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Since he's possessing Alaric's body, Klaus can stroll right into Mossy Manse, even without an invite, and so he does. This gives him an all access pass to the Fellowship of the Falls strategy sessions, in which he learns Bonnie has regained her own powers and harnessed those of 100 dead witches, besides, in order to kill him. After consulting with one of his manwitches, who lays some sort of protect-o whammy on him, Klaus-Alaric assumes Alaric's life, and job (which is damned amusing) and attends the big Mystic Falls event o' the week -- a 1960s theme dance. He compels students to menace Jeremy and distract our Beautiful Brothers Salvatore and has no problem isolating Bonnie and Elena from the rest of the gang. Bonnie has enough mojo to fend him off, allowing Elena to escape. With encouragement from Damon, it seems Bonnie will do anything to kill Klaus, even if that means her own death, and the death of Alaric's pretty, pretty body, too. Poor Elena and Stefan watch through magically locked doors as Bonnie confronts Klaus-Alaric and dies in battle. But she she dies at 8:45 PM, so if you're not Elena and Stefan, it's pretty clear she's only "dead." The question is, has Damon vamped her to save her, or is something else going on?
Damon enlists Jeremy's help with "disposing" of Bonnie's body. The Germ disposes of it right in that old plantation house where Bonnie sucked up all the dead witch juice, and she comes back to life.
Meanwhile, back at Mossy Manse, Elena is understandably heartbroken and horrified that best friend "died" in a futile attempt to save her life. Stefan comforts her until Damon returns home and riles her up so that she slaps his face. He takes his damned sweet time about revealing it was all a ruse and that Bonnie put herself under a spell so that she would appear dead to Klaus-Alaric. Now the Fellowship of the Falls has the power of 100 witches as its secret weapon. Later, Elena finds Damon in his room and tells him she understands why he made the choices he did, but that she will not allow Bonnie to die for her. Damon gives it right back to her. When he explains that if it comes down to Bonnie's death or Elena's, it's no contest, he tells her "I will always choose you," -- a line which has already spawned 500,000 fanfics as I type. It resonates with Elena too, so when she leaves his room (with a parting glance at his great big bed), she sneaks down to the dungeon and into Elijah's cell-crypt, pulls the dagger out of his chest and then slumps to the floor and waits for him to resurrect.
There's lots more with all sorts of love-triangle tweaking, dancing, eye-thinging, Katherine stabbing herself over and over, and a whole Liz/Matt/Caroline subterfuge subplot, as well, but I don't want to blow my whole wad in the recaplet. I'll be back with the weecap ASAP. In the meantime, please grade the episode at the top of the page and then join us on the boards, where we will always choose you.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!So, Klaus is possessing Alaric, but I'm not calling him Kalaric or Klaric or anything like that because I'm not feeling at all cute or cheeky. Klaus has kidnapped Katherine, and he compels her to tell him what she knows about the Fellowship of the Falls' plan to kill him. Katherine hasn't been all that in-the-loopy, but she does spill what she knows about Bonnie.
While Elena is inside Mossy Manse signing the deed in the presence of an attorney, I guess, Damon and Stefan take a moment to speculate about Katherine's fate. Stefan figures Klaus has already killed her. Damon winces at the thought, even as he allows that Ms. Thing has it coming. But never fear, you Evil Pixie Monster; Katherine lives. She lives under Klaus's compulsion, and currently is stabbing herself in the leg over and over, because Klaus said to, that's why. Katherine is ready for death, but Klaus points out that since he spent 500 years tracking her down, he intends to make her suffer for at least half that. Yikes. Matt Davis gives good Klaus, by the way. Alaric isn't in there at all.
After a predictable, "Oh, I forgot to invite you boys in," scene, in which Elena immediately invites Stefan, and only invites Damon if he promises to do things her way with no lies and no secret agendas, Elena and Bonnie leave Mossy Manse for school despite Damon and Stefan's protests that safe houses are only safe when you're in them. Elena figures she's got her own weapon of Klaus destruction with her in Bonnie, so she's safe wherever she goes. I roll my eyes, as does Stefan, who dutifully tags along to school, after exchanging a little eye-thing-ing with Damon.
