The Vampire Diaries - "A View to Kill" - Review

There are a lot of individual moments I really liked in “A View to Kill” but as a complete narrative it leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn’t pay off the “kill Kol” story arc all that gracefully or imaginatively. It’s a very stop and go episode. Though it has the advantage of a clear end game in getting Kol knocked off and finishing the hunter’s tattoo, it just doesn’t effectively pull this off as well as previous episodes that bring together a number of the characters to stop some baddie or achieve some goal. Season 2’s “Masquerade”, for example, remains to be a series highlight for how a delightfully devious Katherine plays cat and mouse with a number of characters gathered together at a party. Here though, the characters are mainly scattered or ill-used (Matt’s role in it all is an afterthought, especially considering he doesn’t even actually find the dagger). The tension building between Kol and Elena also is very, well, just un-tense. Elena is no longer human so it’s not like she’s in completely dire straits. On the other hand, I’ve never been a huge fan of Kol; he’s been underutilized and never all that interesting when he has appeared.  

Bonnie on the other hand keeps continuing her streak of doing stupid life decisions. All she needs to do now is become a teen mom and she will have completed the transformation into total useless idiocy. The only reason her character exists is because she can use magic. Her story is rarely ever about anything else, and that’s just poor storytelling and character development. And we know the writers are far better at creating sympathetic, dynamic characters. But instead, we get Bonnie being angsty, letting dark magic consume her, and using magic to hurt her mother. None of the type of character traits or actions that will make me view a character kindly.

It’s not all sore spots though. I’m very enthusiastic about the pairing of Rebekah and Stefan. This is a far more interesting and engaging couple than Stefan and Elena. They both know they’re getting played by the other one, but they’re so deeply damaged that they kind of want to get played. As much as Stefan uses Rebekah to get the dagger, he also has feelings for her, and so he takes her to have the 80’s high school dance she never got to have. This leads to them bonding further and realizing that there’s potentially more between them than just sex.

The Klaus-Damon scenes were also well-written. Damon is able to discuss his inkling that Elena might not still feel the same way when she’s cured. Klaus opens up about his weird undying feelings for Caroline (though there’s chemistry between them, I just don’t ever see that pairing working, especially now that Joseph Morgan is going to play Klaus on the spin-off The Originals).

It has its moments, but this is a largely disappointing episode that fails to be very engaging throughout.

Stray Observations:

-Stefan attempts the walk of shame post-coitus, but is caught leaving by Klaus.

-“Looks like my brother took a page from my revenge sex handbook”

-I particularly like the part of Klaus and Damon’s conversation where Damon talks about being bad versus being bad with a purpose.

-Is it just me or does the series seem to be implying that all witches are black? Kol says that he met witches from Haiti and Africa.

-Bonnie’s mom did “chloroform” her but I kind of side with her on this one: Bonnie needs to get her shit together.

-“I don’t foresee happiness for you at the end of the cure rainbow”

-The flame death effect is kind of awesome.

-“I was going to make him suffer on my terms!”

-Klaus wants to the cure so he can destroy it. Anyone see this coming cuz I totally didn't.

-“Did she pledge her allegiance to you while she was naked in your bed?” – Elena’s reaction to this is priceless.

Grade: B-