‘The Vampire Diaries’ recap: The killing time
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Tonight, Damon (Ian Somerhalder), Stefan (Paul Wesley), Bonnie (Katerine Graham), Caroline (Candice Accola) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) banded together to take down Katherine (Nina Dobrev). I had to remind myself that this was only the seventh(!) episode of the season. And yet, we got six great OMG moments and two dead bodies:
1. Katherine kills the half of Tweedledum and Tweedledee known as Aimee (Tiya Sircar), a.k.a. the girl who was crushing on Matt (Zach Roerig) before Caroline compelled her to stay away. Aimee was minor enough of a character that her death wasn’t too shocking. It was the manner in which Katherine killed her that was shocking. Thinking she was Elena (Dobrev), Aimee complimented Katherine on her masquerade dress -– that was one fancy masquerade ball for the homeless! -– and Katherine complimented her necklace, stepping behind her to correct the crocked piece of jewelry. Then Katherine swiftly and discretely snapped her spine, paralyzing her. She finished her off, dumping her into horrified Stefan’s arms. No one on the dance floor even batted an eyelash.
2. Katherine and Elena are connected! Like dominoes, one by one, the gang did its part in trying to kill Katherine. Jeremy told her that Stefan and Damon wanted to meet her. Katherine wasn’t about to play by their rules and went to Caroline, nearly strangling her until she told her what Damon and Stefan were up to. But Caroline was playing her, faking fear and tears to lure her into a bedroom where Bonnie had cast a spell to trap her. Caroline looked so proud of herself for fooling Katherine. There also seemed to be a bit of relief that manipulative Katherine was finally going to be out of her life. Damon and Stefan came after Katherine with the full force of Alaric’s (Matt Davis) ‘how to kill a vampire’ weapons stash, but all the wounds they were inflicting on her were also inflicted on Elena. By killing the woman they hate, Damon and Stefan would kill the one they loved. Poetic, isn’t it? Also poetic? That the woman who drove Damon and Stefan apart has brought them back together. ‘This woman ruined our lives. She destroyed us. Tonight it ends. We’ll do it together. I got your back,’ Damon said. Thankfully, Jeremy got there just in time to warn them. I immediately wondered if this was part of the doppelganger deal, but Bonnie realized it was a spell that Katherine’s witch friend Lucy (Natashia Williams) had cast. Whatever Katherine feels, so does Elena. Did she get some of her attitude too? Because she was kind of sassy and Katherine-esque when she asked Alaric what he was hiding.
3. Tyler (Michael Trevino) kills Sarah (Maiara Walsh), the other half of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, triggering the werewolf curse. A compelled Matt was hounding Tyler all night, giving him a serious run for his money in the jerk department. (Dear writers: I prefer my Matt sweet, here for Elena always, and pretending he runs into knives. But props to Roerig for playing jerk Matt so convincingly. That must have been a nice change of pace as an actor.) Matt called Tyler’s dad a nasty word and poured alcohol on his picture. Then he started to beat up on Tyler. Caroline came into the room to see what the commotion was about and knocked Matt out when he wouldn’t stop hitting Tyler. But Katherine got to Sarah too, who took over and tried to stab Tyler. In the process of trying to protect himself, Tyler swatted her away and her head hit the table. And out came the werewolf eyes. Now that Tyler and Caroline have been through this experience together and are wising up to each other’s secrets while Matt remains clueless, it seems like we have another unlikely, unexpected pairing on our hands. The other came in Bonnie and Jeremy, who bonded during the episode. I think they connect because they’ve both been pulled into this vampire drama against their will, but want to do the right thing. It’s sweet, if a little weird with Jeremy being Bonnie’s best friend’s little brother. But as Jeremy pointed out, ‘I’m not a kid anymore, Bonnie.’ He’s certainly not after the way he’s stepped up in the last couple of episodes.
4. Katherine’s dead! OK, not really, but we’ll get to that in a second. Lucy took offense that Katherine hadn’t told her there would be another Bennett witch at the party -– they’re family! -– and lifted the spell. She handed over the moonstone to Katherine, but she must have done something witchy to it because as soon as Katherine touched it, she started to choke and cry out in pain. It appeared as if it was killing her, but...
5. Damon put a weak, but very alive Katherine in the tomb! After thinking she was in there for more than a hundred years only to find out she was trapezing all over the world, Damon finally got to enclose Katherine in the tomb and close that chapter of his life with a pained look. But not before Katherine got another reveal/plea in. She told Damon he needed her because Elena was in danger. ‘Why do you think I haven’t killed her? Because she’s the doppelganger. She needs to be protected,’ she cried out. ‘Then I’ll protect her,’ Damon replied, ‘while you rot in hell.’
6. Elena got kidnapped! Guess Katherine wasn’t lying. As Elena walked to her car, a masked figure grabbed her. Could someone want to use Elena for her physical similarity to Katherine? Is this the danger Katherine warned Damon about? Why the heck do these two look so alike? And what was Katherine running from in 1864?
One last thing... Katherine sure is boy-crazy. Among her gems:
(To Matt) ‘God, you’re hot. Now go away.’
(To Stefan) ‘I love you in a suit. So dashing.’ And how great was Dobrev’s delivery of that whispered ‘I love you’?
(To Damon) ‘God, you’re hot. When did you get so hot?’
Readers, were you glad to see Katherine locked away in the tomb? I’m relieved they didn’t kill her completely. She’s just too good of a villain to be gone forever. What do you think of the new budding romances/friendships? Are you sad that Elena and Stefan are still on the quits even though Katherine’s out of their hair? And superficial time: Who was best dressed at the masquerade ball? I loved Katherine’s mask, but Caroline’s dress was gorgeous.
-- Vlada Gelman (follow my TV musings on Twitter at @stayingin)
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