In The Hybrid, we get a taste of the new “normal” for our favorite residents of Mystic Falls. Elena is desperately chasing after Stefan, Damon is trying to protect her, and poor Alaric is just along for the ride.

The episode opens with Elena attempting to convince Damon that Stefan is worth saving. She still clings to the hope of him coming back, but after seeing what he’s seen of the new Stefan, Damon argues that he is too far gone to save. This is one of the things that I love about Elena, her heart. She loves Stefan so much that despite how difficult or dangerous it may be, she will never give up on saving him.

With Damon obviously not on board for project, “Save St. Stefan,” Elena turns to Alaric and surprisingly, Tyler. It’s nice to see Tyler doing a friendly favor for Elena, we hardly ever get to see the two of them interact, but as Tyler points out, he does kind of owe her one. Alaric on the other hand is won over by Elena’s Katherine-like persuasive skills, she effectively turns his own words against him and convinces him to help her. Speaking of Katherine, I really missed her this episode, I hope we get a chance to see what she’s been up to! With the assistance of Tyler’s werewolf knowledge, Elena and Alaric are off to the Smokey Mountains in hope of finding Stefan, but there’s only one problem. The mountains are full of werewolves and it just happens to be a full moon. Elena knows this, yet she’s still eager to go if it means she might find Stefan. Wow, she’s willing to hike through a forest full of werewolves for him, now that is true love!

Okay is it just me, or is anyone else loving the relationship between Elena and Alaric in this episode? They are quite entertaining with their 30 minute argument about Alaric taking the super ring or not and his comment about the “stubborn, relentless baby Gilberts” one day needing the ring cracks me up! I have to wonder though, will there ever be any baby Gilberts? Will Elena eventually end up a vampire, despite her current distaste for the idea? Only time can tell. As Elena and Alaric take a quick break in hiking, seemingly out of nowhere Elena goes flying, and I mean flying, into the nearby river. Alaric aims to defend Elena, but we soon find out that the perpetrator is non other than Damon. Apparently Alaric filled him in on their location and of course, he came to the rescue. Elena is being her usual stubborn self and refuses to get out of the river until Damon agrees to help with her mission of finding Stefan. Damon marches right up to her, not even caring that he’s getting soaked, and they begin arguing back and forth like two little kids. It turns out to be an argument that will set the stage for the rest of the episode. Elena argues that she is not going to give up, especially when she is so close to finding Stefan. In Damon’s mind it is way too dangerous for Elena to be up on a mountain crawling with werewolves on a full moon, and he wants Klaus to continue believing that Elena is dead. He also reminds Elena that if they stay on the mountain, they might have to relive another “death bed kissy thing.” I love how casually he brings that up! However he soon gives in to the pleading look on Elena’s face (how could be possibly say no?) and they continue the journey through the mountains, with the addition of Damon.

Their trek through the woods seems to be going well. Damon and Elena are arguing like an old married couple and it’s pretty endearing. All of the sudden a foaming-at-the-mouth, newly hybrid Ray appears and attacks Damon. Ric and Elena immediately come to his rescue and man, you’ve gotta love those wolfsbane grenades. I have to admit, the three of them make a pretty good team. They tie Ray up to a tree using all of the chains and vervain-soaked ropes around, but he soon does something very unexpected, he beginss his transformation into a werewolf. The trio is caught completely off guard considering that it is still daylight and after a quick second of deliberation, Elena decides that they need to get off of that mountain, NOW.

As they are speeding through the woods Elena trips and has a very close call with a werewolf right in her face. Yeah, I would completely flip out if I looked up to see the fangs of a werewolf staring back at me. Damon lures the werewolf away so that Ric and Elena can make it safely back to the car, but Elena is hesitant about leaving Damon behind. Ric convinces her that he’ll be fine, and they dash to safety. Damon gets into an awesome, supernatural-paced fight with werewolf Ray and believe it or not, it’s Stefan that saves him. It’s interesting that even in his darkest place, Stefan still won’t let his brother die. And it’s that act of humanity that will ultimately change Damon’s mind about saving his brother.

