Stefan and Caroline sans-humanity. The best thing ever. Definitely lived up to my expectations. And that's only one of the fantastic things going on here. Let's start with a plot summary.
So. Stefan is without his humanity, and Damon is on a mission to bring him back from the ledge. Then, Stefan can bring Caroline back, and everybody can be back to normal. How do we trigger Stefan's humanity? By going into the 1903 Prison World and fetching Mother Salvatore, of course. They need Kai and Bonnie both to help get into the Prison World. Bonnie reluctantly agrees to hand over her Bennett blood, but Kai says he'll only help cross over if Bonnie agrees to come with. Elena wants to tag along as well, determined to meet the mother of her two great loves. In 1903 land, Bonnie and Kai go off to find the 1903 Ascendant so they can get back, while Damon and Elena go to track down Lily Salvatore.
In the Salvatore mansion, they find her. She is happy to see Damon, and she agrees to help restore Stefan's humanity. But, she wants to bring her friends with her. Turns out, there's a whole group of vampires stuck in this Prison World. They are all shriveled up, due to the lack of blood in this human-less world. Lily is the only one still able to move around, because the others sacrificed the scant amount of blood still existing in order to let Lily have a chance.
It turns out that the Ascendant was in the Salvatore home all along - Bonnie isn't out looking for it. Earlier, she and Damon had set up a plan for Bonnie to get closure with Kai. She lures him into the middle of nowhere and then stabs him, leaving him behind. Damon lies and tells his mother that they will be back for Lily's friends, but that they have to go now. Lily refuses at first, but Damon says that unless Lily agrees to help Stefan, he'll leave her there.
After they leave the Prison World, Kai is left trapped. He is set upon by the mostly-decimated vampires. Will he make it out alive?
Meanwhile, Stefan is determined to ruin Caroline's plan of being responsible and reasonable during her humanity-free year. He wants her to lose control, so that she'll feel the full pain of what she's done once her humanity is back. He torments her, continually enticing her to give in to temptation. Eventually, she does. Stefan and Caroline feed on a student at the college, leaving her for dead. They then go back to Caroline's place and have sex.
Enzo, upon finding out that Stefan turned his humanity off, realizes that this ruins the game. He goes to Alaric to ask for his help in tracking Stefan down. The two of them do manage to stumble upon Stefan and Caroline, but Caroline stops Stefan from killing them (this is before she decides to lose control). Jo is angry at Alaric for risking his life running around after crazy vampires. She makes him promise that he'll be there for her and the baby.
Elena was enchanted by the new side of Damon that she saw when he was with her mother. Even though Lily Salvatore obviously messed up, Elena thinks maybe Damon should give her another chance. As Damon and Elena are getting it on, Bonnie interrupts. Elena goes to check in with Rick, while Bonnie and Damon talk. Bonnie thanks Damon for giving her a chance to get back at Kai. She also has a present for him - something she picked up in the 1994 Prison World: the cure for vampirism. Bonnie tells Damon that he can decide what to do with it. We are left wondering if Damon will give the cure to Elena or not.
Okay! I honestly loved this episode. It wasn't perfect, though.
First of all, Enzo's motivations are becoming less and less comprehensible to me as time goes on. I get that he wants to punish Stefan, but the reasons for that are becoming less clear. And what exactly did he want Alaric's help with? What was the plan? Along the same vein, Sarah Salvatore had no discernible purpose in this episode. She's been compelled to forget her near-death, and now it seems that Enzo is having second thoughts about using her to torment Stefan? What is this dude's deal?
But honestly, mostly I adored this episode.
First of all, even if there was a sad lack of Damon/Stefan interactions, we did get consistent reminders that Damon will go to the ends of the earth when Stefan's in trouble. My favorite moment was when Lily was refusing to come back with Damon, and she said that her fellow vampires were her family. Damon replies: "These freaks may be your family, but Stefan Salvatore is mine, and if you don't want to help him I will leave you here to rot." Awesome!
Bonnie's character development is more than I ever could have hoped for. I'm so surprised that they're actually giving Bonnie something to do. She's not backing down from her hatred of Kai. She's standing up for herself and taking care of herself, and I love it. This new Bonnie isn't exactly dark or evil, but she's no longer the pushover she once was. I'm also glad to see that her friendship with Damon is back on the mend. These two are so good together.
Alaric and Jo picking out baby names is one of the more precious things this show has ever done. I loved it when Jo told Alaric that anybody with the name "Alaric" wasn't allowed to name another human being. Aw. These two are adorable.
Stefan and Caroline and their evil ways. So. Amazing. I laughed, in a really horrified sort of way, when Stefan killed the director during Caroline's audition. Candice Accola has a really pretty voice, incidentally. The further Caroline goes down the rabbit hole, the worse it's going to be when she snaps back. What I love about Stefan and Caroline in this episode is that you can see the way each of them react differently to their humanity switch being turned. Stefan changes into a completely different person. It's unsettling and scary to see such a compassionate person go completely cold like that. Caroline? Well, she goes from being neurotic and organized and a little snippy to being... the same thing. Caroline without her humanity is completely different from Caroline with her humanity, of course, but the differences are subtle enough that you can almost lull yourself into a false sense of security. There's actually a lot of subtlety going on here, which I appreciate.
Lily Salvatore. It's crazy that they're actually introducing her to this show, but I'm beyond excited about it nonetheless. They're striking the right balance between a new villain and a new compassionate member of the Salvatore clan. I can see her being totally evil, but I can also see her being a good guy. At least for a while. The reveal about the extra vampires was excellent - I totally didn't see that coming. I don't feel sorry for Kai, not in the least, but I am curious about his fate. Will he survive the decimated vampires? And is there any chance Lily was telling the truth about them?
I think that's where I'll stop. Everything about this episode made me super excited for the future. As always, I want more Salvatore broments! If I can't have cute little moments of bonding between them, I'll definitely accept Damon talking about Stefan being his only family. Good stuff.
8.5/10
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