What a strange sort of reflective episode for this show. I’m very much enjoying this off-concept season. Rather than just endless spells aimed at keeping Damon and Elena apart, it’s a more ensemble cast again that all get their moments in the spotlight, including finally utilized newer players like Liv, Luke and Josette. Sadly, they send Alaric out of town this week, which means Jo is in soon back in trouble than again, thanks of course to Damon.
But even worse, Sherriff Forbes is in the worst trouble of all, as not only is she dying of cancer, but now it’s going to happen at super-speed because Caroline impulsively gave her a glass of vampire blood as a cure. Guess what, Care Bear, that only works on minor cuts and punctures and car wrecks. Cancer is an altogether different ailment (the show basically treats it as bad mojo that vamp blood intensifies rather than cures, which is so like this show).
Caroline realizes this when her test subject shows up in horrible pain and enters her mother’s house without an invite (which means she also figures out that Liz has signed over the deed, which is actually a pretty dumb move in Mystic Falls; never give up the human house protection clause until the last minute, they should have put it in trust for Matt or something). While Caroline is crushed by all this bad news, she remains resilient and doesn’t freak out too much, not when Damon provides his usual final solution and rips out her guinea pig’s heart, and not while Stefan is there proving he actually does care.
I’m not getting why the vamps are compelling doctors all over the hospital to help Liz (who has a heart attack at one point), because wouldn’t they do their best anyway?
In more bad news, Damon frees Kai on the condition that he siphon off the magic blood from Liz (after a transfusion doesn’t help), which powers him up enough to take on Josette finally in their family’s sick twin-bonding ritual (there can be only one!). Luke refuses to fight Liv, but decides to fight Kai, who after his time in Not 1994 remains the same age and presumably power level. Poor Luke, always a gambler.
One thing I don’t recall is a lot of angst from Elena, who wasn’t really the focus of the episode, and of course Bonnie is as off-canvas as Matt and Jeremy. But that’s okay, because apparently next week Elena realizes Bonnie has gotten suicidal in Not 1994. This week, Liz survives, awakening after a horrible dream which reminded her forcefully that her daughter is now a vampire. Hard to tell what that meant, but I’d rather be confused than put up with Enzo for another week, so there’s that.