The Vampire Diaries: Live Through This (7x05)

Ah, yes. Damon and Stefan glorious bromance. This is what I was waiting for. However, my personal preferences don't mean I can ignore some of this episode's flaws, either. Let's take a look!

Cons:

In this episode, Damon and Stefan team up with Valerie to find Julian and stop him from being reunited with Lily. Caroline stays at home and worries about Stefan going off with his first love. This plot thread has just become insulting to Caroline's character. I hate her constant insecurity about Stefan and Valerie. I also find Valerie uninteresting as a character, and the entire concept of their star-crossed past to be silly and overdone.

Pros:

On the flip side of that, I liked the idea of Damon and Stefan teaming up with Valerie. They want to know what's so bad about this Julian guy that Valerie would kill Oscar to stop Lily from finding her old flame. We know the truth of Valerie's tragic beating and miscarriage, and Stefan learns this by the end of the episode. Again, I'm not thrilled with the whole backstory in the first place, but I like the way Julian is being set up as a villain.

As the episode ends, Julian is awakened by use of the Phoenix Stone, which is now in the hands of the Heretics. (Thanks a lot, Enzo). When he wakes, he seems overjoyed to see Lily again. It's a surprisingly genuine moment. Julian's obvious love for Lily doesn't gel with the horrific violence we've seen him use.  But then again... Damon and Stefan have done some terrible things in their time as well. I'll be interested to see if they can find some complexities in Julian's character.

The best part of this plot thread wasn't Valerie... it was Damon and Stefan's bromantic bickering. Apparently, Damon knew all about Valerie. He calls her "V-card Valerie," and remarks that she broke Stefan's heart. Then he continually mocks Valerie about this, seemingly pissed off on Stefan's behalf. Later in the episode, we get the more serious side of the brother's relationship. We learn that Lily gave Kai the idea to put Elena in her magical coma. Damon, infuriated, wants to kill Lily on the spot, but Stefan talks him down, promising him that they won't let her get away with her evil actions. These two have a seriously messed up relationship, but I just can't get enough of it. It'll be interesting to see Damon grapple with his need for revenge, because he's promised himself that he's turning over a new leaf. Supposedly, he's going to do right by Elena!

And despite my annoyance at Caroline sitting at home and feeling insecure, I did like one moment of Caroline in this episode. It was when Stefan and Caroline were in bed together, and Caroline is just lying there feeling super awkward because Stefan is happily cuddling her and she wants to get up and start accomplishing things. That is totally me. I like how Caroline and Stefan are a perfectly romantic couple, but their relationship doesn't erase Caroline's tendency to be neurotic and hyper-organized.

While all of this is going on, we learn a bit more about the Phoenix Stone. Turns out, it doesn't bring people back from the dead. The Phoenix Stone actually contains a bunch of vampire souls, and when you use it, you put one of them back into a body. In Julian's case, Lily knew how to put the right soul with the right body, so Julian has truly been resurrected. But in the cases of Oscar and Jo? Dun dun dun...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually love the twist with this. I didn't think there was any way they could get me on board with Alaric's stupid and crazy plan to bring Jo back from the dead, but now that we find out that he hasn't done that, I'm super interested! It would have been easy for them to make the new soul inside of Jo's body into an obvious villain, but they did something much more subtle. She's scared, and confused, and she tries desperately to remember her old life with Ric, as he's telling her about their relationship. Eventually, this person, whoever she is, has to admit that nothing about herself or this place is familiar to her. Bonnie calls to tell Alaric that Jo isn't really Jo, and although Alaric doesn't want to believe it, he eventually accepts the truth. He even agrees to help whoever it is now using Jo's body. It'll be very interesting to see how this plays out. Who is this person? Can she be trusted? What kind of relationship is she going to have with Alaric?

Then there's "Oscar," whose weird silence and bloodlust suddenly makes sense. As the rest of the Heretics try to comfort the person that they believe to be Oscar, we learn that in reality he's somebody else. Enzo and Bonnie have to work together to stop him from attacking them. Unfortunately, he has all the witchy powers of a true Heretic, and he uses them. Whoever is inside of Oscar's body does not want to go back inside the Phoenix Stone, that's for sure.

I'll be interested to see what more the Phoenix Stone can do, and how exactly it's meant to work. I loved the fact that Bonnie was confused by the ease with which she resurrected two people. And I love that there's a good explanation - she didn't. She just reunited a soul with a body. Nobody was coming back from the dead at all! This is an unexpectedly clever twist on an idea that I was ready to condemn out of hand.

Finally, there's the flash forward. Three years from now, Bonnie is in some sort of mental health or rehab institute, and she talks in group therapy about how one wrong decision can cause so much heartbreak. She says that she made a mistake and it cost her somebody that she loved. Later, she finds Enzo in her room. Enzo tells her that it's time to stop hiding, and the two passionately kiss. I've said it before - the flash forwards are by far the most interesting aspect of the season so far. Enzo still seems like a totally pointless character, and his infatuation with Lily is annoying and underdeveloped. But this? This is exciting! This is strange! Enzo and Bonnie? Who would have guessed that? I can't wait to see what Bonnie's ominous words really meant. What's the one regret she was talking about? Using the Phoenix Stone? That seems like the obvious answer. Who did she lose? Does somebody die? We've seen pretty much all our principle characters in the future now, but we haven't seen Matt... I'm just speculating, of course. I can't wait to find out!

There you have it. Some fun bromance, an interesting twist on the Phoenix Stone idea, and a tantalizing flash-forward all made for a solid installment. This was the best of the season so far!

8/10