So last week, we got the first monster who talks. We also had Landon leave the school for New Orleans as Hope sent him to find her friend. And we had it end with Raf and Lizzie having sex. Now that we’re all caught up, this week’s episode had some fun parts and some sad parts, so let’s get into it.
This episode starts with Alaric on the phone with Caroline. She says she has to miss the twins’ 16th birthday party and he can’t tell them exactly what she’s doing. Then, Jo (Alaric’s dead fiance), walks through the doors of his office in her bloody wedding dress from The Vampire Diaries, season 6 finale. He hangs up the phone and grabs his crossbow cause his first instinct says that Jo could be the next monster coming for the knife, but she claims she was ‘yanked awake’ and then arrived here. So, she seems to not know what to do.
Dorian suggests that they interrogate her and Ric agrees. Ric summons Emma who is in a session with Hope, who is beyond smitten with Landon (they kissed in the last episode), and she puts up a boundary spell around his office so they can figure out what’s going on. Jo changes out of her wedding dress and tells Ric that the last thing she remembers is her psychopath twin brother with a large knife (that is Kai Parker if you didn’t watch the Vampire Diaries. He’s cute but a total psychopath.), and she finds out that was 16 years ago. Before Alaric can find out anything else, his two daughters knock on the door. Penelope came to break the news that Caroline will miss their party and they are not happy about it. (Lizzie also revealed that she had sex with Raf, and Josie isn’t happy with that information, but that isn’t the main point right now.) When Alaric tries to shoo them away, they use their magic to open the doors, and they met their ‘bio mom’.
Alaric updates Jo on how the twins are alive, her coven magically implanted them in Caroline, who married Stefan but then he died on their wedding day, and now Caroline is doing ‘recruiting’ work overseas. Alaric pulls out the supernatural lie detector to get some answers, but all evidence points to this being Jo, and Josie is very excited.
While this is happening, Hope is giving Rafael dance lessons. She apologizes for sending Landon away, but he doesn’t really accept her apology. He then asks for her help as he’s never been to a fancy party, and he doesn’t want to let Lizzie down. He also reveals he slept with Lizzie and Hope isn’t that pleased to hear that as she knows he doesn’t like Lizzie like that. Hope agrees to show him how to be a proper escort but their lessons turn out to take longer than expected, and Penelope traps them in the gym with a spell that forces him to miss the start of the party. Penelope made a deal with MG to keep Rafael away from Lizzie, long enough for MG to take his shot with her, but if it doesn’t work, he has to quit Lizzie Saltzman for good. MG agrees.
Upstairs, Josie is helping get ready for their party while Lizzie explains that even though their mad at Caroline, they can’t cheat on her with ‘mombie dearest’. Lizzie leaves for the party, leaving Josie who hasn’t gotten ready yet. Josie finds a present from Hope which is a locket and Josie quickly puts it on. Penelope then offers to be Josie’s escort, but Josie isn’t interested. Instead, she goes to find out if Jo can braid her hair.
Lizzie enters the party and meets her new escort (The Vampire Diaries throwback moment to when Damon stepped in during Miss Mystic Falls, when Stefan didn’t show up.) who turns out to be MG. MG turns out to be a great dancer and quickly gets Lizzie to have fun. Meanwhile, Josie gets to know her bio mother. Josie says that Lizzie is exactly like Caroline, but Josie takes after Jo, which is why Josie is so excited to meet her. Josie also worries that Alaric is lonely.
Josie invites Jo to come to her party, but on the walk over, Jo collapses and when she wakes up she isn’t herself. Her eyes have turned white and her face is a skeleton, and she attacks Josie.
Meanwhile in the gym, Rafael tells Hope that Cassie only died six weeks ago, so in a way, he feels like he cheated on her by sleeping with Lizzie. As for Landon, Hope tells Raf that she sent him to a friend who will help him find his birth mother, but that doesn’t make Raf feel better. Raf says that Landon is his family, and Hope would understand that if she invested in friendships.
Penelope’s spell then comes to an end, and Raf heads to interrupt MG’s sick moves on the dance floor. And obviously, Lizzie lets him. She accepts his apology for being late, but when Raf is honest with her and says he doesn’t want to be her boyfriend or anything, well, she isn’t particularly pleased.
Ric finds Jo who is hysterical. She’s lost a chunk of time and thinks she did something to Josie. Then, she collapses and as her eyes grow white, she tells Ric that she wants the knife and his daughter has an hour before she runs out of air.
Hope comes around the corner dressed in her beautiful party dress, and Ric asks for her help. She enlists Penelope and MG to try to find where Josie has been buried alive in the cemetery. Penelope is adorable and seems so worried about her ex-girlfriend. However, every time MG hears something, and they try to dig up a grave, a zombie pops out and we have a full-on zombie attack happening and they fight the
Eventually, MG finds Josie with the help of the locket that Hope gave her. It’s a talisman that makes ‘quiet things heard.’ As for the knife, Dorian and Emma leave with it to keep it as far away from the bad guys as possible.
But Jo clearly isn’t the bad guy as something is controlling her, and she feels terrible about what happened. She ends up coming up with a plan: the girls can siphon the magic out of her but seeing as how the magic is the only thing keeping her alive, that means Ric has to say goodbye to the love of his life, yet again. Ric breaks down as he hugs her, and he promises her he’ll be happy once the girls are grown. Then, we get some answers. Jo asks if the girls know what happens when they turn 22, and he says they don’t and Caroline is off trying to exhaust all options before they tell the twins. Jo asks Ric to thank Caroline for being a mother to her girls.
Outside of Alaric’s office, Penelope confronts Josie. She did help save Josie after all, but Josie only thanked Hope and MG. Josie might hate her, but Penelope doesn’t feel the same. The two kiss which is the best thing out of this episode. As for Raf, he finds Hope and asks if she’d like to dance, and honestly, I am here for this friendship.
Then, we go back to the girls who are preparing to siphon the magic out of Jo. They don’t want to but she assures them that this is the right thing to do. She remembers what the afterlife was like, and remembers watching over all of them. She says she was at peace and she’ll be there, waiting for them. Lizzie apologises for being awful to her, but she tells the girls that they’re “everything that I could’ve wished for.” She tells them to, “Be good to each other. Fight for each other. When you’re older you’ll understand what I mean.” The girls and Alaric are sobbing as they take Jo’s hands. Jo says I love you, one last time, and disappears. (Just letting you know, I was in fact crying during this scene.)
Ric and Dorian go to Jo’s grave where they find the monster responsible for this: The Necromancer. He claims that death can’t hold him, but Ric quickly tests that and knocks him out with a shovel, which is wear we end.
Final Thoughts:
This episode was my favorite so far. It had everything. I loved the cute friendship moments and romance of it. Despite being really sad and making me cry, I loved it a lot.
