Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6 Recap: Molnija
By Ann Darcy
This article contains SPOILERS for Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6.
While on the Royal Tour, Rose tries to come to terms with what happened to Mikhail. Meanwhile, Lissa seeks answers about her Spirit powers.
Catch up here on everything from the last episode!
The episode begins with Rose still upset about Mikhail’s fate. She’s also reading a message from her mother, Janine, about the Molnija, a sacred tattoo given to a Guardian for each Strigoi kill.
This is one of the highest honors they can receive. Janine says that Rose’s first Molnija mark is a rite of passage, and she wishes she could be there, but duty comes first.
While Rose waits to receive the mark, she remembers moments with Mikhail, including when she was forced to kill Strigoi Mikhail. She says she can’t and runs out of the room.
Lissa comforts her friend, saying she didn’t kill Mikhail; she killed a Strigoi and saved them all.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: The Royal Tour
Rose wonders if Jesse is the best Lissa could do. Lissa responds that she needs to go on the Royal Tour to learn more about Spirit and get her quorum back so she can prevent what happened to Mikhail from happening again.
Meanwhile, Victor is getting ready to head on the Royal Tour himself. He says that there is something wrong with their society if they can call a training exercise that leaves seven dead a success.
Sonya adds that Dhampirs are expendable, but Robert adds that no one was saying that. Sonya responds that it is how they think and asks Mia if Meredith is going on the tour.
She warns her to spend as much time with Meredith as she can. Mia is going to be accompanying Victor on the tour.
She’s prepared, having made a schedule and written down all the important information for the campaign so that he won’t need to lift a finger. At least that is the initial plan, until a man bursts in, saying that Mia has to report for an ecclesiastic reprimand for using magic against a Royal; Jesse.
Failure to report would lead to her expulsion from St. Vladimir’s Academy. Sonya volunteers to go on the Royal Tour instead to help Victor.
On the Royal Tour, the Queen gives a speech, begging the Council to choose an heir to the throne who can help unite the Dominion instead of tearing it apart. Jesse tells Lissa that his father is pressuring him for a date for their Marking Ceremony.
Lissa assures that she’ll give him one if she gets an invitation to the Ivashkov Trust party. Jesse says he can’t get her an invitation.
She responds by saying she’ll try someone with real power; Jesse’s father.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Head Command
Victor asks Sonya for information about Jesse’s father, Dane Zeklos. She uses her abilities to read their auras, finding out that Dane is ashamed of Jesse and Jesse’s terrified of his father.
Of course, Sonya claims the information came from Mia’s notes on the Zeklos family. Tatiana’s aunt says that they might have underestimated Sonya adding that Victor is targeting Tatiana’s base.
Dane Zeklos could affect other votes for Victor.
Rose and her fellow novices hear Tatiana discussing the Guardians with a man who turns out to be Mason’s father, Stefan Carter. According to Eddie, Stefan is making a lot of money moving non-Royal Moroi from the villages without Guardians to Relocation Centers.
Meredith says she hears they’re pulling Guardians to help with the Relocation. Rose asks which villages, and Meredith says it’s all of them.
Rose asks if Mikhail was from the Caroni village in St. Ignatius province, where they are now. Meredith thinks he was.
Rose wants to be reassigned to the relocations for Caroni village, saying she’s the first novice since her mother to kill a Strigoi and that her talents would be better suited elsewhere. The Guardian she’s speaking to tells her to report to Head Command immediately.
Rose asks who Head Command is. Dimitri appears behind her, stating that he is Head Command.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Love and forgiveness
The Dhampir girl Jesse likes, Silver, shows up next to Jesse. Apparently, his father’s business partner brought her to the party.
Jesse runs after her, saying she should ditch him and explore with him. She declines, saying that she likes that he’s not ashamed to be seen with her in public.
Dane sees them talking and gets angry with Jesse. Upset over his father’s anger, Jesse tells Lissa they’re leaving.
Eddie tells him they have to wait for the convoy back to the hotel, but Jesse says they go when he says so. He leaves, with Lissa, Eddie, and Meredith following him.
Meanwhile, at St. Vladimir’s, Mia endures her punishment for attacking Jesse with her magic, while Christian talks to a feeder about how he hates being there because of the power-hungry people who mess it up for everyone else. The feeder asks Christian if something happened with Lissa and warns him that love is never easy.
