This week marked the much needed return of Klaus. He really is such an enticing villain and intensely interesting character all around. The havoc and twisted situations that ensues due to Rebekah and him are the driving force of the episode. Klaus has Bonnie trapped and forces her to undo the family binds that ensures that if one of them dies they all die. Without this bind, Elena and the Salvatores would not only have to do the impossible by killing an immortal original, but they would have to kill every single one of them. The chances of them doing this without them catching on and retaliating that much more viciously in a mere second are non-existent. This means the death of their hopes of killing the original family who all want Elena either dead or on hand for when they can use her.
The Salvatores have made themselves enemies of the most powerful vampires ever. It soon becomes even more complex than this. When Elena hears about Klaus and Rebekah holding Damon hostage and torturing him to unforgiving extents she realizes that they are no longer bound. After they killed one they should all be dead. The bloodlines of vampires and who they turned could play a far more threatening role.
Rebekah takes her opportunity to make Damon pay for deceiving her, enjoying every second of it. She is completely vicious and gleeful, capturing the darkness that she holds at her core. Damon never falters despite the intense torture that he is going through, an overwhelmingly noble gesture which says quite a bit about his character and the strength he holds. He might be powerless to fight back, but he still doesn’t have to play the victim and give Rebekah the reaction she wants. When Elena finds out about this she sets out to save him at all costs. Stefan is seeing the bigger picture. He knows his brother wouldn’t want them to focus on him and disregard their chance to get somewhere in their fight against the originals.
Stefan is doing what’s best for Elena and what Damon would want. Elena cares too much for Damon to let Damon be sacrificed for her. Stefan finally confronts her that although Stefan and her might love each other she clearly loves Damon too. Elena doesn’t deny it for once. Hopefully she’s getting to the point where the truth is too much to hide from. She definitely needs to confront what she feels and what she wants at this point, everyone else has.
There are some interesting revelations with Caroline. She finds out who killed her father, which is a hard thing to digest as it’s not someone she can truly hate. Any type of revenge or fight is out of the question. Caroline, Bonnie’s mom, the Salvatores, and so many others are just as guilty as her father’s killer. They have all killed and none of them asked for this. It is a part of who they are that they have to fight, but that instinct to kill is always in them. Caroline realizes the guy she killed shortly after being turned could have likely been someone’s father or loved one. We see a step further in to Caroline character, showing the anger, betrayal, defeat, difficult understanding, and eventually her being the bigger person as hard as it is.
