This episode was basically a nostalgia episode. It had a bunch of old characters in it, and it took a look at Katherine's life through the ages. I'm not entirely sure what I think of some of the bigger decisions in this episode, but as far as the overall feel, I think it was a smart decision for the 100th episode to give us a lot of character bonding moments and have the whole gang be together. Let's take a look at the plot.
Honestly, there isn't much of a plot. Mostly it just consists of Katherine slowly dying in the Salvatore house, while everyone else drinks to her memory... or rather drinks in celebration that soon she will be no more. Everyone, that is, except for Stefan, who can't help but hope for Katherine to achieve peace in her final moments. And for a while it really does seem like Katherine's final moments. She seems ready to let go, even if Nadia, her daughter, does not. Nadia comes up with a plan to save Katherine, involving the Travelers. Katherine is going to use Nadia's body as a host, basically, and become a passenger in her body. In order to accomplish this, Nadia needs help from a Traveler. In order to get said help, she knocks out Matt, buries him alive, and then tells the group that she needs help to save Katherine. Elena and Stefan both come with Nadia so that Matt can be saved, while the others go out looking for Matt. Elena and Stefan, it turns out, were needed especially because they're doppelgangers. A group of Travelers take some of their blood and start chanting weird things. Nothing bad happens, but we don't know exactly what they were up to. At least, not yet...
So, while in the woods, Caroline runs into Klaus, who came to gloat over the dying Katherine. Caroline tells him to leave Katherine alone. Klaus agrees to do so, but only if Caroline admits her feelings to him. She does, and the two of them have sex in the woods. Rebekah, meanwhile, saves Matt.
The dying Katherine is reliving her worst memories, of losing her daughter and of her family being killed. Damon gets inside her head and tells her she deserves all of these terrible things, while later Stefan gets inside her head to tell her it isn't her fault. She also hallucinates Jenna, John, and Elijah. When Nadia shows up with the solution to Katherine's problems, she says no, that she's ready to die.
The group all sit around talking about all the bad things Katherine has done to them, and we get some cameos from Alaric and Vicky, because Bonnie is the anchor to the other side and she can communicate with them. Damon and Stefan have a broment (yay!) and Stefan tells Damon not to give up on Elena, just like he earlier told Elena not to give up on Damon. God, Stefan's a saint. And then Elena goes upstairs and offers her forgiveness to Katherine for everything that's happened. Katherine, on the verge of death, says thank you for her forgiveness, and then... goes ahead and freakin' possesses her body using the Traveler spell. Go Katherine.
I totally lied earlier, when I said that not a lot happened in this episode. I guess the reason I said that is that it all flowed so wonderfully and it felt like such a cohesive story. A lot of the things that happened were silly, indulgent, and very sentimental, but I found myself loving every moment of this nostalgic look at Katherine's life, and at the lives of everyone else in Mystic Falls. Let's start, as I usually do, with my problems with the episode.
First of all, the Traveler thing. What was that whole business with doppelganger blood? The Travelers have never been interesting to me, because their shenanigans always seem rather... secondary to the plots of the main characters. Now, obviously, we've got a Traveler spell involved quite heavily with our protagonist. Elena's body has been taken over! But even so, the Traveler scene with the chanting and the blood and all that... it was kind of strange and seemed totally useless to the episode.
And speaking of the Travelers, I've never, ever liked Nadia. She's not interesting. The whole idea of Katherine having a daughter and all that is... well, it's fine, but does anyone else get annoyed about how long they waited to introduce this idea? And Nadia herself basically has no personality other than being sort-of-evil-ish and really wanting to bond with her mother.
One other nitpick thing, just because I need to say it... when Elena and Stefan are with Nadia, Elena asks Nadia why she even cares about her mother, and one of her reasons is this: Katherine killed Nadia's boyfriend. I sort of wished Caroline had been there to roll her eyes and slap some sense into Elena. Elena's boyfriend Damon has killed Jeremy, threatened to kill Elena more times than I can count, and slept with Elena's mom. Among a lot of other things. And, I mean, yeah. Damon has quite the redemption arc, so we get, as an audience, that we're supposed to forgive him. But is Damon actually any worse than Katherine? Probably not. All of the characters in this show (well, most of them) have done pretty heinous things, and yet Damon is not punished by the narrative nearly as much as Katherine is. This is just a small complaint, really, but I felt like I had do say it.
But mostly, this episode was beautifully sappy and just what I wanted out of this show. Let's list some of my favorite parts.
- Stefan and Damon broment! Yes! You all know I'm a sucker for these, and the moment where they talk about Elena was really sweet. Stefan is, as I mentioned a bit earlier, a total saint. I just love the idea that Damon needs Elena, and Stefan recognizes that, and against everything you might expect, he accepts it.
- Klaus and Caroline! Klaroline! I was never the number one shipper for this pair, but I'll admit it was a long time coming, and I'm glad some resolution was finally made. However, what does this mean for Caroline's future? Tyler is back now... we'll have to see how that goes!
- Speaking of Tyler, is anyone else just delighted that he was there as a "goodbye present" from Rebekah to Matt? I want more of this bromance, and I want it now. Even though we only see Rebekah for a second, the look on Matt's face upon seeing her was still really sweet.
- Just... you know what... all of the cameos. Seeing Jenna, and John, and VICKY and Alaric... oh man, that was awesome. Especially Alaric. I love him. Can they just... find a way to bring him back permanently? And yeah, I fully admit that the final scene where they're all sitting around, and Tyler comes in, and then Vicky and Rick are there... it's sappy as hell. But I don't care, it's still fantastic.
- Our journey through Katherine's past. As I was complaining about earlier, Katherine is treated as more of a villain than Damon is, or Elena or Stefan for that matter. But here, we got to see a lot of what motivates her character, going back to the very beginning, before she was even a vampire. I mean, she's got suspiciously well-sculpted eyebrows for a thirteenth-century girl, but I'll let it pass. :) Honestly, as bad as Katherine is, and as many terrible things as she's done, she's a person. She isn't just insane, she's been through a lot. This episode did a good job of showing us that.
- Elena and Stefan's conversation. The whole blood-letting Traveler thing was nonsense, but at least it gave our poor Stefan and Elena a chance to have a talk. Stefan is... as I may have.... mentioned... a saint. He tells Elena not to give up on Damon, just like she never gave up on him. Wow what a darling sweetheart. I adore him. It seems like they're going to be okay, all things considered. I'm glad they're not stretching out the bitterness too much. That would be a shame.
I could keep going, but that's all the important stuff. I'll leave off with a thought. Most of this episode seemed to be setting up a rather compelling idea - maybe the whole Doppelganger destiny thing is true, but it's going to be Katherine and Stefan, instead of Elena and Stefan. Right? So, that would make sense. But after an entire episode where we build up reasons for Katherine's behavior and maybe make an argument that she can be forgiven... we have her do a terrible, terrible thing and take over Elena's body. What? What are we supposed to make of that? I'll be pretty disgusted with Stefan if he can forgive Katherine for this. Then again, all of these characters have arguably done a lot worse, haven't they? Sigh. This show does things to me.
7.5/10
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