by Dianna Berrian
Most people at bus stops tend to avoid making eye contact and stay silent while they wait for the bus to show up. But not Silas. Nope. Silas will give you his life story about how he fell in love but cheated on someone else in the process only for it to all blow up in his face 2000 years later. And where has it left him? “Now my neck hurts, my soul is crushed, I’m sitting at a bus stop in friggin Delaware – ” Actually, you’re in Philly. “Philly? That’s even worse.” And as payment for this correction, he treats the male half of the couple he was entertaining to an untimely death by liquifying his organs. Instead of making a real effort to stop him, the Juliet to this poor Romeo runs off. Just like a woman, eh Silas?
Next stop, Mystic Falls, Virigina where Stefan is having nightmares about Silas condemning him to a summer of torturous drowning. A vision of Elena pulling the curtains open to let the sun in becomes real and he’s awoken by her “rise and shining”. What’s with the peppy wakeup call? She just misses him and feels like she lost a friend since he lost his memories. So she wants to start fresh. Uh…oh did he not tell you? Stefan remembers now. He tells her Tessa undid the spell and she hugs him, all ecstatic-like. A…wkward. And later, just to be sure it’s not a hoax, Damon quizzes him on his human life and he passes with flying colors. But Amara wants a little attention and starts banging on the walls so Damon and Elena take Stefan on a field trip to meet the schizo. She’s running around the room yelling at phantom voices as per usual, “I said I don’t know! Leave me alone!”
Upstairs, Jeremy finds Bonnie staring wistfully out a window. She’s beginning to prepare for the worst, wondering what’ll happen if she dies and the “Other Side” is destroyed. But Jeremy refuses to hear it and has three things to tell her. First, “this is not a goodbye”. Second, “Thank you for giving your life up for me.” But Bonnie stops him after that. She doesn’t want to hear the third and says he has to save it for another time otherwise there may not be another time. Sure that’s logic. No, I know. It’s supposed to be romanticizing death and that they might be apart. Just let me be sarcastic.
Over at Dexter’s Lab – sorry, I mean Dr. Maxfield’s lab, Katherine is still waiting to find out whats wrong with her. He did a full workup on her blood but everything came back clean. Prognosis? She’s aging. Um, duh! Now that she’s human, her 600 years as a vampire are catching up with her and life is running its course quicker than normal. How quick, you ask? Well, by Maxfield’s calculations, she has a few months left to live. SAY IT AIN’T SO!
As Silas contemplates how the wheels on the bus go round and round, he gets a phone call from Damon wondering where he is. You’re out past your curfew, Silas! Oh, and Amara needs to die so could you like, speed it up with the whole saving Bonnie thing? Except Silas is all, yeah…about that: “The idea of jeopardizing your relationship brings me this perverse amount of joy.” So because he wants Damon to suffer and Elena to inevitably go back to Stefan, as the universe wills it, he’s not going to help. But really, did any of us expect him to keep to his end of the bargain?
It seems Caroline is finally starting to wonder where her hunky study partner has gone to. While she’s leaving Jesse a very worried voicemail, she gets interrupted by a familiar voice calling her pathetic. No, it’s not Katherine. Just her daughter, Nadia which Katherine passes off as her stylist in order to avoid the whole “oh my god you have a daughter?” conversation. And peaking of avoidance, Nadia wants to know why Katherine’s been avoiding her. It’s like she abandoned her all over again. Whoa. Hold up. “First off, I never abandoned you. You were snatched out of my arms by my father because he thought I was a knocked up slut.” I may have paraphrased but you get the picture. She does a song and dance about how she doesn’t care about Nadia and how it’s been 500 years, why start a relationship now? Clearly she’s brushing her off because she knows she’s about to die and wants to spare her the loss. Cliché but understandable. Time for Caroline to interrupt this awkward lunch: “You, with the doppleganger blood? Duty calls.”
