The Vampire Diaries: Before Sunset

Another busy day for me! I went shopping and I may have bought the entire mall in the process…ooops. There are great sales on just now in Topshop and New Look especially if you’re looking for trousers or dresses.  River Island also has some great scarfs and Primark (yes Primark) has pretty shoes and some summer hats too.

But now for the real reason you’re all here, the penultimate episode of The Vampire Diaries. Yes it’s that time already, the third season is drawing to a close and this episode was certainly filled with twists and turns and for The Vampire Diaries it was pretty dark (not quite at the True Blood level yet though).

It started with a pretty epic Caroline-Rebekah moment. I’ve never really been a fan of Caroline but Rebekah is slowly becoming one of my favourite characters and seeing these two share an emotional scene remembering those they have lost and then teaming up to attack Alaric was quite special. Rebekah then went back to being the bad girl we know and let Alaric drag Caroline off to be tortured while she looked out for number one and went to tell Klaus that they should leave town.

Girl Power!

*Side note number one: why on earth did Caroline jog to her car and fumble with the keys when she could have easily used her vampire super speed and ran away? (Massive plot hole!)

Klaus was not too happy with Rebekah’s suggestion of running away again and put his chance of building a hybrid army (and maybe trying to start a relationship with Caroline) before his own sister, naturally she was pretty pissed off and decided to leave town by herself.

Off to Elena’s house where she and Jeremy were (badly) repainting Alaric’s room only a few hours after he had died (check out TV.com’s photo recap, they really rip Elena’s painting skills to shred, its true though I don’t think I have ever seen a worse attempt at redecorating!) As usual things didn’t run smoothly for long and Damon turned up with Bonnie who had just revealed the witches had compelled her into feeding Alaric her blood and now super vampire hunter Alaric was out to kill all vampires.

"I screwed up...again."

Alaric decided to set his plan to rid the world of vampires in motion and calmly phoned Elena to ask her to meet him at the school otherwise he would kill Caroline. Elena obviously has no regard for her own safety by now and left for the school without telling anyone where she was going.

Exam conditions have got a lot worse since I left school.

Unfortunately Alaric wasn’t the only one after Elena, Klaus had also decided that now was the right time to drain her of her blood so he would be able to leave town and still create his hybrid army. Knowing that he couldn’t get into Elena’s house without being invited in, he settled for destroying it in a dramatic and hilarious manner. He started off small with a newspaper, then he progressed to a football, then the poor neighbours fence posts and finally…fire!

Klaus puts a whole new meaning to red hot news.

*Side note number two: I like how while Klaus was hell bent on destroying Elena’s house and throwing fence posts around Stefan decided that he had to answer his phone. He clearly has his priorities in order…

As soon as Damon, Stefan and Klaus realised that their girls were being held captive by Alaric they put their differences aside and went from trying to kill each other to teaming up to be the heroes.

Yet again poor Bonnie didn’t have a choice and helped the vampires attempt to rescue Caroline and Elena by planning to put a desiccation spell on Alaric that would mean he was sort of dead/sort of asleep and Elena wouldn’t have to die.

Unfortunately Bonnie had no idea how to do this spell (as usual) and had to get her vampire mum to show her how. However, this spell needed dark magic to work and Bonnie would have to temporarily stop Jeremy’s heart to desiccate Alaric. Personally I think it would be pretty interesting to see Bonnie turn evil for a while, it would make a change from the vampires and werewolves (possible season four idea perhaps?)

Anyway, while the guys were drinking Bonnie’s blood to bind them together, Elena was being the hero and managed to save Caroline who then ran straight into Klaus’ arms (aww). Klaus told Caroline that he would save Elena while she ran home and naturally Caroline believed him so she left Elena behind, the same Elena who had just risked her mortal life to save Caroline (why wasn’t Elena annoyed by this?!)

"I told you playing Chinese Whispers would be fun!"

Thankfully Stefan and Damon came to the rescue and saved Elena who was in the process of slitting her own throat to try and kill Alaric (that part definitely put me off eating my Easter Egg!)

Elena’s day went from bad to worse as she awoke to find herself being drained of all her blood by Klaus so he could create his hybrid army. This time it was Tyler’s turn to be the hero, unfortunately he had to pretend to still be sired to Klaus so he just left Elena to die…but then he came back! Of course just as he was saving Elena, Klaus returned and was kind of angry to find out he was now unable to compel his only successful hybrid creation to do his dirty work.

Now for an interesting turn of events. After spending the entire episode trying to kill Alaric, the Salvatores and Bonnie then desiccated Klaus instead. Klaus actually didn’t seem all that annoyed by this and instead looked to be pretty heartbroken by what Stefan had done to him.

Poor Klaus...

