The Vampire Diaries “The Killer” 

The gang’s all here for “The Killer,” which turned out to be much better in practice than it was in theory, because, honestly, y’all, I was afraid the whole shebang was going to be a yawner of a hostage situation. That was one piece of it, but there were also big and small moments throughout.

Stefan is still doing Klaus’s bidding and he does finally cave and tell Damon what he’s up to (after Damon reads his diary) and Damon asks him the hard Qs about whether he can love Elena as a vampire.

Before that, we have a his and hers dear diary montage as Elena tells her diary that being a vampire isn’t really all that–she’s unhappy, depressed, angry, sad, etc. Separately, Stefan is telling his diary that he’s torn about leading Elena into the vampire life while she still has a shot at a human one. And really the whole mantra right now seems to be keeping her from her first kill.

Connor is told to go back to Mystic Falls so he loads up on his hybrid venom and takes over the Grill with Matt, Jeremy, and April inside, figuring that all their vampy friends will come running, he can make a bunch of kills, and the magical tattoo will finish mapping itself out.

The Salvatore brothers quibble about how to do a rescue, and with them synched up about Connor having to stay alive, they hatch a plan. Klaus also dispatches a hybrid to the scene, but he’s quickly taken out by Connor. Eventually, Stefan doublecrosses Damon, leaving him passed out and ringless with a clueless Elena. She finally has enough and goes into the Grill as a faux human until Jeremy’s threatened and she reveals herself.

At the Lockwoods, Tyler is being cagey about Hayley, and Caroline asks her straight up what the deal is with her and Tyler and gets a snitty non-answer (oh, no, she didn’t). When she finally confronts Tyler about it, he gives her a plausible reason, that I really do hope is true–Hayley helped him break his blood curse, and she can do it for other hybrids. There was never anything romantic there but if he lets Klaus think there was, it’ll throw him off the truth of who she is. All good except I find it hard to believe Tyler would never have mentioned Caroline.

At the Grill, Matt and April are locked in the kitchen and they start to dig out when Stefan comes for them. Connor goes after them in the tunnel and find himself face to face with Elena, who’s fed and recovered Jeremy, who’s extremely pissed when Connor tells him he was vervained and drew the tat at Klaus’s. Elena assaults Connor, and as he’s about to make his move on her, she snaps his neck. Bye-bye, humanity in more ways than one.

Later, when the boys find her, she’d digging Connor’s grave. Damon and Stefan share a look but say nothing, so she still doesn’t fully realize what she’s done. Nonetheless she has a complete meltdown. The stickler for me though was that she put it back on Damon that he had originally told her to kill Connor. Own your actions, honey.

Later on,  she starts to have gory hallucinations and Klaus teases us in next week’s preview that it’s a side effect of killing a five. Also a side effect? Transferring the tat. To Jeremy. Who’s had enough of people being in the dark and gives April his vervain bracelet.

It’s an interesting dynamic that Matt is as blase about the whole thing as Jeremy isn’t. Matt’s just happy to still be alive at this point. He’s accepted that this is the way their world is now. If Jeremy gets the urge to start expanding is tattoo, I think that friendship will be the first to go. Which is a shame, because I think they need each other.

Meanwhile, Bonnie spends the day working on her rewitching CEUs with professor hottie. I love Bonnie, but those scenes did nothing for me because we know she’s being played.

Next week, Elena has to deal with the kill and its impact. And she comes face to face with Katherine, who will hopefully help her nut up already. I did like that Damon put the question on the table for Stefan of who it was more important to to have Elena’s humanity restored, and that he tossed the gauntlet that he could love her as a vampire when maybe Stefan couldn’t. Stefan said he could, but I didn’t really feel it when he said it.

And I’m glad Tyler was honest. Like I said, hopefully honest, because if he was bullsh-tting Caroline, the line starts behind me. I’d like to give the show a chance to show me they can avoid another love triangle (or quadrangle, if you count Klaus, which I don’t). Especially with Caroline and Tyler.

If you missed “The Killer,” it’s on cwtv.com. The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday at 9 pm/8c on The CW. Next week, they take a break for Thanksgiving and new episodes will resume on the 29th.