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"The Vampire Diaries has been surprisingly light on the mythology so far this season; while previously we&amp;#039;ve been treated to everything from moonstones to Originals to hybrids, the season four episodes so far have largely focused on Elena&amp;#039;s difficult transition into a life of vampirism. Well, this week&amp;#039;s instalment certainly changed that. The Vampire Diaries has never been one to string out its mysteries, so after Klaus&amp;#039;s discovery that Connor was a member of the mysterious group &amp;#039;The Five&amp;#039;, it was no real surprise that the focus this time around would be just who they are.  The only problem is that after being treated to some seriously good character moments in the last couple of weeks - and to the unbearable tension in &amp;#039;Memorial&amp;#039;, which is still, well, memorable - this episode fell flat in places simply because there was so much exposition to do. If you&amp;#039;re going to introduce a new mythology, and a new mystery, and if you&amp;#039;re going to set all that up in 45 minutes, you&amp;#039;re going to have to have a lot of talking. That said, The Vampire Diaries has always prided itself on excellent exposition, and so we got the fabulous pairing of Klaus and Rebekah to help us out by telling Stefan what they know. Their relationship has always been intriguing, and it&amp;#039;s even more so now that they&amp;#039;re involved in a pretty serious feud. Plus, Klaus is in no-holds-barred evil mode at the moment, which is always entertaining. But while it was a joy that Daniel Gillies returned as Elijah this week, the majority of the flashbacks to 1114&amp;#039;s Italy were a little dry. The exception, of course, comes as naive innocent Rebekah falls in love with one of &amp;#039;The Five&amp;#039;, the original hunters. Klaus is happy enough with this as long as he&amp;#039;s telling her his secrets, but when her beau Alexander surprises everyone by daggering her in bed, his feelings change somewhat.  Of course, the originals survive Alexander&amp;#039;s slash-fest - and Klaus sees to him with a little sword through the chest - but his explosion of rage at Rebekah for being so trusting is thrilling to watch (although also upsetting for poor Beks.) But why was Rebekah so keen to run away with Alexander, apart from the fact that he was a bit hot? Because - and here&amp;#039;s the thing that will get Stefan&amp;#039;s head spinning - there is a cure for vampirism hidden away. Now, I&amp;#039;m not entirely sure how I feel about this development in the tale - Elena transitioned into a vampire just three episodes ago, and with so much intriguing story to delve into there (as the other half of the episode displays brilliantly), it seems a real shame for there to be an &amp;#039;out&amp;#039; this quickly. Sure, it&amp;#039;s not going to happen next week. On the contrary, it seems like the rest of this season will be spent tracking down the way to get it back. Because, yes, that&amp;#039;s going to be difficult. We know, thanks to Alexander, that those weird tattoos (which found themselves onto The Five when they were created by a witch back in 1110) are actually a map leading to the location of the cure. And a sword held by Alexander is the key to reading the map. So Jeremy - still the only one able to see Connor&amp;#039;s tatts, which grow every time he kills a vamp - is set to work drawing the tattoo (before later being compelled to forget everything).  Still, we don&amp;#039;t know the location of the sword, except one person does - Rebekah. Feeling vulnerable and upset, angry with her brother and snubbed by Matt, she sobs about Alexander to Stefan. After all, he had told her that he loved her and she had trusted him until he stabbed her in the back (and literally in the front). But her mistake comes when she confides in Stefan that she buried Alexander in the graveyard of the Italian church where they were going to get married. It&amp;#039;s a testament to The Vampire Diaries that it&amp;#039;s not immediately obvious what&amp;#039;s going to happen when she mutters the precise location of the church. But she&amp;#039;s about to get betrayed yet again, and the moment of realisation as her eyes turn dark and she clocks that Stefan&amp;#039;s betrayed her is stunning (Claire Holt is just brilliant, as always.) Yes, Stefan&amp;#039;s main concern is Elena - and what will happen if she turns off her humanity to cope with the inevitable murder she will commit - and so he&amp;#039;s teamed up with his nemesis to track down this supposed cure.  