When Julie Plec tells us there’s an upcoming episode with some familiar faces and fan favorites from way back when, there’s a huge chance a lot of us will spend the entire episode fangirling (or fanboying) and crying like babies. And if you’re wondering, I was definitely doing a whole lot of both. “Ghost World” is definitely a treat for the longtime fans of the show, as Julie Plec put it. Just a little FYI for all of you, this will basically be a huge gushing fangirl love letter about Lexi (Arielle Kebbel). There will be very minimal intellectual thoughts when she’s around. You’ve been warned.
Previously on The Vampire Diaries: Klaus compelled Stefan to be a huge jerk. Ripper Stefan is Elena’s new bodyguard. Anna is still around, but now she can touch things, like Jeremy. Mason rolled into town (season 2 stuff), he was hot, Damon killed him because he sucks, and now Mason’s back to kick some ass and take some names!
This episode came back basically minutes after where we left off last week. And I totally approve of Mason torturing Damon. It makes up for the time when Damon did it to Mason. Sort of. Anyway, there’s something really wrong with Damon that he automatically thinks it’s Stefan who did this. Although, that would have been fun, too. Stefan was amused by it all, and he started to help untie Damon, but he decided against it and walked off. I assume he went to play more twister. His twister ladies are more fun than Damon.
Oh look, another Founders event. Usually, whenever Mayor Lockwood is making public speeches, it’s usually about something that happened this one time in history in Mystic Falls and we’re all galavanting around celebrating it, because being proud of your messed up town is a necessity. Also, is that a Fell?! It’s about time! We don’t see much of him anyway, but since Logan Fell came around, the only other time we’ve heard that name was when one of the Scooby members mentions Fells Church. It’s nice to know there’s some actual founding family members who are actual people. Anyway, he’s Tobias Fell, the head of the history department, and he’s explaining to the town that on Illumination Night, everyone turns off the lights and uses lanterns instead. He seems boring.
Apparently, Alaric’s only there because that history guy is the head of his department at school, and Jeremy’s there because if he isn’t, Alaric could just easily fail him. It’s nice to know that people don’t do nice things just because anymore.
I honestly have such mixed feelings about Jeremy and Anna right now. Jeremy kind of sucks for still having her around when he has Bonnie. But basically, a whole season is about a couple of months in Mystic Falls time, so Anna died about less than a year ago. I can understand that he probably can’t let go just yet, but it’s about time that he does. And no one else seems to notice how crazy he must look laughing and talking to himself in public. After everything that has happened in that town, it must seem normal.
Bonnie tells Caroline that even though she sent Vicki away, or just cut off the witch power she was using, Anna is still around because Jeremy still wants her around. Caroline wants to give Bonnie some advice on this confusing and abnormal situation but Bonnie doesn’t want to hear it. Bonnie’s a witch, why didn’t she figure out a way to send Anna back when she found out about all of this? No wonder those dead witches don’t want to talk to her, she kind of sucks.
Damon’s not happy about being spit-roasted so he comes to Bonnie to complain about it. “Whatever you screwed up, fix it.” He sucks too.
So, Elena’s been looking through some of Stefan’s old journals. Every time that Stefan has gone off the rails, Lexi’s been the one to bring him back. “So, where is she now that we need her?” “She’s dead.” Thanks, Jeremy! Way to be gentle about it! My heart still hearts from it, okay! Sigh. Anyway, Elena wants Jeremy to try to reach her, but Jer goes off on this whole rant about what Anna has told him about “the other side” and her struggles. I honestly don’t even care much for Anna’s lonely, ghost struggles. Elena and Alaric don’t seem to care much either, to me. They’re just worried about de-douchifying Stefan. (I just made a word!)
Matty! Poor kid. He looks great here, by the way. Bonnie thinks Vicki might be torturing Damon, which actually makes sense, too. He turned her and then killed her. Damon’s just all around suckish. Anyway, Bonnie’s worried about having more ghosts but Matt’s just tired of this town. It’s pretty funny how Bonnie basically just tried to pin this on Matt for a moment there. Plus, it’s always really helpful when you’re grimoire opens on its own to a spell that you really need. Why hasn’t Bonnie read the whole thing like 20 times over yet? It’s Mystic Falls for God’s sake! (That book doesn’t even look like it has any meaningful words in it at all.)
