Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 8 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT New York Dolls
By Cindy McLennan | Season 4 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.21.2013
Elena's voice grows insistent. "I'm not taking the cure, Damon." She tries to walk away, but he intercepts her. "Yes you are. Even if I have to break your neck, or tie you up in chains until we find it." Why did he take stupid pills? Why? Why? Why couldn't he have lied and said something like, "Well, we still need to find it because I'll be damned if I let Rebekah or Klaus control it." Or better yet, "Then we'd still better find it and destroy it, so Klaus can't force it on you."
Before Elena can react to Damon's disregard for her wishes, Rebekah swoops in out of nowhere, and gives him a broken neck nap. Elena's smile betrays that she's impressed. Rebekah says, "What as that you said about handling things yourself?" I smell a Buddy Movie. Commercial.
Side Bar. I'm really disappointed by the turn in that "emotions" conversation. The show used to talk about turning off humanity rather than emotions. Since Damon ordered Elena to flip her humanity switch, the show has been using the term emotions, and it makes everything messier than needed. It also flies in the face of what we've seen onscreen. When Elena said, "Those all sound like emotions to me," I was hopeful that Damon would explain that the humanity switch just turns off humanizing emotions like grief, pity and remorse. Elena has been far from emotion-free since she flipped the switch. I know I'm harping on this to the point of tedium, so I'll leave it here.
Bennett Bungalow. Morning. Stefan keeps watch as Bonnie sleeps. When she wakes, her eyes are all normal again, thank goodness. Stefan is surprised when she asks why he's there. "What do you mean? I brought you home. The witches almost killed you." Bonnie doesn't remember. Or at least, she says she doesn't remember. I'm inclined to take her at face value in this scene, but who knows if the witches manages to strip away enough Expression or Silas's control, before Caroline killed them. That Aja was ready to murder Bonnie, tells me that at least she didn't think they could do anything for Bonnie, so I can't be certain.
Stefan says, "Whatever the witches did must have messed with your memory." That clears up exactly nothing for Bonnie, who asks, "How did I get off the island?" Stefan leans in and asks her what she can last remember. Bonnie says, "I guess I remember being in that cave and Jeremy was trying to pry the cure out of Silas's hands." Stefan is silent, so Bonnie says, "Please tell me he got it!" When he doesn't respond, Bonnie shakes her head. "We didn't get it, did we?" Finally, with his voice but a whisper, Stefan says, "Bonnie, there's something you need to know about Jeremy." Bonnie looks at him the way my dog looks at me when she follows me out to the kitchen and I fail to give her something to eat. We cut to the...