Weirdest Field Trip Ever: The Vampire Diaries “Into the Wild” Review

By Mandy Treccia

This week on The Vampire Diaries, Professor Shane (David Alpay) took most of the gang on what had to be the weirdest, most confusing field trip ever. “Into the Wild” had Elena (Nina Dobrev), Damon (Ian Somerhalder), Stefan (Paul Wesley), Rebekah (Claire Holt), Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) boating to an island off the coast of Nova Scotia to track down the elusive vampire cure.

While it might sound like a simple enough expedition, very little actually made sense or maybe it would have made more sense if it was the slightest bit interesting? Maybe the problem was that most of the heavy exposition dialogue was coming from Professor Shane, a character that is next to impossible to care about. We know that he wants to resurrect Silas because he wants to bring his wife and son back and he’s willing to do anything to achieve that, including sacrifice innocent people, vampires, hybrids, etc.

This episode delved a little deeper into his past and it turns out that his dead wife was actually a witch and she died using expression to attempt to bring back their dead son. Shane learned this the last time he made a trip to the island and found himself hallucinating in a cave. His wife Kate came to him in a vision and explained that he needed to gather a witch, a hunter and make three large sacrifices in order to raise Silas, who in turn would resurrect the dead…or something. It really didn’t make a lot of sense, but it seems like Shane is truly only out for himself.

As for the rest of the island crew, Jeremy was almost immediately kidnapped by another hunter and Bonnie set out to use magic to find him. Elena and Rebekah were sniping at each other from the moment they got off the rafts and Elena attempted to threaten Rebekah with the stake that was still covered in Kol’s blood. But Rebekah easily knocked her down and that made some hilarious quips about how useless Elena was and once again cemented her status as the best character on the show.

Damon and Stefan barely interacted with each other, which seemed a little odd, but they had their Elena issues to deal with. Elena was desperate to convince Damon that she loved him and would still love him if and when she turned human again. She even painted a lovely picture of the two of them being human together and growing old and stuff and Damon nixed that, telling her that was Stefan, not him. Then he went off and tortured Shane for a while and then he got captured by a different hunter, another mysterious member of The Five, who will be torturing him next week.

Rebekah and Stefan had an honest talk about how desperately they both want to be human and Stefan reiterated that he does not want to be human to be with Elena. Rebekah opened Stefan’s eyes when she pointed out that the rivalry between her and Elena stemmed from the fact that Rebekah killed her to save her family and Elena has killed two of her brothers, but no one seems to care about that since they’ve cast Rebekah in the villain role. Seriously, she’s the best.

Nina Dobrev as Elena and Claire Holt as Rebekah in “Into the Wild.” Image © The CW Network

When Elena, Stefan and Rebekah returned to the camp, they discovered everyone else was missing and someone had taken the tombstone from Rebekah’s bag. Elena remembered how to think rationally for a change and suggested that the three of them needed to work together to figure out what was going on because they all wanted to be cured. As a peace offering, she gave Rebekah the stake to hold onto. But it might be too late since Shane and his posse has Bonnie and Jeremy and we’re still waiting to find out who or what will be the third part of the ritual sacrifice.

Back in Mystic Falls, Tyler (Michael Trevino) stopped by the Gilbert house to gloat that Klaus (Joseph Morgan) was trapped in a prison, taunted him and promised to kill him once the cure severed their bloodline, even though Klaus pointed out it could easily make all of them human. Caroline (Candice Accola) came by to collect Tyler and made it clear to Klaus that she was never going to like him again because of that whole thing where he killed Tyler’s mom. Not one to be outdone, Klaus stabbed Caroline and then drank her blood, leaving her dying from his werewolf bite.

Tyler begged Klaus to save her, offered to be his slave again, but Klaus was not about to let him win. So Tyler left a dying Caroline alone with Klaus, hoping he would do the right thing. Caroline in turn told Klaus that she knows he loves her and because of that, she knows that he’s capable of being saved. It was a sweet moment, even if it was probably just her desperation talking. But it gave Mr. Morgan a chance to remind us again that he is the best actor on the show as he watched as Caroline got closer and closer to death and the pain and grief in his expression was palpable. At what felt like the last second, Klaus fed Caroline his blood and saved her.

Despite some really wonderful dialogue and fantastic acting, this episode was a mess. There was too much focus on a character that no one is attached to and nothing about this island lore makes sense. Here’s hoping the continuation next week will bring a faster pace and a little more excitement.