith!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Meredith, the resident of Eichen House and banshee, is the Benefactor.  I would never have called that one, mainly because we were told that she had killed herself.  But, given that she is the Benefactor, I can only assume that she faked her death in order to be able to operate freely.  Not only is she the Benefactor, but she appears to be completely sane.  Consider my mind completely blown.  I could have sworn that her name was on the deadpool, but if it was, that was obviously a plant to throw people off of her scent.  This is going to require some serious answers.  Why has she put a price on the heads of every supernatural being in Beacon Hills?  How was she controlling that orderly?  My mind is still reeling fro, this revelation.

Next major point, is what the hell is Parrish?  He is set on fire and emerges sooty but fine.  I'm trying to think of different creatures who might be able to survive fire, and I can only think of three: a salamander, an ifrit, or a phoenix.  He's not a werewolf because werewolves are very susceptible to fire (witness Peter in season 1!) and every other creature I can think of (other than spirit based creatures like ghosts) can't just walk away from a fire the way he did.  I so cannot wait to figure out what exactly he is.

Loved Parrish's reaction ("What's a kanima again?") to finding out about the different supernatural beings of Beacon Hills.  When he asked Derek and Scott if they were psychics like Lydia, the looks that the three of them (Lydia, Scott, and Derek) were absolutely hilarious.  Then Scott showed Parrish his true eyes.  Oh, how I would have loved to actually seen Parrish's reaction, because that would have had to have been a shock.  So now there is someone else at the Sheriff's station who can help out as needed and know about what is actually going on.

Poor Liam was completely freaked out by what was happening to his printer.  I can only assume that Meredith was sending the file to random printers in order to publicize the list even more.  And his price got bumped from $3 million to $18 million.  Not a bad price to have on your head.  Liam really needs to fill his friend (Mason?) in on what is going on, because Mason is not stupid and I have a feeling he'll keep on pressing.  Having another human around will be helpful because it provides a new perspective.

Can anyone blame Malia for trying to get drunk?  She finds out that Stiles and Scott have been lying to her, her dad is a sociopath, and she is just trying to get by.  No wonder she wanted to let loose and have some fun!  Unfortunately, as Scott discovered early on, werewolves cannot get drunk.  Well, not without outside help which can push them over the edge.  In this case, the music from the DJ.  My first thought was that someone was somehow burning wolfsbane, so when they narrowed in on the DJ, I was surprised.  It does make sense though.  By using ultrasonic frequencies, the DJ could throw off the werewolves sense of balance and give them vertigo.  Not a bad plan.

Stiles and Lydia had a decent plan as well.  After discovering that the list from Lydia's grandmother was a list of 10 people who had died in Eichen House, they went to investigate.  All in all, it was a good idea.  THe major flaw is that they din't know about the orderly killing patients to "free" them.  Now they (and Parrish) are in Meredith's hands, which cannot be a good thing.

Did Stiles take the money out of Scott's room?  Not sure who else could have, but I am curious....

Next episode is Sunday night right before the VMAs.  Until then!