The latest episode of The Vampire Diaries combined violence, scheming and a school dance. A noticeable weakness for Vampire Diaries has always been that Elena was the only female character with anything to do story wise. Her friends Bonnie and Caroline both had additional and relevant things happening to them in the episode. Caroline and Matt continued their growing relationship, fighting and making up before the episode was over. Bonnie flirted with a bartender that used to go to her high school and the two of them lined up a date.

Still, the episode wasn't all about finally identified the vampire that attacked Elena and as a vampire Noah that once knew Elena. It turned out that Mystic Falls had more than one new vampire in town. Jeremy invited Noah into their house when he pretended to be a pizza boy, making it easy for him to stalk Elena. Damon used to do the same thing, but Elena and Stefan seemed to have put that behind them for the moment. Damon and Stefan decided to use Elena as bait at the school sock-hop themed dance. Noah attacked her and Stefan and Damon were ready for him. Stefan showed a little more aggression as the boys' interrogation of Noah grew more violent each time he refused to provide any information. Stefan was able to learn that Noah was also there to get Katherine and the other vampires out of the tomb.

Noah's partner in crime seemed to be Jeremy's new girlfriend Anna. Anna was working Jeremy to get his ancestor's journal, but Jeremy gave it to his teacher Alaric. Anna wanted the journal to find the original spell book with the spell that locked the vampires away. Stefan and Damon's interrogation of Noah ended with him taking a stake to the chest while Anna looked on.

The episode ended with two new developments. Bonnie's new friend Ben turned out to be a vampire involved with Jeremy's love interest Anna. As for Alaric, the teacher vampire slayer, he revealed that his late wife's name was Isobel. Damon potentially killed Elena's biological mother. Although Elena agreed to help Stefan trick Damon into thinking they would help him free Katherine from the tomb, it's unlikely that she'll even want to pretend to like Damon after she finds out he killed her mother.

Episode Grade: B+




Story by Lauren Attaway

Starpulse contributing writer