The last part of the episode was pretty bitty:

Since Klaus was now kind of dead the gang decided to celebrate. Bonnie and Jeremy shared an intimate moment after she managed to bring him back to life and then they went to Elena’s to engage in some underage drinking (I sense a Vampire Diaries-90210 crossover, that would be interesting!)

*Side note number three: since Elena had just lost at least two and a half pints of blood did one of the brothers give her some blood in the car? Let’s hope so because in one scene she was at deaths door and the next she was doing shots…

Alaric still hadn’t caused enough mayhem for one day and so he summoned a council meeting where he revealed to all members that the mayor and sheriffs children were actually vampires/vampwolfs.

"Now who wants to volunteer to bring the cakes for the next meeting?"

Damon and Stefan went on a wee road trip to throw Klaus in the Atlantic and came to the decision that depending on which brother Elena chooses the other brother will leave town. A bit dramatic? Yes. Do I see one of the main characters actually leaving for seventy or so years? No. No matter who Elena chooses it’s obvious the other brother will still hang around or at least make monthly visits until she either dies or becomes a vampire (another season four idea possibly).

Now for the last part of a very disjointed final ten minutes. While casually flinging paint on the wall, Elena got a bit of a headache and collapsed. We were all left wondering what mystical force had caused this, personally I think she just had a bad migraine she has been under a lot of stress lately!

Elena decided she wanted to paint the room pink instead.

And there we go ready to head into the season finale. This wasn’t one of my favourite episodes of the season (where was all the nakedness?!) but I suppose I can’t have my way all the time!  I also thought that even for The Vampire Diaries, this episode seems to have a lot of plot holes and the final ten minutes felt like they had ran out of time and tried to cram everything in. Since this is the penultimate episode that’s probably what happened since they need to tie up all the loose ends before the finale but I think that this episode should have been made into two to avoid the mess that came at the end.

As usual feel free to leave your comments in the section below and check out TV.com’s hilarious photo recap.

Until next week TTFN Ta-Ta for Now x

Top Five Movies to Look Forward to in May

With summer on its way we begin to head towards some of the most anticipated movie releases of the year. This month could be one where the guys are at the cinema more than the girls as Men in Black III, Battleship, and The Dictator are all set to hit the big screen within the next few weeks.

May 4^th 2012

Avengers Assemble

Director: Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel).

The first big movie release of the month will have lovers of Marvel Comics queuing out the doors. The latest superhero movie sees some of the most popular characters team up to defend the planet from the evil Loki and his army. With an all-star cast including Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson, it is sure to be one of the higher grossing films of the year.

View on IMDb.



May 11^th 2012

Dark Shadows

Director: Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands).

It’s another film for Team Burton, Depp, Bonham-Carter and Elfman and on this adventure we meet Barnabus Collins (Depp) a 200-year-old vampire who finds himself in the disco days of the 70’s, after being imprisoned underground by an evil witch. He returns to his former home where his descendants are now living and struggles to come to terms with the technological advances of the 70’s as well as the re-appearance of the very witch who cursed him in the first place. Hopefully this film will live up to the expectations that come with such a well-known team and provide us with another Tim Burton film to add to our list of favourites.

View on IMDb.

May 18^th 2012

Battleship

Director: Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock).

Another one for the guys here and its Rihanna’s first big screen appearance. Judging by the trailer, Rihanna spends most of her time standing about looking pretty but it’s easy to be sceptical about her acting skills and with Liam Neeson (Taken) and Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) as co-stars she will have a lot to live up to. Battleship follows the story of an alien army that is found under the sea by naval officers during a training exercise. In the usual sci-fi action film format the aliens then commence war against the humans for unknown reasons. Although the plot seems to be nothing new, from the looks of the trailer the special effects are quite amazing and teaming these with an interesting cast choice could make Battleship a rather enjoyable watch.

View on IMDb.

May 23^rd 2012 (UK) May 18^th 2012 (USA)

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

Director: Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee, Everybody’s Fine)

Now onto the comedy of the month with a cast that includes many household names and some of my favourite actors. This film’s cast alone is enough to attract the audiences with Cameron Diaz (In Her Shoes), Jennifer Lopez (Monster in Law), Dennis Quaid (The Parent Trap), Chris Rock (Madagascar), Anna Kendrick (Twilight), Matthew Morrison (Glee), Joe Manganiello (True Blood), and Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) all making an appearance. Inspired by the book of the same name, What to Expect When You’re Expecting follows the lives of five couples that are all connected to each other in different ways, think Love Actually but with pregnant hormonal women. By the looks of the trailer even the guys will be able to enjoy this film as comedy is provided for them by a Hangover-style group of newbie Dads known as ‘The Dudes’. A perfect film for couples.

View on IMDb.

