“The Vampire Diaries” Season 4: Episode 19 “Pictures of You” TV Recap
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
After a two week break, “The Vampire Diaries” is back! We left off in Pennsylvania with Elijah getting the cure. This week we are back in Mystic Falls and it is time for prom! As the season comes to an end, it is nice that the cure is accounted for, but Elena’s needless moping needs to come to a close. All season we have been waiting for Elena to become a fearless vampire who ruthlessly protects her friends and family. The first half of the season portrayed an Elena who was too similar to her former human self, and this second part of the season she has been a heartless vampire with no humanity, the opposite of her human self. Fortunately, it looks like the story will soon address this disconnect and the vampire we have all been waiting to see will hopefully appear before the season ends.
The episode begins with Bonnie visiting Jeremy’s grave. Bonnie’s last memories of Jeremy were of them together in Silas’ tomb and Jeremy was trying to get the cure from Silas’ grave. Standing over his grave, Bonnie cries as she tells Jeremy her last words to him were, “We did it.” After she says this, Jeremy appears to Bonnie at the gravesite and tells her to open her eyes. Bonnie doesn’t understand what he means, but he keeps insisting that she open her eyes. Bonnie wakes up on her couch with her house on fire. Confused, she uses her magic to stop the fire.
At the Salvatore mansion, Stefan and Damon realize they will never get Elena to take the cure, but they can force her to get her humanity back. They hope that with her humanity back, Elena will want to take the cure. Stefan and Damon plan to take her to prom together and make her remember past feelings about her previous life and relationships. If this fails, they plan to imprison her and come up with a better plan.
Meanwhile, Rebecca, Elijah, and Klaus discuss what they will do with the cure at Klaus’ mansion. Klaus explains to his siblings that Silas can take anyone’s form and can get into anyone’s head to manipulate their thoughts, thus Silas is dangerous and needs to be stopped. He tells Elijah he would rather risk using the cure to kill Silas and have his enemies come back from the dead than worry about Silas torturing him for all of eternity. Elijah disregards Klaus’ concerns and decides Rebecca can take the cure if she proves to him that she truly wants to become human. Elijah proposes she live an entire day as a human and cannot use any of her vampire skills; she agrees despite Klaus’ anger with Elijah’s decision.
The Salvatore brothers escort Elena to the prom. Before they enter the gymnasium, they walk through a line of photo montages that display pictures of the senior class throughout the years. Stefan and Damon make Elena stop and look at the photos. She seems slightly moved by old photos of her with Matt and Jeremy, but upon feeling these emotions she abruptly leaves and enters the prom. Inside the gym, Bonnie and Matt approach Elena and try to talk to her, but she rudely brushes them off. Upset, Bonnie realizes the old Elena is gone.
Bonnie leaves the gym after her encounter with Elena. While walking outside she sees a vision of Jeremy. The two of them start dancing and Bonnie seems at peace, but when Jeremy suddenly starts talking with an accent, she realizes Jeremy is really Silas. Silas tries to convince Bonnie that she needs him to help her control her powers. He explains her powers will consume her if she does not help Silas. Bonnie demands Silas to leave her alone and says she will not help him.
Inside the prom, Rebecca approaches Matt and asks him if he thinks she would be a good human. He explains he does not think she would be a good human because he has never seen her do any good. Later at the dance, Rebecca begs Matt to dance with her so she is not left alone. He agrees, but while dancing he questions why she wants his opinion about her humanity. Rebecca explains that Matt is the type of human she would like to become; he is loyal, valiant, and kind. Matt doesn’t see what Rebecca sees in him and explains he is just a bus boy that works at The Grill. Rebecca tells Matt that the fact that people are willing to die for him shows what a good person he is.
At Klaus’ mansion, Elijah gives Klaus the white oak dagger with the hope that in return Klaus will stop trying to kill Katherine. Klaus keeps the dagger, but does not agree to not stop hunting Katherine. Elijah questions why Klaus has such a vengeful heart and why he cannot allow anyone else to have happiness.
