The Vampire Diaries: The Day I Tried to Live (6x13)

Okay! Bonnie! I was wondering what was going on with her, and I'm glad to see her again. Let's go through this episode and see what there is to see.

It's Bonnie's birthday, and Elena decides that they should all celebrate and spend time together, like Bonnie would have wanted. Kai, it turns out, is having a hard time adjusting to his new position as leader of the Gemini Coven. When he merged with Luke, he absorbed some of his attributes, such as compassion and a conscience. As a result, Kai feels really bad that Luke is dead, and wants Elena and Damon to pass along a letter he wrote to Jo, apologizing for everything. Elena and Damon agree to pass the message on, but only if Kai helps them out first.

Elena has the broken remains of the Ascendant, and she wants Kai to help them get to Bonnie. He says he can't use it to get Bonnie back, but he might be able to get them to see Bonnie and talk to her. He does a spell, and they all see Bonnie. However, she can't see them. Bonnie is drinking a bottle of expensive bourbon. Damon says that the bottle was part of a pact that the two of them had when they were stuck together - when it got to be too bad, they would drink the whole thing and then kill themselves. It looks like Bonnie is giving up. Kai can't hold the magic any longer, since it's draining him, but he does agree to send just Jeremy back in to try and communicate with Bonnie somehow.

Damon knows that there's a source of magic in Nova Scotia, left there by Qetsiyah. Jeremy is going to go back into the 1994 world and find an atlas that Damon had taken notes in, back when he was trapped. If he can open the atlas to the right page and draw Bonnie's attention to it, she'll realize that she has a chance to get some magic back and send herself home. However, Jeremy is only able to make physical contact with the atlas for a fleeting moment. He opens to the right page, but it falls on the ground. Bonnie goes into the garage and turns on the car, sitting down near the exhaust pipe and getting ready to die from carbon monoxide poisoning. Jeremy is with her, trying to get her to see him. Bonnie tapes a goodbye message, even though she doesn't think anybody will see it. As she tells Jeremy to be strong, she realizes that this is what her Grams always said to her. She doesn't want to give up. Jeremy manages to fleetingly make contact with the garage door opener, saving Bonnie's life. Bonnie finds the atlas on the floor and packs up, ready to head out to Nova Scotia.

Meanwhile, Liv is distraught over Luke's death. Tyler tries to convince her that they need to run away to escape Kai, who will probably want to kill Liv and everybody else now that he has all the power. However, Liv says that she doesn't want to spend her life looking over her shoulder. She knocks Tyler out using magic and goes to kill Kai. Even though this will mean the end for the coven, she wants revenge for Luke's death. Unfortunately, Liv shows up to kill Kai while Kai and Jeremy are still in the 1994 world. (Earlier, Kai had warned that if he couldn't control his magic enough to complete the spell, Jeremy would likely get stuck in the 1994 world forever.) Liv blocks Elena and Damon from being able to get into the room, but Damon manages to blow Liv backwards by forcing pressure through the fireplace. They get down there and Damon feeds Kai his blood, saving Kai and Jeremy's lives. Tyler shows up and has Elena feed Liv some of her blood. When Liv wakes up, Tyler says that he never wants to see her again, because she lied to him and would rather die than let Tyler help.

Caroline is going through a hard time because of her mother, and also because of Bonnie. She decides to try to find Bonnie's bear, the one that Bonnie sent over with her magic in it from 1994-land. Apparently, the original bear had gone missing years before - Caroline took it from Bonnie in a fight when they were kids, but then didn't want her mom to find out that she'd taken it. So, she buried the bear in the woods. Caroline is determined to go back and dig up the bear. Stefan comes along. He tries to get Caroline angry so that she'll lash out and start to handle some of her anger. This works, but as an added bonus they find the bear! Caroline and Stefan hug it out as Caroline starts crying.

Jeremy, after seeing Bonnie nearly give up, confides in Elena that he's been feeling trapped and alone, too. Elena says that it's okay if he wants to move on, and Jeremy decides that she's right - he starts looking in to applying for art school. Elena and Damon have a talk about their relationship. Elena says that she doesn't care that she doesn't have her memories, and she doesn't care that human Elena would have chosen Stefan. She wants to be with Damon. The two of them go to bed together.