Since Silas is refusing to resurrect Bonnie, Elena says they need to buy more time before Amara dies, unwilling to let Silas near her until he brings Bonnie back. But Stefan doesn’t quite agree: “Silas needs to die and he needs to be the one to kill him. End of story.” And while this is spurring a minor argument, Amara is busy toiling away trying to break her binds. Good ol’ Jeremy checks in on her to bring her her dinner, with his faithful ghost sidekick. Hey, wait, Amara knows Jeremy. She never forgets a face. He’s the hunter, the one that Silas killed. He confirms and adds that he came back to life, sparking her interest. It was Bonnie, wasn’t it? Wait. She can see Bonnie? Apparently, she can see all the people on the “Other Side”. Eager as ever, Jeremy calls a house meeting and tells the gang of this newfound information. Amara can see and touch Bonnie (ew) because she exists in both places at once – the living side and the “Other Side.” And thus, a plot is hatched. What if Bonnie could be the same thing – the anchor? All they need is someone to make the spell. Who you gonna call? No, not Ghostbusters you bananaheads. Qetsiyah!
While Damon runs off to find the psycho witch in question, Stefan and Elena share a moment where she questions his intention to kill Silas. Isn’t it, like, bad luck or something to kill your doppleganger? She spins a lovely speech about how going down the revenge road isn’t worth it. And that’s when he begins to tell her about his time drowning in the safe and how each and every time he died, in that space between death and coming back to life, he would fill his mind with happy visions to keep from turning off his humanity. But every time he died, the pain made it harder and harder. And, now, every time he closes his eyes he sees Silas stabbing him, and sees himself drowning. In a nutshell, Stefan feels if he doesn’t kill Silas, he’s gonna go crazypants or ripper. Or maybe both.
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Damon at Qetsiyah’s door with a plan and a volunteering candidate for a new magical anchor. In order to do the spell, she needs a massive amount of power for the transfer. Something like a full moon or a comet. (Get the references?) But since they’re short of those, they go with something in ample supply – dopplegangers. He takes her to where they’ve locked Amara up and leaves them in the room together. Hey, no one accused Damon of being the smart brother. Qetsiyah relishes the moment to look upon the tortured shell of the girl who ruined her life. She even gets Amara to apologize for taking Silas from her. “My sin was falling in love and I’ve learned my lesson…You win…Now please kill me.” And she will, after she performs the spell so that she and Silas will never be together because she’s just a human and Silas is a witch so he’ll be stuck on the “Other Side” while Amara passes on. *Note to any guys thinking about cheating on their girlfriends: Please be sure she’s not a witch who will hold a 2000 year long grudge first.*
As promised, Caroline delivers Katherine to the boarding house to take part in the anchor transfer spell. But Katherine won’t do it for free. She bargains with Qetsiyah that she’ll only help with the spell if she promises to find a way to keep her from dying. Qetsiyah says yes. Psh. Liar. Now all three dopplegangers are standing around the table with Qetsiyah – how fun is that to watch, Nina Dobrev? – looking down at Bonnie’s grimoire. It’s a talisman since Bonnie can’t be there. Qetsiyah takes blood from each of their palms and it drips onto the page then forms a triquetra. I guess it called to Bonnie because she appears in her ghostly form as Qetsiyah begins to chant. Bonnie’s ghost appears. But suddenly the flames go out and the spell gets interrupted by a freak storm and bursting lightbulbs which I can only assume is…yep, it’s Silas. He kills the electricity in the whole house and once they manage to see through the darkness they find Amara and Qetsiyah have gone missing. Qetsiyah greets Silas in the great room of the boarding house and starts hurling inanimate objects at him as they bicker. He gets the last word and throws the iron fire poker into her shoulder, pinning her to the railing behind her. Not the best timing for his phone to go off with Stefan informing him he has Amara just beyond the property line. He gives him 10 minutes to come find her before he takes her away and keeps her as far as possible while everyone else hunts Silas down like an animal. Ooh, Stefan you so sassy. Me likey.
While Caroline lends a helping hand to Katherine’s nonstop bleeding one – by the way, she chokes up the vamp’s blood, unable to heal from it as a miserable side effect to her condition – Elena finds Tessa and tells her to man up so they can finish the spell.
