RECAP AND REVIEW – “THE VAMPIRE DIARIES” SEASON 3 EPISODE 2 – “THE HYBRID” – ORIGINAL AIR DATE 9/22/2011

By OBS Staff Member ifellhard

The episode opens with Damon taking the news clippings off of his bulletin board while he talks to Elena about the call from Stefan.  A news report of Andi’s death is playing in the background.  Elena tells Damon that Sheriff Forbes traced the call to Tennessee.  Damon tells her that Stefan is gone and then burns the newspaper clippings.

Alaric wakes to someone pounding on the door and finds Elena there.   She asks what he knows about Stefan in Tennessee.  They discuss whether Stefan can be saved and Elena tells him that she’s not giving up.   Alaric tells her that Klaus and Stefan are tracking werewolf packs.

Klaus and Stefan are somewhere in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.  Stefan is carrying Ray’s body.   They find a pack of werewolves setting up camp for the full moon that night.  Klaus introduces himself and a woman recognizes him as being “The Hybrid.”

At the Lockwood house, Carol puts vervain into the coffee.  Tyler comes downstairs and pours a cup of coffee.  His mom makes a comment about bringing girls home and compares Caroline to a prostitute for the way she was sneaking out.  Tyler takes a drink of the coffee and makes a face and a comment about the taste, suggesting that the cream was bad.  He tells his mom that Caroline isn’t a prostitute and leaves.  Carol places a call to “Bill” and discusses a “vampire situtation.”

Jeremy and Matt are at work and Jeremy talks about how he’s been seeing things.  He tells Matt he saw Vickie again.   They talk about using Bonnie to deal with things and Jeremy tells Matt that he doesn’t want Bonnie involved and pulls out information that he found on communicating with spirits from the Internet.   Jeremy tells Matt that Vickie said, “Help me.”  Matt nods that he’ll help Jeremy.

Tyler talks to Elena about werewolves and explains that not all of them chain themselves for the change.  He explains that they go into the mountains or deserts.  Elena asks about Tennessee and he confirms it.  He pulls up a map of where she could look on her phone.   He tells her that he will help because he started this mess with Stefan when he bit Damon.   Tyler asks if she’s talked to Caroline, but she hasn’t heard from her.   Elena walks up to Alaric at the bar and asks him about going to the Smokies, threatening to go by herself.  Alaric caves and they set out.

Klaus talks to and taunts the pack and Ray awakens.   Stefan asks if there are any humans present because Ray will need human blood to complete his transformation.   Klaus grabs a guy, bites him, and they force Ray to drink from him.  Klaus grabs another woman, forces her to drink his blood, and snaps her neck.

Tyler is playing pool and talks to Matt for a moment about the situation with Caroline.   Matt offers his help to Tyler for the full moon, but Tyler declines.  Tyler makes a comment about his taste buds being off after a swig of coffee and Matt tells him that they put vervain in the coffee.  

Bill shows up at the Lockwoods’.  He and Carol talk about the Council, Caroline’s vampire status, and Bill says that they will do what they have to do.

Elena and Alaric hike through the mountains.  Alaric gives Elena a grenade filled with wolfsbane from his arsenal in his backpack and she gives him John’s ring to keep him safe.   He grudgingly takes it after Elena reminds him that it won’t work on the Doppelganger.  Damon shows up and tosses Elena into a river. 

Stefan and Klaus wipe out the werewolf pack, preparing them all to transform.   Stefan gets Klaus to talk about his plan – an army of hybrid soldiers. As they talk, they realize that something is wrong with Ray’s transformation.

Still standing in the river, Elena refuses to get out because she knows that Damon will make her go home.  Damon asks her about her plan as he marches out into the water.  He talks about how she’s safe because Klaus believes that he killed her.  Going after Stefan puts her safety at risk.   Elena pleads with him to keep going and he agrees, only if they are out by the rise of the full moon.

Ray is still not doing well and goes nuts and runs off.  Stefan gives chase and Ray bites him and runs off.   Stefan hears Damon, Elena, and Alaric hiking through the mountains and watches them from a distance.   Stefan returns to Klaus and shows him the bite.   Klaus tells him that he will heal him when he brings Ray back.

Mrs. Lockwood goes into her husband’s office and Tyler comes in.  He confronts her about the vervain in the coffee and tells her that he knows all about the vampires.   He asks her why she did it.  She tells him it was because he spent so much time with Caroline and she knows that she’s a vampire.   She tells Tyler that he can’t be with her because she’s a monster.  Tyler asks her if she knows about him and she responds, “Know what, Tyler?”

Alaric, Elena, and Damon continue their trek with about an hour before sundown.  Ray stumbles out of the woods and attacks Damon.   Alaric shoots him and Elena tosses the wolfsbane grenade to Damon. 

