Prayer For the Dying is the twelfth episode of the sixth season of The Vampire Diaries and the one hundred and twenty third episode of the series.
Summary
The Vampire Diaries - Prayer for the Dying Trailer
THE MERGE — When Liv and Luke’s father arrives to town to celebrate their birthday, they try and convince him to let Jo and Kai take their place in the merge ceremony. After Tyler finds out that the merge is happening sooner than he expected, he urges Liv to let him talk to her father. Meanwhile, after Caroline’s plan to cure her mother takes an unexpected and devastating turn, Elena, Stefan and Damon gather at the hospital, while Jo attempts to save Sheriff Forbes’ life. Lastly, with the merge set to take place, Damon’s risky plan quickly sends things spiraling out of control, forcing one of the twins to take matters into their own hands.
Plot
Caroline is woken up by Colin, the patient she gave her blood to. Stefan and she learn he is a vampire. Liv and Luke's father arrives to celebrate their birthday. They propose him to avoid the merge because none of them wants the other to die. In the hospital, Caroline and Stefan realize that Colin is a vampire but is not cured: the tumor grew up and gives him huge pain. Jo proposes to exchange the vampire blood with human blood, in order to try and save Liz. Tyler, who now knows the twins are ready for the merge (as they are 22 years old), tries to wake Kai up, but is stopped by Damon. Kai helps Liz taking all the magic from her body but with the condition that the merge is set for that night. Meanwhile, Liz is having a heart attack and Elena is helping her. Mr Parker deceives the twins and begins to merge them, but Tyler comes just in time and hits him. Luke promises Liv he will come back and go and look for Kai. Kai and Jo begin the merge, although she is not ready yet. Luke stops the merge and convince Kai to do it with him. Damon compels a doctor to save Liz's life, but she dies. Caroline arrives in that moment and cries on her mother's body. Before dying, Liz has a vision in which she sees her daughter with a bloody face, and then mysteriously wakes up. After the merge, Jo sees that Luke and Kai fainted. While Jo is crying and holding her little brother in her arms, he dies: Kai has won the merge.
Cast
Main Cast
|
Recurring Cast
|
Trivia
- Antagonist: Kai.
- Elena has a new daylight ring made by Jo.
- Jo tries to revitalize a plant with her magic but fails.
- Damon calls Jo a witch doctor as a pun on the fact that she's both a doctor and a witch.
- Caroline learn that her mother Liz had signed over the deed to their house, this is how Colin could enter the Forbes House without being invited inside by Liz.
- Colin Phelps arrives in Mystic Falls after dying due to Caroline's blood. However, as cancer cells grow, their growth was accelerated into stage 10 cancer (which doesn't exist) by vampire blood and Colin is a vampire with permanent tumors that can never heal. He is killed by Damon as a mercy killing.
- Jo tries to help Sheriff Forbes by giving her transfusion of human blood in order to stop the vampire blood in her system from causing the same effect on her as it did on Colin Phelps, but it doesn't work.
- Damon releases Kai, after Tyler started to free him, so that he can siphon the magic of the vampire blood out of Sheriff Forbes to prevent her from suffering the same fate as Colin. In exchange, Kai wants to perform the Merge that day and takes Jo from the hospital.
- This implies that Kai or someone like him could kill a vampire by siphoning off the magic that keeps them alive, thus killing said vampire.
- Elena threatens to rip off Kai's head if he doesn't get to siphoning off the magic in the vampire blood in Liz's body.
- Elena tries using CPR on Liz after her stops after Kai has siphoned off the magic of the vampire in her system.
- All the magic that Kai absorbed from the The Travelers spell has gone away while he's been asleep, this is seen when he tries to inflict pain on Damon.
- It's revealed by Joshua Parker that if the twins of the Parker bloodline don't perform The Merge, the Gemini bloodline will end. He also mentions that the the traits of the siblings of the twins that die in The Merge will be absorbed by the ones who survive, that the souls of both siblings will unite into one new being.
- Joshua Parker tries to force Liv and Luke to merge to stop Kai but he is stopped by Tyler.
- Despite the fact that she is not strong enough to fight him off, Jo accepts to merge with Kai, refusing to run from him anymore.
- Luke intervenes in the Merge between Kai and Jo, and offers to merge with Kai instead. Due to the fact that his imprisonment had kept Kai at the age of 22 and that they were of the same bloodline, it provided the needed loophole to allow them to attempt the Merge.
- Luke dies during the Merge and Kai now has permanent magic.
- Damon tried to take Elena on a date that they have already have been on before during the "Summer of their lives", which was first taking her to dinner and then to a theater where French films are playing and sit in the back of the theater and throw popcorn at the Hipsters.
- Elena and Damon share their first kiss since Home.
- Originally Elena wanted to start over with Damon; however, after witnessing the near death of Sheriff Forbes, she chooses to resume where they left off realizing life is too short, even if you are immortal.
- Elena doesn't speak French, even though she was taking French during her Sophmore year at Mystic Falls High School which is a class she took with Stefan as well as established in the Pilot.
- In real life Nina Dobrev speaks French as well as Bulgarian, making her tri-lingual.
Continuity
- Joshua Parker was last seen in Fade Into You.
- This is the last appearance of Lucas Parker in the series as he's killed in the Merging with Malachai Parker but that doesn't rule out returning in flashbacks.
- Damon is the second vampire in series to have their neck magically snapped in the series after Elena in Woke Up With a Monster and by the same person, Kai.
- Elena is the first vampire to have two different witches make a daylight for her in either series.
- Bonnie Bennett made her original ring in Growing Pains, which Kai melted in Woke Up With a Monster.
- Jo made her replacement ring in between the previous episode and this one.
- Colin Phelps is the second vampire unintentionally created with Caroline's blood that is killed.
- The first was Jesse, staked by Elena.
- The second was Colin, heart extraction by Damon.
- This is the fourth episode in the series to feature a birthday. In this episode, it's Luke & Liv's 22nd birthday.
- The first was Stefan's 162nd birthday in Season 1's 162 Candles.
- The second was Elena's 18th birthday in Season 3's The Birthday.
- The third was Caroline's 18th birthday in Season 3's Our Town.
Body Count
- Colin Phelps - Heart Extraction, killed by Damon Salvatore.
- Lucas Parker - Merge, killed by Malachai Parker.
Behind the Scenes
Cultural References
- "Prayer For The Dying" is a song by Seal from his self-titled studio album released in May 1994.
- Hipsters are a subculture of millenials living in urban areas.
- Witch doctors were originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft.
Quotes
Extended Promo
- Elena to Damon: "If we're gonna do this, we can't just pick up where we left off."
- Stefan: "The blood didn't heal him. It sped up his cancer and killed him."
- Sheriff Forbes: "The same thing is going to happen to me."
- Caroline: "Why did I feed her that blood?"
- Stefan: "You took a risk. You did it out of love."
- Elena to Damon: "Life's too short. I don't want to waste another minute."
Multimedia
Soundtrack
"Happy Idiot" – TV On The Radio
"Running Wild" – Moon Taxi
"Out Of Site Out Of Mind" – Matt White
"Always Take You Back" – Night Terrors Of 1927
"I'll Never Forget You" – Birdy
Videos
Pictures
References
See also
Template:VD Episodes Template:VD Transcripts