Just like the supernatural are now back in Mystic Falls, we welcome the new episode of “The Vampire Diaries” to our televisions! I was finally able to watch this episode and am ready to recap! It was a good one and definitely a strong set up (yet heartbreaking) for the rest of the season. Like I’ve said before, I think the Gemini Witch Coven is the most interesting storyline to be on TVD since the Originals. Nothing can top the Originals.

Side note: This episode was directed by Stefan himself, Paul Wesley. I think he did a great job and I was paying special attention to the details in this one! Well Done, Paul!

Let’s dig in.

The mid-season finale ended with Elena being cloaked and kidnapped by Kai. Well, that’s where we open this episode. Elena is tied to a chair while Kai is mumbling on about restaurants while shoveling eggs and bacon into his mouth. Since he has so much magic from absorbing the traveler’s spell on the town, he needs to find a way to control it. This is where Elena comes in. He will practice his magic on her. Obviously, he will not be practicing fun let’s light candle magic on her. He tried practicing his control earlier and ultimately killed the bar manager, but it took him three tries to do so.

“I didn’t quite realize I was so out of control until I met the manager of the Grill a few hours ago. And he was all like, ‘Nah, you can’t come in here. We’re closed, and you have an unconscious girl over your shoulder.’ And I was like, ‘Don’t judge me.’ So, then I gave him a heart attack – or tried to – but all I did was make him vomit uncontrollably.”

Chris Wood is so good as Kai, he’s so casual about the fact he’s a psychopath. He uncloaks the bar manager who is dead on the table right in front of Elena.

Stefan wakes up and heads downstairs and since the Salvatore mansion is apparently the new hangout, it’s bustling down there. We’ve got Liv and Jo practicing magic and ruining everything in the living room, shirtless Jeremy hogging all of the coffee, and Alaric bringing over breakfast and mimosas. I love how Alaric and Jo clearly have the same outlook on drinking.

Last episode we learned that Sheriff Forbes has terminal cancer and her odds are not looking too good. Caroline will give her all the kale smoothies in the world but still believes that vampire blood will cure her. Damon is not on board with her plan at all. He is a good voice of reason here saying that they don’t know if it will work and they’ve never heard of anyone ever having success with it. Sheriff Forbes is released to go home later that day.

Stefan was over at the Forbes house setting up the TV so she can watch and relax in the living room. Caroline hands her a box set of Friends and tells her mom that she is going to Duke to get a second opinion. Stefan asks to go with her so that he can check on his long lost cousin, Sarah Salvatore. Can we please just get Stefan and Caroline to happen! They are the most interesting couple right now and even if they don’t date for a while, I would still love some more build up. They are perfect for each other.

Caroline compels a Duke doctor to look at her mom’s chart and give her an honest diagnosis. When she tells Caroline that there is nothing they can do that will make her mom better she feels defeated. The doctor then tells her that she has a patient with the exact same type of cancer, and you can see Caroline’s wheels turning. She sneaks into the patient’s room and sees that he has no family or next of kin. I think that was the incentive she needed to take the risk gives the guy her blood. Now she just has to wait and see if it will work.

Over at Duke University, Stefan is lurking around Sarah’s art exhibit, just checking up on her and making sure she’s okay. Then Enzo randomly appears. Apparently, he has pieced a few things together and figured out Stefan’s secret. He doesn’t think brothers should have secrets and Stefan tries to explain to him why he can’t tell Damon. He probably will.

The whole Enzo thing seemed out of place. I love the character himself and it seems the writers do too since he’s still around, but he really doesn’t seem to have much to do anymore. Hopefully that will change. He decides to buy all of Sarah’s art at the end of the episode with some sly talk of revenge. No clue where that is going.

The cancer patient, with the help of Caroline’s blood, is up and walking around looking good. Her and Stefan watch as he finally has an appetite and is fiddling around at the vending machine. Caroline is ecstatic to see that it works and is ready to head home and give it a shot with her mom. Clearly she should have stayed around to observe any long term effects or compel someone to give her updates, but she is just so passionate and strong willed that she just wants to believe it works and that’s what she saw.

Kai now has Elena at Mystic Falls High for some reason. He is practicing little things on her here and there he and radically escalates to turning her blood into acid. During this gruesome process he melts her daylight ring off. Uh oh. I have no clue why these vampires pick and choose when to use their powers. She has super speed but manages to simply jog over to the lab. Here she sets her hand on fire from the sun and turns on the gas, hitting Kai flamethrower style. It was a pretty genuis move!

With Kai down, Elena has enough time to use the school phone to call Damon and tell her where she is.  Kai finds her and gives the old neck snap.

Damon and Liv head to the school so that Liv can do a cloaking spell. In the middle of her spell Luke stops her and tells her that it’s too dangerous. By doing this so easily, Liv realizes that Luke is the stronger twin and will win if they merge. Actually knowing this now terrifies her. Later on when she expresses this to Luke, he calls their father and tells him they will not be doing the merge. Well, someone’s going to have to. I imagine we will be seeing Papa Gemini very soon.

On the phone with Alaric, Damon is trying to think of a new way to get into the school. Jeremy has a plan B. I laughed at this scene, it was some good humor.

Jeremy (heard over phone): I have a plan.

Damon: Let me guess. Jeremy’s holding a crossbow.

Cut to Alaric in the Salvatore house looking at Jeremy, who’s holding a crossbow.

Jo says that she is able to do a cloaking spell. Even though she cannot even light a candle it would be impossible to forget how to cloak- it’s one of the first things you learn as a Gemini witch. Her cloak works and Jo and Damon wander around inside the school looking for Elena. Kai appears and walks right by them to recycle his can. Jo’s cloaking spell worked and Kai has gone green!

They are able to get to Elena and set her free, but having to cloak three people is a lot for Jo’s weak magical powers. They know they have to get out of there fast but it has to be underground since Elena lost her ring. Somehow, Kai either joins Jo’s cloak or Jo drops the cloak all together because he can see them now and finds them in the hallway.

Here Kai really shows just how much magic he has. First, he makes himself invisible and everyone susceptible to danger. When he reappears Damon stabs him in the stomach with a broomstick. Good thing he didn’t go for the heart shot because it actually wasn’t Kai at all. It was Elena. So, Damon just stabbed his (ex?) girlfriend.

Kai tries to kidnap Jo, but is shot through the hearrrttttt (more like the chest, but good song though) with Jeremy’s crossbow and tranquilized by Alaric. They are going to keep sedating him until all of the magic he absorbed wears off.

Damon is trying to get all of the splinters out of Elena. Don’t vampires just do the the most romantic things for love? Elena starts to acting loopy and says that she thinks one’s stuck in her heart. She is getting weaker and telling Damon that if he has anything to say, now is the time to say it. Essentially, baiting him to tell her he loves her or something.

Turns out it was just a joke and she’s okay, just playing some good ole’ mind games. They have a good chuckle about it and later agree to go out on a date. It looks like she really doesn’t need her memories back in order to fall for Damon.

Caroline returns home excited to tell her mother about her successful science project. It’s a heartfelt scene where Caroline tells her mom that she needs her. She needs her at her wedding and graduation, and to have her around to talk to. Her mom sees how important this is to Caroline and agrees to drink some of her blood.

I have to give props to Paul Wesley because this scene was beautifully shot and heartbreaking to watch. As we watch Caroline preparing the cup of blood we are simultaneously watching the other patient at Duke coughing up blood and crawling out into the hallway to what ultimately looks like his death.

It appears the blood actually sped up his cancer. As he lays there dying we watch Sherriff Forbes raise the glass of Caroline’s blood to her lips.