Now that was a midseason finale, people.
In last night’s midseason finale of The Vampire Diaries, motives became clear and secrets were revealed as the Mystic Falls gang knowingly and unknowingly played a part in an overall plan; which we will designate Operation: Klaus from here on out. The acting was superb, the special effects amazingly tasteful. It was a TVD fan’s dream and more, followed by the nightmare of having to wait till January 27th to see what happens next. So while you catch your breaths across the country, let’s recap on the bum rush to our psyches that was The Vampire Diaries.
Trapped in More Ways Than One…
Elena is determined to make a deal with Klaus involving the moonstone and her own sacrifice in order to save her family and friends. Bonnie mentions taking the spell out of the moonstone, rendering it useless and keeping things the same. Elena thinks this will do nothing more than send Klaus on a killing spree. At this comment, Bonnie and Jeremy thinks Elena’s nuts as do we all. Being the defiant female that she is, Elena ‘slyly’ swipes the moonstone out of Bonnie’s purse and tries to leave with it, but Jeremy and Bonnie are five steps ahead of her. When Elena tries to leave the house, she is shocked to find out that she physically can’t step out the door. Bonnie has done a shield spell and Elena is pissed.
Later after Damon gives Elena the riot act for being stupid (again), the vamp leaves Jeremy in charge to look over Elena, while he takes care of some new business. A few hours pass and Elena finds Jenna looking for some historical stuff for an upcoming town event to give to someone. That someone happens to be Elijah who has managed to sneak his way into the house. The house which Elena can’t leave from. Oh. Crap!
After Elijah leaves through the front door, Elena runs upstairs to get Jeremy, but bumps into Elijah instead. He asks for Elena to talk to him. What? While Elena keeps her guard up, Elijah breaks down what he actually wants from Elena, which is for the curse to stay the same and for Elena to stop putting herself in danger and live her life. He explains that while Klaus is one of the most feared Originals, he’s also a mentally unstable recluse too paranoid to think straight. After realizing that Elijah has no clue of Klaus’s whereabouts, Elena realizes that she’s pretty much bait to lure Klaus into the open to be killed. In exchange for her services, Elijah promises he will make sure Elena and everyone she loves will be protected through the power of the Martin Warlocks and himself. Before Elena accepts the deal, she asks Elijah for one more thing…
Team Lonnie All Day Every Day
Bonnie stops by the Martins’ residence to return Luca’s dog tags she used in channelling him the week before (without his permission, mind you). Luca is understandably pissed, but can’t help but forgive Bonnie as soon as she stars apologizing like a fumbling idiot.
He lets her inside hit apartment and Bonnie is amazed to see a library of grimoires stacked all over the place. Luca explains that Jonas collects them to preserve the “family’ heritage of witches and warlocks, ‘family’ meaning all witches. Bonnie then asks Luca if he knows how to break a spell from a talisman. He says they can try to figure it out. Did I mention that during this entire conversation, their chemistry is snapping to the point that it’s basically music to my ears?
The two pick the top of a building (the same one Damon tortured Vicki on in “Night of the Comet”) to perform the spell. When Bonnie produces the moonstone, Luca flirtatiously pries for information on it’s power, but Bonnie remains tight lipped. Despite this, Luca still help Bonnie with the spell and as they perform it, I can’t help but marvel at how breathtaking the two are with each other. The moonstone seemingly explodes, making it seem as if the worst is over, right?
Wrong. Luca returns home and gives the stone to Jonas, claiming that Bonnie bought the whole fireworks show and has no clue of what he just pulled. What?!?! Although Luca double crossed Bonnie, he sure as hell didn’t look proud about doing it. Jonas asks him to help in one final task for Elijah while the moon is still full.
Tyler’s Not Himself Tonight
In the story line everyone has been anticipating, Tyler calls Mason’s place in Florida one last time to ask for help since the next night will be a full moon. When Tyler gets the answering machine again (people still use those?), he leaves a message, pleading for Mason to help him. Unbeknownst to Tyler, a young woman stands in Mason’s house listening to the message about a being scared on a full moon.
The next day, Tyler preps for his first transformation, but is shocked when the young woman from Mason’s, whose name is Jules (Michaela McManus) stops by to ask for his uncle. Mrs. Lockwood and Tyler declare that Mason is in Florida, but Jules is there to tell them that he isn’t. Cue the “dun dun dun!!!” music…
Tyler runs to find Caroline at the Grill and fills her in on Mason’s disappearance. Knowing that he will have to face this alone, Caroline joins Tyler to set up shop at the old Lockwood basement. Meanwhile, Alaric overhears their conversation and calls Damon.
