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Caroline: Elena! Don't make me fight you, Elena! I'm stronger than you, and I don't want to hurt you.
Elena: Who's gonna get hurt? Not bad. Not technically good, but then again, Alaric didn't train you. You were probably too busy butting into people's business!
Caroline: Oh, just stop! God. This isn't you, and you know it! You hurt my mom, Elena. How far are you gonna take this?
Caroline and Elena

Bring It On is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries and the eighty-second episode of the series overall.

Summary[]

THE NEW NORMALElena's new outlook has everyone concerned, leading Stefan and Damon to agree that going back to the normal routine of high school would be the best thing for her. Caroline is pleasantly surprised when Elena decides to rejoin the cheerleading squad, but her pleasure turns to shock when Elena's behavior proves dangerous. Not giving up on their search for the cure, Damon and Rebekah work together until his unwanted advice catches her off-guard. Klaus tries to use Hayley to get the information he's after and makes an intriguing discovery in the process. Meanwhile, a bored Elena throws a wild party and gets into an ugly fight.

Plot[]

Having recently turned off her humanity, Elena lays down on a road and feeds on a concerned passer-by. Damon stops her from killing the woman, although Elena argues everyone in Mystic Falls has vervain in their blood system from the water supply. She tosses the unconscious woman aside indifferently and leaves.

While showering at the Salvatore house, Caroline says Elena will be returning to school to help her. Damon uses his sire bond to tell Elena to behave herself and not feed. Sheriff Forbes needs Stefan's help because the hospital's blood bags have disappeared without a trace, and the sheriff does not want any trouble; she is very upset that Jeremy is dead, having been friends with Miranda in high school. Stefan agrees to help.

At school, Elena asks Caroline to get her back on the cheerleading squad, as it may help her. While at the competition, despite what Damon told her, she feeds on a girl from another school (because she wanted the girl's hair ribbon). When Caroline and Stefan discover this, Stefan tells Damon that Elena has apparently broken her sire bond. The bond existed because of Elena's feelings for Damon, but after she turned her humanity off, she unintentionally broke the sire bond by turning off her feelings for Damon. This creates a problem, since Elena can act however she wants. Stefan tries to discourage Elena from being careless by reminding her of his Ripper personality, but she responds she might be better without her humanity. While doing a routine, Elena deliberately lets Caroline fall on the ground. Afterwards, Stefan knocks Elena unconscious with vervain.

Meanwhile, Damon tries to find out more about Katherine's relationship with Hayley. Klaus refuses to help since Kol was killed by Jeremy and he, Klaus, was locked in the Gilbert's house for a few days. Klaus had earlier bitten a vampire who had attacked Hayley, sent by Katherine; she agrees to talk to him about Katherine. Damon goes to track down the vampire, knowing Klaus' bite will eventually kill him. He receives unwanted help from Rebekah, who has a vile of Klaus' blood. They go to the hospital and find all the blood bags are gone, and theorize the vampire will have tried to get some.

Will's bite

will shows his bite to Damon

Damon is up to a plan, as he knows that the attacker would not able to hunt in the morning and the werewolf bite will make him insane about blood, so he attacks a local lady in the town far outskirts, bites her in the neck and compels her to move slowly (while being wet with blood) back to her car in order to tempt the mysterious vampire attacker to feed on her.

After the attacker appears, Damon takes him down and is surprised that the attacker turns out to be someone he knows (an old friend) named Will. Will shows Damon the bite and Damon tells him he knows what to do, then he rips his heart out, telling Rebekah that he was too far gone and Klaus' blood wouldn't have helped him.

When Elena wakes up, Stefan tries to talk to her again, but becomes frustrated when she pays him little attention, texting instead. She is disgusted by his worrisome nature and coldly suggests he turn off his humanity. Hearing noise downstairs, they go down to find people coming for a party a bored Elena decided to throw (explaining her texting). Unable to compel the attendants to leave, Stefan and Caroline decide to have a little fun. Though Elena seems unnerved to see the two together, she says she is happy they are having fun (pointing out she can't feel jealousy).

Hayley and Klaus meet to discuss how the former had met Katherine while she, Hayley, was in New Orleans. The vampire had offered to help Hayley to find her dead parents. Seeing they both have some abandonment issues, they discuss other things. Hayley, knowing of Klaus' feelings for Caroline, admits she had developed romantic feelings for Tyler, but knew he was only interested in Caroline. She goes on to note another thing the two have in common: neither has a chance with the person they have feelings for. After this, the two proceed to have sex.

