The Vampire Diaries: I Alone (6x09)

Ugh. Damon you asshole. Poor Rick! I don't know what to think! Let's dive right in.

So. Alaric steals the Ascendant from Jo by making her a nice dinner and getting her to open up. She eventually lets slip where she has it hidden, and Rick gives it to Damon. Damon then compels him to forget the whole thing ever happened. Jo quickly realizes that the Ascendant is missing, and she confronts Alaric. Of course, he has no idea what happened, but Jo figures out that Damon must have compelled him. The two of them drive into Mystic Falls, which causes Rick to remember the compulsion.

Ascendant in hand, Damon and Elena are all set to go into the 1994 Hell and get Bonnie out. Elena tells Jeremy the good news that they're going to save Bonnie, but Jeremy is not enthused. He has only just started to move on with his life, and he doesn't think the plan is going to work.

Liv has been staying with Tyler so that he can protect her from her crazy family, but Liv insists on leaving so she can help Elena and Damon get to Bonnie. She uses her magic to do so, and Damon and Elena are sent to 1994.

They manage to get a hold of Bonnie, who is driving back towards Mystic Falls from where Kai left her when he took her blood. While they're waiting for her to return, Elena figures out that Damon compelled Alaric to steal from Jo, and she gets angry at Damon, saying that he only wants to rescue Bonnie so that he can get in good with Elena. Damon tells Elena that Bonnie means a lot to him, and that he was doing it for her, not for Elena. Elena apologizes for erasing her memories of Damon, and Damon says that it's okay - they'll make new memories.

Unfortunately, Kai has already managed to escape, and has been running wild in the present day. He finds Liv and tries to attack her, but luckily Tyler shows up in time to save her. Tyler then tells Liv that she has to pull Damon and Elena back, and Liv does, an hour earlier than they expected her to. Bonnie wasn't back in Mystic Falls yet! She's trapped all alone! Alaric confronts Damon about the compulsion, punching him when he finds out that Kai has escaped. Now, Kai will go after Jo! Kai shows up to talk to Tyler, saying that he actually wants to save Liv's life.

Meanwhile, Matt arranges for Stefan to meet Sarah, who is supposedly related to him. Enzo is hanging around to annoy everybody, mostly because he wants to make Stefan's life miserable. Stefan meets Sarah at lunch, but he very quickly tells her that he knows she is lying. They leave the restaurant, leaving Matt and Enzo behind. Stefan tells "Sarah" that he actually kept tabs on the real Sarah, who was adopted by a good family right out of the hospital, and now goes to school and lives a good life. Turns out, this girl pretending to be Sarah was in the foster system. She had a terrible life, but when she met Sarah, she saw a chance to find a family. Sarah had no plans to ever find her biological family, so this girl figured she could pretend to be Sarah in order to get a family. Stefan compels "Sarah" to forget about Sarah Salvatore and leave Mystic Falls. At this point, Enzo and Matt show up. Enzo figures out that something weird is happening, and he wants Stefan to tell the truth about "Sarah." Stefan refuses, and Enzo kills "Sarah."

Matt is angry that Stefan didn't try to stop him, but Stefan said he had no choice. He wants Matt to understand that he's not like Enzo, but Matt's not so sure that they're all that different. No matter how much Stefan might claim to care for humans, the lives of humans will always matter less to him than the lives of other vampires. Matt talks to Jeremy, asking him if he wants to be a hunter again. He wants Jeremy to help him kill Enzo.

I loved this episode! Next week is the mid-season finale, and I distinctly saw a Stefan/Damon hug in the promo, so I'm a happy camper for all sorts of different reasons. Let's start with a few little quips, though.

No Caroline. I missed her! I'm also getting a little tired of all the jokes that are being made about Stefan screwing things up with Caroline. For the most part, these jokes are at Stefan's expense, not Caroline's, but I'm still a little bit exasperated with all of the humor going on here. I think Stefan and Caroline's relationship should be treated with a bit more gravity.

