The Vampire Diaries: Welcome to Paradise (6x03)

The Vampire Diaries is an enormously flawed show, as I think its fan-base can attest. Does anyone actually hate The Vampire Diaries as much as its fans? In any case, for all its flaws, this show does a couple of things really well. For one, it never lets itself get complacent. We're always trying new things, and new iterations of these characters. For another, Elena is a nice solid moral center for the show. Even when she turned her humanity off, we knew it wasn't really her choice. But now... the Elena that we see in this episode is a horse of a different color. Let's go through the plot and then discuss this a bit more.

Elena is now without her memories of loving Damon, and is seemingly very happy. Caroline is a bit weirded out by this, but she and everyone else have agreed to hide the truth from Elena so she can continue living in her delusional world. Stefan shows up in Mystic Falls, on a mission to kill Enzo in revenge for killing Ivy. Stefan meets up with Elena, and is nonplussed to see that she's doing so well, and doesn't seem to be missing Damon at all. Elena invites Stefan to a lake party, and Stefan accepts, because he hears that Enzo will be there.

Elena wants to get the whole gang back together for some fun, but nobody else seems interested. Caroline is mad that she's hiding from her pain, Stefan is just there for revenge, Tyler isn't drinking so he can work on his anger management, Matt is the designated driver for one of his Mystic Falls friends, Jeremy his busy making out with Sarah to hide from his grief over Bonnie.

A lot of stuff goes down at this party - Matt's friend tries to kill Enzo and Stefan, but Enzo saves Stefan by killing him first. Matt is disturbed to learn that his friend was a vampire hunter, and he puts together the clues and figures out that Tripp is a vampire hunter as well.

Tyler is crushing on Liv, and Liv is continuing to antagonize him. She says that she wants him to keep being an asshole, so she won't worry about falling for him.

Stefan is after Enzo, but Caroline stops him from killing him. Caroline says she's sorry about Ivy, but that killing Enzo won't bring her back. Stefan says he wants to kill Enzo so that he can stop being reminded of his brother, and he can leave and finally start over. Caroline is hurt - she asks Stefan if he only came back to kill Enzo so he could leave again. Stefan says yes. Caroline asks if Stefan cares at all about his old life, but Stefan walks away. Elena comforts Caroline, and asks her if she had feelings for Stefan. Caroline says she might have.

Tripp finds Enzo, but Enzo is able to resist vervaine long enough to become a threat to him. Stefan takes him down, however. He tells Tripp that he's a Salvatore. Tripp says he wants to kill Enzo in his own special way (i.e. driving him over the town border) and Stefan complies. He just wants Enzo dead.

Jeremy realizes that Sarah, the girl that Elena attacked and Caroline compelled, has been hiding something. Compelling doesn't last when people cross town lines! Sarah still knows what Elena is!

Meanwhile, in Bonnie and Damon's 1994 Hell, they are trying to figure out who else is there with them. Damon has no hope, but Bonnie insists that someone else is here, and that this person can help them get out. Eventually, this person does show up - his name is Kai. He wants to kill Damon. In fact, he almost succeeds in doing just that, but Bonnie shows up in time to save Damon... by accessing her magic! Finally, Bonnie can do magic again! Bonnie and Damon tie Kai up and question him. He says he was never going to kill Damon - he just wanted to threaten Damon's life to incite Bonnie to use magic again. Now that it worked, they have a chance of getting out.

I'll start with the biggest complaint that I have: Elena is being terrible. When she decided to forget Damon, she didn't consider, for one second, how hard that was going to be on all of her friends. Even Caroline, who never cared for Damon, is having a difficult time with this new happy Elena. And what about Stefan? If Elena remembered her love for Damon, the two of them could have comforted each other in their grief over losing the most important person in their lives. But no. And then there's Alaric, Jeremy, etc... these people all had relationships of some sort with Damon, and now they're all forced to pretend that Damon was terrible and that they hated him. It's really unsettling to see this happy, serene version of Elena, who doesn't seem to give a crap about everyone else's suffering. Maybe that's the point? Maybe we're supposed to be uneasy? But I don't know. It just bothers me.

The other minor nitpicks: Tyler and Liv could not be more uninteresting to me if they tried. I literally do not care at all about their romance. They need to step it up and find a way to be more interesting.

There was also another little subplot that I forgot to mention, where Elena brings some random college student to the party, to set him up with Caroline. However, the guy likes Elena, and he kisses her. We're given no real answers about this. Who is this kid? Does Elena like him at all? If she truly can't remember loving Damon, then what's the obstacle to the two of them being together? This dude was totally bland and totally pointless. I'll reserve judgment, because I'm sure there must be more of him, but as for right now? I do not care.

However, there were also strong aspects to this episode, even if I didn't like Elena.

I love Stefan. He's a saint. And he's being a raging ass hole right now, but I still love him. He's one of the most consistent characters in the show, in my opinion. I know some people are very anti-Stefan, but I find him to be one of the most enjoyable characters on screen. His revenge against Enzo isn't just for killing Ivy - it's for what he said, about Stefan letting down Damon. I think Stefan's having a hard time holding himself together. He feels guilty as hell that he can't get Damon back, but he's a practical guy - he knows he can't change things.

Caroline and Stefan's relationship is being explored really nicely. We finally got a canonical confession of Steroline! Or... one-sided Steroline at the very least. Once Damon is back and the angsting calms down a bit, maybe we'll finally see Caroline and Stefan together? Great acting from Candice Accola as Caroline. I really felt her pain and anger during her scenes with Stefan.

The drama with Tripp and Sarah is getting more and more interesting. I loved how Jeremy put together the truth about compulsion based on what someone said about getting ice. It was a good moment for his character, as it proves that he still cares about the larger goings on here, even if he is burying himself in alcohol and women. And the twist that Sarah has been faking it the whole time... that she knows about vampires... that's very intriguing. I can't wait to find out more.

Bonnie and Damon had some of the best moments, though. I never expected to enjoy their dynamic so much, but now I can't get enough of it! I love how Damon keeps talking about how annoying Bonnie is, but then he says that he likes Bonnie when he's talking to Kai. And Bonnie's magic is only unlocked when Damon's life is in trouble. How sweet! Their scene in the grocery store was perfect, as they went through the routine of buying food in this eerily empty store. Lots of good jokes, fast pacing, and great relationship development. Kai is sort of generic, but I'm excited for what he's going to bring to the story!

I'll stop there. I just want my reunion scenes now, please! Elena, Caroline and Bonnie together again! The Salvatore bros reunited in their angst-y co-dependency. Give it to me!

7/10