By Tegan O’Rourke

Mikael isdead already, Kind of doubt it!  No one really dies on this show. Homecoming was a great title on many levels. It wasn’t just the Homecoming Dance for the kids it was Klaus’s homecoming back to Mystic Falls and Kitty Kat’s!

The show opens with Elena, Damon, Stefan and Mikael, plotting to kill Klaus.  But wait Stefan is compelled so he can’t lie to Klaus, don’t worry Elena stakes Mikael so he can tell Klaus the truth as he sees it. Klaus being over a thousand years old has learned not to trust anyone so he asks for Rebekah to confirm Stefan’s story. She takes phone tells him it’s true, she’s miserable which is true and asks him to come home.

Rebekah watches Mikael awaken. He tells her it was never her he was after. But she doesn’t want to hear it and heads upstairs to put on that fabulous red dress she chose last week. She is going to her first high school dance and is thrilled. Her and Elena share some heartfelt conversation, Rebekah warns her not to trust Mikael. Elena sweetly places Esther’s necklace around Rebekah’s neck.  I got teary, then she takes a dagger and shoves it right in Rebekah’s back. She tells Rebekah, “I’m sorry. I can’t leave anything to chance.”  I agree with Damon, “In the back, Harsh.” I thought it was amusing how Damon tells her “That was very Katherine of you.” Ya that’s right goody Elena may have a spark of the “Petrova Fire” in her after all.

Meanwhile Caroline and Tyler are back at the school decorating for homecoming. I love how these Vampire and Werewolf kids still want a normal high school experience. And no one can plan a better party than Caroline Forbes, except Klaus it turns out.

Tyler tells Caroline that innocent Matt will be taking Hot Blood Slut Rebekah to the dance. The look on Caroline’s face is priceless; it’s obvious she still has feelings for Matt and if she can’t have him now that she’s a vamp, no other hot blonde vamp can have him either.

She questions Tyler’s loyalty, “This is a sire thing, isn’t it? Please tell me this is some weird family extension of your sire bond to Klaus.” Tyler smiles. “I’m here hanging streamers and I’ve got glitter all over my hands,” he says. “If I’m sired to anybody it’s you.” That was sweet.

Evening comes to Mystic Falls and Matt arrives to take Elena to the dance and she informs him Rebekah will not be attending but she can go instead. Poor Matt this guy just can’t catch a break with the ladies of Mystic Falls.

Tyler and Caroline arrive back at the school, but the dance has been cancelled due a convenient flooding in the gym.  The party gets moved to where else The Lockwood Mansion, where all the dangerous underage parties occur in town.

At The Lockwood Party House Caroline wonders how Tyler planned a party so fast after all she is the queen of event planning and no one can out shine her event planning skills. When Stefan compliments Tyler on the party Tyler gives props to Klaus and says “It’s not a party, it’s a wake.” Klaus comes to the stage to welcome everyone and make his snarky presence known.

Back at Salvatore Manor Damon and Mikael change plans quickly when Stefan returns to warn them Klaus is at the Lockwood Mansion having a party. Mikael feeds on Stefan until he passes out. Damon looks squeamish but sticks to the plan.

He shows up to the party and is told the it is invitation only by a rude Hybrid, so he rips out the offending creature’s heart and moves inside.  Damon catches Tyler in the hall and they start arguing about hybrids being at the party, they get physical but luckily Bonnie gives them both vamp migraines, she lets Damon go because she’s actually in on the “Get Klaus” deviance of the evening.

Klaus runs into Elena who looks freaked out of her mind. It seemed very unlike Elena, who grew a pair earlier in the episode and staked Mikael and Rebekah. He tells her if she is planning something to bring it on. He is so ahead of her and the gang. After all he’s been doing this for over a thousand years.

He also warns Tyler, who runs and confronts Caroline of a possible scheme. However Blondie has been left out of the loop on this one and tells him she has no idea what he’s talking about. So he does the manly thing and vervains her. Just when I think he has been turned by Klaus into a total jerky hybrid drone he gets Matt and tells him to get Caroline and the gang home before they get hurt. Poor Matt he tries so hard to stay out of all this vampy, witchy, hybrid mischief except when he wants to communicate with dead people, then it’s game on.

While Klaus is gloating and being snarky to everyone Mikael compels one of his hybrids to warn him of his arrival. Klaus sends everyone outside while he deals with Papa Original on the front porch. But alas Klaus is a coward at heart, he will not come outside and play and Mikael totally calls him on what a coward he is and threatens to kill Elena. Klaus starts to cry, seriously tears run down the face of the one of the oldest and dangerous vampires ever. I think what most hurt his feelings was being told he has no real friends because everyone at his side has been compelled to do his bidding. He mans up and calls Mikael’s bluff and tells him to kill Elena after all he only needed her blood to make hybrids and if he kills Mikael he will no longer need his human blood bag.

