The Vampire Diaries “The Last Dance” 

I realize I’m late, but if it makes you feel better, I don’t get to watch the episode tonight until I finish this.

Most shows have a tell in their pacing. Smallville, for example, will often wrap the A plot around the 40-minute mark. The Vampire Diaries, on the other hand, goes hell for leather until the credits drop at the very last minute. So, the seemingly fatal blow to a core character, while powerful, carried less weight than it might’ve because it occurred around the 40-minute mark, so we knew that wasn’t all she wrote about that. That aside, it was another breathless outing that drew closer to the finale arc. Still no Tyler or Jenna, but the rest of the gang was all here.

As it happens in Mystic Falls, another shindig is brewing–this time a 60s era dance to follow the 50s dance we had last time. This begets groovy smocks for Elena and Bonnie and a Jackie Kennedy pillbox for Caroline. The real hook for the event is that Klaus-as-Alaric is happily baiting Elena out in the open by compelling one of her classmates to tease her rather shamelessly about a not-so-secret admirer named Klaus. This gets everybody’s attention fairly quick like.

Speaking of Klaus, when he’s not flirting with girls half his (Alaric’s) age and filling in (badly) to teach Alaric’s class, he’s busy compelling Katherine to repeatedly stab herself, and then leaving her to continue the task unsupervised. She begs him to end it and he promises that he’ll spend half as long as it took to find her killing her (250 years). It’s as gross as it sounds. His warlock also finally gets a name–Maddox.

On the Faux Compelling front, Liz strong arms Matt into taking Caroline to the dance and there’s some creepy interplay there when he comes to pick her up–he’s JFK and she’s Jackie in pink–behind Caroline’s back, Liz essentially gives him a “buck up, little camper”  nod. And I really can’t believe Caroline isn’t getting the vibe off Matt that he’s faking it.

Over at Operation Mojo, Elena is sharing her real estate news with Bonnie, who greets it with a practical, “I wouldn’t want to clean it.” Nor would I, sister. She’s still keeping it to herself that the spell to take down Klaus is likely going to finish her, and this is weighing heavily on Jeremy. Thankfully, Damon vamp snoops the news. Not so thankfully, Damon tells Stefan, who tells Elena, who freaks right the hell out.

At the dance, Klaus makes himself known, and then “Alaric”leads Bonnie and Elena away from the others, but as soon as he starts winding up his glee, Bonnie twigs that he’s Klaus and tells Elena to run. Meanwhile, Stefan has clued in Caroline. Bonnie spend a considerable amount of time snapping Alaric’s extremities as Klaus writhes in pain and tries to remind her it’s Alaric she’s damaging and she says he’d want Klaus stopped, whatever it took.

We get another round of Wiccan/Carrie pyrotechnics as Elena and Stefan are locked outside the room, and Bonnie gives Elena a level gaze before striking a master blow against Klaus that drops her like a stone. The doors release and Elena completely loses her mind over a limp Bonnie, begging Stefan to feed her but he says she’s gone (again, 20 minutes to go). Damon comes in and says he’ll dispose of her, and Elena snaps that this is a person they loved. This is a clue later when Damon gingerly carries her to the car vs. sack of potatoes-like as we’ve seen him dispatch victims before. Jeremy walks up just as he secrets her in the trunk and Damon says they have to talk.

And COMMERCIAL!

When we return, Elena is subdued and weepy and Damon comes in makes explanations and she smacks him before stalking away. Cut to the witchy manor, and Bonnie lies in the middle of a room lit by candles as Jeremy sits nearby. She wakes up and laughs and they hug happily that her spell worked. Jeremy sets down this week’s ad placement and offers that they may be stuck in the boonies but Internet isn’t negotiable. He flips the laptop around to face Bonnie and there’s Elena smiling back on NotSkype. The girls cry and make apologies.

Stefan confronts Damon about keeping Bonnie’s secret from him and he uses Elena as Exhibit A. Later, Damon is upstairs, and this is where I got really confused because I totally got a Katherine vibe off of Nina but I believe she’s supposed to be Elena. Anyhoo, she comes into Damon’s bedroom and apologizes for hitting him, and he tells her rather plainly that when the chips are down, it doesn’t matter who the alternate is, he’s always going to choose her. She doesn’t say anything as she leaves. We pick up with her downstairs, entering the dungeon of Elijah. She hesitates ever so slightly before she knees down next to him and with every ounce of strength she has (which would make her Elena), pulls the dagger from him. Discuss!

And Credits!

Despite the giveaway of the timing, the Bonnie fakeout was super powerful to me because of Elena’s reaction–they can take everything else away from her, and to some degree have, but if you take Bonnie away, her world is irreparable. Kudos to Nina and Katerina for really selling their bond. I agree completely with Tina’s comments on the dance scene. Ian Somerhalder would have chemistry with a fern. It was a lovely little light-ish moment before it a went to hell.

Seems like we got to the end of this season so quickly. Thanks so much for reading, ya’ll!