The CW Source

Seems to us that Damon has a bit of Twilight envy:

Damon: What's so special about this Bella girl? Edward is so whipped.
Caroline: How come you don't sparkle?
Damon: Because I live in the real world where vampires burn in the sun.

Damon, Damon, Damon.  If only you had your brother Stefan's moves.  He's smart enough to show up for an early morning pre-homeroom make out session with Elena.  Which is sadly interrupted by a nasty case of "gosh you're tasty as in food" and dark cloudy eyes.  

It seems that Stefan's descendant and quasi-uncle, Zack, has a secret vervain crop (which looks remarkably like lavender to us). We shiver with anticipation to find out how Stefan is going to use it to cross our fave bad boy vamp Damon.  Hope it's not 'till the end of the ep, though!  

So the Founder's Ball is in a super gorgeous restored old mansion and it's just so convenient how Damon and Stephan are both invited in.  Given that they were both presumably invited in by the original owners 150  years ago, it raises the question of how long and under what circumstances these invitations last?  For the duration of the original occupant's lifetime?  As long as the dwelling stands? What are the legalities around this, exactly?

Elena is just on the verge of knowing something wicked this way comes, but just can't cross the line with us. She is able to stand up for herself and maintain her critical thinking ability when faced with the superlatively charming Damon....and she even uses her heroine x-ray vision to see through Caroline's not-so-gauzy scarf to spot bite marks on the neck and through her crocheted sweater to partially undress her to the shoulder blade to expose her strangely located bite mark there.  

If only she would confide in Bonnie, our resident newbie neighborhood witch.  But then, Bonnie might have been too freaked out over her newfound pyrotechnic abilities since she's apparently able to ignite a room full of candles with a single thought.  That's quite a handy skill, actually, and worth marketing.  We suspect that she's going to waste time stressing about it rather than exploiting it, though. Shame.  

Ohhh, the adults -- and look! Adults! We knew there had to be some around there! -- in the town are all in the anti-vamp conspiracy, somehow tied into the pocket watch that Elena and her brother didn't fork over for the display at the Founder's Ball is.  Seems like a little communication between the teens and the adults sure could clear things up and facilitate the flow of supernatural information.  But then were would the fun be.  Anti-evil antiquarian heirloom, activate!

Someone should have informed Damon of the classic Greek mythological flaw, hubris.

Damon: I'm not some drunk sorority chick, you can't roofie me.  But I can't help but feel a little used.

Awwww.  Poor Damon.  Clearly, vervain is a bit like Iocane powder.  All he needed to do was deduce what Stefan knew about vervain and clearly not choose the wine in front of him.   Not thinking two steps ahead, he didn't see the classic power move of starting a land war in in Asia, and therefore didn't anticipate Stefan spiking Caroline with the vervain, thus poisoning Damon from one step away on the vampire food chain.  Lesson learned!

Bet he's gonna wonder why he's waking up in a basement filled with a heat-lamp-grown lavender crop.And we're going to wonder what's up with that crystal he had hidden in the old wooden box -- and what Caroline will do with it now.