US Television: Vampire Diaries, Episode 2.5 "Kill or Be Killed"

Vampire Diaries
Season Two, Episode 2.5, Kill or Be Killed
Original Air Date:  October 7, 2010

It is revealed how the Lockwood Curse was triggered for Mason.  Damon and Stefan's secret is revealed to Liz Forbes.  Liz learns her daughter's shocking secret.  Stefan and Elena start down a dangerous road in the fight against Katherine.  It's revealed that Mason has a secret accomplice.

Our story starts off with Mason telling Tyler about an event that happened one year ago in Emerald Coast, Florida.  Mason Lockwood is leaving a bar after having a few beers and is followed out by someone who is, or was, a friend, Jimmy.  He confronts Mason telling him he knows about him and Marla.  The two men start to fight and Mason takes some pretty good hits.  Mason slams him to the pavement and Jimmy hits his head, killing him.  The Lockwood Curse kicks into effect almost instantaneously for Mason when Jimmy dies.  He warns Tyler that he has to be extremely careful so that he won't have a lifetime of living with the curse.

Tyler had apparently made a deal with Mason that if he told him how the curse became active for him he would give him the moonstone.  Tyler opens the safe in his father's study and Mason rifles through it but doesn't find the moonstone because, as we all know, Tyler has already taken it.  Tyler is blatantly lying to Mason and keeping the stone from him.  He wants to know why it is so important. 

Elena has told Jeremy about the Lockwood's being werewolves.  She wants him to not get involved in anything because of the danger but he feels that he is involved because he is a Gilbert.  Stefan shows up in Elena's room.  They are planning another fight for the sake of Caroline and Katherine.  They plan a secret code to say "I Love You" even thought they are fighting. 

Caroline's mother has the day off for the Historical Society Volunteer Picnic.  She wants to spend the entire day with her daughter but Caroline warns her she's "in a mood".  She asks Caroline why Elena was there so late last night and Caroline stammers out an answer that she just needed to talk.  Liz Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) makes comment that her daughter seems different lately.  When she wants to know what is going on, Caroline pushes her away. 

Carol Lockwood (Susan Walters), now Mayor of Mystic Falls, introduces the newest public park to the citizens as Stefan goes to Mason to extend him an apology on behalf of Damon.  He doesn't want anyone to get hurt because of animosity between Mason and Damon.  Mason turns down Stefan's offer of a truce and Stefan makes it clear that since Mason can only be werewolf strong on a full moon and there are two Salvatore brothers, Mason is the one who needs to watch his back, not Damon.  Mason shakes with Stefan over the truce.  Damon arrives when Mason leaves questioning what Stefan has done.  He informs his brother that a handshake will not solve the problem.  Stefan knows that Mason will kill them both first chance he gets.

Jeremy approaches Tyler at the Mystic Grill and Tyler is, at first, the same old Tyler to him.  He softens his approach, however and apologizes for his hostility and thanks Jeremy for being so cool at his father's wake.  Since his mother is out of the house all day, Tyler invites Jeremy, Aimee Bradley (Tiya Sircar) and her friend Sarah (Maiara Walsh) to his house.  The girls look through Jeremy's art pad and see pictures he has drawn of werewolves.  Under the guise of showing him something he'd drawn, Tyler takes Jeremy to another room, shoves him against the wall and demands to know what his sketches were about.  As Tyler is choking him, Jeremy admits he knows what Tyler is.  He tells Tyler about the Gilbert diary he read that talks about the Lockwood Curse.  He asks Tyler if it's true that Mason is a werewolf and Tyler confirms it confiding in Jeremy about how the curse is triggered and shows him the moonstone that he takes from his pocket.  The girls come into the room and take the stone from Jeremy, who is holding it.  They end up on the stairs where Tyler struggles with Sarah over the stone and she falls down the stairs but isn't hurt.

Mason asks Liz Forbes about The Council while helping her with the picnic preparations.  He wants into the Council and tells her that Stefan and Damon are vampires.  She refuses to believe him but he insists he will prove it to her.  When Damon talks to Liz wanting to know if he can help her with the picnic preparations, he notices she is acting differently towards him.  She explains it as having had a fight with Caroline.

