OBS RECAP AND REVIEW: VAMPIRE DIARIES SEASON 2 EPISODE 12 “THE DESCENT”

Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 12  “The Descent” – Original Air Date: 01/27/2011

By OBS Staff Member ifellhard

Jules wakes up naked in the woods and finds a decimated campsite near her.  As she gets dressed and prepares to burn the campsite and the bodies, one of the sherriff ‘s deputies pulls up.  He finds her crying over one of the bodies and she tells him that they were attacked by a wolf and everyone but her his dead.  He heads to his cruiser to call it in and she attacks him with a log.

Elena goes into Stefan’s room and finds a shirtless Stefan behind her.  They kiss and he eventually ruins the moment by bringing up Elena’s deal with Elijah and how Stefan needs to find Isobel to talk to her.  Elena reminds him that she made a deal with Elijah and Stefan rebuts by telling her that he didn’t make a deal with him.  Stefan drinks a bit of vervain to boost his tolerance like Katherine did.  Elena asks him how Elijah could compel another vampire.  Stefan speculates that it could be because he’s one of the originals, and says that perhaps Isobel knows something about it. 

Rose muses about how she was born in 1415 – 560 years ago and Damon gives her some blood to drink to help heal her.  He takes a look at the wound, which is getting worse, but he lies and tells her that it’s looking better.  Elena also lies and tells her that it’s “not bad”.  Elena asks Damon to stop Stefan from finding Isobel.  Damon refuses, telling her that he’s with Stefan on this one.  He asks Elena to play nurse to Rose while he goes out.  In another room, Elena asks Damon if Rose is going to die.  He tells her probably and then the “mean Damon” personality comes out to play, saying “the sooner the better.” 

The school is buzzing with activity for a festival and BBQ.  Caroline and Tyler talk about his change and Caroline tells him that it will get better with time and each full moon.  He thanks her for what she did for him.  She tells him that they need to reinforce the wall for next time and mentions the legend of the werewolf bite being fatal to vampires.  He asks her how he knows that and she tries to cover her slip by saying that she read it somewhere.   They are interrupted by Matt and Caroline denies that there’s anything going on between her and Tyler.  Matt tells her he believes her and plants a big kiss on her.  She pulls away from him and leaves.

At the grill, Jules talks to Sherrif Forbes about Mason’s disappearance.  Alaric calls Damon to let him know that she’s there.  Stefan sits down and joins Alaric at his table.  They discuss whether there is a cure for Rose’s bite and Stefan asks Alaric if he has a way to contact Isobel.  Alaric says that there’s no guarantee that she’d help if they did find her.  Stefan tells him that Katherine said that Isobel knows Klaus.  Alaric realizes that this is for Elena and tells Stefan that he has an old number for Isobel and he’ll text it to him later.  They talk about how they cannot trust Isobel.

Elena leads Rose to the bed in Damon’s room to rest, telling Rose that she’s not going to die.  Having never been in Damon’s room before, she begins to look around a little.  She picks up a book from a stack of books near his bed, noting that the one on the top is Gone With the Wind.  Rose tells Elena how lucky she is and mentions how she has never been loved the way that Elena is loved.  Elena expresses her doubt.  Rose calls her out for giving up and Elena denies it.  She tells Rose that her deal with Elijah is the best option and Rose tells her that it was the “easiest option” and not the best one.  They talk briefly about the moonstone and whether Bonnie destroyed it.  Rose begins hallucinating and then asks Elena for more blood.  She promptly begins to throw it up and Elena rushes to the bathroom to get something to clean Rose up.  When she returns, Rose is no longer in the bed and attacks Elena.  She tells Elena that it’s all her fault and calls her Katerina.  Rose realizes that it’s Elena and apologizes.  Elena consoles her and tells her to rest.  Rose tells Elena, “I want to go home,” and Elena urges her to talk about her home.  Rose laments that she wasted so much time and wishes that she hadn’t been afraid.

Stefan gets the text with Isobel’s number and leaves her a message to call him, noting that it’s important and about Elena.  Damon arrives and Stefan stops him from attacking Jules.  Damon denies being upset about Rose.  Stefan gets a call and goes to take the call in private.  Damon sits down at Jules’ table and they exchange threats with one another.  Damon asks her to tell him how to cure a werewolf bite and promises not to kill her if she tells him.  Jules tells him, “Bite me,” and tells him that she’s not afraid of him.  She asks how Rose is and starts going through all of the symptoms of the bite before telling him that the only cure is to put a stake in her heart.

Elena returns to Damon’s room with clean sheets to find Rose gone again.  She goes through the house looking for her.  She grabs her phone and places a call, telling someone to come home because she’s worried about Rose.  She hears a noise and goes to investigate, finding an empty blood bag on the floor near the basement.  She finds Rose on the floor in a feeding frenzy with the bags of blood in the basement.  Rose thinks that she’s Katerina again and moves to attack Elena.  Elena rips down a curtain, burning Rose with sunlight.  She tries again to escape, but Rose catches her.  Elena digs her fingers into the bite would and gets away.  She barricades herself in another room, flings the balcony doors open to flood the room with sunlight and breaks off part of a table for a stake.  Out in the hallway, Rose begs for help and says that she knows that she’s Elena and not Katherine.

