The opening scene of “Prayer for the Dying” felt like a horror movie: Nighttime. A beautiful blonde hears a crash downstairs. She goes to investigate. The tension rises. And she discovers the true horror: not a monster, which she could totally take with one hand tied behind her back, but something much more disturbing. The brutal truth.
Last week, it was obvious to everyone but Caroline and Stefan that Caroline’s plan to save her mother was poorly thought-out. This week, even Elena questioned it. But Caroline was desperate. Her mom was dying, and her mom is, frankly, awesome. Why wouldn’t she be an over-eager control freak about the whole thing? Over-eager control freak is Caroline’s default setting. That’s just one more trait that Caroline gets from her mom, who—after a near-death scare—came back to the world after a brief hallucination that emphasized how much Caroline the vampire still needs her mom.
This storyline continues to break my heart to the degree that it’s hard to write about. I like Caroline and her mom—and their relationship—so much that I can’t bear the idea of Liz Forbes dying, and I almost want her to just die so I can stop feeling so sad during these episodes. But this sort of personal, non-supernatural problem does give TVD a gravitas that some of its other storylines lack.
Like, for instance, the Liv/Luke/Jo/Kai coven merger. After numerous shenanigans on the part of Damon (acting both selflessly and selfishly as always), Papa Gemini, and a reawakened Kai, the twin-merge finally happened. Luke, TVD’s first gay character, sacrificed himself to save his sister. Kai won, and now has massive magical superpowers to go with his particularly evil brand of psychopathy.
Or…does he? Sure, the powers seem to be a given (although I wonder if Papa Gemini could be of any use). But Papa said the merge wasn’t just about one twin gaining the other’s magical powers. The winner also takes on characteristics of the loser. Does that mean Kai might develop a conscience? Perhaps enough to help rescue Bonnie?
Bites & Pieces:
• Watching this episode, I was occasionally overwhelmed by how very beautiful Jo is. Alaric is one lucky, and sadly absent, character.
• I was also overwhelmed by how much Candice Accola and Marguerite McIntyre look like each other.
• Weird thing: both Kai and Damon referred to their actions as “hail marys.” Superbowl reference, or dialogue that could have used one more edit?
• Oh, Damon and Elena are together again. Shippers rejoice!
Three out of four Hail Marys.
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
As much as I love Caroline and her mom, and I do, I'm feeling weirdly detached about this story line. Maybe I was just too traumatized by Buffy season five.
ReplyDeleteI've never cared much about Luke as a character, but then he found a courageous way to save both of his sisters, and it sort of made me like him just as he was being written out. I assume he is? Dead characters are still walking around on TVD, after all.
Alaric should have been in this episode.
I'd just like to point out that Luke is not TVD's first gay character. Caroline's father, Bill Forbes, was its first gay character.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I agree that the cancer storyline gives that part of the story an emotional centre that I personally have felt was largely absent from TVD for more than one season now.
As for Luke, I thought he was alright, but I will say he was a fucking badass about how he approached Kai in this episode and he died trying to save his sister.