Another week, another party on The Vampire Diaries…
But this party stands out for two reasons. One, it’s being thrown by the newly reunited Original family. And two, nobody dies. No one! A lack of death truly makes for a banner event in Mystic Falls.
The Consequences of Elena’s Actions
We begin back in that deadly hospital, shortly after Elena’s brutal and awesome stabbing of Alaric. The world’s worst history teacher and role model is OK but has to stay for observation. As Elena and Matt walk the hallway (conveniently telling us that the witches and Caroline are all OK, despite recent events), a shadow watches from behind some doors.
But Matt and Elena are oblivious. Matt is so oblivious, in fact, that he foolishly claims to worry about nothing other than his part-time job. He’s doomed, obviously.
Elena gets the first worries though. She thinks she’s backed over something in her care, but nothing is there! Oh wait, it’s Rebekah. Vehicular manslaughter might have been easier on Elena.
Fortunately for our young doppelganger, Elijah shows up to save her before Rebekah can have a revenge snack. This is also an excellent chance for Elena to get an update on the whole returned-Original thing.
Invitations and Angst
Suddenly it’s the next day.
Damon and Stefan are hanging out at the Gilbert house, learning that Mommy Esther is a) back and b) not about to kill Klaus. They’re not pleased. Before everyone can complain too much, however, the doorbell calls Elena to the door. There is no bloodthirsty vampire or hybrid there (for a change), but there is an invitation.
It seems that the “Mikaelsen” family (aka, the Originals) are having a ball. And Elena has been invited to formally meet Esther. This brings up some angst for the Salvatores. Damon and Stefan argue about who gets to go with Elena, eventually settling on Damon because we’re all pretending that Stefan still doesn’t care.
Caroline is also favored with a ball invitation, although hers comes directly from Klaus. She gets a present as well — a very nice dress — and a personal note to save him a dance. Awwww… Klaus has a crush! Caroline gets her own angst about this, only increased by a phone message from Tyler.
There is also angst at the Hybrid House, now home to all of the Originals. While Kol preens in front of a mirror, Klaus and Rebekah squabble over the whole killing-Elena thing. Esther calls Klaus away, where he whines about his sister and brothers before engaging in a deep discussion about forgiveness. Not that forgiveness means anything to Klaus.
Over at the Mystic Grill, Elena and Caroline complain about these seriously irritating Originals and their death threats/flirting/parties. Elena also complains about her little Salvatore problem. Caroline might be more sympathetic if she weren’t irritated that Elena never bothered to tell about that Damon smooch.
Rebekah arrives at this point to commiserate with Caroline over Elena’s backstabbing ways. And then she stops the bonding potential by asking Matt to the ball. This does not please either Caroline or Elena.
Let’s Play Ball!
At the Originals’ shindig, Damon and Carol Lockwood discuss the prudence of allying with Original vampires. They are standing in quite a crowd of attendees, which brings up an interesting question: Who are all of these people? Vampires? Compelled human guests? Actual friends?
Anyway, we don’t get to ponder the mystery crowd long, because Damon is distracted — first by a dismissive Kol and then by a stunning Elena. Before he can get to his paramour, however, Stefan steps in. All three points of the love triangle have to walk in together.
Meanwhile, Caroline is running super late to the party. This is because she can’t find a thing to wear. This both makes no sense — with all the Mystic Falls events, how could she not have a few ballgowns? — and makes perfect sense — with all the Mystic Falls events, she’s surely worn everything already. But the net result is Caroline wearing Klaus’ dress.
It has white, elbow-length gloves! Seriously. But this works for Klaus, who immediately tries flirting upon Caroline’s entrance. She’s not interested.
Before Klaus can pursue his crush further, Elijah announces from the grand staircase that it’s time for the festivities to begin. And by “festivities,” he means a waltz. Those Originals sure know how to party! Fortunately, this is Mystic Falls, where all of the kids learn how to perform antiquated dances in early childhood.
So Many Pairings, So Much ‘Shipping Potential!
In case you missed the ‘shipping potential of this romantic evening with The Vampire Diaries, let’s run down the waltz pairs:
- Damon and Elena start the dance together and exchange fond (if worried) words.
- Klaus and Caroline share a dance so Klaus can pine some more.
- Rebekah and Matt have a whole teenage-romance/vampire-dinner thing going on.
- Stefan steps in to dance with Elena. They manage to smolder like crazy, even without much talking. Stelena’s back, baby!
- Damon moves on to Rebekah, and encourages her not to stare at her food while dancing.
Enough of This Romance. Back to the Plotting!
Elena leads Stefan away from the dance floor. But, alas, it’s not for romantic reasons. Instead, she wants him to help make that meeting with Mommy Esther happen. You know, because he doesn’t care at all and just wants to kill Klaus.
Pause for a moment to consider the sadness of Stefan pretending this to be true.