Meanwhile, Enzo takes Matt with him to go meet Sarah Salvatore. Enzo makes Matt go and flirt with Sarah, who rejects him. Later, Matt pretends to be stranded without money at a bus stop, and Sarah is a good Samaritan and helps him out. Enzo reveals to Matt that he's going to insinuate his way into Sarah's life and make her do horrible things, corrupting her to get back at Stefan.

There we have it. Let's go through and talk about a couple of my problems, because I do have a few qualms.

First of all, what's Tyler's problem? I was legitimately startled when he said he never wanted to see Liv again. Yeah, Liv messed up and nearly killed Jeremy (not that she knew that was going to happen), but Tyler's response was so off-the-wall unnecessary. He knew that Liv was upset. He knew she was feeling like everything was hopeless. So, what does he do? Basically tell her she's not worth the trouble when she's going through something really serious. After all of the buildup to their relationship, I did not understand this moment for Tyler's character at all.

The other thing is about Enzo. What kind of evil plan is that? If his goal is to drive a wedge between Stefan and Damon, then wouldn't he just tell Damon about Sarah still being alive? For that matter, why haven't Enzo and Damon shared the screen in the past several episodes? Aren't they supposed to be good friends? If Enzo wanted to make Stefan suffer, then he'd just kill Sarah. Or turn her against him or something. Why does he randomly just want to corrupt Sarah? It makes no sense. It's a weird plan and I don't like it.

Also, I felt like Damon and Elena's conversation about their relationship was just a rehash. After they kissed last week, I thought we were going to see them continue to build on that foundation. But in this episode, they seemed to reset and then end up back in the same place, although this time they did have sex instead of just kissing.

But, that being said, I'm happy for Damon and Elena, and I hope maybe we can get a relaxation of the drama with the two of them for a while. I would like Elena to find her memories again someday, but for now that doesn't have to be a priority. Also - on a shallow note, that was one hot kiss!

Other things to enjoy: I like the idea of Kai, the sociopath, suddenly wrestling with conflicted feelings. Things actually got pretty intense when Kai was about to kill Liv. He couldn't overcome the part of Luke that was merged within him in order to kill Liv, even though the Kai part wanted to do it. Kai's new soft side is manifesting in all sorts of interesting ways, including his willingness to help Bonnie even at the cost of his own safety, and his guilt over what he did to Jo, Liv, and especially Luke. While I've traditionally been quite fond of the totally crazy villain thing that we had going with Kai, if we're going to keep him around I think it's a good idea to add a bit of complexity in there as well. Might as well shake things up!

Then there's Caroline and Stefan. I think they were my favorite part of the episode to watch, if I'm honest. I can't believe how much I'm rooting for these two. I was always sort of a secret Stelena shipper, and I was a bit late to the Steroline thing. Now, I'm all in. I want to see these two kiss. I want them to make each other happy. I think it would be really great for both of them, and I think they both really need each other right now. Stefan knew just what to do for Caroline in that moment. He didn't let her wallow in pity or denial, and he cut straight to the heart of the matter. He was harsh when he needed to be harsh, and gentle when he needed to be gentle.

Jeremy! I'm so happy that he might be going to art school. That's just right for his character. Even if Bonnie makes her way back to the group, I don't think Bonnie and Jeremy are meant to be together. Jeremy is meant to make it on his own. He needs to leave this crazy, messed up world behind and find happiness elsewhere. It didn't work for Stefan when Damon died, but it might work for Jeremy. After everything, I think he really, really deserves a fresh start.

Bonnie was the star of the show. I gotta say, I've rarely been so impressed with a performance on this show as I was by Kat Graham in the suicide scene. She was just the right mix of pensive, scared, angry, and hopeless. When she was talking about missing everything too much, I was feeling a little bit of a prickle in my own eyes, honestly. And I'm so glad she decided she wanted to live. I mean, Jeremy was the one who opened the garage door, but Bonnie had decided not to give up. She did that. She made that choice. I hope she does save herself, because she deserves happiness, and she deserves to be her own hero.

I liked the moments of Bonnie and Damon in this episode, too. We saw them ever so briefly together in the video that Bonnie was watching, but we got a lot more of it from Damon's reactions to what Bonnie was going through. He drinks the bourbon in solidarity with Bonnie, and he manages to manipulate Kai to help her out. Bonnie and Damon's friendship is such a complex, wonderful aspect to this show. I want Bonnie back so we can see more of it.

I think I'll just stop there. Bonnie is awesome. Caroline and Stefan are adorable. But hey - when are we gonna get more Salvatore broments?

8.5/10