The Vampire Diaries: Hello Brother (8x01)

Huh. Okay. I enjoyed that.

Cons:

The plot thread I care about the least so far is the one with Alaric, Caroline, and the kids. In short, one of the Armory people from last season tries to kill the nanny and the kids, but Caroline shows up in time to stop it. Apparently this all has to do with the "thing" that Damon and Enzo let out of the Armory's lockup. While potentially interesting in how it relates to the main story, I still don't much care for Caroline the Family Gal. She's just not as compelling a character to me when she's focused on the kids. Also, her romance with Stefan is still pretty bland in comparison to what this show has had in the past.

Pros:

Alaric spends the episode with a team of scientists working in the Armory. It seems that he's been put in charge of it. In the cavern where Damon and Enzo were first taken over, Alaric and his team discover a secret entrance to a tunnel, leading to a room with all sorts of artifacts. We don't know where all of this is going, but a lot of cool stuff is being set up. I love the fact that Alaric gets to have this job, since it brings him back around to the history/architecture/mythology geek that he's always been at heart. It gives him a focus that he's been lacking during all the trials and tribulations of his love life. I can't wait to see where this goes.

The main plot focuses on Stefan and Bonnie, and their ongoing quest to find Damon and Enzo. (Alaric and Caroline are helping out too). First, we see what Enzo and Damon are up to. They are finding people with evil in their hearts and feeding them to some... thing inside a pool of water. Damon has flipped his humanity switch, but Enzo has not. Therefore, while they are both being compelled to do what this thing wishes, Enzo has more hangups about it than Damon does. Bonnie and Stefan track them down, but the two of them turn their loved ones away, threatening to kill Bonnie if they don't listen. Damon says some pretty horrible stuff to Stefan, about his life being over the second Stefan decided to take it away from him a century and a half ago. Bonnie is encouraged by the fact that Enzo seemed to be leaving her clues so that they could be found, but Stefan has reached a new low. He's not sure that there's any way to fix things this time.

In the end, Bonnie puts together Enzo's clues and deduces that what they're dealing with might be a siren. Damon and Enzo watch as a woman covered in blood emerges from the pool of water where they've been dumping their victims.

I really, really love the idea of Damon and Enzo being controlled, but to different degrees. Damon explains to Enzo, in ambiguous terms, that he has turned his humanity off in order to protect the things he cares (or cared) about. Basically, Enzo failing to do the same means that the siren can see in his mind how much Bonnie matters to him, and might use her against them. Turning off the humanity switch for altruistic reasons is such a complicated thing to do, but it's so Damon. And Enzo's refusal to give up, his determination to leave clues for Bonnie, really makes me feel for the two of them as a couple. I loved all of the allusions to The Odyssey. Enzo, rather gruesomely, leaves one of his victims tied up to a car with wax in her ear, just like the men on Odysseus' boat when they sailed through the siren's territory.

Bonnie and Stefan pairing up to find their loved ones was very effective. Bonnie started the episode feeling hopeless, while Stefan was forcing himself to think positive. By the end, they'd sort of flipped. Bonnie's priority is Enzo, while Stefan's priority is Damon, but they were really in this thing together. I'll be curious to see if there's ever an element of choice to their quest to get them back. Will Bonnie and Stefan turn on each other? Stefan's despair at Damon's cruel words really cut me to the quick. Stefan observed that Damon's said harsh stuff before, but this time it felt like maybe he'd never forgive his little brother. Ouch!

The biggest compliment I can give this episode is that it had a tight focus. Now that Jeremy, Matt, Elena, Jo, Tyler, etc. etc. are all out of the show, we've got a relatively small pool of characters to focus on. I'd like to keep it that way, if at all possible. I think this show succeeds when it narrows its focus.

Apparently, all of the titles of episodes for this final season are quotes from earlier in the show. Isn't that cool? This episode had the feel of earlier seasons of the show, in a sense. The cold open was clearly a reference to the pilot episode, as well. I dig it! The A.V. Club's review of this episode pointed out that this show has a unique situation going in to its final season. There are no overarching issues to wrap up. Nothing that's been stretched out since Season One. There's no final boss, no Big Bad that's been appearing through the years to torment our leads. Instead, it seems from this episode that we're symbolically tying this season to the earlier seasons of the show. If we can end with Damon and Stefan on solid footing, and at least the suggestion of Elena's return, then we should be good to go. (Although, please please don't kill off Bonnie so that Elena can come back sooner. Only a flash-forward is acceptable).

I guess that's it! Wow, I don't think I've ever been able to write such a concise review of The Vampire Diaries. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come!

8/10