The Vampire Diaries: Kill 'Em All (7x20)

Okay. I'm going to rapid-fire this one. Short version? I didn't like it.

Cons:

This episode continues the crusade to kill off the vampires released from the Phoenix Stone, while Bonnie and Rayna wait back at the safe house.

Let's start with Matt and Stefan. Despite the fact that Matt tried to have Stefan killed, I guess they can still work together. Matt tells the story of how Penny died in a car crash, but how he didn't quite believe it to be true. Stefan was in town the night Penny died, and Matt thinks Stefan killed her. Turns out, Matt found footage of Stefan compelling him, so Matt knows Stefan is hiding something. Turns out, Matt killed her accidentally, thinking he was shooting at a vampire.

First of all, the chemistry between Matt and Penny is pretty negligible. Also, I just don't feel enough of a connection to the characters to make this emotionally affecting. I wish that Matt's journey towards hating vampires could be a bit more nuanced than him simply seeking revenge for Penny's death. After a lot of nuanced buildup with Matt's character this season, the payoff is pretty weak. I can't believe Matt is stupid enough to let himself be compelled. He should be constantly protected with vervaine, shouldn't he? What a moron. The reveal that Matt killed Penny could have worked with a better buildup, but, again, I didn't really care about their relationship. And Matt still blaming Stefan is some next-level bullshit. Stefan isn't the reason for everything bad in the world, no more than Damon is. Stop scapegoating the Salvatores!

Caroline and Alaric also go vampire hunting, and it is beyond awkward. Rayna has a vision about two of the released vampires having sex, and even having a conversation about sex puts the two of them on edge. I wish we could have a sense of camaraderie, of affection, between the two of them. As it is, I can't believe that Alaric is really pining for Caroline. It's super unrealistic. Later, Caroline complains about Stefan abandoning her right to Alaric's face, and it's just... super rude? And super unfeeling. And just dumb. Caroline and Stefan are clearly going to end up together, but this detour is just painful to watch.

Damon tries to speed along the process of killing all these vampires by calling in the Armory for help. If Alex sends her people out to kill the vampires, then Damon will deliver Bonnie to her, so Bonnie will open the cellar and free Alex's trapped sister. Too bad Bonnie has just discovered from Alex's other sister that whatever's in that cellar, it's actually some sort of evil force that twists people and makes them super soulless or evil or something. Bonnie doesn't want to release it, even though it will save her life, since Rayna won't transfer her spirit to Bonnie unless all the vampires are killed, and that's impossible without the Armory's help. So, the Armory kidnaps Caroline and Alaric to force Bonnie's hand. And Bonnie does it, to save her friends. However, she then traps the evil force with all the Armory folks to make sure it never hurts anybody else.

Where to even start with this? The Armory storyline has always been uninteresting to me, and this newest twist does nothing. Some weird entity that turns people evil? It sounds like something somebody would put into a bad fanfiction. Did Alex really think that this was going to turn out well for her? I know so little about her as a character that it's hard to care about her motivations. I get wanting to save her sister, but this might have worked better if there had been some proper buildup. As it is, I don't really care about the Armory people being killed by the unspeakable evil. I don't even care that Bonnie trapped Alex and the others. Good riddance, honestly.

Also, Damon is being a total asshole here. I get that he wants to save Bonnie at any cost, but after all this talk about what a bad person he is, this week Damon actually starts to prove it true. He refuses to respect Bonnie's wishes at all, and is totally willing to release an unspeakable evil for his own selfish reasons. There's this terrible conversation where Stefan tells Damon that although he's still angry, he's also proud that Damon is doing good lately. It was such an on-the-nose way of showing us that Damon is not doing good, and it's all going to blow up in his face. Damon and Enzo also have an annoying conversation where Damon reinforces the fact that he's selfish for saving Bonnie, but he just doesn't care.  He'd rather have Bonnie hating him than have Bonnie dead. I guess that's... nice? But it just feels like evidence that Damon hasn't learned from his past mistakes.

