OBS RECAPS & REVIEWS: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES EPISODE 13: CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED
Episode 13 opens with a flashback to 1864 and a carriage coming down the road. There is a woman, Katherine, in the road fretting over her injured husband. The people in the carriage stop and get out and offer their help. The man tells Katherine that it’s not safe for her to be out at night and she replies, “No, it’s not”, bearing her fangs and attacking him. She then attacks his servant and then tells the man, Damon, “That’s how it’s done.” Katherine then explains what happens to the bodies and asks Damon if he’s ready. He tells her that he is ready to be turned. Katherine tells him that she will when the time is right and tells Damon to kiss her. He looks at her bloodstained mouth and chin squeamishly and then kisses her.
In the present, Elena and Stefan are cuddling in bed when they are interrupted by Damon. He’s ready to discuss the business of opening the tomb and puts Elena on “journal duty” because she’s a Gilbert. Elena agrees to look for it for him. Damon and Stefan explain the grimoire to her and then they discuss the mystery vampire from the dance. Damon leaves and Elena and Stefan retreat back under the covers. Cut to flashback of Damon and Katherine in a similar situation…
Katherine bears her fangs, Damon’s eyes grow wide and there’s a knock at the door. Emily announces a visitor for Katherine and Katherine asks her to wait. Katherine dresses, goes downstairs, and greets Pearl. Katherine asks Emily to tell Mr. Salvatore that she’s stepped away. Emily asks which one and Katherine tells her “both”. Katherine and Pearl go outside to talk. Pearl asks her how long she’ll keep carrying on with both of the brothers. She also gives Katherine a bottle of an elixir that they is being given to the townspeople. Katherine pours some on her wrist and it burns her skin – it contains vervain. They discuss how the townspeople know about vampires being among them and how they are ingesting vervain. We also get a shot of Pearl’s daughter, Anna – the same Anna that Jeremy has befriended.
In the present, Anna is on the phone leaving a message for Jeremy, telling him that she’ll be at the Grill. Ben comes in, fresh from the shower, and they discuss Anna’s relationship with Jeremy. Ben accidentally burns himself with sunlight by pulling the curtain back from the window because he’s a new vampire and keeps forgetting. They discuss the journal, going hunting, and getting the tomb opened. Ben asks Anna why she chose him. She tells him that she needed “eyes and ears” and he was sad, lacked purpose, and needed her.
At Elena’s house, Elena asks Stefan if Damon really believes. They talk about trust and Damon. Elena says that she believes that she thinks that everything that Damon has been done was for love, albeit twisted. Stefan points out that Damon has no regard for human life. Elena asks what will happen if the tomb is opened and Stefan tells her that a lot of people will die, despite Damon’s promises. Elena is visibly shaken by this. They go through her family’s “archives” and Stefan recognizes a photograph of Jonathon Gilbert. Jeremy comes in and asks what they are doing. Elena tells him that she was feeling sentimental and was looking for an old journal. Jeremy tells them that he used it for a history paper and that Alaric wanted to see it and that he has it.
Alaric is reading the journal, specifically a passage about the compass and we witness a flashback from the journal entry of Jonathon Gilbert, Mr. Lockwood, and Mr. Salvatore talking. They are interrupted by Stefan. Lockwood and Gilbert ask Mr. Salvatore if he’s told the boys because they need all of the men they can get. Mr. Salvatore pledges that his boys can be counted upon.
Back at the school, Alaric photocopies the journal and stores it in a locker. Anna is stalking him in the hallway. Alaric returns to the classroom and his reading. A shadow passes by the door and he looks up, calls out, gets up to see who is in the hall. He asks if someone is there. He goes to the locker and retrieves a gun-like item and loads it with a wooden stake. He opens fire and Stefan catches the stake. Alaric and Stefan stare each other down and Alaric reloads. Stefan pushes him and tells him to have a seat. Stefan asks him about the weapon, who he is, and tells him that he’s not going to hurt him unless he tries again. Alaric tells him that he’s a teacher – a historian who made a few discoveries about Mystic Falls while doing research. Stefan makes a crack about him acting like Van Helsing and tells him to tell the truth. Alaric tells him that his wife was a parapsychologist and her work led him here. He tells Stefan that she’s dead because a vampire killed her. Stefan asks where the journal is. Alaric tells him that it’s on the desk, but it’s gone.
