The triangle--quadrangle?--becomes more twisted by episode's end. It leads to shocking violence against outsiders that deepens the tragedy and the mythology at the core of the show. "Game on" just might be the two most chilling words uttered this season.
The throbbing red heart of The Vampire Diaries remains the tension between Damon and Paul Wesley's Stefan, and their mutual attraction to whomever Dobrev is embodying at the time.
This is the sort of show where "never say die" is written into the mythology--a good thing for several of the opening hour's apparent victims. I don't know how much longer The Vampire Diaries can keep churning stories at this feverish rate, but if this is your sort of guilty pleasure, you'd be crazy not to bite.
The Vampire Diaries is no "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"--it doesn't have that series' depth--but it's plotted well enough to mix supernatural action with the occasional game of Kiss Me or Kill Me and some surprising cliffhangers, too.