Silas finds Amara where Stefan left her and unties her for a teary reunion. She tells him she loved him, and still does, but can’t live any longer. Understanding, he utters a heartfelt “I love you” and takes his knife out. Uh oh… He hesitates for a moment, his tears and emotions getting in the way, but finally he begins to cut her throat only for his doppleganger to whoosh in and slam him into a tree: “Do you remember me? I remember you.” Stefan’s threat soon falls short as Silas uses his power to bring Stefan to his knees in pain, allowing Amara time to untie herself so they can finish the job and die their Shakespearean deaths. Except Stefan breaks through the pain to grab the knife and fatally stab Silas, killing him instantly. Amara jolts in pain, and we’re not really sure why but a later explanation might be a clue, but for now we’ll just say it was heartbreak. And completing the Romeo and Juliet parallel, she pulls the knife from his chest and stabs it into her gut. All the while Qetsiyah is inside, continuing the spell. Having a bad feeling, Elena makes Damon go find Stefan. And he shows up coincidentally at the exact moment when Amara stabbed herself. He bites his wrist to try to heal her but she has the Katherine disease so it doesn’t work. He desperately tries to keep her awake but she’s dying.
And inside, Bonnie approaches Jeremy to say goodbye. She tells him Amara is dying, and even though Qetsiyah is doing the spell, it may be too late. She asks him to tell her the third thing, the inevitable, “I love you” profession, and returns it with an “I love you too”. On instinct, he reaches to touch her cheek, stunned when he can actually feel her. Oh em gee, the spell actually worked. Qetsiyah, you did something right for once. Further proving the theory, Elena can now see her and even Caroline’s in shock: “Oh my god, oh my god! And we can be roommates because we have that extra bed and we can clear out half the closet!” Oh come on. Try and tell me this girl isn’t adorable?
Bonnie and Jeremy get all lovey dovey again once they’re alone, hand holding and kissing in front of the fire. And Jeremy’s all, “I’m never gonna let you go again.” Why is he such a cheeseball this season?
Katherine, on the other hand, goes to Qetsiyah to see to it that she makes good on their deal. And, of course, she’s not because “altering someone’s life span is what started this in the first place.” Truth. That’s when Katherine notices Qetsiyah’s standing in a puddle of blood, bleeding out from her slit wrists. Oh well that’s just great! She wanted to die to be with Silas on the “Other Side”, and die she does with some pretty epic last words: “True love prevails, univer be damned.” In a matter of moments her ghost appears to Bonnie. By the way, she forgot to mention that as magical anchor she’ll be forced to feel every death of every supernatural being that passes through her to the “Other Side.” And it’s gonna hurt like a bitch. Ugh. Good riddance, you psycho.
Stefan’s outside burying his demons with Silas’ body when Elena shows up to ask if he’s okay now. Her guilt over having the summer of her dreams is pretty much killing her inside so she just wants to know that he’ll be okay. Honest truth Elena? Stefan wanted it to be her that rescued him. Her and Damon. Put that in your guilt pipe and smoke it!
Inside, Caroline informs a defeated Katherine that she has to kick her out of the dorm room since Bonnie is back. Cherry on top of a horrible day. As if that weren’t enough, Nadia returns for a farewell. She’s headed back to Prague and she wants Katherine to join her so they could go back to Bulgaria, retrace their lives and be a real mother and daughter. (Cue Caroline’s OMG) But Katherine continues belittling her dreams, calling it a twisted fantasy. “I’m doing you a favor. I can’t be there for you. So take a good look. Because you are never going to see me again.” Sob! They can’t kill my Katherine! A part of me wishes that, as Katherine’s daughter, Nadia would be smart enough to know when something’s up. And maybe she will and we’ll see in the next episode. But I’m not giving up on Katherine Pierce the survivor just yet. Long live the queen!
Stefan finishes burying Silas and starts having the terrorizing flashbacks again, slowly going a little apeshit. Not gonna lie, I definitely thought that Silas was going to jump up and yell, “surprise!” at that moment but he did not. I still think there’s unfinished business there. Poor Stefan is just a wreck and all he can utter out breathlessly is, “it’s supposed to be over…” It never is, Stefan. It never is.
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