Elena and Ric have a touching moment in the car while waiting for Damon to return. They come to an understanding that they are the only family that each other has left, along with Jeremy. I’m really happy to see them bonding, they could definitely use some family in their lives. Damon emerges from the woods and as they are about to leave Stefan is watching them from the shadows. Elena looks in his direction and does a double take as if she’s seen him, but when she looks back again, he’s gone. Ugh! It kills me how extremely close she gets to him, without even being able to see him for herself. Why, oh why couldn’t he have stayed there for a split second longer?

Back in Mystic Falls after her hectic day, Elena is walking out of her bathroom into her bedroom and guess who’s standing by the window? Damon. Hmm, where have we seen this before? Damon admits that Stefan actually can be saved, and he tells Elena that he’ll help her find him. After some intense urging from Damon, Elena makes some admissions of her own. She admits that the reason she decided to leave the mountain so quickly was because she was worried about Damon’s safety. As Damon strokes her hair lovingly he says that the reason he badgered her into admitting the truth was because he wanted her to remember how she is feeling in that moment, even after he returns Stefan back to her. Awww! This moment really tugged at my heart. Damon can be so sweet and tender at times, but only towards Elena. The two of them have such strong chemistry, something is bound to happen between them at some point. As Damon is leaving Ric is walking up the stairs with suitcase in hand. I’ve been hoping that he’d step up and be there for Elena and Jeremy and by the end of this episode, it looks like he’s doing just that. YAY! He asks Elena if she “knows what she’s doing there,” referring to her situation with Damon, and I love her confused, honest reply: “No, I don’t.”

Other thoughts on the The Hybrid:

• It was fascinating to get a rare glimpse of Klaus’ vulnerable side when his plan to turn Ray’s pack into hybrids failed miserably. He complains that the hybrid transformations should have worked and he says that he “did everything he was told to do.” Told? By who? And I have a sneaking suspicion that the hybrid transformations didn’t work because the doppleganger didn’t actually die, as in, stay dead. If that’s true, then that puts Elena in major danger again, so let’s just hope that isn’t the reason. Klaus decides that it’s time for he and Stefan to leave, and I have a feeling that they will be going much farther from home this time.

• I’m really beginning to enjoy the Matt and Jeremy bromance. Neither of them seem to have many friends, so I think it’s great for the two of them to spend some time together and have some manly bonding time. Of course, in Mystic Falls manly bonding time has to include some dead sibling contacting. I’m not sure how I feel about the whole “ghosts” of Vicki and Anna thing yet. That has the potential to be a really awesome story line, but I’m just not 100% sold on it yet.

• Tyler’s mom got a long overdue wakeup call in this episode. Her judgement of all vampires as bad and her willingness to harm Caroline, someone she’s known for years, didn’t sit too well with me. I’m glad that instead of just telling his mom that he was a werewolf, Tyler actually showed her what that meant, so she would understand that just because Caroline is a “monster” it doesn’t mean that she’s evil. And hey, at least Tyler doesn’t have to keep hiding his secret from his mom anymore, everything is out in the open in now.

• Poor Caroline, O-M-G! I can’t believe that it was her Dad that Carol Lockwood was talking to! And I can’t believe that it is her Dad that has her all chained up! I hope he doesn’t hurt her, but I have a creepy feeling that he’s going to try to change her back into a human somehow? Is that even possible?

Wow, what an episode! Elena proved her love for Stefan by braving a mountain full of werewolves, but she also proved how much she cares about Damon by quickly deciding to leave in order to keep him safe. With Damon’s decision that Stefan can still be saved, something tells me that our trio will be back out searching for him sometime very soon. All in all, a great episode. The Vampire Diaries Season 3 is off to a fantastic start, and I’m sure it will only get better from here.