This episode brought the return of Katherine. I was so hoping that narrowly escaping with her life last season, would be enough to end the characters purpose on the show. More than anything, Katherine shows just how much Nina Dobrev needs to take acting classes; however, I suppose that as long as Paul Wesley is playing Stefan, she will never hold the title for the worst actor on The Vampire Diaries.
Shall we get right into it? Damon tracks Stefan down to beantown and brings Elena along for the ride. This episode is filled with flashbacks from the roaring twenties, when Stefan was the ripper. Not only did he kill willfully, he wrote the names down of his victims -- so that he could remember and experience the kills again. Think of it sort of like a vampire trophy. Damon takes Elena to Stefan's old apartment (okay, gotta say, why is this building still standing, and why is it in such good condition?) and she sees the list for herself. Any normal person at that point would go screaming for the door. All Elena can see is a vampire in need of help to get over his little habit of draining people of their life blood. Awww poor baby waby just needs help. I don't for the life of me understand how she can still see him as good, when she now has evidence of exactly what kind of killer Stefan is.
In the flashback we learn that Stefan and Klaus had a friendship. They were so close that Stefan referred to Klaus as his brother. Stefan and Klaus were introduced by Rebecca, Klaus' sister. It seems that over time, Stefan and Rebecca had a relationship, but when someone bursts into Stefan's bar, shooting wooden bullets, Klaus decides that it is once again time to leave town. Before he leaves, he orders Stefan to forget about them, until he tells him to remember and this is why Stefan has no memory of his previous relationship with Klaus. Rebecca refuses to leave without Stefan, and when Klaus tells her that she has to chose either himself or Stefan, Rebecca chooses Stefan. Never being one to accept the word no, Klaus stabs her with knife making it impossible for her to move. She is essentially dead. If you remember, this is what happened to Elijah last season.
The reason Klaus brought Stefan to Chicago was to find out why he was not able to create more hybrids. Of course the answer lies in finding another witch and surprise, surprise, surprise, the witch is a woman named Gloria who used to work in the club that they hung at during the twenties. Gloria appears to not have aged a day, and this is because she is a powerful witch and is able to slow the aging process.
I do not understand why every time the writers are in need of some magical woo woo they scare up Black people. This would not be so bad if these characters didn't inevitably end up in service to White characters. As powerful as Gloria is, she clearly is going to spend her time on the show doing Klaus' bidding. To her credit she does at least not act like a complete sycophant because she tells Klaus, that he may be indestructible but he certainly is not funny. Gloria also draws the line with Damon when he comes looking for information and reminds him that he may be cute, but he is still a vampire. Personally, considering how all of the Black characters have been treated on the show, I predict that Gloria has a life span of 2 or 3 more episodes if she is lucky. Hopefully she will stay in Chicago where she can at least avoid being eaten by Caroline.
Speaking of Caroline -- when we last her she had been kidnapped by her father. It seems that daddy dearest has decided that it is his duty to cure Caroline so that he does not have to kill her. She begs him repeatedly to stop and let her go, as he exposes her to the sun and tests her reaction to blood. Can you believe that he was trying to do aversion therapy? Really? At any rate, Sheriff Liz Forbes and Tyler come to her rescue. Liz tells Caroline that her father is old school and that she has to understand that hating vampires is the way that they were raised. I really sensed a nasty undercurrent of homophobia in this scene, because the analogy seemed to imply a link to a child coming out to a parent, and the parent not being in the least bit receptive to whom their child really is. If so, equating a real ism with hating a vampire is homophobic and wrong.
Back in Chicago, Damon gets Stefan's attention and lures him outside where Elena is waiting to convince him to come home. He tells her that he does not want to come home and that life they shared is over. She reminds him that when Lexy found him that he was a blood drunk vampire and he tells her that it took him thirty years to get to the point where he no longer needed human blood and that would mean she would be old and gray before he came back to himself. He even reminds her of exactly what he is but Elena still wants her blood serial killer boyfriend. Finally he just has to tell her that its over and he returns to the bar, while tears clearly form in Elena's eyes. If you're a teenager the angst in that scene was probably right up your alley, but I just kept thinking when is this woman going to come to her senses?
Klaus takes Stefan back to the warehouse where he has so lovingly stored his family in their own individual coffins. When they get there, Rebecca stabs him with the same stake that he had used on her all those years ago. Klaus looks at her as though she is a naughty child and pulls the stake out. Rebecca tells him that she knew that the stake wouldn't kill him, but had hoped that it would hurt him a bit. When he bring Stefan into the room, Stefan looks at Rebecca and does not remember until Klaus tells him to. Suddenly, all the time that they spent together goes flashing through his mind and he remembers. Stefan approaches Rebecca and turns his head to Klaus and says I remember you now.
Klaus being Klaus had to remind them that he woke Rebecca for a reason. He explains that he needs to get in touch with the original witch (how much you wanna bit ze is Black?) and that Gloria told her that she is the key. Rebecca tells him that she needs her necklace for that and asks where it is because she never takes it off. Rebecca even rips apart her coffin and still cannot find the necklace.
Do you see the set up there? Klaus needs the necklace to find the original witch, so that he can discover how to make more hybrids, but Elena has the necklace. Elena being alive is also why the spell is incomplete and so killing her would achieve what Klaus wants. It seems that once again, Elena is the key and will therefore be the center of these immortal beings lives for the season, yet again.
Before we wrap this up for the week, I have to say for the record that I don't know why Rebecca would be so eager to help Klaus. Yes, he is her brother but he imprisoned her in a coffin for 90 years. Let me say that again for the record, he imprisoned her in a coffin for 90 years. I know that she cannot kill him but she can refuse to do his bidding. This makes me wonder if we are ever going to see a woman with any real agency or power on this show?