Then Christian runs into Mia, who asks him to teach her how to use her magic the way he does. Rose and Dimitri arrive at Caroni Village, where he asks her if she’s sure she wants to do this.
She responds that she keeps seeing Mikhail in her dreams. She wants to ask for forgiveness from his sister Sasha and their father so that she can finally get some sleep.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: A Moroi raising Dhampirs?
Sasha is upset when she sees Rose. She and Mikhail’s father, an older Moroi man, asks Rose to forgive Sasha, as she was very close to her brother Mikhail.
Rose responds that she was close to Mikhail too. His father says that Mikhail would talk about her as a brilliant wild card.
Rose remarks on him being a Moroi but raising Dhampirs. He says that when their mother died, he couldn’t let them be raised by strangers in some commune.
He asks to see Rose’s Molnija mark and tells her that she saved his son from his greatest fear: being turned into a Strigoi. Mikhail’s father also says that Rose’s Molnija mark would honor Mikhail’s life, not the thing he became.
Mikhail would’ve done the same for her. While on the way back to the hotel, Jesse, Lissa, Eddie, and Meredith see rocks fall down.
Meredith tells Lissa to get back in the car. Dimitri scolds Sasha for disobeying the resettlement orders and speaking treason against the Council.
He tells Sasha to come with him and Rose to face a Tribunal, but she refuses. Rose asks Dimitri if this is why they were sent there.
He explains that they were sent there to relocate the stragglers, but he was sent there to bring in Sasha Tanner.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Stragglers
Rose asks Dimitri why he didn’t tell her. She says that the stragglers aren’t just there out of respect for Sasha and Mikhail’s father, Kieran, but because Sasha is the only one who cared about them after the Council took their Guardians.
In the middle of yelling at Dimitri, Rose keels over, causing him to ask what’s wrong. Rose sees through Lissa’s eyes, that they are being attacked by a couple of Strigoi.
Lissa tries to heal Meredith when one of the Strigoi attacks her but is interrupted by the arrival of more Guardians. Meanwhile, at St. Vladimir’s, Christian and Mia are practicing her water magic.
Christian tells Mia to pull it back, but she is unable to do so. She says that is exactly what happened with Jesse; it just ran away from her.
Christian tells her that magic can be scary, and she needs to learn how to control it so that it doesn’t control her. He tells her about when his Aunt Tasha came to stay with him after his parents turned into Strigoi, and she taught him everything.
Mia tells Christian that she knows about his parents leading the attack at St. Jude’s and that she wants him to know that in case he wants to talk. Lissa scolds Jesse for almost getting them all killed.
He wonders how it’s his fault. Lissa explains that they didn’t have to leave the party before the convoy.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Breaking the rules
Jesse has had enough of Lissa’s yelling and asks her when they’re going to start their wedding rituals so that he can tell his father. Lissa doesn’t have time for it, but he tells her to make time.
She asks if this is Jesse trying to be a man for his father and then compels him to get out of her sight. Just afterward, Lissa gets an invitation from Dane, Jesse’s father, to the party she wanted to attend.
Meanwhile, Rose tells Sasha that Mikhail was her friend and asks if the firewood is there to scare off the Strigoi. Sasha says it’s for her father’s funeral pyre since he won’t survive the night.
Rose offers to take Sasha’s place and fight the Strigoi tonight so she can spend time with her father. Sasha agrees.
Dimitri tells Rose that they have to get going, but Rose says that she’s not going anywhere, and neither is anyone else. She says that he can follow orders and be a good soldier, but she’s done following the orders of those who don’t put her first.
Dimitri says that he wants to put Rose first, but he can’t because if Guardians don’t follow orders, the system crumbles. Rose counters that the system is broken and that not following the rules led to a better outcome for Mikhail’s family.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Are rules made to be broken?
Rose wonders what her and Dimitri’s life would be like if they’d had fathers who actually cared about them. She knows nothing about her father, and Dimitri says he knows too much about his.
He wants to be nothing like his father and fears that without rules, he would be. Dimitri says that he has to follow orders.
Rose says that she doesn’t and that he can take her in along with Sasha if he doesn’t like it. Mia wonders how Christian didn’t get expelled from St. Vladimir’s.
There’s an investigation going on about how his parents managed to sneak the boxes into the school in the first place. Mia asks if Lissa knows about any of it, and Christian says that she knows some of it, but there’s no point in telling her now that she’s off getting engaged to Jesse.
