Vampire Diaries: The Dinner Party (Season 2, Episode 15)

Jonathan Gilbert's voiceover for his diary sounds exactly like voices used in advertisements. He's supposed to be living in the 19th century. At her parents' lakeside cabin, Elena reads his journal, which tells her that her dearest Stefan killed them all. Well, Elena's ancestors were jerks. Startled, Elena looks out at her boyfriend, who is walking around casually and skipping stones across an entire lake.

Stefan and Damon have a cute chat on the phone about killing Elijah and Damon turning into Stefan. He plans to "dot all his T's," hah. Damon will enlist his zombie girlfriend Andie into helping. The two of them are actually kind of funny together, in a darkly humorous way. Stefan returns to the house to see Elena reading Jonathan's journals and thinks, Gee, I wonder if she's reading about me killing a bunch of folks.

Elijah is looking fine as he walks through the woods with Jenna. Strangely, they look good together. Maybe it's just me. An obviously concerned Alaric shows up and Jenna introduces him as as her friend. Oh snap! Jenna sees the tension between the two men, and leaves. Elijah tells Alaric that he doesn't really pursue younger women. I thought, "That makes one of them," until Elijah said he was joking.

At the pub, Bonnie can't stop thinking about [the spell she did] last night as in the spell she did, and neither can Jeremy [forget their kisses]. Poor Luka approaches them, understandably angry that they gave him a date rape drug. Jeremy gets protective of Bonnie, reminding me of a puppy. The two go to Jeremy's, where he has set up 100 candles for romance or, if that fails, a spell.

The wind/her boyfriend startle Elena. In a rare moment, they get snippy with one another. He's still annoyed that she wants to sacrifice herself and Elena's wondering why Stefan never mentioned murdering her ancestors. Now that the gig is up, he says he'll tell her [not because he wants her to know the truth but because he wants to convince her not to die].


There is something nerdy about Stefan telling Elena, "I took it to the darkest place I could." Maybe it's because I'd rather see it than hear him say it. I've always wondered how much characters describe flashbacks. "OK, so there was a blond playing the piano while two others were dancing around, and I was munching on a brunette, and they were in their underwear, for those days, but you know how different it was then. And I was a completely sloppy eater, but I looked pretty good with my open shirt..."

Watching Stefan say things like, "If you don't pick up the tempo, you're going to lose your head - snap snap!" is uncomfortable. But as Elena would say, "This is Stefan we're talking about here." On human blood, he's always creepy. He seems a little crazy, too. The amazing Damon swoops in saving the women in an effort to prevent Stefan from getting caught. Of course, the irony of Damon warning Stefan about his impulsive kills is rich.

Damon had promised Stefan an eternity of misery; these boys are so hot and cold with one another. Talk about complicated. Stefan is weirdly innocent ("aw, Damon, I'm just having some fun"), and he says he'll be behave if Damon stays. The Damon we know emerges when he tells Stefan he can get himself killed; Damon is out of there.


Alaric complains about Elijah to Damon and Andie. Right now he's having problems coping with his life. Amongst many issues, his best friend is a vampire who hypnotizes and feeds on his girlfriend. Elijah and Jenna show up; Andie suggests they all have a dinner party. Elijah's expression at being invited is hysterical. ("Not this again, Damon...)

Damon goes to the tomb and rejuvenates Katherine with blood. She worries that killing Elijah will keep her there forever. Damon doesn't care. They're awesome together.

Stefan hands Elena a drink (hah!) as he continues to tell Elena how much he loved blood. Back int he day, we see Stefan drinking on dead soldiers. He is as dazed as any drug user. One young lady he tries to munch on turns out to be his best friend Lexi. That's quite a way to meets someone. He takes her back to his place, and tries to be polite, apologizing for the dead bodies: "I was going to dispose of those." aka dead bodies. Lexi refers to him as a ripper and says what she would later say about Damon, that he is the bad parts of being a vampire. As chipper as Mary Poppins, Lexi asserts that she'll have to change that. Stefan gets choked up thinking about how Damon killed her, something he wants to forget, especially with the brothers' new-found alliance.

Andie tells Jenna she's grateful that Damon tells her everything, which is very true. Jenna sighs that her "friend" Alaric may be more secretive. Jenna leaves, and Damon tells Andie to take the women into a different room from the men so he can kill Elijah. She thinks that's sexist and is sad because she likes old school Elijah. Damon totally lies to Alaric about planning to kill Alaric. John shows up, meaning that both John and Elijah will be at the dinner to make him feel uncomfortable. He doesn't even know that Damon has pulled the wool over his eyes.

