The Vampire Diaries: Woke Up With a Monster (6x11)

There wasn't any Damon and Stefan interaction in this episode, which makes me sad. But overall, the episode was pretty decent, which makes me happy! Let's dive in.

So. Kai has kidnapped Elena and taken her to the Grill. Elena is horrified by Kai's sociopathic behavior. It turns out that Kai wants to practice his magic on Elena to get ready for his merge with Jo. At one point, Kai takes Elena to the school, and performs all sorts of nasty, torturous spells on her. One of these spells has the unfortunate consequence of burning her ring off of her finger, so even if Elena could escape, she'd be without protection from the sun. She does manage to get a call to Damon to tell him that she's been kidnapped.

Meanwhile, at the Salvatore house, Jo is getting trained on her magic by Liv, who wants to help her get stronger before the next celestial event. Jo isn't very good though, and Liv worries that it might be hopeless. Luke doesn't even know what Liv is up to - he wants to do his duty and merge, and Liv knows he won't be happy to find her training Jo. Damon needs Liv's help to get Elena out of Kai's grasp, but Liv is worried that Kai will just kill her on sight. The idea is to use a cloaking spell to sneak in. Only one problem - Luke finds out and comes to snatch Liv away before she can help Damon save Elena.

It's Jo to the rescue! Jo says that she can help Damon sneak in. Alaric is hesitant, but Jo is determined. She manages to cloak them and get them into the school. They find Elena, but Jo has a lot more trouble cloaking three people instead of just two, and her magic wears out. Kai attacks! Damon throws a stake at Kai and it hits him, but it turns out that Kai used his magic to perform an illusion, and Damon actually hit Elena instead. Kai has Jo in his grasp and it looks like all is lost, but then Jeremy shows up with his trusty crossbow and takes Kai down. They now have him as their captive once again.

Liv talks to Luke about their merge, and Liv says that she knows that Luke is stronger than her - if they merge, Liv will die. Liv is falling in love with Tyler, and she doesn't want to leave this world. Luke decides to say screw it to destiny - he doesn't want any part of the Gemini Coven if it means he has to kill his sister. Damon and Elena seem to be getting closer, meanwhile, and Damon and Alaric talk about what a great woman Jo is.

While all of this is going on, Caroline and Stefan have their own separate plot. Caroline doesn't understand why she can't just give her mom vampire blood to cure her cancer, but for now, Liz wants to trust in medicine to cure her. Caroline goes to get a second opinion from a renowned expert in her mom's condition. Stefan decides to tag along to Duke University, because his relative, Sarah Salvatore, goes to school there, and he wants to check up on her. Caroline finds the doctor, and she says that there's nothing that anyone can do for her mother.

Caroline decides to take things into her own hands, and she gives her blood to another patient with a similar disease. It appears to work! Caroline is happy, and tells Stefan that her plan has worked. Stefan is skeptical, but she's happy for Caroline. The two share a moment that might be considered romantic. Caroline feeds blood to her mother, but at the same time, we see that the earlier cancer patient is dying because of Caroline's blood. Uh oh!

At Duke, before Caroline and Stefan go home, Stefan sees Sarah's art exhibit and looks fondly on. Enzo shows up, and he and Stefan talk about Sarah. Enzo says he'll back off and leave Sarah alone, but after Stefan leaves, we see that he has more sinister plans in the works.

Complaints? Why yes, I have them.

First of all, not even a mention of Bonnie in this one. So, that's annoying.

Secondly, Kai has been recaptured pretty darn quickly, don't you think? Why set him free to wreak havoc if they were going to catch him again so soon? Was the little detour with Elena getting kidnapped just an excuse to have a cute Delena reunion? What's the point?

Vampire blood can't cure cancer. Because... reasons? It can cure literally anything else but cancer. Why? That makes no sense! What a cheap way of creating drama. I was rolling my eyes at this, even as I knew that somehow, Caroline's plan would fail. I'm sad about Liz, sure, but it's a bit distracting to have this strange plot hole hovering in the middle of everything.

Also - I mean, I know that Caroline and Stefan had their own stuff going on, but shouldn't someone have called them to tell them that Elena had been kidnapped by a raging, murderous psychopath? It felt a little strange that nobody filled them in on what was going on, while they took their little road trip.

But I did like this episode overall, I must say. First of all, I like the idea of Liv trying to train Jo in order to save her own life, as well as her brother's. It's lovely to have a human character who actually values her own safety and protection. Elena used to be like that too - no matter how much she loved Stefan, she never wanted to be a vampire back in the early days. I'm glad that Liv is thinking of herself, and I'm also glad that Luke is willing to take the gamble with her. That was a nice moment of resolution for Luke's character, I felt.

Damon and Elena were pretty darn cute! I liked how Elena pretended to be dying just to freak Damon out. I mean, that's kind of crazy behavior, but somehow it worked for them. I think we'll see a lot more cuteness for them coming up, but I do hope that Elena eventually remembers her past with Damon. It will just never be the same until that happens.

I am loving Jo more and more as this show goes on. She's a worthy partner for Alaric - actually, she's too good for Alaric, but at least Rick knows it. Her bravery in facing Kai is really powerful, and I do hope she manages to defeat him. What will it do to Rick if Jo dies?! I don't even want to imagine. He's been through enough, don't you think?

Caroline and her mother. Their relationship is tugging at the heart strings. I'm guessing it's going to come down to a choice - either Liz dies, or she gets turned into a vampire too. Since this show has this whole thing about everybody being really young and hot, I kind of suspect that the character is getting killed off. It's a shame, though. I love Liz. She's like the only competent adult left in this world. In any case, Caroline and Liz had a lot of really powerful mother/daughter moments here. I loved Caroline's speech about how she wants her mom to live for her sake. That was so lovely. (Incidentally, it was also super cute that Damon came in to check on Liz. These two have always had this sort of friendship that never takes center stage, but is still really precious).

I'm excited to see what's going to happen with Enzo. His hatred of Stefan is so strange. I'll admit that I really want Damon to be forced into a position where he has to choose between Stefan and Enzo. We all know what he'd do.

Are Caroline and Stefan really going to be a thing? Steroline!!! OTP!!! I hope they aren't going to cop out on this. I think these two deserve to be happy.

I love Kai. He's such a maniacal villain. Sometimes it's fun to have a character who is just unambiguously evil. No real tragic back-story or psychological reasoning behind it. He's just crazy and wants to kill you. It's kind of refreshing, to be honest.

I think that's all I'll say. I did have my complaints, but there were still ultimately more good things than bad about this episode. Here's to a great rest of the season!

7.5/10