The Vampire Diaries “Disturbing Behavior” 

Dear TVD PTB: Love you, love the show but PLEASE back off the torture porn! Because it’s too much now. Work your angst out on TSC. Love, Me.

SO MUCH GOOD! I was very happy we had almost all of the cast on board (minus Matt and just a scoche of Tyler). I loved that pretty much everybody was “Danger Will Robinson!” about Damon spending so much time with Elena. I loved that Bonnie was back and Jeremy spilled his secret visions before the end of the hour. I loved that Alaric was a grown up.

We pick back up in Chicago with the vampy roadtrip brigade shopping for a horrified-about-the-lack-of-fabric-and-terrible-techno-music Rebekah as Klaus hilariously drains a bottle of bubbly (the whole scene reminded me of Ryan Philippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions). Stefan excuses himself to go outside and chat with Katherine, who finally reveals that she’s been tailing them and asks him what we’ve been wondering–why he can’t just go home now that he’s unintenionally neutered the hybrid plan. He says he’s got a plan; she says she wants in and he sends her away with a thanks, but NO. So, Katherine has some sort of angle there that she’s been tracking them–I guess her logic is that if she’s behind Klaus, he can’t see her?

The trio goes to see Gloria and she gets a lock on Elena’s necklace, which starts to burn Elena’s neck as she stands in her kitchen with Bonnie and Caroline making spicy denial angst chili and not talking about Damon. Bonnie immediately twigs that there’s mojo working somewhere so she and Jeremy consult the grimoires, which go up in flames as Gloria steps up her game.

Gloria stops short of an actual GPS reveal of the necklace for Klaus to buy more time. Because he’s stupid like that, Stefan goes back to see her alone and she binds and tortures him, not so much because she wants to help Klaus as she just wants her trinket back. Thankfully, Katherine kills her before we have to watch her Ginsu Stefan.

At the latest Lockwood hoedown, Carol and Liz do not throw down (BOO!) but they find their council meeting in a sea of awkward when Damon’s attempted compelling of Caroline’s dad big fat doesn’t work and he outs them for concealing vampires. Oops. Damon tries to just go ahead and kill him, but Caroline saves him (by feeding him her blood and telling him to grow up. Hee!).

Also, Damon gets his panties in a wad when Alaric tells him to take a beat with Elena and snaps his neck. He does however look for the magical undeading ring first and revives him with a cocktail. Later, Katherine shows up to fetch him and he agrees to tag along to get a break from Mystic Falls.

Elena does finally chat with Caroline and admits that, yes, there is something there with Damon but she’s not pursuing and feels guilty anyway. Caroline rightly tells her that she’s human, not awful. So at least we’re putting that on the table instead of making it a dirty little not-secret. It’ll be interesting to watch how Elena behaves when neither Salvatore brother is available to her.

Jeremy has a few awkward non-discussions with Anna where she tells him that wherever she’s been, she’s by herself. And let me just say I’m not a fan of soul limbo arcs. I find that stuff scarier than vampires and werewolves. I thought the most awful thing ever to happen on Angel was when Fred’s soul was shattered.

Anna tells Jeremy he can hear and see her because he wants to; as soon as he turns that off (which he coldly does), she’s back in solitary. She tells him that every time Vickie comes around, she gets a bad, dark feeling about her. She sort of nudges him into confessing the visions to Bonnie, who I think is probably the target of whatever this is and Jeremy is the way to get to her. We’ll see. So far the execution isn’t terribly compelling, but it could be.

Caroline runs into her dad the day after she saves him and he’s rocking the vampires-are-bad-ittude with her. She goes back to the Lockwood home and waits for Tyler (who, oddly was not at the party) to come home. She tells him she’s hiding from her dad and they banter for about half a minute before she gets his shirt off (good girl!) and they commence with the smoochies.

In Chicago, Stefan starts asking the wrong questions of Rebekah about the way she and Klaus bailed out of Chicago the first time, and that gets him assaulted by Klaus for nosing around about the hunter, and a free ride back to Mystic Falls. I’m pretty sure that won’t end well for a variety of people, and I’m guessing Katherine is getting Damon out of Mystic Falls because Stefan and Klaus are now back.

So, we’re back to breakneck and I dug it. It seemed like more actually happened/got done in this episode than the three previous combined. I like the show when it uses almost all of the cast and keeps all the balls in the air. I know it’s a bitch to write for all those characters, but I think the episodes are stronger when everybody gets to play.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8/7c on the CW.