By Elena's transition into a vampire has changed the complexity of the show in an interesting way. In the past, she's always been the voice of reason, the girl who always tried to do the right thing. She would always put on a brave face.
This season, she is still trying to keep to her principles and stay true to herself (refusing to hurt anyone for blood), but 'The Rager' amplifies some of the inner feelings Elena had contained. Undead Elena struggles to keep all of her emotions in check, her rage threatening to overwhelm her.
She's certainly not helped by the frightening threat of Connor. Last week's tremendously tense episode 'Memorial' showed that he doesn't plan to muck around - a no-nonsense 'shoot first, screw the questions' vampire hunter. So far, he's a great addition to the show and a more convincing antagonist than Pastor Young in the season premiere.
While his introduction did a great job at making us fear for the safety of our favourite vampires, this episode sheds a bit more light into his character and his backstory.
He's also bloody smart. Connor extracts werewolf venom from Tyler at the start of the hour before spiking the beer at Rebekah's party with it - poisoning any vampire who drinks. He also has security measures in place at his trailer, with Damon finding out the hard way when he gets impaled by arrows tied to explosives.
When Damon is freed by Meredith (he openly admits he's too "proud and stubborn" to ask for his brother's help), he and Klaus trap him where the Original notes that Connor is no ordinary hunter - he's one of "The Five", something that Connor himself is clueless about. Whatever it means, it's enough for Klaus to spare him before Connor was blown to bits.
Quite often, the more mysterious a baddie is, the more chilling they are. But while Connor likely won't have the same intimidating presence anymore as a result of learning more about him, on the flipside he's becoming a personable character with depth and an opening to some brand new intriguing mythology.
Also, what does it mean for Jeremy when Connor marked the Gilbert as a potential new hunter? Right now, it's impossible to imagine him betraying his sister, but could that change in the future?
Then there's Rebekah - who despite what she did in last season's jaw-dropping finale - remains one of my favourite characters. She's bitchy and horrible towards Elena, but this is someone who has lost everything, and I found it heartbreaking to see how alone she was even if you could argue it's sort of justified.
Of course, there was that hallucination Rebekah had where Matt told her she doesn't deserve to find love, followed by her ripping his heart out. It's fortunate, then, that she might have found a friend by the end of the episode in April, who similarly has lost her family.
Elsewhere, Klaus is intent on protecting Tyler. We are introduced to Hayley, a friend of Tyler who may or may not have been more than just friends when she helped him break his sire bond.
Phoebe Tonkin didn't have much screen time to make a mark, and although Tyler has immeasurably improved as a character in recent seasons (I still love when he took to the pulpit to act as a distraction at the memorial last week), this is probably the storyline I'm least interested in right now.
But The Vampire Diaries is ultimately about Elena, and she remains captivating on several levels. After her anger almost pushes her to openly try to kill Rebekah (again, it's worth repeating that it's great we're seeing all these emotions from her), she finally has a bit of fun while riding on Stefan's motorbike.
The brief moment of joy is short-lived, though, because she almost uncontrollably kills Matt when sucking his blood. She's changing as a person, and now that she's accepted Damon's help (foreshadowed earlier when she imagined Damon when making out with Stefan), how will that affect her character?
Then there's the fact that Klaus saved Elena from the werewolf venom - why did he do that, and how does she tie in with The Five?
With a terrific balance of intrigue and character moments, 'The Rager' is another typically solid instalment of The Vampire Diaries. It doesn't stand out as much as 'Memorial' in terms of thrills, but not every episode needs to be packed with them. Take the Caroline and Stefan scene - Caroline promising to support the Salvatore was touching and beautiful. We can't wait for next week.
The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays on The CW.
