The Vampire Diaries 5.15 "Girl Gone" Review

                                              
As Nadia (Olga Fonda) lies dying (thought I'd paraphrase a previous Vampire Diaries ep from the season 2 finale, As I Lay Dying, when Damon (Ian Somerhalder) was bitten by the werewolf and they needed Klaus's blood to save his life.  We had Elena (Nina Dobrev) by his side and spending time with him, whilst Stefan (Paul Wesley) was put through the rigmarole of having to play Klaus's lackey so he could get Klaus's blood to cure Damon.  Ok a little off point there, but still relevant for many reasons, read my review for that ep to find out why.  http://mila255.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/vampire-diaries-222-as-i-lay-dying.html)

 Here Nadia doesn't get a cure since Katherine tells her she can't ask Klaus cos he'll be after her.  Instead she enlists the help of Maxfield (Rick Cosnett) which was not only stupid but dangerous, I mean he's really going to help.  He takes Nadia's blood sample so he can juts whip up something, a magic cure.  Don't think so.

The others meanwhile are on the hunt for Katherine and Nadia and this involves Bonnie (Kat Graham) asking Liv (Penelope Mitchell) for help again with the scrying spell, but seems she only has eyes for Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) which perturbs Bonnie no end.  Many have liked Jeremy and wanted him, many will continue to do so, so get over it Bonnie.  They need to locate Katherine so they can use the gypsy dagger on her and expel her from Elena's body.  Even Damon tries to get Katherine to meet him, but she sees through him, of course she would.  One minute she doesn't want to know him and vice versa and the next he just expected her to come running!  Caroline (Candace Accola) and Bonnie also come up with a plan to reel her in for Bonnie's birthday but Katherine isn't biting.  She knows it's a trap since none of them wanted her around or called her and now everyone's bugging her.  Figuring out they know she's not Elena.

Damon also tells them the same eventually, that she knows he was trying to get her to come down under false pretences.  Nadia has flashes of looking for her mother over the centuries, which was very Katherine orientated in the sense of how she also had flashes when she was on her deathbed of having Nadia taken from her so cruelly and losing her parents.  As well as having eyes only for Stefan.  Maxfield doesn't show up with the cure and Katherine goes looking for him.  That's cos Damon's escaped his chains by luring Tyler (Michael Trevino) in after telling him how he couldn't stop Caroline from sellping with Klaus and he can't resist being baited by Damon.  So Damon arrives at Maxfield's after Enzo tells him where he is but we don't know what Enzo's last deed for Maxfield was.  They fight and Maxfield tries to get his hands on the syringe with the all magic potion, the Augustine serum; but Damon gets his own back by exacting the same torture he endured for five years onto him, but in less time.  A fitting end, ha.

Katherine didn't even look all that distraught, unless she was keeping up a front for appearance's sake.  But she arrives at Salvatore mansion after all to say farewell to Nadia.  Though it doesn't really look like she was really that sad to see her daughter go, not until the last minute.  She tells Nadia she was taken from her and so couldn't be a good mother.  Right, any old excuse.  Nadia dies and Bonnie helps her to cross over. Katherine attempts to escape but is cornered by Damon who's outside the front door.  So that was the only way in and out was it.  She accepts defeat in the only way Katherine could and asks who will do the dirty deed.  It won't be Caroline, Jeremy or "Matty Blue," or even Damon or Bonnie.

Katherine tells Damon she sorry him for turning him, for taking him away from his family but it's just a speech to get him angry, cos she's glad of everything she did to him and he went through.  She turns to Stefan, the love of her life and they share a kiss, before he brings out the dagger and stabs her.  She had to really expect that didn't she, knowing his heart always belongs to Elena and not to her.  So Katherine's gone, or is she?  Probably she will return in some way, shape or form and she gets to the church where Bonnie lights a candle for her father, but Katherine doesn't pass through her and not for want of trying either.  Before she goes she has a nice surprise in store for them and for Elena.  She stole the syringe and injected Elena's body with it, so now Elena's got the ripper virus too, but many times worse since it has werewolf blood.  That should spice Elena up a bit seeing we can't really have the old, boring Elena back.  So she's in league with Damon now, having got what he's got and her turn to play ripper for a change.  As for Katherine, she's dragged to that other side, the hell below.

Tyler tells Matt (Zach Roerig) to bury Nadia in the woods but he tells him she's going to have a proper burial as she deserves better.  We also got to see how he and Rebekah and Nadia spent the Summer together. Matt even pretended to be Gregor so that Nadia could have a less painless passing.   Finally though Tyler's werewolf bite is actually lethal and if Katherine really wanted to be the mother she claimed she was, she should have found Klaus to save Nadia even if that meant losing her life in the process, which she did anyway.  At least she gave Nadia her last perfect day/memory which involved her playing outside and coming home with her.  Just like Stefan did the same for Katherine by removing the death of her parent's from her mind.  Although Katherine didn't go gently, she left them with a parting gift that'll make them remember her.

So Bonnie doesn't know what was happening to Katherine or where she was headed, that can only mean one thing, she's not really gone for good, right?  She's an intricate part of the show and can't really be written out.  She made the show more interesting than the ever-eternal, confounded, continuing love triangle, which this show should never have gotten too bogged down with, drawing away from the real story.  It's not always about love.

Tyler and Caroline faced that inevitable showdown where she wanted to know why he and everyone was down on her for sleeping with Klaus.  Yes, she did it, she tells him, it's in the past, but now get over it. Adding that no one riled on him for killing Nadia with his werewolf bite.  Recall he told Matt he only just nipped her.  Also Tyler bit Damon in season 2 when he was trying to help him.  Thus passed a well loved character in Katherine Pierce.  Leaving us to ponder what lies in store for Elena, but who really cares? Ha.

