The Vampire Diaries 4.19 “Pictures of You”

The pilot plot-maneuvering for the Klaus/Elijah/Rebekah show begins here. The only reason I’m into that is that it’s going to be set in New Orleans, and it’s going to be about witches as much as it is about vampires. Witches being the only thing that can actually fuck vampires up in this world. That has potential, and while I don’t care what happens to Klaus, I do like his siblings well enough. I can see story potential for both of them, and definitely the acting caliber might blow this show out of the water from the start.

That said, we can deal with all that next week. This week, we’ve got Prom, and Elena for some reason has decided to go. She even steals Caroline’s dress just to be extra bitchy. Caroline and the Brothers Two decide to make it an Elena-tailored sentimentality festival, which is just a broken record by now, despite the spiffy scrapbook view screens they set up in the woods on the way to the dance. Human Elena would have helped put them up. Baby Vamp Elena would have been a basket case by the time she reached the entrance. Inhuman Elena realizes the photos could potentially get to her, and scoffs harder than ever. What no one is used to is that Elena is now the perfect hipster, and irony is the last thing they’d ever expect!

Rebekah has a real story this week: Klaus will give her the Cure if she can live within human limits for a day. Which she can’t, as she decides to use Matt as her sounding board and ersatz Prom date. Matt always asks a lot of his friends (and gives a lot in return, it’s true), and he’s quick to ask for her vampire blood to save April when Elena attacks her ruthlessly. Elena wanted to be prom queen, and April let the real votes win (Matt and Bonnie? Okay, why not?). As Inhuman Elena points out logically “I may not be able to compel you, but I can still kill you.” And she is really out for blood this week, because what’s the best way to prevent the Cure ever being used? How about killing Bonnie, whom Silas needs to perform whatever spell he’s been after all along?

Kill Bonnie? After she already tried to kill Caroline? She’s Typhoid Elena at this point, destroying everything in her path. For all the entertainment provided by Elena doing whatever the hell she wants whenever she wants to anyone she wants, she’s worse than Katerina in some ways already. If only everyone would stop trying to save her, I suppose she might leave them alone. But there’s no guarantee of that. Would she kill Damon and Stefan, too? I’d be happy to let her loose on the Originals, but they’re the only ones actually immune to her attacks. She’s going to start ripping off heads like the Twilight vamps do when they’re angry.

Luckily, Bonnie is pretty hard to kill herself these days, and she makes Elena pay hard for the attempt. This is pretty Dark Phoenix vs. Storm, only sideways, for this show. Remember the Storm who briefly maxed-out because Dr. Doom put her in a metal skin suit? Anyway, the analogy is only halfway apt I suppose. Elena has ultimate power and has lost her mind, that’s pretty Jean Grey. But now Bonnie has nearly ultimate power and is also losing her mind, also very Jean Grey. Nobody is making Storm’s choice to disperse the excess power and get herself under control. So we have two heroines being consumed by dark temptations, with no saving Mother Nature figures in sight. C’mon, show, it’s time to take a page from the Claremont female-empowerment playbook! How about letting these girls save themselves? Instead, we end up with Elena drugged and locked in the dungeon, again.