At Fortress Forbes, Matt meets secretly with Sheriff Liz Forbes. They talk about the Salvatores being vampires, the Gilberts being in on it, and Tyler being a werewolf. Liz asks Matt to play along like a good, naive boyfriend would, to buy some time, 'til she can figure out how to handle the local fang gang. At school, Klaus shows up to teach Alaric's classes. First up is Elena's history class. The high school is getting ready for the Mystic Falls Event o' the Week: a 1960s Decade Dance, so Alaric has the '60s on the schedule. Klaus thinks the '60s were a waste, except for the Beatles. Elena gets a little overly friendly with him, calling him Ric before she remembers herself. Meanwhile, Caroline is preparing for the big dance. Hey, it takes a lot more than death, resurrection and transition to slay our Vampire Barbie's school spirit.
We cut to the Germ and Bonnie arguing about how dangerous it is for Bonnie to kill Klaus. Bonnie backpedals on the danger, and before Jeremy can say too much more, Elena joins them. When he leaves in a huff, Bonnie lies that he's uptight because he has to dress up for the dance. a classmate comes over and tells Elena that a totally hot guy has a crush on her and will be at the dance, tonight. His name? Klaus. Elena and Bonnie realize the girl has been compelled.
Back at Mossy Manse, Stefan and Damon are talking about the incident with Bonnie and Elena, when Klaus walks in. He can enter without an invite because he's only possessing Alaric's body. The body is still a living human, so no invite is required to get him over the threshold. So much for the safe-house concept. Nice try though, boys. Elena, if you need funds for college, mortgage that sucker. The Fellowship then discusses all their plans right in front of their target, and when Klaus and Damon question whether Bonnie is witch enough for the job, she throws Damon across the room with just a hand-wave. Thinking back to Bonnie's opinion of Damon for most of the series to date, I like to imagine she's giggling inside. Stefan's nearly giggling outside. Team Damon is up in arms. And I? I'm cackling. Oh I love him, but he so deserves whatever he gets.
Back at Alaric's place, Katherine is still stabbing herself in the leg when Klaus gets home and starts rifling through Alaric's clothing, looking for a good costume for the dance. He also confers with his manwitch, Maddox, who may not be of African American descent. At least, I can't tell if he is. I mean, my friend's son is a blonde who would fit right in with my tighty whitey family, even though he's of African-American descent. You can't always tell, which is the roundabout way to my point. Hey show, you have a magical character who isn't obviously African American. Good for you! Now you need African American characters who aren't magical. Oh, and ones who aren't Bonnie and yet still get to live. Mkay? Digression aside, Klaus wants Maddox to go to the dance and take Bonnie down. Maddox can't do it. What he can do is cast a protection spell on Klaus so that he can go to the dance, entice Bonnie to exhaust her newly harnessed powers and die in the process.
Matt shows up at Fortress Forbes in a suit and tie to pick up Caroline, who is tres Jackie O for the theme dance. Matt and Liz share a meaningful look after Caroline exits and we flash to Mossy Manse, where Stefan and Elena are having a heart to heart about what a real threat Klaus is. Stefan promises they'll put an end to Klaus tonight, because he doesn't realize there are four episodes after this one -- left to the season.
At the dance, people are dancing, like you do, as Klaus trawls the party and picks out some apt pupils for a little extra-credit compulsion. Ooh. Evil.
Outside, Jeremy offers Bonnie his protect-o ring. She tries to crack a joke about how going steady is so 1950s, but it falls flat. He has to do something to protect her while she's risking her life for his sister. Bonnie says the ring won't work. It was enchanted to protect against the supernatural, not to protect those who are supernatural. So, what? You can't tweak it a little, Bonnie? You have the power of a hundred witches swirling around in you. She's not listening to Jeremy or to me. Instead, she tries to make Jeremy think she's less likely to die than she is. As she hugs him, she spies Damon over his shoulder, he gives her his Cheshire Cat grin and walks off as Elena and Stefan join them. I love how Damon can just go to a school dance. MFHS chaperoning is for the birds. Inside, one of Klaus's apt pupils announces the song is dedicated to Elena from Klaus. Commercial.