May 25^th 2012

Men in Black III

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men in Black)

Last but not least is the highly anticipated Men in Black III which features another singer turned actor crossover this time starring Lady Gaga and Nicole Scherzinger, (Justin Bieber is also rumoured to make an appearance but he has not been mentioned as part of cast on IMDb).  In this instalment of the popular franchise we find Agent J (Will Smith) being sent back in time to prevent Agent K (Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones) from being assassinated by an evil alien in 1969, an event which changed history and put Planet Earth at risk. It has been ten years since the last Men in Black movie and while that’s quite a long wait for a sequel, having a number of celebrity appearances may even attract a whole new generation of fans to the popular series.

View on IMDb.

Those are my top five films to look out for in May. Check back here next month for my pick of the films in June and with such a number of films that I’m already excited for I’m going to have a tough time narrowing it down to five.

Until then TTFN Ta-Ta For Now x

The Vampire Diaries: Do Not Go Gentle

It was the annual Decade Dance and following the tradition of the previous dances we found our favourite characters lives in peril with Esther and Evil Alaric out to destroy all vampires.

Poor Alaric, the guy can’t catch a break! After finding out his wife had abandoned him for a more exciting life as a vampire he then discovered she had a daughter that she never told him about who was the niece of his current girlfriend Jenna and the daughter of Jenna’s brother-in-law John. Jenna was then turned into a vampire and sacrificed by Klaus, which left Ric to look after his ex-wife’s daughter/dead girlfriend’s niece, Elena, who also happened to have a brother/cousin, Jeremy. Ric then found himself developing a vampire hating alter ego intent on ridding the world of vampires who was willing to turn into an original vampire to do it (seriously, you can’t make this stuff up!)

So Evil Alaric teamed up with Esther and they commenced their plans to destroy all the Originals and kill their bloodlines off along with them, which would result in vampires becoming extinct. While Evil Alaric was running around with his new BFF the rest of the cast were busy attending the 1920’s themed Decade Dance.

This week it was a turn for all the Stelena fans out there as Elena decided that since she had made out with one brother, she should really ask the other out on a date (wait what?) There were definitely some rather cute scenes between the former lovebirds but they really weren’t a patch on the epic Damon and Elena scenes of the previous episode (go team Delena!)

"Hey did I forget to mention I made out with your brother?"

Unfortunately the reminiscing between Stefan and Elena was cut short by none other than Damon himself, with the news that Alaric was going to have to die.

While the vampires were trapped inside the school by a spell that Esther had cast, Elena and Jeremy headed over to talk to Alaric but before they could get the chance to see him, they were stopped by Esther who didn’t really need to say much to convince Elena to go with her.

It was then Bonnie and Jamie’s turn to have their romantic moment ruined by Damon who informed them of the sticky situation that was going on and as usual poor Bonnie was expected to run to the help of the vampires which truthfully she doesn’t even like that much.

Now Klaus being the jealous type seemed to be getting a bit annoyed with the amount of romantic encounters that Damon had managed to ruin in this episode, so he decided to get back and ruin one between Caroline and Tyler which was pretty easy to do since Tyler was having to pretend that Klaus was still able to control him: Damon 2 - Klaus 1 - Romantic Moments - 0



"So what if I've tried to kill your best friends on several occasions?"


After some hocusing and pocusing by Esther, Evil Alaric was ready to become the ultimate vampire killer but during his transition he returned to his former self to save the day and give his pals a chance to say goodbye. The Alaric death scenes really were some of the most heart-breaking of the season with all characters struggling to come to terms with the thought of losing one of their closest friends (although they were clearly not all that sad about it or they would have stayed till the end instead of going to the pub!)

But Alaric’s not really dead…yet. The witches, as usual, were not all that happy that their plan failed so they decided to take Bonnies’ freewill away from her again and bewitched her into going to the tomb and feeding Alaric her blood, forcing him to complete the transition.



Super Mega Ultimate Evil Vampire Slaying Alaric is born!



So while we had known for a while that this episode was going to have us all in tears did it live up to my expectations? Well truthfully no. From the way that the cast and the producers were going on about this episode I half expected there to be deaths all over the place or Damon and Stefan agreeing to kill themselves for Elena or something like that. The Alaric death scenes were excellently acted but after several spoiler websites going on and on about this episode, I was kind of left thinking “was that it?” Let’s hope that the finale doesn’t have the same effect as it is also receiving a lot of hype at the moment as Elena making her choice, a number of deaths and a huge cliff hanger are all promised for the episode.

Let me know what you thought of this episode in the comment section below and feel free to share your opinions on how you think the final episodes are going to play out.

Also, if you haven’t seen them before, I highly recommend reading the photo recaps from TV.com they’re rather hilarious.

Until next week TTFN x

Images from SpoilerTV.