The Vampire Diaries: Mommie Dearest (7x07)

Okay! This is an episode with a lot of things to love, and a few things to grumble about. Let's take a look!

Cons:

Caroline is pregnant with Alaric's twins. I'm sorry, but it's just weird. And they did a fake out thing where at first you think she isn't, but it turns out the babies were just cloaked, so they've been there the whole time. This is just... weird. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea of Caroline being pregnant when she had no desire to be, and in a situation where she can't make decisions about her own body because the babies aren't even hers. It's strange and it feels very forced.

Valerie is actually growing on me a little bit as a character, but I hate the fact that Valerie is the one to tell Caroline about the baby that she lost at Julian's hands. I really thought Stefan should be the one to do that. It seems like the Stefan/Caroline romance is being ripped apart before it really gets a chance to get underway, and I'm feeling frustrated by the missed opportunities.

One of the big discoveries in this episode is that there's a whole farm of Compelled humans in Mystic Falls on IV drips. Valerie syphons away the Compulsion, and with Caroline and Matt's help they get people out of there. The part that bothered me about this was that Matt calls Bonnie to help out, and since Bonnie is busy with other things, she doesn't get back to him right away; when Matt and Bonnie finally do talk, Matt is all rude to Bonnie, saying that he doesn't need her help anyway. What the heck, Matt? What's with the attitude? Along the same lines, it's weird to me that Stefan and Damon weren't told about all the humans being forced in to Mystic Falls for mysterious purposes. That seems like something you might want to run by the Salvatores, doesn't it?

Pros:

Enzo and Bonnie discover a sword in Julian's car, and Enzo thinks maybe it can kill Julian. Later, Bonnie realizes that the sword is useless unless paired with a moonstone, so this turns out to be a dead end. I'll talk more about that in a second. What I liked about these scenes were the subtle hints building toward Enzo and Bonnie's relationship. Here, we see Enzo still hung up on Lily, hoping to kill Julian to be with her. But still, Bonnie and Enzo's flirtation is planting the seed of something more.

The main thrust of this episode focused on Stefan and Damon, and their attempts to recruit Lily to their side. Stefan figures that if they can make Lily see what a bad person Julian is, she'll help them to destroy her sweetheart. These scenes are loosely framed by Thanksgiving, as Stefan invites Lily over for dinner. They talk about their past as a family, and how Lily's relationship with their father proves that she has a pattern of falling for dangerous and evil men.

Meanwhile, Enzo confronts Julian, and the two end up sword fighting. When Enzo manages to cut Julian, we learn that Lily and Julian's lives are now linked - Lily begins bleeding as she sits tied up with Stefan and Damon. Damon goes to interfere in the sword fight. He manages to stab Julian with the sword, irregardless of the fact that he believed this would kill Lily as well. The sword is ineffective, but Lily realizes that Julian is unstable. Lily sees that Julian was willing to casually risk his own life despite the fact he was risking hers as well. She goes to Stefan and Damon and tells them she wants to help them defeat Julian.

So much awesome going on here. I love that Stefan's plan to kill somebody starts with inviting his mom over for dinner so they can chat. It's so like him. Damon is willing to play along, which is sweet in its own way. He's always gone for the more direct approach, but he defers to Stefan out of respect for what his brother has lost. I love the fact that Lily actually sees the truth. From what I can tell, this isn't any sort of double-cross or trick. She really does realize what Julian is, and she wants to be free of him. This could be really interesting. Lily never really worked as a villain. Maybe Julian will work better. The Salvatores working together could be really fun to watch!

The best part of this plot thread was the flash-back to Stefan and Damon as children. We get to see more of their horrible, abusive father. We see how horrible he is to Lily, but then we see Damon take the blame for taking his father's wallet, even though Lily was the one to take the money. Damon admitted to a crime he did not commit because he was afraid of what his dad would do to Stefan. As a result, he's tortured by his father. Oh my God protective Damon is my favorite thing ever. All of the flash-back stuff was excellent, as we see what a monster the elder Salvatore really was, and we understand a little bit about why Stefan and Damon are who they are.

Then there's the fact that Damon tried to kill Julian, even at the expense of Lily's life. Stefan wasn't happy about it, and this spawned one of my favorite scenes ever on that show - Damon yelling about how Lily deserves whatever pain she gets - she abandoned her children and started a new family without caring about what would happen to them. You can imagine young Damon and Stefan, already struggling under an abusive father, suddenly losing their mother who, despite not being able to help them, was still a comforting presence all the same. And then to learn that she left them voluntarily, and not because she was forced to in death... that's got to be harsh. Amazing acting from Ian Somerhalder in this scene.

There was a lot of humor in the Salvatore family exchanges, too. I loved it when Lily talked about Thanskgiving and mentioned the "pilgrims and Indians" and Damon said "we call them Native Americans now," and then said that she wasn't there so they could correct her "outdated racial slurs" for her. I also liked the casualness with which Stefan pulls the sword out of Damon's chest. There's no concern over Damon's well-being, or coddling over the pain he must be in. He just rips out the weapon with casual efficiency. It's kind of bad ass, and also pretty funny.

I've saved the flash-forward for last, because once again it's proving to be the main thing keeping my attention this season. This time, Damon and Alaric are rushing to the studio where Caroline broadcasted her message to Stefan. Damon says that he knows Caroline's message was a trap to draw Stefan in, and he plans on going in first to prevent Stefan from getting caught. As he enters, we see Caroline's video message playing, but she is nowhere to be seen. Then, Damon gets hit by a bunch of small projectiles. I'm assuming they're vervaine darts. Uh oh!

So many awesome things are being revealed to us in these flash-forwards. First of all, more protective Damon! Yay! We still don't know who's trying to get to Stefan and why, but we do know it's a woman. It's not Bonnie or Caroline. We can assume it's not Elena. Is it Lily? Valerie? One of the other Heretics? Somebody we don't know yet? I loved the moment when Damon broke in to try and save Caroline and hears her on the video, calling out for Stefan. He says something about her having to settle for the other one. I loved that little detail. It reminded me of the very strange fact that Caroline and Damon used to sleep together, back in the very first season of this show.

I think that's all I've got. Things are getting more and more interesting. I can't wait to see what happens in a few weeks. From the promos, it looks like Julian threatens to kill the boys. Sounds angsty and awesome!

8/10