A minute ago, Stefan&amp;#039;s answer to Rebekah&amp;#039;s question about whether he&amp;#039;d take the option to become human again is touching: &amp;quot;If it meant I got to be with her, have children, grow old with her; if it meant that we&amp;#039;d die together, be buried together, then yes, I&amp;#039;d take the cure.&amp;quot; But we should have known that this meant he would go to desperate measures; you can&amp;#039;t help but gasp at his betrayal and double crossing (worse, because he tricked Rebekah into helping by promising to give her a clean slate with Matt). But you still completely understand it. But here&amp;#039;s Klaus to be a complete douchebag yet again and dagger his sister, conveniently putting her aside while he flies to Italy in an attempt to get the cure - the sooner he does, the sooner Elena&amp;#039;s blood will be good for making hybrids again. But he doesn&amp;#039;t get rid of her before Rebekah screams painfully at him that while she is &amp;quot;the girl who loved too easily&amp;quot;, she&amp;#039;s glad she lived her life and not his. &amp;quot;Look me in the eye and do it you coward,&amp;quot; she challenges him, before he twists the knife. Excellent stuff. Meanwhile, there&amp;#039;s still fun to be had with Elena&amp;#039;s difficulties; Bonnie&amp;#039;s off to a college to meet a Professor of Witches who knew her Grams, so Damon and Elena piggyback to have a little practice with feeding (&amp;quot;I love sorority girls,&amp;quot; Damon creeps). Elena&amp;#039;s still whining about feelings and stuff - much to Damon&amp;#039;s (and the audience&amp;#039;s) disdain - but a guy drugging a girl&amp;#039;s drink at a frat party makes the perfect target (you go, Elena.)  Here&amp;#039;s where the fun really begins, because for whatever reason Elena&amp;#039;s still struggling with her self control. Almost sucking the douche dry, she feels pure elation after feeding from the vein and seductively whispers into Damon&amp;#039;s ear: &amp;quot;I want more.&amp;quot; I mean, I can&amp;#039;t even cope with this.  The blood-high sensuality hits the dancefloor, as the pair feed from partygoers and end up in a whirlwind of losing themselves and dancing together (Ian Somerhalder&amp;#039;s sexy grooving is kind of hilarious, but this scene is just so wonderfully full of sexual tension that I&amp;#039;ll let it go.) I was sure they were going to kiss and - despite not shipping for either couple - practically squealed with disappointment when boring old Bonnie turned up with her judgemental face and Elena backed off, realising what she was doing. Back home - after Bonnie&amp;#039;s spent some time making eyes at sexy Professor Shane (who offers to help her out with her witchcraft) and berating Damon - Elena&amp;#039;s back to whining, admitting that she loved feeding and hated loving it. Basically, she&amp;#039;s scared of being like Damon, who&amp;#039;s not so good at hiding just how hurt he is by this. And then Stefan&amp;#039;s there to save the day; while Elena has been pretty soppy lately, it&amp;#039;s hard not to feel for her when she sobs that she doesn&amp;#039;t know if she can survive this and he hugs her, completely banned from telling her about the cure by Klaus.  But this wouldn&amp;#039;t be The Vampire Diaries if it didn&amp;#039;t end on an intriguing twist, and perhaps that cure isn&amp;#039;t going to be as easy as they thought. I was busy wondering if they would sacrifice vampires to allow Connor&amp;#039;s tattoo to grow; I didn&amp;#039;t initially consider the fact that Connor might not want to play along and stay captured by Klaus. In another sign of just how damn badass he is, he rips an earring out of the sucker hybrid tasked with keeping him locked up and uses it to unlock his chains... and then, in a pleasingly gory moment, decapitates his guard. Phew. Here&amp;#039;s the twist, though - Connor is working with that deceptively handsome Professor Shane, and not just that, but Shane&amp;#039;s actually the one who sent him to Mystic Falls (Connor doesn&amp;#039;t even know why he was sent there.) So here&amp;#039;s the question: what is Shane planning? One thing&amp;#039;s for sure - he knows exactly how to pull out a fantastic malicious smile. So this was certainly not the strongest episode of The Vampire Diaries we&amp;#039;ve seen this season, but the twist - while probably a little predictable - was one to make you smile. The frat house scenes between Elena and Damon were captivating, too, and I can forgive a little exposition if it&amp;#039;s going to set up something magnificent. Whether that will happen remains to be seen... What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/vampire-diaries/review/a435311/the-vampire-diaries-the-five-recap/>