The Vampire Diaries: The Simple Intimacy of the Near Touch (8x09)

Rapid-fire review time.

Cons:

This show has a mythology and McGuffin problem, both of which I've talked about before. Sybil needs a striker that goes with the bell parts for... reasons, and Seline meanwhile wants to help Matt and that other guy from the Armory get the bell instead, ostensibly to stop Sybil. Turns out only Matt's family is able to wield the power of the bell. I remember reading something interesting in a review of the first episode of this season: The Vampire Diaries has sort of a unique problem, in that it doesn't have a lot of overarching myth arc stuff to tie together at the end of the show. It just keeps making up new bad guys. Unfortunately, this is sort of the problem. Sybil is beyond annoying, and she stopped being threatening ages ago. I don't care if she has the bell. I don't care if she lives or dies. Matt getting a part in the main plot is nice, but he's still an underutilized character, and I still wish there was a better way to integrate him into things.

Miss Mystic Falls... oh boy. The cheese is strong with this one. I don't mind that so much with this show, but Mystic Falls feels like a town that should be razed to the ground and abandoned post-haste at this point. Is there anybody who hasn't been turned into a vampire or controlled by a vampire at some point? It's ridiculous!

Pros:

The main plot centers around Stefan and Damon coming back to Mystic Falls, all tied together with the pointless bell stuff that I don't really want to get into. Stefan thinks Damon coming back home is a good idea, because he needs to get Elena out of his head. The Miss Mystic Falls dance brings back all of these memories of Elena, but Damon can't feel the connection of love for her that he once had. Caroline tries to help Damon connect to the good part of himself, all while trying to keep Stefan and Sybil from wreaking too much havoc. In the end, Damon knocks Sybil out and ties her up, intent on torturing her as payback for all the crap she's done to him. Stefan, meanwhile, turns one of the high school contestants in the Miss Mystic Falls competition into a vampire, and Caroline gives Stefan's ring back to him after Stefan declares that he'll continue serving Cade as long as he feels like it, breaking his one year promise to her.

Lots to unpack here. I must say, I get a real kick out of sans-humanity Stefan, and I think it's because Paul Wesley is having such a good time with it. You can tell that he basically checked out of this show years ago, but when he gets to play a dick, he gets into it again. The best moment is when he's talking to Sybil about Damon and Elena's "vomit-inducing love story." He just says it with such venom in his voice. That was great! I love the idea that he's trying to pull Damon further into darkness. Damon is actually the one resisting, because his subconscious mind knows that Elena is never really going away, and he has to do right by her, even if he can't feel his love for her at the moment. It's a complicated situation, but I actually quite like it. Also, how satisfying was it to see Damon hit Sybil over the head with that striker? Damn. I needed that.

Caroline gets MVP for the week, which is such a relief to be able to say. I hadn't realized how much of a beating Caroline's characterization has been getting recently, until suddenly I saw fierce, brave, passionate and loving Caroline back at the forefront. I love that she and Damon danced together, as Caroline tries to convince him to remember Elena. I love that Caroline didn't let her love for Stefan blind her to the fact that he'd gone off the rails. And I really, really loved the part at the end, where Caroline talked to the young woman that Stefan had killed, explaining to her the process of becoming a vampire, and promising to help her through it. Caroline in full-mother mode is a wonderful thing to see.

Bonnie and Enzo had a subplot that was just the right amount of cheesy for this show. They're back from their trip, and Bonnie is wearing a necklace with Enzo's blood, a gift he gave her on their last day in Paris. Bonnie worries that it's perhaps a hint that Enzo wants to turn her into a vampire, and so the two of them discuss it. Bonnie says that because of Elena, she can't ever turn, even if she wanted to. Turns out, there's a big part of her that does want to, if only so she'll be with Enzo forever. Enzo basically reveals that the necklace is meant to be there to protect Bonnie if she gets hurt - she could drink the blood and stop herself from dying. Bonnie then has an idea - what if Enzo could take the cure, become human, and then the two of them could live out the rest of their lives together?

I liked this plot thread, because, as I mentioned, it was quite cheesy and shmoopy. Sometimes you need that with this show, and what with Elena being in a coffin, and Stefan being a murderous jerk, the whole Bonnie/Enzo thing is our only avenue into the cheesy romance that has characterized so much of this show. We also got to explore some more of that fascinating mortal/immortal dating dynamic. I always loved the times in the earlier seasons when Elena would affirm her love of her humanity. Her love for Stefan didn't overpower her desire to remain human. The situation is slightly different with Bonnie, but she would never condemn Elena to never waking up, so being a vampire is out of the question for her.

I'm intrigued at the thought of bringing the cure back into things, even though it is another mythology plot device that pops up only when convenient. It would be interesting if Enzo took it. I've seen a lot of theories regarding the Salvatores and that cure, and I'm starting to think I see where this is headed: Damon takes the cure to be with Elena as a human. Enzo takes the cure to be with Bonnie. The only question is: do Stefan and Caroline take it, too? I want to say yes. God, I want to say yes. I can't handle the thought of one Salvatore taking it and the other not. But... maybe that's where this all ends?

I guess we'll find out soon enough!

7.5/10