The only seriously annoying aspect of this episode to me was the whole Sarah fake-out thing. Actually, I don't mind the twist itself all that much. I certainly wasn't expecting Sarah to be lying about who she was, and I found it unbelievably adorable that Stefan had been keeping tabs on the real Sarah, to make sure she was doing alright. The part that annoyed me was the fact that Sarah's true identity was so insignificant. She was just a sad girl who wanted to find a family? Really? And she didn't run screaming when she found out that this family was a bunch of murderous vampires? And then, after all of that buildup, and all of these episodes where Sarah has been hovering off to the side waiting to take center stage, she just dies? Why? So that we can learn that Enzo is an ass? Yeah, I already knew that.

That being said, there were things about the Sarah plot that I loved. So, let's switch to the good parts of this episode, shall we?

"Sarah's" death is the trigger for Matt's realization about vampires, which I love. He's one of our last remaining human bastions in this show, and I absolutely love what they've been doing with him thus far this season. He's totally right. The humans in this world (especially Matt and Bonnie, although of course Bonnie is a witch) are often used as pawns in the games of the vampires. Think about what Damon just did to Rick, after all! I'm excited to see where this goes.

I also love that Damon doesn't know Sarah is alive. Stefan's motivations for this make perfect sense. He loves his brother, and he knows that Damon has changed, but there's this part of him that can never be 100% sure of that. Also, even vampires on their best behavior tend to bring a lot of chaos in their wake. Now, there's a living Salvatore out there who will hopefully never get mixed up in all of this mess.

Then there's all the stuff with Damon and Elena. I'm very happy, in a weird way, that Damon is mad at Elena. They could have gone the other route and have him act all mopey and grovel-y, but he has a right to be pissed, within the strange convoluted logic of this show, and I'm glad that he is. Still, he loves Elena, and he'll make new memories with her. What a cute moment!

Elena and Damon both really want Bonnie back, which is very sweet. Elena and Bonnie's conversation on the phone is really sweet, and it's all the more heartbreaking to think about Bonnie rushing back to Mystic Falls only to find out she's all alone. So sad! Damon's little speech about becoming friends with Bonnie is also very touching, and I loved his threatening words to Kai when he's talking to Bonnie on the payphone, before he realizes who he's talking to. I love protective Damon! The episode ends with Damon thinking about Bonnie, and how she's all alone. He feels so helpless to do anything. It's so tragic!

Jeremy's part in this episode was really interesting. Thus far this season he's just been angry and drunk, but now we see that he's starting to turn the corner and get better. Elena pretty much ruins that by telling Jeremy that there's a plan to get Bonnie back. But Jeremy doesn't believe it - just like Matt is starting to get fed up with all these vampires, Jeremy is starting to get fed up with all the failed plans, and how Bonnie, of all people, is the one to pay for everybody else's mistakes. Jeremy has a really cutting line to Elena when he talks to her on the phone. He just knows that it went wrong, but that even so, Damon probably made it back just fine. Poor Jeremy! Now just go kill Enzo, will you?

So, even though I was celebrating Damon's relationship with Elena and his friendship for Bonnie, I'm still super mad at him. How could he do that to Alaric? I'm glad that Rick found out, and called him on it. Angst-y fights are the best. I still say Alaric should get on vervaine as soon as possible, but he's right to be extremely angry. Damon seriously broke his trust, and he also put Bonnie's needs ahead of Jo, which of course Alaric isn't going to be too thrilled about.

Tyler and Liv still aren't the most interesting couple on the show, but I did appreciate Tyler's protectiveness of her, and how all of these story-lines are starting to converge. Tyler cares about Liv enough to protect her at all costs, which might mean he'd be willing to work with Kai. Of course, Kai wants to merge with Jo, which would kill her. It's all getting so interesting! Kai is a fantastic villain. Very maniacal. I love it.

I think that's all I have for now. Next week is sure to be dramatic!

8/10