On tonight’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, “Fade Into You,” Elena debates telling Liam the truth. Damon, Alaric and Stefan go to Oregon to look for the Gemini Coven. Kai tells Bonnie the details surrounding his banishment. A huge family secret is revealed.
Just in case there was any doubt about how creepy Kai is,TVD drives the point home with a flashback showing Kai stalking his own siblings, including an injured Jo. Back in the present past, he’s taken Bonnie against her will to Oregon, his old stomping grounds. Who knew their little alternate dimension was an empty world and not just Mystic Falls?
Friendsgiving
Caroline and Elena are hosting a “Friendsgiving” dinner, but they’re a little short on actual friends. Jeremy and Matt are in Mystic Falls presumably covering up Tripp’s death. Damon, Alaric and Stefan are on an impromptu road trip. Actually, Stefan didn’t even make the guest list.
Alaric tells Elena that Bonnie is still alive. She questions why he didn’t speak up sooner, and Alaric says it’s because he honestly believed she died trying to get him out. The boys are in Portland, along with Bonnie’s magic-infused teddy bear. They are trying to make contact with the Gemini Coven and possibly get their hands on another Ascendant.
Alaric and Damon are pushing Stefan to date Caroline. He insists he doesn’t view her as more than a friend. Alaric and Damon can’t help but give him a hard time for being oblivious, and their teasing leads to an interesting discovery. What at first looks like an empty field, isn’t so empty after all. It’s simply cloaked. It’s also the exact place where Kai has taken Bonnie in their place and time.
In Mystic Falls, Jo, Liv, Tyler, Luke and surprisingly, Liam gather together. Conveniently, and I’m certain not coincidentally, Liam rechecked Elena’s miracle patient’s file, and all was well. Jo covered Elena’s ass. So, Liam’s feeling a tad sheepish. This saves Elena from having to make the agonizing choice of to tell or not to tell him about her being a vampire.
As I predicted, there is a connection between Jo and the twins. When Jo first meets Liv, she tells the witch she looks familiar, but Liv, in a foul humor, dismisses it as nothing.
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Hide and Seek
After Bonnie’s teddy bear, Ms. Cuddles, breaks the cloaking spell, Alaric recalls Jo saying that she put her own magic away for safekeeping. The clever boys deduce Bonnie did the same thing, and Damon knows why; to keep it from Kai.
After nobody answers the door at the now visible sprawling house, Damon tries to enter but can’t. This lets us know the occupants are alive and well. Stupidly, Alaric enters. These are witches so desperate to keep their existence a secret that they made the place invisible. But, Ric just walks right on inside. Rude and dumb.
Go Your Own Way
In 1994, Kai is cooking his version of Thanksgiving dinner for Bonnie. She’s desperate to rid herself of him and suggests they just split the world in two and stick to their respective halves. Kai agrees, which we know is crap, and says after dinner that Bonnie can leave of her own free will, in one piece and even take his car.
The Gemini Coven
Holy crap! Luke busts out some old video that he’s using to make a birthday present for Liv, and it turns out that Liv and Luke are Jo’s younger brother and sister. It turns out that Grams was a friend of Jo’s family and helped to put Kai away. Not only is Jo Kai’s sister, she’s his twin as well. The siblings break the news to Elena and Caroline about Kai being sent to a “prison world.”
All this talk of covens send Liam into a tailspin, so Caroline compels him to bugger off. Kai may have killed four of his siblings, but his real targets were Luke and Liv. As twins, they were destined to lead the coven. Why not Kai? Because he was born without his own powers, forced to draw it from others, and he was a freak. Mom and Dad decided to keep churning out kids until they struck gold with another set of twins.
Jo protected Luke and Liv with magic. Now they are set to lead their coven. This must be set to happen soon, which explains Liv’s crankiness. She’s putting a damper on Caroline’s attempt at a supernatural Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving feast.
Only it won’t be both Liv and Luke leading the coven. It’s tradition for the siblings to merge their powers, and the stronger of the two gets the other’s power and takes control while the weaker one dies. Pretty sick stuff.
Alaric finds pictures of Jo at the house, and Damon learns that she’s Kai’s sister. A man appears, and he asks if Damon has met Kai. The mystery man in question is Joshua Parker, Kai’s dad. The two shake hands and Joshua casts a spell that renders himself, Damon and the house invisible to Stefan and Ric once again. Joshua also does that nasty brain freeze juju on Damon.
Joshua questions Damon about Kai. Damon offers to give the man any info he wants in exchange for the Ascendant. Joshua tells Damon he would never give away the key to his son’s prison.
Damon’s getting the same information as the Whitmore/MF crew and then some. If Kai comes back, the first thing he’ll do is seek out his sister, steal her magic, and she’ll die. But, Jo hid her power, so there’s that caveat.
Even though Damon offers to kill Kai, Joshua obviously believes his son to be a much bigger threat than anything Damon can handle.
Alaric calls Jo to try and figure out a way around Joshua’s latest cloaking spell, and he’s forced to give her the 411. Stefan is on the phone with Elena, still pouting that he wasn’t invited to dinner.
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Coven Before Family
Jo warns Alaric that if Joshua suspects they are going to free Kai, he will retaliate. Meanwhile Joshua is casting a spell that hits Jo like a ton of bricks. Oh, and she has the Ascendant. All sorts of stuff happening simultaneously. One minute Joshua’s going on and on about how great his daughter is, and the next, he’s trying to murder her as a precautionary measure. Poor Ric, he cannot get a break with girlfriends.
Jo talks Stefan and Ric through breaking the spell and invites Stefan into the house. They stop Josh from taking out Damon, but the witch cloaks himself yet again. Talk about a one-trick pony.
Liam tries to help Jo with traditional medicine, but there’s no time. Elena is forced to go freaky face and give Jo her blood. Elena has no choice but to tell him she’s a vamp. Given her constant “It’s Complicated” status, she compels him to forget just about everything other than the fact they are co-workers.
Kai tells Bonnie how Jo tricked him and his daddy sent him away. Believing his sister and the coven had decided to let him proceed with the merge, but Kai couldn’t feel Jo’s magic. He didn’t think she could have hidden it until Bonnie pulled her fast one with the teddy bear. Kai has an epiphany and figures out that Jo’s magic is in the same knife he used to stab her on the fateful day in 1994. He retrieves it from inside an old tree stump. He’s got the Ascendant and magic. The only thing missing is a Bennett witch. Kai’s certain all he really needs is Bonnie’s blood, so he stabs her with the knife.
It’s All About the Bennett
With Joshua hidden, the boys having nothing else to do but head home. Damon still wants to use the Ascendant, but Ric says it’s off the table. He’s not going to risk Jo’s life. The downside to not being a vampire anymore is that Ric can be compelled to do something against his will.
Bonnie wakes up and Kai is gone, and the bastard took the car. Elena asks Damon to help her get her bestie back. And Tyler swears to protect Liv and Luke, mainly Liv, from her coven.
The most amazing part of the episode? The fact that Ric, Alaric and Stefan made it back to Virginia from Oregon so damn quickly.
The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8pm on the CW.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Jennifer has worked as a freelance writer in the entertainment field since 2012. In addition to currently writing feature articles for Screen Rant, Jennifer has contributed content ranging from recaps to listicles to reviews for BuddyTV, PopMatters, TVRage, TVOvermind, and Tell-Tale TV. Links to some of Jennifer’s reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.
