The Vampire Diaries: An Eternity of Misery (8x04)

So... we've gotten the Siren backstory. I'm liking it okay, but all in all this episode felt a bit filler-ish, and it made a few decidedly unbalanced decisions.

Cons:

This show used to be really good at surprises and fake-outs. Remember when Katherine first showed up, and kissed Damon, and there was the reveal that it wasn't Elena? Aw man. Good stuff. This week, we learn that Sybil the Siren has a sister. And then we learn that it's Seline, Alaric and Caroline's nanny. This comes completely out of left field, because we hadn't been told that there might be a secret coming up. The fact that Sybil has a sister wasn't built up in any way until this episode. And then they did this charmingly ineffective fake-out, where we think that Georgie is the second siren, but it turns out that Seline is controlling her. I'm totally cool with the hot nanny being a secret baddie, and I'm totally cool with the concept of a second Siren... but I'm not totally cool with their execution of said "twist."

To add insult to injury, Seline finishes off her great big reveal as a villain by killing Georgie, who is then dragged to Hell. Or something. Georgie wasn't this show's most interesting or innovative character or anything, but why spend time building her up for half a second, only to kill her off? What is it with this season and its inability to effectively use character deaths? What a waste of a potentially interesting character.

Also, this episode was a bit too talk-y. I didn't mind the backstory about Sybil and Seline, but relied on too much exposition, and had an all-too-predictable twist. Once again, what is with this show's inability to pull off a good twist nowadays? Basically, there are two women, one of whom has been living stranded on an island for some time. The other girl is banished there by her village. The island girl purposefully lures ships to the shore with her psychic abilities, and feeds human flesh, unbeknownst, to her "sister." The twist here is that Sybil was the innocent one, not the evil one. Seline is apparently the sister who made her other sister into a monster. There was nothing particularly surprising about this supposed fake-out. I guessed all along that Sybil was the "good" sister, and that Seline was even worse. I wish they hadn't framed it as some big twist, because otherwise I found the backstory pretty compelling.

Pros:

We also meet the devil, or an agent of the devil, named Arcadius (Cade). Apparently he's the one who, years ago, made Seline and Sybil immortal as long as they fed on the flesh of the wicked and sent them down to Hell for the Devil himself.  Despite how potentially hokey this sounds, I actually really like it. I mentioned that the "gotcha" element to Seline being the second Siren was a little tiresome, but the fact of her being a Siren is pretty awesome. And the fact that we've now established an actual Hell is similarly compelling. I mean, we already know there's "another side," and several of our characters have spent time here. If there's that kind of an afterlife, why not the traditional Hellfire kind too? The reason this is so compelling is that pretty much every one of our main characters should be going there. They've all committed terrible acts. If Georgie, whose biggest sin was accidentally killing her friend in a car accident, has to go to Hell, then Stefan and Damon are most definitely doomed. Certainly ups the stakes, doesn't it?

And hey - what does Seline want with the twins? It seems clear that she's not posing as a nanny for no reason, and clearly something is up with the twins. They're magical sisters, just like Seline and Sybil... what could be happening with that? I'm anxious to find out.

Stefan and Sybil got the bulk of the exposition stuff. One of the more compelling aspects here was Sybil asking Stefan the question: which of the two sisters is he? Is he the victim, the one who is forced into a baser part of his nature by his brother's incessant presence in his life? Or is he the monster who turned his brother into a creature of darkness and cannibalism all because he was afraid of being alone?

Eventually, Stefan cops to being both. This might not be the most original or subtle of parallels, but what I love about it is that it's going to force Stefan and Damon to come out the other side of this whole mess on way better footing. Sure, things have been good-ish between them for a while. They've been on the same side, even through all the drama. But there are still underlying issues there, and if Sybil and Seline's story can force these two to work through them, then I am all for it. Also, I'm loving Stefan's single-minded attitude here. He's not worried about anything but saving Damon.

And then there's the subplot. What has Damon been up to? Well, despite the fact that Sybil is locked up and at the mercy of the tuning fork, Damon still feels compelled to please her. He's after another magical McGuffin, and knows where he'll find it. He tracks down a mechanic and demands to be given a family heirloom that he knows Sybil would want. Just as he attacks this guy, Matt Donovan shows up. Turns out this random guy is Matt's long lost father. Matt knocks Damon out with a shot to the head, and then feeds his wounded father some of Damon's blood to heal him. He then sends his father outside to wait, and ties Damon up, ready to torture him for information about why he's after his father's stuff. Damon gets out of said torture by telling Matt that he attacked Tyler Lockwood, and that if he doesn't hurry, Tyler will die. Matt rushes off to find Tyler. He and his father discover Tyler's dead body in the back of his car. Matt collapses, devastated.

Okay, so remember in last week's review when I said that nobody really cares about Tyler Lockwood? Well... Matt Donovan does. And do you know who cares about Matt Donovan? I do. Suddenly, through second-hand grieving, Tyler's death has become super depressing. I love how they did it, too. The buildup with Matt's father, who kept mentioning his son... and then bam! Matt was there. I loved Damon's tone of voice when he said "Donovan," like he was exasperated by a little kid getting in the way of his plans. And then Damon got Matt's hopes up, talking about Tyler being injured but maybe not-yet-dead. The look of grief, the sobs, the collapsing to the ground... ouch. That hit me right in the heart. I'm devastated that Matt, a guy who has already lost so much because of Mystic Falls, has now lost his best friend as well.

I'm not as interested in Matt's long-lost father, and what the weird object Damon found has to do with the Sirens. But I could be persuaded to become interested, so there's that. In all, this plot thread served to solidify Damon's unceasing commitment to Sybil, and it also served to make Tyler's death a real blow.

How is Damon ever going to claw his way back from this one? Is he destined to go to Hell right along with poor Georgie? I'm eagerly awaiting some answers.

7/10