Nothing like a game changer to take us into a mini hiatus! Since last season, killing originals, especially Klaus, has been a relentless mantra. It finally took until this episode to learn why that is not a good idea.
“The Murder of One” ends up being just that. An original dies. The motivation is to kill them all by just killing one, thanks to the originals being bound by a spell by their witch mother. Turns out it’s a darn good thing that Klaus kidnapped Bonnie against her will and threatened Jeremy (who’s being watched by brother Kol) if she didn’t reverse the spell.
I pegged eldest brother Finn to be a goner the second he was ambushed by his younger brother and sister and forced to come back to Mystic Falls. They needed his blood so they could do the unbinding spell. Finn gave his blood and stuck around though, thanks to Klaus reuniting him with his long lost love, Sage. They had a whirlwind afternoon of catching up before team Stefan, consisting of Elena, Matt, and Caroline, ambushed Finn in the alley. Matt killed him with one of their white oak stakes and he burst into flames.
Naturally, all this happened minutes after Bonnie successfully did the unbinding spell, so only Finn died. This really pissed off Sage and one of her henchmen and they showed up at the Salvatore home ready to dish out retribution. Then, they died. No one killed them, they just…died. One brainstorming session later revealed the shocking reality, if an original dies, every vampire that’s part of their bloodline dies. If the unbinding spell hadn’t worked, every single vampire in the world would have died including Stefan, Damon, Caroline, and Tyler. Klaus isn’t looking so evil now, is he?
They do the math. Caroline was turned by Damon, Stefan and Damon by Katherine, she was turned by Rose, and who turned Rose? They have no idea. The only thing they know is Finn didn’t turn them. Caroline did bring up one obvious fact, they may not know who turned Damon, Stefan, and her, but Klaus did turn Tyler. So the whole killing Klaus idea is now off the table, as well as the remaining originals.
In the sweet bonding moment of the episode, Stefan tells Elena why he was so determined to kill Klaus, because he took everything away from him. Everything meaning the love of his life. Elena tells him she never stopped loving him, and while he does return that sentiment, he is very aware she also has feelings for Damon. When she can’t deny, the quandary is left there. Quite a pickle, isn’t it?
During all this Damon suffers horrible torture at the hands of Rebekah, and Stefan uses the remaining stakes to bargain for his life. Stefan didn’t have all the stakes though, and it was very easy for Klaus through compelling Damon to find that out. He has to return all the stakes or people start dying. Stefan has two but Alaric, (remember Alaric?) who’s on lockdown, can’t find his. His murderous vampire killing alter ego has hidden it!
When interviewing Executive Producer Julie Plec last year, I asked her about the whole killing originals notion when the dagger didn’t permanently kill Elijah. She gave this answer:
“We never considered them to be true immortals until we realized how much we liked Daniel as Elijah and then we thought, ‘Well, how hard can we make it to kill him?’ So forget about all those great twists and turns. The idea of removing the dagger, the dagger’s removal brings him back to life, was something again that we came up in the moment of wanting to have freedom to revisit Elijah’s character. Originals are going to be with us for a long time.”
With that knowledge, I went into this episode wondering how in the world they were going to get out of killing Klaus and Rebekah. Turns out to be a very brilliant twist. Kudos to the writers for outdoing themselves again. Maybe the characters will learn how to coexist with the originals instead of trying to kill them. I’m all for Elijah returning!
As for the episode, I’m quite perplexed why Stefan would want to keep the three stakes to kill three originals and keep the one alive that was linked to his bloodline. What about Elijah? He’s the good original vampire. What if it turned out he wasn’t the one? Also, the plan would kill a lot of other vampires. Surely some have to be friends. It just seemed half baked to me. Stefan is still letting that anger rule him too much and better start listening to Elena.
I also felt bad for poor Damon when Rebekah planted that dream in his head of Elena saving him (that was one very hot scene), and I give huge points to Caroline for forgiving Alaric for killing her father by remembering Elena’s words that none of them asked for this. As for Bonnie, hopefully she’ll see how what she did ended up saving everyone, even if it wasn’t her idea. Her little breakdown scene was exquisite.
The one who impressed me the most though is Rebekah, who stood up to Klaus, admiring how the Salvatores know the meaning of family because they would die for each other. She let Damon go on good faith, determined to make a life in Mystic Falls. Klaus has decided to leave town and make more hybrids again, which is code for “my family doesn’t love me.” I do wonder who will show him the error of his ways in the weeks to come. Caroline? Elena? Elijah (yes, I’m still harping on that).
The Vampire Diaries is on break now until April 19th. Next time, Jeremy and Tyler are back! Then they can work on getting Elijah. A girl can dream, right?
