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The Vampire Diaries Review: “A View To A Kill” (Season 4, Episode 12)

Yes. Finally. An episode of The Vampire Diaries that didn't play it safe this season. Momentum was to be had, alliances thwarted, and the return of an unexpected run away mom was made. The writers took chances, the characters made decisions, and things worked out - for the most part.

The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries

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“You can file that request under “no chance in hell.”’

Yes. Finally. An episode of The Vampire Diaries that didn’t play it safe this season. Momentum was to be had, alliances thwarted, and the return of an unexpected run away mom was made. The writers took chances, the characters made decisions, and things worked out – for the most part.

Bonnie (Kat Graham) is in the middle of a new chapter of her life with the introduction of Expression. A form of magic that takes its power from somewhere besides the spirits and doesn’t answer to nature. Basically calling dark magic by another name. Eventually it may become her undoing – because if we’ve learned anything, it’s that all magic has consequences – but her resurrection of power is continuing to come in handy for her friends in Mystic Falls. Her new powers may not help her to blow up balloons for the decade dance – we’re now up to the 80’s – but when it comes to keeping an Original from ripping out your heart, it’s having mostly positive results.

As if all of that isn’t enough for a 17 year-old to handle, her absentee father, Rudy Hopkins (Rick Worthy) has chosen a more active career path. He recently took over as mayor after the “accidental” death of Carol Lockwood (Susan Walters). Somehow even though we’ve never laid eyes on him before, he seems to be completely up-to-date on the supernatural happenings around town. After the painful interrogation with Professor Shane (David Alpay) last week (or yesterday, it’s hard to tell how much time has actually passed from episode to episode), he has taken a more aggressive stance with his daughter which started with cancelling the dance and ended – and not well – with the arrival of his ex-wife, ex-witch, Abby (Persia White). On the plus side, Abby looks like she’s adjusted to life as a vampire.

Luckily, Bonnie isn’t the only one dealing with some family issues. In fact, everyone – except for Matt (Zach Roerig) by default – is dealing with their own intertwined set of issues. Elena (Nina Dobrev) is trying desperately to keep her brother safe. Ever since Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) took on the hunter mark, he’s been a huge asset and a huge liability – depending which side of the hunt for the cure you land on, thus his Elena-imposed house arrest.

Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) lands firmly on the leave-the-cure-where-it-is side. I was hoping that somehow Kol would find a way out of the mix and on his way to New Orleans for the spin-off, but my hopes were clearly dashed in this episode. Taking Kol out of the mix made sense, but eliminating him completely was just unfriendly. Thousands of “innocent” vampires are now eating dust and Jeremy’s hunter mark is complete, but was it worth the wrath of Klaus (Joseph Morgan) – again? It was clearly the quickest way out of the predicament that they were all in and moved us forward. Lately, it had seemed like The Vampire Diaries had found itself in a doldrum and was having difficult moving ahead. That doesn’t seem to be the problem anymore. One more Original defeated, and Two reportedly heading to New Orleans. That only leaves Rebekah (Claire Holt) as the wild card. If all goes well, she might get her wish and be human again before the end of the season, taking her out of the Original equation alltogether.

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