Mikael hesitates; Elena still looks freaked out of her mind. But then Mikael figures what the hell and stakes her in the lower back missing the heart of course. She falls to the ground, Mikael acknowledges it’s really Katherine and she jumps back up and throws a bunch of wolf’s bane grenades at the Hybrids. Damon attacks Klaus from behind but misses his heart, Stefan comes out of nowhere and knocks Damon off Klaus, who jumps up grabs the dagger and pummels it into Mikael’s heart which sets him on fire. Did you get all that? It all happened very quickly and was very well done. Klaus comes back in and grants Stefan his freedom from his compulsion, too bad Stefan doesn’t want his humanity back, just his freedom.

Caroline awakens and she and Tyler have it out. He doesn’t understand how after everything they have been through she can’t be on his side now that he is a Hybrid. He makes a good argument about why being a Hybrid is better for him, he can now only turn wolfy when he wants to which is good because it was so painful. But she can’t be persuaded she knows his loyalty to Klaus overrides his loyalty to Team Good Vampire. This love affair may be on the rocks.

Damon goes home and pitches one of the best fits ever; he even throws his scotch glass at the fireplace right in front of Elena. He just doesn’t understand what went wrong. They had it all figured out, they even had Katherine involved and now not only is their only hope of killing Klaus dead, but they will never get Stefan back. Elena grabs him by the face, which was really hot. She tells him, “We’ll survive this. We always survive. Trust me.” Damon asks what will happen if they never get Stefan back, she responds, “We’ll let him go, okay? We’ll have to let him go.” Elena is moving closer every week to the idea that she and Stefan are over and she and Damon should totally get it on. The hotness of their moment is interrupted by Kitty Kat calling. She tells him she is fleeing town again, smart girl.

She hangs up and turns to Stefan who is surprise sitting beside her.  He asks her why she saved Damon. She admits she loved them both and even cold Katherine can still muster up human feelings every now and then.  She also tells him she wants him to get his humanity back, she prefers the old broody, do no wrong, bunny drinking, Stefan. Who knew hot evil Katherine likes good guys, it’s just sick.

What went wrong was told in flashbacks near the end. At the party Klaus tells Kat who he didn’t seem to know was not really Elena that if anything happens to him, Damon will die as well because the Hybrids will still attack. So Kat sneaks back to Salvatore Manor and revives Stefan and begs him to find his humanity to save his brother.

The cliffhanger rocked. Stefan calls Klaus to tell him he has kidnapped all of his dead relatives. Klaus tells him he will kill everyone he has ever known. Stefan reminds him he has the leverage or the coffins.  He asks, “I wonder, Klaus, as someone who’s been one step ahead for a thousand years, are you prepared for this?” Ouch!

Best line of the night when Damon asks Mikael why he feeds on other vamps and he says, “Don’t tell me it’s for the smooth aftertaste.”

Two points that were confusing, can’t Klaus tell when he is around another vamp? How did he not know that it was Kat not Elena at the party? Also if only a human can kill an Original with the oak ash dagger then why did Damon try and stake Klaus? Wouldn’t Damon have died? Remember last season when Ric had to dagger Elijah for that very reason or when earlier in the episode Elena had to dagger Mikael? What changed?

Observations: where was Alaric? He could have been useful in this episode. Also Bonnie could have been used more.

My Predictions: Mikael is not really dead. I think there is a lot more mayhem that guy can create. Caroline and Matt may rekindle now that she has decided that the whole Hybrid thing isn’t for her. Bonnie is going to be in for real drama when her mama Abby Bennet played by Persia White of (Girlfriends) comes to Mystic Falls. I’m betting she’s a pretty powerful witch herself. Hopefully, she will place nice with Bonnie but secretly be a bad witch.

Upcoming: Another cool casting addition is Torrey DeVitto (Pretty Little Liars) who is Paul Wesley’s wife. She will play a possible love interest for Alaric. It’s about time Alaric got some love.

It’s going to be a long seven weeks waiting for this to air again. I guess I will have to start blogging about all the other crazy stuff that interests me.

By Tegan O’Rourke

Rebekah has feelings, Stefan may still have feelings for Damon, Elena is getting the feeling that Stefan can be saved but not by her, by the love of his brother! There were a lot of feelings expressed in this mostly flashback episode chronicling the First Family of Vampiredom.

The episode kicks off with Alaric, Damon and Elena at the cave. Ric, who seems to be a history God, has somehow figured out how to read ancient Viking runes. He deciphers them has the names of the first family of vamps. Damon eloquently refers to the cave script as “It’s the Lockwood Diaries Pictionary style.” He had a lot of funny lines in this episode. It turns out that Rebekah put the family names on the wall before being turned.

Did anyone else fall off their couch when the opening song, Don’t Stop by Foster the People blasted right through the television set? Wow was that loud! And why is Ric still hanging out at his old apartment where Klaus can enter? Anyway I liked the sparring match between Elena and Damon as Ric looked over the cave pictures. I thought when he grabbed Elena by the neck and pretended to bite her that was going to be the hot Damon and Elena scene of the night, but luckily it wasn’t!