Sheriff Forbes comes by the Salvatore house and meets with Elena. As there is underage drinking, she tries to stop it, to which Elena responds by shoving her against a wall. Caroline and Stefan rush over, and Caroline is furious with Elena, but she, Elena, leaves while they are distracted. Realizing the party was a diversion, Caroline and Stefan head into the woods to find Elena before she hurts someone.

Damon comes home to find the party and joins in, but becomes annoyed when Rebekah shows up. She questions why he wants the cure since Elena has broken her sire bond (having heard Damon's talk with Stefan earlier); giving her the cure would only push her back to Stefan. Damon responds by questioning why Rebekah wants it. While being a human can be a happy experience, he argues that the life of vampire is preferable, as the human life is dull in comparison. He leaves Rebekah looking upset and receives a call from Stefan asking for help with Elena.

In the woods, Caroline and Elena meet up, the latter clearly open for a fight. Caroline, initially assuming she could easily beat Elena, realizes Elena can beat her, having been trained by Alaric Saltzman how to fight a vampire. She begs for Elena to stop acting the way she is, as Elena had just attacked Liz, but Elena once again displays her indifference. She even mocks Caroline about how she obsessively calls Tyler and her possible feelings for Klaus, leading to another fight. Elena quickly dispatches Caroline and proceeds to try to stake her, but Stefan and Damon show up in time. Stefan helps Caroline while Damon takes Elena back to the Salvatore house.

Caroline begins to lose hope for Elena while Stefan insists Elena is not herself. The odds of Elena willingly turning back on her humanity are small, since Elena's life is difficult and tragic, but Stefan refuses to give up on her, as she never gave up on him. Caroline agrees to do the same. Getting a call from Matt, she goes to the Lockwood Mansion to find Matt has been given the deed to the house by Tyler. A letter from him explains that he does not intend to come back, as Klaus will always want him dead. Caroline breaks down on Matt with grief.

After sleeping together, Klaus notices a birthmark on Hayley's back, one that belongs to a "certain kind of werewolves," which Hayley inquires about. Damon decides that Elena needs time away from Mystic Falls and takes her with him to New York ("where every vampire should go once in their life"), where he had apparently been with Will once. He gets a call from Stefan, who reveals his belief that Silas followed them back from the island, though Damon leaves him to figure it out on his own.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Recurring Cast[]

Co-Starring[]

Trivia[]

  • Antagonist: Elena Gilbert.
  • The Salvatore Boarding House has a special water-purifying filter so that vampires won't be burned by the vervain in the town's water supply there.
  • Elena, as a result of having turned off her humanity, is shown to not be concerned about modesty, as she appears nude in front of Damon, Stefan and Caroline after coming out of the shower.
  • Stefan tricked Elena into thinking that he was going to take her to have some fun by feeding on people at a bar so he could vervain her while she was distracted and take her home.
  • Klaus sleeps with Hayley which leads to their daughter's conception.
  • The party attendants could not be compelled to leave because they had vervain in their system. However, the obvious solution would have been Stefan simply telling them to leave, since they are in his house.
  • Despite being nearly the same chronological age, Caroline states that she is stronger than Elena, because she has been a vampire longer. However, Elena is still easily able to beat her in a fight because Alaric taught her how to fight a vampire while she was still human, so the addition of vampire strength and speed gave her an edge.
  • The sire bond between Damon and Elena has broken because Elena turned off her humanity.
  • Rebekah confirms that Atticus Shane died on the Island.

Body Count[]

Continuity[]

Locations[]

Behind the Scenes[]

  • This episode had about 2.41 million viewers in the USA, which was 0.22 million less than the previous episode.
  • Hashtag during the airing is #BittenByPep

Cultural References[]

  • "Bring it on" - The title refers to a movie of the same name starring Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union. It is a movie about cheerleading. Since its release, the film has become a cult classic to the popular culture. There is a cheerleading competition in this episode.
  • The phrase "bring it on" is used during a confrontation to dare someone to attack; whether the speaker actually wants such an action or if they are using it as an intimidation make the antagonist reconsider that particular course of action. It can also be applied to any difficulty as a self-motivating statement.
  • Prozac or fluoxetin is a medicine prescribed to treat depression.
  • Eighteen-wheeler is the common name of a big rig truck (specifically a tractor pulling a trailer, which together usually has eighteen actual wheels.)
  • Chaperone - an adult that supervises young children or teenagers in social occasions.
  • The Boonies - diminutive for "the boondocks," or a remote rural area.
  • Numbskull -  a fool or idiot.
  • Encore - an additional performance, usually after a concert.
  • The term "wild-goose chase" is used to describe the fruitless pursuit of something unattainable.
  • Sherlock Holmes - A fictional detective whose uncanny abilities border on the fantastic.
  • Elena tells Caroline to "take Stefan out for a spin" - the expression means to test it, try it out and see if it's a good fit; it is usually used to describe test driving a vehicle of some kind.
  • Scooby-Doo is an animated cartoon series about a dog and a group of teens that travel around the countryside doing detective work. Ironically most of the mysteries the "Scooby Gang" solve are debunking of fake ghosts, ghouls, zombies and other supernatural creatures - who invariably turn out to be a human in disguise.