As sated int he opening there were similarities to Damon's werewolf bite ep where he had flashes and they always involved Katherine.  Vowing he could chase her forever, which he did and finally got to see her die now.  Stefan had to turn into a ripper once again in order to save Damon and here Damon was a ripper too and Elena, well she'll probably be a super ripper, ha.  The title of that season 2 episode alluded to Homer's The Odyssey and mentions the woman wouldn't close his eyes as he descended into hell/Hades, somewhere Katherine is right about now.  I also mentioned in that review about Supernatural making a great cross over ep with Vampire Diaries and didn't Katherine remind you just a little of Dean (Jensen Ackles) and his being dragged into hell for making that deal and selling his soul to save his beloved Sammy (Jared Padalecki).

Revenge 3.14 "Payback" Review

                                               
Emily: "Of all the weapons we take into battle, there is none more powerful than the mind.  It holds our instincts and our training.  It allows us to distinguish friend from foe, love from hate.  But if that weapon is unsound, it is by no means disarmed.  For the mind is all the more dangerous when damaged and there's no guarantee it won't choose itself as its next victim."

Emily (Emily VanCamp) goes in for a cat scan and her doctor tells her there's an anomaly on her brain, for which she needs to see a specialist and that she should also seek professional help and talk to someone about it.  Emily tells this to Nolan (Gabriel Mann) and she's asked him to hack into the security footage of the Southfork.  She's at the bar when Conrad (Henry Czerny) approaches and takes her back to his room, but he leaves her there the entire night.  So much for saying how amazing she was.  Nolan's worried for her since she's living in danger at the mansion and living with the enemy, so anything could happen to her.  It appears she's working with Conrad and he's the one who called his ex, Stevie (Gail O'Grady).  Who just happens to be a hotshot divorce attorney and is helping her with divorcing Daniel (Josh Bowman). Yeah one Mrs Grayson to another.  She can get an annulment from Daniel cos he slept with his mistress in their home.

She tells Emily about the deal she wants but Emily can't recall.  Instead she tells Stevie she doesn't want to divorce Daniel after all but she's not in love with anyone else, which Stevie can't believe cos her eyes betray her.  Stevie: "that look in your eyes is love and not for the man you married."  This really worries Emily cos she almost gave away telling her about Aiden (Barry Sloane) and later she turns up at Aiden's and wants to make mad love to him.  Mad being the operative word.  He pulls her off him and tells her he's leaving for London.  Well not really, just the boot of the car, as Niko (Stephanie Jacobsen) drugs him and takes him back to Takeda's apartment.  Here she shows him the katana and is hoping for Emily to come, as she's left her a clue and then she's going to kill her, just like he murdered her father.  Aiden tells her he didn't, he defended himself and did what his father taught him.  Or else he could have said that someone else did it, but he took the katana for sentimental reasons, that's why he had it.

Emily tells Nolan about what she's done and about Aiden and then sees the katana cover in Aiden's bag. She's the one who had the katana after all and not Aiden, which is why I said he wouldn't be so stupid as to keep that under the bed last ep.  She's worried for him and also that she's trying to get revenge on her friends instead of her enemies.  She turns up and fights Niko, who really doesn't compare to everything Takeda taught her.  Oh, now Aiden manages to undo his ropes, but he couldn't before.  Emily gets the better of her but Aiden stops Emily from killing Niko.  He says they followed a code just like her father and she should just leave.  But has she gone for good.

Daniel plans a birthday party for Charlotte (Christa B Allen) but only after she reminds him.  Also asking him for a job on Voulez.  He responds she's welcome to his job since Conrad has taken over the magazine and he got fired.  Daniel stresses how it's just the two of them against the world.  Maybe until she finds out who really shot Emily.  Just as Conrad returns home, ha, Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) receives word of the fire at the gallery and Patrick (Justin Hartley) admits it was his fault.  He's called Brennan (Brett Cullen) to carry out the repairs and he's more than happy to get into bed with the Grayson's.  Victoria is disgusted with him and leaves but not before begging Patrick not to take drastic measures against him cos she can't lose him.

Patrick almost electrocutes him until he talks of how he had a child, but couldn't get to see him cos his mother took him away and gave him up.  Emily arrives at Charlotte's birthday and she tells her she's happy she's got an internship on Voulez.  Of course Conrad would oblige her.  Charlotte tells Emily she already said that half an hour ago.  Daniel receives a phonecall and Victoria spies Brennan speaking with Charlotte. He's here for colour swatches and then notices that look in Victoria's eyes.  Like she's after him.  Later he puts two and two together and when Victoria shows up at the gallery again, he recalls who she is and how she went after him.  Victoria is outraged and Patrick hits him, he falls and hurts his head, but they don't call for an ambulance.  Instead Victoria has a flashback with his, "face in the concrete line" and they leave him to die.  Patrick tells her he doesn't want to go through that, what were they even doing.  But he's in the clear since the police say he fell from his ladder.  Not very thorough the police in the Hampton's.

Emily finds out she lost the plot with Nolan too and he videoed it on his phone. Only his ego was bruised. She doesn't know what's happening since it's not the anomaly on her brain which is causing the blackouts. She thinks it might be heridatary and she may be following in her mother's footsteps.  She later tells Aiden how she didn't mean to plant the katana for it to be found and didn't want to see him dead.  But she must have her revenge and she cant give him the family he wants.  He tells her all he ever wanted was Emily.

Jack (Nick Wechsler) and Margaux (Karine Vanasse) get a house together.  She also tells Daniel she is trying to save the magazine for both of them since she's trying to see what Conrad is up to.  She's leaving for France to force her father to meet her.  As well as losing it when Conrad calls a creative meeting without her there.  Conrad tries to get into Stevie's good graces by giving her an envelope with something that will make up for the past.  She throws it into the bin.  Later she visits Jack at the Stowaway and sees Carl there, Stevie decides to stay on since she wants to hear what Conrad's been up to with Jack.