Mia teases him about it. Christian says that he still has so many questions for his parents, which she must think is crazy.
Mia says she understands since she tried to find her birth parents years ago, but they weren’t Strigoi. Mia and Christian’s conversation is interrupted by a call from Sonya, who tells Mia that something happened to Meredith.
Mia immediately leaves to see how Meredith is doing.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: More than the average Moroi
Sonya watches as her eyes turn black in the mirror. Her eyes go back to normal, only for a black mark to spread all over her body.
Mia and Christian arrive to see Meredith, who is healing from the Strigoi attack. Christian eventually leaves the two of them alone.
Meredith warns Mia against using her magic like that again, but Mia says she doesn’t care, not if it means protecting Meredith. She says she’s glad Meredith is okay, and Meredith is glad Mia is there.
The two share a kiss. Meanwhile, back on the Royal Tour, Lissa finally meets the owner of the art collection, Adrian Ivashkov, who is nothing like what she was expecting.
Lissa compels him to show her his collection, and he agrees. She asks him what he knows about St. Vladimir, and he responds that he knows more than the average Moroi.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Pleasant dreams and harsh realities
Lissa asks Adrian what the painting she’s looking at depicts. He replies that it shows St. Vladimir entering a man’s dream.
Adrian shows Lissa another piece of art, and it depicts the Darkness that comes with Spirit. Lissa is stunned.
He asks her if they should get a drink now. Elsewhere, Tatiana approaches Sonya, telling her that it must be hard for her to smile while bearing such a loss as Mikhail was a good man.
She adds that it wasn’t Mikhail’s fault; it was the Council, and they should have known he wasn’t fit for field duty. Sonya replies that he was a great Guardian.
Tatiana counters with the suggestion that he was better suited for a desk job. She continues by saying when she becomes queen and institutes better testing, they’ll know if someone is an incompetent fighter.
Sonya responds that Mikhail wasn’t, he was one of the best. Tatiana says she understands that maybe it’s best to remember Mikhail that way.
Dimitri comes up to Rose, telling her that the perimeter fires were a good idea. Rose asks him if he should be watching Sasha.
He replies that he should be, but that Rose needs this fight. She’s hurting, and that he would do anything to make it stop.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Help
Rose senses that the Strigoi are there. As she and Dimitri fight them, Tatiana gives a speech about how they can’t have a monarch who pretends to be faithful to their religion, as Victor does.
Jesse tells his father that Lissa basically said she wouldn’t marry him, and his father responds that he’s less than worthless. The two Zeklos men get into a physical fight.
Meanwhile, Lissa’s eyes are turning black as Rose and Dimitri continue to fight the Strigoi, eventually joined by Sasha. Tatiana says that Victor has incited the Dhampirs to neglect their duty to protect the Moroi.
She says that Victor’s daughter’s Dhampir lover betrayed them by allowing himself to be turned into a Strigoi. She calls Mikhail a traitor.
Sonya goes to attack but is held back. With Sasha’s help, Rose and Dimitri defeat the Strigoi.
Sonya apologizes to Victor for trying to attack Tatiana, and Victor promises to get her help. Dimitri asks where Sasha is, and Rose says she told her to run.
Dimitri asks Rose if she knows what they’ll do to Sasha if they find her, and what they’ll do to her if they find out she helped her get away.
Vampire Academy season 1 episode 6: Rose and Dimitri get closer, and Lissa might get some answers
Rose says she isn’t sorry. Dimitri says that she never is.
She responds that they risk their lives, and that Sasha shouldn’t be punished for speaking the truth or wanting something for herself.
According to Rose, Sasha deserves better; they all do. Adrian tells Lissa that he can help her, but only if she wakes up.
Lissa says that since Adrian Dream Walked, he must be a Spirit User like herself. He asks if Lissa is up for an adventure, and she agrees.
One of the Guardians asks Rose and Dimitri where Sasha is. He responds that she died doing her duty in a Strigoi attack.
Rose wonders why he lied. She says they should go, but Dimitri says there’s something they have to do first: her Molnija mark.
Rose and Dimitri end up kissing.
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Will Rose and Dimitri get in trouble? What will Lissa learn from her adventure with Adrian?
Let us know your answers and opinions in the comments below.
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