The Vampire Diaries: A View to Kill

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

After a hundred and fifty years, Stefan should have known that when you have a one night stand with an original there are always strings attached.

Klaus knows that his brother Kol is hell bent on preventing them from finding the cure and since all of his daggers were taken, he wants Stefan to get the last one from Rebekah; a task easier said than done. Just as Stefan is about to make his way to Rebekah, he gets a call from Elena with a plan of her own. Elena plans to kill two birds with one stone by having Jeremy kill Kol which would lift Damon's compulsion to kill her brother and simultaneously complete the hunter's mark to find the cure. Stefan is on board but knows that one wrong move could spell their end. Elsewhere, Bonnie is attacked by Kol himself but manages to get away using her newfound powers. When she gets home, it's not quite the welcome she expected when her father plans his family meeting and has her mother, Abbey, show up. The two runners up for worst parents of the decade think Bonnie has lost control of her magic and plan to have the witches take her power away. Back at the latest cancelled dance Stefan is distracting Rebekah and buying time for the others to find her dagger but the more he gets to know Rebekah, the less either of them can deny that they care. It's only later on when Kol discovers Elena's plan that his rage is unleashed but when Elena's plan succeeds, he may be the least of their worries.

Building on last week's episode, A View to Kill had quite a bit of action and even managed to kill off an original before the end of the season. For all of his quirk and charm, Kol (played by Nathaniel Buzolic) never added anything substantial to the story and in turn, he had to die. Even though he warned everyone of the danger of raising Silas, it never influenced one of them. Elena, Klaus, Stefan, Damon and even Rebekah ignored everything he had to say and thus, it didn't serve a purpose. Kol also never grew as a character beyond his first appearance last season and although he didn't get the same screen time as Klaus or Rebekah, he was never given a reason to have it.

Speaking of originals, Rebekah has easily become one of the most compelling characters this season, at least when she isn't daggered. Played by Claire Holt, Rebekah has gone from the bored princess to a character with depth and purpose in such a short time, it's strange to recall when she was just as vapid as Kol. Opposed to the other conflicted characters, Rebekah wants nothing else but love and to be loved and above all else, to be human. Elena's indecisiveness has almost become the defining trait of her character and while Rebekah's ambitions may be less grand, she has a goal that is driving her forward. It also doesn't hurt that Claire Holt has been doing an incredible job as of late and continues to have more chemistry with Stefan that Elena ever did.

Where Rebekah's motivations have been pressing forward, Jeremy still doesn't have any of his own. This completed lack of motivation or drive makes him the dullest and most boring character on the show; even more than Caroline who Elena never bothered calling for help. Jeremy is an object for the others to safeguard or use as a weapon when the story calls for it. Though you can argue that he is the person that Elena cares about the most, they only need him right now for his hunter's mark and that could have easily been items that formed a key once they were assembled since the professor knows where Silas is buried. When he was a medium it just helped him talk to his dead ex-girlfriends and as a hunter, he's not doing any better. Steven R. McQueen also plays Jeremy with little tact and every line of dialogue seems lost on him. His shirt tearing scene at the end was just laughable.

All in all, A View to Kill had its strengths but to each one, there was an equal low. Now that a foundation has been laid for the rest of the season, hopefully next week's Into the Wild will bring The Vampire Diaries towards a great conclusion to its fourth season.

Tags: The Vampire Diaries, Stefan Salvatore, Damon Salvatore, Elena Gilbert, Rebekah, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev, Claire Holt

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