The Vampire Diaries - The Descent recap/review

FINALLY.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH that was a long break.

The episode delivered though. It didn't blow us away or shock us, but a lot happened that will keep the plot moving quickly.

Most of the episode focused on Rose’s slow death by werewolf bite, Damon’s futile attempts to save her, and Elena’s futile attempts to babysit/comfort her. Rose turned delusional from the bite, thought Elena was Katherine, ran around the house looking for blood, and finally escaped and killed three random people. Damon found her and took her home. Rose tried to convince Elena that she was lucky to have loving protectors and that Elena should try harder to live. Using his mind-powers, Damon gave Rose a beautiful dream where she was back in her homeland, with Damon, and human. She talked to him about how much she missed being human. As they laughed and teased each other in the dream, Damon staked her in the heart, ending her suffering. A tear rolled down his face. We didn’t like Rose, or her poor attempt at a decent accent, but we were actually sad when she died (one of us cried big, fat tears). The dream scene was sweet and got our emotions involved. Elena tried to comfort Damon, but he claimed he didn’t care that Rose died and brushed Elena off. Elena snagged a hug and then left him to his drinking.

Matt caught up with Caroline, kissed her, and asked her to get back together. Caroline still doesn’t want him getting caught up in her dangerous drama, so she turned him down. She got home at the end of a long, Matt-filled day, and Tyler was at her door. He kissed her too, and it looked like she enjoyed it (who wouldn’t?). She refused him too, yelled, “Everyone just needs to stop kissing me,” and went into her house. Poor girl (sarcasm, because both of those guys are really hot).

Jules, the werewolf who bit Rose, is still around, hating on the vampires, being snarky, and killing people in the woods. We are calling BS on the whole “I transformed and ate people last night, but when I wake up in the woods, my hair looked like I’d just had it styled for my beauty pageant” thing. Near the end of the episode, Tyler and Jules sat down at the Grill together, and she told him some things that are really going to put a wrench in everything. A) She knows he is a werewolf, B) Caroline is just one of the many vampires in town, and she lied to him about being the only one, and C) that Caroline killed Mason. LIES (well, that last thing, anyway). But he is going to go crazy.

Stefan sought about tracking down Isobel to get information on Klaus so that he could get Elena out of her deal with him/save Elena’s life. It wasn’t an epic quest; it simply involved getting Isobel’s number from Alaric. Stefan left a message and it looks like Isobel sent Uncle/Father John Gilbert to help. That should be interesting. We KNEW the show had a reason for keeping him alive.

Consumed with grief and guilt (the bite was meant for him), Damon wandered the streets, drunkenly. He laid down in the road. A woman stopped her car and got out to help him, and he compelled her to stand still while he released a tirade of emotion. He told her that he missed being human—a LOT. He was crying and screaming and speechifying, and she was begging for her life. Damon told her that she could go, but at the last moment, he bit her in the neck, killing her. Oh, Damon. You’re going to have to deal with all of those emotions sometime….

Everything that we knew was going to happen happened, and then some. This show is wasting no time, as usual, getting the ball rolling and our characters in the loop of what the audience already knows. We’ve got a great set-up for next week (and potentially the rest of the season).

Episode grade: B+