Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 81 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Doppelgängbang
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.14.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close."Death and the Maiden" is a rich, detailed, episode in which 957 things happen. So yeah, it's your typical TVD mind-blower. After serving as the stony faced anchor to the Other Side for the past 2,000 years, Amara would like to die now, please. Everyone would love to oblige Miss Crazy Pants, but the Fellowship of the Falls needs her for just a few more hours.
Damon propositions Q-Tessa, but not in the usual Evil Pixie Monster way. He wants Q to make Bonnie the new anchor to the Other Side, provided Q will resurrect her. What's in it for Q? Since Amara drank Silas's blood and is now cured of her pesky immortality, once she dies she'll go to the lower-case other side. If Bonnie is the new anchor to the upper-case Other Side, when Silas dies, he'll go there and Q will win.
Q needs something powerful to bind the spell. There's no upcoming comet or what have you, so she proposes Doppelgänger blood. Damon is thrilled. "I've got doppelgängers coming out of my ears." So say we all, Pixie. So say we all. Caroline rounds up Katherine. Elena and Amara are already at Mossy Manse, so it's a go.
Silas causes some problems, of course, but it's nothing our fellowship can't handle. In the end, Bonnie is back. Is there a catch? Of course there is. This is TVD. Now every time a supernatural dies, they have to pass through Bonnie to the Other Side and it hurts like a bitch. Q promptly offs herself and Bob's John's your uncle daddy, Bonnie screams in pain.
Stefan kills Silas, which he's been itching to do all episode. Elena and Damon reach out to Stefan, who admits he wanted his other two triangle points to be the ones who rescued him. They seem to reach a détente, but while the boys are burying Silas, Stefan has a flashback to his summer of drowning and seems to be physically overcome by I don't even know.
Meanwhile, Q screws Katherine out of a cure for her rapid aging and Katherine soundly rejects her daughter, but I suspect it's to protect her. What do you think? Also, with Amara, Q and Stylus gone so early in the season, does this mean my Pudding Pop Matt (who is not in this episode) is going to be this season's Big Bad?
I'll be back the full recap, ASAP. In the meantime, please grade the episode at the top of the page, and then come on over to the forum, where Jeremy and Bonnie are sitting in a tree. P.S. Demian, if you're reading, the word count to this recaplet (header and html coding included) is 589 words.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!The opening scene of "Death and the Maiden" is such a departure for The Vampire Diaries, that I can't bear the thought of covering the Previouslies. Yes, sometimes I eat dessert first, too. Let's get right to it, shall we?
The Aquatones serenade us with "You," as we open at a bus stop. Silas is seated next to a young couple (played by Brady McInnes and Elizabeth Ludlow). He asks them if they've ever been in love. The woman says they are. Silas pronounces them adorable. Silas goes on about how he loves love and his love -- his eternal soulmate. He admits to cheating with her on his then-fiancée. The more he unloads on them, the more the couple squirms. Well, the woman does. The man looks like he's still half in the bag, and is just looking for a little snooze at the bus stop. By the time Silas tells them his fiancée found out about Amara and turned her to stone, even Donnie Drunko is paying attention. I mean he not only mumbles, "Dude," but also manages to ask if Silas is okay.
Silas non-sequiturs by asking why the guy thinks he's crazy. "All I've wanted for the last two thousand years is to be reunited with the love of my life. How is that crazy?" Debbie Down-Dater offers: "Maybe the 'turned her to stone' part?" Donnie Drunko adds, "Or the two thousand years part." Silas is having a hell of a time messing with these two. "No guys. We were both immortal and now we're not. Hello?" As the couple slides as far away from him as the little bench will allow, Silas continues his tale of woe. "Look, the point is, I finally had the chance to hold Amara in my arms and what does she do? She jams a chunk of glass into my carotid artery." He peels back the dressing on his neck. "Look, look." Donnie looks like he's going to hurl. "No. Thanks. No." Silas tells them that his advice is to live it up. "You know, enjoy this love while it lasts, because let me tell you something, just a couple of days ago, I was psychic. I was immortal. I was in love. Now my neck hurts, my soul is crushed, I'm sitting in a bus stop in frigging Delaware..." Still clutching Donnie's arm as tight as she can, Debbie leans over and says, "You're in Philly." Silas says, "I'm in Philly? Oh, God. It's even worse." Ha. Sorry Philly. I hear your cheesesteaks are deadly lovely. Thanks for being the cradle of liberty. Oh wait, that's Boston. Well, you do have the bell. Of course, you also broke it. I'm one exit away from telling you that you're why we can't have nice things, so I'll just move it along in the spirit of brotherly love.