Your Vampire Diaries Favorites Are Seriously Screwed After That Midseason Finale

Think The Vampire Diaries' Heretics are scary and disagreeable when they're in a good mood? Then you really wouldn't like them when they're angry. Like, "mad because not only are they an unhinged maniac, you also happened to injure and/or kill their one true love" kind of angry.

That's why, as we head into the holiday hiatus, both Damon and Stefan are out of commission (thanks to the fact that they've both been sliced by the Phoenix Stone dagger). Something tells us that they're going to come back, since they're the leads of the show at all, but neither of them is having a particularly good time while trapped in the stone reliving every bad thing they've ever done in their entire, centuries-long lives.

The brothers were on the hunt for Julian, a.k.a. their mom's no-good boyfriend who killed the baby Stefan didn't know he'd fathered a couple hundred years ago. But when they found him, things didn't go as planned. (The plan was to kill him. They didn't.) Instead, he stabbed Damon, trapping him in the stone.

But that wasn't enough horrible news for the Salvatore brothers—because shortly after, Nora, one half of the lesbian Heretic couple, got vengeance for what the crew did to her love and stabbed Stefan too. Now, both brothers are trapped, and Bonnie's not looking too good either.

Clearly, the crew will come together and find a way to release the brothers from their hellish prison, but it's going to be quite a long wait until we find out how.

It should be noted that Caroline Forbes was particularly adorable this episode, what with all her pregnancy neuroses and all. She made us cry, too, with that beautifully emotional visit to her mom's grave to talk about her impending motherhood and the first Christmas without Sheriff Forbes there.

What did you think of the TVD midseason finale? How are Damon and Stefan going to be freed if Bonnie is hurt?

‘The Originals’ Creator Warns Not to Anger Klaus

The happy, family-centric white Christmas that the Mikaelson siblings had hoped for did not last for long. While Rebekah (Claire Holt) was briefly resurrected in time for the holiday, her Strix curse infliction resulted in her begging for a mercy stabbing from big brother Elijah (Daniel Gillies) — thus enacting the first step of the prophecy that the family will fall “one by friend, one by foe and one by family.”

Also damaging: While Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Cami (Leah Pipes) finally ignited that passion they had been circling since season one, their happiness was brief. Klaus awoke to find Cami in bed next to him with her throat slashed. This undoing came from his vengeful ex Aurora (Rebecca Breeds). If this weren’t bad enough, Aurora’s equally evil brother Tristan (Oliver Ackland) has laid a dangerous trap for Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood) to ensure his loyalty to him over the Mikaelsons.

For some clarity on these events and also for what’s in store for the second half of the season, Varietyspoke with “The Originals” creator Julie Plec.

Cami appears to be dead! Why did the writers decide to go that route?

We believed it was important to show Aurora’s instability, jealousy, insecurity and viciousness in the worst way possible — that hell has no fury in the way that only a horrible ex can do. This was a horribly extreme result of Aurora feeling slighted and that Klaus doesn’t love her enough and has cemented her as one of the big villains that we have to deal with.

Leah Pipes did an interview recently where she said she didn’t want to lose her job. Is Cami done for good?

This isn’t the last we’ve seen Leah Pipes grace the screen of this show. The question is what context we’ll see her again and just how tragic that will be.

Cami and Klaus did get that one kiss — and more.

It’s been a dance with them for awhile because she has admitted that she’s drawn to him in spite of herself and we know that Klaus is constantly conflicted by the harder side of him that refuses to open up and the side of him that will let himself be loved and have these very poetic interludes with women throughout his life.

I think he was battling with what Cami meant to him. It took putting him up against one of the first women in his life to realize how special she is and how much power she has over him.

Klaus is going to be really angry in the next few episodes.

Well, there’s nothing more fun than a pissed off Klaus. In spite of the turn of events for him, he does get the bite of the vengeance bug. Once he finally gets his hands on Aurora, it’s not going to be pretty.

How will Elijah cope with his grief of staking Rebekah?

I love that scene so much. I thought Daniel Gillies was so good in that scene.