Stevie has a deed which shows she's the owner of the manor and wants Victoria out, Conrad joking about how this will leave Victoria homeless.  But Stevie tells him this doesn't mean she's in partnership with him. She returns to the Stowaway and reveals to Jack that she's his mother and wants to hear the story now. Though it was meant to be shocking it was just so obvious Stevie was going to say, "I'm your mother."  That we blurted it out before even she did, ha!  So it seems Jack is in it up to his neck with being so closely associated with the Grayson's and his father having an affair with Stevie, ugh, it's never ending.  Is Montauk so small! The other worst case scenario is that he's Conrad's son, nooo!  But wouldn't that stir up a whole other kettle of fish.  There are plenty of 'halfs' though, as in Emily and Charlotte being half sisters.  Daniel and Charlotte being half brother and sister and then Patrick is also their half brother.  Jack and Declan were half brothers.  Have I missed anyone?

Daniel wants Charlotte to spy on Conrad now she has her foot through the door since once again they've only got each other left.  Again I reiterate, how long before she finds out his lies and shooting Emily.  Wonder if he'll find out Emily and Charlotte are sisters, that'll send his world spinning and rightly so.  Charlotte is worried about Emily and Conrad being so close, especially after Lydia shot her.

Perhaps the highlight would have to be Victoria and Stevie bumping into each other dress shopping.  Then Stevie pointing out Victoria has the same dress as her in her hand!  Touche, ha.  Are their tastes really so alike.  It's uncanny, I mean they both had affairs, both had children who weren't Conrad's and whilst they were both married to him.  Want to know how Jack will take this revelation and how will Margaux's foray into ousting Conrad get her any closer to Daniel.

Is this blackout storyline of Emily's actually going to lead somewhere or is it just a means to keep the show running.  So Patrick has now killed two people for his mother and he's not looking any more endearing as a person.  Just reinforcing the effect Victoria can have on her brood, which I mentioned a few eps ago, both Patrick and Daniel can take other's lives so easily, life is so cheap and they don't have any morals.  What makes it worse is that they can get away with it too, as it's always covered up everytime.  Though Patrick was going to call for help but instead she made him endure his own father's death.  As Victoria replies, "we're victims of our world."  Or rather victims of your own doing.

The Mentalist 6.15 "White As The Driven Snow" Review

                                             
Continuing on from last ep we get to see the call again between Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) before she's abducted.  Hey she was wearing her socks on the bed, but when she woke up in the basement, she had her boots on, of course she needed those for when she escaped.  So Rigsby, Cho (Tim Kang) and Patrick (Simon Baker) have a few beers with Rigsby telling Patty he and Van Pelt always thought Patrick and Lisbon (Robin Tunney) would get together, which Patrick just laughs off.  But seriously under that demeanour, he has got a soft spot for her, only we don't know if he would really own up to his feelings and admit them and whether Lisbon would too.  Hey we can cold read Patty too you know! Ha.

Rigsby and Cho grab some dinner and Cho tells Rigsby they should join the FBI.  Abbott (Rockmond Dunbar) wanted him to ask them and Rigsby really thinks they could do that until later on.  Cho notices the hotel room door open and they find Van Pelt is missing.  Abbott wants a search for Haibach (William Mapother) and Wylie (Joe Adler) tries to tell him that he's already here, which we knew.  Patrick finds he's got a plan and had one all along before turning himself in on the basis of being stalked by the police and having a warrant on his head.  But Patty can see through the facade.  Rigsby comes in and blows his top, like that'll make him spill.  Haibach's alibi is checked and pans out but only cos he's got an accomplice.

                                                
We see her when Van Pelt manages to escape her prison to find herself in the snow.  Asking the first car that came along for help, which happened to be an SVU and a grey one at that, just like what the FBI saw on some camera footage.  She didn't think that it could be her kidnapper and the person who was really after them.  She takes her back to the cabin feigning Van Pelt can use the phone, until Van Pelt notices there's no electricity, so no phone.  Rigsby really wants Patrick to help him and Patrick tells Rigsby she's still alive, even though Fischer (Emily Swallow) tells Abbott she's already dead by now.  Yeah she'd know.  Wouldn't want to have her on my team or the case either.  So untactful too cos Rigsby heard her and that's the last thing he wants to hear.

Patrick storms into the interrogating room and threatens Haibach, that he will answer to him and he's got nothing to lose, which he hasn't as we know and he's not just full of idle threats either.  Abbott reprimands him but Patrick wants him out of his comfort zone and his plan to be foiled.  His lawyer, Laura (Penny Peyser) arrives and his alibi checks out so he has to leave.  Knew that was Patty behind the wheel of their car cos of his plan.  Fischer even tried to have a talk with Laura as if she'd help.  Though Lisbon would have had a better shot, even if Fischer tells her she already tried.

They drop Laura off on the road and they take him further.  Rigsby threatens him and throws him out of the car, as we know this is Patrick's plan and Rigsby even pours gas over him and lights a flare, throwing his gun down beside him, cos it wasn't loaded.  Haibach gets the better of them which is what they wanted and he leads them to the building but Van Pelt is gone.  He then takes them to the cabin.  Wylie figures out where Haibach would be since he's bought clothes for snow and his sister, Hazel (Lisa Darr) is the logical accomplice helping him out.  He's at Sante Fe at the bottom of the mountains.  Van Pelt tries to talk to her but she doesn't want to hear anything.  She feels guilty about not being there for him when their father did things to him.  I don't know why Van Pelt didn't undo the duct tape from her mouth since  her hands were taped in front of her.

