Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 3 Recap: Friday Night Bites

Photo Credit: Quantrell Colbert/The CW

What do you get when you combine the Salvatore brothers, the American pastime known as football, and a super emo Jeremy Gilbert? A crazy Vampire Diaries episode entitled, “Friday Night Bites,” that’s what!

Recap all the juicy moments from The Vampire Diaries Season 1, Episode 3 below:

Bleeding Love: Caroline awakens in her room from what appears to have been a bad dream in which Damon Salvatore sprouted fangs during sexy time and drank from her neck as though it was his chalice. SIKE! Turns out it all happens. As she tries to tiptoe away to safety, Damon awakens and attacks poor Barbie again.
Premonitions: Elena is loving herself some Stefan and after enjoying a blissful kiss while a comet streamed through the sky, she’s pretty much in heaven. Unfortunately, her BFF Bonnie Bennett is not as keen on Stefan (because she got a weird vibe upon handing him Elena’s phone number) and warns her to beware of him. Uh oh!
Just Call Him Eli Manning: While Stefan chit-chats with his lady friend before morning classes, Matt Donovan mopes around looking so lonely and lost as he glances at Stelena from afar. His BFF Tyler Lockwood isn’t about to let his pal drown in misery and suddenly Stefan suspects that Ty is up to no good. It seems his tingly spider sense is right on point because Tyler decides to be a jerkwad and spiral a football right at Stef’s head. But Stefan’s a mighty vamp so he pivots around and catches that ball like it was nothing. At this point, Elena cheers Stefan on and encourages him to stop being a loner (yes, the girl found writing in her journal in a cemetery) try out for the team. Booyah!
Sadie Hopkins Time: Jeremy’s absolutely smitten with Vicki but has a nagging feeling she slept with him for some drug treats. Oh — that and the fact that she’s pulling an Elena and wavering between two hots guys isn’t very reassuring. Should she go for wealthy, athletic Tyler Lockwood or the poster child for teen angst aka Jeremy Gilbert? Jeremy it is! Vic invites him to a concert but Jer’s tired of being played and declines her offer. Nevertheless, he clearly has developed some strong feelings for her because later on in the episode he finds himself shoving it out with Tyler at the Mystic Grill!
The History Wiz: Some teachers love molding young minds. Others love their field of work. Mystic Falls history teacher loves his job because it affords him the opportunity to shame students. So when he asks Elena a trivia question and she’s unable to respond correctly he draws great pleasure in embarrassing her in front of the class. No worries though — her knight in a fitted leather jacket comes to her rescue. Being that he’s 147-years-old, Stefan not only knows about history but he’s lived it. And he manages to stump the supposedly intelligent instructor himself! Unfortunately for Stefan, being a smart aleck doesn’t get him far at Mystic Falls High because, as it turns out, Mr. Tanner is also Coach Tanner, the school’s football coach. He doesn’t seem keen on having the student who showed him up in class join the team but then he reluctantly gives in to Stefan’s pleas. (Must have been those green puppy dog eyes…) Fortunately for Stefan, he’s got superpowers and can tackle any hellish workouts and bullying tactics his disgruntled coach tosses his way. (Even when Tyler arranges to body slam Stefan into the ground and ends up injuring Stefan’s fingers, he’s like, “No big” and simply slides his dislocated finger back into place. Stefan’s seriously one heck of a trooper!)
The Pom Pom Wars: Beautiful Elena doesn’t want to be stuck in mourning phase for the rest of her existence so she decides to get back into the swing of things by rejoining the cheerleading squad. Bonnie’s elated but Caroline? Not so much. When she arrives to practice in Damon’s drop top (“I got the other brother, hope you don’t mind!”) and super short booty shorts (and a dainty scarf D-bro gave her to cover up his bite marks), she’s quick to remind Elena that she’s been M.I.A. and needs to observe before participating. (In other words, she’s been gone far too long and kinda sucks.) However, Elena’s not one to hold a grudge (as everyone will learn later on) and she happily quits the squad.
Dinnertime: Elena is one of those girls that loves networking and introducing people. She wants everyone to get along and be best friends forever and ever. Thus, in an attempt to change Bonnie’s mind about Stefan, she invites the two of them over for a delicious, home-cooked meal and tries to get the conversation rolling by revealing BonBon’s magical lineage. Bonnie seems annoyed at first that Elena told him (even though she spends the better half of the episode trying to prove to Elena how psychic she is) but Stef wins her over by praising the unrelenting courage of the Salem witches. (And if Bonnie’s eyes were zoomed in on at this exact moments, viewers would be able to spot fireworks in them!)
