The Vampire Diaries 4.14 “Down the Rabbit Hole”

I can’t wrap my mind around this episode. And it’s Friday. I’ve had a week to process it, I’ve broken my rule before writing one of these and looked at other websites, and I still haven’t been able to watch it again. My mind was blown. This episode was so good, it eclipses everything that’s been going on all season.

Should I number the things that happen? And then explain them? Would that work?

1. Turns out, there’s only one cure. All the soul searching our Scooby fang gang has been doing, would you or wouldn’t you be human again, what do you say, character of the week? Now completely irrelevant, and everyone adjusts immediately to the new question. Who gets the one dose? It was intended for Silas, the petrified thing found under the mountain in Canada, to make him killable, but nobody but Kol remembers him or gives a crap about that plan. Funny thing is, not all of them are assholes about it.

2. Tyler leaves town. For good this time. Or else Klaus will behead him. But he won’t, if Carolyn stays and lets her doomed lover go. This makes Tyler look kind of a wussy, which is a hard thing for Michael Trevino to play, but the choice is one of survival or annihilation. Carolyn takes it hard, until Klaus makes her admit it to herself: she never wanted the cure for herself at all. She likes being a vampire.

3. Jeremy is killed. For real, maybe. Never mind the magic revival ring he always wears. And while it is Silas who snaps his neck (hey, we kind of get the exact same ending that happened to Downton Abbey this week, just substitute mummy vampire for errant lorry and there you are with the beautifully vacant staring eyes!), it’s really because of Katherine! Who shows up pretending to be Elena just in time to make off with the freaking cure! Poor Jeremy. But I’ve been waiting for Katie to show up all season. And it turns out, she’s been around for awhile, making sure things go her way with Vamp Stealthiness. The tricky bitch!

4. My favorite moment in the episode. Well, there are two:

4.a. When Elena finally sees Katie, the look on her face is one of annoyance and determination, no fear at all; if only her nascent vamp-abilities had the slightest chance against Katherine’s centuries of self-interest. She would put the witch down if she could, and she’s not going to stop working on it. Hell, she daggered Elijah and Rebekah and killed Kol. I’d tell Katherine to be wary, but she always is anyway.

4.b. When Klaus manages to get the message about the precious dose of cure to Rebekah, she doesn’t just try to take it for herself. She talks to Stefan about what he would do if he got it, and realizes he would use it to help Elena, which she just can’t allow. Because she wants it to kill Klaus, and that really is the higher goal. They’ve totally deepened Rebekah by fathoms since she finally got her 99 Luftbalons dance.

5. The way Tyler, Vampire Barbie and Klaus team up, sort of, to figure out the cryptex written in Aramaic on the hilt of the Slayer Sword is kind of fascinating and amusingly Nancy Drew/Giles all at the same time.

6. But Jeremy can’t really be dead, right? Isn’t Silas’s thing that he can revive everyone? Or was that just another lie, like Shane’s dead wife and the vision of Bonnie’s Grams this week? We don’t know yet, but we do mark that when Shade lies bleeding, his leg crushed by the earthquake/cave-in caused by Bonnie cracking open the path to the Tomb of Silas, Bonnie leaves him vulnerable and hurt without a glance back. That’s what you get for raising a real witch, idiot! Thanks for killing everyone who cared all season!

7. Oh yeah there’s a Slayer-y dude who has a lot of cool toys and tortures Damon in very painful ways for much of the episode, if you’re into that.