The Cure Proves Deadly: The Vampire Diaries “Down the Rabbit Hole” Review

By Mandy Treccia

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries started out a little slow, but then had one heck of an insane ending. The show concluded over an hour ago and I’m still trying to wrap my head around “Down the Rabbit Hole.”

Picking up where last week’s island adventure left off, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) was being held prisoner by the new hunter on the block and his snark was fully intact, even as he was being tortured. The show did a pretty cool thing and wove the scenes of Damon and Vaughan together with Klaus (Joseph Morgan) translating the markings on the sword for Caroline (Candice Accola) and Tyler (Michael Trevino) so we got to hear the explanation of what would happen when the cure was found. To make it as simple as possible, there is only a cure for one and the right thing to do is feed it to Silas so he can’t destroy everything and everyone.

Needless to say, that didn’t sit too well with the vampires, who were each hoping to either take the cure or use it against their enemies. In his first nice sibling moment of the season, Klaus warned Rebekah (Claire Holt) that there was only one dose and encouraged his little sister to live and die the way she wanted to. It was super sweet and it also led to Rebekah telling Stefan (Paul Wesley) the truth and then breaking his neck so she could get a head start while Elena (Nina Dobrev) tended to Stefan. While this will probably mean the end of Stefan and Rebekah, it was nice to see the Original sister actually having a chance to win for a change.

Of course it only lasted a minute because as soon as Rebekah found Damon, Vaughan attacked her. He couldn’t kill her, but he had some nifty little contraption that he shoved in her chest. He tortured Damon a little more as well and then fled before Stefan and Elena made their way into the cave. Stefan and Damon both encouraged Elena to go after the cure and Stefan stayed behind to free his brother, who then stayed behind to free Rebekah. When she woke up, she complimented Damon on learning to be less selfish.

Ian Somerhalder as Damon. Image © The CW Network

Meanwhile, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) and Bonnie (Kat Graham) were also wandering the caves after they’d gotten separated from Shane (David Alpay). Bonnie was injured and her blood in the special witch circle started to free Silas, but it also made Bonnie hallucinate. She thought her Grams (Jasmine Guy) was back and trying to guide her, but Jeremy pointed out that he couldn’t see her so it was obviously in Bonnie’s head and he talked her through the hallucination, she studied the map on his chest some more and then they continued on their way to find Silas.

Back in Mystic Falls, Tyler and Caroline worried that Bonnie’s magic wasn’t going to hold and Klaus was going to be free to kill Tyler. Caroline went inside to make a plea to Klaus for her boyfriend’s life and Klaus quickly deduced that she wasn’t sad about the cure because she liked being a vampire more than she liked being human. He pointed out that the two of them were the same and Caroline used that, asking Klaus to have the same compassion for Tyler that she would have for him. Klaus agreed that he would allow Tyler to leave town and never come back and his compassion for Caroline would grant Tyler a head start before Klaus hunted him down and killed him.

That obviously wasn’t what Caroline wanted to hear, but it was the best she could do. Caroline and Tyler shared a tearful goodbye on the Gilbert porch. Caroline made him promise to live a full life and forget about her and Tyler agreed, even though he didn’t really mean it. But he reminded her that they were immortal and maybe their time would come later. Tyler left and not long after, Klaus was freed from the house. He told Caroline something must have happened to Bonnie and then he reminded her that all of the good things he’d done, the mercy he’d shown, had been for her. After that, he disappeared, presumably to go after Tyler.

Candice Accola as Caroline. Image © The CW Network

Klaus was right about Bonnie being in trouble. Jeremy and Bonnie found Silas and the cure, but the problem was that he was a statue and he wasn’t giving up his grip on the cure. Vaughan arrived and stabbed Bonnie. Jeremy fought with him and then Elena showed up to stop him from killing Jeremy. But it wasn’t Elena, it was actually Katherine! She was quick to roll her eyes and get annoyed with Jeremy so he realized she wasn’t his sister, but it was too late. Katherine slashed Jeremy’s wrist and fed his blood to Silas to wake him up.

As soon as Silas started to loosen his grip on the cure, Katherine sank her teeth into Jeremy’s neck, passed him off to Silas, took the cure and sped off. Silas continued to feed on Jeremy and then as Bonnie watched in horror, Silas snapped his neck, leaving Jeremy dead on the floor of the cave.

It was pretty much impossible to breathe during those last few minutes of the show and now there are so many questions! Is Jeremy really dead or can his special ring bring him back from this one? Why does Katherine want the cure so badly? She doesn’t seem to mind being a vampire so she must have ulterior motives. Are Stefan and Elena already heading back to each other? Hopefully we will get some of these answers next week in the last episode before the mini hiatus.