The Vampire Diaries: Gone Girl (5x15)

Yikes. Death happened. Real death. I sort of forgot that could even happen on this show, because it seems like people keep getting brought back to life or visiting from the other side or whatever. But yeah. Death and dying and such. Let's look at the plot.

Nadia is dying from Tyler's bite, and Katherine is determined to save her. She can't ask Klaus for help without outing herself, so she goes to Wes. Wes takes some of Nadia's blood and promises to try and find a solution. Meanwhile, the others try to figure out how to draw Katherine out without revealing that they know her secret. They try calling "Elena" and asking her to come over for various reasons, but of course Katherine is with Nadia and cannot leave. Katherine gets suspicious about why everyone's calling her, and so she tries calling Damon. When Damon tells her to come on over, Katherine's suspicions are confirmed: Damon wouldn't risk Elena's safety like that!

So, since their first plan didn't work out, the friends try something else. Bonnie and Jeremy track down Liv, the witch from Bonnie's school, to track down Elena using a locator spell. Liv does so, but also flirts with Jeremy, causing Bonnie to get jealous.

While Tyler is watching Damon in the cell, Damon pushes Tyler's buttons, causing him to come into the cell. Damon manages to bite Tyler, juice up, and break free. He goes to find Wes, asking for the antidote for his new vampire-craving virus. Wes doesn't hand it over, and Damon kills him. Of course Katherine, who had just left Nadia to check on Wes's progress, is distraught over the death of her daughter's last chance. When Stefan calls and tells Katherine that they have Nadia at the house, Katherine is forced to decide between saving her own skin and seeing her daughter one last time.

Katherine shows up, talks Nadia through her last few moments of life, and then turns to the crowd. She says goodbye to each of them, basically stating that she made everyone's life better, and refusing to apologize for all of her actions. She saves Stefan for last, kissing him and saying she's always loved him. Stefan stabs her. While Bonnie is lighting candles for her dad in the church, Katherine shows up to pass to the other side. She tells Bonnie that as a parting gift, she poisoned Elena with the same virus that's infecting Damon. When Katherine tries to pass over, it doesn't work. Bonnie is helpless to do anything as Katherine is dragged away by invisible forces, presumably to Hell.

Caroline tells Tyler she's done apologizing for sleeping with Klaus, citing the fact that lots of them have done horrible things, including Tyler - his werewolf bite did just kill someone, and he doesn't seem to care at all. Matt goes to bury Nadia. An anxious Stefan and Damon sit by, waiting for Elena to awake. She does, but she discovers the empty vial of the virus in her pocket.

So! Yeesh. As always, there's a lot to talk about... let's start with my few points of contention.

Firstly, I didn't really enjoy Nadia's flashback scenes. They felt a little heavy-handed, especially when she was saying all that stuff about Katherine being a liar and a bad person, right to Katherine's face. The point was a tad belabored, I think.

Liv flirting with Jeremy. Over the top, much? The writers need to give Bonnie her own story line, like, stat, and the best they can come up with his some witch girl starts hitting on Jeremy and being really obvious about it. That really annoys me.

Matt buries Nadia... okay, did anyone else feel like Nadia was forgiven all of her sins in death? She did some pretty messed up stuff to Matt, and Matt's all "she deserves better" and is sad that she's dead? I don't really think a bad relationship with her mother is enough to excuse Nadia's behavior. I guess I wish this bit had been handled with a bit more nuance.

But... there were a lot of good things going on, too!

Stefan and Damon. Stefan is still being a total saint. He tells Damon that it was Katherine who broke up with him, not Elena. And even though Elena might not forgive Damon for what happened, you'd better bet that Stefan won't stand in the way. What an amazing brother.

Elena's back! Finally. Thank you. You know, Elena's never been my number one favorite character on the show, but I was really missing her these past few weeks. Now we can sort out all this chaos with Damon and Stefan and Elena. I want to say "once and for all," but you know that's not going to be the case with this damn show.

Katherine got dragged to Hell! Dark! Very dark! I approve! It seems like such a fitting, depressing end for this character. Now I'm begging the writers - don't bring her back. Sometimes, it's okay to let characters go. And it's not as if Nina is leaving the show... just let her play Elena, for goodness' sake! Isn't that enough?

Caroline refusing to feel guilty anymore. You go, girl. This was one of my favorite things from the whole episode. Caroline points out that they've all done awful, awful things, and yet she's being held to a different standard than the rest of them. I was proud of her for pointing this out.

There you have it! Another week of The Vampire Diaries has gone by. Now, how are they going to save Elena and Damon from the virus?!

8/10