On the midseason finale of The Vampire Diaries, Kai is home for the holidays and he feels that there’s no better way to spend that time than with family. He starts with his sister Jo, injecting her with something while she’s working on his stab wound victims at the hospital. Because nothing says “Happy Holidays!” like a good stab in the neck.
Alaric realizes that Jo has been missing, which could only mean that Kai has come to town. In order to keep Kai from getting what he wants, Alaric and Damon let Elena know their plans on how they’re going to keep Jo safe from Kai — even though he already has her captive. Damon tells them that he’s got the knife which contains Jo’s powers hidden away where Kai will never find them. Or so he thought.
Looks like Tyler and the twins have been working with Kai in order to keep Liv and Luke alive. They were the ones who gave Kai the knife in order for Jo to gain her powers back. Now all Kai needs to do is merge with Jo and the twins will be safe. Unfortunately for Kai and Jo, the weaker one will die after losing their powers. Because he’s the worst brother ever, Kai tries to speed up the process by stabbing Jo with the knife as a way for her powers to seep into her. After multiple failed attempts, Jo lets Kai know that she willingly got rid of her powers, so in order for her to get them back, she must accept them back herself. Kai knows exactly what he has to do in order to make that happen, but he’ll just save that for later and make Jo think she’s in charge.
Matt convinces Enzo to meet with him to talk about information Matt has on Stefan’s fake relative, Sarah. When Enzo goes to meet with Matt, though, he realizes that he’s being set up and he manages to catch Jeremy flying arrow. However, he can’t handle two humans ganging up on him and he gets knocked out by Matt and Jeremy. Matt plans to kill Enzo by driving him across the border.
Caroline’s mom comes to Whitmore to visit and help decorate for Christmas. She also invited Stefan, which Caroline isn’t too thrilled about. You’re one clever lady, Sheriff Forbes. I see what you did there. Caroline reminds Stefan that just because he’s helping with the lights doesn’t mean she can become his friend again and forget everything he did. Stefan leaves as Caroline’s mom comes in with hot drinks but he quickly returns to aid her.
Liz stumbles towards the ground and mentions that she feels extremely dizzy. Things don’t sound too good, but who wouldn’t feel in good hands when a Salvatore is around?
They take Liz to the hospital where they meet up with Elena. When the doctors say they can’t find anything wrong, but will continue to run tests, Stefan pulls Elena aside and tells her that he already knows what’s going on with Liz: Glioblastoma. Elena compels a doctor to tell her what’s going on with Caroline’s mom and she tells her that they think the brain tumor might have already spread. If this is the case then they can’t operate on her. Liz has known for weeks, but hasn’t told Caroline.
Speaking of relatives, Liv has a heart-to-heart with Jo while Kai is busy trying to figure out how to implement his master plan. She tells Jo that she thinks she would be more powerful than Kai after everything she’s accomplished without her magic. As they’re having a beautiful sister-to-sister moment, Kai comes in and ruins everything. He grabs Liv and starts to drain her powers so he can kill her by using her own magic. Jo makes Kai stop by telling him that she’ll accept her powers back, and she keeps to her word. She holds onto the knife and starts chanting away.
Damon and Alaric are outside to catch Kai by surprisei, and somehow they’re able to pull it off. Damon grabs ahold of Kai but ends up leaving him for Alaric as he goes past the no-magic border. Alaric is ready to blow Kai’s brains out, but Jo comes running out begging him not to. Alaric is torn between listening to his best friend or his new girlfriend. In the end, he listens to Jo because he feels she has a legitimate reason. She says that if Kai dies, then the twins will have to do the merge and she doesn’t feel it’s fair for them to go through with that. Jo tells Alaric that she knows she can beat Kai in the merge, but she just needs time. Everyone will just have to keep turns babysitting the psychopath.
Kai is chained up behind a tombstone past the border where Damon can’t get to him, but Damon notices him starting to chant with his hands dug into the dirt, sucking up all the magic from the traveler’s spell from the border. He ends up collecting all of the magic which brings down the no-magic wall in Mystic Falls. It’s perfect timing, because Matt has Enzo in the back of Trip’s truck and he’s headed into Mystic Falls. When Matt goes to check on Enzo, he’s not dead like he suspected he’d be. Enzo tells Matt that he was right about how Enzo is jealous of Stefan. Now Matt will help Enzo destroy Stefan’s life.
Stefan ends up telling Caroline the news about her mother and while she’s upset to know that her vampire blood won’t cure her mom, she seems happy to have Stefan there to support her. I think Liz would be happy to know that Stefan was the one who told Caroline because he was also there to comfort her. Looks like Stefan is changing his ways for the better — he pulls up to his house with Damon’s car suddenly looking brand new. Stefan told Damon that while he was gone he was able to get the car fixed but asked Damon to promise he’ll never do it again. Looks like Damon loved his Christmas present.
Damon is also at the house waiting 
for Elena to stop by so they can talk about their horrible days over a Damon-cooked meal. When Elena knocks on the door she sees a cleverly placed mistletoe hanging above the door but plays along with it. When Damon doesn’t respond to her inviting gesture she’s confused as to why he can’t see her standing in front of the door. After Damon closes the door, Kai pops up with a tire iron to let Elena know that he put a cloaking spell on the both of them. He proceeds to knock her over the head, which could only mean things aren’t going to end well for poor Elena.
What were your thoughts on the mid-season finale of The Vampire Diaries, “Christmas Through Your Eyes” episode? Did you see that huge plot twist coming at the end because I surely didn’t see it coming. I know Kai is always trying to make everyone suffer but I don’t get why he’d go after Elena. Maybe he’s like Enzo and is jealous of what Damon has. What are your thoughts on how Enzo is treating Stefan? It’s clear that Enzo wants the things Stefan has such as family and Caroline but that doesn’t mean he needs to torture Stefan. I thought we were making progress with Enzo but now he just seems to be going backwards in every episode. What do you think Kai has planned for kidnapping Elena? Has he forgotten about merging with his sister Jo? Share your thoughts in the comments.
New episodes of The Vampire Diaries premiere Thursday January 22 8pm ET on The CW
Photos: Bob Mahoney/The CW — © 2014 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
