Captured and starving, Caroline fights with her friends trying to flip her humanity switch. Meanwhile, Bonnie goes after the Ascendant against Damon’s demands. Here is a recap of the Vampire Diaries episode “Because.”
Recap:
Stefan and Caroline check into a bed and breakfast for a little R&R. Damon delivers towels to their room, shooting them both with vervain darts. It’s all part of humanity-filled Stefan’s plan to help return Caroline’s humanity. They’ll drain her, make her weak, and bombard her with everything she loved, including a letter Sheriff Forbes mailed to her before she died. Three days of suffering hasn’t changed Caroline’s mind.
On vampire watch duty, Jo and Alaric discuss their upcoming wedding, then Elena interrupts their makeout session to say she vampire-proofed the B&B. It’s time to start. Elena gives Caroline the letter, but Caroline orders Stefan to burn it. Poof. Gone. Damon takes Elena’s mind off losing her ace in the hole by playing the “let’s pretend we’re human” game. Where do you see yourself in five years? Elena’s a surgical resident married to Damon and living with their kids above a bar he owns. Trying another approach, Elena gives Caroline case files of the people she’s killed, but that has no effect either.
Damon brings Bonnie a coffee to soften the blow of telling her about giving Lily the Ascendant. It doesn’t work; Bonnie fears Lily will come after her now. She’s also upset at Damon for not telling Elena about the cure. Expecting to meet Bonnie at the Mystic Grill, Lily instead dines with Enzo while Bonnie searches the mansion for the Ascendant. After explaining to Enzo why she abandoned him after she turned him, Lily returns home to find the Ascendant gone. She demands the Ascendant or she’ll destroy the cure, so Damon pays another visit to Bonnie. She informs him that if he really wanted to use the cure on Elena, then he would have by now. Regardless, she offers him the Ascendant, but he declines.
Caroline discovers that Stefan already flipped his switch, so she snaps his neck, kicks down the door, and escapes. Driving home and wanting a snack, Caroline deliberately gets pulled over, but by none other than Sheriff Forbes. She reminds Caroline how she raised her daughter to be a good person, causing Caroline to realize that Stefan’s playing mind games with her. Caroline wakes and stabs him. He continues, showing her a real memory of him and her mom. This affects Caroline, causing her to break down in tears and turn the switch.
Lily tosses the cure box into the fire, only it’s empty because she laid out the cure for Elena to find. Amidst a walk, Lily calls Enzo to meet her in the middle of the street. Despite her best efforts not to, she went all ripper on a guy who almost ran her over. Damon tries to defend to Elena his choice not to tell her about the cure, and Elena decides they should give it to someone else. Damon disagrees. He wants her to take it, and he’ll take it with her.
Comments:
– While it was an entertaining episode in itself, “Because” felt more like it was stalling than telling a vital piece of the puzzle. There were big, important moments in this episode, such as Caroline regaining her humanity and Elena discovering the cure, but it was also filled with scenes that to make the audience wait around until everything blew up for the characters. They were fraught with chitchat and not action, but as we near the end of the season, things will heat up.
– This episode did a sufficient job building complications to the struggle of turning Caroline’s switch, but it also started out on a rather novice note. It was hard to believe that Elena would not have considered the possibility of Caroline burning the letter and that Elena would have used her trump card right out of the gate. Elena’s too smart and experienced in humanity-free tactics to do something like this.
– Even though it was introduced seasons ago, the mind game trick has been so scarce that it’s easy to forget about it, which means it’s all the more surprising and impressive when it’s used.
– It’s a relief to now have the existence of the cure out in the open. Characters keeping secrets from one another is not as interesting or real as watching them face the challenge.
– As adorable as it is watching Jo and Alaric prepare for their wedding, it would be equally as fascinating to see how they plan to prepare for a baby in Mystic Falls. Is there a protection spell they plan on using? How much knowledge of the supernatural world do they want the child to grow up with? Can the baby be a witch if Jo no longer has powers?
– Although it may not seem like much, Lily calling Enzo, “Lorenzo,” is an interesting choice. It’s fun and entirely appropriate that they’ve continued to use Lily’s old-fashioned speak and mannerisms in the present day. It establishes her character so well and so quickly and makes her a unique presence in Mystic Falls.
– That B&B must not have been up to regulation if the smoke alarm didn’t go off when there was an actual fire in the room. My smoke alarm goes off any time the oven is over 400 degrees and nothing’s even remotely close to being on fire.
– There’s a good chance that the scene with Matt checking up on his abdomen wound was solely a way to get a shirtless scene.
– Since when has Damon ever been P.C.?
Bonnie: Damon, you are the one who said her friends are vampires who can do magic.
Damon: I think the P.C. term is witchpire.
