Gossip Teen

The second season of The Vampire Diaries premiered Thursday night and wow! was it great!

The aptly titled episode “The Return” brought back so much more than just what we initally thought. Not only did Elena Gilbert’s doppleganger Katherine Pierce return (in crazy, manipulative vampire form with both parts played very well by Nina Dobrev) there was a return of the nasty, bitter, I-hate-humanity Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and the dominance of the Elena/Stefan (Paul Wesley) romance.

The show picks up right where season one ended… if you haven’t seen it and want to remain in the dark – don’t go any farther!

As Elena walks in on her biological father ‘Uncle’ John (David Anders) bleeding on the kitchen floor, evil Katherine whooshes around the house in super speedy vamp mode as Elena calls for an ambulance. She realizes Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) is home as well. Running to try to protect him, Elena stumbles in on a still unconscious little brother. Stefan appears as Jeremy comes to and explains Jere didn’t take enough sleeping pills to kill himself so drinking Anna’s (Malese Jow) blood only served to help heal him from the overdose faster. Sad Jeremy is still human. Uncle John heads off in the ambulance while Stefan babysits Jeremy and Elena beelines to the hospital to check on Caroline (Candice Accola) who was in a car crash at the end of season one.

Matt (Zach Roerig) and Bonnie (Katerina Graham) are already there, waiting for Caroline’s condition to improve. Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) sidelines Damon to talk about how Mayor Lockwood (Robert Pralgo) was mistaken for a vampire and burned in the basement along with the actual tomb vamps the deputies caught. (The exchange between the two makes me think Damon will be visiting cougar town this year with Liz. Juicy!)

Elena arrives to hear about Caroline’s worsening condition and no spell Bonnie knows can heal her. Damon however has the cure for what ails her – his blood. Elena dismisses it out of hand, but Bonnie understands Caroline is a goner unless someone does something fast. Damon wants a truce between himself and Bonnie. She says “No. You’ll do it anyway… for Elena.” How right she is. (Love Bonnie!) When Miss Bennett departs, Damon wants to talk about the kiss. Elena has no idea what he’s referring to and Damon believes she’s in denial until Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning) shows up. Elena asks where she was and Jenna insists she told Elena. Elena is completely confused. Damon realizes Elena is truly clueless because it wasn’t Elena that he kissed or that Jenna was speaking with: it was Katherine.

Stefan is keeping close tabs on Jeremy when Katherine (posing as Elena) enters the house. As the two are about to kiss, Stefan hurls Kat across the room (he’s not fooled so easily – take notes Damon) and Katherine gives a parting shot to Stefan (“At least I fooled one of you.”) and does her infamous disappearing act as Damon and the real Elena arrive at the Gilbert house. Damon confesses to kissing Katherine believing it to be Elena. Stefan flies across the room toward Damon, who knew how incensed that would make his brother, and Damon zips to the spot Stefan was previously standing in, saying “Don’t be so obvious, Stefan.” Elena calms down Stefan telling him to relax, she would never kiss Damon. Damon is clearly hurt by this and an emotionally wounded Damon is gonna be a problem down the line.

The Lockwood residence is next up as the town folk stop by to pay their respects to the family. Katherine shows up, and Tyler (Michael Trevino) invites her inside, believing her to be Elena. Mayor Lockwood’s younger and MUCH hotter brother Mason (Taylor Kinney) shows up to bond with his nephew. Jeremy offers his condolences to Tyler and the two have a drink from dearly departed Dad’s flask when Mason shows up to shoo Jeremy out. Every step forward Jeremy takes (friendships and girlfriends) others push him two steps back – this is going to be one angry teenager later in the season, I think. Mason wrestles Tyler to the ground as his temper flares white hot at his mother (Susan Walters.) Mason alludes to the “Lockwood Curse” but offers up nothing more concrete than that, for now.

Stefan and Elena head to visit Uncle John as he heals from Katherine’s stabbing. They are going to confront him about what he knows about K’s plans. John claims to have never spoken to Katherine before she stabbed him saying he always dealt with Isobel (Mia Kirshner.) Elena storms out and Stefan unleashes his inner Damon on John. He pins him on the bed, breaks open his skin, forces his blood into John’s mouth and tells him to leave town or he will turn him into the one thing he hates most in the world: a vampire.

Bonnie and Damon have a moment (Damon peers down at Bonnie’s cleavage – so funny!) trying to figure out why Lockwood and son were affected by Johnathan Gilbert’s vamp hunting device. Bonnie made no secret of the fact that she is gunning to take Damon out one way or another and gave Damon a major headache in the process. Katherine gets an earful of complaints about Damon as Bonnie (thinking it’s Elena) kvetches what a jerk he is. Bonnie’s mojo kicks in as she goes to touch her friend’s arm and realizes that’s not Elena. Bonnie tries the migraine trick on Kat who mimics seizing up in pain, only to stand up straight telling Bonnie she’s been around far too long to fall for that old thing.

Stefan intervenes before things get too ugly between Katherine and Bonnie. K and S take a stroll outside and Katherine confesses to her intentions – she came back for Stefan. Stefan tells her he never loved her, he was compelled and she’s the same manipulative bitch she’s always been. Kat responds by stabbing him. “That sounds like the beginning of a love story Stefan, not the end of one.”

At the Salvatore house, Katherine waits for Damon and tells him she’s leaving town. Damon isn’t quite buying it and Katherine taunts him “…kiss me or kill me. Which will it be, Damon? We both know you are only capable of one.” Damon and Katherine end up pouncing on each other, rolling on the floor, shirts torn open ready for more when Damon decides he needs the truth – from the one person he will never get it from. “I’ve never loved you. It was always Stefan,” Katherine says leaving, setting the desperately lonely Damon on a drinking binge that won’t end well.

Damon heads to Elena’s as the evening shift bodyguard and in her room he confronts her about how she feels for him. He is unpleasantly confrontational and Elena admits to caring for him, but echos Katherine when she tells him she loves Stefan and it will always be Stefan. Jeremy enters the room to see if everything is ok and Damon does the most desperate thing he can think of in that moment – snap Jeremy’s neck! Jeremy collapsed on the floor and Damon made a run for it. Stefan appears and Elena cradles her brother in her arms, proclaiming her hatred for Damon. Stefan realizes Jeremy has the anti-death ring on that Uncle John gave to him and within minutes, Jeremy is alive again.

Katherine isn’t done stirring up trouble. In Caroline’s room at the hospital, Caroline happily talks to Katherine believing her to be Elena. As Katherine leans in to Caroline, she tells her to give a message to the Salvatore brothers: “Game on” and she smothers poor struggling Caroline with a pillow.

WOW! Is it next Thursday yet?