Patrick and Rigsby arrive and he heads straight for Van Pelt not seeing Hazel's behind him.  She shoots him and then Haibach shoots Rigsby again.  Felt sure those bullets would have been fake too, but alas no. Patrick and Van Pelt are taken outside and Patrick is about to have his fingers chopped off one by one.  Oh the look on Patty's face since we know his aversion to pain.  But Rigsby helps them by getting to Hazel and then the helicopter arrives, a little too late though.

Rigsby and Van Pelt don't want to join the FBI but that's the last time we'll see them as one big happy family. That's why the bonding moment with Cho for the last time and asking Patrick for help one last time too.  Though it really seemed slow and like Patrick wasn't his usual self when he was working the case.  He was sitting there reading the file,something he didn't do as much and wouldn't really need to in the past.  You can still feel that something is missing here.  Then it was good to see Patrick and Lisbon share some screen time together.

Also some reminiscing on the part of the boys when Cho recalls that pony Patrick gave Lisbon and he wonders what happened to it.  That's right, buy her a pet and then forget about it, ha.  Patrick mentioning also the title of an ep, A Price Above Rubies.  A good ep to mention since Patrick finds out Rigsby and Van Pelt have a thing for each other, as well as Patrick posing as Lisbon's husband for a moment at the psych hospital.  Hey it was good continuity to mention it here, though he didn't mean as a past ep, since Rigsby says they thought about Patty and Lisbon being a couple.  Besides the episode also guested Callard Harris, so that's a bonus!

Almost like the good old days!  Yes even with their dialogue at the end:
Lisbon: "I was really angry at you for doing what you did, but then I thought better of it.  It was a stupid idea, but hey it worked.
Patrick: "Stupid...not necessarily stupid, simple, not stupid.
Lisbon: "I am still angry at you for not telling me what you were going to do.  I thought you'd gone nuts."
Patrick: "It's not like I haven't abducted people before."
Lisbon was afraid for Patrick but not for Van Pelt or Rigsby.

Longmire 1.1 Pilot Review

A harkback to by gone times, when men were men and women hardly got a word in, ok that's going a bit too far! Ha.  But Longmire is a series which relies more on talk and action than just tech alone.  Never has so much been said in just one look or a few words, even one nod of the head.  Thanks in most part to its charismatic lead Robert Taylor.  He may be Australian but he's got his character of Sheriff Walt Longmire down to a tee, or tee, infact his one liners could be used on a tee-shirt!

Based on the series of books by Craig Johnson,  it really does go back to basic, grass roots TV, no pun, being set in Absaroka County, Wyoming.  Lonely secluded town, aka boondocks to some.  That makes it all the more appealing cos we get to see good old fashioned crime fighting at its best, where little or no tech is involved. heck this sheriff don't even own no cellphone, let alone use a phone all the time.  Also be hard to get him to use a computer.  Which once again adds to the charm of the show, or should I say quaintness.

It's a step away from CSI and forensic related shows, so if you want to get away from those, then tune in to this.  It's not that forensics aren't used or necessary, they're just not featured that much or relevant to a point.  It's more about intellect, and legwork.  It's also more character orientated and with the first scene you get Walt in the shower, showing the scars on his back, what more could you want.  I means in terms of story telling, not having its lead in the shower, but then...

So I'm late in writing about it cos it's into its third season in the US, but it's the UK, what'd you expect, we get most things here late and some pass us by completely.  Aussies and Brits who are Home and Away aficionados will be no stranger to Robert Taylor, who hit our screens in Home and Away back in 1989, playing bad guy Nicholas Walsh.  Morag (Cornelia Frances) was trying to set him up with her niece Roo, but he only had eyes for Stacey Macklin.  Our first glimpse of him was when he went skinny dipping in the sea and was spotted by none other than Celia Stewart, Alf's sister! Ha.  Okay that wasn't our first 'glimpse', if you know what I mean!  Well he had his clothes stolen!! He then went on to star in little known Brit detective show Yellowthread Street set in Hong Kong, so unknown it only lasted one series.  Though it's not available on DVD.  See Youtube for opening creds.  But then many of you will know Rob from The Matrix where he played Agent Jones.  Or even Father Vincent Sheahan in Ballykissangel.

The Pilot concerns a DB found in the snow and leads to a case of a missing girl who is thought to have been taken onto a roving brothel, that's right, an RV brothel.  Lots of tension and emotion played to the hilt here, as Walt offers to inform the Vic's wife of his passing, bad mistake as he loses the plot and has his own case of waterworks.  Understandable since his wife died a year ago and his daughter, Cady (Cassidy Freeman) is, well, hardly daughter material.  He later apologizes to her when he tells her she wore the same perfume as his wife and also breaks the news of her DB husband having a daughter, albeit before they got together.  He was working on finding her which led to his own murder.

Then there's the tension and the frustration since this town also has a Red Indian reservation and Walt is not on good terms with the Reservation police, seeing as he's punched on his first visit back there.  They take policing of their own very seriously and outsiders aren't welcome.  As if that wasn't enough he finds out one of his deputies, Branch Connally (Bailey Chase) is running against him in the upcoming elections for sheriff, what's the betting he won't win.  Walt discovers this after he sees his face staring out at him from a huge billboard.  Hmm, wonder how many people actually use that road, ha.  Compare that to the little sign Walt puts up showing he's in the running too.

Funny scene where Branch asks Walt how he got his info and put two and two together.  Walt shows him the book, The Hound of the Baskervilles, that's detective work for you and instincts!  Hey a homage to our very own Sherlock Holmes, very popular is our Sherlock!  (And I don't just mean the TV series with the eponymous Bene Cumberbatch either!  Well maybe subconsciously I do! Ha.)  But I gotta  ask was that book there cos the building used to be a library, well...

