The Vampire Diaries: Fade Into You (6x08)

Okay so this show is confusing sometimes. And there are always these really complicated magical rituals and rules thrown in, and there's a serious problem with exposition overload, and all sorts of other things to complain about... but yet I still love it. Let's take a look at the plot of this episode.

Caroline decides to hold a "friendsgiving" dinner. Everyone is invited except for Stefan. At the dinner, Liam shows up and asks for Elena's forgiveness. Liv seems to be in a terrible mood, and Tyler wonders what's wrong. Luke shows a video of himself and Liv as babies, and Jo recognizes her voice in the video. She realizes that Liv and Luke are her siblings.

Jo then tells the story of her coven, the "Gemini Coven." Apparently, twins are meant to rule the coven. Jo and Kai were twins, but when the family realized how unstable Kai was, and how he took other people's magic, they realized that he couldn't lead them. Kai and Jo's parents kept having more kids until another set of twins was born. Kai, furious, killed four of their other siblings. But, Jo protected Liv and Luke and they managed to get away. Kai was then trapped by the rest of his coven in the purgatory where we've seen him with Damon and Bonnie.

Turns out, after the twins' 22nd birthday, they are supposed to merge together. The stronger twin absorbs the powers of the weaker, who then dies. Liv is of course upset about the prospect, but Tyler tells her that she shouldn't have to cave to family pressure. He vows to protect her.

At the dinner, Elena struggles with whether or not to tell Liam the truth about herself. She eventually does tell him, because she is forced to use her blood to save Jo's life (I'll get there in a second). She then decides that her life is already too complicated, so she compels Liam to forget about all the chaos of the dinner, and to forget that they ever even dated.

So, Stefan wasn't invited to the dinner, but he wasn't the only person not to attend: Damon and Alaric are also not there. The three of them go on a bit of a road trip to Portland to find "the Ascendant," which is the magical artifact used to release people from the 1994 Hell. Damon and the others are trying to get Bonnie back. At first when they show up nothing is there, but Bonnie's stuffed bear turns out to be the key - her magic unlocks the cloaking spell over the house. The three of them then get to meet Liv, Luke, Kai, and Jo's father, Joshua, who immediately takes Damon and then cloaks the property again, blocking it off from Alaric and Stefan.

Inside the house, Joshua is horrified to discover that Kai is trapped with a Bennett witch (turns out, it was Bonnie's grandmother who helped to trap Kai there years ago). This means that Kai might be able to escape! If he does, he will merge with Jo, who will inevitably die because of Kai's strength. Then, Kai will be the leader of the Gemini Coven. So, what's Joshua's solution to this? To kill Jo! He uses a spell which hurts Jo back at the "friendsgiving." Despite Liam's best efforts, Elena is forced to use her blood to save Jo.

Back in Mystic Falls, Elena and Damon have a talk. Elena says that she broke up with Liam, in part because of this strange lingering potential between her and Damon. She asks Damon if he'll help her get Bonnie back, because she could really use her best friend, so she can ask for her advice about Damon.

Meanwhile, Bonnie is forced to contemplate an eternity trapped in an empty world with only Kai for company. Kai promises to leave her alone if she'll only have one last meal with her. He has calculated that it is Thanksgiving out in the real world, even if they're stuck on this one day. Bonnie agrees. They go to Portland, and eat in Kai's house where he murdered his family. After the meal, Kai finds the knife where Jo hid her magic away so that Kai couldn't absorb it. He is able to absorb it through the knife. He figures he doesn't really need a Bennett witch to do the spell - he just needs Bennett blood. He then stabs Bonnie. When she wakes up, she finds out that Kai is gone, and has taken the car with him.

Problems? Well, like I said at the start of this review, this show has a frequent problem with too much exposition, and with creating new and convoluted story lines. The whole Gemini Coven thing is just... wow. Twins only? Absorbing powers? And now we're connecting Luke and Liv, who we've known for a while now, with Jo, who we only just met, and Kai, a new villain? Yikes. It's just a little convoluted.

There's also the whole thing with "friendsgiving." Why were Matt, Jeremy, and Liz not there? Caroline gave some flimsy excuse, but it didn't work so well. And isn't it a little weird that Jo was there without Rick? Jo doesn't really know anybody else except for Liam and Elena, and that's in her capacity as their boss, not as a friend. It just felt a little bit forced.

And why would Damon make Rick come along in the first place? Don't get me wrong, I think it's adorable that he couldn't wait one more day to track down possible leads on getting Bonnie back, but at the same time, why would he pull Alaric away from Jo on Thanksgiving?

However, these little quips mostly amount to annoyance with the flimsy construction of scenarios. What actually happened within those scenarios, I really enjoyed.

For starters, even if it is convoluted, I like the twist with Jo, Liv, and Luke. I mean, I knew from last episode that Jo was part of the Coven that Kai killed, but I hadn't connected the dots to Luke and Liv until I saw the little prelude to the episode, where we saw two blond twins hiding behind a bed while Kai went on his murderous rampage. It was a nice "aha!" moment for me when I saw that. Nicely done.

The idea that one twin has to die is a bit silly, but I do admire the daring here. Will they kill off Luke or Liv? Or will the twins' refusal to do the ritual result in a fight with the Coven? I liked the character of Joshua. He was pretty brutal, and took to an extreme the idea that the Coven came first, before his family. He was even willing to kill Jo to protect everyone from Kai.

One of the highlights of the episode was Elena's decision to break up with Liam. Even though compulsion is a terrible thing to do in general, it was still ultimately the mature choice in this scenario. She had to decide if she wanted to drag Liam in to this complicated and dangerous world, or if she wanted to try to give him a better life. It's interesting, because while she makes the right choice for Liam, she is struggling to make a decision about herself. I loved the conversation between Elena and Damon at the end. Damon was given that glimmer of hope that he needs to keep being a good person.

It's unbelievably adorable that Damon is going through all of this to try and rescue Bonnie. What he said to Elena about how Bonnie talked a lot, but she also listened, was really sweet. It's also sweet that he went on a road trip with his brother and Alaric, who he actually calls "brother" at one point in the episode. The three of them had a lot of goofy moments wherein Rick and Damon teased Stefan about Caroline. However, we ended on a darker note, as Damon compelled Rick to get The Ascendant from Jo, no matter what it takes. The fact that Damon would resort to compulsion like that just shows how far he's willing to go for Bonnie. It also shows that he's a moral relativist, and that even his best friend isn't safe from his mind games. (Although, Rick, buddy, you might want to get on vervaine. Like, stat.)

Okay, I'll leave it there. I'm scared for what's going to happen next. Will Kai get free? It seems inevitable. Will Bonnie come back? What will Rick do to get The Ascendant from Jo? Will Liv and Luke be forced to merge? Is Liam truly gone? Lots of interesting questions. Can't wait to find out more!

7/10