The VAMPIRE DIARIES
Season 3

Vampires in love

The Birthday

It's Elena's birthday, but she doesn't have a lot to be happy about. Stefan is leaving a trail of bloody corpses across the country and Damon is doggedly pursuing him. When he gets a bit too close, Stefan finds a deadly way to warn him off before Klaus does.

Exactly why Elena and Damon are so intent on getting Stefan back is a mystery since he is quite clearly enjoying going back to his bad boy ways so much. How can he possibly believe that the dozens of innocent people that he is killing is justified by keeping Elena and Damon safe? It makes no sense and that's a difficult place to start the story from.

There isn't that much that actually happens, but the new season is set up and there are some nice hints about the darkness to come, but all of the characters need to start acting like real people and not just doing what the plot needs them to.

The Hybrid

Klaus intends to build an army of indestructible vampire/werewolf hybrids like himself, but it isn't working. The reason is because Elena, the doppelganger, is still alive, but he is unaware of this fact. It is, therefore, not a good time for her to be blundering around in the same woods.

Everyone in this episode says what a bad idea it is to go wandering around in werewolf-infested woods on the night of the full moon and yet everyone goes out and does it anyway. It's this kind of ridiculous behaviour that has marked the start of this season and is making it harder to watch without the incessant rolling of eyes.

The werewolves are unconvincing, but at least the gore level is upped a bit as a result of their failed changes.

The End Of The Affair

Klaus takes Stefan back to Chicago, a place that he doesn't remember them having ever met in before. There, he explains the background to their previous friendship and introduces him again to a lost love.

An extended flashback to Klaus and Stefan having fun in Chicago speakeasies ... yawn. It is ridiculous to think that Stefan and Klaus were such great friends and nobody, including Stefan knew about it. OK, so Klaus compelled Stefan to forget, but there's no way that rumours didn't make their way back to either of the two brothers, especially through all of the people who knew that Klaus was after Elena. It's also rather dull that the show has resorted to the flashback to earlier times cliche.

The introduction of someone that even Klaus is afraid of and the subplot regarding Caroline's father show a little bit of promise, but the show needs to get back on track.

Disturbing Behaviour

Stefan's plan to find a way to destroy Klaus starts to unravel as the witch under Klaus' employ scries for the necklace that he needs and Rebekah starts to doubt his loyalty. Bonnie returns to Mystic Falls to learn Jeremy's secret.

This is one of those set up episodes where the pieces are moved around the board without anything very much happening. In fact, the whole purpose of the episode is merely to get to the very last scene in which Klaus and Rebekah take Stefan back to Mystic Falls, putting Elena once more into danger.

The Reckoning

Over the course of one night in the school, Klaus causes mayhem amongst all the people that Elena loves and more than one dies along the way.

Every now and then THE VAMPIRE DIARIES throws out an episode of such remarkable action, tension and twisty plotting that it makes the show's flaws bearable for a while. This is definitely one of those episodes. There is barely any time for set up and it's into the plot's twists and turns, people dying, being compelled, having their humanity squashed, committing suicide and generally subverting all the expectations of the audience.

The evil that is Klaus is more than just annoying and he is elevated to a real level of nastiness here. The good guys are beleagured and merely fighting to survive, miles behind the game and suffering as a result. There's no time to think, no time to wonder if any of this is making sense and no time to be anything other than thrilled.

It even has the guts to throw in a big, ticking clock to ratchet up the tension and manages to pull it off. If only it was always this good.

Smells Like Team Spirit

Elena has to deal with having the heartless Stefan back in town. Damon has to deal with Klaus' sister, who seems immune to his charms. Jeremy is still seeing his dead girlfriend and the bonfire in the woods is just not a good idea.

After the remarkably tight and exciting The Reckoning, anything less than excellent was going to suffer by comparison. Even that effect doesn't explain away this flat and downright uninteresting episode in which pretty much nothing happens and everyone just acts morose over the events of the previous episode.

Ghost World

The spirits of the dead are coming back to Mystic Falls and not all of them are happy about it. An old enemy offers help to Damon and Lexi comes back to make Stefan go cold turkey.

This is a much better episode that manages to mix action, a decent plot, some tension and some character development. The fact that saving the town is going to mean that all the loved ones will be gone forever makes for a mildly interesting dilemma.

The end to Anna's story is so tooth-decayingly sentimental that it threatens to derail everything.

Ordinary People

Alaric tries to decode the message he was promised was Klaus's downfall and Elena gains information from Rebekah that reveals their family past and Klaus's final evil secret.

More flashbacks, this time to the time when Klaus and Rebekah were vikings living in peace with werewolves and suffered an injury that led to the creation of the first vampires. Whilst this is the origin on the whole race, it is unforgiveably tiresome and rather unspectacular.

The duel of bitchiness between Elena and Rebekah is momentarily entertaining and Michael's arrival on the scene promises future brutality, but there is less to be impressed by than one could wish for.

Homecoming

The Homecoming dance is hijacked by Klaus's return. The ubervamp believes that his father is dead, but is ready for a few surprises, which is just as well because a trap is about to be sprung.

This is one of those episodes of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES where all the plot strands that have been dangling around doing nothing suddenly come together in a burst of twists and action and face offs. These are the best episodes and this rates quite highly amongst those.

There's not much in the way of actual action, but the constant changing balance of power keeps everything rocking right up to the end.

The New Deal

Stefan has the coffins with Klaus' family inside so Klaus returns to the town and targets Jeremy for death unless Elena and Damon find Damon's brother.

After the big twist at the end of the first half of the season, the show is back in a slower pace, starting to build up a whole new set of plotlines from scratch. As a result it's not the most exciting of episodes, though there are a couple of nice moments and the character moment at the end is long awaited by a certain section of the audience.

