The Vampire Diaries: Resident Evil (5x18)

Holy Hell, why does so much happen on this freakin' show? It's ridiculous. And like ten times as complicated as it needs to be. I get so annoyed with these multiple plot lines that barely make sense, and this week's episode is no exception to that rule. Siiigggh. I'm probably going to miss some crucial important detail in here, but I do not have the energy to be thorough right now.

So, Elena and Stefan are having weird visions of each other, in some idealized alternate world where neither of them are vampires, Elena's parents are still alive, Damon is not in love with Elena... they get married, have kids, and are hopelessly in love. These visions are weird and are obviously making Damon extremely uncomfortable. They all try to figure out what's going on.

Meanwhile, Liv is working with Jeremy, Matt, and Tyler to try and stop the Travelers from taking over Mystic Falls. She makes Matt and Tyler both stab themselves with the Traveler knife to prove they don't have Travelers possessing them. The Travelers, Liv tells them, are going to take over Mystic Falls by becoming passengers in the townsfolk. Matt, Jeremy, and Tyler have to go around stabbing people with the knife to make sure they're not possessed. Real great plan. Bonnie is not happy with Jeremy, because he keeps blowing her off and won't tell her what's going on. She sees that he's working with Liv, but Jeremy still won't tell her anything: he just says she has to trust him.

Matt goes to check on Sheriff Forbes, but it turns out she's possessed. She stabs him, but Matt manages to tell Bonnie that the Sheriff is possessed before he passes through to the Other Side. Tyler deals with the Liz problem by stabbing her, and Caroline gives her mother some of her blood so that she'll wake up. On the Other Side, Matt runs into Kol, one of the Originals. He tells Matt that things are really weird over here, and that he thinks the Travelers did their weird mass suicide thing last episode so that someone could sneak through to the mortal world from the Other Side, getting past Bonnie's weakened barrier. Matt also sees Vicky, but she is torn away from him, and it seems like things are really not good in the realm of the supernatural dead things. Matt wakes up, and for the first time is able to remember what happened while he was dead. He tells everyone that things are really messed up.

So, Damon and Elena are awkward around each other because of the Stefan-vision things and also because of their recent breakup. Luke (Liv's brother) shows up and says that the Travelers all killed themselves to help Marcos, their leader, get back from the Other Side. Damon and Enzo go to confront him, and Marcos says that he's the reason Stefan and Elena are having these visions - it's a spell he cast long ago, to draw the doppelgangers together so that the Travelers can use their blood. Apparently, the deal is that the Travelers are cursed to never be able to settle down as a group. Whenever they do, something terrible happens. Doppelganger blood can apparently solve this problem. Marcos makes Stefan and Elena stop having the visions.

Stefan and Elena lament the absence of the idyllic visions, and talk about how they with both always love each other, and they're happy they can be friends. Elena asks Stefan if he thinks she and Damon will ever get to this place with each other, and Stefan says that you can't really be friends with someone and in love with them at the same time. When Elena and Damon talk, Damon says it's too hard to be Elena's friend, and he doesn't want to see her anymore.

At the very end, we learn that Tyler somehow did get possessed by a Traveler, and he gives Marcos the Traveler knife. Marcos destroys it.

Dude. Do you see this? Do you see all of the stuff I just had to write, just to get all the important info down? It's crazy! Let's start with the bad stuff.

Okay, what the hell is up with this stupid Marcos guy? And the visions? It doesn't even make sense! If he cast some spell a long time ago, why did Elena and Stefan randomly start having these visions just now? And if the cosmic force drawing the doppelgangers together has been Marcos all along, what the hell is up with all the coincidences? Katherine's love for Stefan? Stefan's love for Elena? Like, what the hell?

And then you have Liv... and Liv won't let Jeremy tell Bonnie what's going on because of... reasons? It doesn't even make any sense! Liv and Luke! What is your game here? What is your purpose? Nobody knows! But also nobody cares because you're super boring!

And now Tyler is possessed or whatever. Like, can we just pick a plot line? Why do the Travelers want to take over Mystic Falls, and why do Liv and Luke want to stop them so badly? It's not a legit threat to our main characters unless we know WHY THE BAD GUYS ARE BAD.

Sorry. I probably need to calm down. Let me briefly list a couple of the good things.

I loved Stefan and Elena's talk at the end. If you had asked me a few seasons ago, I would have told you that Stefan/Elena were endgame, no question about it, and that Damon was just an obstacle on their way to a happy ending. But now? It seems like Stefan and Elena have finally and forever put their love behind them. Do you have any idea how refreshing that is? Hopefully there will be no more backslides, and Elena and Stefan can legitimately be just friends and nothing more.

Enzo! I hate to say it, but the guy is seriously growing on me. I'm not sure what to do about that. I can even sort of see the Caroline/Enzo thing creeping up on me too, but Enzo has to shape up and stop talking about murdering people before I could ever fully support it. And I still want Stefan and Caroline to get together, so there's that. But when Enzo was talking about how he wanted to find this girl to say thank you... that really melted my heart!

I think the stuff with Matt was pretty good, too. Yeah, I mean it makes no sense, but I do like seeing him getting a bit of a part to play, here. He actually effected the plot! And made a positive difference! Go Matt! (Now if only we could get some of that for Bonnie...)

Damon and Elena really do have great chemistry. As much as the will they/won't they plot lines can annoy me, I still root for these two in the long run.

I'm just desperately hoping for some Damon and Stefan brotherly moments soon. I'm starved for it!

6/10