He’s really heartbroken, especially given how he feels about daggers in general, to be the responsible big brother and do the right thing for the family as a whole. In this particular case, he understands that Rebekah needs to be put down. In spite of wishing there was another way out of this, he understands that this is the best strategy.

Things aren’t also looking good for Vincent either.

Vincent, after finally realizing that avoiding magic is about easy as catching a taxi on Bourbon Street, is now realizing that he’s come up against a pretty deep held grudge with Tristan — and Tristan will use any way to get back at the Mikaelsons.

But Vincent is a pretty strong guy and he doesn’t like to be pushed around. If there’s anyone who is capable of taking care of himself, it’s him.

Nashville EP on the Fall Finale's Huge 'Deyna' Moment

This post contains spoilers for Wednesday’s fall finale of Nashville.

It finally happened: In Nashville‘s fall finale, Deacon dropped to one knee and asked Rayna to marry him.

And unlike previous Claybourne proposals, Deke was neither drunk nor dying when he did so.

Also unlike previous attempts? This wedding, showrunner Dee Johnson tells TVLine, is actually gonna happen — and soon.

“He all but proposed at the end of last season,” the EP says, referencing Deacon’s hospital-room freakout right before his liver transplant. “But stuff happened, and there was a lot of emotion they had to get through. We knew they needed time.”

In essence, the pair has been behaving like a married couple since the beginning of Season 4, she adds. But “even though they were living together, they were like ships in the night, because they were in their own little trajectories, motivated by their own needs. He was doing The Beverly for his sister. She was trying to get Highway 65 out of the gutter,” Johnson says. “It pulled them further apart than they’d ever been, in a weird way.”

Bizarrely, if you’re feeling the need to send a thank-you to the universe re: the engagement, send it care of Boulevard’s impetuous former frontman.

“Markus was the catalyst for bringing them back together and Deacon saying, ‘No, we’ve got to make this happen,'” the EP adds. “‘There’s got to be no question in anybody’s mind that we are together.'”

So consider this your official save-the-date notice: After a short time jump, Rayna and Deacon will walk down the aisle this March, Johnson says. While the event might not be the Luke Wheeler-style extravaganza we saw planned last season, there’s a good chance there’ll be some famous friends — and familiar faces (like Judith Hoag’s Tandy) — in attendance.

American Horror Story Just Revealed How Sarah Paulson Connects Season 1 to Season 5 in a Big Way

Martin Freeman over on Fargo isn’t the only Season 1 character to make a triumphant return to an FX show. Sarah Paulson will reprise her Season 1American Horror Story role during this season’s finale. That’s right, Paulson will be playing two characters this year. But, it’s not exactly her first time doing so.

With the departure of Jessica Lange, Paulson has become American Horror Story’s most regular leading lady, but back in Season 1 her part was relatively tiny. She played Billie Dean Howard, alleged psychic and close friend to Lange’s Constance Langdon, and according toEntertainment Weekly, Billie Dean is coming back. The finale will see Howard scoping out the Hotel Cortez as a subject for her very own reality series featuring her psychic abilities.

This isn’t the first time American Horror Story: Hotel has circled back on the show’s original series. Season 1’s Murder House realtor Marcy (Christine Estabrook) and Murder House resident Dr. Montgomery (Matt Ross) already popped up both in flashback and present day this year. Paulson doesn’t even get the honor of being the first actor to play dual roles this season. That goes to Finn Wittrock for his portrayal of doomed model Tristan and, oh yes, screen legend Rudolph Valentino.

Reprising characters is something that creator Ryan Murphy has played with a little bit in seasons past, but as the show goes on, the threads between the seasons seem to grow even more tangled. If Murphy delivers on his hints that we might soon get two seasons ofAmerican Horror Story per year, we may wind up with a very tangled web indeed.

On The Flash, Barry Is an Oblivious Christmas Turkey (Seriously)

How do you follow last week’s epic, ridiculous, wonderfully fun Flash/Arrowcrossover? You don’t even try to match it. You just make a Christmas episode, throw in a couple of major emotional revelations for a few characters, bring back three great villains, and then add a metric ton of silliness.

