Warning: Contains Spoilers!
Mystery, Murder, and Mayhem once again rule in Mystic Falls.
The Vampire Diaries’ Season 5 premiere delivered all three with a punch, leaving more questions than answers in its wake.
Here’s the short version: Elena and Caroline begin their college experience with a murder mystery. Bonnie is texting her friends that she’s fine. Back in Mystic Falls, Silas is wrecking mind-control havoc on the towns people. Katherine can’t deal with being human; Jeremy can’t adjust to being alive; Stefan is missing (and still underwater); and Damon tells Jeremy he’ll handle it all by himself without involving Elena. With me so far?
Now on to the delectable details. To start things off, the CW drama gave us a fun recap of what transpired over the summer. Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) couldn’t keep their hands off each other; Matt and Rebekah (Claire Holt) traveled around Europe and engaged in a threesome with a mysterious Nadia (Olga Fonda) in Prague, and Caroline was busy color-coordinating her and Elena’s college dorm room.
Back to the present. Elena and Caroline (Candice Accola) head off to college, leaving Elena’s brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) under the care of Damon. Maybe for some bonding time? Jeremy reluctantly goes back to school with a bizarre cover story of drug use, arson and teenage rebellion to explain why he faked his own death. The first day there, he is expelled after he body slams three bullies into the lockers. Go Jeremy! However, Damon isn’t too happy about this, and compels the principal to give Jeremy a three day suspension instead. Oh Damon, your soft side is showing.
Meanwhile, back at Whitmore College, Elena and Caroline’s celebration is cut short when a third roommate shows up, and it’s of course, not Bonnie (Kat Graham). The mysterious girl is Megan (Hayley Kiyoko). Caroline’s hunter radar goes up immediately. She tries to convince Elena that Megan is a Hunter, who knows they are vampires and is out to get them. But Elena talks Caroline into going to a campus house party to try to be “normal”. Once there, they can’t enter the house without being invited in. They bump into Jesse (Kendrick Sampson) who invited them to the party, and Megan, outside. They give the excuse they’re waiting for someone. Elena leaves Megan a voice mail telling her they’re not staying at the party. Megan calls soon after, screaming for help.
What follows is a scene right out of a low budget horror film. The camera pans up to the top of the party house/dorm they’re standing outside of, as though tracing Megan’s screams. Then it pans back to Elena asking Megan what is going on. Then…wait for it…a body lands with a loud thump behind Elena and Caroline! Wow, didn’t see that coming. Of course, it’s Megan and she’d been bitten by a vampire (could it be Jesse?)
They steal her cell phone because of the voice mail Elena left and they lie to the campus police that they don’t have it. Why would they do that? The police already said it was a suicide because they found Megan’s note. When is it a crime to fail to rescue your roommate? Back at their dorm room, they discover Megan’s tablet missing along with the alleged suicide note. Smells like police work, not a campus cover-up as Elena and Caroline think.
Writing Megan out was a wasted opportunity. A more compelling (no pun intended) story arch might have been Haley actually being a Hunter, pursuing her mysterious connection to Elena (Megan’s cell had a picture of Elena’s father and Megan together). Maybe Caroline could have gone through Megan’s cell to find the picture (she snooped through everything else of hers!) in the first place. The whole someone is after Elena story just feels like amateur sleuth hour.
Jesse may end up as Caroline’s new boyfriend. He certainly has shown interest in her and Tyler (Michael Trevino) left Caroline voice mail indicating he’s not coming back any time soon. This strongly suggests that their relationship isn’t going to survive.
Matt reunites briefly with Rebekah while serving up beer at the town square. She fails to convince him to quit his job and go with her (to New Orleans?). Soon after he watches her leave, he sees Nadia. Matt follows her and she gives back his Gilbert ring that she took when they were in their threesome. But someone is with her. Matt is grabbed by from behind and some sort of spell is said. His eyes turn black, then normal and he drops like a sack of potatoes. So who is Nadia and her companion? And what did they do to poor Matt?
Back at the House of Salvatore, Katherine shows up looking for a place to crash and protection from her enemies trying to kill her. Poor Katherine. Humanity does not become her. Her hair looks like birds have nested in it, her smeared make-up gives her a sad clown face, her nails are chipped, and she complains of blisters from running in high heels. Damon crinkles his nose and offers to turn her back, which she refuses. She’s afraid she’ll end up dead if she turns, because no one knows the effects of The Cure. The sarcasm drips from Damon’s mouth as he replies, “And that would be tragic.” Ouch!
We finally check in on poor Stefan trapped in that underwater safe! Makes you feel like holding your breath during that scene. Stefan hallucinates that he’s having a long conversation with Damon, who tries to convince him to give up his humanity. Stefan doesn’t see the point in doing that. Later on, he hallucinates about Elena telling him to stay with her and not to go, because humanity is what makes him who he is. Someone please hurry up and rescue him!
Silas makes his appearance at the Salvatore house and attempts to choke Kathryn. Jeremy having figured out that Stefan is really Silas earlier at the grill, arrives with Damon at the house. Jeremy takes Kathryn on a drive while Damon confronts Silas about Stefan’s whereabouts. Silas won’t reveal where Stefan is, until Katherine is brought back. Damon makes the call to Jeremy, but Katherine attacks him and they crash in a dramatic car hits light pole and it’s lights out, fashion. Kathryn limps away into the night, and Damon arrives to find Jeremy sprawled out unconscious on the roadway. For a moment, it appears he’s dead again, but Damon succeeds in waking him up.
The episode ends at the Mystic Falls End of Summer Party, where Mayor Rudy Hopkins (Rick Worthy), Bonnie’s father, has his speech interrupted by Silas who uses his mind-control on the crowd and slits the Mayor’s throat. Bonnie sees this and is devastated. Silas then instructs the zombie like towns people to find Kathryn. Did he kill Bonnie’s father as revenge? Can Bonnie retaliate? Why is Silas determined to kill Katherine? Is it her blood he wants and if so, for what?
Hopefully, the questions this premiere raises will be answered in the upcoming episodes.
What did you think about the Season 5 premiere?
