Warning: Spoilers ahead!
This week’s episode of “The Vampire Diaries” brings us back to the Silas dilemma and finds a potential solution to bringing Bonnie back from the dead. In this fast-paced episode we also get a major revelation concerning Katherine. This show never fails to surprise us, so let’s get right into the recap!
“The Vampire Diaries” S5/E4 Recap “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
We begin with Dr. Maxfield experimenting on Jessie, who is turning into a vampire. Dr. Maxfield refers to Jessie as patient 62547 in his recording device and explains Jessie has gone two days without feeding. Jessie clearly doesn’t understand what is happening to him and why he is so hungry.
Outside the lab, Elena is back at the University and while talking to Damon on the phone she tells him she is focusing her energy on finding out what Dr. Maxfield knows about vampires and her father, and why he covered up Megan’s death. Elena approaches a guy sitting at Megan’s memorial site. She asks him how he knew Megan, and he explains he has known her since she was a child. Elena asks if he thinks Megan committed suicide and he says no. When Elena asks him if he has a name, he says yes and simply walks away.
Back in a motel somewhere near Mystic Falls, Silas calls Nadia and tells her he wants Katherine back. He explains he needs every drop of Katherine’s blood to cure himself from his immortality. Katherine is surprised; she thought she could give him a little of her blood and did not realize she would have to die to cure Silas. Nadia refuses to hand Katherine over to Silas.
At the Salvatore Mansion, Damon explains to Jeremy that he wants to work with Silas and help Silas cure himself. He explains he wants to use Silas’ death to bring back Bonnie for Elena. Silas explains Qetsiyah has a mystical anchor that links her spell to the other side. He tells Damon Qetsiyah knows where the anchor is and Silas wants it destroyed. Bonnie thinks Silas is not to be trusted and that he actually wants to destroy the other side, but Jeremy ignores her protests and agrees to the plan. In exchange for bringing Bonnie back, Damon agrees to kill Stefan.
Back at the motel, Nadia explains she has been tailing Katherine for 500 years. We learn Nadia is also a vampire and that she turned in order to hunt Katherine; Nadia tells Katherine she killed her mother in Paris in 1645. Taking Nadia by surprise, Katherine takes a wooden pole and stabs Nadia, then runs away.
Back at Whitmore University, Elena, Damon, Stefan, Caroline, and Tyler attend the Historical Ball. Elena sees the mysterious man she saw earlier at Megan’s memorial and ignores Damon to go talk to him. Elena compels him to tell her whether or not he killed Megan, which he says no, and why he is avoiding Elena. He explains everyone around him dies. When he finally tells Elena his name is Aaron, she compels him to forget the conversation. Clearly, Elena feels a connection with Aaron as she has constantly been surrounded by death as well.
Qetsiyah arrives at the ball and finds Stefan, who doesn’t recognize her because of the spell she performed that wiped his memory. Damon finds the two of them and takes Stefan away to a room with Silas inside. Damon snaps Stefan’s neck and Silas takes some of Stefan’s clothes so he can impersonate Stefan. He wants to pose as Stefan and search Qetsiyah’s mind while Stefan is temporarily dead. Silas approaches Qetsiyah and she does not realize he is not Stefan. Silas compels Qetsiyah and tries to get her to tell him where the anchor is. Qetsiyah explains she doesn’t know where the anchor is but she is looking for a pendent that will lead her to the anchor somewhere at the party; when Stefan begins to come back alive Silas’ power over Qetsiyah goes away and he cannot compel her anymore.
Meanwhile, Katherine finds Nadia in the street trying to get the stake out of her chest. Katherine knows Nadia lied to her about her mother and presses Nadia for the truth. Nadia explains Katherine killed her mother somewhere in England in 1492; Katherine is actually Nadia’s mother.
Back at the Historical Ball, Dr. Maxfield arrives and Elena asks him to dance. She doesn’t waste any time and immediately asks him why he lied on Megan’s death certificate. He explains he could not put that a vampire killed Megan on her official documentation because it would get the people at the University talking. She questions how Dr. Maxfield knows Megan was killed by a vampire, and he tells her there are people on campus watching her and her friends and they should all withdraw from the University and move back to Mystic Falls.
Qetsiyah finds her pendant and puts it on to cast a spell to locate the anchor. Silas finds her casting the spell, but she thinks he is Stefan. She realizes he is not Stefan when the real Stefan wakes up and Silas’ power goes away. Stefan snaps Damon’s neck and finds Qetsiyah. He tells her Damon has been working with Silas. Powerless, Silas cannot get away and Qetsiyah puts a spell on him that literally breaks his heart.
Before the Historical Ball is over, Dr. Maxfield stops Aaron on the staircase. He warns Aaron to stay away from Elena Gilbert. We learn that Dr. Maxfield is Aaron’s parental guardian.
Back at the motel room, Nadia wakes up with Katherine sitting next to her. Katherine explains she went looking for Nadia back in Bulgaria in 1498 but could not find her. Nadia seems touched that Katherine actually cared about her enough to come looking for her.
We end at the Salvatore mansion with the incapacitated Silas on the couch. Elena tells Damon that Dr. Maxfield somehow knows she and her friends are vampires. Damon explains that Silas will become a witch once he takes the cure, and then they will kill him in exchange for Bonnie’s life. Katherine arrives and is gleeful when she sees Silas on the couch and she thinks they are going to imprison Silas. Suddenly Damon bites Katherine and feeds her blood to Silas to turn him into a witch. Katherine screams while Elena looks on horrified; Katherine doesn’t want to die now that she has found her daughter. Silas drinks what appears to be all of Katherine’s blood but she doesn’t die and Silas comes back to life.
What an exciting episode. I rarely feel sorry for Katherine, but the way Damon ruthlessly fed her blood to Silas and her screaming she doesn’t want to die was quite shocking coming from her. It seems that Katherine might finally have something to live for now that she found her daughter, but we will see how that turns out in the coming weeks. The story behind Dr. Maxfield continues to be intriguing, as you really cannot tell whose side he is on. He experiments on vampires while warning other vampires to leave. I found this week’s episode an improvement from last week’s, probably because we were not bogged down by the Stefan-Elena-Damon love triangle for once. And it seems like they have a plausible solution to bringing Bonnie back from the dead. If they bring her back and have her work with Qetsiyah, it will hopefully redeem Bonnie’s character and make for some very interesting storylines.
