“The Vampire Diaries” Season 4, Episode 21 Review: “She’s Come Undone”
We are back in Mystic Falls this week and the plot to get Elena’s humanity back continues. This week’s episode of “The Vampire Diaries” really moved all of the show’s stories forward and set us up for the final two episodes of the season!
The episode begins with Damon getting inside of Elena’s head to try and make her feel nostalgia for her final high school days. He puts images of Caroline talking about graduation in her mind, but Elena quickly realizes the visions are not real and she stops entertaining Damon’s tricks. The mind games do not stir Elena’s emotions, but Damon tells Elena he and Stefan will not stop trying to get her humanity back.
Meanwhile, Caroline arrives at the Salvatore mansion to try and help Damon and Stefan. She secretly gives Elena blood and tells Elena she doesn’t agree with Damon and Stefan’s methods of getting her humanity back. As Elena finishes the blood she instantly starts insulting Caroline by calling her pathetic and pointing out her flaws. As Caroline gets ready to leave, Elena tries to attack Caroline but Caroline stops her and snaps her neck. Hopeless and defeated, Caroline tells Damon and Stefan they should do whatever it takes to help Elena.
Outside the mansion, Caroline calls Bonnie to convince her to come help with Elena. Bonnie declines because she is still upset Elena tried to kill her. After Bonnie hangs up, Katherine shows up to meet Bonnie because she has an offer for Katherine. Bonnie wants Katherine to give Bonnie Silas’ tombstone. Bonnie won’t tell Katherine what she plans to do with the tombstone because she’s afraid Silas could get into Katherine’s head and figure out Bonnie’s plan. She tells Katherine it was a huge risk meeting Bonnie let alone conversing with her. Bonnie lets Katherine know she agreed to help Silas but ever since she agreed she has been hiding from him until the full moon when she can perform the spell. She explains she is not planning to help Silas but is planning to conjure a spell to stop him. Katherine wants to know what she will get for giving Bonnie the tombstone and Bonnie says it will be worth her while.
Back at the mansion, Damon and Stefan bring Elena to the main floor of the house and tie her to a chair. They show Elena that they took off her daylight ring and proceed to open the curtains and burn her with sunlight. After healing herself, Elena tells Damon she never loved him and the time she was sired to him was miserable. She throws herself into the sunlight and her whole body is set on fire; the brothers rush to save her, and she points out to them that saving her proves they love her and would never truly let anything bad happen to her. Stefan and Damon realize Elena is right, and decide to have Katherine come and torture Elena because Elena knows Katherine has the desire to hurt significantly hurt or kill her.
Klaus finds Caroline outside the mansion, and the two of them go walking in the woods. Klaus tells Caroline he came back to tell her goodbye and convince her to come to New Orleans with him. He then mentions something Elena told Caroline in the prison cell, and Caroline questions how he knows about that conversation. Klaus reveals himself to be Silas and stabs Caroline in order to send a message to Bonnie to get her out of hiding. Caroline wakes up and as she rushes to call Bonnie and warn her about Silas, she runs into visions of Matt and Klaus who threaten to kill her mother and everyone she loves if she doesn’t find Bonnie for Silas.
Katherine arrives at the mansion and begins torturing Elena. She wants to know what Elena told Elijah to turn him against her, but Elena explains she didn’t tell him anything. She tells Katherine she is simply damaged goods and no man would want to be with her. Insulted, Katherine continues to torture Elena and tells her would never survive without everyone fawning over her. While taking a break from torturing Elena, Stefan realizes Katherine did not lock Elena in the prison and she escaped. The group decides to split up to find Elena.
Caroline arrives at her house and rushes inside to make sure Silas hasn’t harmed her mom. Caroline finds her mom but hesitantly approaches her because she is afraid Silas is posing as her mom. Caroline calls her mom’s cell phone, and when her mom picks up the phone in front of her, Caroline becomes convinced it is truly her mom. While telling her mom about what is going on, Bonnie arrives at the house, but Caroline will not let her in because she is afraid Silas is acting as Bonnie. Bonnie starts screaming as Silas stands behind Caroline, and Bonnie uses her magic to get in and protect Caroline. Silas is furious Bonnie has gone into hiding, but Bonnie tells Silas she was hiding so she can gather her strength to complete the spell to help him. She begs Silas not to hurt any of her friends and Silas agrees but reminds Bonnie she made a deal with him and if she breaks it she will have to deal with the consequences.
In the forest, Matt’s car drives up behind a weak Elena. She sees him and proceeds to try to feed on him, but Matt stops her and tries to make her remember their childhood together and former relationship. He tells her he has never loved anyone as much as Elena and that he wants the old Elena back. She tells Matt that deep down she may have feelings for him, but her current hunger is stronger. Elena feeds on Matt but does not kill him. Stefan and Damon arrive and pick up Matt. Damon threatens to kill Matt in order for her to get her emotions back. Elena calls Damon’s bluff and Damon snaps Matt’s neck. Elena becomes visibly upset that Matt is dead, and Damon makes Elena realize she is feeling human emotions. To her surprise, Damon shows Elena Matt was wearing one of the Gilbert protective rings and he will live. Elena sobs and feels relief, Damon points out these feelings to her and it is clear her emotions are back. As her feelings poor into her, Elena begins to remember all of the people she hurt when her humanity was turned off and becomes hysterical. Stefan calms her down by telling her to find the one thing inside of her that makes her want to live and let it in. Elena focuses and begins to calm down.
Meanwhile, Katherine meets Bonnie and tells Bonnie she knows Bonnie is powerful enough to drop the veil between their world and the super natural world without a full moon; she wants to know why Bonnie wants to drop the veil. Bonnie says she has her reasons but does not give any specifics. Katherine demands what is in it for her, and Bonnie explains once the veil is dropped she will be able to communicate with Qetsiyah; Bonnie will have Qetsiyah perform a spell that will make Katherine completely immortal so that nothing can ever hurt her. After finding this out, Katherine quickly agrees to help Bonnie.
Back at the Salvatore mansion, Stefan tells Elena she needs to rest for some time to let the pain settle. Elena ignores him and tells the brothers she is going to focus all of her energy on the one person who has made all of their lives miserable, Katherine. Katherine is responsible for turning Damon and Stefan into vampires, she killed Jeremy, and made Klaus come to Mystic Falls. Elena explains Katherine is the one thing she focused on to continue living; her hate for Katherine consumes her and she lets Damon and Stefan know she plans to kill Katherine.
And that is the end of this week’s episode! I have to say this was one of the best episodes of the season thus far. It is such a relief to have Elena’s humanity back; it was becoming more tiresome every week seeing Elena without her humanity. Her stubborn attitude and nastiness to everyone was not very believable and was becoming predictable. Now it seems we are going to see what we have been waiting for all season, a confrontation between Elena and Katherine! It will be really interesting to see how Elena thinks she can harm Katherine since Katherine is a much older and stronger vampire. Also it is refreshing to see Bonnie take initiative and manipulate Silas. We hope Bonnie truly is plotting against him and her plan to get rid of Silas succeeds. However her plan to lift the veil between the human and supernatural worlds is very intriguing. If Bonnie lifts the veil, many past characters have the potential to come back and will make for some great story lines. We also wonder if Bonnie will truly ask Qetsiyah to make Katherine completely immortal or if Bonnie is simply tricking Katherine. If Katherine becomes invincible, it will make for an interesting confrontation between herself and Elena. As one can see, this episode laid the ground for many new and intriguing plots and we cannot wait for the end of the season! See you next week TVD fans!
