Nadia was bitten last week- that means she’s near death
which means we get some angsty flashbacks about a character who is pretty irrelevant
to the story, oh yay.
We open in “Northern Europe” in 1520 and Nadia’s
centuries long quest to find Katherine. Katherine is by her bedside and barely
even trying to pretend to care. She hasn’t called Klaus (whose blood cures
werewolf bites) because she doesn’t want to expose herself and Klaus doesn’t
care about Katherine anyway – instead she’s called evil Dr. Wes because he
likes to study ucky supernatural fluids. Katherine also swears to be a better
mother, which, tbh isn’t going to be all that difficult, she’s kind of set the
bar awfully low.
Meanwhile, Stefan and Caroline spread the word that
Katherine is possessing Elena (Damon takes It in his stride even when Stefan
tries to rub some salt in the wound of him being manipulated by Katherine.
Again). Caroline, Matt and Tyler are more surprised they didn’t figure it out
(me too since she was awful at keeping the secret – so the answer is probably “shoddy
writing”. That’s kind of my answer for everything that happens on this show).
Jeremy and Bonnie (hey she climbed out of the plotbox!) face the master
manipulation of Katherine actually realising letting Jeremy die would be out of
character
So what’s the master plan to exposing Katherine and
dragging her away from her dying daughter so they can stab her with the
Traveller Banishing Knife (hereby known as the TBK or magic stabby thing depending
on how much this episode drives me to drink) – throw a party.
Of course it is. The solution to everything in Mystical
Falls is a party, parade, ball or other grand social event. Bonnie’s surprise
Birthday party.
Caroline and Bonnie both try to convince Katherine to
come out and play but she dodges them. Suspicious by the sudden clinginess she
calls Damon and offers to come over – and he accepts. Since Damon tried to kill
her not so long ago, she knows there’s no way Damon would risk precious Elena’s
life by allowing her near him – she rumbles the trap (that’s actually pretty
good logic. I’m impressed Vampire Diaries); in turn Stefan and Damon realise
the only reason Katherine would volunteer to leave when she’s been dodging
meetings is if she suspects.
So now everyone knows that everyone knows that Katherine is Elena. Time for a Nadia flashback to France, 1720 (France? Wow did someone find a map? Wouldn’t “western Europe” have been sufficient?) Anyway, present day Katherine has dragged sickly Nadia out to the car and is now on the run. We also have another flashback dream to Nadia meeting Matt and even that was apparently part of her quest to find Katherine
Which means, per Damon’s suggestion, they need a witch to do a finder spell. Calling on Liv, the inexperienced witch. Unfortunately the string of common sense ends because they decide to leave Tyler to guard Damon (he needs a guard?) and Damon taunts him until he comes within arm’s reach. Tasty snacky hybrid! Damon is now free.
The finding spell involves lots of Liv flirting with
Jeremy in front of Bonnie which is just tacky. And Damon catches up to Dr. Wes
to express his… unhappiness with the man who tortured him for years and then
turned him into a ripper. It’s a very very very unpleasant death for Wes, and richly
deserved. This concerns Katherine because she was relying on the now dead and
mutilated Wes to produce a cure. To make things worse, Stefan has found Nadia
and calls Katherine to give her her choices – run or come home and see her
daughter before she dies.
Matt gets a moment with Nadia and Bonnie comforts her, as
the Anchor, before Katherine arrives to say her goodbyes – and tacitly
apologise for being selfish and not reaching out to Klaus for the cure (to be
fair, I do think Klaus’s answer would have been either “screw you Katherine” or
“sorry, too busy in a war against witches and my own family.”). They have a
really beautiful goodbye scene. Nadia dies and Bonnie passes her to the Other
Side.
Katherine tries to make a run for it – but Damon comes in
at that moment. Katherine makes her snarky goodbyes to everyone, to see who
will be the one to do the stabbing – and her proclamation of love for Stefan,
who is the one to finally do the deed.
Matt takes care of Nadia’s body and Stefan and Damon talk
Caroline and Tyler talk and Caroline thinks it’s unfair
that no-one is blaming him for his lethal hybrid bite while Caroline is getting
grief from him for sleeping with Klaus (um… what? Is this even a comparison?
Nadia was about to kill Caroline and Tyler jumped in and saved her, in the
process of which he bit Nadia. Is that even remotely comparable to Caroline sleeping
with Tyler’s mother’s murderer?) She has a big rant about how unfair it all is
and how she refuses to feel guilty any more and he just needs to get over her
sleeping with his mum’s murderer.
….I have no words, really?
And Bonnie meets up with Katherine’s spirit who gave up
because she had nothing left to live for – no Stefan, no Nadia. But she’s
really bitter about Elena getting all the good stuff. So before she died she
injected herself with the Ripper virus – enhanced with werewolf venom. With
that bit of vindictiveness explains she touches Bonnie in preparation to go to
the Other side. It doesn’t work. Instead the wind rises, darkness falls and
something drags her backwards, screaming into the dark
Looks like there’s more than one option for the afterlife.
Oh words cannot describe how much I snarked. Everyone
gathering around to say how masterful Katherine’s imitation of Elena was when
it was so poor was just laughable (“she realised Elena wouldn’t let Jeremy die!
SUCH AMAZING INSIGHT GUYS!!!”) Made even more comic by the conclusion of “we’re
terrible friends, we don’t pay enough attention to Elena!” Hah, the whole cast
CENTRES on Elena so much that I think she has her own gravitational field!
Bonnie’s surprise Birthday party – which she doesn’t want
and is just being used to further the cause of Elena. See, this is the problem
with Bonnie’s character – she disappears for episode after episode then is
dragged out of the box only when she is useful to the other cast. She has no
storylines of her own that, again, aren’t part of serving the rest of the cast.
Even her death and resurrection couldn’t be about her. Even the problem with
being the Anchor – finally being talked about – is only raised as a ploy to
lure Katherine to benefit Elena. Even the introduction of Liv – a clear tool –
is Bonnie’s contact but not Bonnie’s tool since she doesn’t use magic for
Bonnie’s benefit – she is a way of giving Bonnie back the skills that made her
such a useful tool, while denying her the power.
All that said, Katherine and Nadia’s death bed scene was
very well done and beautiful to see. And I am extremely glad to see the end of
Wes, Katherine and Nadia. Past time to prune some storylines!