Elena says she knows everyone there and doesn't think Klaus is there. Damon goes off to talk to Alaric, who is still Klaus, and is a little miffed when Damon notes he's not impressed by Klaus's attempt to be twisted. When Caroline shows up, Stefan spins Elena into Damon's arms to dance, because he totally doesn't know what happened when they danced last year. Elena is startled at first, but soon relaxes and even enjoys herself with Damon. These two and their eye-sex. Oh Stefan, look out, boy. He can't hear me, he's cutting in on Matt and Caroline to let her know that Klaus is there, somewhere and they have to remain on their guard.
Damon cuts in on Bonnie and Jeremy and soon admits to our witch that he overheard her arguing with the Germ and knows she's laying her life on the line for Elena. Bonnie swears him to secrecy. Damon wouldn't risk Elena, so her secret is safe. When he wonders, though, if there isn't someway to improve Bonnie's chance of survival, she's caught off-guard and makes a crack that someone might think he actually cares. Oh and then there's eye-sex between them. That's probably an occupational hazard when working with Somerhalder, and yet, I think it's intentional. I know a lot of you hate triangles, and if so, I think you're watching the wrong show, so I hope you get other things out of it. I hate badly done triangles, but I have to hand it to TVD. They always give me something to enjoy at every angle. Bonnie and Damon are no exception.
Elena tries to suss out why Germ is so glum, but he stonewalls her and walks off. Stefan, who was just coming back to his own date, notices and chases after. He gets Jeremy to admit that Bonnie could die when she takes on Klaus. Bonnie doesn't want Elena to know that channeling the energy will kill her. Jeremy's stuck between his sister and his girl. Stefan, bless, runs right back to Elena and tells her the truth, but we don't have to watch it. Instead, we get to watch Damon sandwiched between two hot chicks, doing a little booty dance. Thank you, Show.
Elena confronts Bonnie while, separately, Stefan confronts Damon. Bonnie calls Elena on her objections, because if the situation was reversed Elena would die for her. Meanwhile, Damon just doesn't care what Stefan thinks.
Jeremy, who is still wandering the hall alone, is confronted by the compelled students who start kicking the crap out of him. Stefan and Damon arrive to save the day, and the students start shooting at them with crossbows that shoot wooden stakes. (Hey, boys, don't those weapons look like they belong to your buddy Alaric?) The compelled students are no match for the Salvatores, but then, they're not supposed to be. They're a diversion. Stefan realizes it before Damon does, stops big brother from killing the compelled kids, and dispatches him to go find Elena, while he (Stefan) disables the rest of Klaus's minions without killing them. Klaus, however, has already lured Elena and Bonnie away from the crowd. Commercial.
As Klaus leads the girls through the school, they realize things aren't right. At first they think "Alaric" is compelled, but then they realize Klaus is possessing him. Bonnie puts herself between Klaus and Elena as he says, "Relax, Elena. You're not on my hit-list, tonight." He turns to Bonnie with a smile and adds, "But you are." Bonnie uses her magic to toss him off, a couple of times. Klaus snarks that if she kills Alaric's body, he'll just get a new one, "Maybe Jeremy." Bonnie orders Elena to run, follows behind and magics the doors closed for good measure. They run into Damon in the hall and tell him that Klaus is in Alaric. He orders Elena to go find Stefan and um... shouldn't someone stay with her at all times? Oh well, there's no time for thinking on this show. Bonnie and Damon strategize, and he insists that Klaus doesn't get to win, tonight. "Are you still ready to do whatever it takes to kill him?" Bonnie nods and we cut to Elena running through the dance. Matt and Caroline notice how upset she is, but Elena won't tell Caroline anything in front of Matt. Caroline can at least guess that vampires are involved so she has to cover with Matt, who, all night, seems to waffle between being repulsed by her and still in love with her. Nice job, Roerig.
