May I be quite frank with you? I kinda expected more. I feel like, sure, it was a good episode, as opposed to some bad ones we had this season, but it wasn’t spectacularly good. Maybe it’s just that this week’s Originals was so terrific, or that my expectations were just really high. But… it revolved around Katherine, that’s good. Klaroline finally happened (yay!), but it was so out of context of everything that I’m just #meh. I don’t know. Is it just me?
Let’s recapitulate:

Remember that scene somewhere in the second season’s ‘Katerina’ when Katherine gave birth and her child got taken away? They show that again, inter-cut by scenes from the present.
The doctors in the hospital are trying to get her heart to start again. They finally manage to do it and we cut to Stefan, waiting outside.
Nadia joins him and she refuses to believe that Katherine will die. Stefan tells her he compelled the doctors to let him take her home, but she won’t survive the day.

Blood drop.

Caroline and Bonnie barge into their dorm, waking up Elena. She says she doesn’t feel much like getting up at all. Bonnie asks her if she really wants to give up and Caroline quotes Damon dumping Elena to prove that she should.

Source: thevampirediaries.co.vu

I <3 Caroline.
Stefan calls and Caroline answers Elena’s phone, for Elena doesn’t want to talk. Stefan says she’ll want to talk about what he has to say.
Though, wait. This is literally the morning after the break-up. When did she drive back to college from Mystic Falls? Why didn’t they just stay at Caroline’s instead of driving back and forth? What is going on?

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Matt, dressed for work, walk into the Grill. (Since when does Jeremy work there again?) Damon sits, asleep at the bar. Jeremy informs Matt that Delena broke up and Matt doesn’t understand. As does anyone else.
Damon is awake, though. He pours himself another shot when Stefan calls him.

He learns that Katherine is dying and the three boys go over to the Boarding House. Damon proposes drinking on everything bad Katherine has ever done to them.

Source: iwantyoudamon.tumblr.com

Damon tells Matt that if it weren’t for Katherine, he would have never killed Vicki.
Are you seriously blaming your murder of Vicki on Katherine? It’s your own f**king fault if you kill someone! What the hell, Damon?
Elena walks in and it’s awkward for a moment, before Elena says that she definitely wants to drink on Katherine’s death.

Upstairs, Stefan is with Katherine. She figured they’re talking about her. Stefan says they’re just reminiscing. She says it’s all right, she probably deserves it. Stefan doesn’t look happy.

Downstairs, our ‘heroes’ are still having at it:

Source: thevampirediaries.co.vu

And don’t you forget it.
Stefan shows up and Damon invites him to drink with them. Also, he lets it drop that Steferine slept together. Elena is upset because that’s what she does. Stefan gives a speech about how Katherine was practically forced to become this way and that at least, she’s a survivor. He wants to drink on that.
Stefan just gained points right there. Honestly. I get that Katherine did many bad things to them and I get they’re not exactly sad about her death. But sitting in the same house, drinking to her death while she’s miserably wasting away upstairs, that’s low. I feel like you need to draw a line somewhere.

Nadia walks in. She wants them to help her help Katherine. Damon says that they sure as hell won’t save Katherine, but Nadia has made a plan. As Matt was going to get more liquor, she grabbed him and buried him in the Trauma Trunk somewhere in the woods. How long was he gone? Why did no one notice?

So, she then went off with Stefan and Elena. See, Nadia’s plan is to teach Katherine how to be a passenger and then, Katherine is to jump into Nadia’s body.
Elena reminds her that Katherine killed Gregor and is on the whole a horrible person and Stefan says that she was just killing Gregor to protect herself. Elena tells him to please not defend Katherine.

Source: teamklausbitch.tumblr.com

God, I hate Elena. Seriously? You left Stefan for his brother, remember? Lay off the jealousy, girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Bonnie, Jeremy and Caroline are out to find Matt. Caroline is extremely upset about Katherine and Stefan. (Wasn’t she in the house, though? Why is this news??) Bonnie and Jeremy kind of reveal that they slept together, too, which Caroline is in turn very excited about (why again is this such a big deal?). She asks if Elena knows and they tell her ‘no’. She calls it ‘scandalous sex’.

