"Can You Feel This?" : "The Vampire Diaries (4x08) Review - "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street"

Previously on The Vampire Diaries...

• DAMON AND ELENA DO THE NASTY! THAT IS ALL! (Just kidding)
• Stefan went psycho, but was hot doing it.
• Jeremy went psycho, and was hot doing it.
• Hotties in suits.
• Klauroline
• Evil Prof. Silas Shane
• Jeremy wants Elena dead.
• Hayley is conspiring with Prof. Shane.
• DAMON AND ELENA DO THE NASTY!
• Caroline and Stefan think Elena is sired to Damon. Boo!

This week on The Vampire Diaries Damon and Elena both learn of the sire bond between them, and each have different view points on the subject. It turns out Damon has previous experience on the subject, and believes he knows of a solution. Elena's thoughts veer in a completely different direction than I had anticipated after last week's episode. 

After Stefan breaks the news to Damon, Damon heads to the school to see if he can make Elena drink from a blood bag. The bet he made with Stefan was contingent on whether or not it would work. If it worked: Elena is sired to Damon. Something Stefan was hoping for since he was under the assumption is would mean her feelings for Damon might not be real. If it didn't work: Stefan would apologize, and bow out gracefully. It worked. 

Back in the 1940's, Damon turned a woman named Charlotte. She was a girl he had a fling with that had fallen in love with him, and begged him to turn her, which he did. Due to her vamp-enhanced feelings, and sire bond, Charlotte became obsessed with Damon to the point he ended up leaving her. But not before he actually did visit a witch to attempt to free her from her bonds. Damon even went so far as to sacrifice 12 innocent people as an ingredient in the spell which turned out to be a lie. The witch he visited used him to tap into the darkest kind of magic. Something we later learn Shane has been using Bonnie for unbeknownst to her. 

What I loved about this flashback episode was that despite the fact the Salvatore brothers hadn't seen each other since 1912, all it took was an apology and a drink to put them back on the same team. This to me goes to show that the epic love story of TVD isn't Stelena or Delena, but that between Stefan and Damon. No matter what happens between them, they always seem to find their way back to each other. 

In 1912, Stefan was the one with the grudge against Damon whom he blamed for turning him into a Ripper. Now in present day he's angry his girlfriend threw him over for his brother. As he told Damon when asked if it was too hard to believe Elena could actually have feelings for the elder Salvatore, "No, I just can't believe she'd actually believe you're the one that's better for her." 

Another thing I loved about this episode was how both brothers can empathize with each other's situation. They've been down the road of hating each other over a woman, and it seems this time around they're both willing to make better choices in order to maintain their relationship. 

While the boys were "brother bonding," Elena decides to have a slumber party at the boarding house with Caroline and Bonnie. It starts out pretty fun with dancing and under aged drinking, but then their buzz begins to wear off. While Bonnie is just enjoying spending time with her girls, Caroline is noticing how comfortable Elena seems to be in the boys' home. Especially the Damon section. 

When the girls end up in Damon's fantastic bathroom, things get kind of catty. Caroline begins making comments about Damon's promiscuity. Something Elena takes offense to given the fact she was his latest conquest, and is quick to point out how Caroline slept with him the first night she met him. Elena's admission to her dalliance is shocking to her friends who didn't realize how much she cares for him. Each girl has been so wrapped up in their own drama that they haven't really been paying much attention to what the others are going through. The fact that Caroline knows about the sire bond just bring back too many memories of her toxic relationship with Damon, and she uses her knowledge to hurt him, but ends up hurting the person she was trying to protect - Elena. Surprisingly, Elena stands up for herself, and begins to kick her friends out. She's fed up with people trying to dictate her feelings and actions for her. 

To me it's understandable why Caroline feels the way she does, but the way she handled the big news this episode was a bit tacky. Yes, Caroline has every right to worry her BFF is being taken advantage of by Damon based on her own history with him, but to use her knowledge as a weapon was just downright dirty dealing. No me gusta! Though the sire bond drama was the main story this week, it wasn't the only story. 

Last week, Hayley and Tyler helped Ashley break her sire bond to Klaus, and this week she tried to overthrow Tyler as the Mystic Falls Alpha. Tyler has been dealing with so much hybrid crap lately, that he totally forgot he's a werewolf at heart, and wolves are pack animals. A point Hayley had to remind him of sensing he was about to be in series danger. After Tyler attempted to assert his dominance over Ashley, she decided to one-up him, and kidnap Caroline to send a message to Klaus. A message that would have gotten them all killed. Though the girls had been in the middle of a fight, as soon as the wolves kidnapped Caroline, they were all on Team Scooby again. 

This storyline not only allowed Tyler to assert himself as an Alpha in his own right independent of Klaus. An Alpha who now has his own pack, nonetheless, but it finally got tied to the Vamp Elena story that's been brewing all season long. Shane needs 12 hybrids as part of the "cure" spell, and a witch who practices some extremely dark magic. If anyone doubt his villainy before, you can't now that  Shane's spell is looking very much like the spell Damon got duped into enacting back in the 1940's. Not only isn't there a cure for a vamp sire bond, but it's highly doubtful there was ever a vampire cure either. Besides, when on this show have you ever heard of 2 different spells with the same ingredients? Never!

By the end of the episode all of the Scoobies have joined different factions, whether they're aware of it or not. Tyler has made himself an Alpha of Klaus' hybrids, which will mean a fight of dominance will have to take place. Though Klaus mainly acts like a vampire most of the time, let's not forget he, too, is a werewolf. Only one Alpha can rule the Mystic Falls pack, and despite Tyler's flawless heart-ripping technique, it's doubtful he'll be victorious. 

Even though Elena is now aware of her sire bond to Damon, she doesn't care. Damon promised Stefan he's set Elena free, a fact she knew and was prepared for when he returned home. Before Damon could utter the words that would end their love affair before it could begin, Elena begged him to give them a shot despite any of her free will he can remove at his liking. Now that they have decided to stay together, their relationship will cause major problems for everyone who not only doesn't want them together, but may be concerned about the unnatural connection the share. 

With the group splintered it is beginning to look like several of them won't make it out of this scavenger hunt alive. Brother against brother. Friend against friend. Alliances have shifted, and though I enjoy the new partnerships, I worry they have weakened the group when they need to be at their strongest. 

Next week is the mid-season finale. Damon and Elena continue their affair in spite of a sire bond, From the promo, it seems that Stefan will finally learn the two are now intimate. Will he also learn that it was Elena who chose to remain sired, or will his heartbreak cause him to blame his brother's selfishness? Now that Tyler has unsired all of Klaus' hybrids, he formulates a plan to kill Klaus, but what happens when Klaus manipulates Stefan's pain to his advantage? Will Stefan give up Tyler? Tune in next week for the last episode of 2012, "O Come, All Ye Faithful."