Matt goes after Caroline and asks her why she ran away, asking her how she felt.  She tells him that she feels like she loves him and he asks what the problem is.  She has no answer for him and they’re interrupted by one of the cheerleaders telling Matt that they need more burgers.  When Matt turns back around, Caroline is gone.

Still in the room, Elena eyes the stake and goes to move the chest she placed in front of the door.  She opens the door and goes out of the room.  She finds the front door open and Damon home.  He asks where Rose is and she tells him she doesn’t know.

On the fringe of the BBQ at the high school, Rose stumbles around throwing up.  A maintenance man spots her and asks her if she’s OK.  Rose kills him. 

Damon arrives on the scene and talks to Sherifr Forbes about the attack.  She tells her deputies to move the party into the cafeteria.  Elena asks Damon where Stefan is and he tells her that Stefan isn’t his priority right now and hands Elena a stake.  A couple goes to their car, talking about what happened to the maintenance man.  The girl gets in the car, but the guy never does.  He ends up on the windshield of the car and Rose attacks the girl.  Damon catches Rose and subdues her.  Rose sees the girl lying in the street and realizes what she did, saying that she’s sorry.  She begs Damon to make it stop.  He carries her home.     While lying in Damon’s bed, sweating from the fever from the bite, Rose apologizes again to Elena.  She tells her that she doesn’t like taking human life and that she never did.  She tells Elena that Damon is a lot like her.  He wants to care and runs away when he does.  She tells Elena that she has to fight and then asks Elena why she was so nice to her.  Rose talks about how she could never forget what it was like to be human and how it haunts her.  She says that it was the only thing that kept her going.   Rose begins writhing in pain and Damon tries to comfort her, sending Elena out.

Caroline arrives home to find Tyler waiting on the porch.  He tells her that they need to talk and asks her why she risked getting hurt to help him.  In a rant, she tells him that it was because she cares and he cuts off her rant with a kiss.  They kiss for a couple of moments and she breaks away.  She exclaims that, “Everyone needs to stop kissing me!”  She heads inside and leaves a confused Tyler standing on the porch.

Damon holds Rose in bed and she muses, “Who’d have thought you’d be a nice guy?”  He tells her that he’s not nice – he’s mean and he likes it.  She calls him out on his lie and he urges her to sleep.   In a dream, Rose is running through a pasture filled with horses.  She sees Damon sitting there.  He confesses that Elena told him about her favorite place.  She talks about how she misses being hum and and enjoys the sunshine.  They talk about the choices between living and existing.  The scenes alternate between the dream and the reality of Damon holding the sleeping Rose in his bed.  Rose tells him that the pain is gone and wonders if she’ll see her family or Trevor again.  He tells her that he thinks that she’ll see whoever she wants to see.  She tells him that she’s not afraid anymore and then challenges him to a race.  As she starts counting down, he stakes her as tears stream down his cheeks.

Damon meets Sheriff Forbes in the woods with the dead vampire in the trunk of his car.  Sheriff Forbes thanks him for once again saving the town.  He tells her that he will take care of burying the body.

Tyler meets Jules at the grill.  She tells him that she wants to be his friend and that she knows about Mason and him.   She tells him that she knows about Caroline being a vampire, too.  Jules realizes that Tyler is brand new and offers to help him.  She tells him that Mason was murdered by Caroline and her friends.  Tyler defends Caroline and Jules tells him that there are other vampires in town – that the town is crawling with them.  She tells Tyler that there are others like them and they’re on their way.

Damon goes home and finds Elena waiting for him.  She tells him that she wanted to check on him.  Damon denies being upset and ends up admitting that he does feel and it sucks.  He tells Elena that it was supposed to be him  – Jules came for him, not Rose.  Elena realizes that Damon is feeling guilty for what happened to Rose.  Damon calls her out on giving up and tells her to go home.  She gives him a big, long hug before leaving.

Elena arrives home to find Stefan already there.  He tells her that he called Isobel and she asks if he found her.  A voice says “not exactly” and Uncle John enters the room.

A car driving along the highway at night stops for a body lying in the middle of the road.  The young female driver gets out and asks the man if he’s OK.  Damon tells her that he’s lost…existentially speaking.  He’s drunk and takes another drink from his flask, begging her for help.  He tells her he has a big secret – one he’s never said out loud because he can’t be what she wants him to be.  He tells the young woman that she’s his existential crisis – he has to kill her because he’s not human and he misses it.  He tells her that there’s only so much hurt that a man can take and then compels her, telling her to go.  Then he attacks her.

So, Tyler has gone through his first transformation with Caroline by his side most of the time and he’s developed some romantic feelings for her.He’s learned that she lied to him and that she’s not the only vampire.  On top of that, she’s responsible for Mason’s death.  How do you think that the ever-so-tempermental Tyler is going to handle this?

Jules told Tyler that there are others like them on the way.  How many werewolves do you think will descend on Mystic Falls?

Do you think that Uncle John arriving at the house is a good thing or a bad thing?  I was glad to see him go the last time.  Perhaps he has access to Isobel’s research?

How many times can they break my heart over Damon?  Just when he finally found someone to help take his mind off of Elena – someone nice that I could see him with, they kill her.  Ugh!! 

What did you think of this episode?  Join us in the forum and share your thoughts.  We’d love to hear from you!