Source: salvatore-vampire.tumblr.com

Hello, foreshadowing.
Jeremy suggest splitting up and he and Bonnie practically just leave.

With Katherine, we flashback to that time that she came home after fleeing from Klaus and her entire family was murdered. She weeps over her mother’s corpse when Damon enters. He taunts her and tells her that this was all her fault.

In reality, Damon is about to suffocate her with a pillow. Conveniently, Sheriff Forbes walks in and tells him to put the pillow down. He says that every bad thing he’s ever done was because of Katherine.
Again, f**k you, Damon! Like, sure, she turned you and everything and a lot of everything that went down was her fault, but if you are a crappy person, that is your own fault! Damn it. What is wrong with you, Damon?

In the woods, Caroline is still searching for Matt. She gets slightly distracted, though:

Source: pethrovafire.tumblr.com

Hello, Klaus! It’s always good to see him, but are you also slightly confused? Considering the timeline, Davina died roughly… yesterday, so why is he suddenly in Virginia, looking positively happy? IDK, guys, the crossover didn’t even get acknowledged in this week’s Originals, so I’m just tempted to ignore the specifics.
She practically runs off, but he follows her. He says Damon called him to tell him about Katherine’s death (what in the actual hell is going on????). Caroline is decidedly not happy that he came to gloat. He’s much more interested in smirking about her break-up with Tyler. He tells her that he let him live and she advises him to lay off the revenge and not go gloating.

Nadia leads Stefan and Elena into an abandoned building. She says they’re the price they wanted for helping Katherine, because they needed doppelganger blood. She leaves and Travellers appear all around the building. They disable the daylight rings so that Elena and Stefan cannot leave.

At the Boarding House, Sheriff Forbes brings sedatives to help with the pain. Katherine says she doesn’t want them, because she’s afraid of Damon getting in her head again.
Liz asks if he’s heard from Elena, but he says they’r enot on speaking basis. Katherine tells her about the break-up and Damon swiftly plunges one of the needles in her arm.
So, we flashback again, this time to 1864. Katherine and Emily (hi, Emily!) are in a carriage on their way to the Lockwood Plantation. The carriage stops because the driver wants to help someone. Katherine is pissed, but when she leans outside to look, she sees this handsome fellow:

Source: teamklausbitch.tumblr.com

Yup, she fell in love right then and there.
In the present, she tells Damon that seeing Stefan was the reason she decided to stay with them in the first place and that it felt like fate to her.

At the barn, one of the Travellers cuts into their arms and they start bleeding into these large buckets. Elena gets slightly panicked as they realize they aren’t healing.

In the woods, Caroline still hasn’t found Matt. Klaus appears again and asks what she would do were he to abandon his revenge on Katherine. She’s pissed because he keeps distracting her from finding Matt and he says he’s get that covered. Look who found him:

Source: thevampirediaries.co.vu

Rebekah! So, I don’t know, after the devastating death of Davina, the Mikaelson siblings just jumped into a car and quickly drove up there or what? Whatever, whatever. That smile, though…

At the Boarding House, Damon is still torturing Katherine. These guys appear:

Source: iwantyoudamon.tumblr.com

Jenna! And I see David Anders abandoned being Dr Frankenstein for a second and came back as Uncle John! Nice.
Katherine screams and then someone entirely more pleasant appears:

Source: vd-gifs.tumblr.com

Sadly, that, too, was just a hallucination. Damon tells her no one is coming to say goodbye, cause no one cares. Nadia arrives and snaps his neck. You go, Nadia! He certainly deserved this.

At the barn, Elena and Stefan are still bleeding. Stefan tells her that Katherine helped him when he was still afraid of the Trauma Trunk. Elena grudingly admits that was good and asks if she can still hate Katherine.
Stefan switches topic and tells Elena that she shouldn’t give up on Damon, for he only pushes her away because he hates himself.
Their wounds heal and the Travellers allow them to leave.
It’s an all around good episode for Stefan. While Elena is so jealous, he is selfless enough to encourage her to give Damon another chance. It’s been a long time since I last liked Stefan so much.

