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"The last few Vampire Diaries episodes have been pretty intense affairs, what with shock twists and devastating grieving and then - last week - Elena basically going completely nuts. With that being the case, it&amp;#039;s not a surprise that this instalment was more sedate - while there were huge developments and some seriously entertaining moments, the pace slowed a little to allow us to catch our breath. It&amp;#039;s actually kind of a testament to The Vampire Diaries that an episode which included a massacre of 12 witches - and the possibility of the dropping of the veil between our world and the afterlife - felt a little leisurely. In any other show, that would be a huge moment, but The Vampire Diaries has spoilt us all with its insanity and now it&amp;#039;s just part and parcel of life in Mystic Falls.  Actually, this storyline was pretty good fun, if only because it forced Klaus and Caroline into a reluctant alliance. Their relationship is easily one of the most intriguing on the show, and has been stepped up a gear recently given that Caroline is so furious with Klaus for sending Tyler on the run. For his part, Klaus has given up any pretence of concealing his feelings for Caroline, and they&amp;#039;re currently bubbling under at every moment. There&amp;#039;s one scene in &amp;#039;Because The Night&amp;#039; which caught me gasping for breath; examining a map to figure out where Bonnie&amp;#039;s going to slay a bunch of witches, Caroline forgets for a moment that she&amp;#039;s supposed to be angry with Klaus. There&amp;#039;s an uncontrollable giggle, a glance, and then it&amp;#039;s back to normal. Indeed, Caroline later breaks Klaus&amp;#039;s - and pretty much everyone else&amp;#039;s - heart, by revealing that she once felt an attraction to someone who does terrible things because she &amp;quot;thought he was worth it&amp;quot;. But don&amp;#039;t get excited, as she growls: &amp;quot;Some people can&amp;#039;t be fixed. People who do terrible things are just terrible people.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s a stunning, wrenching moment - and so quiet.  But let&amp;#039;s get back to that witch massacre. It turns out that Bonnie is fully aware that Silas is hogging Shane&amp;#039;s form, and he brainwashes her into attempting a massacre of 12 witches - the final sacrifice necessary to complete the all-important expression triangle. The head witch of the coven she tricks believes that Bonnie wants to be cleansed of expression, and the ceremony itself is pretty standard - flames and Bonnie&amp;#039;s eyes creepily turning white. Stefan arrives just in time to warn the witches about Bonnie&amp;#039;s true intentions, but to his horror the head witch prepares to slay Bonnie, fearing that after Silas&amp;#039;s intervention she&amp;#039;s too far gone to be saved. When Klaus and Caroline arrive, Klaus is more than willing to let Bonnie die - but Caroline can&amp;#039;t stand for that and rushes forward, stealing the head witch&amp;#039;s dagger and turning it on her. Little does she know that Bonnie has already linked the coven, and Caroline can only stand back in horror as each witch slowly falls to the ground, dead. Caroline&amp;#039;s just murdered 12 people and completed the expression triangle - now all Silas needs is the cure.   This is a huge development plot-wise, but also emotionally for Caroline, who struggles with the reality of what she&amp;#039;s just done. She almost breaks down in front of Klaus in a superb, nuanced moment - Candice Accola has just completely mastered her expressions - and it&amp;#039;s wonderful when he says she needs comfort and she nods. Are they going to get together? No - instead, Klaus urges her to &amp;quot;find someone less terrible&amp;quot; she can relate to. I&amp;#039;m not sure whether he means Tyler (has he changed his mind?) but either way it&amp;#039;s another heart-stopping moment.  That&amp;#039;s not all, either - when Bonnie wakes up, Stefan&amp;#039;s surprised to discover that she remembers nothing since being in the cave, forcing him to tell her once again about Jeremy. More interestingly, Silas comes face to face with Klaus in the woods, with a proposal - that they work together to find the cure. After all, Klaus doesn&amp;#039;t want to be forced to take it, and Silas wants it for himself. Klaus is reluctant - hell, he doesn&amp;#039;t want his many and various murders coming back to literally haunt him - but I have a feeling he&amp;#039;s about to be persuaded. Silas has a white oak stake, and he&amp;#039;s ruthless, impaling Klaus in the back as &amp;quot;something to remember him by&amp;quot;. Well, well, well - things are about to hot up rather magnificently, I imagine.  