So long, Little Bad of the Season (I guess that makes Katherine the Big Bad all along; wait, didn’t we start this all out with Silas and some angry witch?). Nadia, we hardly knew ye.
This was actually a touching and heartfelt goodbye, one of the few real deaths on this show that is going to stick, and that mattered. We got to know Nadia well enough to realize she wasn’t totally horrible, as far as vamps go. Sure she was old and strong, but she really cared for very human Matt and refused to hurt him despite Katherine’s many requests/orders. She only really wanted one thing, ever: to find her mother. A mother wholly unworthy of five centuries of such sadly misdirected love and devotion.
That Katherine realized this on Nadia’s deathbed (deathcouch, actually) is no surprise, because Katherine isn’t stupid. Just evil. How pathetic but true that in her dying delusions (Tyler bit her, but she was trying to hurt people he loved, so he’s not blamed) she was still looking for her mother, and also apologizing to the people that she hurt on the way to finding her. Like a sad, demented broken record. Before the final vampire death ossification came upon her, at least Katherine gave her one perfect psychic moment where her life never went astray, and of course in it she was a content child at home with her beautiful lookalike mother.
This group, having bonded over so much death mixed in with their immortality, is pretty formidable when they all get together. Poor pitiful Katherine knew the only way to get close to Stefan was to pretend to be Elena; and the gig was up when he found at she wasn’t. Seeing her realize they know, and then seeing them make out that she knows they know, was one of the delights of the episode.
But at least this time, for once, she doesn’t run. She tries, in her way, to save her daughter. And of course it’s Stefan who stabs her, sending her soul out of Elena’s body. Which makes me wonder what the Traveler spell to permanently lock her in was about, but whatever. He’s earned the role of executioner, from being the target of so many of her manipulations. Moreso than Damon, who would enjoy it too much, though being even more of a walking target.
Of course, that one act of bravery isn’t enough to atone for everything else she’s done, and apparently she doesn’t get a peaceful journey to limbo like other supernatural beings. Which is a pretty cool twist for later stories, really. But Nadia’s journey is over, and so is Dr. Maxfield’s, and now we’re back to Elena trying to deal with her vamp body again. She may also be a raving ripper, too, thanks to Katherine. But one thing at a time, show. This episode had enough to do. And did it pretty well.