Anna is reading the journal and referring to it as “gibberish” when Ben asks her about it. As she reads about Jonathon Gilbert’s passage about a beautiful woman named Pearl, we get another flashback of Pearl and Katherine talking in a store. Katherine tells her of her plans to turn both of the Salvatore brothers and Pearl tells her to be careful. Katherine promises her that they will all be safe as Jonathon Gilbert enters the store. He asks for a moment with Pearl. Katherine tells Anna that her mother has an admirer.
The flashback continues with Stefan and Damon walking with their father. Stefan pledges to their father that the founding families can count on him. There is a confrontation because of Damon’s desertion of the Army of the Confederacy. Mr. Salvatore explains that vampires live among them and there is a plan to kill them and he tells them that they will help. Damon glares at his father.
In the present, Damon is in the Gilbert’s kitchen with Jenna. He’s chopping vegetables while she sips on wine. He talks of how his father never approved of anyone that he dated and asks Jenna about herself. She mentions that Logan Fell wasn’t the only loser that she dated. Damon asks if they ever found him and she says that he’s in the Bahama working on his tan and makes a crack about the Fells all being snooty. Elena comes in, looking surprised.
Stefan asks Alaric how long he’s been aware of him. Alaric confesses that it has only been recent and tells him that Damon killed his wife and that he witnessed it. He tells him that Damon and his wife disappeared – her body was never found. Stefan tells him that Damon can never know why he’s here because Damon will kill him and offers to help Alaric.
Damon and Elena are in the kitchen, engaging in their typical banter. Damon asks her if the renewed brotherhood is real and Elena tells him that he can trust Stefan. Damon tries using his powers and Elena tells him that she has vervain on her. Damon tells her that he’s not trying to compel her – he only wants her to be honest. She tells him again that he can trust Stefan, setting up another flashback…
Mr. Salvatore and Katherine are playing a game of croquet, Katherine tells him that he can trust her. Stefan and Damon approach and discuss the possibility of their father keeping her safe. Damon tells him that they can’t trust their father. Stefan thinks differently, but promises not to tell their father.
In the present, Elena and Damon discuss the trust issues that they have. Damon just wants to get Katherine back, telling Elena that she should understand what he would do to anyone who gets in his way.
Damon and Jeremy are sitting on the couch playing a video game and Jeremy’s phone rings. He ignores the call and keeps playing. Damon asks who he’s dodging. Elena and Jenna are having a conversation in the kitchen and Jenna asks when she’ll tell Jeremy about being adopted. The door bell rings and Damon gets up to answer it along with Elena to find a very surprised Stefan standing there.
Ben and Bonnie are out on a date. He asks her what her friends are up to and he mentions that all of his friends left after graduation. Bonnie talks about Elena and what great friends they are.
Damon, Stefan, and Elena have a conversation on the porch about the journal being gone and who else might know that Alaric had it. Damon goes back in and asks Jeremy about the journal. They learn that the Anna knows about it and Damon asks him how he knows her. The phone rings and Elena goes to take the call in her room from Bonnie dishing on her date. Stefan comes in after she gets off the phone and produces Alaric’s photocopies of the journal.
At the grill, Anna and Jeremy meet up as Damon spies on them, setting up another flashback of Pearl, Katherine, and Damon discussing the sheriff buying the vervain elixir. Damon asks how they can be so calm and Katherine tells him that they can walk the streets in daylight thanks to Emily. No one would suspect them because of that. Anna appears and announces Mrs. Fell’s approach.
