THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: Season 4, Episode 22 “The Walking Dead”

NiceGirl Lisa is still taking a little time off so I (as well as NiceGirl Leah) am helping with the recaps of The Vampire Diaries.

In the penultimate episode of The Vampire Diaries, the veil between our world and the supernatural afterlife is about to come down and that means some familiar faces show up for good and bad reasons and there are several surprises in store for the residents of Mystic Falls.

Let’s start at the beginning:

STEFAN AND ELENA – Stefan is trying to divert Elena from her goal of killing Katherine by making her break down cinderblocks, but that isn’t really working. [Like anything will take Elena down off the “I hate Katherine and want her dead” pedestal, right now. Am I right or am I right?]

BONNIE AND KATHERINE – The girls are in the forest near the Lockwood “bunker”, which is where Klaus killed the 12 hybrids and is also close to where the 12 humans were killed by April’s dad and where the 12 witches were killed when Caroline saved Bonnie. As we all know, those are the three massacres that were needed to bring down the veil between our world and the other side. Now all Bonnie needs is the tombstone (which Katherine has in her possession). The one assurance that Bonnie made to keep Katherine in line is that she connected the vampire to her – whatever happens to Katherine happens to Bonnie. [That can’t be good, right?]

STEFAN, DAMON AND THE SHERIFF – As we also know, blood has been taken from many of the nearby hospitals and now it would seem that patients are being drained of blood (5 victims so far). The sheriff believes the culprit is Silas, as he must be “fueling up for something big”. Her worst fear is confirmed when Damon tells her about the ceremony that Bonnie needs to perform on the next full moon (which is the following day).

AT THE MYSTIC GRILL – Matt and Rebekah along with Caroline and Elena are all at the Grill, biding their time, keeping Elena distracted from her “kill Katherine” stance; but then a horrible wind storms rolls through, knocking out all the power in the town. That storm is actually Bonnie bringing down the veil…dun, dun, dun!

HIGH SCHOOL – It would seem the center of the triangle (the locations of the three massacres) leads straight to – where else? – the Mystic Falls high school, meaning that Stefan, Damon, Caroline and Elena are all there searching for Bonnie and Katherine. The search throughout the school gets them nowhere, but it is soon determined that Bonnie and her unwillingly-linked “sidekick” are underground. Using the tombstone, Bonnie sets in motion the process to bring down the veil and it work…bringing back Alaric (guest star Matt Davis) [SAY WHAT?!], who helps Damon after Elena stabs him with a stake so she can go after Katherine. Damon is dubious that Alaric is really Alaric so he proves it by grabbing a bottle of liquor out of Locker 42 (a secret hiding place that only he and Damon knew about).

KATHERINE AND ELENA – Katherine senses someone is underground with her and Bonnie; thinking it is Silas, Bonnie gives Katherine a bit of latitude to move around. But instead of it being Silas on the prowl, it is Elena, who begins to enact her revenge on Katherine. Every blow and injury on Katherine shows up on poor Bonnie (since, as we know, they are linked). Soon enough, though, Stefan stops Elena.

BACK AT THE GRILL – Rebekah and Matt are the only people left at the grill after the horrible wind storm has died down; and they are soon visited by her dead brother Cole, who has only one agenda: to kill Elena. He injures Matt, leaving Rebekah to kill up that mess and soon enough discovering that Caroline is actually in the back kitchen repeatedly slicing her wrists. She is under the control of Silas and the Caroline with the gang at the high school is obviously Silas. Rebekah and Matt can’t seem to break the real Caroline out of the spell until Rebekah soundly punches Caroline in the jaw, which (for whatever reason), literally knocks the sense back into the girl.

BONNIE AND SILAS – In the guise of Caroline and then Stefan [and then repeatedly back and forth between those two disguises as well as the distorted monster that he has revealed to Bonnie), Silas is underground with Bonnie, telling her that he has known what she has been attempting to do all along and unless she follows his commands, he will kill her. But, Bonnie attempts to stand up against him, only to be held under his control as he begins to pull the breath right out of her lungs. As she crumbles to the ground, Silas in the guise of Alaric leaves. As Bonnie struggles for air, her Gram (guest star Jasmine Guy) appears there to convince her it is nothing more than another of Silas’s mind games. Bonnie then recovers quickly and goes after Silas, who is quickly caught by Damon. As Damon holds Silas (in the guise of Alaric) with a chain around his neck, Bonnie uses her power to (hopefully) finally stop him for good by turning him to stone.

ELENA AND COLE – After Stefan stopped Elena from harming Katherine in order to protect Bonnie (due to their connected link), Elena has to face all of her emotions – and where does she go: to Jeremy’s grave. But she is quickly interrupted by Cole who starts giving her a beat down. But Cole doesn’t get very far before Jeremy (guest star Steven R. McQueen) shows up with his crossbow to take Cole down. Cue happy reunion between brother and sister.

ENDING – Damon, with the help of Alaric (the real ghost version of Alaric that is), is tasked with taking care of Silas [and thank God Alaric found the cure in one of Silas’s pockets and that cure is now in Damon’s possession]. Stefan takes care of Cole’s body then heads back to the grill where he is visited by his deceased best friend Lexie (guest star Arielle Kebbel). Rebekah and Matt leave the Grill just as the power is restored in the town only to reveal Rebekah’s long dead vampire hunter boyfriend Alexander (guest star Paul Telfer) appearing in the middle of the square as well as the returns of deceased vampire hunters Galen (guest star Charlie Bewley) and Connor (Todd Williams) [this isn’t going to be good!] And, Bonnie goes back to the underground area of the high school where she attempts to bring Jeremy back from the dead, but that does not go well as she crumbles to the ground and moments later wakes up on the other side with her Gram as she looks down at her prone body, uttering the ominous last two words of the scene “I’m dead?!”

This episode entitled “The Walking Dead” was written by Brian Young and Caroline Dries and was directed by Rob Hardy.

Next week’s episode is entitled “Graduation” and is the season finale. Make sure to mark your calendars to watch The Vampire Diaries on The CW on Thursday, May 16 at 8/7c to find out what happens.