While Bonnie, Nora, and Mary Louise track down the Huntress, Stefan must save Damon from his self-destructive antics. Here is a recap of the Vampire Diaries episode “Postcards from the Edge.”
Recap:
Damon lies in the middle of the road just trying to make himself feel better. A car approaches, so naturally, Damon eats the driver and steals the wheels, but it didn’t make his pain hurt any less. Writing in her diary, Caroline fills Elena in on the latest gossip until Stefan interrupts with fries. When the babies start violently kicking, Caroline stands, only to pass out. Resting in the hospital, Caroline is fine and so are the babies. Just kidding. Caroline’s arm is desiccating. Valerie discovers the babies are siphoning Caroline’s tasty magical blood. She creates a talisman for the twins to feed off instead. Learning about Damon’s death wish, Caroline sends Valerie to keep both brothers safe.
Officer Penny Ares inquires about the arsenal of weapons she found in Matt’s truck, which he passes off as confiscated materials. She releases Matt without charges, but follows him to the house of a slaughtered man. Demanding answers, she learns all about Mystic Fall’s vampire problem and Matt’s decision to take a stand instead of run.
Valerie delivers a postcard with an ominous red X to Julian. Promising to follow through with feeding Damon’s entrails to Stefan, Julian takes Damon to his underground fight club. Wining his first match, Damon wants to go again. He’s paired with an undefeated fighter. With Damon stuck in a headlock, someone tosses him a stake, and he stabs himself free. Displeased, Julian steps into the ring, but Stefan and Valerie launch a sneak attack and get Damon out of there.
Bonnie and Nora track Rayna Cruz, the Huntress slash killing machine, to a psych ward in Cincinnati. Peeved about her own red X postcard, Mary Louise joins them. They find Rayna’s room, but she’s an elderly woman who just wants a cookie. Figuring she’s not the ruthless, terrifying Huntress, Bonnie sends the lovebirds to search the hospital, while she grabs that cookie. Alone with Bonnie, the woman chokes her and wants to know why she’s hanging out with vampires. She’s definitely the ruthless, terrifying Huntress. Coming out of nowhere, Enzo saves Bonnie with a knife to Rayna’s neck.
Damon finally confesses to burning Elena’s body, which Stefan takes not so well. He pays a visit to Julian. Valerie cloaks them when Stefan grabs Julian by the throat and kills him. Mary Louise finds Nora at a diner downing a beer. She apologizes for choosing Julian over her and would take it back if she could. Thinking she’s in the clear, Caroline feels an unexpected pain in her foot. It’s desiccating. So is her hand. And so is her face. Having stolen Rayna’s body, Enzo sets it ablaze, only to watch a younger version of the Huntress rise from the ashes. Three years from now, Matt syringes Stefan at the news station and tells the young Rayna he never wants to see her again.
Comments:
– “Postcards from the Edge” took several major strides forward, closing one chapter and opening another; however, the episode suffered from numerous repetitive beats that drowned the tension and interrupted the pace. With the introduction of the Huntress looming on the horizon for several episodes now, it was about time that Julian exited as the resident big bad and made way for a character who was far more interesting before we even met her.
– The scene with Damon lying in the road is one we’re all too familiar with. While his current emotional state and opinions about himself harken back to the early days when we first saw him employ this tactic, this go around offered us nothing new. Because this was most likely intentional as it’s a quick and effective way to demonstrate which version of Damon we’re watching at the moment, I’m willing to give the writers a pass. But next time, I hope to see a slight variation or a new ambiance with a scene of this sort.
– As violent as the Vampire Diaries can be, I’m surprised it took them this long before incorporating an extensive fight scene. As cool and impressive as the fights were, they were built on a false tension. A fight to the death works a whole lot better when one of the fighters isn’t your main character because the only two outcomes in this case were that Damon wins or he finds a way to lose without dying. Regardless, the emotional struggle mirrored by the physical struggle elevated these scenes to where they needed to be.
– Julian had a William Tell moment and Damon decapitated a man with a postcard… just a normal day in Mystic Falls.
– Damon’s entire downward spiral hinges on the fact that Elena is dead. To him, that’s the certain truth, but to the audience, we’re less than sure. We have seen far too many Phoenix Stone mind games to accept what Damon did to Elena’s body at face value. And Damon should probably question the validity of what he did as well. In addition, I can’t help but think that Bonnie would be feeling some sort of an effect if the person whose life was tied to hers suddenly died.
– Despite seeing the extent of Julian’s controlled chaos indoors, I no longer have a clear picture of what the town looks like outside of his walls. How is Julian able to control so many people? What’s he promising them aside from the chance to feed on straggling humans? What keeps them from running off into another town with a larger food supply and smaller competition?
– Bonnie and Nora’s blossoming Cheeto-filled friendship has been one of the most pleasant surprises of this series. It’s wonderful to see Bonnie relaxed and playful, living live and not burdened by something amiss with her powers, even though Kat Graham has absolutely nailed every variation of her character.
– Just like Caroline, I want her and Valerie to be friends even though they’re not “supposed” to be because television in general has a difficult time portraying female friendships. Surprisingly with this being a teenage drama, there haven’t been issues with the female characters having petty fights over the same boy, so I applaud the writers for that and hope they continue to stay strong on this path.
– The storyline between Matt and Penny Ares almost seemed as if they were setting her up to be the Huntress, but I guess Leslie-Anne Huff’s casting announcement kind of ruined that idea. But, they’re probably just setting her up to be Matt’s girlfriend who gets killed and leads him to helping the huntress capture the Salvatores.
– I feel like someone (re: me and the heretics) should have figured out sooner that the Phoenix Stone is named after an animal that rises from the dead for a reason. Nora just passes the Huntress’ long lifespan off as another gift from the Shaman who gave her strength. If someone had been chasing me and trying to kill me for centuries, I don’t think I would assume anything about her. What good is having an occult studies professor around if he can’t provide much knowledge.
