The Vampire Diaries 1.20 “Blood Brothers” Recap

Wow. The next two weeks are about to be crucial in Mystic Falls, because the crap has hit the fan on The Vampire Diaries!!! Oh, and tonight was a FLASHBACK EPISODE!!!! Anne Rice, eat your heart out!

Setting Up The Past For A Future Understanding…

While Stefan sits in his cage in a daze, he flashes back to the night that he and Damon tried to rescue Katherine…

Then: Stefan and Damon hide from the mob led by Jonathan Gilbert. They make a plan to spring Katherine without being noticed, but when they are in the process of doing that, they are shot dead by an unseen member of the mob.

Now: Stefan lies on the ground flashing from past to present as Elena and Damon try to wake him in the future. He realizes that his ring was taken from his finger. Outside, Elena and Damon look in on Stefan, and bicker about their reasons for putting him in the cage in the first place. Elena’s reasoning? Out of love. Damon’s reasoning? To save his vampiric ass…

The Past Is Not What It Seems…

Then: Stefan awakes the next morning shocked and stunned that he is still alive. Emily is there to luckily explain everything to the in transition vampires. Seems that when they died, they had Katherine’s blood running in their veins, which helped the turn. Emily also reveals that 1) Katherine compelled Stefan to drink from her, while Damon did so willingly and; 2) Katherine had Emily make their rings a while back. In other words, Katherine had plans to turn the brothers from gate.

Stefan goes to talk to Damon, who is also in transition. Damon recounts how he saw the mob drag Katherine inside the church and burned it afterwards. They then ponder on if their father knows of their deaths, but Damon feels that dear old dad betrayed them. They then both decide to die and fight the change since Katherine, their sole reason to turn, is ‘dead’. If they only knew then what they know now…

Stefan later walks to the Salvatore house, where he can hear Giuseppe Salvatore and Johnathan Gilbert talking. The two are archiving the events of the Battle of Willow Creek in the Founder’s journal, but Giuseppe makes sure that Johnathan leaves out details of vampiric nature out of the files. He also makes sure that Johnathan list Stefan and Damon as dying as “innocent victims, and not their shame.” Wow.

Stefan pays Giuseppe a visit and the man is shaken at the sight of his son standing before him, not just because Stefan died the night before, but because HE was the one shot Stefan and Damon!!! He claims that when they sided with the vamps, that was when they signed their death warrant. Stefan informs his dad that he was only stopping by to say goodbye and that he refuses to transition over. Giuseppe vows to not wait for that to happen and charges his son with a stake, but Stefan throws his father against the wall, unknowingly staking him in the process. Stefan runs to help his father, but is drawn to the blood oozing out of Giuseppe’s wound. Stefan takes a taste and life as he knows it has changed forever.

Later, Damon waits to die when Stefan brings him a girl that he has compelled. Stefan reveals what happened between Stefan and their father and the outcome afterwards. He tells Damon that Katherine was right about being a vampire, saying that it is a “whole new world” where you can turn feelings of guilt and anger off like a switch. Damon doesn’t want to live, but Stefan eventually forces his brother to drink from the girl. *WOW*

Damon is now the Damon we know, but he tells Stefan that since they will be together for all eternity, he will make Stefan’s eternity a living hell. What?!? Damon disappears and Emily shows up, surprising Stefan. After noticing that Stefan and Damon have turned, Emily makes it known to Stefan that despite his new life being a smorgasbord of perks, he still has a good soul, which will be his curse. No matter what happens, Stefan will still be Stefan. Ouch…

Now: Elena and Damon take turns watching Stefan and bickering to each other the entire time. Damon tries to get Stefan to drink, but her refuses, continuing to wallow in self-pity. Elena goes home to get a change of clothes and calls Damon to find out what type of blood Stefan drinks. This girl is really down for the cause by deep standing by her man… After getting off the phone with Damon, Elena closes her closet door to find JON GILBERT STANDING BEHIND IT!!!!!!! The punk immediately taunts Elena what would her mother think if she knew Elena was dating a vampire, to which Elena answers, “Which ‘mother?'” ZING!!!!

Elena returns to the mansion and visits Stefan and begs for him to eat, but Stefan shocks her when he says that he would rather just die. She asks Damon why would Stefan say something like that, but Damon blows it off and contributes it to feeding off of Amber. But Elena doesn’t think so. Damon suggest for Elena to stay upstairs while he goes out, but this is Elena we are talking about here… She goes down to make sure Stefan has ate, but he hasn’t. He demands for her to leave, but Elena walks into the cage and demands for Stefan to drink. After telling her numerous times of the danger she is in, Stefan lunges at her, fully vamped. Elena stands her ground and doesn’t flinch, giving a strong “NO!” to signify she’s not going anywhere. Uh Oh!

After Stefan sees that Elena means business, they sit down and Elena asks what’s up with the hunger strike? Stefan simply says that he is making the decision he should’ve made a long time ago, then he reveals what happened between him and his father on the night he drunk his blood and officially became a vampire. Elena think she gets it now, but wants to learn more. She begs for Damon to come upstairs and talk more, but he’s not ready, although Elena thinks he is. She leaves his ring for him to signify her trust in him to make the right decision. Later, Elena talks to Damon about Stefan and berates Damon for giving Stefan so much hell for getting Katherine caught, which is not helping with Stefan’s conscious. She claims that Damon is to blame as much as Stefan is. Then Damon drops the bombshell of Stefan forcing him to change. Elena now gets it and runs to see Stefan… who is not in the cage and left the ring behind. Dun, Dun, DUN!!!!

