On tonight’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, Bonnie gets a visit and a warning from her grandmother concerning the Other Side. Damon continues to pine over Elena. The Travelers and their leader descend on Mystic Falls. Stefan and Elena get a glimpse of what could have been.
Enzo and Damon are playing pool and clucking like hens about Damon’s now defunct love life. Enzo’s situation isn’t much better since the Travelers incinerated themselves before making good on their promise to tell him where his long lost love Maggie is. I neither saw Sloan go up in smoke nor pass through Bonnie, so her whereabouts must be unknown.
When Elena Met Stefan
Elena is having visions of a meet-cute between herself and Stefan and the beginning stages of a romance that doesn’t, in the slightest, resemble their actual relationship. The Travelers mojo could be creating or revealing some parallel/alternate chick flick universe where our destined doppelgangers date just like everyone else. For added fun, she blacks out during these episodes. Caroline has been made aware of the current situation who thinks it has something to do with Elena’s recent break up. Elena thinks there’s more to what she’s experiencing than that because, in these dreams, her parents are alive.
Stefan calls gal pal Caroline and tells her he nearly got mowed down by a car because he had wandered into the road having a vision about Elena. Now Caroline realizes something’s rotten in the town of Mystic Falls (and Whitmore College).
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Someone Broke On Through the Other Side
Bonnie’s having actual relationship issues in the form of an inattentive boyfriend. She says she’ll continue to go stalker on him until he calls her.
Bonnie gets a visit from her grandmother who heard through the Other Side grapevine, that Bonnie had heavy Traveler traffic. Something’s amiss in purgatory and the witches–Gram must be back in their good graces–believe the Travelers were trying to overwhelm Bonnie, so somebody could get past her. This person is obviously Markos, and his shenanigans have the Other Side all out of sorts.
The Long, Winding Road
Before Liv puts her faith in the “Three Stooges,” she skewers them to make sure that they aren’t harboring any passengers. Once Jeremy, Matt and Tyler are deemed somewhat trustworthy Liv explains her coven has been tracking the nomadic Travelers for thousands of years. She says there have been a few times that they’ve stopped to gather. They are a stealthy bunch, using the bodies of others so nobody will notice their presence. Liv thinks they’re currently body snatching residents of Mystic Falls, which they are. I’m waiting for an “ah, ha!” moment for when this makes sense. How do the witches know about the gatherings if no one has ever noticed? And, how many of these Travelers are there that they can’t find a deserted stretch of land anywhere in the world to have a con fab, or that there presence in a big enough city would arouse any suspicion. Why do they have to meet in small towns? Not getting this whole thing at all. And BTW, Sheriff Forbes is now occupied.
Liv and Learn
Caroline calls Damon to break the news of the last remaining doppelgangers’ visions. This could be Damon’s biggest fear:the universe is playing matchmaker. Enzo jumps to the pervy conclusion that Elena and Stefan are having sex dreams about one another, but Caroline makes it clear they are much more PG-13 in nature.
Bonnie decides to go to Jeremy for help. He’s cagey when he opens the door, and she’s clearly annoyed at the brush off, but she tells him about her conversation with her Grams. They’re interrupted by Liv which really doesn’t go over well. Liv tries to come up with a lame excuse, but Bonnie doesn’t trust the Katherine Heigl look-a-like. Bonnie wants to know what’s going on, but Jeremy won’t show and tell. He just says she’ll have to trust him.
After a cranky Bonnie departs (no kiss), Jeremy tells Liv he didn’t want to keep any secrets. She says secrecy is imperative when trying to sneak up on the Travelers.
I See Dead People
After Caroline expresses some concern about her mom going MIA, Matt heads to the sheriff’s office to snoop around. He calls Tyler and tells him to bring the Traveler knife. Never, ever talk on the phone with your back to an open door, Matt. That’s espionage 101. The sheriff hears the tail end of Matt’s conversation and takes a keen interest in the knife part. The end result: Matt getting some use out of the Gilbert Ring.
He runs into Bonnie and tells her that the sheriff’s in trouble, and she should tell Jeremy. He crosses over and runs into a blast from the past, Kol Mikaelson. Matt questions why he can see Kol since the point of the place is for all the inhabitants to exist in solitude. According to Kol, the place is unraveling thanks to Markos’ escape.
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Written in the Stars
Caroline and Elena show up at Damon’s and the ex-couple awkwardly try to navigate the waters of their new relationship as “friends.” Damon isn’t taking the news of dream Elena and Stefan’s bliss well, at all.
Disembark
Tyler has a less bloody conversation with the sheriff than Matt, but Tyler tests her and she fails, so he stabs her with the knife. Caroline gives her vampire blood, and the sheriff comes to good as new.
Just a Traveling Man
Luke shows up at Damon”s place but makes it clear he can’t stop Elena and Stefan’s visions. Damon questions why Luke is even there. He says he needs their help to find them and their leader Markos. He thinks Elena and Stefan’s visions are the key.
The next vision provides Elena with an address. Enzo and Damon follow up on her lead and find themselves in the presence of Markos. He’s all tall, dark and diabolical looking. Damon’s full of questions. He wants to know why Markos is in Mystic Falls, what he wants and why the doppelgangers are having visions of one another. Markos responds the first two are complicated, but the third is easy. He’s responsible for the visions.
Damon and Markos decide to do a walk and talk. Qetsiyah and Silas come up, as they have had a tendency to do over the last two seasons. Markos says their immortality spell caused a schism in the community allowing for the rise of the witches. He claims the witches keep the Travelers scattered, trying to make them forget how powerful they can be. The witches put a curse on the Travelers preventing them from settling as a tribe. Every time they would try, disaster struck, something catastrophic that wiped them out. The exact role the doppelgangers’ blood plays is still unclear, but Markos assures Damon that the Travelers are not his enemy, and to prove it, he’ll stop the visions. They’re just glorified locator spells anyway.
It was Nice While it Lasted
The visions might be over, but Elena and Stefan both feel some sense of loss for the domestic perfection that was never meant to be. Leave it to Stefan to find an upside. What they had was real, they fell in love on their own, not as the result of a spell or prophecy. Plus, that couple, would not have made it past the first season.
The Messenger
Matt wanders around the Other Side looking for his sister. Like Kol, she tells him something is wrong and urges him to get back to his body ASAP. He says he won’t leave her and insists she take his hand. They get separated and she’s sucked up into the sky, Katherine style.
Kol pleads with Matt to go back and fix what’s going on in purgatory. Matt tells Kol that he won’t remember once he goes back, and Kol tells him to find a way.
Delena is Deleted
Elena and Stefan can profess their undying love for each other and remain friends. While Elena wants Damon in her life, he’s not interested in the F-word. He’d rather shut her out completely. No Facebook friends, no tweets, complete radio silence. She reluctantly agrees.
Expect the Unexpected
Now Tyler’s been body snatched making him even less likable. He hands over what was the only Traveler’s knife to Markos who throws it into the fire.
This episode was Tim Burton meets original Alice In Wonderland. It was befuddling on a number of levels. The only thing that is certain is that the rest of the season looks to be utterly unpredictable. Unless this is all in the books, in which case that doesn’t count.
The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8 pm on the CW.
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(Image courtesy of 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.
