A pretty solid opening. Obviously it's going to be difficult for this show to maintain itself without its leading lady, but this premiere gave me some stuff to look forward to. It wasn't great, but it was good enough that I think they can still improve from here. Let's go ahead and look at what happened.
Cons:
Enzo. At one point in this episode, Caroline asks Enzo to "pick a side." There's a lot of chaos between Lily and her vampire-witch friends, and the rest of the town, and Enzo is stuck in the middle. When Caroline said that to him, I couldn't help but feel like she was speaking for the whole audience. And then Enzo does pick a side... and he picks Lily? Ugh. Enzo has never been as interesting as the show wanted him to be. It feels like he's this errant character with no real place. He doesn't fit in anywhere, and it's exhausting to watch them try to make him function in the story.
Alaric. He wants to bring Jo back from the dead. Most of his plot thread in this episode was completely divorced from the rest of the action, as he talked to psychics in an attempt to communicate with his dead wife. At the end, we see him in the morgue, where Jo's body is apparently still being kept cold, against hospital policy. He wants to bring her back. Ugh. No. I'm sorry, but there's only so many times a character on this show can cheat death. It gets really exhausting and repetitive. I feel like this plot thread was just proving a point that I really didn't want reinforced - Alaric doesn't really have a place on this show anymore, either. All the stuff with Jo and the Gemini Coven has been pushed aside, in favor of Lily and her gang. Alaric was so tied up in last season's plot thread that I'm not really sure what they're going to do with him moving forward. I don't want anymore rehashing of old material.
Pros:
The main plot thread here focuses on Lily and her "family" and their effort to adjust to life outside of the Prison World. One of the vamp-witches gets hit by a car and left for dead, although of course she's fine. In an act of revenge, the rest of the vamps brutally murder the two people who hit her. Things escalate even further when Matt's graduating class at the police academy is slaughtered by the Heretics. From there, Stefan, Caroline, and the others broker a deal with the Heretics. The people will leave Mystic Falls, as long as the Heretics agree to leave them alone. Anybody who tries to come into Heretic territory is fair game. The Heretics move in to the Salvatore mansion.
I really liked all of the things that are being set up here. Caroline and Matt try and blow the vamp-witches up, which was awesome, even though it didn't work. I loved Caroline trying to act like a human. It was hilarious. It's so interesting to see the whole town evacuate - it certainly escalates things to the next level! I'm excited to see how Matt, one of the only police officers left in the community, deals with these new challenges.
Caroline and Stefan's relationship took some steps forward. Caroline realized that she has to give herself permission to be happy, even while she's still grieving for her mother. Cue a make-out session between Stefan and Caroline. Yay! I'm so happy for those two.
As of right now, Lily's vampire family hasn't done a lot to make themselves interesting to me, but I like the two girls that are a couple. They hold hands in public, marveling at the fact that they're allowed to do that now. That could be interesting - I'll wait and see if the characters develop a bit more.
The best part of the whole episode was the Damon and Bonnie stuff. While traipsing across Europe, Ric and Damon get drunk and grieve for Jo and Elena. Bonnie is their appointed chaperone. At one point, Bonnie is almost hit by a car, and Damon saves her at the last second. Bonnie realizes that Damon hesitated to save her life, because if she'd died, Elena would be back. Bonnie is furious, saying that she refuses to spend the rest of her life feeling resented by Damon. Damon tells Bonnie that he did hesitate. He thought about how wonderful it would be to have Elena back in his arms. But then he remembered that Bonnie is his best friend, and he would lose his mind if anything happened to her. Oh my God! This makes me so happy. I'm glad they're addressing Damon's resentments, and I'm glad Bonnie is refusing to give in to survivor's guilt. This is Kai's fault, not hers. Damon and Bonnie's relationship is one of the most interesting things on this show ever. And it looks like the two of them aren't going to take this new threat to Mystic Falls lying down. Before the episode is up, they manage to kill one of the Heretics. Don't mess with Bonnie and Damon when they're on the same side!
Another really strong part of this premiere was the flash-forward aspect. In the season finale of Season Six, we saw Damon standing on top of the clock tower, looking down on a Heretic-run Mystic Falls. I assumed that was going to be a big flash-forward, but it turns out to just be a reference to what's happening in this premiere. That was a nice twist. The real flash-forwards show three years later, as Stefan wakes Damon up out of his coffin. Damon had allowed himself to become desiccated, so he can wait for Elena to wake up. Somebody is after Damon - as Damon and Stefan crouch behind a coffin for cover, somebody starts to shoot!
We know that the adversary is a woman - we should assume that this is Lily, but of course that's the obvious guess. It could be anybody. It could be Bonnie, Caroline, one of the other Heretics... maybe Alaric succeeds in bringing Jo back, and she turns evil? I mean, honestly, the possibilities are endless. That's what I like about this show. I don't care that I'm being blatantly manipulated. I'm excited for the answer. Of course, I also liked the flash-forward because they were some of the only moments of Damon-Stefan interaction. Stefan says that he needs Damon, which I love.
The other brotherly moment was when Damon yells at Stefan for letting the Heretics take over Mystic Falls. Damon asks Stefan if he's doing this for Caroline, and Stefan says no. He's doing it for Damon. He doesn't want Elena to wake up and realize that Damon let everybody that she cared about die in her absence. I love how much Stefan will do for Damon. I hope this is the season where we'll finally see Damon do the same for Stefan. I can't wait to see what the flash-forwards will mean for the show over-all!
I think that's all I've got. Not the most amazing opening episode ever, but certainly not a terrible start!
7/10
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