Hi Vamp Lovers!

So, what did you think of Thursday’s episode? I thought it was good, but pretty tame considering all of the things going on. A “filler episode” such as this often tends to occur when leading up to finales, and a lot of time was spent setting things up for the next episode. Also, there was no Caroline this week! This is the second time this season she has been MIA…it makes me sad. However, while it did drag and act as a set up episode, “I Alone,” did a very good job with pushing stories and people along.

We open the episode with date night featuring Alaric and Jo. Alaric has set up a nice and romantic evening filled with candles, which after a long day Jo is definitely not feeling. However, her sullen mood is nothing that Thai food and her own bottle of wine can’t fix. I love her. Her personality and drinking abilities make her a perfect companion for Alaric.

During the date, Alaric, who is still under Damon’s compulsion, tries to get some details about the Ascendant. Jo tells him that she keeps it hidden so she knows she is safe. If she has the Ascendant, then Kai can’t get out and try to steal her magic and kill her. She trusts Alaric and tells him that while she used to keep it under her pillow; she has grown up a little and keeps it in her underwear drawer along with her pot. I thought that was a little bit of a strange hiding place but to each their own. I have fallen victim to hiding something in a fantastic spot but later forgetting where I actually hid it.

That following morning Alaric delivers the Ascendant to Damon, who immediately compels him to forget everything. I get that Alaric trusts everyone in the core group, but he should still be on some sort of vervaine for safety reasons. It’s sad that his best friend compelled him, but that will all be sorted out eventually.

Jeremy and Elena are running together on campus. He looks good. And while yes, I may be talking about how good looking Steven McQueen is, I also mean that he looks good emotionally too. The drunk, devastated, and angry Jeremy is slowly moving on and coming to terms with Bonnie’s death. He has stopped paying her phone bill and is really getting his life back together. Naturally, Elena takes this wonderful moment of Jeremy’s content state and reveals to him that Bonnie is still alive. I couldn’t help but laugh over the fact that everyone had yet again forgotten to mention this piece of information to Jeremy. Sure, he wasn’t at Friendsgiving but there had to have been some point when they could have told him his girlfriend is still alive. Step up your game, crew!

Of course, Jeremy is not too pleased about this information. He has heard “we are going to save Bonnie” and “everything will be okay” many times before (mainly because Bonnie has died many times before). He is obviously skeptical, and I am a little annoyed at Elena for bringing this up so soon and ruining all of the progress that he had made.

In Mystic Falls, Tyler is still protecting Liv by having her stay at the mansion where her coven can’t reach her. The fact that Luke is not there, or anywhere really, does not bode well for him. His absence is either making it easier for him to die in a potential merge or is setting it up to make it harder for us viewers and Tyler if Liv were to die. Liv does not want to hide anymore. She wants to go help Damon and Elena bring back Bonnie. When Tyler looked over to Matt for some help in making her stay, Matt just said, “It’s for Bonnie.” So, off Liv goes.

When Liv meets up with Damon and Elena, they explain to us what the plan will be. At first, Liv is confused that Jo even gave the Ascendant to them in the first place considering her life is at risk because of it. Elena does not know Damon’s methods for getting it and therefore he quickly sweeps it under the rug by changing the subject. So, Liv gives Damon and Elena some of her blood to drink so they’ll be linked and she can bring them back. She also gives them a vile to give to Bonnie. They will have 8 hours to find Bonnie and get back to Mystic Falls to complete the spell. This could pose a small problem as Kai ditched Bonnie out in Portland, Oregon.

So, Damon and Elena find themselves back in 1994 Mystic Falls. It’s an interesting moment for Elena because her parent’s gravestones aren’t there yet. They were still alive then. It’s a shame that the people still aren’t in town and she could see them one more time. Damon tells her to keep an eye out for Kai.

Meanwhile, in a little twist we see Kai riding in the back of a cab. I guess his spell worked and he has made it to 2014. He is complaining, rightfully so, about the tightness of pants and the large sizes of cell phones amongst other things. I personally would have liked to have seen the scene where he escaped 1994. I was positive that they would have shown that, but it was also fun being thrown right into it.

He does not have the money to pay the cab driver and so he strangles him with a pair of headphones instead. It was also clear that he killed whoever’s clothes he was wearing as well. I am so into Kai as the villain this season. I don’t think we’ve seen a villain like him since Klaus. He is evil, psychotic, and a murderer. He is going to bring a lot to the show, so I hope that he sticks around for the rest of the season. He and Bonnie are definitely due for one more confrontation.

Meanwhile, in “what should we do with these people this week?” we’ve gone back to the storyline of Damon and Stefan’s relative, Sarah Salvatore, who everyone thought Damon killed in the Salvatore House Murder. Matt is taking her to meet with Stefan and they are also of course joined by Enzo (I’ve missed you, Enzo!).  Stefan sits down with Sarah and after a few short minutes he orders them some milkshakes. This at first just seemed like he wanted some milkshakes, but the sound of them being made prevented Enzo from hearing Stefan tell her that he knew she was lying about being Sarah. He told her that she had to follow him out of the diner. According to Stefan, the real Sarah Salvatore is alive and well at Duke studying art. Stefan had been watching out for her Sarah’s entire life, but no one else knows this. Stefan stops “Sarah” as she tries to run away.