Our Town

Stefan takes on Klaus by threatening to kill all of his hybrids. When Klaus reacts, Stefan takes drastic action to decide who is the bigger villain.

The manner in which Stefan uses Elena in a display of brinkmanship with Klaus shows just how much he has changed, allowing the writers to move Damon even closer as Elena's love interest. It's a nicely judged moment, but only for those who understand its significance.

Tyler's defiance of Klaus and its surprising consequences are also more interesting than the show's lower moments, making this a much better episode, though the plot isn't moved any further forward by the end.

The Ties That Bind

Bonnie believes that she can open the last coffin, but only with the help of her estranged mother. She and Elena track her down, but Klaus's hybrids are already there.

The story continues to meander all over the place without a central focus to keep interesting. There are killings that might have to do with Alaric's new girlfriend and Catherine's father is saved by the use of the vampire blood, which he's not going to be pleased about.

Klaus finds his coffins and they do contain all of his family, but one has been saved and someone else is back from the dead.

Bringing Out The Dead

Klaus's family are determined to make him suffer for killing their mother. Caroline's father refuses to live as a vampire. The final coffin is opened.

After the reveal of all of Klaus's family coming back to deal with him, this episode has one final family suprise to deal. It's hardly surprising, but it makes the show even more like a soap opera and it doesn't need any more help with that.

The story of Catherine's father is actually the more interesting one even though it is meant to be a sideline, which says it all about what is happening with the main plot.

Dangerous Liaisons

The First Family hold a party and Mommie Dearest wants to meet with Elena. What plans does she have?

Another week, another party. Does anywhere in the world throw as many parties as this one? It's terminally dull anyway, with lots of bitching and nothing actually happening. The mother's plot at least has some merit, but it's very long in coming.

Aside from that there's a bit of familial angst to be going on with.

All My Children

The witch who created the first vampires sets out to destroy them, even though they are her children. Elena is taken prisoner in order to stop her.

Having set up the plot to kill the supervamps, this episode dispenses with that plot far too quickly and without any of the tension or twists and turns that the show can muster in this sort of episode. As a result, the whole thing falls completely flat.

Klaus's character is all over the place, as it Stefan's and the whole thing just feels like its being drawn out long past its true length.

1912

Alaric is in prison accused of the ongoing murder of members of the Founding Families. Stefan and Damon reminisce about when this last happened, a hundred years before.

Flashback alert! Absolutely nothing happens in this episode. The mystery surrounding the killings is an excuse for the show s makers to throw in some period costumes during some more fairly pointless and tedious flashbacks, but this is framed by a lot of inconsequential chit chat that never goes anywhere and smells very, very strongly of filler.

Klaus's character is all over the place, as it Stefan's and the whole thing just feels like its being drawn out long past its true length.

Add to that the completely predictable hiding in the cupboard scenario and this is an example of the show at its worst.

Break On Through

Elena tries to help Alaric cope with being a killer due to the effect of the resurrection ring and Damon tries to get new vampire Sage to help her find out what Rebekah is up to.

The reason for last week's episode is made clear in this one as it turns out to be just a set up to the punchline to Damon and Rebekah's relationship stand off. It's an OK plot, but hardly unexpected.

Meanwhile Alaric going all Jack in THE SHINING on his girlfriend is more fun, but with little lasting point to it. At least it's better than Bonnie's woes with her now-vampiric runaway mother. That's pure soap opera, and bad soap opera at that.

Though it's hard to admit it, having Klaus around at least gave the show some focus.

The Murder Of One

Rebekah takes to torturing Damon whilst the rest of gang target the original vampires with the only stakes that can kill them.

The team have weapons that can kill Klaus, have a plan and have the opportunity. You know that it's all going to go wrong because the show is repeating itself to the point of getting boring. The same weaknesses being exploited, the same threats being made. And that's before we even get to the love triangle stuff that is just dragging on.

The revelations regarding the fate of vampires when an original is killed is a nice twist, but with every advantage being simply handed away it's getting harder to care.

Heart Of Darkness

Elena takes a road trip to sort out her feelings for Damon and Stefan has to find a way to get Alaric to tell him where the last white oak stake is without killing him.

There's a whole load of nothing taking place in this episode. Stefan and Alaric spend some time in a cell waiting to find out where the lost stake is, and Elena fails to learn anything useful about anything.

If ever there was a definition of filler, then this would be it.

Do Not Go Gentle

Klaus' mother is back and she has a new plan that will make a new weapon to kill the originals and a new hunter to wield it.

The disparate threads of Klaus' mother's return and Alaric's dark side are brought together in some plot contortions that are clever and exciting, but then much of the fun is sucked out of them by the whole prom night scenario.

Only when it becomes clear that the night's events will see the death of a loved one does the episode become deeper and worth more than others, but then the rug is pulled out from under that as well.

Before Sunset

The newly-indestructible Alaric has a plan that will see Klaus dead, but the Salvatores also have a plan that will see someone dead before sunset.

The plot twists and turns and has some pretty good action to go with it. When the show abandons all the teenage angst and gets on with telling a full-on vampire story it is so much better than the other weeks.

That doesn't mean that there isn't any place for character moments, but for once they do not drown out the more interesting side of things.

The Departed

Klaus is neutralised, but Elijah wants the body. So does Alaric who is determined to destroy all the vampires. Someone is going to die.

It's the season finale, but since most of the action took place in the last episode, this one has to go for a different tack With Klaus dead, the brothers Salvatore are going to die and Elena must choose which of them to say goodbye to.

With flashbacks to the beginning, the sense of nostalgia and loss is palpable. The finale has a twist or two, pretty much most of them predictable enough, but the big twist comes right at the end and promises big changes next time around.