The Vampire Diaries season 4 episode 12 review: A View To A Kill

This review contains spoilers.

4.12 A View To A Kill

Here we go. After a shaky start to the season that never did quite capitalise on Elena’s new vampirism, the hunt for the cure is finally underway. Not surprisingly, Kol has now met a sticky, fiery end and surprisingly, it all went down almost exactly as Elena planned at the beginning of the episode. Jeremy’s alarmingly buff bod is now covered in the entirety of the map, Klaus is trapped in the Gilbert house, and Rebekah is on ‘Team Everyone’. It’s a shame that we couldn’t keep the three team conceit going all the way to Silas’ grave, as it now seems they’re all in it together. 

And fans of Stefan and Rebekah’s burgeoning relationship will be pleased with the 80s-themed dance, which the new couple attend despite it being cancelled by the Bonnie’s dad. This leads to a semi-romantic dance in an empty school gym, surrounded by 89 red balloons (what would Caroline say about the missing ten?) and leading to some revelations about everyone’s reasons for wanting the cure. Rebekah doesn’t just want to punish Klaus, but she also wants desperately to be human. We knew this of course, and Rebekah has been top of my list for turning human since day one. 

We all feel sorry for Rebekah despite her killing off our heroine, and I can’t help thinking that she’s actually the most compelling female character on The Vampire Diaries right now. Her relationship with Stefan, while it might not be Stelena fans’ cup of tea, is just the right amount of selfish and scheming, while still having hints of a romance that they’ve already experienced together. Matt’s reaction to hearing her confession in the hallway can be read in various ways, too, and the fact that he didn’t dagger her right there and then just proves that there’s still potential for those two. 

But what would happen should Klaus, Elijah or Rebekah actually take the cure (assuming there is one)? If Jeremy killing Kol led to all of his sired vampires dying alongside him, then shouldn’t an original being cured have a similar effect? The going theory is that Klaus is at the head of the bloodline for Katherine/Damon/Elena etc, but would the show really dare to turn the entire cast human at the end of this season? It would certainly be a fascinating concept, even if I’m not sure they could still sustain a show as human high-school drop-outs. 

And, now that Jeremy’s hunter’s mark is completed, will he still have the urge to hunt vampires? The immediate threat of Damon going after Jeremy is over now that Kol is out of the picture, but Klaus is less than thrilled about the gang’s betrayal. He just wanted to dagger Kol and get him out of the way for the next couple of hundred years but, by killing him with the white oak stake, the originals‘ number is down to three. We all know that Klaus is going to be leaving the show at the end of season four, with Elijah to join him, so the only current question mark is hovering above Rebekah. 

Of course, with the way this show flips our expectations, Klaus could very well be human when he travels over to his own spin-off. With him being the out-right villain on The Vampire Diaries right now, surely something has to change before he gets to lead his own series? Unless The Originals takes place in flashback (did you catch Kol talking about their adventures in New Orleans this week?) we know that Klaus will at least survive past the season finale. Whoever turned our core group of characters has to live on no matter what, because otherwise we’d be watching the Matt and Jeremy show every week. 

Next week we’re going camping, as the whole gang travel to Silas’ grave. It looks like they’re not heeding Kol’s fairly sensible words and leaving well alone, and I can’t wait for the inevitable sh*t storm that raising Silas is going to bring. We’re only half-way through the series, kiddies, and an evil immortal with an army of zombie sacrifices sounds like a perfect way to liven up the series. See you next week!

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, Catch Me If You Can, here.

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.