The Vampire Diaries: Cold as Ice (7x09)

This was a good episode. Not a great episode, but a good one. It certainly ended with a bang, and I'm really anxious to see the next installment.

Cons:

Caroline and Alaric have a subplot where they deal with Caroline's mystical pregnancy. It seems that pregnancy hormones for a vampire cause a lot of blood cravings and a quick temper. Her behavior isn't so different from an ordinary pregnant person's mood swings, but because she's a vampire it's getting dangerous. Alaric tries to be comforting, but Caroline freaks out and nearly attacks him. Caroline ends up visiting her mother's grave to talk it over. See... it's not the actress's fault, but I just don't find this "pregnant Caroline" story line at all compelling. Knowing where it ends up makes me uncomfortable. I don't like the idea of Caroline and Alaric as an actual couple. I think what bothers me the most about this is that it feels so disconnected from the main plot of the week. If they want to do this whole "Caroline is pregnant" thing, shouldn't Stefan be a central player in this? He's off dealing with Julian, and as such the pregnancy subplot feels totally underutilized and awkward.

For the first time, the flash-forward is in the "Con" section of one of these reviews. The only new piece of information we get is that Stefan and Valerie are apparently an item in the future. I mean, I guess I'm not really all that surprised, but I also don't care. I don't see the chemistry between them and I'm far less intrigued by this surprise pairing than I am by the whole Enzo/Bonnie thing. Which we saw none of this week, by the way. Stefan is gearing up to go after the mysterious female adversary who has kidnapped Caroline and Damon. He very condescendingly leaves Valerie behind for her safety, even though she'd undoubtedly be useful to him and she's a bad ass vampire witch. That was annoying.

Pros:

There is one good thing about the flash-forward, though. I like that we still don't know who the adversary is, but every week we cut down on the list of suspects. We know it's not Caroline, Bonnie, Lily, and now we know it's not Valerie. That seems to leave Mary Lou or Nora, although of course it could be a total outlier as well. And I did like that Stefan was willing to go to such lengths to save Damon and Caroline. Again, not surprising, but still sweet.

While Caroline is dealing with her pregnancy, Bonnie is left to help run a charity drive that collects presents for children. Nora, still heartbroken over the recent split with Mary Louise, shows up and offers to help out. Although Bonnie is cold to Nora at first, she eventually decides to befriend her, as Nora enrolls in school and starts trying to move on. Nora and Mary Louise have a brief conversation, where we learn that Mary Louise still thinks Valerie is lying, and that Nora owes her an apology. Nora tells Mary Louise that she's done for real this time. They're over. I find myself surprisingly interested in the drama of this relationship. I feel bad for both of them, since you can tell that Mary Louise's betrayal of Lily wasn't something she wanted to happen. She genuinely believes Julian is in the right.

Nora and Bonnie had what looked like the start of a promising friendship here. Of course, that all gets ruined when Stefan kidnaps Mary Louise (I'll get there in a sec) and Nora believes that Bonnie was in on it. She siphons Bonnie's power, knocking her out. I was so upset when that happened, because before that point, I was really happy for both Nora and Bonnie for finding a friend. Nora talked about why she loved Mary Louise. She told Bonnie it was because Mary Lou always put her first, and thought she was the most amazing, beautiful girl in the world. Bonnie says that she doesn't need somebody like that in her life, but Nora points out that sometimes it's still nice to hear that you're loved. Nora tells Bonnie that she's kind and beautiful. Honestly this is so important. Bonnie's right in saying that she doesn't need gratitude and appreciation. But she gets used a lot in this show as a way to get around plotty difficulties, and it's really lovely to see somebody appreciate her separate from her immediate usefulness. More of that please!

The main thrust of the plot this week was Stefan and Damon going on a trip to find and kill Julian. Damon doesn't really care that his mother is dead, and tells Stefan to let it go, while Stefan is bent on revenge. They end up finding Julian in one of the towns he used to live in, but he's not alone. Damon and Stefan manage to escape the trap, and Damon heads home, saying he's done with this crazy risky venture. Stefan can't let it go, however, and enlists Valerie's help. They kidnap Mary Louise and use her to lure Julian to the Salvatore mansion. There, he fights both Salvatore brothers, eventually stabbing Damon with the dagger that has the Phoenix Stone in its hilt. Oh no! Stefan sits by his brother's body, distraught, until Caroline shows up. She encourages him to have hope that they can fix this. Nora then shows up and stabs Stefan with the dagger as well, ostensibly as punishment for taking Mary Louise. Ahh! Both of the Salvatores are now trapped in their own personal hell, a punishment for all the wrong they've ever done. We saw how crazy Julian was after spending time in the Phoenix Stone... what's going to happen to our boys?!

Let's just talk about how awesome this is. Damon didn't want to hunt down Julian in the first place, but he did so in order to protect Stefan. The two of them spent most of the episode bickering about Lily, as Stefan thinks that Damon should regret his final words to Lily, and Damon insists that Lily dying doesn't absolve her of her sins. I love the fact that I totally understand both sides of this. Stefan has every right to patch things up with his mother, but Damon has every right to not forgive her, too. Lily didn't exactly do right by her family, after all.

The glorious thing about this is Stefan's guilt over everything - Damon gets stabbed trying to help Stefan in a fight he didn't ask for, and in fact walked away from. Julian shows up at the Salvatore mansion and finds Damon, all because of Stefan and Valerie's decisions. And when Damon saw Stefan was getting pummeled by Julian, he surged forward to try and engage Julian himself. And then - he's stabbed. This is an odd thing to point out, but I absolutely love the staging of the scene where Caroline walks in at the end. Damon is lying where he fell, and Stefan is just sitting by him, totally dejected. He's not crying, or desperately trying to get Damon to wake up. He's just... defeated. Great acting from Paul Wesley in that moment. And then, the fact that Stefan gets stabbed too was a nice twist. One of the Salvatores being dead or in some sort of mortal peril isn't all that unusual - but to watch them both drop like flies was really shocking.

I can't wait for more awesome Stefan and Damon angst when we return in January! This wasn't the best of episodes, but it certainly left me intrigued for what comes next.

8/10