Vampire Diaries' Recap: Episode 7, A 'Haunted' Halloween

Warning, "Vampire Diaries" fangatics: if you haven't watched last night's episode, DROP EVERYTHING YOU'RE DOING AT WATCH IT IMMEDIATELY! If you have, then (SPOILER ALERT!) please join me in a moment of silence to mourn one of the most entertaining, most energizing, and most plain old awesome characters on the new series. Oh "VD," how you've killed off your most promising character much too soon.

In my recap two weeks ago, I wrote about how much I enjoyed Kayla Ewell's performance as a newly turned vampire. Unfortunately, that performance, plus the first half of last night's episode, is all we're going to get. In an act of extreme bravery, Stefan staked Vicki in the heart as she lost control of her new urge for human blood and attacked Elena in the parking lot of the high school during the annual Halloween party.

Hmmm, so THAT explains why Katerina Graham played it so coy when I asked her about how Vicki's turning into a vampire would change the dynamic of the show. "Vicki and Bonnie haven't had any scenes together yet so Bonnie isn't really aware necessarily of what's going on," she said. Well, no one else will have any scenes with her anymore, either, since she's kinda dead. And not in the fun, undead kind of way. (I hope Kayla stays real-life BFFs with her cast members, though.)

The first half of last night's episode was all about Stefan (and even Damon, a little bit) helping Vicki take control and understand what was happening to her. Elena spent her time worrying about Jeremy's safety around the newly turned vampire. Of course Damon was his usual bad influence (but damn charming about it), and Stefan was his usual moral compass. He told Vicki, "We choose our own path. Our values and our actions, they define who we are." (Damon's eye-rolling response: "Ooookay, Count Deepak.") Of course, neither Salvatore got control of the wild child Vicki, and after going home to Matt and convincing him to take her to the school's Halloween party, things got out of control when she snuck away to make out with Jeremy at the party. When Elena stepped in to protect her brother, Vicki attacked her instead, leading to Stefan's heroic (and yet, devastating) staking.

Meanwhile, Bonnie learned more about the Bennett family witches, including the fact that the mysterious crystal Damon stole from the Founder's Day party belonged to Bonnie's great great great great grandmother, who was a very powerful witch. Damon hit on Ty's mom, and found out that Zach was supposed to supply the town council with vervane. He didn't even need to use his vampire-compelling thing to do it — which helped, since Ty's mom was wearing a protective bracelet with vervane in it. The gang's Halloween costumes weren't the most inventive, but it was fun to see them all dressed up anyway. Elena and Matt both wore their costumes from last year (sexy nurse and doctor), Ty looked like a "300" gladiator, Bonnie was a witch (fitting), and Vicki, cleverly, was a vampire (even more fitting).

The one good thing we can take from Vicki's unfortunate demise is the hope that some other show will snatch Kayla Ewell up soon enough (and they will, if they know what's good for them!). I hear there's an Ashlee Simpson-Wentz-sized opening on "Melrose Place." I bet Kayla could play the cuckoo bananas part well, if any "Melrose" casting directors happen to be reading this...

As for poor young Jeremy, who just saw the love of his life die before his very eyes, Elena enlisted Damon to erase his memory and make him stop pining for Vicki. However, we didn't see Damon actually do it, which leads me to believe that could come back and haunt Elena in the future. And since we didn't see what happened to Vicki's body, I'm hoping there might be a teeeeensy weensy chance that she might come back too.

Are you as devastated by last night's death as we are? Did you like Vicki becoming a vampire, or were you happy to see her go? How do you think Jeremy will handle Vicki's disappearance? And how will Elena handle the events of last night's episode?