Party Crashers: Unfortunately, the evening doesn’t mellow out as expected because Damon shows up announced (with Caroline in tow so that she can insult Elena again about her terrible dance moves at practice that day) and charms his way into Elena’s house — and his brother’s 100% NOT happy about him having 24/7 access to his gal’s home and yapping away about Stefan’s mysterious ex Katherine to anyone who’s willing to listen. (Funnily enough, when Damon begins blabbing about Katherine and how she died in a fire, Elena blatantly asks him, “So, which one of you dated her first?”) The night grows more tense as Stefan tries to get Caroline to remove her pretty little scarf (which she can’t seem to do and seems legitimately confused as to why) and bad-boy Damon compels her to help out in the kitchen. (So sexist!) Miraculously, while Damon is acting abusive towards Caroline, he’s being the opposite towards Elena and even advises her to quit cheerleading because she shouldn’t be forced into doing something when her heart’s not in it. (Oh how ironic...) We still don’t know what to make of him at this point.
A Salvatore Switcheroo: Elena and Stefan are getting cozy in her bedroom and one thing leads to another and soon they are peeling away layers of clothing and snogging like their lives depended on it. However, just as things get hot and heavy Elena tosses her hair back and Stefan turns into Damon. She screams bloody murder…and then wakes up in a cold sweat. But oh oh — who’s that peeping through the window? With his all access pass into Elena’s world and house, dangerous Damon is up for some fun….as in compelling a crow to spy on her day in and day out.
The Gray Area: Stefan wonders if there’s any humanity left in Damon and he secretly hopes for the best. However, he doesn’t know for sure if his vicious older brother can be saved and, in an attempt to protect Elena, he presents her with a necklace that has vervain secreted inside. She’s elated that they’ve moved on to the jewelry gift stage of the relationship and is more than happy to cheer him on during the Friday night game (especially after seeing how good he looks in a maroon jersey). However, Bonnie is still itching with foreboding and tells Elena that when she touched Stefan she saw the Grim Reaper aka Death aka You Better Watch Out, Girl! Gulp.
Bros Work It Out: Damon and Stefan? Nah. At this point, they’re still quarreling like good-looking siblings tend to do. Instead, Stefan finds himself on the brink of a wonderful friendship with Matt Donovan, who decides to make peace upon seeing Stef protect Jeremy. Unfortunately for Matt, Tyler is one jealous ~~studmuffin~~ dude who not only hates Jeremy but also Stefan (out of envy, of course). And during the pep rally, when Coach Tanner praises Stefan’s athletic prowess and talents on the field, Tyler gets really irritated and storms off. He runs into Vicki who wants nothing to do with him and Jeremy chimes in and suddenly the two are embroiled in a standard melee. Stefan rushes in to save the day and ends up getting a huge gash on his hand (courtesy of Jeremy whipping out a jagged bottle like some sort of thug). His hand heals — much to Elena’s alarm because she claims his hand had been gushing with thick blood just a second ago — so he lucks out. And although his relationship with Tyler is on the rocks, Matt is totally on Team Stefan and even lets Tyler have it in the locker room! “You’re a bully,” he reveals. Tyler looks shocked but mostly that Matt has manned up and is not your stereotypical mean joke.
An Unsuccessful Plan: When Damon wants something, he bats his long lashes and flashes a sexy smirk and it usually makes all the ladies and fellas weak at the knees. However, he gets more than he bargained for when he tries to pull off some of that vamp mojo on Elena. While walking to her car after the game, Damon appears out of nowhere and Elena’s startled but is glad to see it’s not some murderous stranger. (Um….) Before she can indulge in pleasant conversation with him though, he tries compelling her into kissing him. It seems to be working and he swoops in for the kill the smooch but — HA! — Elena’s got some of that good ol’ vervaine shit tied up around her neck so his little plan fails. Instead, she snaps at him that she’s not a brother-lover like Katherine and smacks him right across his gorgeous face. Get it, girl!
Farewell, Mr. Tanner: Stefan thinks it’d be a good idea to try and reason with Damon. He’s convinced he’s still clinging on to a tidbit of humanity, especially since he’s so gung-ho about torturing Stefan for Katherine’s disappearance.Damon is struggling with the ability to love but he certainly hasn’t lost this human emotion seeing as though he’s still head over heels for Miss Pierce. Fortunately, when Stefan tests Damon by telling him to kill him, Damon doesn’t give in and lets his brother live. Unfortunately though, Mr. Tanner shows up at that exact moment and trying to show Stefan not to psychoanalyze him ever again, Damon rips out the poor guy’s throat and ends up killing him. (Wrong place, wrong time.)
8, 14, 22: To make matters worse, innocent Matt Donovan — who trudges outside to escape his hotheaded bestie Tyler — ends up finding the body and when the police infiltrate the crime scene Bonnie puts two and two together and grows suspicious about the events that have transpired. Why? Because Tanner’s body was found outside of Building 8 and in front of a car with the number 14 on its license plate, which was parked next to a space numbered 22 — just like the numbers that had been repeating through her head earlier. So spooky!
The Soft Caress: While Stefan scribbles away in his diary like the proper brooding chap he is about how Damon is not human and must be stopped, Damon’s lurking in Elena’s room watching her sleep…and then in a sudden, tender moment, he disproves Stefan’s theory by gently stroking Elena’s face. Perhaps there is hope, after all, even in the darkest of places…