Alaric is right about one thing: there’s too many dead vampires who may be watching them that would want them dead. Elena just wants to help Stefan out and I’m glad she is. Anna’s telling Jeremy that maybe not all supernatural beings go to the other side. Maybe some of them find peace. Anna’s being a little sketchy to me, too.
Stefan shows up, being his new and improved jerk self! “Wow, all these words. Forgot how much I used to care.” I giggled, but it was a bad thing to say! I still love his sarcasm but I really do miss the old Stefan, and those cute Stefan and Elena moments. You guys may not believe that because I am having so much fun watching Paul Wesley be a jerk and be hilariously sarcastic, but I do miss the good old days. Anyway, he basically tells Elena to relax and loosen up, forget the past, but… it’s Elena, so that’s pretty much impossible anyway.
The plantation returns! Caroline is seriously freaked out, so bad that she questions her own safety with Bonnie. I would too, Bonnie’s just overall bad luck. She tells Caroline all the dead witches are gone, and she makes Bonnie pinky swear. Cutest thing ever!
(There’s so much going on and so many scene changes in 10 minutes. My brain hurts.)
Jeremy took Anna to the bathroom in the Grill to have THE talk. He means business. All of a sudden, Anna can touch him and we all know it’s all Bonnie’s fault. Or Matt’s. He thinks maybe Anna is messing with his head. Anyway… JEREMY’S A BAD BOY. STOP THE GHOST KISSING. Not gonna lie, I absolutely loved Jeremy and Anna in season 1. They were my favorites. But I have grown to really love Jeremy with Bonnie, even though their relationship basically just involves Jeremy dying and both of them reading grimoire’s all the time. I’m so torn.
Next scene, Bonnie does witchy chants. (Who comes up with this stuff?)
Damon shows up at the Grill to bother Alaric some more about forgiving him. He’s so annoyed. “We’re not a team! You tried to kill me, alright! We’re not friends, I don’t like you anymore.” Alaric sort of sounds like a 5 year old. I’m just glad he’s not forgiving Damon. This needs to last! It really is about time someone is continuously mad at Damon for his stupidity and does not forgive the guy after a few hours. I also wonder how Damon figured out, all on his own, that it was Mason who beat him around.
Here’s where the fun, magic happens! Bonnie’s jibberish chants go to work and now everyone can see the ghosts lurking around town. Elena walked in on Jeremy and Anna, but now Elena can actually see Anna. Oh. GRAMS SHOWED UP. JASMINE GUY. LET’S KEEP HER FOREVER. Okay, moving on. Let me compose myself. NOW LEXI SHOWS UP TOO. IT’S LIKE MY FREAKING BIRTHDAY. LET’S KEEP ARIELLE KEBBEL AND JASMINE GUY FOREVER OKAY. OKAY! I can’t take this. Excuse me while I take out my season 1 DVD and cradle it. This is the greatest. This paragraph doesn’t even make sense, but I honestly don’t even care. When I heard that we were going to have some season 1 familiar faces in an upcoming episode, I near had convulsions hoping it was Arielle Kebbel returning to us. I even mentioned on my twitter that she should come and set Stefan back on the straight and narrow path he was on before. Anyway, Lexi’s entrance was fantastic. So was Mason’s. Big points for smashing a glass on Damon’s head.
“You’re dead.” “Yeah, technically, so are you.” Lexi mocking Stefan is the absolute greatest thing ever! I know I say that a lot, but, just look at her! She makes those annoyed facial expressions that are just so cute. (I warned you all this was basically a Lexi love letter. She’s my favorite). She gets extra points for slamming Stefan’s head into that car window. In the middle of the day. In the middle of town. While people are walking by. Seriously, does anyone care about the abuse that goes on in this town? Geez.
Now, here continues my Grams love. This show has got to stop killing off all the badass women! Oh, and I cried such alligator tears seeing Bonnie like that over Grams (and when I saw Lexi, of course). Grams was the closest person Bonnie had in her life to help her with all her witchy problems. And she was basically the only badass woman at the time. But, Grams basically just confirmed for all of us that Bonnie goofed up and this “new” ghost problem is all her fault. Isn’t Caroline the cutest when she called Grams “Ms. Sheila”? Anyway, Grams knows a lot about the original witch stuff, but Bonnie’s not badass enough to know about these things and basically gets shut down.
