From: The Scene Blog
Recap: “The Vampire Diaries:” Death, life and mysterious magic
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Note: The following recap contains spoilers for season six, episode 12 of “The Vampire Diaries,” entitled “Prayer For the Dying.”
As the title of the episode may suggest, this episode of “The Vampire Diaries” features quite a bit of death. The episode laminates on the ideas of death, life and the importance of cherishing loved ones. Yawn.
The beginning of the episode reveals that Luke Parker (Chris Brochu, “Soul Surfer”) and Liv Parker (Penelope Mitchell, “Hemlock Grove”) are now old enough to merge. Nothing says “Happy Birthday” like battling to the death with your twin. The twins’ father, Joshua Parker (Christopher Cousins, “Untraceable”) comes to Mystic Falls to hear their’ plans for Kai Parker (Chris Wood, “The Carrie Diaries”) and Jo Parker (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, “Nash Bridges”) to merge instead of them. Papa Parker is not agreeable and tries to force them to merge. In a surprising move, Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino, “The Factory”) makes himself useful by preventing the ceremony from taking place. Luke quickly leaves the scene, leaving Liv and Tyler to wonder where he went.
During this episode, viewers learn that vampire blood speeds up cancer and turns patients into vampires who are unable to die. Given that Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola, “Juno”) fed her mother, Liz Forbes’ (Marguerite MacIntyre, “Kyle XY”), vampire blood in the last episode, she feels a severe degree of guilt and hopelessness. Assuming the worst, she makes her way to the florist to find flowers for her mother's impending funeral. You could say Caroline is feeling a bit pessimistic. Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley, “Fallen”) arrives and tells Caroline she should be with her mother and that if she spends her time acting like her mother is already dead, she will regret the lost time she could have spent with her mother.
In an attempt to try and save Liz’s life, Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder, “Lost”) and Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev, “Chloe”) awaken Kai and make a deal with him. If he will suck the vampire magic from Liz (hopefully curing her of her vampirism), then they will allow him to merge with Jo. Kai obviously accepts, but Damon and Elena’s idea does not work exactly how they’d hoped, and Liz has a heart attack. For a couple minutes, it appears that Liz has died. But, almost right after Caroline comes rushing in, Liz miraculously recovers. Mother and daughter are reunited, but it is clear that it is temporary. At some point I wondered if MacIntyre, who plays Liz, wished that she did die, so as not to live out the worsening yet repetitive plot lines.
After witnessing Liz almost die, Elena comes to the realization that life is short, even for an immortal, and promptly makes out with Damon. Again, awkward timing.
On the other side of town, Luke crashes Kai and Jo’s merging, and in a major plot twist, begins to merge with Kai instead. They are, as Luke points out, both twins and the same age. Unfortunately for Luke, he is not the stronger of the two and dies. I can’t help but question the logic here. Kai doesn’t have his own powers. Luke has had powers for many years and yet Kai wins? Confusion is abundant. I liked that Luke for once took a stand for his sisters and tried to do something worthwhile and brave. However, it clearly did not pay off, as he died. His death was anticlimactic and left me wondering when I stopped caring about whether central characters on the show live or die.
Tune in to “The Vampire Diaries” on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
