TV Review: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “The New Deal”

By SEAN ELLIOTT / Contributing Writer

Posted: January 10th, 2012 / 05:13 PM

Stars: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder
Writer: Michael Narducci, Based on the book by L.J. Smith
Director: John Behring
Network: The CW, airs Thursday nights
Original Telecast: January 5, 2012

Well, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is back from hiatus finally, and once again the clever writers of the series have found ways to change relationships, and flip a lot of things on their ears with “The New Deal”

Before the break the big plan to kill Klaus (Joseph Morgan) was kiboshed by Stefan (Paul Wesley) who was trying to save Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) and really pretty much everyone else by NOT letting them kill Klaus. As a result, Stefan was released from Klaus’ powers and given back his humanity and his freedom. The only problem with that is Stefan is a little bit messed up from his time with Klaus and is no longer the peace loving, animal blood drink vamp that we’ve known and loved in previous seasons. Nay, instead Stefan steals Klaus’ slumbering (and staked) vampire family and is holding them as revenge for what Klaus did to him…and that’s where the new episode “The New Deal” picks up.

As usual where Klaus is involved, he dials things up to murder and mayhem almost right away trying to kill off Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and instead offing Alaric (Matt Davis) who seems to be having trouble bouncing back even with his magic ring that should protect and revive him. What is going on with that anyways? Why did the rings suddenly stop working the way it was supposed to? Is Klaus interfering with it in some way? I like the fact that Jeremy takes the initiative in this episode and chops off Tony the headless Hybrid’s head, but that single action and the fact that he is clearly depressed about everything leads Elena to once again have Damon put the whammy on him and they send him packing. Dammit. This means we’ll never get that shirtless Steven R. McQueen time that I’ve been demanding since last year.

In other Mystic Falls hunky man news, Tyler (Michael Trevino) is still slavishly following his sire Klaus and is doing bad things to the people around him that he cares about. There’s clearly some dissent going on between Tyler and his supernatural “dad” but not enough to make the bond weaker or even break all together.

Speaking of Hybrids, doesn’t Klaus still need Elena’s blood to make them? Is that no longer an issue, since Stefan has his family? He’s spent most of the season bent on creating a Hybrid army, and now all he cares about is getting his family back together on the Partridge Family bus.

Bonnie (Katerina Graham) has been roped into helping Stefan and the ghosts of burned witches find a way to dispose of Klaus’ family, and you know that’s not going to blow up in their faces or anything.

Then the most important moment of the episode comes at the end with a kiss (finally since the last time it involved Katherine masquerading as Elena) between Elena and Damon. About time. That’s it until next week kids so we’ll have to wait and see where all of the characters that didn’t show up in this new episode have been keeping themselves.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD – COMMENT BELOW

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with THE VAMPIRE DIARIES star Nina Dobrev

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with THE VAMPIRE DIARIES star Paul Wesley

Click on Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Click on Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “The Reckoning”

Click on Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “Disturbing Behavior”

Click on Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “The End of the Affair”

Click on Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “The Hybrid”

Click On Link: TV Review – THE VAMPIRE DIARIES – Season 3 – “The Birthday”

Click on Link: Review of THE SECRET CIRCLE – Season 1 – “Pilot”

Click on link for Exclusive Interview with THE SECRET CIRCLE executive producer Kevin Williamson

Click on Link: Exclusive photos of THE SECRET CIRCLE stars at PaleyFest 2011 CW preview