“Running to Stand Still,” as its title inadvertently implies, is mostly an inconsequential Flash episode, despite the fact that it begins with Weather Wizard breaking Captain Cold and Mark Hamill’s elder Trickster out of Iron Heights to kill the Flash. But this Rogues team-up isn’t nearly as major as you might hope; Cold immediately abandons them to warn Barry about their vague plan. But how can you be disappointed when the episode provides us not just with Cold rolling his eyes at the Trickster’s over-theatrical villainy, but the sight of him calmly drinking cocoa from an adorable reindeer mug after breaking into Barry’s pad?

I sure couldn’t. But that’s what this episode delivers in spades—a pretty ho-hum story, made up time after time by those bursts of fun The Flash does so well. Here’s how basic the plot is: Once the SuperSTARS discover Weather Wizard and Trickster are on the loose, Cisco comes up with the same weather wand device he created for the season finale that didn’t happen (i.e. when the WW created that tidal wave and Flash stopped it before he went back in time and stopped it even earlier). The Trickster, who Mark Hamill is basically playing as a less clever, less classy version of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series, highjacks the airwaves for a very Joker-esque message threatening the Flash. Both Patty and the SuperSTARS use the reflection of a “Mr. Jigglewiggle” doll in the Trickster’s eye to deduce his location, which exists solely so the Flash and Patty can meet at the abandoned Mr. Jigglewiggle warehouse, be surrounded by exploding dreidels courtesy of the Trickster, and for the Flash to use his spinny arms to fly them out of there.

Eventually the Weather Wizard uses his powers again, and Barry tracks him down where he discovers that the Trickster, disguised as a mall Santa, has given out hundreds of bombs hidden in presents he’s been giving away to random families. If the Flash doesn’t stand there and let the villains kill him, the Trickster will detonate them all. It’s up to the SuperSTARS to save the day in what I’m pretty sure is the most bullshit science ever featured on The Flash, which I know is saying something. They track down one present, Wells attaches it into a drone and flies it into an interdimensional breach that’s hanging out above Central City, and somehow the present is so magnetized it sucks all the other presents out of people’s homes across the city into the sky, where they detonate harmlessly, allowing the Flash to wrap up the villains and save the day.

It’s super, super dumb. And yet, I don’t care, because the episode still features things like Joe saying “It’s official. Santa hates us” when he discovers the three villains have escaped prison. And Jay Garrick trolling Caitlin by continually asking things like, “What’s Christmas?” and pretending they don’t exist on Earth-2. Or Wells-2 knocking on the door of some random home, having a kid answer, and Wells declaring with total gravity, “Your toys. Give them to me.”

The humor works a lot better than the emotional beat of this storyline, which stems from Patty, since the Weather Wizard (pre-weather powers) killed her dad. Patty goes from bright and cheerful to willing to murder with no apparent emotional shift. After the Flash captures the Weather Wizard, Patty bursts onto the scene to murder the criminal in cold-blood, but a 45-second pep talk from the Flash talks her down off a ledge that she never appeared to be standing anywhere near before tonight. So yeah.

But as I mentioned earlier, the episode still had a few major reveals in store, they just didn’t really have anything to do with the week’s story. The first is that we learn that Zoom has cornered Wells-2 inside STAR Labs (someone probably should have been keeping an eye on that breach in the basement) and demanded his help—but not to kill the Flash. No, Zoom is sending all the semetahumans after Barry to make him faster and stronger, or “fattening him up like a Christmas turkey,” as Wells puts it. Zoom is going to steal all of Barry’s Speed Force and he wants Barry to be as jam-packed with it as possible when he does it.

The bigger reveal, however, is that Iris finally fesses up to Joe that he has a son. Honestly, this storyline is the lynchpin of the episode, as Iris agonizes whether to tell her father, Barry helps her tell him, Joe freaks out, and then Joe accepts this strange twist of fate—and becomes incredibly happy about it. It’s a pretty quick turnaround (not as quick Patty’s brief dalliance into cold-blooded murder) but as usual, Jesse L. Martin sells it effectively. It’s actually hard not to be happy for him at the end of the episode, as he’s so looking forward to meeting his son Wally for the first time… only for Wally to suddenly show up out of nowhere at their West family holiday party.