In the basement, Tyler recounts to Caroline that he could be in wolf form for two hours or more. They pull out the chains, water, and Caroline provides the wolfsbane, which is the equivalent to vervain for vampires. When the transformation hits, Tyler becomes more frightened and scared. The pain doesn’t make anything better as he screams in agony, bones snapping as they reconfigure themselves in new positions, making me cringe with every crack and pop. The entire time, Caroline is by Tyler’s side, guiding him through the hell he’s experiencing and not leaving his side when he begs her to do so. As Tyler gets too dangerous for comfort, Caroline locks him in the room. When Tyler nearly takes out the door, Caroline heads into the woods and waits for the worst.
Later in the night, Caroline returns to find Tyler in his human form, disoriented. She consoles him by holding onto his shivering body and congratulates him on making it through his first transformation successfully. Talk about star crossed lovers…
You’ve Been Marked, Damon
After getting a call from Alaric about Mason Lockwood officially being labeled a missing person by the Council members, Damon meets his frenemy at the Grill to stake out the newcomer who is about to cause all sorts of trouble by being in Mystic Falls. Meanwhile after leaving the Lockwood estate, Jules calls someone to tell them about Mason lying about there not being another werewolf with Tyler being the newest one.
When Jules shows up, the two men come up with a plan. As Damon tries to win over Jules, Alaric spikes her drink with wolfsbane,
but Jules doesn’t drink it. After Damon tries both to get information and throw her off the scent, Jules prepares to leave. When Damon insists that she drinks before she goes, Jules has had it and choses to lay her cards on the table. She is in fact a werewolf and sniffed Damon’s vampiric nature and the wolfsbane from gate. Say what?! After claiming how dumb Damon is to come at her the way he did on a full moon, Jules leaves Damon with a warning. He’s ‘marked.’ Uh oh…
Damon returns home to find a very apologetic Rose waiting for him. Before he can get a chance to blow her off, an intruder enters the Salvatore house by breaking through a window. The intruder turns out to be a very pissed off wolf, who immediately lunges for Damon. Rose blocks the attack and is bitten instead, screaming in agony from the bite. Damon manages to get the wolf off Rose by stabbing it, making the beast leave the house just as quickly as it entered. Damon tends to an injured Rose and the two look on in astonishment as Rose’s wound surprisingly heals itself! Wow! The two rejoice into each others arms about how the werewolf/vampire bite legend actually being fake since Rose didn’t die immediately.
But later as Rose makes a pledge to help Damon out with protecting Elena and agreeing to be friends with benefits, her wounds start getting pustulated and nasty, making it clear that a werewolf bite might actually be worse than what they could imagine. No!
That One Last Favor…
After Damon leaves supplies and an update on affairs outside the tomb with Stefan, Katherine moves in on Stefan’s psyche literally and metaphorically as she projects an image of the two having sex after Stefan succumbs to her taunts of Damon having the upper hand with Elena. After Stefan fights them off, Katherine takes the subtle approach by declaring her love for him again. Stefan doesn’t think there’s any hope for her, but asks her to do something nice to prove him wrong. As Katherine tries to suss out if Stefan is being serious, she gives him a starting point on how to find Klaus, suggesting he tries with Isobel first since she’s the one who found Katherine. (More Mia Kirshner? Yes, Please!!!)
Just as Katherine utters this advice, the two hear someone open the tomb and go to investigate. When they see who’s at the door, Katherine nearly has a heart attack, despite her heart not beating for over 500 years.
Elijah stands on the other side of the threshold, looking mighty menacing. He reveals that Elena requested for Stefan to be released from the tomb as a part of their deal. The only warning he gives Stefan is to make sure that Elena keeps up her part of the bargain and everything will be gravy. Katherine, on the other hand, must stay put in the tomb. She tries to escape but Elijah blocks her and compels her into staying put so Klaus will know where she is. Wow…
As Katherine pleads from the love of her life, Stephen practically throws her the deuces and leaves the tomb, and runs right into the arms of Elena, who accepts him happily without any hesitation.
Again, that was a midseason finale…
See you guys on January 27th! And participate in our Who Do YOU Want To Be Cast As Klaus? Only plausible actors for the roles, please!
