I've seen several reviews of this episode with the complaint that it was boring when compared to the premise of the episode. It's hard not to compare mystery islands when Boone is sharpening a machete on the beach in the opening shot. The characters did seem to be in stasis, fatalistic relationship talk excepted. The exposition dump was particularly heavy this week which makes me think that this is more of a launching point for the downhill toboggan ride of lunacy that is traditional at the end of a Vampire Diaries season. I skipped the whole Klaus semi-murdering Caroline bit because every beat was telegraphed by prior information and none of it was surprising.
Nova Scotia or Bust
The Vampire Diaries roadtrip episodes are generally a hoot. Usually they function to give two characters some breathing room to build on a promising relationship. This is the first group hang on the road (unless you count the occasional sleep-over at the lake house). I am looking forward to terrible plans made exponentially worse by jet lag.
I once tried to murder a friend (holla Joe!) while traveling with him in Spain because we hadn't slept in 48 hours and I'm not even a vampire.
Update
Ya'll, I just chatted (via Twitter) with an actual resident of Nova Scotia who is looking forward to tomorrow's Vampire Diaries episode. Much like I (being from Albuquerque) enjoy Breaking Bad so I can identify familiar hangout spots. Oh, and not to bury the lead, but she is a MERMAID! This is no joke people. Check out this delightful woman/fish.
Ermahgerd!
Good freaking gravy. This episode was jam packed and it's hard to pick out my favorite moment, but I will say this:
The Gilbert siblings did a bad bad thing. For the sake of enjoying this episode I'm just going to accept that the thousands of off-screen vampires they killed tonight don't have personalities or loved ones. Remember in season one when Damon was almost beaten to death and set on fire by the understandably miffed boyfriend of ONE vampire he killed?
I hope nobody spreads the word that the Gilbert assassins live in Mystic Falls. Or perhaps the big bad of season 5 will be a mob with laser sighted pitchforks.