Back to Bonnie... she's walking down the hall and finally finds Klaus in the lunch room, which might be where she left him in the first place. My TV is really going and it's hard for me to make out details in these dark scenes. Anyhow, Bonnie starts out by hurting him slowly, breaking his fingers and such with her mojo. As she gets rougher, Klaus asks if she'd kill her favorite history teacher. Bonnie says Alaric would want her to, and he'd want her to make Klaus suffer first, too. Bonnie's nose starts to bleed almost right away, though.
There's a quick cut to Elena and Stefan confronting Damon in the hall -- demanding to know where Bonnie is. Damon seems disinclined to help them. Soon they run off. When they approach the lunch room, Bonnie magically closes the doors and continues assaulting Klaus. Lightbulbs are busting and sparks rain down on our warriors. Elena screams at Bonnie to stop and bangs on the door window. Bonnie turns and gives her BFF the saddest look and goes back to battle, but soon collapses on the floor. The lights go out and Stefan and Elena can finally open the doors. Klaus just disappears, which I don't really get, but whatever. Let's just pretend he's Stealth-Savatored out of there. Elena and Stefan drop to their knees and conclude that Bonnie is dead, because they don't realize there are still 15 minutes left in the episode. When Damon arrives on the scene, he orders Stefan to get the weeping Elena out of there and back to the Manse. He'll clean up. Elena is horrified at the idea that Damon is going to dump Bonnie's body, but they can't risk the Sheriff finding out about her death.
As soon as Damon loads Bonnie into the trunk of his car, Jeremy runs up, saying he got Damon's message but can't find anyone. "Where's Elena? Where's Bonnie?" Damon says they need to have a little talk and we cut to...
Mossy Manse: Elena is in the parlor sitting by the fire, sobbing and shivering. Stefan brings her a drink and softly encourages her to have some. I hope it's not blood. As Elena cries that it's her fault Bonnie is dead, Stefan points out that it's Klaus's fault. It's then that Damon walks in. Elena goes right for him and will have none of it when Damon talks over her and tells Stefan to calm her down. That's my girl. She calls him on talking about her like she's not there, so he tells her directly to calm down, and she does what I certainly would do. She smacks his face once he admits that he knew Bonnie was likely to die expending all that 100-witch-juice power. Damon continues talking, and takes his damned sweet time coming out with the true story. When he eventually gets it out, Elena learns that Damon and Bonnie knew they needed Klaus to believe Bonnie was dead, which meant Elena had to be convinced Bonnie was dead, but Bonnie's not so very dead after all. She cast a spell, and although Damon doesn't spell out the spell, it seems to me it must just be a spell that mimics death, although there certainly is plenty of speculation out there that she actually died for a time. Spell spell spell spell spell spell spell. I'm no longer sure I'm spelling that correctly. A lot of people have bagged on this fake-out for being predictable. It doesn't bother me, I think because until the reveal, although I knew Bonnie and Damon must have been up to something, I couldn't figure out what it was. Part of me wondered if she was going to be vamp-witch, 'cause that'd be cool.
We cut to the mansion where Bonnie juiced up with the 100 witches' death-magic. Is that supposed to be the original Salvatore place? Shoot me an email if you know. See, because if it is, I'm confused. Okay, so the original Salvatore mansion could have been built on the site where the 100 Salem witches were slaughtered. However, Damon knows about the site where the witches were slaughtered because in his day, the Council burned Emily Bennett on the same site, right? But how could it be on the same site if there was by then (and still is) a house on that site? Help. Help. Help.
Anyhow, Jeremy guards Bonnie's "corpse," and is lighting candles when she comes to and stops being dead/deadish. Hooray! Back at Mossy Manse, Damon sneers at Elena as he tells her Bonnie is okay. Commercial. And hey? Why's he steamed at Elena? I mean, if it's the face slap? Really? I remember Tyler Lockwood punching Stefan and hurting his hand. Surely a girly-slap doesn't hurt Damon, other than in his delicate feelings, but since he knows what Elena is going through -- on account of being the one who decided to make her go through it -- I'd expect him to be a little less put-upon in this scene. Whatever, the commercial is almost over.