Because, of course, Silas isn&amp;#039;t the only one who wants the cure. Damon might pretend to Elena that he&amp;#039;s taking her to New York City for hedonism and fun, but actually he&amp;#039;s looking for clues about Katherine&amp;#039;s whereabouts; he knew her minion Will from the 1970s, when he procured fake identities for vamps, and he&amp;#039;s pretty sure he&amp;#039;s been doing the same for Miss Pierce. Unfortunately for Damon, Rebekah&amp;#039;s not too happy about being given the slip, and she&amp;#039;s followed them there too - where she can tell a none-too-impressed Elena about Damon&amp;#039;s true motivations. This storyline is entertaining throughout the episode; we get to see Damon in flashbacks with none other than Lexie, who&amp;#039;s always a treat. At Stefan&amp;#039;s request, she turned up in the 1970s in an attempt to get Damon to turn his humanity back on again, only to be tricked by him (he pretends he&amp;#039;s in love with her, has sex with her on the roof, and then lets her burn in the sunlight. What a cad). It&amp;#039;s fun seeing &amp;#039;70s Damon, and it&amp;#039;s a real luxury to hang out with Lexie again.  But what&amp;#039;s really great is watching Elena - who has newly dyed hair and is ready to be badass. She&amp;#039;s still a complete nightmare, but it&amp;#039;s toned down a little from last week - no bad thing. She knows how to manipulate Damon, obviously, but it&amp;#039;s also good fun watching her rip Rebekah apart - scorning her desire to have a family - to the point that Rebekah drawls that she actually misses the old Elena. It&amp;#039;s all done with a wink and a smirk from Nina Dobrev, and it&amp;#039;s thoroughly entertaining. But it&amp;#039;s a joy, in the end, to discover that Elena and Rebekah have decided to team up - Elena no longer wants the cure, while Rebekah is desperate. One neck snap from Rebekah later and Damon is out cold, allowing the pair to steal the lead he has on Katherine and then steal his car. I can&amp;#039;t imagine anything more fun than watching Elena and Rebekah tearing the States apart together, and I can&amp;#039;t wait to see what they&amp;#039;re up to next week. What about you? Dear Diary   From now on I&amp;#039;m going to be constantly confused about whether Elena is Katherine or vice versa. Oh man.  Loved the opening sequence in which &amp;#039;70s Damon had a snack, completed with the strains of &amp;#039;Psycho Killer&amp;#039;. So good.  &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s probably out exploring. Eating a hot dog... vendor.&amp;quot;  Elena&amp;#039;s newly dyed hair is properly hot. Actually, she just looks good in general since turning off her humanity.  &amp;quot;Now if you don&amp;#039;t mind, I&amp;#039;d like to get back to spiralling.&amp;quot; Oh Caroline, I do love you so.  &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re playing him!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;No, he&amp;#039;s playing me. I&amp;#039;m just returning the favour.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;Actually, not to nitpick, but we evil villains usually use minions to pick up our dry cleaning.&amp;quot;  I liked the scenes in Billy&amp;#039;s which flipped back and forth between the &amp;#039;70s and now, as Elena fed hungrily on that poor, pretty concert-goer.  Actually, in general the flashbacks in this week&amp;#039;s episode felt a lot more seamless than they often do.  Damon quietly telling Stefan that he was only &amp;quot;pretending&amp;quot; to have a good time with Elena was such a blink-and-you&amp;#039;ll-miss-it moment, and yet such a good moment.  Rebekah glaring when Elena smugly took Damon up to the roof and pushing a fellow drinker over in frustration. Yes!  The final shot - Klaus spitting with pain after Silas staked him - was just so good. Bring it on, The Vampire Diaries.  What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/vampire-diaries/review/a470879/the-vampire-diaries-because-the-night-recap/>