Caroline tells Elena about her talk with her mother that morning then asks how things are between her and Stefan.  Elena confides in her that things aren't good and that Stefan is pushing her away because of Katherine.  Stefan and Elena exchange looks and she goes to talk to him.  They get into their pre-planned argument with both Damon and Caroline listening in.  They end their argument with their code words and separate. 

Damon later questions Stefan about the faux drama in his relationship with Elena because the two never fight, especially over Damon.  Damon takes a drink of lemonade that is laced with vervain and Liz Forbes sees him choking.  Caroline goes to talk with Elena and, when Elena tells her she's just being a good friend, Caroline disagrees.  Before she says anything further, she sees her mother leaving, talking on her phone.  Caroline accosts her mother and knows something is up. 

Damon is furious at Mason Lockwood and wants to kill him.  Stefan pulls him under control but agrees that Mason needs to be put down because he's doing things that threatens to expose them.  Caroline and Elena walk to the top of a hill where Caroline can better hear everything that is going on at the picnic to find out what is wrong.

Damon and Stefan get on either side of Mason and are both shot with wooden bullets and injected with vervain.  Caroline hears and knows that they are in trouble.  Mason leads them to the ruins of the slave quarters of the old Lockwood mansion.  Liz forces Mason to leave and he runs into Caroline and Elena.  He asks Caroline if her mother knows what she is and that he could tell her.  When Caroline makes a move toward him, he takes hold of Elena threatening to snap her neck.  He doesn't think she can do anything to him but she rushes him, frees Elena and proceeds to give him the partial beat down he deserves so she and Elena can go to Stefan and Damon. 

Liz tortures Damon wanting information about how many vampires are in Mystic Falls and how he and Stefan are able to walk during the day.  Caroline hears her mother ordering the Salvatore brothers to be killed.  She doesn't want her mother to know she is a vampire but Elena rushes down to save them.  Caroline has followed her down and attacks the deputies.  Her mother finds out that her daughter is a vampire.  Stefan and Damon are spared and the question arises what to do because of the two dead deputies and whether Liz will reveal their secrets or not.  Liz chooses death over keeping the secret but Damon doesn't kill her because she is is friend.  They lock her in the basement of the Salvatore house so the vervain she's ingested will leave her system and Damon can compel her to forget everything.  Caroline overhears Liz telling Damon to keep her daughter away from her because she no longer wants to see her as her daughter is gone.  Damon informs her she has no idea how wrong she is.

Elena finds Stefan looking at a bag of blood and when questioned about it he tells her about Katherine building up a tolerance to vervain.  He thinks he could do the same with blood.  He feels that developing a tolerance to blood is his only way to stop Katherine.  She's stronger than him and he will need the extra strength to defeat her.  They argue over it but this time, the fight is real.  Elena, after speaking with Damon, goes to Stefan and asks him if he really feels he can control the blood.  He doesn't know but feels it's worth a try.  She agrees and cuts her hand so the blood he will drink will be hers. 

Caroline doesn't want to go home and she tells Elena it is because Katherine will be there and will want to know everything that happened that day.  She admits about spying on Elena for her.  Katherine had threatened Matt giving Caroline no choice but to cooperate with her.

Mason calls Liz Forbes.  Tyler tells Mason about almost killing Sarah and that he doesn't want the curse.  He gives Mason the moonstone.  He goes to a car in the woods and meets with Katherine.  We see him in Florida a year ago and Katherine is there with him.  She wanted him to find the moonstone.

There were a lot of big things in this episode:  how Mason triggered the curse, Stefan, Damon and Caroline being outed as vampires and Elena offering her blood to Stefan.  I almost feel like Damon and Elena could possibly get back to where they were before Damon tried to kill Jeremy.  She does seem to be softening with him a bit.  After all, she did listen to what he had to say about Stefan needing to have human blood in his system.

Speaking of Damon, I thought it said something about him that he didn't kill Liz Forbes because she was his friend despite what she was going to do to him.  Seems to me like he's a better person than she is.  That was the good side of Damon.  My heart went out to Caroline.  She lost everything here.  Even though Damon is going to compel her mother not to remember what happened Caroline will remember.  She heard her mother saying her daughter was gone.  That hurt her quite a bit.

I was really getting to like Mason Lockwood until we find out he's in cahoots with Katherine.  Maybe he isn't the nice guy I thought he was!

For more information:
Official Site:  http://www.cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1405406/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/The_Vampire_Diaries