The Vampire Diaries, “Fade Into You” (6.8) - TV Review

The Vampire Diaries, Season 6, Episode 8, “Fade Into You”

November 20, 2014, 8pm (EST), The CW

The Vampire Diaries celebrated Thanksgiving a week early and, fittingly, made it a family affair. While Caroline carefully planned out a “Friendsgiving,” inviting everyone but Stefan due to unresolved feelings, it became a family-filled event complete with reunions of long-lost siblings and blood feuds.

In a very plot-heavy episode, it was revealed that not only is Jo the twin sister of Kai, but they are both also related to witchy twins Liv and Luke. Also, Kai’s bloodbath which led to him being trapped in the 1994 “prison world” for the past 20 years was spurred by the existence of Liv and Luke, who threatened Kai’s plan to become the leader of the not-so-subtly named Gemini coven. This episode explains that a twin must lead the coven by merging with a twin sister or brother in a process that will kill the weaker of the two.

The hour was primarily focused on the backdrop of this family drama, interspersing flashbacks of Kai’s rampage to revelations in the present by various members of the coven. Kai explains the whole story to Bonnie as he cooks Thanksgiving dinner for her in the prison world before eventually outmaneuvering her efforts to keep him from returning home. Meanwhile, the reunion between Jo, Liv and Luke at Friendsgiving prompts further revelations about Kai’s psychotic state. Additionally, the reveal to Damon last episode confirming that Bonnie was still alive and stuck in 1994 prompts Damon, Stefan and Alaric to travel to Oregon – the home of the Gemini coven – to try to find a device to save Bonnie. But the father of the two sets of twins will do anything to prevent Kai from returning and gaining any magical powers, and is even willing to kill his own daughter Jo in the process.

Overall, it was an episode designed to reveal a lot of plot behind a storyline that we aren’t particularly invested in since there aren’t many direct connections to our main characters. While Alaric is dating Jo now and Bonnie is stuck with Kai, the narrative is mainly focused on drama within this family of witches.

However, the episode also had some solid moments that were more relevant to our characters, particularly during the road trip to Portland, with Damon and Alaric teasing Stefan about Caroline’s feelings for him. Stefan tells them that he only sees Caroline as a friend, but the two shared a moment at the end after Stefan explains why he pushed her away in particular after Damon’s apparent death. Damon and Elena also had a nice moment at the end, suggesting that despite Damon’s decision last week to give Elena space, Elena may want to explore resurrecting her relationship with Damon because of a “tiny glimmer of a feeling inside.”

While “Fade Into You” brings us closer to the climax of the first half of this season, with revelations that have been building over several episodes, the characters we care about most are mainly bystanders in this storyline. And while there may be intriguing elements to this Gemini coven storyline, it’s also difficult to get too invested in plots involving too many outside characters on this show because they tend to be short-lived. (Does anyone remember Dr. Wes from last season? Probably not).

The Roundup

• “Ms. Cuddles: 1, invisible creepy mansion: 0.”
• “Well, now that we’ve all gotten to know each other a little bit better, can someone please pass the dinner rolls?”
• “Just because I hate you doesn’t mean I want you to starve to death.”