'I Could Never amor Like That' 

Candice Accola's 'Vampire Diaries' blog: Inside dish on 'I Could Never Love Like That'

Let’s start with the giant elephant that was running throughout tonight’s entire episode: Nina Dobrev is leaving. The actress who started as the heart and soul of the show has decided to make a graceful exit. Julie Plec and Co. all seem to be on board with this decision, but based on what I’m seeing across the internet, fans are quite divided as to if they feel the same.

Now this is not the time or place to dive deep into this (your regular recapper, Sam, already took a stab at it anyway), but the news will definitely color the way we watch the rest of season 6. Some of you may know from watching

that when you know this far ahead of time that an actor is leaving, it’s hard to keep watching without constantly thinking about how that character will be actually exiting. But since Plec herself basically said it’s a five-episode goodbye, maybe that’s how we’re supposed to be thinking anyway?

But before we go any further, we should talk about the elephant in the

extraordinaire Samantha Highfill heard the news that Nina was leaving and decided to give up the recapping game—kidding, she’s decided to take her feelings about it and go recover in Mexico (also known as vacation), but she’ll be back next week to take you through the rest of this goodbye “journey.”

So for now, let’s get to tonight’s episode, “I Could Never Love Like That”:

There’s nothing I love more than a scary cold open (well, maybe a voice-over-while-someone-writes-in-a-diary open, but I think that ship has sailed), but you know what’s even better? A scary cold open that is the result of No Humanity Caroline and No Humanity Stefan playing the “Can You Scare Someone to Death?” game.

They’re both in full-on evil doppelganger mode, and it’s delightful. Caroline bets Stefan she can scare the hot-bartender-who-isn’t-Matt to death, but she goes with the cliché “body drop,” so she has to compel him into thinking he’s having a heart attack, his throat is closing up, and spiders are crawling all over him. And she’s giggling. No humanity, indeed.

So what’s the prize for killing this kid? Karaoke, naturally. The local Whitmore kids are just trying to study over breakfast the next morning, but Caroline is loudly riffing on “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (a song which Candice Accola actually selected herself; you can read about it in her EW blog). Stefan starts killing everyone who doesn’t listen and enjoy her music, but luckily the calvary is coming. Just kidding—it’s “police officers in training” Matt and Tyler. And they’re being tortured—through more morning karaoke from Caroline.

Meanwhile, Elena and Damon are having a relatively pleasant morning. They’re enjoying breakfast made by Lily while they bask in their postcoital glow—and it’s apparently not awkward at all. They just talk about casual things like Damon’s favorite breakfast foods, memes, and, oh yeah, if Elena misses being a human. I believe this is what they call foreshadowing?

This is followed by even more foreshadowing when Elena meets Jo at the hospital and the two catch up: Kai is in 1903 prison while Lily is not. And Jo is pregnant. Elena tries to feign happiness, but the mix of sadness, jealousy, and regret is written all over Nina Dobrev’s beautiful face.

Candice Accola\'s \'Vampire Diaries\' blog: Inside dish on \'I Could Never Love Like That\'

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