Walt's other deputies include Victoria aka Vic (Katee Sackhoff) from the East, where she was a homicide detective and seems she has her own secrets too.  As well as The Ferg (Adam Bartley)  So the discovery of a man's Wranglers (jeans) leads to a farm and a worker who was on said RV and with the missing girl, with Walt thinking his friend, Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) seems like he's the only friend he has, runs a brothel out of his watering hole. Which he doesn't by the way.  It's a patron who does this and when Walt meets with him, it can only lead to murder.  Was I the only one thinking 'if someone's trying to kill you, get away from the window.'  Easy target.

Leading Walt to find the killer, none other than the guy who runs the pawn shop.  A shoot out, a chase and leaving him out there without help was the bones of this ep, which just made us come back for more.   Though I have to say the scene where Walt hammers the wooden stakes into the ground looked like he was planting a cross in the ground, but alas no, it was only his 'vote for me' board! And vote for you we shall, ha!

Revenge 3.13 "Hatred" Review

                                           
Emily: "When I was a child my father woke me every morning with the same phrase, 'life is a great sunrise,' the words shaped the way I saw the dawn, but after my father was taken from me, the morning sun burned like fire.  That's when I learned what hatred was and that it would greet me each day to come."

Emily (Emily VanCamp) enters the bedroom to find Daniel (Josh Bowman) and Sara (Annabelle Stephenson) together and he makes no qualms about what he's done, obviously to rub Emily's nose in it, like she cares, she's been doing that to him for three years!  She knows Sara is Daniel's weak spot now so getting rid of her was as simple as a piece of stale left over wedding cake.  Sara meanwhile was getting the perks while they lasted as she sunned herself by the pool, defying anything Emily had to say to her and even ordering Cristal from the help.  Well seeing as she is such a piece of trash, enjoy it while it lasts, cos it won't be long!  Anyway Emily decides to go spend some money shopping and Daniel fires the staff cos they've been gossiping.  Yeah that'll stop Emily finding out what goes on there.

Margaux (Karine Vanasse) finds out the article in Voulez has been edited since it has words she didn't approve to print.  Stating Conrad (Henry Czerny) gave Lydia the gun that was used in the shooting. Thus opening her up to a lawsuit from Conrad, who was the one who had the copy printed to begin with.  He makes a deal with her to get Daniel booted off the magazine since he wants to buy it and he won't sue. Margaux agrees since she doesn't want her family's reputation in tatters, something the Graysons were once enamoured of, ha.  Daniel is angry that he doesn't have a job now and he rushes to Sara who has cooked a meal for him, yeah showing off where she really belongs, in the kitchen and he decides they should fly to Italy cos he's got a private jet.

Niko (Stephanie Jacobsen) moves into Nolan's (Gabriel Mann) much to his displeasure since no one's told him anything and no one does.  See he removed the Post-it notes a while back, maybe he should have left them for Niko.  She unpacks and Aiden (Barry Sloane) realizes she's back looking after Emily, but Aiden hasn't told her about them.  She pushes her bag under the bed and obviously there's something lurking under there.  Really Aiden haven't you heard everyone hides stuff under the bed!  Niko not realizing the man she's kissing is her father's killer.   She looks at her father's autopsy photos and realizes he was killed by his own katana/sword.  Busy fine peeling mangoes in Nolan's kitchen gives Nolan a change of heart since he's too afraid to tell his ground rules!  She's going to peel the skin off his killer.  Well she's already jumped his bones, what else is there to do! Ha.

Aiden tried to be one step ahead of her when he got Nolan to help him fake evidence to show the man who killed Declan was the same one who killed Takeda.  He tells her he's in Moscow and she should go take care of him on her own.  Finding out Aiden loves Emily more and revenge for Takeda isn't on his mind.  She gets her bag from under the bed and finds the katana there too!  Not so very clever in covering his tracks is he.  Of all the places he could have kept it, he chose his room.  Why is he hanging onto it anyway when he could have disposed off it ages ago too.  Sentimental value?  Was he going to leave it here when he was going away with Emily.  Not too bright.  Emily swims in the pool and finds herself at Nolan's where Aiden tries to speak with her.  She seems to be in a trance or drug induced state, was that Niko's doing, or someone else I wonder, down Grayson manor way.

Patrick (Justin Hartley) wanted to find his biological father, Jimmy Brennan (Brett Cullen) and Victoria tries to put him off, but he's determined.  He finds him and watches him from the car with his other child and Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) was ensuring that's all he does.  Victoria follows Patrick to the bar where Jimmy hangs and she bumps into him when he picks up her bag, she loses it.  Admitting to Patrick that she saw him as a brother when he lived in the same apartment building as her, but he forced himself on her.  She got the scholarship to Paris and a chance for anew beginning, giving him up to the convent where she knew Jimmy wouldn't find him.  Patrick tries to paint later on and drops some paint on the gallery floor.  In his rage, he sets fire to it.  Ooh Patrick that was very Amanda of him, when she did the same and ended up in juvvie. Seems like they have quite a bit in common.

Earlier Nolan was upset with him for assaulting him and didn't really want anything more to do with him.  He choose his side when he decided to be with Victoria and so ends that short lived saga or should I say romance!  Emily gets Sara's mother (Jayne Brook) to try and talk her out of staying with Daniel since Emily pays the hard done by wife and Vic!  Classic Emily really.  Sara doesn't want to leave since she loves Danny but her mother telling her not to return home ever, was too much for her to handle, so Sara leaves.  Yay! Let's hope it's for good.  So what does Daniel do, go on another drinking binge.  Enters Emily's room and knocks her about by throwing her onto the bed and angrily storms off saying, "sterilizing you was my gift to the universe."

