The Vampire Diaries Episode 4.14 "Down the Rabbit Hole" Recap
Okay, I know that Tyler skipped town, Jeremy died, and Bonnie‘s fate is sort of uncertain, but this week’s episode was kind of …eh. Until the last few minutes – right around the time Katherine made an appearance – the episode fell kind of flat. Maybe this show has just made me cynical, but I don’t really believe that Jeremy’s going to stay dead or that Tyler’s gone for good. After all, we all know the Originals are taking off for New Orleans here shortly, and no one really wants to watch a show just revolving around Elena and which Salvatore she’s picking this week. [Or maybe you do, I don’t know.]
Anyway, let’s back up a bit and talk about what happened on this episode that could have actually passed for a season finale. Last week we saw Shane (David Alpay) make off with Bonnie, Jeremy, and some random witch to keep them both in check. Klaus saved Caroline from dying at the last minute and some unknown Hunter knocked Damon unconscious.
This week, Stefan, Rebekah, and Elena have teamed up to try and find Silas’ resting place. To do that, they have to decode the pictures of Jeremy’s tattoo that Bonnie conveniently took before being led off into the wild. [Though it wasn’t clear exactly how the gang got her phone, unless she just didn’t have it on her when she left.]
They e-mail the pictures to Caroline and ask her to find the sword Klaus has hidden and use it to decode the tattoo. [Again, not sure how they’re charging their phones or getting service out there in the wild – I sometimes have a hard time getting a signal inside my house in the middle of town… but I suppose let’s just go with it.] Klaus, unable to stop her, watches as Caroline leaves to go tear apart his house in search of the sword.
For whatever reason, when Tyler and Caroline find the sword and print up the pictures, they take it all back to the Gilbert house to work on decoding it. Klaus (Joseph Morgan) ends up being a big help in decoding it because he speaks Aramaic, a dead language Qetsiyah used to code everything. [Don’t even get me started on the hotness of Klaus speaking Aramaic with an English accent. Can that become his everyday language on the show? I’m all for reading English subtitles.]
They decode the map and learn that there’s only enough of the cure for one person to take it. Naturally, Klaus manages to stir up trouble from Bonnie’s prison by telling Bex that great news. [The cure revelation wasn’t really much of a surprise – I’m not sure why none of them considered that possibility before.] Though Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Elena didn’t hear that conversation, Bex eventually tells Stefan what Klaus told her. She admits that she’d consider giving the cure to Stefan, but knowing that he’d just give it to Elena – in spite of everything she’s done to him this season – Bex (Claire Holt) just snaps his neck and takes off for the cure on her own.
Elena helps revive Stefan and accepts her fate when Stefan reveals what Rebekah told him. [I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking her change of heart is the sire bond at work again – remember when Damon told her last week that he didn’t want her to take the cure? Now she’s suddenly okay with not being cured. Naturally.] Anyway, Stefan and Elena (Nina Dobrev) decide that, since there’s only one dose, they’ll have to give it to Klaus so that Klaus can’t kill them when he’s released.
Meanwhile, Professor Shane pays off the mercenary witch with Silas’ headstone – it turns out that was the only reason he wanted it, as it’s apparently valuable to witches. Anyway, now on their own, Shane, Bonnie, and Jeremy continue on to the entrance to Silas’ tomb. Once there, Bonnie (Kat Graham) is able to open the tomb – and she doesn’t even lose control doing it! Unfortunately for Shane, he breaks his leg about this time, and so he’s out of the running for the rest of the episode.
Bonnie and Jeremy (Steven McQueen) continue on and make it all the way to Silas himself – only to discover that in order to get the cure, they have to wake Silas by feeding him blood. They also learn that the “ghosts” everyone is supposedly able to see when in the area are actually just hallucinations created by Silas – so everything Shane did for his wife was completely faked.
As for Damon, Galen Vaughn – the other Hunter that showed up at the end of last week – keeps Damon (Ian Somerhalder) captive, intending to use Damon as a bargaining tool to convince Bonnie to open Silas’ tomb for him. As Damon helpfully points out, Bonnie is going to open it regardless, so Vaughn didn’t really need to keep him captive, but Damon being tortured is always a good time so can’t say we complained too much [though I suppose some viewers would disagree with that].
Once Damon and Vaughn make it to the cave where Silas is hidden, they find the entrance already open – so Vaughn (Charlie Bewley) decides to just kill Damon right then. Fortunately for Damon, Bex shows up at that moment and distracts Vaughn – who takes her out temporarily by using some of his fancy Hunter weapons, leaving her out of the Race for the Cure. Elena and Stefan then show up, but Stefan stays behind to help Damon while Elena chases after Vaughn to get the cure for Klaus.
Klaus, between moments of helpfulness, also passed the time taunting Tyler (Michael Trevino) and promising death upon his release. When Caroline reveals that she wouldn’t take the cure even if she could take it, Klaus tells her it’s because the two of them are just alike. [Don’t worry, Caroline, we all can agree we like you better as a vampire.] Caroline tries to use that to her advantage and begs Klaus to show compassion for Tyler and not kill him. Klaus agrees to show him compassion… by giving him a head start running from him.
Tyler and Caroline (Candice Accola) have to say goodbye again so that Tyler can skip town and go on the run from Klaus. When Bonnie’s spell fails – due to her being almost dead over in Silas’ burial place – Klaus escapes a bit early, tells Caroline that every nice thing he’s done lately has been to please her, and then takes off into the night, presumably to chase after Tyler.
Back in Silas’ resting place, Vaughn stabs Bonnie and tries to convince Jeremy to help him kill Silas. Vaughn informs Jeremy that the entire purpose in creating the Hunters is so that they can cure Silas and kill him. The two fight it out until “Elena” arrives and knocks Vaughn unconscious.
However, when Jeremy tries to get Elena to heal Bonnie, we learn that Elena is actually Katherine – having shown up just in time to force-feed Silas Jeremy’s blood and steal the cure herself. So, the bitch is back, and that was a nice surprise. As for the not-so-nice surprise? Silas feeds from Jeremy and then snaps his neck, killing him while Bonnie watches.
