If You’re Raging, Say I.

Is it getting hot in here or is it just me? It certainly wasn’t just me tonight when I watched season 4′s 3rd episode of the Vampire Diaries “The Rager”. It seemed that even Elena, Stefan, Damon, and Tyler felt the heat in this developing episode.

For starters, we finally see Tyler again after his last scene in episode 2 “Memorial”. If you recall, Connor had taken April in an attempt to use her blood to lure out the vampires attending the memorial service for April’s father and the members of the council. After Elena being seated and fed by Matt after her struggling speech at the podium, Tyler stands and goes forward to speak out about the pastor, to Connor’s surprise and pleasure. As Tyler is talking about how being a team means to sacrifice oneself for the others around them, Connor snipes a wooden stake at Tyler, temporarily killing him. After Caroline pulls the stake out of Tyler, Tyler’s mother calls an ambulance with the reasoning that “the whole town has just seen” Tyler get shot.

In “The Rager”, we finally see Tyler, in his hospital bed asleep. Connor has infiltrated and killed one of the guards set up to protect Tyler in the hospital. Connor shows up, and using a needle, extracts marrow from Tyler’s tooth. Now, at this point we are all wondering, “What the hell?”

Turns out, Connor has somehow extracted the werewolf poison from Tyler, and set it up to poison Rebekah (by Matt’s misinformation) during her party. Trying to sway Jeremy for his cause, Connor attempts to use both Jeremy and Matt in order to kill the vampires of Mystik Falls.

Which brings us to the “huh?” of this. If you all thought Rebekah and Klaus had left, you are sadly mistaken.

In fact, Rebekah shows up in Alaric’s old history class while Elena and Stefan are remembering the ‘good ol’ days’. Since Tyler’s ‘attempted assassination’ the town has issued a curfew. Rebekah enters the classroom with flyers advertising a party in rebellion to the curfew. Both quick with their tongues, Rebekah finally angers Elena to the point of striking out when she mentions how she is responsible for Alaric’s death, leading to even more confrontation in the school restroom. Never fear, however, because Stefan is quick to tell Elena not to give in to her rage and to try to enjoy herself. She agrees and decides to attend Rebekah’s party to spite her, however things turn deadly when Rebekah takes Elena’s daylight ring to taunt her.

Earlier to this we see Elena ransacking Damon’s room looking for the white oak stake to kill Rebekah. After getting her ring back, Elena has every intention of doing so. Confronted by Stefan he basically tells her, “I won’t stop you. However the moment you kill Rebekah, vampires all over the world will die. Rage is a powerful emotion, but guilt, trust me, guilt is even more powerful.” Elena and Stefan eventually leave, leaving Rebekah with a look of dismay, before falling ill to the poison Connor, Jeremy, and Matt have planted (not in a collaboration, of course).

While all this is going on, Tyler returns home where he finds out the his mother has contacted Klaus in order for help in protecting him. Klaus has appointed two hybrids as body guards, and while sitting at home under house arrest, an unexpected girl from Tyler’s past appears. Turns out, this girl is a girl whom Tyler had had a romantic involvement with when he was trying to break his sire bond to Klaus. At this point, the audience is in shock because–we had no idea that he had done such a thing while away from Caroline. Klaus realizes that Caroline doesn’t know either. Oooh, ooh, ooh. Someone might just get the girl after all.

Now, during Klaus’s confrontation with Tyler, Damon calls with a plan of taking out Connor, and Klaus agrees, going with Damon to the hospital to the trap they have set for Connor where during which Klaus uncovers a shocking secret, which he later tells Connor makes him the “most protected vampire hunter in all of town”. Elena and Rebekah both being affected by the wolf poison, Klaus gives her some of his blood to save her, realizing that he can again use Elena for future endeavors.

All in all, the episode had very strong moments. For example, after Klaus saved Elena, Stefan called Caroline over to speak to her about how he feels as if he can’t control himself when he’s with Elena, which prompts Caroline to tell him that when he feels as if he’s going to lose control that he can count on her. There was the scene between Klaus and Tyler, as well as the scene between Elena, Matt, and Damon, in which after Damon had talked with Meredith who told him that he wasn’t leaving, he went to Elena’s to check up on her, and saw her struggling for control while latched onto Matt’s arm. After compelling Matt to go home, Damon tells Elena that he will help her to control her blood lust. We also can’t forget Rebekah’s moment with Matt, in which she realizes that everyone really, really hates her.

There are also delicious moments too. The return of Joseph Morgan is one. And a shirtless Damon is another. Full of plot developments, and twists, this episode left more questions than answers, and if you’ve yet to see it, I suggest you do so right away. Episode 4 of season 4 of the Vampire Diaries “The Five” airs Nov. 1, 2012.