Poor Emily, whilst Victoria can't get enough of her wayward children, Emily won't ever have that experience, unless she adopts.  I still wonder why she went with Victoria's say so regarding the doctor's news and she also gets Niko to cauterize her wounds, which means any hope she did have is gone.  We later see Conrad in his room and Emily in his bed, leaving us with the revelation that they slept together.  Did this really happen and why would Conrad let it to begin with.  Not that he has any scruples, but she is still his daughter-in-law, even if in name only.  As if that wasn't enough we get Conrad's first wife (Gail O'Grady) making her entrance.  She's clearly got plans for him and the other Grayson's and we get to see who he left for Victoria. She seems to be another formidable match and here to cause trouble, just the way Conrad likes them.

Meanwhile Charlotte seems to have disappeared this ep and Jack (Nick Wechsler) wants to spend his life with Margaux he tells her, buy a house and everything.  Don't do it Jack!  Clearly over Amanda and Emily. As I said hope that's the last we see of Sara she was a weak character in the sense of getting back with the man who caused her so much misery and pain and so quickly too.  Didn't like the way that was written into the plotline, just to give Daniel an excuse to shoot Emily.  Especially since he hadn't even thought of her in years!  Sara just didn't have the sense to stay away from Danny.  Though her mother managed to see the pain he'd caused her and wanted her to leave, she did get manipulated by Emily so easily.  Daniel just can't compete in the revenge stakes, he seems a little juvenile, okay a lot juvenile, doing things like having his mistress move into the mansion, didn't really make Emily bat an eye!  

Emily: "Many believe there is no such thing as too much love, that its warmth is a comfort from which we never tire.  But when love turns to obsession, it consumes itself.  The flame that nourished becomes merciless, angry and an all consuming blaze.  Leaving us confused by the chill in the air and the hate left behind."

The Vampire Diaries 5.14 "No Exit" Review

                                                 
Damon (Ian Somerhalder) still on his ripping spree and Enzo (Micahel Malarkey) find a farm and take it over by making sure Damon feeds on the farmer.  But first he's turned into a vampire and he and Enzo bet on his wife leaving him and who she left him for, well it wasn't the pastor!  Damon poses the man on a chair and doesn't like to put the head back on the body, that was Stefan's thing as he liked to make everything look normal.  Enzo sticks with Damon and won't leave him even this means he could be next.  He has at least 8 hours before Damon's next frenzied feeding attack.  Too late though since they find they can't leave as Maxfield (Rick Cosnett) and his travellers have found them.  They chant a spell to hold them inside and Maxfield wants to conduct some more research.  Like how long before Damon attacks and Enzo and chaining him to the chair isn't any good since he'll break those and of course Maxfield is happy cos he can now test Damon's strength in the process.

Enzo calls Elena (Nina Dobrev) for help since he knows she and Stefan (Paul Wesley) will come to him but Damon doesn't want that.  Katherine and Stefan having set out on their search for Damon come to stop at a petrol station and whilst Stefan's inside, Katherine breaks the fuel pipe off Stefan's car, after she has a go about it being as old as he is.  She also spotted a hotel a few streets away and ensures she gets oil on her so she has to wash up, having in mind the old shower ploy.  Stefan takes her there and whilst in the shower, Enzo texts her the address of where they are but she wants her dirty way with Stefan first.  She gets out of the shower and asks him for her green top, then leaves the door ajar so she can tempt him with her body. Oh please it's not like he hasn't seen her naked before.  But true to form, for a vampire that is, Stefan can't help but look!

Funny Katherine took so long putting that top on that when she came out wearing her jeans too, she had a bra underneath her shirt! What she took it off again, ha. Stefan is right vampirely seduced and they share a moment before having to head off, he tells her he can't cos of Damon.  Since Matt (Zach Roerig) knows about Katherine being Elena, she wants Nadia (Olga Fonda) to take care of him and she coming up with ways as she tells her.  Nadia sits with him until the vervain wears off and they too have a moment together, as Matt bids a means of escape.  He kisses her and then texts Caroline (Candace Accola) with her phone, "Help. K."  He's too slow though in terms of typing, I mean did he really need that full stop there, well it looked like a full stop on our screens, could have been a comma, ha; it's only a text, not an English essay. Perhaps a continuation of the joke where Tyler's (Michael Trevino) mother wrote his English paper for him.

With Damon going on the rampage, he realizes the traveller's spell has made Enzo's blood acidic and as Maxfield tells him, Damon's drinking hydrochloric acid.  Maxfield offers Enzo an out, if he helps him one more time he can leave here and also he'll let him go for good.  Damon tells him to go.  When Stefan and Katherine arrive, she walks in and tries to talk Damon out of sucking her blood and ripping her apart, by cutting her palm and forcing him to resist.  The urge is too much and he falls right into her trap by feeding on her too.  Exactly what Katherine wanted.  Stefan tells him to feed on him instead and Katherine slyly points to the stake on the floor.  The chair leg that came apart when Damon was chained to it.  Of course Stefan goes for the glass instead and snaps dear brother's neck.

Nadia chases after Matt and means to end him, but Caroline arrives and demands to know what she's up to. Nadia saying it's all Matt's fault.  Tyler also bursts in and pulls Nadia off Caroline, in the struggle, Nadia manages to escape, leaving Matt pondering why this is his fault.  Damon is chained in the Salvatore cellar and wonders why he left here.   Damon knows what Elena/Katherine was up to and knows she wanted Stefan to pick up the stake and kill him, so he'd be out of her hair forever.  Stefan and Caroline talk about what happened and she shows him Matt's text, leaving Stefan to put two and two vampires together and come up with the solution that Katherine is actually inside Elena.

Katherine meets up with Nadia and can think of nothing but food and Stefan.  Nadia doesn't want to hear it and she won't be sticking around either as she shows Katherine her arm, Tyler bit her. Leaving her with a dilemma of how to save her.  But with Damon locked up and chained, how is he going to be cured, if at all and what did Enzo have to do for Maxfield.  As well as the question of how Stefan and Caroline will deal with Katherine now her secret's out the bag.  Oh and someone please sound Bonnie out for not playing the part of anchor as far as Katherine's concerned, that is too much of an oversight on the part of the writers. As was Damon being brought back home so easily.