But all we do get to know, is the Original Witch can draw power from the Mystic Falls world because of her talisman, aka the necklace. So now, they have to destroy the necklace. (My Stefan and Elena shipper heart died a little inside). Elena then drops the “my brother kissed his ghosty ex-girlfriend and basically cheated on our best friend so I am very okay with this, even though my psycho boyfriend once gave it to me” bomb on Caroline. (Did that make sense?) Elena’s so rude to Anna. She’s being kind of hypocritical since, ahem, she kissed Damon in the season 2 finale and has YET to even notify Stefan of it. Seriously, when is that going to happen? Preferably when he cares again so I can see Damon get his butt kicked. We all know Stefan can take him easy.
LEXI. She finds Elena to give her a major crash course on “Ripper Detox: 101″. Elena needs to know how to control her man. Thank you, Lexi. You’re the greatest. Never leave me again.
Wait, is this show telling me that the only reason Mason came back to beat up Damon was for an apology? Boy stop it. Thank the lord he went on to mention he wants to help save Tyler from this hybrid tomfoolery and knows how to kill Klaus (so does Mikael but I guess no one cares about him today) and needs Damon help in doing so.
No one uses the City Jail anymore so it’s the ideal place to de-douchify Stefan. “Shh! Inside voices! Please.” “Elena, get rid of her, please.” If we had about 4 episode of just this ghost stuff and all the people were back in town, I’d love to see the Ripper/Lexi interaction a lot more in depth. The last time Lexi successfully de-douchified him, it took about thirty freaking years. Anyway, this part here kind of confused me. Regular vampires can’t compel other vampires, that’s only an Original thing. And Lexi is not a witch. So, I guess being a ghost gives you some new tricks. I don’t know. This is The Vampire Diaries anyway. Anything’s possible. So, first off, Lexi starves away the bloodlust, in result, stripping away the temptation. This stuff is not pretty. “I’m doing what I do best, sweetness. I’m saving your life”. Can I at least keep her if this show doesn’t?
Mason’s been watching Damon! He knew about Damon finding Mikael and also screwing that possibility up. But there’s an old Lockwood family legend about some weapon that can kill some original vampire. So, I’m guessing Mikael knows how to kill Klaus using whatever information that Mason needs to find. I have a headache.
Stefan has gone extra psycho. He’s hallucinating now. Lexi’s drained him of blood and he’s up to 5 years of no blood. “Did I ever tell you… how glad I am that you’re dead?” “Aw, I missed you too, friend.” Brilliance. She’s the greatest! (More fangirling. I enjoyed seeing Lexi SO much, you guys. Not even funny).
Caroline calls Elena mentioning that the necklace is nowhere to be found and Elena wants to hold off on sending the ghosts back to continue helping Stefan. And then Caroline gets herself in a bit of a pickle when she accidentally drops a hint that there are two boyfriend-ghost dramas instead of the one Stefan problem. Therefore, Caroline tells Bonnie about Jeremy’s disloyalty. By the way, was I the only who basically yelled at Caroline “Go look in the soapdish, woman!”? Yes? No? Okay.
WELL. Here’s something that I totally forgot would appear in this episode (a while back, the actor who plays Frederick, I forgot his name because honestly, he’s irrelevant, tweeted about returning to the show, so I was spoiled a bit. Darn!). Some of the tomb vampires are back reeking havoc about town. Starting with that new Fell guy. I told you guys we don’t see much of him.
Ripper Stefan is tricky! He has a “change of heart” and tries to convince Elena to let him out, but Lexi, the all-knowing Ripper expert that she is, urges Elena not to listen to him. He’s basically playing mind-games. In our normal world, he’s basically the alcoholic boyfriend trying to convince his naive girlfriend that everything will be better and he can stop whenever he wants. Yeah, okay. Then, major 180! Ripper turns around and basically tells off Elena. And here is my favorite part:
Lexi: “See that? That’s the Ripper talking. Once he’s weak enough, you have to cause him pain, make him feel things. Anger. Rage. Anything. You have to make him see past the blood. Think of it as a régimen. Day in and day out. Like running the treadmill, like making coffee. Until he’s ready to be saved.”
Stefan: “I will rip you apart, Lexi!”
Lexi: “You can’t. I’m already dead.”
Stop killing off the badass women, Vampire Diaries! Stop it! This is a crime!
Elena can’t handle Lexi staking Stefan, so she runs off. She sucks.
Caroline and Bonnie were still looking for the godforsaken necklace at the Salvatore house. God bless Caroline! She looked in the soapdish! You gotta love the writers! I totally expected it to be in there, honestly. Anyway, everyone now accuses Anna of taking the necklace because it’s not in the soapdish so someone must have taken it. Also, I love love love Caroline for telling off Jeremy.