Cut to Katherine. Nadia wants her to do the spell to jump into her body. Katherine refuses. She tells her that she’s lived a long and full life and she finally got to meet her daughter. Meanwhile, though, Nadia spent her life searching for Katherine. She wants her daughter to finally live.
Nadia says she won’t sit here and watch her die, so she storms off and leaves as Damon awakes.

In the woods, Klaus offers to leave and not taunt Katherine, if she, in turn, admits that she has feelings for him. She makes him promise that he’ll leave and won’t ever come back. He promises and she says she’ll admit what she wants. Have a look:

Source: salvatore-vampire.tumblr.com

You know how I once made my fangirl-shame corner a fangirl-shame room? I’m gonna have to make it a whole flat.
Still, this screams fan-service. I mean, I went into this episode expecting that exactly, but that doesn’t make it much better, right? I should stop thinking about this show, I guess, and just enjoy…

At the Boarding House, Stefan sends Damon finally out of the room. He sits down with Katherine.
In her mind, we see the night that her family was murdered again. She says Damon told her that it was her fault and that she thinks he’s right. She says she doesn’t deserve to be loved.

Source: teamklausbitch.tumblr.com

STEFAN.  I started lightly crying then and there, because he made all the bodies disappear and instead let Katherine see her baby.
In the present, Katherine is a sleep and Stefan says goodbye. Elena walks in and asks if she’s dead. Stefan tells her no, but he doesn’t think she’ll wake up again.

Outside, Damon and Stefan are sitting together.

Source: thevampirediaries.co.vu

Damon says he’s just being selfless, and Stefan just looks at him funny. Damon agrees to give it another go, but tells Stefan to remember this if they get back together.
I think this episode might have changed my Salvatore-brother-preference.

Inside, Jeremy, Bonnie and Matt are sitting together.

Source: salvatore-vampire.tumblr.com

It was broad daylight when they started and now it’s nighttime. Go figure.
Matt asks Bonnie about being the anchor and she says she sees loads of people, like her Grams. Also, she sees her:

Source: iwantyoudamon.tumblr.com

Hey Vicki!
Then, the door opens and in walks a much less pleasant surprise:

Source: iwantyoudamon.tumblr.com

I’d say welcome back, but Tyler’s a douche and he isn’t welcome.Damon and Stefan enter and complain because they drank four bottles of bourbon that day.
Alaric appears and says that they should lay off the booze. You’re one to talk, man. Mostly, though, yay, Alaric! Jeremy tells him he thought Alaric left for good.

Source: teamklausbitch.tumblr.com

I’d be a little more moved had Damon not completely sucked this episode.
Then, Bonnie suddenly sees Katherine. Katherine realizes she’s about to die and freaks out. She says it’s too soon and actually wills her spirit back into her body! Amazing! Oh, Kat, you’re the best.

Upstairs, Elena is sitting on her bed as Katherine awakes yet again.
Elena says she had planned this whole speech she was prepared to give her. Apart from the part about hating her, she wanted to tell Katherine that she forgives her. Elena sees that she wasn’t born evil, but lost everyone she cared about way too young. She can relate to that.
Katherine asks her to give her the last syringe. Elena grabs the needle and Katherine thanks her for forgiving. Elena pushes the needle into Katherine’s arm, but Katherine suddenly grabs her head and repeats the words to become a passenger. Elena falls to the floor, unconscious and Katherine’s eyes slowly close.

Elena’s phone rings and she answers it. The Traveller friend of Nadia’s speaks the words to bring Katherine’s spirit forth. Nadia asks if it worked and Katherine tells her that it did.

Source: thevampirediaries.co.vu

She tells Nadia she’ll see her soon and then walks over to the mirror and starts practicing her Elena impersonation.

That was a good, but predictable twist right there.
I enjoyed this episode, I said so much at the beginning, but there were a few things that bothered me… Elena, of course, I dislike the most whenever she deals with Stefan. Damon was a total douchebag this episode. Ugh. I’m almost disgusted by how crappy he was today. Stefan, on the other hand, was great. The good brother through and through. Of course, I’m also excited about Klaroline, but then, the whole of Klaus’ appearances was so out of context with what happens over on the Originals, that it felt really weird.
Anyway, tell me what you thought of this episode and I’ll see you next week or over on The Originals.
Have yourself a lovely day :)