The Vampire Diaries 6×12 “Prayer for the Dying” REVIEW

Emotions Run High as Family Issues Take Center Stage and Another is Lost in an Unconventional Witchy Ritual

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries 6×12 titled, “Prayer for the Dying” was just as heartbreaking as the episode’s title suggests. However, despite the sad, stressful and suspenseful tones of the episode, there was also a lot of yummy parts woven in between. Caroline (Candice Accola) learns feeding her mom vampire blood in hopes to save her life, has backfired when her test subject comes back to haunt her, literally. Instead it has accelerated the cancer’s progression. Scared of the effects of the vampire blood, Caroline and calls Stefan (Paul Wesley) they take her test subject and accompany Liz (Marguerite McIntyre) back to Whitmore Hospital for Jo (Jodi Lyn O’ Keefe) to examine. Meanwhile, Elena (Nina Dobrev), and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) plan a date night after she gets off work at the hospital, but Elena heads to Liz’s side when she hears the news while Damon babysits a medically subdued Kai (Chris Wood). As usual, Damon has a plan and wakes up him to siphon the magic from Liz in exchange to merge with Jo. Unfortunately,the siphoning causes Liz to go into cardiac arrest, but luckily she comes to just as Caroline returns to the hospital.

Elsewhere Liv (Penelope Mitchell) and Luke (Chris Brochu) meet with their dad and leader of the Gemini coven try to convince him to let Jo and Kai merge in their place. However, Papa Parker has other intentions and tries to force Liv and Luke to merge but Tyler (Michael Trevino) intervenes and stops the merge. Meanwhile, Kai and Jo begin to merge, but this time it is Luke who infers and. insists Kai merge with him instead. He agrees and they merge, but it is Kai who comes out alive. Unfortunately, Luke is the latest addition to the long running list of ‘TVD’s Dearly Departed.’ .Let’s jump right into discussing because a lot went down on TVD this week.

Twinning Isn’t Always a Good Thing

For weeks viewers have been hearing about an impending merge between Liv and Luke or Kai and Jo. In fact, the word merge was quickly becoming the ‘moonstone’ or ‘cure’ of this season. However, this week the audience finally sees the dreaded unconventional Gemini coven ritual come to fruition. However, in true TVD fashion things don’t go as viewers quite thought it would and another unexpected victim is added to the series’ ever growing death toll. An unexpected plot twist, the audience expects a merge to happen between either Kai and Jo or Liv and Luke because for weeks we’re told a merge only happens between twins. Instead viewers are surprised when Luke stops Jo and Kai from merging and challenges Kai to merge with him instead. Despite the two not being twins, the brothers are the same age due to Kai’s imprisonment in the witchy created 1994 hell.

“One will absorb traits from the other. Both will of your souls will unite into a new being.” - Papa Parker.

Chris Brochu is great in his portrayal of Luke this week. The audience can see the love Luke has for his sister, Liv after Tyler stops their dad from forcing them to merge. When he asks Liv if she trusts him and promises he will be fine his face says it all. His voice has a confident tone to it and his eyes show his determination to save his twin sister from dying if they’re forced to merge. However, there is a sadness to his eyes and viewers can sense a light bit of uncertainty about him as hesitates slightly before he turns and walks away. Meanwhile, Luke exudes nothing but confidence when he insists Kai merge with him instead of Jo. His determination to defeat Kai, win the merge and save not only Liv, but Jo as well is conveyed to the audience. He stands straight faced and rigid in front of his sociopath brother. While, Luke’s death was an unexpected one, he died a hero in the eyes of his family and friends. It also served as a redemption to his character who in the past had been seen as somewhat a pain in the ass interfering with numerous spells. Specially the spell trapping Damon and Bonnie (Kat Graham) in 1994 hell.