The wonderful Elijah arrives and tells Damon he will kill everyone in the house if Damon crosses him. He then pronounces, "Jenna! You look amazing." At dinner he tells a creepy story about witches being burned; their screams could be heard for miles. Mystic Falls people love massacres.


Elena discovers a drawing of the magical Original vampire killing dagger in Jonathan's journal. It kills all demons who wield it. Stefan worries about his big brother and rushes to the phone. He can't reach, so he calls Alaric, who is having a bad day. Alaric is surprised that Stefan is so flustered. (We only get his incredulous, "Stefan?")

After dinner, Damon and Elijah discuss the sacrifice spell, which includes, "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe" amongst other things. Elijah says he'll talk to him since he feels they have grown so close. He also proves that he is older than books. Alaric steps in just in time to stop Damon from killing Elijah and himself.

Angie's presence at the table confuses everyone who knows about her strange predicament, and just when I think Damon compelled her to kill Elijah, HOLY ALARIC! Alaric Saltzman comes out of the woodwork and stabs Elijah through his chair. He's really protective of Jenna. Now this leaves them without an anti-Klaus, and Damon gives Alaric one of his most surprised and slightly frightened looks. Alaric tells them to get the body out of their before Jenna realizes he killed their dinner guest. Alaric just went way up in my estimations, but I miss Elijah already.

Stefan and Elena continue to argue, which I kind of like. He says he's telling her his story to inspire her. No offense, Stefan, but you giving up and massacring people is not the same as Elena giving up to save people. In flashback land, Lexi shows Stefan how to love, but apparently not in that way, so it feels as though she's teaching a little boy about life. From then on, supposedly, he was a changed person. Now, earlier Stefan said that he was worse than Damon, but we didn't really get to see that. And this change seems too easy. Maybe it's because he was helped so early on.

Alaric tells Damon like it is: he is Damon's only friend and he can no longer lie to him. Damon nods like an adorable kid who has just been told off. Unfortunately, Elena just told Stefan that the Original will stay dead for as long as the knife remains in his heart. Stefan runs to his phone AGAIN.


A very upset looking Elijah approaches warlock Jonas, who marches into Jeremy's house as he and Bonnie prepare for witch sex. Jonas sucks her powers away. I kind of understand Jonas and Elijah's perspectives.

Meanwhile, Elijah makes his way to Elena and Stefan. In an intense confrontation, Elena threatens to stab herself. Elijah knows Stefan will save her with his blood, so she asserts that she will make herself a vampire. He calls her bluff, and she does it. A stunned Elijah frantically tries to get into the house to save her. Elena makes him promise their deal is on. As she falls into his arms, she stabs him with the magical dagger. Wow! Both Damon and Stefan were in on it, and it must have required some self control on their part to not help her. Man, Elena.

Jenna asks Alaric about Isobel; his lack of an answer and guilty expression prove that he is hiding something from her. Sigh. They both have enough problems, it would be nice if they were happy. John demands his ring in exchange for patching up their relationship. Alaric gives it to him merely because he needs it badly, now that John tried to kill Damon. Let's hope this is true.

Now Elena is tough and tells the Salvatores that they are going to do things her way. Damon asks Stefan how he changed her mind, and he mentions Lexi: "remember her?" Ooh. Damon doesn't apologize, but looks embarrassed for killing Stefan's best friend. Damon indeed remembers Lexi. We see that he asked Lexi to help Stefan because he needed it. Apparently Damon thought that he could survive on his own, unlike his helpless baby brother. Lexi warns him that his hatred for his brother will get the best of him, implying that many of Damon's actions rooted in his anger towards his brother.

Damon returns to his budoir to find a woman in the shower. He initially thinks it's Andie, but nope. It's Katherine, in all her naked glory. She steps out of the shower and calmly tells him that she played Brer Rabbit when begging him not to kill Elijah, tricking Damon by using reverse psychology. She knew Elijah's death would free her from the tomb. Katherine notes that, in spite of her duplicity, she has not run off, and is there to help. Perhaps she realized that this would do her good in the long run. Then, presumably, the bewildered Damon hands her a robe. What a fantastic ending.