Flash fans know that Wally West plays a major role in Flash lore, far beyond that of Iris’ half-brother (or, in the case of the comics, her nephew). Given how well the TV team has brought all the other aspects of The Flash to live-action, I’m really excited to see what they have planned now that they have Wally to play with. Alas, we’ll have to wait until next year to find out, my friends. Happy holidays to you all, and if you remember nothing else, remember this: Every Earth has The Godfather, Vito.

Assorted Musings:

• The Trickster’s crayon Flash drawings were adorable. I want them available as computer wallpaper.

• Flash running on that helicopter blade was hella sweet.

• I love the idea of Wells-2 being forced to betray Barry in the exact same way as the original Wells/Thawne—that’s some good thematic resonance—but I would imagine Wells-2 will be secretly working with the SuperSTARS to betray Zoom, and thus Wells is effectively redeemed. I’m down with that.

• Next episode (which appears to be on January 19)—Barry finally tells Patty about being the Flash. Given how great everyone feels after they reveal secrets, it’s shocking it’s taken this long to get her in on the loop.

• Seriously, this episode could have been nothing but The Flash cast flipping me the bird and as long as it included the scene where Captain Cold passive-aggressively complained Barry was out of mini-marshmallows it would still get an A-, minimum.

Oliver takes on H.I.V.E. on the ‘Arrow’ mid-season finale

Previously

In a two-part crossover with The Flash, Teams Flash and Arrow teamed up to protect Kendra Saunders (Hawkgirl) and Carter Hall (Hawkman) from Vandal Savage, an immortal bent on their deaths. In the first part, Barry and Cisco took Kendra to Star City, where the team confronted Savage and ended in a tie because Savage was distracted by Kendra awakening her powers.

In the second part of the two-parter, the team once again confronted Savage but he overcame them and killed everyone but Barry, who traveled back in time. The team used the second chance to defeat Savage, though Malcolm Merlyn collected Savage’s remains so he can go on to Legends of Tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Oliver learned that he has a son and asked his ex to have a relationship with William. Her terms were that Oliver not tell anyone, and he agreed. As Oliver started getting to know his son, he was also keeping a major secret from Felicity — which Barry warned him against doing.

Read our recap of Arrow season 4, episode 8, “Legends of Yesterday,” here. And see what the executive producers had to say about the fallout from the two-part crossover here.

Watch a promo

‘Arrow’ season 4, episode 9, ‘Dark Waters,’ synopsis

If that promo has whet your appetite, make sure to read the official synopsis for the ninth episode of the season:

“OLIVER TAKES ON HIVE — After the city is attacked again, Oliver (Stephen Amell) makes a bold move against HIVE. Malcolm (John Barrowman) checks in on Thea (Willa Holland) and leaves her with a warning. Things take a horrible turn when Damien Darhk (guest star Neal McDonough) retaliates in a brutal manner at Oliver’s mayoral holiday party. John Behring directed the episode written by Wendy Mericle & Ben Sokolowski (#409).”

If you need more goodies to tide you over, we have promotional stills from the episode as well:

The Originals – Savior Clip

About the episode:
When a dangerous affliction threatens to expose one of her siblings, Freya (Riley Voelkel) searches for a way to reverse the crippling curse even as she finds herself the target of The Strix’s latest plan.  Elsewhere, Klaus (Joseph Morgan) keeps a watchful eye over Cami (Leah Pipes) while she attempts to help Detective Kinney (guest star Jason Dohring), whose life has begun to spiral out of control as a result of Lucien’s compulsion.  Meanwhile, a confrontation with Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) causes Vincent (Yusuf Gatewood) to reevaluate his decision to stay out of witch business, and Hayley’s (Phoebe Tonkin) attempt at a quiet Christmas with Jackson (guest star Nathan Parsons) and Hope results in an unexpected surprise.