Finally, there's Rayna. Rayna is boring. I actually really liked the big twist in this episode, which I'll get to in a minute, but Rayna as a character has never made sense, and it's sort of aggravating to see her make her exit from the show without ever adding much beyond plot development. Her resemblance to Elena and the other doppelgangers is never explained, and her backstory with her dead vampire boyfriend is never explored. She just goes down as another pointless detour.

Pros:

This is a weird detail, but visually this episode kind of rocked. Even in scenes I didn't enjoy, like Caroline and Alaric killing the evil vampire couple, I couldn't help but admire the action sequences. It was pretty funny when the girl ran off, leaving her lover to die, and Caroline said: "poor form, Ashlynn!" Stefan sawing open a vampire's head was also pretty great. And the disorienting lighting and flashing lights in the flashback to Penny's death added to the horror of the reveal.

When Caroline and Alaric end up at the Armory's base, Alaric starts geeking out at all these super rare historical artifacts. I just wanted to mention this part because Alaric is so me. If I were kidnapped and brought to a room full of cool old stuff, I'd probably be focusing on the history. Also, although Caroline and Alaric's relationship just does not work for me, I appreciated the conversation they had at the end where Caroline pointed out that Alaric's enthusiasm for a life of adventure proved that he wasn't fulfilled by their conventional family existence. Maybe this will lead to Alaric regaining his street cred as a total bad ass?

Bonnie. Even among all the stupidness of plot, Bonnie's character development over the past few seasons has been stellar. Probably the best thing about the show. We see from this episode that she still has that selfless heart to her, the one that made her such a pushover in earlier seasons. She calls Enzo back to her side, convinced that she won't live long enough to defeat all the vampires and win Rayna's sacrificial help. She comforts Enzo, telling him not to be sad, even though she's the one dying. And she's willing to die to stop the evil thing from being released from the Armory (God, what a stupid plot cul-de-sac). At the same time, she's not a pushover anymore. She forgives Damon just because she thinks she's going to die, not because she can really see past what he did to her, and when she learns that he made a deal with the Armory, she goes right back to being livid. She's pretty hardcore when she traps Alex and the others with the mysterious evil force, even if the existence of said evil force is dumb. (Another small detail - Damon says that Bonnie's blood is O-negative, which is just hilarious. That's the universal donor. Of course, Bonnie. Of course).

Enzo and Bonnie's relationship actually made me feel something this week. It was sweet to see him stay by her side and comfort her through what might have been her final days. And while Damon is trying to force her into helping the Armory, Enzo continually maintains that "Bonnie can make her own decisions." Enzo wants Bonnie to live, but not at the expense of Bonnie's sense of righteousness, and the safety of so many others. That right there proves to me that Enzo is more worthy of her than Damon.

Then we get the twist. Rayna sacrifices her life to imbue Bonnie with her spirit or soul or whatever. The only catch? Bonnie will now be the new Huntress, intent on destroying all vampires on the earth. When she wakes up, she's going to hate Enzo, Caroline, Stefan, Damon, and all other vampires around.

This twist wasn't exactly unpredictable, but I think it works really well. I thought this season's final few episodes were going to focus on Bonnie dying, but now they will be focusing on Bonnie trying to kill everyone, which in some ways is way more interesting. I'm loving all the focus on Bonnie, and since I already know Bonnie will be back for next season, I'm not even stressed about them killing her off. This will be an interesting way for us to explore Bonnie's relationships. Her hatred for Damon will continue on quite naturally from her current anger, but what will it be like when Caroline and Bonnie go toe to toe? What about Enzo? The possibilities are endless!

That's what I've got. I think the main take-away from this episode for me is that I'm actually really pissed at Damon. I was getting resentful of everybody hating on him, but this week I can kind of see everybody's point. The Armory is boring, Rayna was boring but at least she served the function of instigating a cool plot twist, Matt's story was pointless, Caroline and Alaric make me cringe. In all, not much to really enjoy here. Also wow. This is not rapid-fire. I write too much.

6/10