Matt and Jeremy look through Vickie’s old things to find items with a personal connection so that they can help her.   Matt gets emotional while looking at a photo from when they were younger and tells Jeremy that he can’t do it.  He tells Jeremy to go and places the photo face-down.  When he turns around, the photo is upright.

Alaric, Damon, and Elena lash Ray to a tree with chains and ropes soaked in vervain.   Ray starts to change into his werewolf form while it’s still daylight.  Elena urges Damon for them to get out immediately.

Klaus kills the human who was used for feeding the hybrids.

Damon, Alaric, and Elena are hiking out of the mountains and Elena falls.  When she looks up, there’s a werewolf in her path.   Damon distracts it, getting it to chase him.  Alaric and Elena keep going after a brief argument about leaving Damon out there.

Tyler and his mother head into the dungeon/cellar.  He tells his mom to watch as he locks her into one of the cells and then chains himself.   Tyler begins to tranform as his mother watches, freaking out.

In the woods, Damon is attacked again by Ray.  The two of them fight and Stefan saves Damon by ripping out Ray’s heart.  Damon tells Stefan to stop with the late-night phone calls if he doesn’t want Elena coming after him.  Stefan denies the call and tells Damon that he’s never going back and to take Elena home.

Elena and Alaric are waiting in the car for Damon.   She tells him that he takes better care of people than he thinks and that he’s not a lost cause – just lost.  She goes on to talk about how Alaric, Jeremy, and herself have all lost all of their family and that they are perfect for one another.  Alaric tells her that he’s keeping the ring.   Damon arrives and Alaric and Elena get out of the car to meet him.   Damon tells her to get back in the car as Stefan looks on from a ridge.

Matt shows up at Jeremy’s with a six-pack and tells him that he’s sorry.   He tells him how he spent the day going through Vickie’s things and how she was so misunderstood by everyone.  He goes on to talk about how Jeremy was really the only person to understand her.   He dumps a bunch of Vickie’s stuff onto the counter and Jeremyu starts to look through it.   They talk about how neither of them have a last memory of her before she died.   Jeremy tells Matt how his memories were erased.   Vickie appears and says, “Mattie”, as Jeremy turns to see her.  He starts to talk to her and she asks him to, “help me come back.”   Glass in the french doors shatters and Anna appears telling Jeremy, “Don’t trust Vickie.”

At the pack’s campsite, bodies litter the ground as Stefan returns with Ray’s corpse.   Klaus tells him that they went rabid and he killed some and the others bled out.   Klaus rages about how he did everything he was told to break the curse – killed a vampire, killed a werewolf, and killed the doppelganger.   Klaus gives Stefan the cure for the bite and tells him that he’s the only comrade he has left.

Elena walks into her room and finds Damon there.   He tells her that he saw Stefan in the mountains and he’s not okay.   He calls him an “insufferable martyr that needs his ass kicked” and adds that he can be saved.   He tells her that he changed his mind because Stefan saved him and tells Elena that he will help bring him back.  Damon asks Elena why she changed her mind on the mountain and she tells him that she didn’t want him to get hurt – she worried about him.   Damon tells her that he wants her to remember what she felt about him while Stefan was gone when  Damon drags Stefan back.   He leaves a stunned Elena standing in her room.   Alaric asks her if she knows what she’s doing and she responds, “No, I don’t.”

Tyler wakes and finds his mom watching.   She tells him that she’ll take care of Caroline and make sure that nothing happens.   She calls Bill and tells him that she made a mistake.  He doesn’t go along with her.  Caroline is sitting tied to a chair in a basement calling for help and asking for Mrs. Lockwood.   Bill enters and says, “Hello, Caroline.”  Caroline responds, “Daddy?”

I suspected that “Bill” was Caroline’s dad, but wasn’t sure until the end.  Do you think that he can go through with what he planned to do and kill his own child? 

What do you think is up with Vickie?   Who should Jeremy trust – Vickie or Anna?   Will he finally tell Bonnie what’s going on or will he make a colossal mess of things?   I find it interesting that the only spirits that he is seeing are past girlfriends who were vampires.   What’s the connection?

I love how Damon is stepping up his game with Elena and making her admit her feelings for him!

How much longer do you think it will be before Klaus realizes that he got played and he didn’t actually kill the Doppelganger?

All in all, I thought this was a pretty good episode.   I like how we didn’t see what happened to Caroline until the end, leaving some suspense.    I am starting to think that the Klaus/hybrid army storyline may grow old quickly and I like where things are going with Jeremy seeing dead un-dead people.  That has a lot of possibility!  As I mentioned above, I love seeing things move along in the Elena-Damon realm, but I am totally Team Damon.  

What were your thoughts on this episode?  Join us in the forum and let us know what you think!