The Vampire Diaries: One Way or Another (7x18)

I don't really understand the point of this episode. Or indeed the point of this season. I feel like this entire season has become nothing but buildup without a conclusion. What do I mean by that? Well, let's get to discussing.

Cons:

The main plot focuses on Damon trying to get Stefan reunited with his body. He recruits Alaric to help him. They learn that the sociopathic serial killer in Stefan's body will only turn over the body if Damon delivers Rayna to him. If Damon does that, the killer will vacate Stefan's body, and, with Valerie's help, will enter another body instead. Meanwhile, Enzo needs Rayna to help him figure out how to save Bonnie from the pills with Rayna's blood that she's been taking to suppress her magic and hide from the Armory. Since Damon can't get to Rayna, he despairs at getting Stefan's body back. The killer in Stefan's body goes to track down the body that Stefan is currently in, hoping to kill him and get Damon off his back. Damon and Alaric show up in time to save Stefan, and Valerie manages to complete the transfer spell.

I have numerous complaints with this main plot. First of all, it was all resolved way too quickly! We barely got to see Paul Wesley play with the evil character. I was expecting a lot more to come out of the whole frat party setup, too. This episode seemed like a waste of time when you get right down to it... clearly the various freed vampire souls from the Phoenix Stone are going to continue to cause havoc, and that's going to be our focus moving forward. So why even have this brief detour of Stefan being in danger?

Stefan and Valerie break up in this episode, which I wholeheartedly approve of. But the plot device they use to set up this breakup is really weak. Valerie barely has the strength to return Stefan's soul to his body, and it nearly kills her. Stefan begs her not to make this sacrifice. Why? Well, Valerie reasons that it's because Stefan doesn't love Valerie in the same way that she loves him, and he felt guilty that she could be sacrificing her life for somebody who didn't love her. Okay... that was kind of weak. Also, why didn't Valerie die? She made a big fuss about how Gemini magic requires two witches, but she did it on her own and she seems to have survived.

Then there's the Alaric/Damon stuff. I was excited to see them talk about their relationship and their broken friendship and all that throughout the course of the episode. Instead we just get Alaric insisting over and over again that he's out of the game, and then he tells Damon at the end that all of the bad stuff that's ever happened to him has been Damon's fault, and that the last three years of his life have been so great because Damon wasn't around. If you read my review of last week, you'll see why I have an issue with this. Just like with Stefan saying that Damon is inherently selfish and never does anything for anybody but himself, I find it hard to swallow the idea that Damon is the source of everybody else's problems. I mean, really? Take a little bit of responsibility, Rick! This idea that Damon is some sort of negative force that ruins the lives around him is so damaging and gross. First Stefan and now Alaric have both stated this idea. And the thing that kills me is that they both have perfectly legitimate reasons to be angry with him, but instead of exploring those, we've got this idea that Damon is some sort of blight on the earth that ought to be eliminated. Not buying it.

Then you've got the Bonnie/Enzo thing. Basically, we learn that Bonnie is in the insane asylum so that she can get close to another former member of the Armory: Alex's sister. Apparently there's a vault at the Armory that only a Bennett witch can open, which is why the Armory has been hunting for Bonnie. She learns from Alex's sister that there's something terrible in the vault, but she doesn't get specifics. Bonnie has been taking the pills with Rayna's blood in them to suppress her magic and stop the Armory from finding her with a locator spell. Enzo, after learning from Rayna that there's no known cure, rushes to Bonnie and gives her the bad news that she's dying. He promises to do whatever it takes to save her.

I just... don't care about the Armory. Really. At all. The reason that Bonnie is in that asylum is weak as hell. And since I didn't even know she was being hunted by the Armory until just now, I'm not invested in the reasoning behind her taking those poisonous pills. Similarly, it's hard for me to care about Bonnie and Enzo's relationship when we've skipped all the buildup. I was excited to find out how these two people fell for each other, but now... we just get the end result without any of the journey. Lame!

Pros:

That being said, there were little elements here and there that were a lot of fun to watch. First of all, Paul Wesley did do a good job with the evil character, even though he didn't get a chance to milk it as much as I would have liked. When Damon fails to deliver Rayna to him, the killer vampire's response is the best: "this sense of disappointment must be what it feels like to actually have you for a brother." Ha! Even better, Rick hear's this and smiles. Poor Damon. But also, HA!

Even though the buildup was poorly done, I like the fact that Valerie breaks up with Stefan. Everybody watching this show knew that the relationship was merely a placeholder for Caroline and Stefan's powerful love. To see that Valerie knew that and was willing to step back was actually pretty sweet, even though I'm still mad about how selfish she was a few episodes back, when we find out she knew all along how to save Stefan and didn't tell him. Still, Valerie is a hard sell as a character. There are lots of reasons to dislike her. And despite all of those reasons, I quite enjoy her character.

Although I'm annoyed with Alaric for his attitude towards Damon, I did still appreciate his moments of humor in the episode, like when he shot the killer in Stefan's body and said: "I hate now good that felt." I miss bad-ass Alaric.

Damon spent this whole episode with some extra-strength sass going on. Kudos to Somerhalder for his performance, because I really got the sense that Damon was acting all snarky to cover the fact that he was terrified for Stefan, and feeling really guilty about everything to boot. There weren't any moments of overblown angst for him, but you could feel Damon's remorse motivating his every word. He felt terrible about Stefan's situation, obviously, but also about his relationship with Alaric going so wrong. He tried to apologize, stating quite plainly that he felt horrible for abandoning Ric and he shouldn't have done it. But Alaric wasn't having any of it. I liked seeing Damon recognize the wrongness of his actions, and I hope we can see more of that without devolving into blaming Damon for every bad thing ever.

Finally, let's talk about Bonnie slamming the door in Damon's face and making me SO HAPPY. See, unlike Alaric, who doesn't really have a legitimate reason for hating Damon, Bonnie's anger is so justified and so specific. She doesn't feel like Damon is responsible for all her woes. She doesn't blame him, for example, for this mess she's in with the Armory. She says it quite simply: Damon saw how much she didn't want him to leave, and he left anyway. He seems to care so very little for her, and she needs to move past caring about him. The moment when Damon shows up with flowers to apologize and Bonnie just looks at him and then... SLAM. Talk about intense! Unlike with Stefan and Alaric, Damon doesn't go the snarky Damon-esque route when he's trying to apologize to Bonnie. He is totally undone, standing at her doorstep with his heart in his hands, telling her how sorry he really is. Ouch. Bonnie's character development and her friendship with Damon has honestly been one of the only consistently good things about this show for the past two seasons. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

There you have it. An underwhelming episode if I've ever seen one. It looks like we'll be getting lots of time with Bonnie and Damon next week, which should make for a solid episode. Honestly I'm just ready to wrap up this Rayna and Armory nonsense. After such an exciting buildup to the flash-forward, I'm pretty disappointed with how it all shook out.

6.5/10