Nora and Mary Louise’s anniversary party turns into an opportunity for the Salvatores to strike against Julian, but he’s not the one left lifeless at the end. Meanwhile, Caroline grapples with her pregnancy. Here is a recap of the Vampire Diaries episode “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.”
Recap:
Three years from now, Lily stands before a groggy Damon in the news station. Today, Stefan and Damon discuss their plan with Enzo; they’ll swipe Julian’s blood, have a heretic unlink him from Lily, and down he’ll go. But first, Valerie must sway the other heretics to their side by telling them the truth about Julian. Finding Lily as she searches for the book Nora read to her family in the prison world, Enzo asks Lily to flee town with him, but she declines. Starting the celebration for their 133rd anniversary, the Lovebirds overcook their pancakes. Julian surprises them with a party filled with glitter, confetti, and all those compelled townspeople hooked up to IVs. He collected them for just this occasion. Even though Lily abhors the idea, she makes an exception. It’s party time.
Caroline shows up to the Lockwood Mansion as the Salvatore brothers are on their way out. Valerie escorts Damon out, leaving Caroline to tell Stefan she pregnant. He doesn’t really know what to say, and who would? Dragging Julian aside, Mary Louise shows him an engagement ring for Nora. He gives her a flashier one from a French princess. Julian then swoops Lily away to dance to a song Beau sung and prompts her to chow down on a partygoer. Damon walks in just as she bites and immediately walks out. Lily attempts to justify her actions, but Damon confesses he’d leave her in the prison world if he had the chance to redo everything.
Mary Louise proposes to Nora at a romantic outdoor spot. She says yes! Their happiness is cut short when Valerie makes the moment about her. Gathering the family (minus Julian), Valerie tells her story. It’s all hugs afterwards. Stefan seeks counsel from Lily regarding Caroline. Be an understanding boyfriend. Lily believes it’s too late for her to start over with her sons. Stefan assures her that she hasn’t lost him, but it’ll take time to get Damon back. After drinking, snacking, and wallowing about not getting the girl, Enzo gets kidnapped.
Stefan calls Caroline to apologize about his abrupt exit earlier. Also, he loves her, and he’s not going anywhere, no matter how weird things get. She loves him too. With Julian tied up, Mary Louise demands proof from Valerie to back up her story. Mary Lou frees Julian anyway before storming out and encountering Nora, who returns the ring after she realizes it represents Julian’s ability to manipulate them. Julian ties up Valerie and Damon and orders Lily to choose which ones lives and which dies. She refuses. Failing to talk Julian down, Lily asks Damon for his forgiveness, but he gives her none. Lily stakes herself, unaware that she’s no longer linked to Julian. He thought unlinking himself would protect Lily, but it killed her instead. Three years from now, Lily tells Damon he’s hallucinating from werewolf venom. He apologizes for his cold shoulder.
Comments:
– “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” focused more on a single story and its off-shooting drama than the episodes usually do with two or three storylines in play at any given moment. This slowed the pace and allowed for several interesting scenes between certain characters that highlighted their complicated relationships without thrusting the plot forward. Overall, this stands as a rather average episode until the end.
– This episode was fraught with anger radiating from a multitude of characters, but it didn’t land well enough for the audience to share in that emotion, even if we wanted to. Between Enzo’s anger over Lily not choosing him, Julian’s anger over Lily not choosing him, and Damon’s anger over Lily not choosing him way back when, her choices were put at the forefront, but she’s been such a monotonous presence that there’s been little to grasp onto and feel for her. As much as I want to feel sadness over the loss of Lily, I feel more for the lost of potential. Annie Wersching was as great in the role as she could be, but the role didn’t live up to her or the character’s potential, especially with so many strong reactions regarding her choices.
– The mislead of showing Lily in the flash forward only to have it be a hallucination was a classic trick as effective as it is irksome. The fact that The Vampire Diaries has been casting an actress for a role that sounds a lot like the female hunter’s role made it difficult to believe the brief moment in which Lily is presented as this hunter. In addition, Lily’s presence in the future kept the audience from jumping to the conclusion that she would die by the end of the episode in the present day, but there wasn’t really a need to dispel this thought.
– “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” finally gave us a storyline with the Lovebirds as the main focus without actually giving us much to latch onto. While their engagement was cute, and certainly impressive given that they’ve been together longer than every couple ever, it did not provide enough backstory or emotional drama to alter the audience’s opinion of them from selfish, one-sided characters.
– Like Lily, Julian is still rather underdeveloped for so many characters wanting to kill him. Everyone has been hanging onto what he did to Valerie as the only example of his evil nature. To understand the strong character motivations, I think we need to see more of what he’s capable of and what threat he poses.
– Between Enzo getting kidnapped in the back alley and Julian demanding that Lily choose which loved one he’ll execute, it looks like some of The Vampire Diaries writers have been watching Arrow.
– During Mary Louise and Nora’s fight, one of them mentioned that Valerie murdered her own brother. It took me far too long to realize that she was talking about Oscar and not referencing an event that we haven’t been privy to.
– Poor human Matt. He’s doing the best he can with the resources he can scrounge together and yet Enzo still blames him for his failure to stop the murder party. The last scene between Matt and Enzo gives me hope that there will be an exciting Matt-centric storyline in the near future.
– Julian: She loves you. She would have said yes when it would have gotten her beheaded.
Mary Louise: Why am I so nervous?
Julian: Probably because the love of your life is far too vain to wear whatever that tiny little rock is reflecting light in that box.
Mary Louise: Lily doesn’t allow us to leave Mystic Falls, so my options were limited to coal miner chic.
