The Vampire Diaries: "A View To A Kill"

There was a whole lot of competence happening in Mystic Falls this week, and frankly, it was kind of disconcerting. The hard truth is that when Elena Gilbert has a plan, it is usually kind of a disaster. Her bright idea last week to kill Kol was audacious, complicated, and obviously destined to fail. That it didn’t is one of the great joys of this season so far.
Of course, just because it works doesn’t mean it goes well. Elena has a decent handle on what they need to do in order to pull it off at least, focusing on drawing Kol in with the promise of a fake truce in finding Silas before staking him, then having Matt dagger Rebekah and Bonnie take care of Klaus to avoid sibling backlash from the staking. It’s convoluted and complicated but is at least coherent, and the fun in any plan on this show is more of how horribly it breaks down than how smoothly it goes anyway. And boy, does this plan break down, almost resulting in a dead Elena and an armless Jeremy until the Gilbert siblings come together at the last minute and stake Kol, with him burning to a crisp right in their kitchen.
More compelling than the death of Kol (who was basically a nonentity) is Klaus’ reaction to that death. For a guy who said barely two words to Kol and was always willing to dagger him when he became inconvenient, he certainly doesn’t take well to young Jeremy killing him for good. It’s a feral, instinctive sort of reaction, one that suggests Klaus isn’t going to sit around playing nice with the gang just so he can kindly get what he wants from Elena; no, he seems far more willing to take everything by brute force now rather than the extreme manipulation and games he’s been using. His angry turn is especially interesting in relation to the conversation he has with Damon earlier in the episode about the nature of being a “bad” guy and how Damon gets away with doing bad things without everyone hating him. To Damon, it’s simple: be bad with a purpose, don’t be bad to just be a dick. Klaus certainly seems to have a purpose now.
Kol’s staking wouldn’t have been so easy, though, without Stefan working to occupy Rebekah. Stefan wakes up in Rebekah’s bed post-hookup immediately remorseful and trying to sneak away, but his pledge to help Elena and Jeremy with their plan forces him to remain in her orbit and do anything he can to get her to reveal where she’s hiding the dagger (which Matt is then to stab her with). It’s ruthless stuff, but what’s always great about Stefan in these situations is his ability to completely manipulate Rebekah and yet do it in a way where he remains completely sincere in their conversations. It’s a tricky tightrope to walk, but every conversation Stefan has with Rebekah right up to the one where he has to obviously lie feels real, and feels like he’s making a connection with her. That these conversations took place at a failed '80s dance, complete with The Cure and Bon Jovi on the soundtrack and references to Say Anything only made them all the more fun.