A Mother’s Dying Wish

As painful as it is to watch the beloved Liz Forbes suffer from an incurable brain tumor, Marguerite McIntyre does a heartbreakingly amazing job doing so. That dreaded feeling of ‘I hate to ask, but I have to know’ is conveyed to viewers at the hospital when Liz asks Elena about the prognosis using a transfusion of human blood. She tries to put forth a half-hearted smile and remains undefeated as she asks. There is a sadness in her eyes as she hopes for the best and knowing Elena isn’t being entirely truthful, she puts on a brave face and eases the tension of the situation warning her how it’s bad luck to lie to someone dying. However, despite facing an incurable cancer diagnosis, the audience still sees Liz keep her witw about her. Even on her death bed, literally, she still makes her intolerance for those who pose a threat to her town and the ones she loves known. Forced to turn to Kai in an effort to reverse the effects of drinking vampire blood, viewers can see it doesn’t sit too well with Liz. She has her arms crossed, an annoyed expression on her face and has snarky comments on Kai’s endless ramblings.

“Just get on with it Kai. Listening to you talk makes me want to die.” - Liz.

Then after surviving an almost deadly heart attack as a side effect of Kai’s magic siphoning, Liz pulls the ultimate mother card in a heartbreaking conversation with Stefan. If the reality of Liz’s situation hasn’t set in, this pretty much hits it home for viewers. Marguerite is great conveying the raw emotion of this scene. While keeping a positive outlook regardless of the situation, Liz remains a loving and devoted mother, who always has her daughter’s well-being in mind. Liz’s face oozes that of a caring, concerned mother when she asks Stefan to look after Caroline and be there for her. Her expression is completely serious, yet her eyes are soft and sad, but not for herself, but because she knows how much its going to hurt her Caroline if she loses her. Marguerite is amazing in her portrayal of Liz throughout the entire episode this week and is truly going to be a great loss to the series if Liz doesn’t survive.

Couples eMERGEd!

This week had a lot of development within the existing and potential relationships giving fans of each ship something to cheer about. Whether a Delena, Steroline or Liyler shipper, the episode has something for everyone to get those feels going. The audience can see Tyler and Liv have made their relationship status official as a couple when we first see the two in bed together in Liv’s dorm. While Tyler pays Liv back for preventing him triggering the werewolf curse by coming to her rescue. He stops Papa Parker from forcing her and Luke to merge and consequently saves her life. Tyler risks his life standing up to the leader of the Gemini coven showing viewers how strong his feelings are for Liv. If that isn’t love, what is?

Steroline fans see Stefan and Caroline become closer this week as Stefan stands by her side during a time when she needs him the most. As Caroline struggles with the fact that feeding her mother vampire blood as sped up the progression of her cancer, Stefan doesn’t blame her for one second even though she does. Viewers see his support when Stefan comes to side after her medical experiment comes back to haunt her and helps her get him to the hospital. And after Damon adds to Caroline’s pain by blaming her for her mother impending death, Stefan tracks her down at the flower shop where she’s taking control of the one thing she can and is ordering flowers for her mother’s memorial. He convinces her to return to her mother’s side at the hospital by opening up to her about his own mother and her death. Caroline grabs his hand to show him and the audience how much she cares for him and appreciates him being there for her.

“Caroline, you took a risk. It didn’t pay off, but you did it out of love. You made your mother sicker, ok, but what are you going to do now? Are you just gonna bury your head in the sand?” - Stefan.

The episode also shows great progress in Damon and Elena’s relationship and the pair rekindling their romance. It begin with an adorable scene between the two and Delena fans rejoice as Damon asks Elena out on a date. She has a huge smile on her face and viewers can see the happiness and excitement that comes along with when the guy you’ve been crushing on asks you out. While, the audience wasn’t able to see the duo enjoy an Italian dinner and an indie film, they did see Damon and Elena pick up right where they left before she had the memories of their relationship compelled away. After seeing Caroline’s mom nearly die from an unexpected heart attack, Elena decides she doesn’t want to take things slow anymore and kisses Damon in the halls of the hospital outside of Liz’s room. They share a passionate kiss and there is no question anymore where their relationship stands. Viewers can easily see Delena is officially back on!

“Life’s too short. Immortal or not I don’t want to waste another minute of it.” - Elena.