Elena finds Stefan in the same spot that Emily and Damon made their promises and revelations so many years ago, which is beside a lake. Stefan claims that he wants to end it all, because of the pain that he has caused others and he can’t deal with that guilt any more. Elena reveals to Stefan what happened the night of the car accident that killed her parents. She had skipped family night to go to a party and got stranded and her parents came and got her, which resulted in her accident. Oh man… Stefan kinda says that’s not the same thing, but Elena doesn’t give up. Stefan moans how he is scared that when he gives up the fight to not drink blood, that the next person he hurts will be Elena. She gives Stefan his ring and asks him to make a choice: stay and fight by putting on the ring or toss it in the lake and wait to die. Stefan ponders this for a moment, but choses life.

They return to the mansion, but Stefan has to talk to Damon to smooth things over. After Elena leaves, Stefan thanks his brother for the help, but Damon admonishes that all of Damon’s decisions are his to mope over, not Stefan’s. Damon then reveals (or recollects) that Emily had waited till after they were turned to tell Damon about the spell, but didn’t want to tell him about the tomb. Her reasoning was because she didn’t want that knowledge to impact their decisions. Stefan asks why didn’t Damon tell him, and Damon answers because he hastes Stefan, not because Stefan made him become a vampire, but because Katherine turned Stefan as well. In other words, Damon wanted Katherine all to himself and she messed that up. Well, I think you need to direct that anger somewhere else, bud.

I Hate Uncle Jon, How About You?!

After Uncle Jon catches Elena’s one hitter quitter response, he meets Pearl at the Mystic Grill to discuss the contraption Jon is looking for. Pearl wonders why in the world Jon thinks she will give it to him, but Jon says that he can win her with his Gilbert, since the original John Gilbert did so as well. He offers Pearl a safe asylum in Mystic Falls if she hands over the device, but Pearl still plays coy, so, Jon makes a foolish claim that John Gilbert loved Pearl and wished he had not of done what he did to her. Pearl falls for this and Jon reveals that John Gilbert actually despised her. Pissed, Pearl tells Jon to go ask Damon about the contraption since he has it. Nice going, dumbass…

Meanwhile, Anna has enrolled in school, telling Jeremy she did it to be with him. Jeremy is won over and later, the two talk about John Gilbert and his betrayal to Pearl and Jon Gilbert’s knowledge of this. But Anna wants to tal about something else, but warns Jeremy that his uncle is a snake. The two then begin to make love.

Anna returns home later to find Pearl packing everything, ready to leave. Anna begs her mother to stay, but Pearl says that they are not safe as long as Jon Gilbert is in town. She also tells her daughter that she really can’t make her decide, since Anna has lived on her own before. But Anna chooses her mother and goes to tell Jeremy, who is sleep, goodbye.

Back at the vamps nest, Harper helps Pearl pack her things as well as pack his own. His allegiance is with Pearl, he declares. Pearl offers to help with the bags and when she opens the door, she is met with an ARROW TO THE HEART!!!!!! She dies instantly as Harper cradles her. Anna returns later to find both her mom AND Harper dead. The girl breaks down into a fit of sobs, screaming for her mother to not leave her again.

Outside, Jon throws a stake gun into his trunk and calls Sheriff Forbes about new info on the vamp problem.

Damon and Alaric’s Bogus Trip

Alaric contacts Damon about a possible location of Isobel’s whereabouts and the unlikely duo both decide to check it out. When they get there, they discover that a vampire does stay there, but not Isobel. This vamp’s name is Henry and he recognizes Damon from the tomb. Damon asks Henry about how did he get the house and Henry reveals that Jon Gilbert is helping him with everything in exchange of keeping his ear to the ground about the other Tomb Vampires. Henry doesn’t want revenge, but he knows that the Tomb Vamps do, which is why Jon is keeping an out on them. Alaric asks about Isobel a little too soon, but Damon takes over. Jon then calls Henry’s cell, but Alaric tells Damon not to answer it and they kill Henry immediately.

After that deed, Alaric announces that he is giving up looking for Isobel, who apparently doesn’t want to be found, because he kinda wants to know what made Isobel change her mind about life with him. Damon doesn’t help when he starts to reminisce about Isobel as well.

But as Alaric drowns his sorrows in a glass of liquor at the Mystic Grill, guess who shows up?

Isobel.

Let the hellraising commence!

From The Journals of the Founders

– So a lot of damn revelations tonight. So many in fact that if this episode was some liquor, I would be a drunken idiot now… Let’s review.

– Stefan getting Damon to turn was a doozy. It makes you reevaluate Stefan as a character to the point that I slick want to say he’s more dangerous than Damon, who is predictable to an extent. With Stefan, you just don’t know.

– Giuseppe Salvatore killing his own sons. That is just cold. But irony stinks and I bet he is spinning his heels somewhere now, cursing himself. The return of Emily was great surprise as well, but how did she die? I wonder if Stefan or Damon had anything to do with her death.

– Isobel’s ass is in town!!!!! YES!!!! And Mia Kirshner never looked so… Dear God, let me move on….

– But I can’t! Isobel’s appearance makes the next two episodes even more must see TV, because God can only imagine what’s about to go down in Mystic Falls. Now if Katherine appears next week or in the finale in present day, then I am lunging myself out the window. And I hope KW or JP don’t pull a Lexi on us, that would not be cool. Speaking of which…

– Pearl and Harper getting it by Jon. So did not see that coming. If he was only like the original Johnathan Gilbert, then I would have some respect for his job, but he’s not! Not by a long shot. That guy is in the game for himself, and bet his ass is a vamp or something himself. Why else would he be in cahoots with Isobel?

– Poor Anna. As much as I loathed her earlier, I kinda feel for the lil brat. Now Jeremy might become a pawn in some scheme again. Oh, these kids today…

That wraps it up for this week. Tune in next week to see what hell Isobel brings with her. It must be a lot since the episode is titled, “Isobel”.

Until then, fellow TVD fiends!!!