Anyway, the plan involves luring Damon upstairs so Stefan can break his brother’s neck. This done, Elena heads off to meet with Esther. She is stopped en route by Elijah, who is understandably suspicious of his mother’s forgiveness. Because Elena and Elijah still like each other, Elena agrees to pass along any news from Esther if it’s important.
She’s lying, of course. But it works for Elijah.
In other plotting news, Rebekah and Kol decide it’s time to kill Matt. Mostly because this will hurt Elena, but also because they’re hungry. The key is to do this without Esther noticing, since has requested no killing at her party.
Mommy Dearest
Elena makes it to Esther’s room, where Finn is skulking and the sage is burning. Esther quickly engages in a brief but comprehensive bit of plot exposition. The important points are:
- The witch Ayana preserved Esther’s body, because the witch-ladies were friends.
- Bonnie is a direct descendant of Ayana, thus making it possible for her and Abby to lift the spell and return Esther to life.
- It took this long because Esther went against Nature by creating vampires.
- She’s sorry now and wants to fix this.
How will she fix this? Why, by killing all of her children, of course!
As it turns out, the grand Mikaelsen ball is nothing more than a ruse for Esther to spell her children to death. Using a drop of Elena’s blood, Mean Mommy Esther will spike the champagne toast and perform a spell to bind her kids together. This means that killing any one of them will kill them all.
Elena, not being a monster like everyone else, hesitates. But she eventually goes along with it.
Back to the Flirting
Caroline has taken a break from the party to hang out with a horse. I don’t know why there’s a horse, but whatever. Klaus, because he’s all stalker-like now, shows up and they discuss horses and love and stuff. Klaus admits he’s into Caroline. But she is still hung up on the Tyler-being-forced-to-kill-her thing and is unimpressed.
But Klaus is undaunted by Caroline’s rejection and somehow convinces her to come see his etchings. To give the man credit, his etchings are actually quite impressive. In addition to several stolen masterpieces, it turns out that Klaus himself is an accomplished artist. He even has a painting in the Hermitage!
Klaus, as always, tries to turn Caroline’s interest to his advantage. But Caroline isn’t buying it. She gets all psychological on his ass and points out that Klaus needs to collect people because his father never loved him. Thus he can’t believe in love himself.
Way to make us feel sorry for Klaus, Caroline!
Rebekah and Matt are also doing the flirting thing. For some reason, Matt has stupidly agreed to hang out with his bloodthirsty vampire date in the abandoned parking lot. He only survives by being all chivalrous and draping his coat over Rebekah’s not-cold-because-she’s-a-vampire-dummy shoulders. Rebekah is touched and hurries Matt inside before Kol can have a bite.
Loving to Death
Damon recovers from his broken neck and is understandably irritated with both Stefan and Elena. Neither of those two, however, seems to care, and both inform Damon that he loves too much. Damon takes this about as well as you’d expect. Fortunately, Kol is being all evil (crushing foolish Matt’s hand for fun), and Damon can let out his aggression by dumping the Original off a balcony and then fighting.
Oddly, this does not result in Damon being dead. I guess Kol hasn’t quite woken up from his dagger-induced sleep yet.
Elena is dealing with her own issues while all this is going on. Elijah, of course, demands an explanation of the meeting. Elena lies. Elijah wants desperately to believe this lie, that his mother could just be super into forgiveness, but his suspicion is only partially silenced.
He might have followed that suspicion to the truth, but Esther shows up to lead the champagne toast right about then. Although the champagne is red (blood!!!), everyone happily takes a sip. Actually, neither Elijah nor Elena — for different reasons — seems happy. But they drink.
The Aftermath of the Evening
Some fairly surprising events follow the great Mikaelsen ball:
- Caroline goes home and calls Tyler to say she wants him back. But then she finds another present from Klaus. It’s a truly lovely sketch of Caroline and the horse. She is, of course, touched.
- Elijah comforts his irritated mother, saying that he’ll take care of his siblings for her. Esther is touched by this and commends Elijah’s sense of responsibility.
- But responsibility isn’t enough. With Finn obviously in cahoots, Esther performs the rest of her binding-then-killing-her-children spell by dripping blood all over their names, forming a pretty blood tree of death.
- Damon being rejected and such, it’s Stefan who sees Elena home. Despite his general horribleness of late, Elena still wants her boyfriend back, going so far as to practically jump the boy on the Porch O’ Love. But Stefan still isn’t interested in feeling anything — because it hurts — and rejects her advances. And once again, Elena stands alone in front of her door.
- At the Grill, Matt mopes about his broken hand (and lack of health insurance), not even accepting Rebekah’s apologetic drink offer.
- But at least Rebekah can turn to Damon, who is happy to pour shots. Damon, still in self-destruct mode, points out that Rebekah would just break Matt.
- So Damon and Rebekah have sex. Crazy, clothes-ripping vampire sex. It is, I’m sorry to say, kind of totally hot.
Are we ready for yet another ‘ship? It looks like we may have to be.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include Chuck, Modern Family, Supernatural, Mad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.