The Vampire Diaries 5.13 "Total Eclipse of the Heart" Review

                                                
Katherine's (Nina Dobrev) now taken to writing in Elena's diary about how perfect she is, how perfect Katerine is of course.  Saying she's got a perfect life, is young, gorgeous and has rid her of Damon (Ian Somerhalder) cos she's after Stefan (Paul Wesley) and the two of them are destined for one another, how many times have we heard that one.  Replacing a pic of Katherine and Stefan for her phone.

Caroline (Candace Accola)  Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Elena/Katherine attend a lecture, surprise, surprise but they don't really get anything from it, other than Bonnie finding another witch on campus!  As the girl next to her does a floaty, spinning thingy with her pen. Bonnie should have been more preoccupied with why she hasn't been anchor to Katherine and seen her to the other side, but no, did she get her brain back when she became the anchor, sounds harsh, but how can she miss such a big plot point, writers be darned!  Caroline tells them they're going to Whitmore's 'Bitter Ball' once again showing there's no getting away from a party for whatever reason!

Stefan finds Aaron's DB in the back of the car which has been driven drunkenly onto the plants at Salvatore manor.  Stefan can't believe what Damon's done since he got dumped he went on another killing spree, "be more predictable."  Enzo (Michael Malarkey) admits it was cos of him but Stefan doesn't care and so he shouldn't, Damon should be responsible for his own killings. Damon doesn't want or need saving as he and Enzo plot their next Vic which will be Maxfield (Rick Cosnett).  Katherine asks what Elena would say and Matt (Zach Roerig) figures she's after Stefan again, also adding how Bonnie's real name is Sheila, was that necessary, ha.  Nadia (Olga Fonda) compels him to forget what they spoke of and this compelling is becoming old hat too.  Nadia wants to spend more time with her mother but she's more into spending time with Stefan and referring to Matt as "Matty Blue Eyes."

As for Maxfield, he's experimenting on another vampire called Joey who has his arms chained.  Maxfield bemoans funding and up pops the answers to his continuing research.  A woman named Sloan (Caitlin McHugh) not to be mistaken for the show A Man Named Sloane, ha.  She has been following his experiments and wants in.  As well as breaking the news of Aaron's death to him.  Well whose fault was that.

Damon and Enzo continue on their murder spree this time killing a woman from campus security who covered up student deaths by faking suicide notes for them.  Enzo gets clean up duty cos he's so happy to do whatever Damon wants of him.  Stefan finds him there and questions as to why he needs to drag Damon to this entire killing scenario and manages to attack him with his own shovel.  Enzo as said in previous reviews is no match for him and Stefan questions what he could do to him that he hasn't already suffered.  Warning Enzo when he's through with him it'll be final.

Katherine invites Stefan to the ball and manages to convince him to come.  Caroline thinks she's flirting with Stefan.  Tyler (Michael Trevino) drowns his sorrows at the Mystic Grill and sees Nadia there too.  She's wallowing cos of her mother dying and Matt tells Tyler about Katherine.  Also about how she locked him in the safe.  Tyler wants to do shots.  Complaining of their mothers and how Tyler's mother wrote his English paper for him.  Nadia's mother compelled a whole town to be her friend.  Matt's mother got it on with Tyler. He heads for the little boy's room and Nadia asks who Enzo is, then compels Matt to forget which Tyler hears cos of his super hybrid hearing.  He tells Matt what happened and ensures he drinks coffee since the sheriff has made sure it's got vervain in it.

As Bonnie and Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) get ready for the ball, Damon swoops in wanting Bonnie to do a locator spell so they can find Maxfield.  Enzo appears from behind and kidnaps Jeremy, much to Bonnie's protestations.  Bonnie tells Damon how angry Elena will be but he tells her they're broken up and he's written a country song about it too.  Bonnie can't do the spell but he's certain she can find some witch around campus to do it.

Katherine proceeds to hog Stefan as soon as he arrives and is trying to get close to him when Caroline interrupts and takes her to the shredding room to shred Klaus's picture he gave her of the horse.  Stefan was trying to find the right time to tell her about Aaron but didn't think it was now cos she was so happy.  Stefan reveals to Caroline how Damon always wants people to hate him when he goes off the rails and he does this by causing as much pain as he can.  Some would call that being an adolescent brat!  Bonnie finds Liv (Penelope Mitchell) who is catering the party.  Stefan asks what's happening and Damon shows him a pic of Jeremy being tortured.  Katherine sees and feigns concern, before she turns away and smirks with some eye rolling!  Cos she couldn't care less.

Katherine asks what Elena would do about Jeremy and Nadia warns her everything possible to save him. Katherine thinks if he dies then Stefan will comfort her.  Matt sees Nadia with her phone and she compels him into revealing if Stefan likes Caroline or Elena.  Matt on vervain doesn't know what's happening then when she leaves he tries to tell Tyler, but Nadia snaps his neck.  Oh how convenient!  Bonnie tries to get Liv to help and doesn't oblige until Caroline shows her fangs.  They head for Salvatore mansion, home for all wayward waifs it seems and Bonnie teaches her how to scry.  Damon calls to tell Enzo they're not getting anywhere and he tortures Jeremy with a plastic bag.  Katherine knows where Jeremy is cos it's the Whitmore house which she recognized from the phone pic and takes Stefan there.  He fights Enzo, not being able to finish him off for good as he told him before and Katherine has to give Jeremy CPR, ha!  Her just desserts for  being so callous!

