The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries Review “Memorial” (Season 4, Episode 2)

Season 4 of The Vampire Diaries may be starting off a bit slow, but after watching the most recent episode it's clear that it's building up to something big. In Memorial we get a preview of Elena as she manages to adapt, or tries at least, to Stefan's bunny diet, why the council had to die, and had a surprise visit from an old friend.

The Vampire Diaries

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“Am I wearing my ‘I blew up the Council’ t-shirt?”

Season 4 of The Vampire Diaries may be starting off a bit slow, but after watching the most recent episode it’s clear that it’s building up to something big. In Memorial we get a preview of Elena as she manages to adapt, or tries at least, to Stefan’s bunny diet, why the council had to die, and had a surprise visit from an old friend.

In season 1 we watched Vicki (Kayla Ewell) make the choppy and short-lived transition to vampire, giving us our first taste of the volatile process. In season 2, we experienced Caroline’s (Candice Accola) struggle to adapt to the life of a vampire after Katherine used her to send a message to the Salvatore brothers. In season 3, Bonnie (Kat Graham) found and lost her mother after she went through the difficult transition from witch to vampire. And now, in season 4, we are following Elena (Nina Dobrev) as she finds her way as a vampire.

Yet, in a very Bella/Twilight-esque manner, her biggest challenge doesn’t seem to be the transition itself. She seems to have taken to vampirism in a very natural, and almost expectant way. The real issue is the fact her body is physically rejecting this new life choice (or non-choice).

When things go wrong for Elena and the path of righteousness that Stefan (Paul Wesley) has set forth doesn’t look so promising, there’s only one person to turn to. Damon (Ian Somerhalder) has always seemed to be more in touch with his vampire side than Stefan, who is constantly reminding us how much is sucks.

Naturally, Elena confides in Damon about her involuntary vampire bulimia issue and he has an interesting solution – bloodsharing. Now, the idea of sucking blood from someone’s wrist doesn’t exactly cause warm and fuzzy feelings to pop up, but it did look like they were sharing an intimate moment. Maybe there’s still hope for Team Delena after all. Either way, it’s not something that we can bet Stefan would get behind.

Obviously this new development doesn’t stay a secret for long and presents a whole new set of transition complications for Stefan to be in a tizzy over. The way Stefan reacts to things is also fun to watch – everything is life and death, like he never has time for anything in-between. No wonder being a vampire sucks so much for him, he literally has stopped living. I’d love to see Stefan blissfully enjoying himself for more than two minutes an episode.

However, if Memorial showed us anything it’s that Elena still seems to have held onto her extreme sense of humanity, and self-composure for the most part – still trying so hard to please everyone. She has managed to make the awkward shift look a bit more bearable than any of the characters we’ve seen transition before, which leads me to believe there’s something else going on. Damon hinted that it might be a supernatural doppelgänger issue, and I’m inclined to jump on that band wagon.

It didn’t take long for Elena to start exploring some of the perks of being an immortal, and she’s not the only one who is a fan of hot vampire sex it appears. Caroline and Tyler (Michael Trevino) have picked right back up where they left off and don’t seem to be a bit bothered by the fact that Klaus (Joseph Morgan) had recently taken up residence inside of Tyler’s body. The only thing that Caroline is put off by is the recent unexplained deaths in Mystic Falls. Deaths that have also attracted the attention of a new enemy – who happens to knock on their door.

The vampire hunter first shows up at the farm-house where he retrieves a letter addressed to someone name April. We come to find out that April is the daughter of the preacher who set off the explosion. He tracks down Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) at the Mystic Grill where she’s sharing her opinion of who blew up the council – Damon, a popular opinion.

Afterwards, he heads to the Lockwood house – it’s pretty obvious why the mayor would be the next stop. Tyler comes downstairs, looking very buff and ready to tango, when Connor (Todd Williams), the new hunter, starts getting a little aggressive with his mom. Things go well for about the next thirty seconds, that is before the customary introduction hand shake.

The new hunter is good. His glove is dipped in vervain and with a burning sensation, reveals Tyler as a vampire. Connor is ready with his wooden bullets and manages to get off a round before Tyler escapes. And with that, the new hunter has used up the element of surprise. He might as well have walked door to vampire door handing out flyers announcing that he was in town.

Caroline comes downstairs after all the fun is done to find a shaken up mayor and a pool of blood. Seriously, with her super speed it seems like she would have been able to get dressed and downstairs a bit faster than that. I’m pretty sure she knows it too. Her animosity at the church was almost surely spiked with some guilt.

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Author
Lindsay Sperling
Lindsay Sperling has A.D.D. and her tastes reflect it. Her movie collection boasts everything from Casablanca to John Tucker Must Die to every season of Sons of Anarchy to-date. She adamantly supported a Veronica Mars Movie (yes, she did make a donation to see it happen..and also possibly for the t-shirt), hopes that the Fast & Furious franchise continues far into the future, and has read every popular YA book series turned film in recent years (except Harry Potter..). When she's not on an indie film set or educating the youth of America, she uses her time arguably productive as a freelance writer.