The Vampire Diaries: Fade Into You Recap

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The Vampire Diaries: Fade Into You (6×08)

Synopsis: It’s not a Thanksgiving episode without family drama! We find out the Witch Twins are members of the Gemini Coven and related to Dr. Joe. The Gemini Coven requires that twins merge after their 22^nd birthday, killing one of the pair, in order to lead the Coven, which is why Kai slaughtered his family in an attempt to gain power. Kai may escape The Other Side, while Bonnie’s still stranded – but her friends are gathering the supplies to get her home.

Rating: ★★★★★

Let’s start off with saying what everyone’s thinking.

Ms. Cuddles carried this episode.

You might be asking, “Who the hell is Ms. Cuddles?” and to that, I answer, “A patriot. A friend. A gentleman and a scholar. A shining example of all we should aspire to be.”

But no, really. Ms. Cuddles is Bonnie’s stuffed teddy bear she dumped all her magic into last week before she sent it to This Side. Cuddles aside, this week was really exposition heavy. It linked together everything we’ve learned so far about the Gemini Coven and Bonnie and Damon’s adventures on The Other Side.

We start out on the night of Kai’s rampage, where he murders most of his siblings. A brunette, presumably Kai’s older sister, is bleeding on the floor of the family house from a stab wound. She musters her strength and pulls a knife out of her spleen before she rushes off to find her younger siblings.

The scene flashes to two blonde children – the older sister runs in and asks them if they want to play Hide-And-Seek, ushering them both under the bed and away from Kai, who’s prowling the premises looking for them. Just as she pulls them under the bedframe with her, Kai enters the room and walks toward the bed. The scene flashes to present day just as he flips the bedframe to expose the trio’s hiding spot.

Back in Mystic Falls–adjacent, Caroline is hosting her annual Friendsgiving celebration, and everyone’s invited except Stefan. When I say ‘everyone,’ I mean EVERYONE. Including Dr. Joe, the WonderWitchTwins, and Elena’s squeeze-du-jour, Liam. Liam has finally let Lady Whitmore’s miraculous recovery go after Joe switched a few medical records to save Elena’s vampire butt.

The boys of the show (minus Tyler) don’t put in an appearance because they’re off chasing the Gemini Coven lead in Portland after our resident hero Ms. Cuddles showed up last week.

Ric, Damon, and Stefan can’t find the Gemini Coven where it’s supposed to be on GPS. Instead, there’s a huge expanse of suspiciously empty field. Ric and Damon get in a few jokes about just because something’s not visible, it doesn’t mean it’s not there, much like Caroline’s feelings for Stefan. Damon then proceeds to puppet Ms. Cuddles and talk in a high-pitched voice and it’s hilarious and glorious. Five stars solely for this performance. Bravo.

Ric, “See, Stefan? Even the bear knew.” A+, writers.

Stefan gets real tired of the Cuddles schtick really fast, and throws the bear into the field. Our stuffed heroine flies through the air and hits a force field, single-handedly breaking the magic invisibility veil cloaking the Gemini compound.

Back at Friendsgiving, we find out that Liv is in an awful mood for her 22^nd birthday and that Liv and her brother are Joe’s younger twin siblings.

Here’s when we get into overly complex exposition time. Joe and Kai were twins in the Gemini Coven – as the name suggests, twins run in the family. Moreover, only a ‘set’ of twins can rule the Gemini Coven. I say ‘set’ because after the twins turn 22, they are required to merge together into one WonderWitchTwin (that name has never been more accurate), absorbing the weaker twin’s power, who then dies.

Since Kai didn’t have his own magic, but he did have ambitions to rule the Coven, he decided to kill the younger twinset in his family so that he and Joe would be the only options for leadership.

Back in at Gemini Coven Headquarters (GCHQ), Damon meets Kai’s father, who refuses to help the boys get Bonnie back for fear of setting Kai free. Daddy Gemini then does a spell to kill Dr. Joe just in case Kai escapes and tries to steal her power to merge. Elena saves Joe with her vampire blood while a baffled and belligerent Liam watches. Elena then compels Liam to forget that she’s a vampire or that they ever dated, instead deciding to try to get back her relationship with Damon if Bonnie approves.

On The Other Side, Kai has driven Bonnie to GCHQ and figured out that he doesn’t need a Bennett witch to do the spell, just Bennett blood. Unfortunately, Ms. Cuddles has all of Bonnie’s magic – but Kai has another supply.

We flash back to when Kai flips the bed to kill his siblings at the beginning of the episode. Lo and behold, there’s no one there – Joe has cloaked them with her magic. She then promises to merge with Kai the next night to save her remaining family. Upon the merging ceremony, Joe hides all of her magic in the knife Kai used to stab her, so he can’t absorb her powers and merge. The rest of the coven sends Kai directly to hell (e.g. The Other Side).

Kai unearths the knife where Joe stored her powers, stabs Bonnie, and runs away with the Ascendant. Joe has the other Ascendant on This Side, but it’s not looking great for her at this point.

Back on This Side, Damon compels Alaric to get Joe’s Ascendant to get Bonnie back, and the trio drive back to Whitmore to catch the end of Friendsgiving. Caroline and Stefan semi make nice, but I think Caroline deserves better at this point. Maybe she and Cuddles can be badasses together.

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