THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: “The Reckoning”

This new episode of The Vampire Diaries starts out carefree and typical teen-ishness, but things quickly deteriorate when Klaus comes back to Mystic Falls. So much happened in “The Reckoning”  that it felt more like a 2-hour special, and I’m still trying to sort it all out.

Klaus brings Stefan back to Mystic Falls just in time for Senior Prank Night. Elena and her friends are at the school, tricking it out with mousetraps and glued desk drawers. Why didn’t my school have these things? Klaus finds Elena and throws her in the gym with a compelled Stefan, giving them 20 minutes before Stefan is ordered to feed off of Elena till she’s dead. Klaus has also fed some of his blood to Tyler and then killed him, telling Bonnie she doesn’t have much time to find the spell that would turn Tyler hybrid.

Damon and Katherine are still on their road trip, but when Damon pulls off to the side of the road and makes Katherine tell him why she really wanted to get him away from Mystic Falls, she reveals that she has Elena’s necklace and knows that Klaus is looking for it. She also knows that Jeremy is seeing ghosts, thanks to tricking Bonnie into thinking she was talking to Elena. So Katherine’s got Jeremy in the trunk of the car as well.

Katherine and Damon force Jeremy to contact Anna to see if she will help them find a way to defeat Klaus. Anna reveals there is a vampire hunter named Michael, who Klaus and Rebecca are both extremely afraid of. Michael is the one who was after them in the Chicago flashback scene we saw in “The End of the Affair”. And he’s a vampire! Er? I’m confused by this. Why would a vampire hunt vampires. And by the way, he’s a vampire hater who would kill all vampires, including Damon, Stefan, et al.

Meanwhile, back at the school gym, the clock is ticking and Elena is trying to convince Stefan that he can fight the compulsion, just like Caroline’s father fought Damon’s attempt. Unfortunately, Bill had years to develop his resistance and Stefan has only minutes. Of course, the clock runs out and Elena starts to run with Stefan chasing her. Klaus catches her and Stefan’s urges wins out as he attacks Elena.

Matt and Bonnie can’t reach Jeremy so Matt comes up with a plan of his own to be able to talk with the dead and get the answers they need. He drowns himself in the pool, and when Bonnie is giving him CPR, he sees Vicky. She gives him a message for Bonnie. The doppelganger doesn’t need to die for Klaus to succeed in creating his hybrids. He just needs her blood. If he kills her, he only has enough of her blood for himself, leaving him alone as the only hybrid alive. He’d be alone forever. Whew! There’s a bullet dodged! He thought he killed Elena!

Klaus gives a vial of Elena’s blood to Tyler as a test to see if it will work. It does and Tyler is now a hybrid. Hmm, how will this effect his relationship with Caroline, wonders I.

So now, Klaus and Rebecca take off after hearing from Damon that Michael is coming after them again, which was a bluff. Damon gets Elena out of the hospital where a nurse is drawing her blood from her and storing it in bags on Klaus’s command. Jeremy and Katherine find Michael’s tomb and wakes him, ending the episode.

I”m terrified, you? What are your thoughts on this week’s episode?