The Vampire Diaries: I’ll Wed You in the Golden Summertime Recap

Synopsis: Alaric and Jo are getting married! Too bad they can’t catch a break – Mommy Salvatore escapes and looks like she finally got what she wanted and Kai interrupts the nuptials. Delena talk about their future.

Rating: ★★★★★

It’s wedding time! I’m a sucker for a good wedding episode – especially now that Caroline’s back in town and on her wedding planner game. Now that Momma Salvatore’s locked up, everything looks like it’s going well. But let’s be real. This is The Vampire Diaries, and shit is about to get real.

It all begins when Bonnie starts getting ominous dreams that involve Kai siphoning her magic. After Bonnie nearly dies when Lily reaches through the prison bars to strangle her, Bonnie talks to Matt about her dreams, and he takes her #seriously because he’s been being a complete tool about vampires recently. The two go to the basement prison to take care of Mommy Salvatore (their plan wasn’t extremely coherent), only to be invisibly choked and incapacitated, letting Lily escape.

Liv’s back for her sister’s wedding, but she and Tyler still aren’t cool. You know, after he helped kill her brother and broke up with her. Which I understand.

This week Stefan took Damon on a suburban hell field trip. He’s trying to show Damon how little he wants to be a human for Elena. Stefan plants sour visions of Elena and Damon growing distant, of Damon’s dead-end job and their dead-end life, eventually culminating in a vision of Elena dying, leaving Damon human and alone. If Damon takes the Cure, they have to disappear lest word of the Cure’s existence escapes and threatens both of them.

In between wedding prep plans, Caroline’s apologizing to all the people she hurt when she had her humanity turned off. She’s working her way up to Stefan. When she finally does, she lets him know that she hates the way he makes her feel – she’s made a list of all the horrible things she’s said and done because of him, and honestly, she’s not wrong.

Historically, Stefan has not been great for Caroline’s character. He abandoned her when Damon died, he starts something with her and causes her to miss her last moments with her mother, and then he bails on their relationship when the going gets rough. Forever Team Caroline on this one.

Caroline kicks Stefan to the curb, and Damon finally decides to take the Cure because he wants a shot at an idyllic life with Elena. It seems like a lot of pressure to be putting on Elena, and it’s kind of ironic that #forever as an immortal is less of a commitment than a mortal human life together.

After a brief roll in the hay (literally, this wedding is barn-adjacent.), the two rush to Jo’s wedding. Jo collapsed earlier in the day, presumably due to stress, but it was foreboding nonetheless.

After the happy couple says their vows, suddenly Jo gets stabbed repeatedly.

Surprise. Kai’s back.