The Vampire Diaries Recap and Discussion: 2.3 Bad Moon Rising

Before taking a look at this episode, I have to ask...could I love Damon more? No, no I don't think so. Beautiful, tortured, man vampire that he is.

Okay, so our little gang of Ric, Damon, Stefan, and Elena feel it's up to them to figure out what sort of other supernatural entity is living in town. They figure the best way to do this is to go to Duke and look through Isabel's research on the mythic folklore of Mystic Falls. Stefan needs to hang back and baby-sit newbie vamp Caroline and so it's Damon, Ric, and Elena heading off. This gives us the first chance to really have Damon and Elena together since Damon's attempted murder of her brother. On the way, Damon claims he knew about the large tacky ring Jeremy was wearing when he snapped his neck, and Ric looks at his own ring of protection much to my amusement.

Meanwhile, Stefan convinces Bonnie to make Caroline a daylight protection ring. Bonnie is reluctant, but does it, freeing Caroline to go find Matt and be a little jealous and freak him out. I have to say that Caroline as a vampire is one of my most favorite things to happen on this show. Later when they make out, and he gets cut and she bites him, it's just so real, yes this is what would happen. And her decision to let him go, making it seem like his choice is one of the most responsible decisions any vampire has made on this show. I have to admit I'm a little frightened of Katherine's influence on her, but it was an inevitable stroke if it's true that doppelgangers torment the people who look like them. We know Caroline is of tremendous value to Elena, and Katherine trying to influence and corrupt Caroline will certainly be a source of pain to Elena.

But let's get back to Damon and Elena my favorite scenes of the show. Damon tries in many ways to make things up to Elena. He jokes around with her, he saves her life, but she stays up on her high horse. Seriously girl drives me nuts, does she not have eyes???? But more than that, Damon demonstrates his vulnerable side, expressing that it would suck to lose her friendship, giving her a book of Katherine's history, and later telling her the absolute truth about what was going through his head when he killed Jeremy with such heartbreaking vulnerability. Elena is cold, dead cold and tells him he's lost her forever. To which Damon delivers the best line of the night, telling her she and Katherine have more in common than their looks. Elena NEEDS to hear this sort of thing. She's existing in a world where she believes she's good and right but she's not above manipulating others or choosing not to kill her friends even though it puts others at risk. These are all the reasons Damon is GOOD for Elena. He's not afraid to tell her when she's wrong or what her faults are but cares about her nonetheless.

Lastly, the werewolf legend has come to town, Mason is a werewolf and Tyler knows. We also learned that a werewolf bite can kill a vampire and that there are few werewolves left. Not sure how all of this will play out, but it will be interesting to watch, as well as interesting to discover if there are more reasons why Elena and Katherine look so much alike.

I love this show.

What did you think of this episode?