The Vampire Diaries 4X8: We'll Always Have Bourbon Street

OMG. I just realized now that I've been complaining about Haley's accent for several episode now. And it just dawned on me that she's the girl from The Secret Circle (which I loved and it killed me that they canceled it after one season) and she's Australian, which really clears things up. Sorry Phoebe!

Anyway, both Elena and Damon find out that she is sired to him in this episode. Damon refuses to believe it, but Stefan devises a test for him. Tell Elena that drinking from a blood bag is fine. And if she's able to do it now, she's probably sired. And she can. And Damon immediately goes home and starts figuring out how to break the sire bond.

Turns out, Elena is not the first vampire who was bound to him. Back in 1942, there was another vampire who was sired to him. And he found a witch in New Orleans to break it. So, the two brothers head to New Orleans to see what they can do. They start looking for the witch, and instead find Charlotte (the vampire who was sired to Damon) exactly where he left her, doing exactly as he instructed her 70 years ago.

Eventually, the find the daughter of the witch who initially 'broke' the sire bond. Only to realize that the bond was never broken. Apparently, magic can't do that. The original witch just used the 12 innocent souls that Damon brought her to make herself more powerful. And it's not just black magic, it's expression magic, which is way worse (that will be important later). She tells him the only way to break the bond is to send the person away and tell them to forget about them. Damon pretty quickly does this with Charlotte, but he and Stefan squabble about whether he'll be able to do it with Elena. (Also, I think this is where we find out that you can only be sire bound if there were feelings before you became a vampire, which means Elena already had feelings for Damon before she turned).

While this is going on, Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie are having a girl's night (where Caroline cannot stop shitting on Damon). Eventually, Elena is sick of it and Caroline blurts out that Elena is sire bonded to Damon. She doesn't believe it. But before we can really get into it, the werewolves that have been challenging Tyler for dominance show up and kidnap Caroline. Bonnie is actually able to pull out some magic, but they still escape with her.

They grab Tyler to help find her. And on the way, Tyler tells Elena that the sire bond doesn't tell you how to feel, only what to do. (Which I said too. Tyler did Klaus' bidding, but he was pissed about it and hated Klaus). So, her feelings for Damon are true and not a by product of the bond.

The get over to Caroline, who is being tortured (Poor Caroline. Why is everyone always so mean to her?) and Elena tells he to torture her instead since Klaus is obsessed with keeping her safe. As she shifts from Caroline to Elena, Tyler zooms over and thrusts his hand into her chest. He tells her to submit to him or die. She does and all the other werewolves follow suit. So, I guess Tyler is the werewolf alpha now.

Once the brothers get home, Elena tells Damon immediately that she knows she's sired to him. He does his best to try to push her away, but she pleads with him not to. Telling him what Tyler told her about the bond only magnifying the way she feels. She begs him not to leave her. This is such a sticky situation. I don't know how they could ever have a relationship with this kind of power imbalance. Even if he doesn't mean to, just the hint of a suggestion or request would cause Elena to comply with it. But, we know she does actually care for him with or without the bond. This is gonna get so messy.

Also, Haley pops back by the professors to tell him we've broken all the hybrid bonds. And in exchange, he gives her the info she wanted about her parents. They're dead. Sorry, kid.

Somewhere along the way, Bonnie talks to the girls about how she's been able to start doing some magic again (hence when the werewolves showed up to steal Caroline) with the help of the professor. It's a different kind of magic he's been working with her on. He doesn't even call it magic. He calls it expression. Fun.

Is it just me, or this show getting crazier and crazier? I'm 100% along for the ride (and am loving the ride) but if I got dropped into the middle of this show, I might be very skeptical. Lol.