Stefan catches up with Damon, who is stalking back to his room, and chides our Evil Pixie Monster for not telling him what was going on. Damon says there was too much of a risk that Stefan would tell Elena. When Stefan calls Damon out on what he put Elena through, Damon could not care less. He says he'll be the bad guy who makes all the life and death decisions while Stefan wastes his time worrying about collateral damage. "I'll even let her hate me for it..." He starts up the stairs and then turns back to Stefan. "But at the end of the day, I'll be the one to keep her alive." The beautiful brothers glare at one another for a moment, before Damon swans off.
Jeremy and Bonnie discuss whether the hideaway is safe (Bonnie is sure it is) and then do a little awkward product-placement for MiFi. I know this ticks off a lot of fans, but the CW is a struggling net-lette. What are good ratings for this show would guarantee cancellation on any of the big four American networks, so keep paying the bills, kids. That's what I say. Bonnie asks Jeremy to talk to Elena for her and tell her how sorry she is for what she and Damon had to do. Jeremy fires up the MiFi and Skypes Elena, who is already waiting at a computer. As a tearful Bonnie apologizes and explains that there wasn't time to let Elena in on the plan, Elena reassures her friend that it's okay, because when you watch your BFF die and then find out it was only a spell to fool the evil monster who wants to sacrifice you, you are inclined to cut your BFF some slack once you find out she's alive. I know I always have.
And now shit gets confusing. We cut to an outside shot of Mossy Manse, which seems to indicate some time has passed. Elena, who is no longer in her sexy hippy costume, but rather a purple T-shirt, saunters into Damon's room. He gets all defensive and explains that for Klaus to be fooled, Elena's reaction had to be real. Elena tells him she understands why he did what he did, so Damon raises his glass to make a toast. "Here's to duplicity." Elena approaches him as she lays out her latest terms and conditions. Bonnie so will not be dying for her. Damon is unmoved. "We need to kill Klaus, Elena -- real Klaus, who will probably be coming to pay you a visit soon, now that he knows Bonnie is dead. She's the only one who can do it." Elena says they'll find another way. Damon hopes so, but is unconvinced. When Elena apologizes for hitting him, Damon graciously accepts it, but then lays down his own terms and conditions. "Let me be clear about something. If it comes down to you and the witch again, I will gladly let Bonnie die." We cut to a reaction shot of Elena's face and then back to Damon whose eyes are nearly burning out of his head. "I will always choose you." And yeah, the Damon and Elena 'shippers have already opened a Facebook page of the same name. Coming soon? My money's on a fanfic archive. Elena (oblivious to the millions of people swooning over her uncomfortable attraction to her lover's brother and his unflagging devotion to her) sighs and lowers her eyes before bidding him good night. As she turns to leave, she allows herself to look longingly for a second as his great big... bed. Ooh girl, what are you up to?
Once she reaches the threshold, she turns back yet again -- for a parting glance. Oh my word. Is she Katherine? Is that why her clothes have changed? What is she doing? She's sneaking down to the dungeon and pulling the dagger out of Elijah. She is Katherine! Wait, SHE IS NOT KATHERINE. Ahhhhh show. You're confusing me.
Let me think this through. Katherine is with Klaus, under his compulsion, stabbing herself in the leg. At the top of the hour, Klaus outright stated he does not want Elijah resurrected. There's no way Katherine has gotten free to pull the dagger out of Elijah, unless Klaus has willed it, right? And Klaus wouldn't will it, because he is glad Elijah is dead and would like him to remain so. All right. So that's just Elena sending Damon a, "Screw you Damon, you are not sacrificing Bonnie for me, and that's that," message, in a show-don't-tell way. Okay. Whew. That really messed with my head. Was it just me? Anyhow, Elena pulls the knife out of Elijah and then slumps to the floor and waits for him to resurrect, because she does it her way, damn it. And yes, it's going to complicate things, but I love that Elena is not passive about her life and the lives of her friends. Also, I love me some Elijah, so pull that dagger out, girl!
I'll be back with the recaplet of this week's "Klaus" on Friday morning. In the meantime, please grade the episode at the top of the page and then join us on the boards, where we will always choose you -- unless Damon is one of the options.
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