Back at the prom, Bonnie tells the gang that Silas took Jeremy’s form and wants her to complete his spell. She explains Silas can take anyone’s form and they all need to be cautious. When Bonnie and Matt win prom king and queen and accept their award, Elena tells Rebecca she will kill Bonnie to ensure Bonnie cannot help Silas complete the spell. She says she will give Rebecca the cure so everyone will stop trying to give it to her.
Rebecca rushes to Matt to warn him that Elena may hurt Bonnie, but Elena gets to Bonnie first. Elena confronts Bonnie and attempts to kill her, but Bonnie uses her powers to stop Elena, and leaves the prom. Upset, Elena knocks April’s head against a table and bites her. Rebecca and Matt rush to help Bonnie, but find April unconscious and nearly dead. Matt begs Rebecca to help her, but she protests because she promised Elijah she would live as a human for a day in order to get the cure. Matt argues that helping April would show Rebecca would be a good human, and Rebecca gives in and saves April with her blood.
Outside the school, Elena attacks Bonnie from behind and bites her neck. Elena suddenly jumps off of Bonnie and spits out her blood. Bonnie heals herself and starts torturing Elena with her magic. Elena begins to scream and pleads with Bonnie to stop. Before Bonnie kills Elena, Damon and Stefan arrive and stop Bonnie. Elena passes out and the Salvatore brothers take her to their house and lock her up. They realized Elena was genuinely scared she would die when Bonnie was attacking her, which indicates she was feeling a human emotion. They determine Elena can feel fear, so they will need to make her life miserable in order for her to want her humanity back.
Back at the gym, Klaus appears to Rebecca and she realizes Klaus knows she broke her promise to Elijah to save April. She begs Klaus not to tell Elijah about her saving April, but Klaus tells her he will not keep it a secret and that she needs to go tell Elijah want she did. Rebecca goes to Elijah and explains she did not break her promise to him, and as a reward he gives her the cure. Elijah receives a phone call from Rebecca, and she tells him not to do anything with the cure and that she will be there soon. Elijah realizes the Rebecca he saw was actually Silas, and that he just gave Silas the cure.
At his mansion, Klaus finds a letter addressed to him from Katherine. In the letter she expresses her disappointment that he did not take Elijah’s deal. She also tells Klaus there is a witch in New Orleans that is planning to destroy Klaus, and once he finds out what this witch is plotting he will forget his obsession with Katherine and focus on finding this witch. Katherine tells Klaus he needs to go to New Orleans as soon as possible.
We end with Bonnie searching for Silas using her locator spell. She finds him hiding in the shadows of the Lockwood prisons. Silas tells Bonnie that by using the locator spell to him, she is finally acknowledging how powerful she is. She asks why he hides in the shadows, and Silas explains it is because of Qetsiyah’s revenge. Upset that Silas did not love her, Qetsiyah cursed him to ensure no woman could ever love him. Silas explains this is why he simply wants to die, and Bonnie tells him she wants him to die as well. He asks her if she is willing to risk killing him while bringing back every supernatural being. Bonnie does not answer his question, but demands he come out of the shadows. The episode ends with a brief glimpse of Silas’s true form.
Next week’s episode will follow Klaus to New Orleans and will be the prelude to the new “Originals” show, should the CW pick the new show up. Thus we will likely have to wait two weeks until we find out how the Salvatore brothers get Elena to turn her humanity back on. We will also have to wait and see if Bonnie decides to help Silas and finish his spell so that he may die. If Silas dies and all of the supernatural beings that previously died come back, it will certainly make for a compelling story next season. Not only would Jeremy come back, but Alarick, Vicki, Anna, Lexie, and a slew of other characters have the potential of being back on the show; it would be almost too good to be true. If Bonnie does not help Silas, what will become of him and who will take the cure? There are still a lot of potential endings for this season’s finale, but seeing as this entire season was built around Elena taking the vampire cure, we certainly hope she comes close to taking it or she helps determine who gets the cure.