Tyler doesn't know what's going on with Matt and storms off as Matt gets into the car with Nadia.  He realizes Katherine is alive and took over Elena's body but he's threatened by Nadia who chokes him. Damon and Enzo find the lab where Maxfield's hold up and Damon sees the vampire Joey.  Maxfeild injects Damon with his Augustine vampire serum and Damon proceeds to rip Joey to pieces.   He's in full blown ripper mode as he rips his head off too.  Katherine tries to get Stefan interested in her by wanting him to remove the splinter in her back placed there courtesy of Enzo.  She finds out about Aaron and then says she can't get with Damon cos he tried to kill Jeremy.  Stefan almost falls Vic to her seduction, but Caroline walks in.

Really not much to comment on in this ep, seems we've seen it all before.  Damon who was supposed to be all pally and big brotherly with Jeremy now has him kidnapped just to locate Maxfield.  I mean he's a vampire he can't search him out and have a sixth sense about such things.  Then again they couldn't find Elena when he had her either.  It appears Jeremy only crops up when he's going to be the Vic in some form or another.  So much for his abilities as hunter, what happened to all that fight training he did?  Nadia and her constant compelling of Matt is just beginning to annoy.  That's been over-used and very convenient as a tool for too long.  Especially since Tyler's found out about it but still the compelling continues.  You'd think if Tyler really wants to help Matt, why doesn't he hang around more and listen out for what Nadia's really up to.

Damon and Katherine evolve as characters, redeem themselves over and over and then go back to being bad and self-absorbed, only looking out for themselves.  With Damon it's understandable, after all he doesn't have anyone watching out for him but even when he did, like Alaric, he would always be the butt of his anger anyway.   Just prolonging the agony with this Augustine vampire story and how long will this Sloan be around anyway, she just seems pointless too.

The Vampire Diaries 5.12 "The Devil Inside" Review

                                             
This time round we get Katherine who removes Matt's (Zach Roerig) vervain bracelet to get him to divulge on Elena's (Nina Dobrev) character traits and how to act like her.  Otherwise, we'll see it's Nadia (Olga Fonda) who will do most of the compelling to keep Katherine's secret and the others from finding out she's taken over Elena's body.  She also needs to know where Damon (Ian Somerhalder) buried/hid Katherine's DB but he's not giving anything away.  You see, the traveller's need the body so that the switch is permanent and Elena won't be able to get her body back.  Which sounds good to me, I mean the longer we don't have to see/endure Elena the better.

Tyler (Michael Trevino) tells Matt his revenge plans are finished and he wants to start afresh, which will probably mean getting back with Caroline (Candace Accola).  To this end, Matt thinks he should throw him a party, oh really, another party and they're not even at college!  So how many does that make for the show now into its 101 ep?  Maybe they should rename Mystic Falls as Party Central or something, ha!

Aaron (Shaun Sipos) tells Caroline that he's cut off Maxfield's funding and so his plans should be awry now, but that won't really stop him, he's too determined to continue.  Elena realizes what's happening to her as she's handcuffed to the bed, but not for long.  Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Caroline wonder what's happened to Elena especially since Stefan convinced Damon to return to Elena.  Well shouldn't have bothered, for starters there was no point, they weren't a good match and secondly cos Katherine's got her now and won't be leaving anytime soon.  As Elena manages to escape her cuffs she's caught by Nadia. Bummer, ha.

Stefan tries to get Damon to return Katherine's body who also wants Elena back but she's not answering his calls.  Katherine gets the notion to attend the party and find out the whereabouts of her own DB.  Here she asks Caroline about her and Klaus and how they did the dirty so that Tyler hears.  Oops, Katherine really pulled a fast one there.  Well there go his plans on getting her back!

Enzo (Michael Mularkey) brings Aaron to the mansion and he wants to kill him but is giving Damon the option of doing it himself. Katherine asks Stefan where the body is cos she wants to leave some flowers there but he doesn't know.  Damon chooses to snap Enzo's neck instead cos he won't kill Aaron, since he's Elena's friend and she won't be too thrilled about that, nor will she forgive him for it either and take him back. So he compels him to leave town and never return.  Katherine finds her body in the tomb under the church.

As they try to perform the spell on the body, Elena escapes and tries to call but there's a lock on Katherine's phone.  She gets to Damon but the spell is completed and Katherine has her body.  Damon wants her back cos she's good for him but Katherine breaks his heart telling him she doesn't want to be the only one he lives for and nothing else.  Stefan punches Tyler when he tells her about Caroline and Klaus.  She asks Stefan if she's horrible for doing that and Stefan agrees jokingly.  Katherine wants Nadia to stay and they can be a real mother/daughter, yeah believe that when I see it, ha!  Cos she really wants Stefan to continue the doppelganger prophecy.

Enzo stops Aaron from leaving and Damon kills him cos he's Elena's friend and he's got nothing to lose now. In a reversal we get Damon playing Stefan, mercilessly ripping him to shreds, so ends the Whitmore line, or does it? Just seems at the first sign of any trouble, Damon turns to his ruthless instinct, no matter what.  So he was rejected by Katherine as Elena, it's not the first time he's had to suffer this.  All the time she was with Stefan and he pined for her, wanting to turn her into a vampire against her will and everything.  Now Damon is hard done by again and just loses the plot, seems strange to keep going round in circles like that, he's a big boy after all.  Seems he relies too much on people to keep him in check, he did the same with Alaric.  Guess you do gotta feel for him when he's let down so much when trying to come good.  The same thing with Tyler and Caroline, they have caused so much pain to each other that Tyler thought cos he wants to, he can just come back and get her back after letting her down when she needed him.

As for the title which is a reference to Katherine inside of Elena, it could just as easily be more appropriate for it to refer to Damon, lashing out as usual.  Also why didn't Elena have the sense to kill the traveller, she staked Nadia but left the traveller alive who was more of a threat to her.  Seems nothing will come of the knife that Nadia leaves with Matt, as yet, which can kill Katherine, since he's been compelled so much he doesn't knowi f he's coming or going.