Back in 1994 Mystic Falls, Damon pages Kai’s and they wait for him to respond. Elena finds the video journal that Damon made while he and Bonnie were trapped there, but she doesn’t get to see much before he snatches it away from her. They are interrupted by Bonnie calling them from Indiana. She was able to hot wire a car and can be there in 6 ½ hours. They only have 7 left until Liv pulls them back. It shouldn’t be too hard considering no one else is on the road.

Bonnie has a sweet moment with Elena on the phone and fills them in on her last encounter with Kai. He had Jo’s magic, the Ascendant, and Bonnie’s blood. They are all now worried that Kai has already gotten out. We then cut to Kai walking into the bar and sitting down in front of Liv, his younger sister that he tried to kill in 1994.

Jo has now discovered that her Ascendant is missing and only one person knew where it was: Alaric. She is pissed off and rightfully so. Her life is at stake here and she feels as though her boyfriend betrayed her. Since Alaric was compelled to forget everything, Jo is able to catch on to the fact that Alaric was compelled to steal it from her. That’s not an option for Alaric though because Damon is his best friend and wouldn’t do that to him. She tells him to walk across the border to see if her theory is right, which it is.

In 1994 Mystic Falls, Elena is learning this same information and gets upset at Damon thinking that he betrayed Alaric and Jo and got the Ascendant only as a means to win her back.

At the bar, Liv does not recognize Kai, which bothered me because he hasn’t aged or anything! Hasn’t she seen pictures or anything? I later find out that her father erased all memories or anything of Kai from her mind. She cards him and laughs at the fact that he’s trying to pass for being born in 1972. He tells her to check again and she sees that he is her brother that tried to murder her. They all still remember that. He stole a little bit of her magic and prevents her from leaving. She runs upstairs where Tyler randomly appears and pushes Kai over the bannister.

My roommate and I were joking about the fact that Tyler must have been just hanging out in the rafters upstairs protecting (stalking) Liv. Nice sentiment, but you could have made yourself known, dude! It’s a small plot hole that I’m overlooking.

We learn that the girl impersonating Sarah Salvatore is actually named Monique. Monique was a foster child who hated her life and when she met Sarah at summer camp and realized that she had no intention of finding her family, Monique decided to do it instead. Stefan tells her to remove her vervaine necklace and compels her to leave and forget everything that she knew, including Sarah Salvatore. As she runs away, she runs straight into Enzo, who was following them with Matt. Enzo wants to know what’s up and why Stefan milkshake-distracted him and took off with the girl.

Stefan doesn’t want anyone to know that the real Sarah Salvatore is still alive so that she will be safe to continue living her normal life. Therefore, he somewhat sells out Monique and doesn’t tell Enzo what he wants to know. Enzo snaps Monique’s neck (thinking she’s still Sarah Salvatore), totally devastating Matt who liked her, and killing Monique.

Back in 1994 Damon and Elena are sitting on her old porch swing. This is where Damon always went to feel close to Elena when he was trapped there. He tells Elena that he’s doing all of this for Bonnie. She was his saving grace when they were there and risked her life to get him out. He is not doing it for Elena, which is what she wanted to hear. He asked if she wants to go inside.

Don’t you think it would be cool to go back to your house in 1994? I surely don’t remember as I was only 3 so it would be a really neat look into my family that I never knew before.

As they are about to walk in Elena apologizes for erasing her memories. They were only half hers and it wasn’t fair to Damon. He sweetly tells her that they will make more. They looked like they were about to kiss but something starts happening and they wind up back in Mysitc Falls 2014… without Bonnie. Tyler and Liv are there and tell them that Kai is back and Liv has to go to Mystic Falls to protect herself.

Damon and Elena are both upset that when Bonnie arrives to Mystic Falls they won’t be there anymore. The silver lining is that as long as they have the Ascendant they can get to Bonnie whenever. However, Kai is there and still channeling some of Liv’s magic. He burns up the Ascendant (the only thing that could put him back in 1994 jail) and finds himself over the border. So, now a psychotic killer is loose in Mystic Falls. This story line is probably a close second to the originals! So many intense things that could happen! The stakes (pun intended) are high.

The end of the episode ties up some loose ends and puts some things in place for the mid-season finale. Matt is livid at Enzo and Stefan for allowing Monique/Sarah to die. He is over his supernatural friends thinking that they can kill whoever they want. He is a human too and wants to know that they value life more than that. He heads over to the Salvatore house to find Jeremy and a storyline.

Jeremy has once again learned that Bonnie did not make it and is probably looking for a distraction. Luckily, Matt wants him to be a hunter again and wants to kill Enzo. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. I like Enzo and think he’s the smartest vampire around right now and would hate to see him killed.

Alaric punches Damon for compelling him and blames him for the fact that Kai is out and Jo is in danger. Although we all know that it wasn’t Damon’s fault at all that Kai got out, Alaric doesn’t care. Their bromance is on pause right now. Hopefully, Damon will do whatever needs to be done to mend the relationship.

We see a heartbreaking scene, wonderfully acted by Kat Graham, as she arrives to Mystic Falls and sees that they are gone. She is still alone and falls to the ground sobbing.

In the final scene, Tyler goes home (without Liv?) and is paid a visit by Kai. Tyler can’t kill him or else he will trigger the wolf curse, but that wouldn’t even be an option because Kai has a broken bottle to his neck. He wants Tyler to help him save Liv…and presumably kill Luke. That’s all we really get from that, but my guess is he will probably work with Kai secretly with the hopes that it will protect Liv.

All plans will probably go awry. Nothing’s easy in Mystic Falls…especially around the holidays.