Lily throws a party, which invites Stefan to try to kill Julian, despite Damon’s protestations. Meanwhile, Alaric spends time with Faux Jo and receives shocking news about their twins. Here is a recap of the Vampire Diaries episode “Best Served Cold.”
Recap:
Three years from now. Damon asks Alaric if he’s talked to his fiancée lately. No, she’s probably just busy with work. Oh, there she is on TV. Caroline broadcasts an S.O.S. with an urgent message for Stefan. In dreamland, Stefan teaches his son, Jacob, to shoot a rifle, until Jacob disappears. Caroline inquires about the name Stefan’s muttering in his sleep. It’s no one. Since Valerie’s in danger, Caroline suggests that she disappear. Seattle. Indonesia. Anywhere but here. Valerie sparks jealousy when she’s surprised that Stefan didn’t spill the beans on why she hates Julian, but then again, Stefan always keeps his word.
Receiving an invitation to Lily’s party, Stefan decides tonight’s the night to kill Julian, but Damon wants to wait six months or so. His death will be all the more devastating then. Bonnie tells Alaric, who’s watching his wedding video, that she can’t keep an eye on Faux Jo anymore because she has to party. People fill the Salvatore mansion. Stefan passes Damon. Bonnie and Enzo walk in together. And Matt Donovan shows his sparkly blues. During Stefan’s game of pool with Julian, Damon tells a story about a guy who tried to kill a vampire during a game of pool. Unfortunately, the guy’s hero hair was a little shorter than Stefan’s, so it didn’t end well. Introducing Julian to the crowd, Lily hopes to restore Mystic Falls to a state of peace. Enzo overhears Julian ask Beau to locate Oscar’s car, then Enzo has an up close and personal chat with Bonnie, who decides to help him make Lily jealous.
The Salvatores argue about when to kill Julian. Matt joins, drinking Damon’s bourbon, so Damon takes a big ole swig, only to find out it’s laced with vervain. Matt syringes him to the ground. All part of Stefan’s plan. Stefan’s throw down with Julian ends when Lily extinguishes the flames consuming Julian. Julian explains that the stone contained his own personal hell. Every day he woke up and killed the woman he loved. He tried not to let it break him, but it changed him. Regardless, Lily’s furious about his blind rage. Her children will not be harmed. He’s concerned that she’s not the woman he loved and that he’s not the man she loved. Bonnie and Matt search the high school and find a classroom of compelled, motionless students hooked up to IV drips. Later, Stefan comes clean about his never child. Damon adds that he and Elena talked about wanting a family.
Alaric finds Jo at Whitmore. She diagnosed herself. No one is immune to Web M.D. Her research didn’t predict the nosebleed and bloody cough though. Valerie explains that a human body can’t contain a vampire soul. Alaric comforts Jo on her deathbed. She remembers that she’s Florence and died when a woman wielding a metal sword pierced her heart. She apologizes for not being his wife. It’s okay. She allowed him to hear Jo’s voice again. Goodbye. Watching the wedding video, Valerie recognizes the coven’s spell chanted amidst the chaos. A relocation spell. His twins are alive. During the locator spell, Alaric’s blood travels off the map and lands in front of Caroline. Looks like Caroline has two buns in her oven.
Comments:
– Instead of dazzling us with fancy explosions or big reveals regarding the overall mythology, “Best Served Cold” focused on the small character moments to dazzle us with the depths human connections. This episode spent quite a bit of time making sure the audience knew what the characters wanted, which can become difficult to track with changing allegiances and new information coming to light. It provided a suspicious calm before the storm, buying time and amping up tensions as the midseason finale approaches.
– Six episodes into the season, the series finally feels likes it’s refocusing on the drama between the Salvatore brothers. After years and year of a war between Team Delena and Team Stelena, it’s about time for Team Salvatore to take the lead. Even though Stefan and Damon had the same conversation about when to kill Julian at least twice, their bickering felt like a classic scene from The Vampire Diaries. Despite disagreeing on the timetable in the beginning, it was wonderful to see these two brothers reach an agreement at the end and to see Damon supporting Stefan in his little emotional crisis.
– Damon’s line to Stefan about him (Damon) being the bad brother, so don’t cross over into his territory struck an interesting note. Not only is Damon taking on the protective role of older brother, which accentuates his good side, but he’s also reestablishing his lifestyle in his pre-Elena days, which focused on his bad side. Over the years, Stefan and Damon have traded places more than a few times, with Damon learning how to live up to Elena’s idea of how good he is and Stefan falling into ripper mode and causing heartbreak and destruction. It just goes to show how these brothers are more similar than they’re willing to admit.
– Well, well, well. There were a few interesting developments in Caroline’s story this week. The reveal that she’s engaged to Alaric came out of nowhere because there hasn’t been a hint of anything beyond a student-teacher relationship between the two of them, but after the reveal that she’s carrying his twins, things started to make a little more sense – not a lot – but more than none. It makes me wonder whether the engagement is genuine or a cover story. I’m interested in learning more, if only to make sense of it.
– The Gemini coven’s relocation spell was convenient but not that far fetched given how adamant they were about having a twin as a leader.
– Jo was killed off (again) just as quickly as she reappeared. I feel like there was a missed opportunity in sending her on her way already. The show had the chance to explore the concept of possessions beyond what Katherine did to Elena because those were both known characters played by the same actress and this would have been a new arena. As much as I wish they had played out the Faux Jo angle, allowing her to spend time developing the character of Florence, Alaric and Jo’s goodbye scene made her death mean more the second time around. Beautifully acted by both parties, this scene couldn’t have been a more perfect and impressively executed goodbye, especially since Jo wasn’t even Jo.
– The female hunter hasn’t shown up in a few episodes, but we did get a tit bit of information about her, namely that her sword is made of metal but can still kill vampires. Witchcraft, perhaps? Or simply an old loophole in an even older mythology?
– With Julian going behind Lily’s back in asking Beau to track down Oscar’s car and going behind Nora’s back in helping Mary Louise get her swagger back by voraciously feeding, things with this family can’t end well. Since the beginning of the season, there’s been discord amongst the group, and it keeps becoming more splintered. I’m still waiting to see this united family that Lily thinks she has.
– Are we calling them Benzo or Bonzo? In contrast to last week’s episode, there was a spark of attraction between Bonnie and Enzo when she fixed his tie, but nothing screams romance yet.
– What is going on with the students and their IV drips? Is the high school the heretics’ feeding ground? Or is there something more sinister at play?
– It never ceases to amuse me which obscure pop culture references they are able to sneak into this show. This week, Nora gave Julian a lesson on how to play Candy Crush. I’d like to see a heretic master Twitter.
– Damon went to Lily’s party so he could drink his own bourbon. He would use that as an excuse.
– Bonnie: I have to go to Mystic Falls. Lily Salvatore is having some peace party mixer, which will probably result in half of my friends nearly dying if I don’t attend.
– The dangers of Web M.D… even for an old vampire soul.
Alaric: I see you’ve mastered the Internet.
Jo: One of the students showed me something called Web M.D. Apparently, I have a form of retrograde amnesia. So far, I’ve cancelled out encephalitis and paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis. Most of my characteristics fall into fugue state amnesia, which is rare, but then again, so is coming back from the dead… which I just said too loudly.
