‘Vampire Diaries’ Recap: Elena’s Humanity Comes At A Deadly Price
Which of Elena’s friends made a major sacrifice to save her from herself — and who does Elena now have in her crosshairs?
If the thought of Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) teaming up to torture Elena (Nina Dobrev) sounds at all sexy to you, then you clearly did not watch the May 2 episode of The Vampire Diaries, in which the Salvatore brothers literally lit their former flame on fire in order to restore her humanity. OK, technically Elena lit herself on fire… but that’s neither here nor there.
Just when you thought Team Defan had run out of terrible ideas, they invited Katherine to have a crack at her doppelganger; and much to the surprise of absolutely no one, she let Elena loose! Mystic Falls’ human Band-Aid Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) took the reins from there, throwing himself in front of Elena like a sexy fishing lure — and oh boy, did she bite. She nearly drained Matt of all his beautiful blood, which prompted Damon to intervene and snap his neck.
I may have been watching alone, but I swear I could hear the sounds of TVD fans all over the east coast shrieking at the prospect of losing Matt forever. It turns out Matt was wearing the protection ring — thank Julie Plec! — but Elena’s emotional response to his supposed death was enough to force her humanity to come back on. (At. Last.)
Rebekah (Claire Holt) mused that Elena would be “back to her dull, sympathetic self in no time,” and normally I’d agree with her. But there was nothing “dull” about the Elena we saw at the end of the episode. She was pissed, she was focused and she had her mind on only one goal: killing Katherine!
Matt Lessons
When Matt wasn’t fake-dying, he was busy being his usual adorable self. We learned he’s bombing a whole bunch of classes — personally, I’m shocked a CW show actually acknowledged the importance of homework — and Rebekah volunteered to help him catch up. He’s one of the only people who’s ever treated her like a human, hence the undeniable romantic tension between them. I’m really bummed Rebekah’s heading to The Originals, because there’s serious potential for “Mattbekah” that might never get explored.
(Unless, of course, Matt decides he wants to go to college in New Orleans…)
Caroline In The Sh*tty
The other key player on this week’s episode was Caroline (Candice Accola), who spent the entire hour enduring a very different kind of torture — Silas’ kind of torture. The gross-faced immortal used every dirty trick in the book, including impersonating Klaus (Joseph Morgan), to get poor Caroline to turn over Bonnie (Kat Graham).
Speaking of Klaus, I think the Twitterverse nearly exploded when Caroline seemed to come face-to-face with her Original lover for the first time since last week’s back-door pilot. In fact, I’m not sure who had their minds messed with more this week, Caroline or the viewers! Consider the following exchange between “Klaus” and Caroline:
“Klaus”: I never had any intention of moving on. … The truth is, I’ve tried to stop thinking about you, and I can’t. Come to New Orelans. What are you afraid of?
Caroline: You! I’m afraid of you!
“Klaus”: Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say you’re afraid of yourself? Your darkest desires?
It had all the makings of a totally hot make-out scene — until, of course, Caroline figured out she was actually exchanging emotional outbursts with Silas.
Caroline also came to close to losing her mom this week — I may have jinxed Sheriff Forbes when I tweeted about her unbelievable survival skills — which gave Candice Accola another excuse to remind us all what an incredible talent she is. Of all the emotional moments of the episode, and there were many, my favorite was when she wept on the floor, fearing she’d lost her mom forever.
Bonnie’s Bloodlust
And last, but so not least, there’s Bonnie. We learned a little more about her involvement with Silas — he’s forcing her to drop the veil between worlds during the full moon — but I’m more interested in her involvement with Katherine.
Basically, Bonnie needs Katherine to help her get the tombstone so she can obtain enough power from Qetsiyah’s blood to drop the veil whenever she damn well pleases. Once Bonnie drops the veil, she can ask Qetsiyah to make Katherine as immortal and invincible as Silas is.
But wait… doesn’t Elena want to kill Katherine? Wouldn’t that get in the way of Bonnie’s big plan? Methinks we’ll see another showdown between Elena and Bonnie before the season is over — and this one might not end so well for the former-BFFs.
HollywoodLifers, what did you think of this week’s episode? Are you glad Elena finally has her humanity back? What do you think will between between her and Katherine? Drop a comment with your review of the episode and predictions for the future!
— Andy Swift
More ‘Vampire Diaries’:
- ‘Vampire Diaries’ Videos: Caroline Clashes With Stefan & More — Watch
- ‘Vampire Diaries’ Finale: Klaus Says Goodbye & Elena Fights For Her Life
- 5 Reasons The ‘Vampire Diaries’ Spin-Off ‘The Originals’ Will Be Epic