The Vampire Diaries - The Hybrid (spoilers)

Better late than never, eh?

After that phone call, Elena is not giving up. She decides that tracking down a huge pack of werewolves in order to find Stefan (and probably Klaus, since they are nearly always together) is a good idea, even though she is a little human with almost no skill. Now that’s love. At least she got Alaric to come with her. But first, she asked Tyler where to find packs in the wilderness. He told her about one in Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains. Alaric and Elena set out to check things out, and Alaric told Damon to meet them there. Damon was surprisingly cooperative. His only act of rebellion against this stupidity was pushing Elena in a lake, which was hilarious.

Tyler and Elena were right. Klaus and Stefan were in the mountains, bringing Ray back to his pack on the day of the full moon. After being fed human blood in front of his pack, Ray starts to transition to full vampire (hybrid). He bites Stefan and runs away, so Stefan is tasked with tracking him down. His reward? Klaus’ healing blood. While Stefan is gone, Klaus starts force feeding his blood to the pack and killing them so that they can become vampires.

In the woods, Damon, Alaric, and Elena encounter Ray. Damon wins the little fight and they tie Ray to a tree. He turns into a wolf and gets free. Damon lures the wolf away from Elena, and Elena and Alaric are able to run back to their car. Elena freaks out for Damon and his safety. Stefan saves Damon from Ray by pulling Ray’s heart out of his chest. No matter how many times we see someone do this, it’s still cool. Stefan tells Damon to take Elena home and keep her from coming after him.

The three return home, and Damon is amused with how worried Elena was about him. Damon tells Elena that he is teasing her about her concern because “when I drag my brother from the edge and deliver him back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt while he was gone." This is so perfect. Now Damon is committed to getting Stefan back, because even at Stefan’s worst, Stefan is still in Damon’s corner, protecting him. With both Damon and Elena so committed to Stefan, yet so clearly hot for each other, Stefan is probably going to have to make a HUGE mistake to get them to even temporarily hook up. Which, by the way, one of us is MASSIVELY rooting for.

Alaric moved back into the Gilbert House of misfits with no family, and Klaus’ plan to turn all the wolves into hybrids failed when they all died in transition. He healed Stefan with his blood and then exclaimed that he didn’t know why his hybrid army was a no-go. After all, he killed the doppelganger and everything! Concern registers on Stefan’s face and he and the rest of us realize that Klaus can never find out that Elena is alive. Only, Klaus will, because it’s Elena and she will keep following. And this will probably happen soon, since it is this show.

Meanwhile, Jeremy finally gets Matt to hear him about the whole ghost thing. They attempt to contact Vicki, who tells Jeremy that “they can bring her back.” OMG DO IT, SHOW. She would make an excellent villain. We just know she would be after Stefan and Damon, for revenge, and probably Elena, too. After Vicki’s ghost leaves, Anna shows up and warns Jeremy not to trust Vicki. We think Anna is more trustworthy and less selfish than Vicki, so that might be smart advice to take.

Finally, Carol Lockwood gets a front-row seat to Tyler’s transition at the full moon, because this is his tender way of breaking the news to her. Effective, but couldn’t he give her a little warning? Mean. After realizing that her son is also a technical monster, Carol has a change of heart and promises Tyler that she will not have Caroline killed. She phones the guy she had gotten to do it and tries to call the whole thing off, but he believes it’s still necessary.

Jack Coleman from Heroes is the guy for the job. Carol has Caroline locked in one of the plentiful dungeons on this show. Jack Coleman shows up, opens the door, and says, “Hello Caroline.” Caroline replies, “…Daddy?” Oh snap. This is the gay daddy that left Mrs. Forbes? Can he kill his own daughter? If this show kills Caroline (which we don’t think will happen, but there is always a risk), we are going to hate it a little.

Episode Grade: A