'Haunted' - The Vampire Diaries, Season One

The Vampire Diaries

Season One

Episode Seven

'Haunted' - 5.5

To accept this show you must accept that it works within a parallel universe in which Jeremy Gilbert is attractive.

It is nice to see the Vampire Diaries move along at a faster pace, and 'Haunted' seemed to accelerate and finish a major character arc of the show. Vicki, who became a vampire last episode, is killed, Stefan and Elena kind of got back together (after what, twenty four hours apart?) and Damon proves he has a little humanity left in him.

As you have probably deduced, I have issues with most of the characters of this show. Damon pisses me off royally, and this episode was no different. He pulled his whole I-have-no-remorse routine the entire time and I just wanted him to leave. He only gets in the way and stuffs things up, he's not an antagonist he's just an irritant. Useless. I'd be alright if Ian Somerhalder would start acting rather than making eye twitches!

Anyway, Damon actually wasn't in this episode as much as the other antagonist - Vicki. Vicki spends 'Haunted' hungry, consistently a step away from tearing any of the other character's heads off, though it was mostly all talk until the final few minutes where she accidentally tasted some of Jeremy's blood.

So something I notice about the Vampire Diaries is that they like to spring parties on us - Not long ago we had the Founder's Ball, there was the Bonfire in the first episode and they had the football thing in 'Friday Night Bites', and this episode we had some Halloween do. I don't know what it is really like in America, but I think these constant parties are just lazy. For some reason media believes that when bad stuff happens at parties it is more dramatic, and the number characters conjugating in one location means we think they're all in danger, and yeah it does, but only for so many times. I swear only about three or four weeks has passed in this universe, that school must be made of money.

As you'd have guessed, everything important occurs at this party, and all the main cast members are in attendance, even a hungry Vicki. Now, the Halloween party looked good, but there were points where someone would walk through the decked out sets under the blinking strobe lights and it would look awesome, but these moments were too brief. Man, it could have been like a horror noir, confusing flashes, artistic shadows, all that, but I think this show doesn't want to look intelligent. Maybe it doesn't want to scare off idiots?

Eventually Vicki finds Jeremy and takes him out to the School Bus sleepy place to make out, only to accidentally bite his lip and taste his blood. We've all been there right? Anyway, she goes pretty schizo, as you do when you are a new vampire it seems, and Elena and Stefan intervene.

Don't let the sarcastic tone fool you, the fight between the four of them was pretty fantastic. Elena gets thrown around, there is a brief period where we didn't know where Vicki was, Elena gets bitten. It was fun, and just what should have happened at the climax of the episode, yet I couldn't help wondering - why did they have to be at a Halloween party? Regardless, it all ends with Vicki attaching herself to Elena's neck and then Stefan sticking a broken plank right through her heart. Hooray! A meaningful death!

In fact, her death was commendably handled. It was slow, and the acting from Vicki and Jeremy was pretty heartbreaking, needless  to say I was surprised and impressed. What pissed me off was that the show effectively vetoes the death by Damon wiping Jeremy of his memories of vampires and the emotions he felt when his girlfriend died. Even Elena's anger at Damon was kind of cleaned away when she asked him to compel her little brother. UG! Make something matter!

The Vampire Diaries often looks good in a typical dark, teenager-orientated sort of show, but it seems frightened of breaking barriers or taking risks. What really lets the show and this episode down is this fear, and the bad decisions the crew makes in order to maintain the status quo that isn't particularly interesting to begin with. Still, Vicki's death is well played and action-packed, with the actress doing a great job in the character's final scenes, as well as Steve McQueen pulling more than his far share of the weight as Jeremy deals with his grief. It could have been great, TVD, but somewhere, somehow, something is wrong and needs to be addressed.