Alaric can’t make out some of the symbols so he logically lets Elena talk to sadistic Original Vamp Rebekah. Elena thinks she can somehow relate to Rebekah since she is after all still a teenage girl at heart. Elena confronts Rebekah at school and she freaks over the idea of Mikael coming back and runs off.

Meanwhile Damon shows up at the Vampire Torture Chamber to visit Stefan. Damon being Damon remarks that “It’s Family Day at Vampire Rehab.” And he has come to visit his brother. He lets Stefan loose and they head to an unknown bar where Damon offers up Callie the bartender as a snack to Stefan.

Most of the episode focused on flashbacks going back to pre America Viking peeps and their friendly werewolf neighbors. This all starts when Elena shows up at Salvatore Vampire Hotel Manor where Rebekah is the latest unwanted guest. Elena walks in on some bizarre fashion show where she remarks “You compelled your own runway show?” Rebekah threatens to kill one of the girls if Elena doesn’t pick a dress. She ironically picks the red one. Even the humans have blood on their mind at all times. She then tries to convince Rebekah to spill on the Originals’ history but Rebekah rather raid Stefan’s underwear drawer.

After a bit of girl bickering over Stefan, Rebekah surprisingly starts to tell the whole story. Long ago in a land far far away they were mortals and came to pre America for a life of health and peace, at least that’s what one of their witch friends told them would happen. Mikael or Daddy Original, Ya I knew that was coming, but I still like it, has a horrible temper and clashes with Klaus all the time. They live peacefully among their werewolf neighbors until Klaus accidentally gets his little brother killed while peeping on them.

Mikael asks their witch friend to help by making them stronger than the werewolves. She won’t do it. She must be related to Bonnie. Those Bennets are so ethical. But no worries the original witch is actually Esther, Klaus’s mama. That was a good surprise. She does a spell to make them all vamps except her; one can only be either a witch or a vamp. Mikael makes the kids drink wine laced with blood and then stabs them, but not gently, this was no gentle stabbing. Once they awaken he makes them drink human blood and the change begins. All seems well, until Klaus makes his first kill and triggers his werewolf lineage. Oops Mama had an affair.

These witch’s spells are never perfect. So she has to curse her son now so he can’t be a werewolf and then she shuns him, which made no sense since it’s her fault he’s a werewolf, oh and a vamp too. Mikael finds out about Klaus not really being his son and a werewolf to boot, so he kills Esther by ripping her heart out the way she metaphorically ripped out his. At least that’s what Rebekah believes because that’s the way Klaus tells the story.

She reveals life wasn’t perfect, they had weaknesses like daylight, vervain and the unquenchable blood lust. Elena believing all has been revealed heads back to Ric.

Back at the bar, Stefan is snacking hard on Bartender Callie until Damon steps in and tells him to “Ease up she’s giving us her employee discount.” That was funny. Damon tries to bond with Stefan in his heartfelt snarky way but by the time the subject of turning on Klaus is reached Mikael shows up.

Stefan tells him he has been compelled and can’t help him, so Mikael shoves his fist in Damon’s chest and threatens to pull out his heart. Stefan acts like he can’t help until the last second when he tells Mikael he can lure Klaus back. Amen I was getting nervous, that was the longest hand in the chest scene of my life. I didn’t understand why Mikael just couldn’t uncompel Stefan, I mean isn’t he just as powerful? He is an Original.

Ric explains to Elena that the symbols show that the Hybrid Klaus killed Esther not Mikael. Elena runs back to Rebekah to tell her and possibly throw it in her face like high school girls do. Rebekah gets mad, then starts to cry uncontrollably, her brother Klaus would never do this to her or would he? I felt bad for Rebekah even though Elena didn’t appear to, she just walks out on her as she cries all over the antique carpeting.

Outside the bar Damon asks Stefan why he saved him. Stefan acts like it was to his advantage. They taunt each other but things turn ugly when Stefan tells Damon his humanity is showing. That flips Damon’s switch and he gives Stefan a minor beat down and takes off to Elena’s bedroom.

He plops down on her bed and will not move as she struggles to get under to the covers. She tells him she is not mad at him for freeing Stefan and says of Rebekah, “She’s just a girl who lost her mother too young. She loves blindly and recklessly, even if it consumes her.” Any self-reflection there, Elena? She then goes on to tell Damon that she will not be the one to save Stefan alter all.  “You’re going to be the one to save him from himself. It won’t be because he loves me. It will be because he loves you.”

This all happens as they lay in bed together. Elena doesn’t put up a fuss and actually falls off to sleep next to him. Damon plays it cool and doesn’t grope. He knows his moment is coming.

Predictions for next week: Kat will hopefully be back, Jeremy and Bonnie will have odd moments of almost getting back together but won’t, that teen angst needs to go on for at least two more episodes. Tyler will be back to wipe away Rebekah’s tears. Caroline will most likely walk in and we will see one of the best catfights since Dynasty. Oh and Elena and Damon will wake up next to each and Ric will have a fit over it!