Episode 2.18 – “The Last Dance”

Klaus in Alaric’s body is getting a crash course on Alaric’s life from Katherine while he looks for something to wear out of his limited wardrobe.  Katherine pleads with him to kill her and spare her the torture, but he’s not done with her yet.  He searched for her for over five hundred years and her death is going to last at least half that long if he gets his wish.  Before he leaves, he compels her to stab her own leg with a knife over and over again.  The wounds heal quickly, but still cause her considerable pain and blood loss.  The torture begins!

Elena officially signs the papers that give her ownership of the Salvatore boarding house.  She invites Stephan in right away but makes Damon promise to obey her and he does so reluctantly (why do I not believe him?).  But just as soon as she secures her safety, she and Bonnie leave to go to school despite Damon and Stephan’s protests that they didn’t give her a safe house so she could leave it.  Bonnie promises to stick by her side and since she’s the best weapon they have against Klaus, they agree to let her go. 

Klaus has a little trouble fitting into Alaric’s life when it comes to teaching about the 60’s.  All he can say about them is that they kind of sucked except for the Beatles.  Unfortunately we only get to watch him flounder his way through it for a few minutes before we’re shown the preparations for the dance.  Jeremy continues to push Bonnie to tell the others that it could kill her to harness the power of the other witches but she won’t budge.  He leaves in a snit once Elena arrives in the cafeteria.  Random girl we’ve never seen before this episode shows up to tell Elena that a totally hot guy named Klaus asked if she’s going to the dance tonight and if she’ll save him the last dance. Bonnie and Elena look suitably freaked out, but the girl doesn’t seem to notice. 

Damon and Stefan plan to go to the dance to try and spot Klaus and keep Elena safe.  In the midst of making plans with Elena and Bonnie, “Alaric” shows up, proving that Klaus needs no invitation to enter the house while in his body.  He learns that Bonnie not only has her powers but is capable of channeling the power of the witches.  There’s also a live demonstration when she easily bats down a surprise attack from Damon who wants to test how strong she is.  So much for the secret weapon!

Klaus confers with his witch and they come up with a plan to provoke Bonnie to death.  Knowing that it’ll kill her to channel that much power, his witch says he can offer Alaric’s human body some extra protection to keep him alive long enough to keep attacking her long enough for her to die. 

Elena finds enough vintage clothing in the Salvatore’s old stuff to outfit herself for the 60’s dance.  Matt has trouble acting normal around Caroline, but somehow manages to pull it together and take her to the dance.  Jeremy offers Bonnie his magical ring but she tells him that it won’t work on her because she’s supernatural, not human.  Damon overhears them talking and knows that Bonnie could die if she uses all of that power. 

Klaus dedicates a song to Elena “This is dedicated to the one I love”, which puts everyone on edge.  Damon insists that they try and blend in and let Klaus come to them so they pair off to dance while Damon goes to talk to Ric.  “I’m not impressed,” he tells him and Klaus looks affronted.  Stephan goes off to warn Caroline of what’s going on when he spots her arriving, leaving Elena in Damon’s very capable arms.  She’s surprised to see him dance so well and he brags that he has moves she’s never seen before.  It’s nice to see them share a lighter moment together.  Next Damon cuts in to dance with Bonnie and he admits that he overheard that she only has a fifty-fifty shot of surviving.  He has no plans to tell Elena, he’s just glad she’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Elena safe like he is. 

Jeremy wanders away from the dance but Stefan goes after him and he can’t help but spill the beans that it might kill Bonnie to take on Klaus.  Of course Stefan runs right off to tell Elena before confronting Damon to see if he knew.  Elena tells Bonnie that she won’t let her go through with it.  But Bonnie asks if the situation was reversed, would Elena do it for her?  When Elena admits that she would, Bonnie says then you should know why I have to do it for you.

Jeremy gets jumped in the hallway by a bunch of teens who Klaus has compelled to attack him in order to separate Bonnie from the others and Stephan and Damon arrive in time to save him.  The teens are well armed to fight vampires, staking Damon in the shoulder but the brothers are still able to easily defeat them.  Stephan tells Damon to go find Bonnie and Elena, he’s going to take care of the boys himself.  (strange that he didn’t want to be the one to go after Elena, isn’t it?)  But while they’re dealing with this diversion, Alaric lures Bonnie and Elena to another deserted part of the school.  Before they get too far he reveals himself as Klaus.  Bonnie hits him with a couple of good solid blasts, and they run away.  Damon finds them, and asks Bonnie if she’s still willing to do whatever it takes to kill Klaus?  (My spidey senses are tingling here, what are they plotting?)

Bonnie goes hunting down Alaric, finding him by some vending machines.  She fires blow after blow at him, but soon starts to tire, her nose starting to bleed.  Elena finds Stephan and they try to go help Bonnie.  Bonnie deliberately locks Elena and Stephan out while she continues to attack Alaric until she finally collapses on the ground, unmoving.  Damon tells Stephan to get Elena home so he can take care of the body.  He pulls an inconsolable Elena away while Damon gathers up Bonnie, closing her eyelids with an air of finality.  Uh oh, doesn’t look so good for Bonnie, but I don’t really believe that she’s gone for good. 

Last ten minutes of the show:

Damon tells Jeremy that they need to have a little talk after putting Bonnie’s body in the trunk.

Elena is still a mess, sitting by the fire with Stephan, crying that it’s all her fault.  Damon comes in and she demands to know what he did with Bonnie.  He tells her to calm down, but she slaps him, incensed that he knew all along that it might cost Bonnie her life to fight Klaus.  Damon takes the slap, but tells her calmly that she needs to listen to him and prepare for what he’s about to say.  Bonnie had to die because she wasn’t prepared to fight Klaus in Alaric’s body.  Klaus wouldn’t stop attacking until he knew Bonnie was dead, he needed to believe it, so Bonnie cast a spell to make him think that she’d died. 

Cut to the old ruined mansion where the witches were killed and we see Jeremy arranging Bonnie’s body in a ring of candles and she smiles after drawing in a gasping breath.   He unpacks a computer with “MiFi” (shameless product placement!) since she’ll be there for a while. Elena and Bonnie video chat for a minute and Bonnie apologizes for putting her through that.

Stephan scolds Damon for not telling him about his plan with Bonnie, but Damon points out that he never knows when Stephan’s going to go blabbing to his girlfriend and Elena needed to believe that Bonnie was dead in order for it to look real.  Damon says he’s willing to play the bad guy and make all of the hard decisions, even get hit for it, but at the end of the day, he’ll be the one to keep her alive. 

Elena comes to see Damon later and she says that she understands why he did what he did.  “Here’s to duplicity,” he salutes her with his drink.  But she wants to get one thing straight, she doesn’t want Bonnie to die, she wants them to find another way to stop Klaus.  She apologizes for hitting him and he accepts but wants to make one thing perfectly clear to her in turn.  If it comes down to it, he’ll gladly let Bonnie die to save her, because he will always choose her life first.  Elena doesn’t argue, but goes down to the cellar and pulls the magic knife out of Elijah’s chest!   Cue the dramatic music!

Random thoughts I had:

How come there’s this new character Dana that we’ve never seen before who’s suddenly in every scene as a random student? 

Why does the idea of Damon as a chaperone at a school dance make me giggle?

How cute was Alaric dancing his way through the crowd when he first got there?

My first thought was that Damon had given Bonnie some of his blood so she’d come back as a vampire witch if she died, I wasn’t expecting the spell thing!

Okay I so did not see Elijah’s resurrection coming!  This is seriously cool, I can’t wait to see him up and around again!