Quotes[]

Damon: (about Elena) "That's the plan? You're gonna take her back to school?"
Stefan: "Well the fun route didn't actually pay off, did it?"
Damon: "I don't know... (He smirks) Got a free meal out of it."
Stefan: "Look, you think I want to go to school and play chaperone? You can't go because you're not a student. Besides you have to look for Katherine. I mean, Elena needs this cure now more than ever."

Klaus: (to Hayley) "You were foolish enough to make a deal with Katerina Petrova. She used you to find the cure, and now you're just a loose end. You'll be lucky if she lets you live."

Klaus: "I can't help you, mate. Hayley's off-limits. Although, I did have a run in with a vampire who may know where Katerina is."

Sheriff Forbes: "The entire blood supply from the hospital? All of a sudden just gone. Vanished."
Stefan: "I don't understand... Are you accusing us?"
Sheriff Forbes: "No, I'm not accusing you, but this town is at a tipping point. Any more unexplained house fires and things are going to boil over. (Stefan looks guilty and apologetic) I'm sorry. I know it's not your fault. It's been a rough week. Miranda Gilbert was one of my best friends in high school. To see what's happened to her family is just..."

Stefan: "Elena's sire bond stems from her feelings for you. With her humanity off, she has no feelings."
Damon: "All I wanted to do was break that damn bond. You're telling me now this whole time all she had to do was turn it off? What happens if she turns it back on?"

Klaus: "If I simply killed Tyler, my revenge would be over in a moment. Sentencing him to a lifetime of paranoia and fear-- that's Tyler's true punishment."

Stefan: (to Caroline about Elena) "Alright listen, you search the woods. I'll check the road. If you see her... Don't hesitate, just snap her neck. Got it?"

Caroline: (on phone) "Hey Tyler. It's me. You'll never believe the crazy day I've had. Look, I know that you said you wouldn't, but I really wish that you would answer. It'd be great to talk to you."

Klaus: (upon seeing Hayley's crescent-moon birthmark on her shoulder) "That mark... I've seen it before."
Hayley: (rolls her eyes) "Yeah, it's a birthmark. People have those."
Klaus: "In my considerable lifetime, I've only seen that mark on a handful of others, all from the same bloodline. A werewolf clan that once thrived through of what we now call Louisiana."

Stefan: "Well, we got a little problem. You said blood was stolen from Grove Hills Hospital? Sheriff says there's been reports of 6 other blood bank thefts all within thirty miles of Mystic Falls. Somebody's stockpiling blood. It wasn't Elena. It's not us."
Damon: "Okay, so...?"
Stefan: "I think Silas followed us back from that island. He hasn't fed in two thousand years, so he'd need to gorge on blood."

Stefan: "Her humanity is switched off. She's numb to everything that makes her who she is."
Damon: "Fine. We'll show her a good time."
Stefan: "You really think that's gonna work?"
Damon: "There's only one way to find out."
Caroline: "You're feeding on the competition!"
Damon: "Show a little restraint."
Elena: (Elena walks in naked) "What? It's nothing you guys haven't seen before."

Caroline: "Elena!"
Caroline: "I think taking her back to school is a great idea."
Damon: "Don't eat anyone."

Multimedia[]

Soundtrack[]

Last.fm_play.png "White On White" – Fidlar
Last.fm_play.png "5 To 9" – Fidlar
Last.fm_play.png "Temporary" – White Rabbits
Last.fm_play.png "Lions Of East" – Pontiak
Last.fm_play.png "I Love It" – Icona Pop
Last.fm_play.png "Miracle Mile" – Cold War Kids
Last.fm_play.png "Control" – Garbage
Last.fm_play.png "Professional Griefers" – deadmau5 feat Gerard Way
Last.fm_play.png "Dance With Me" – Ra Ra Riot
Last.fm_play.png "Anymore of This" – Matthew Perryman Jones & Mindy Smith
Last.fm_play.png "White On White" – Fidlar

Pictures[]

References[]

See also[]

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