The Vampire Diaries definitely pulled out all the stops in tonight’s mid-season finale, especially in those final few minutes. Check out our recap for all the details.
Just when you thought the most shocking surprises of The Vampire Diaries were behind us, Julie Plec and company deliver a truly surprising finish to send us off for the Christmas holidays. This episode was building to a crazy finish, but even we didn’t expect what they had coming for us.
Amidst all the crazy goings on, it still had all the telltale signs of a Vampire Diaries holiday episode. Touching Christmas carol over the final moment shocker? Check. Touching moment between two characters that don’t normally get along? Check. Someone wearing a funny hat? Double and triple check.
‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 7, episode 9 recap
Finding Julian
After the final moments of last week’s episode, it was obvious that finding Julian was going to be the key to this episode. Stefan and Damon went on a quest thanks to Bonnie’s locator spell, even though Damon’s heart wasn’t truly in the hunt. While Stefan had his heart set on taking out the man who murdered his baby and drove his mother to sacrifice herself, Damon was all about sipping spiked eggnog out of a reindeer stein (which we definitely want to get our hands on).
Once they find Julian by accident, it all becomes about timing. Stefan is determined to keep at it, while Damon isn’t willing to risk their lives to get back at Julian. Ultimately, Stefan returns to Mystic Falls after being abandoned by Damon, but has a plan to bring Julian to them. With a little help from Val, Stefan ‘kidnaps’ Mary Louise and uses her as bait to lure Julian to the Salvatore mansion.
Julian arrives to find Damon burning Lily’s things, and it doesn’t go well. Let’s just say that Julian almost gets the Phoenix Stone sword into Damon, but is thwarted by Stefan at the last second. It looked like Julian sped away at vamp speed, but the Salvatore boys descended the stairs to find him stoking the living room fire.
Damon and Stefan attack him, but are pretty ineffectual against Julian’s strength. The boys take turns trying to get one over on him, but all they manage to get is Damon stabbed by the Phoenix Stone sword. Stefan is left to watch in horror as Damon’s spirit is sucked out of his body. Damon’s empty shell collapses to the ground and we all took a deep breath. Stefan will handle this. Caroline shows up and offers comfort, but before they can get much of anywhere, a vengeful Nora appears out of nowhere (damn those cloaking spells!) and drives the Phoenix Stone sword through Stefan’s belly as well. The Salvatores are officially down for the count.
Caroline vs. pregnancy hormones
Caroline being pregnant is all kinds of miraculous. From the way she ended up pregnant to the precious babies she is responsible for saving, it’s an absolute miracle. Throughout the episode, we see just how taxing this miracle is on our favorite blonde.
Normal pregnancy cravings would be bad enough, but Caroline has to deal with vampire thirst on top of the need to eat random things at random times (that whole blood bag/marshmallow fluff combo was gag-worthy). Add the hormones on top of all of that and it’s shocking she hasn’t ripped out the throat of some poor unsuspecting barista or something.
In normal Caroline fashion, she’s going to do this pregnancy thing to the best of her ability. She reads all the books, attends all the classes, and has all the right answers. Textbook Caroline response to things being out of her control. Hopefully she finds some peace after her talk with her mother at her grave. She deserves a little peace.
Bonnie and Nora
Bonnie and Nora are about as unlikely a pair as we can imagine, but somehow, watching them bond in The Vampire Diaries season 7, episode 9, we can kind of see it. Nora needed something and someone to distract her from her melancholy over losing Mary Louise, and she turned to volunteering. She’s not all bad.
The day ends with Bonnie returning to her dorm and finding Nora wiping her tears on one of Bonnie’s tops. They have a touching moment in which Nora admits to missing everything that being in a relationship provides. Just before Nora steps out of the room, she gets a text from Julian that ‘they’ took Mary Louise. Nora assumes Bonnie was in on the plot and siphons from her, leaving Bonnie lying on the floor.