Back at the cave, Mason and Damon are bonding. “I know you’ll do anything for your brother. You won’t screw me over. So long as we have the same agenda.” Mason, dude, who are even watching on the other side? Because it’s obviously not Damon. The boy has to be convinced to save his brother, after everything that Stefan has done for him. He should know that Stefan is in the situation that he’s in because of Damon. I have yet to see Damon take it upon himself to do a “Save Stefan” plan. So, no Mason, Damon won’t do anything for his brother. And that really upsets me. “Aren’t you the all-knowing?” “I’m a ghost, not God.” Let’s keep Mason, too.
Elena confronted Jeremy about his ghost problem. She makes good points. Anna’s dead. It’s not going to work out very well. But her advice is a bit hypocritical, even though I still want her with Stefan. And, BAM. Anna did have the necklace.
Mason helps Damon out of his situation and is the greatest, hottest uncle ever. That is all.
Bonnie and Caroline run into the tomb vampires reeking havoc on their way to the plantation. I bet you Mayor Lockwood regrets kidnapping Caroline a few episodes ago!
Anna and Jeremy have one of those final heart breaking goodbye scenes here. In the end, Anna took the necklace because she was trying to find her mother, Pearl. Since all the tomb vampires were out, then it’s not a major stretch that Pearl could have been out, too. Poor girl. Now I’m kind of rooting for those two a little bit. I’m still so very torn. I need some tissues.
Lexi’s still trying to break Stefan. “You’ve wasted your whole life taking care of me and now you’re dead and you have nothing better to do.” He’s a ruthless jerk. But since Lexi is just awesome, and while under pressure now that she knows they’re about to send all the ghosts back, she’s still trying to get through to him, somehow. “Okay, that necklace, at least tell me you remember how you felt about that. You found it during your darkest time, and you said when you made it through, that that necklace represented hope.” Seriously though, they have the greatest friendship.
Jeremy finds Bonnie and gives her the necklace. She’s mad though. And Grams steps in to help Bonnie out one last time. Definitely on my list of one of the greatest scenes The Vampire Diaries has. I teared up so bad. Not because the tomb vampires disappeared, but because Mason disappeared. And Lexi left me. And Anna found her mother. Yes you guys, Pearl and Anna were reunited again and we all broke down in tears. It was a great treat. And then Grams left us. And none of us were able to contain tears. It’ like they died for a second time and we lost them all over again.
Since Mason left us, again, Damon called Ric, because Damon has no more friends. I guess it seems like they made up. I’m a little disappointed. But okay.
Elena reassures Stefan that her mission to bring back Stefan and make “Stefulus” go away is strong. (Horrible Buffy reference, but hey, I tried. HAHA). She still has hope for him. But she’s not going to wait around for him to fight for it. Girl power!
Seems like Jeremy has a long way to go to get Bonnie back on her good graces with him. She tells him Matt let go of his sister before he even decided to let go of Anna. I’m glad that she’s not taking crap from him. No one should be allowed any explanation 5 minutes after making out with an ex-girlfriend. Given about a week, then I’d say yes. Girl power!
Oh. Oh. Looks like the Original witch calls all the shots. The necklace is back! AND Alaric finds caveman drawings from yester-year.
Next week: MAJOR Original flashback episode! And Elena and Alaric try to decipher the caveman drawings. It also looks like there’s going to be a Rebekah and Elena showdown!
You guys, this was such a great episode, in my opinion. It’s so hard to pick an MVP. I’d have to give it up to Kat Graham, Arielle Kebbel, Paul Wesley, Jasmine Guy (just ’cause), and Malese Jow. Kat Graham and Jasmine Guy always have the greatest scenes. It’s such a treat to have Jasmine Guy guest star. Kat’s performance throughout the episode was fantastic and I’m hoping we get to see more of her this way. She’s a great actress and it’s a shame to not showcase that. Plus, Malese Jow always hits the emotional scenes hard. She breaks us all to pieces saying goodbye to Jeremy and finding her mother once again. And then there’s my favorite dynamic duo: Arielle Kebbel and Paul Wesley. It’s always one of my favorite episodes if Lexi is in it. She is definitely my absolute favorite guest star. And Paul can just have mind blowing chemistry with anyone and anything basically. His torture scenes always hurts my heart. You guys should know how I feel about his acting, anyway. 
(Whoa, this is long.)
Screencaps: VampireDiariesWeb