FINAL VERDICT

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, “Prayer for the Dying,” was a nice blend of family, friendship, love, and suspense. It even included an unexpected plot twist ending in tragedy and a loss no one saw coming. Brett Matthews and Rebecca Sonnenshine penned an episode that was not only heartbreaking, but also had some deliciously heartwarming parts as well. While painfully watching Liz Forbes, beloved mother, sheriff and last parental figure on the series, battle cancer, viewers also see how each character struggles with her terminal diagnosis. A huge support in the tlife of each of their lives in different ways, Matthews and Sonnenshine do a great job illustrating how each is effected by Liz’s illness. All are forced to stand by helpless as a loved one suffers, whether its Caroline, a daughter forced to see her mother suffer, Elena, a surrogate daughter to Liz, who has been there for her and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) since the death of their parents or Damon and Stefan, both close friends to her especially Damon. In addition to good writing from Matthews and Sonnenshine and a great performance from Marguerite and Chris Brochu this week, episode director, Jeffery Hunt does a nice job capturing the emotion of each scene. Using the right camera angles at just the right time, Hunt adds to the heartbreaking emotion of each scene Liz shares whether it be with either Caroline, Stefan, Elena, or Damon. While music supervisor, Chris Mollere takes the heartache to a whole new level pairing the dream scene Liz enters while suffering a heart attack and the suspense of whether Caroline will make it back to the hospital in time to say goodbye with the sweet tune of “I’ll Never Forget You” by Birdy.

An unexpected plot twist from Matthews and Sonneshine was a pleasant surprise, but an equally sad addition to the dreaded twin merge in this week’s episode. Instead of a merge between actual twins, Liv and Luke or Jo and Kai, the merge takes place between Luke and Kai ultimately ending in the death of one of the least expected members of the Parker family, Luke. Hunt adds to the believability of the merge scene by alternating close up shots of Kai and Luke’s facial expressions and panning out to show full body shots, their hands interlocked and completely entranced in the unconventional coven ritual. He dials up the mystical element of the merge by incorporating a swirling wind with blowing leaves around them. Throughout the episode, Hunt makes great use of camera angles to enhance the emotion of each scene. Choosing to zoom in and focus on Caroline’s hand as she takes hold of Stefan’s in the flower shop emphasizes just how close the pair are growing faced with such a horrible situation. And when Elena decides she wants to pick up right where she and Damon left off and they share a kiss, having the sunlight shine through the blinds in the window behind them adds to the overall beauty of scene. Mollere accompanying their long awaited reunion with “Always Take You Back” by Night Terrors Of 1927 is the perfect pairing for the romantic scene. This week’s episode definitely had a sad and somber tone to it with the death of Luke Parker and near death of Liz Forbes, but also had some juicy couples goodness for almost all shippers. Next week’s episode is sure to serve up some more drama, especially now that Kai has emerged the winner of a Gemini coven merge. There’s bound to be lots to discuss!

Comments, Questions, Concerns:

• Papa Parker calling Kai a sociopath (even though he really is) is definitely the pot calling the kettle black. Just saying.
• Alaric (Matt Davis) went in search of some mystical object? Why are we just hearing there is a mystical object out there that’s helpful
• Uh, hello! Did everyone totally forget about Bonnie? Wonder what she’s been doing in 1994 witchy prison since Christmas,
• Seriously thought for a second Tyler killed Papa Parker and triggered the werewolf curse when he stopped Liv and Luke from merging.
• How much does Luke love his sister risking and giving up his life for her because he had to know he couldn’t beat Kai.
• Missed Matty Blue Eyes (Zach Roerig) this week,
• Love Michael Marlarkey, but didn’t miss Enzo and his Stefan stalking at all this week, #SorryNotSorry
• Sad to see that Damon had to be so mean to Caroline and blame her for Liz’s cancer progression. Even though he only did it because he was hurting, its unfortunate to see him regress to his old ways.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES 6×13 airs THURSDAY, FEB. 5 at 8|9c on the CW