Back in Elena’s room, she and Stefan are reading the journal and Elena finds a reference about Emily. The Fell family believed that Jonathon Gilbert should protect the witch’s spell book and he feared that she would haunt him. Mr. Salvatore removed that fear from him, promising to protect the secret of the book and that he would carry that secret to his grave. This set up another flashback…
Mr. Salvatore is visited by Stefan in his study. Stefan shares his concerns about the plans for the vampires and openly questioning whether all vampires are evil. His father tells him that vampires are from the darkest parts of Hell and have to be destroyed.
Back in the present, Stefan tells Elena that he knows where Emily’s grimoire is.
Anna enters her hotel room and is attacked by Damon.
Emily and Stefan are in the graveyard with shovels to dig up Mr. Salvatore’s grave. Stefan’s thoughts lead to another flashback where he is in bed asking Katherine about a gift. She tells him that it’s from Emily – not Damon. He tells her that he wants her all to himself. She reminds him that she makes the rules and that she’s selfish. She bites Stefan’s neck and begins to choke and says, “vervain.” Stefan is shocked. His father comes into the room and tells him to get the sheriff because they have a vampire. His father fed him vervain because he grew suspicious after their conversation about his sympathetic feelings toward vampires.
Elena and Stefan start digging.
Anna and Damon talk about how long she’s been in town and why it took so long for them to cross paths. We learn that she turned Logan Fell because she needed access to the Fell journal. Anna tells Damon that his father had the grimoire and points out that they both want the tomb opened. Damon tells her that he works alone.
Ben and Bonnie continue their date. Bonnie kisses him and stops immediately. She apologizes to Ben and says that she should have waited until the end of their date. She excuses herself to go to the bathroom and is attacked by Ben on the way.
Elena and Stefan continue digging. Stefan hits the coffin. He opens it, pulls out the book, and closes it back up. As he opens the book, Damon walks up with a very angry look on his face. Stefan tells him that he can’t let him bring Katherine back. Damon says that he’s sorry for trusting Stefan. They argue and Stefan calls him out for being there on his own. Damon gives Elena a very hurt look and tells her, “You had me fooled.” Damon threatens to kill Elena if Stefan destroys the book and grabs Elena. He feeds her blood and threatens to snap her neck. Stefan promises the book for Elena and Damon concedes. Stefan and Elena leave and Damon goes to the book.
Flashback to a lynch mob coming after Katherine at the Salvatore house. Damon begs his father to let him be killed with Katherine.
At Elena’s she complains of a headache and Stefan tells her that Damon was right – it was Stefan’s fault. Stefan recalls Katherine being hauled off and him telling Damon that he will help get her back. Damon leaves angry and hurt. In the present, Stefan tells Elena how he put his faith in their father and Damon put his faith in him. He tells her that he destroyed that faith. Elena tells him that he didn’t do anything wrong. He goes downstairs to get her an aspirin as she goes to lay down on her bed. Jenna tells Stefan to keep the door open upstairs and Jeremy comes in. He asks where Anna went. Jenna tells him that she went to the bathroom and Stefan has another flashback. He recalls Pearl telling Anna to stay hidden and to stay with Emily. Jonathon Gilbert approaches Pearl and his vampire compass points her out. She begs him to spare her and he dimes her out. Anna sees it all happening. Emily consoles Anna, telling her that she knows how to protect them.
Stefan runs to Elena’s room to find her gone and the window open.
Interesting revelations and insight this episode, huh?
So, Ben has apparently taken Bonnie. I wonder what they really want with her. I’m assuming that it’s so that she can perform the spells in Emily’s grimoire to open the tomb.
It’s safe to assume that Anna took Elena. I’m guessing it’s retribution for her mother being taken from her.
Interesting that Alaric never found his wife’s body. Do you think that she might be a vampire now? Is it possible that she was a vampire then? How did he come to have a ring that looks like Damon and Stefan’s?
So many answers, but so many more questions!
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