I liked this episode, because it remained pretty simple. It didn't try to do too many things, so it didn't confuse me like this show sometimes does. Let's get started.
To Damon's horror, Elena does not remember their relationship when she sees him. She is apologetic, however, since she feels strange not being able to access such a large part of her life. At a benefit for the hospital, Elena goes with Liam. Damon shows up to "stalk" her, as Alaric puts it. Damon and Alaric are in a rocky phase of their bromance, since Damon is pissed at Rick for compelling Elena in the first place. However, he is happy that Rick is alive. At the event, Tyler is helping Liv as a waiter. Their romance is a slow-burn. Luke reminds Liv not to get attached, because their coven could call them back at any time.
Damon meets Liam, and seems determined to steal Elena away. Elena tells Damon that she wants to remember, so the two of them go to the last place Elena told Damon she loved him, hoping to trigger a memory. It doesn't work. No matter what happens, it seems Elena's memories are gone. She decides to cross the town border, which of course means she starts to choke on water and drown again, but memories of Damon start flashing back into her mind. However, Damon pulls her back across before the compulsion can wear off. As Damon drops Elena off at her apartment, he tells her that he wants her to be happy, so he's going to let her go. Elena, who was starting to remember something, watches Damon go in confusion.
Stefan, Enzo, and Matt have tied Tripp up and Enzo plans on torturing information out of him, to reveal his vampire hunting organization. Stefan tells Enzo to try to get the info, and then kill him when he's done. As Stefan goes to talk to Caroline and ask for forgiveness, Caroline gets a call from her mother. Turns out, some of Tripp's men have kidnapped her and are demanding that Tripp be returned to them. If not, Liz will be killed. Stefan and Caroline go and get Tripp, who luckily is not dead yet. They make the exchange. However, when Tripp crosses the border back into Mystic Falls, he dies. Turns out, Enzo had made him into a vampire. However, Caroline and Liz are reunited, so at least that's good... Liz is hurt, so they take her to the hospital. There, Stefan and Caroline have a talk about their relationship. Enzo had hinted that Caroline had a thing for Stefan, and Stefan asks Caroline why. Caroline admits that she did have feelings for him, but she hates him now. Stefan feels bad for never noticing.
I should also mention that Jo and Alaric go to the hospital party together, so things seem to be going well there. We learn that Jo gave up her magic, or hid it away or something, and that she is a surviving member of Kai's family (the one that he killed). Liam is continuing to fish around for information about the patient that Elena saved in the corn maze. As he gets medical records, he is increasingly suspicious of the girl's miraculous recovery. He also meets Damon, and is confused because Elena said that Damon was dead. He definitely knows Elena is keeping secrets from him.
Lastly, we get to spend time with Bonnie and Kai. Kai is insistent that he and Bonnie fix the magic object that can get them home (it broke after Damon got back home). Bonnie doesn't want to fix it, because she doesn't want to release Kai from his hellish prison. She kills Kai, which she knows is only temporary, and rushes off to try to fix the device before he wakes up. Kai does wake up, though, and forces Bonnie to come with him in time for the eclipse. As Bonnie starts the spell to send them home, it slowly becomes apparent that it's not working. Bonnie's magic is gone! She has put it into an object - a teddy bear that she has been carrying around with her. Kai is furious!
As Damon drinks his sorrows near the crypt where he came back into the world of the living, he sees Bonnie's teddy bear, and realizes that Bonnie must still be alive.
Complaints? Yeah, a few, but nothing horrendous.
First of all, is Bonnie an idiot? She "killed" Kai temporarily and then ran off and tried to put the puzzle pieces together to recreate the magical object. So... why on earth didn't she tie him up or try to restrain in him some way? While he was out cold, she could have bound him up and been safe from his interference! Maybe I'm missing something, but why wouldn't she have tried that? Also, what was Kai's rush to get the thing put back together by the eclipse? If they miss it they can always just try again the next day, right? That just sort of bothered me.
Also, I'm annoyed at Damon for giving up on Elena. I felt like it came out of nowhere. One minute he's desperate for her memories to come back, and the next he says she's better off. This was especially annoying because it was in direct defiance to what she said she wanted. Elena wants her memories back, no matter how painful these memories might be. For Damon to make this decision for her is pretty unforgivable, actually.
However, I mostly enjoyed this episode, and there are several reasons why.
First of all, Damon was actually not as annoying as I thought he was going to be. He was so desperate and lovesick for Elena, but he didn't disrupt things with Liam too badly, and he didn't try to pressure Elena - just the opposite. The scene with the two of them kissing in the rain was very lovely, and it made me nostalgic for Damon and Elena's relationship. Hopefully they'll find their way back to each other eventually!
The funniest moment of the episode for me was when Elena was talking to Caroline about Damon, and about how she didn't feel anything for him. She does concede on one point: "his eyes were really, really blue and pretty..." I don't know why, but that made me chuckle, especially when I thought about how Elena would have reacted if she could remember Damon properly. Also, when Damon is talking to Elena about some of their greatest memories, he says "you can't forget the night of your graduation," and Elena replies "Well, I did, so..." that was pretty great.
We finally got some acknowledgment of Caroline and Stefan's relationship! This was really sweet. I especially liked it because Stefan didn't just randomly declare his love for Caroline or anything. He was honestly startled. I don't think it had ever occurred to him that she might feel something for him. Now that he knows, maybe the idea will start to take hold in his mind.
I'm still liking Jo and Alaric together, so that's good. Alaric's best scene, however, was the first one he was in with Damon. Damon points out that if Alaric had died, Elena's compulsion would have broken and she would have remembered him again, and Alaric is mock-offended at Damon's callousness. It's great, because Damon knows that Rick compelled Elena at a time when he believed his best friend was dead. He can't really be mad at him, if he thinks about it logically. But at the same time, he's still hurt and annoyed. They had some great moments of humor and friendship in this episode. And, I mean, it didn't make up for the lack of Salvatore brotherly moments, but it was still sweet.
Liam is getting more and more suspicious of Elena, which I think is awesome. It wouldn't be believable if he didn't suspect that something was going on. I'm really excited to see what happens with him moving forward. I'm glad that he has this whole investigation about the girl from the corn maze, because I would hate for him to become nothing more than an obstacle to Elena and Damon's relationship.
Tripp is dead! Matt is upset about it! Matt's moral indecision this season is one of the more complicated and interesting elements that we've seen in his character. He thought that Tripp was fighting to make Mystic Falls a safer place, and in fact he was doing that. It's not so unreasonable to think that vampires are evil and must be stopped. And Matt's loyalties are understandably torn. These people are his friends, but he is human, and he knows the kind of damage vampires can bring to a community of humans. I really like this complex struggle, and I'm excited to see what more we can do with it.
Bonnie lives! Damon's face when he hugged the teddy bear was too precious for words. I'm proud of her for sticking to her guns about Kai, but a part of me is a bit annoyed with her... come on, Bonnie. Do something good for yourself for once! Hopefully she gets out eventually!
I think that's all I'm going to say for now. This was a really good episode, but I do have my hangups about it, as I always seem to.
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!