The Vampire Diaries - Season 4 Episode 16 - Recap - Bring It On

The Vampire Diaries Season 4 Episode 16 Recap: "Bring It On"

Tonight's episode focused on Elena (Nina Dobrev) and the aftermath of turning her humanity off to help her deal with the death of her brother Jeremy. Unfortunately, this has backfired as she has turned into a wild, heartless bitch -- much like her doppleganger Katherine.

Everyone is after Katherine these days -- she has the all-important cure after all -- and ironically, a version of her has just sprung up in Mystic Falls High School.

The episode started dramatically with Elena laying on the street looking up into the sky. Did she want to get run over? What's going on? A woman stops her car and offers to help her. Turns out this was a ploy for Elena to feed! She attacks the woman and almost kills her until Damon (Ian Somerhalder) came in to stop the madness.

Clearly something needed to be done about this new "humanity-less" Elena.

Thinking that all that she needed was a bit of fun and activities, Damon suggests to Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Caroline (Candice Accola) -- who's at the Salvatore household taking advantage of their verbane-free showers -- that Elena go back to high school. Elena was more than game. Oh no. (Meanwhile, Damon headed off to follow leads on Katherine).

Elena returns to high school and gets interested in joining the cheering squad. Caroline, who heads the team takes her in. This turns out to be a disaster. At the squad meet, Elena feeds on one of the girls in the opposing team in order to get the blue ribbon in her hair. And during their routine -- after hoisting Caroline in the air -- Elena lets her fall on the ground hard. (She may have broken some bones, but thankfully vampires heal). How could Elena do that to her best friend? She's evil now.

Quick-thinking Stefan tells Elena that if she wants to have a great time they should go to a club. This piques Elena's interest enough for Stefan to inject some verbane into her and get her out of the public and back to their house.

When Elena wakes up at the Salvatore household, she and Stefan have a talk about how she's turned off everything and doesn't feel a thing -- including the feelings she once had for him. This was so painful to hear, but we know that Elena is not herself right now. Incidentally while having this conversation, Elena is furiously texting on her phone.

"Who are you texting?" asks Stefan.

Cue the music downstairs. Elena had invited everyone at the squad meet for an impromptu house party! She's such a bad girl now.

At the party, Caroline tells Stefan how it's actually nice to see Elena having fun. She suggests that Stefan do the same. He starts dancing with her. Elena notices and seems pissed that Stefan danced with Caroline but she tells them that she still has "no emotions."

Caroline's mom arrives (the sheriff) and asks Elena what's going on.

"Just underage drinking and drug use," she says. "Stefan is flirting with your daughter. But it's a good rebound thing for her with the Tyler situation." (OMG, evil Elena is evil!)

"I'm shutting this down," says the sheriff.

Elena then pins her to the wall -- until Caroline and Stefan stop her. Elena then darts out of the house into the woods!

Caroline and Stefan search for Elena.

"Don't hesitate. Just snap her neck," Stefan tells Caroline.

By this time, Damon has returned to the house and gets a message from Stefan that Elena has gone AWOL.

Caroline finds Elena in the woods and they fight. Elena tells her all kinds of nasty things about Tyler and Caroline's "dirty thoughts" about Klaus. Elena gains the upperhand and nearly stakes Caroline until Stefan and Damon break them up.

The Vampire Diaries - Season 4 Episode 16 - Recap - Stand By Me

The Search for Katherine

There are three parts to this:

1. The sheriff alerts Stefan that the blood bank supply has gone missing.
2. Klaus (Joseph Morgan) saves Hayley from a vampire sent by Katherine to silence her. He then seduces her (with fine dining and conversation) to get more information about Katherine, who Hayley helped to get the cure. They eventually have sex. A bit of information is also revealed when Klaus recognizes a tattoo on Hayley's back. She could be part of a werewolf clan. (I'm assuming this is all tie-in for The Originals spin off).
3. Damon follows the lead from Stefan about the blood banks (they suspect it is Katherine getting blood for Silas). He encounters Rebekah who is also after Katherine at this point and they team up with the investigation. (She has his brother's blood in vial which should be useful). Eventually they encounter the vampire which attacked Hayley. Damon and the vampire recognize each other -- but Damon kills him. (Oh no, another mystery).

The Vampire Diaries - Season 4 Episode 16 - Recap - Stand By Me

Aftermath

Stefan makes a pact with Caroline that they will not give up on Elena even if she's at her worst right now.

Elena tells Damon that she doesn't care -- and that Damon actually liked her better like this because she won't judge him. (Damon did not respond).

Throughout the episode Caroline left messages for Tyler on his voice mail. Matt texts her to meet him at Tyler's house. She arrives, but she can't enter the door. (Vampires can only come in if the owner of the house allows them to). Matt appears and tells her to come in. She enters. Matt gives her a letter from Tyler.

The letter reads: Tyler gave the deed to the house to Matt (it's Matt's now). And then he could not go back to Mystic Falls for as long as Klaus is hunting him. Caroline breaks down in tears.

Next Week: Damon and Elena head for New York City.

Thoughts

As I mentioned this week, everytime they do the "high school" thing on this show, my suspension of disbelief gets shattered a bit. However, I think they did a good job of covering it up somewhat by making everyone else at the school look older.

It's just that everything on this show now is so overtly sexual, the switch back to the high school is jarring. I can see awkward sex -- but not the type we are seeing here between the characters.

Overall, tonight was a bit disjointed. The impromptu party for example was a bit of a stretch considering what had been going on with Elena for the past couple of episodes.

I did feel bad for Caroline. I share her loss. I guess Tyler (Michael Trevino) is off dating Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) from Glee somewhere (LOL).