By Carla Lee

At the beginning of this episode, I knew Lexi wouldn’t make it to the end. Of course she wouldn’t; she’s a vivacious, sexual, powerful vampire woman, and we’ve already seen that those women can’t survive in this show. By the end of the episode, if I weren’t obligated to continue watching and reviewing, I would seriously be considering dropping the series.

At least The Vampire Diaries, unlike some other television shows I could name, has reoccurring female characters who are more than just victims or villains, including a woman of colour. It’s a shame the only vampires we’re allowed to have are male.

Though, overall, I am very angry at this episode and the last episode, there were things I enjoyed.

Lexi was fantastic, which is part of why I am so angry at her death. I loved her from her entrance, which was a cheesy, fun play on a typical horror movie scene – the dramatic window open on its own, movement where there shouldn’t be movement, creepy noises, and an attack on the character home alone – which lost all its drama since Stefan is a nearly-indestructible vampire.

Here is a vampire who splits the difference between Stefan’s denial of what he is, with a diet that leaves him weak, and Damon’s embracing all the bad sides of being a vampire. Lexi drinks human blood, but it’s bagged blood and she doesn’t kill to get it. She uses her powers to make life fun – to get alcohol when she’s been carded, for example – but doesn’t seem to use them to hurt people. She enjoys life as a vampire without being cruel and evil about it. She’s hedonistic and loves sex and loves drinking and loves having fun – oh, Lexi, there was no way you were going to survive this episode and that makes me sad.

Then there’s a friendship between Lexi and Stefan. Stefan is so often miserable, it’s nice to see him laughing, joking around, and enjoying life. Lexi calls him on it, saying his birthday is the one day of year when he doesn’t brood or exist in his own head. Preach it, Lexi: brooding vampires are so boring. It makes sense, though, that Stefan isn’t as open or happy around everyone else, because he doesn’t have that history with them and he doesn’t trust himself not to hurt humans. Lexi not only knows him and has known him for a hundred years, but she is faster and stronger. There’s no way he can hurt her, so of course he can relax around her.

Lexi calling Stefan on the fact that Elena looks exactly like Katherine was fantastic, but I have a hard time believing that Stefan doesn’t know if Katherine and Elena are related. From the first episode, it has been clear that the only reason Stefan has returned to Mystic Falls is to see Elena, but how did he know about her if he’s not been following the families of Mystic Falls?

Lexi being faster and stronger than Damon, and reminding him she is because she worries he will ruin her visit with her best friend, is both a lot of fun and nicely highlights the fact that Stefan could be drinking human blood via bagged blood so he could be strong.

Elena and Lexi bonding over relationship talk was fun and interesting, too. Elena really is out of her league and having a vampire to help her navigate the complexities of a vampire-human relationship would be wonderful. If, you know, a sexual, powerful female vampire were allowed to live in this show.

Though I am tired of the on-again, off-again relationship between Elena and Stefan, I really do feel badly for Elena. She’s in a frustrating situation, where she needs to talk to someone about all these things she’s learned, but the only one she can really talk to is Stefan. Stefan absolutely doesn’t get the point, either, that even if they’re happily together, she needs to be able to open up to her best friend, and her whole life can’t revolve around him.

Jeremy’s attitude change is suitably creepy, especially when he tells Sheriff Forbes that, even though he misses Vicki, it’s for the best when she leaves town. I love that Elena now sees the ways asking Damon to take away Jeremy’s memories has taken a lot from him, including his suffering about the deaths of their parents. I hope that we get more of this.

Damon overacts a lot, but it makes me laugh. His face when he’s talking about how they need to blend and he’s friends with Caroline. Hilarious.

It was nice to see various friendships playing out this episode. In particular, I like Elena and Bonnie’s friendship, the way Bonnie is not only comfortable enough to go into Elena’s room to make sure she’s feeling okay, but to curl up in bed and talk to her about what’s making her so sad. Even better, it was wonderful to see that Bonnie is breaking her promise to keep her powers a secret because of course she is going to tell her best friend, and to see Elena’s guilt over not sharing the secrets she’s keeping with Bonnie.

Bonnie showing off her powers by floating the feathers was a very cool scene.

I like how Bonnie comforting Elena is echoed in Matt taking care of Caroline, listening to her drunken ramblings and complaints, making sure she gets home safely, and curling up in bed with her to comfort her while she rests.

If I didn’t know it would lead to Lexi’s death, I would have loved Damon being deliciously evil and leaving an attack victim alive with an altered memory to confuse the vampire hunters. So devious and manipulative!

Bonnie’s dream at the end of the episode was lovely and creepy and, despite my anger at Lexi’s death, I am looking forward to seeing what it foreshadows.

Beyond the death of another strong, sexual female character, there were a few things I disliked about the episode.

The main thing is Elena breaking up with Stefan again, even after her impassioned speech last episode about not being to give up the memories of him even while she’s taking memories of Vicki away from her brother. There are better ways to have a dramatic episode than to use an on-again, off-again relationship.

Not only is their on-again, off-again relationship frustrating, but so is Elena’s back-and-forth about whether Stefan is dangerous or not. First, she tells him that death and suffering follow him (in the form of Damon), but then she doesn’t want Stefan to kill Damon because she’s not sure what it will do to Stefan. Make up your mind!

Besides, there’s no way Stefan is actually capable of killing his brother; they’ve been doing this back and forth antagonism for far too long.

Also frustrating was that, though this is mostly a fun, light-hearted episode and that was nice to see, it meant that we didn’t get much mourning for Vicki and that really sucked. It’s bad enough to kill off a strong, sexual female character, but then to mostly ignore her death in the very next episode, which takes place not long after her death, is even worse.

As much as I love Lexi, I dislike the way she frames her romantic story as, in three hundred and fifty years, she’s had one love of her life. This may only be for Elena’s benefit, but we’ll never know now, and I think it is unhealthy to perpetuate the idea that there is one true love out there for each person.

While I like that the town vampire hunters are now considering that the vampire they’re hunting may be walking around during the day, because it’s nice to see an adaptable group of hunters, I am disappointed that they’re not suspicious of one of the guys who showed up around the time the vampire killings began. They have vervain, so Damon can’t be mentally manipulating them into not suspecting him. Does Sheriff Forbes really not even consider that Damon is helping them in order to both cover his tracks and to keep informed on their activities?

Caroline trying to manipulate Bonnie into returning the necklace by telling Bonnie it makes her look fat was ridiculous. Classy, Caroline.

To sum up, Lexi was wonderful, from her playing with Stefan upon arrival to her badass fighting despite the vervain and the bullets, and her death was unnecessary and infuriating. Despite that, though, this episode brought both some fun light-hearted moments and some interesting character developments.

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