Okay, so... I really like this season, actually, but I cannot condone the utter stupidity of one big element in this episode.
Cons:
Tyler Lockwood came back for a very, very awkward final scene, and then Damon killed him. It was supposed to be the final act of depravity, the one thing that Damon could never come back from. It happens at the very end of the episode, proving that despite the gang's recent successes against Sybil the Siren, Damon is still fully under her control.
Okay... but nobody cares about Tyler. Nobody ever cared about Tyler, or at least I didn't. And we haven't seen him in such a long time that the impact from his death was pretty much nonexistent. It could have been more emotionally affecting if they had done the scene better, but it was way too... talk-y. Tyler tries to give Damon a pep talk, and encourages him to walk away and break free. He then tells Damon that if this is how he's meant to die, at least he hopes it will snap Damon out of his funk. Since when is Tyler a martyr? And isn't he a werewolf? I mean I know he can't transform whenever, but you would think he could have at least tried to bite Damon on the arm or something. I'm not sure how it all works, but he certainly didn't try very hard to get away. The whole thing was just strange, and did not have the impact it was meant to.
I'm going to start with the subplot with Alaric and Georgie. Basically, Georgie has a theory that the strange tool they found with the Hell symbol is a pitchfork, as in the devil's pitchfork. In a way, she was right... but not exactly. The twins end up playing with the tool, and they drop it. It makes a loud, vibrating sound, and Alaric realizes: it's a tuning fork. A pitch fork of a different sort. He takes the tuning fork and rushes off to incapacitate Sybil.
Meanwhile, Caroline and Bonnie are starting to plan for Caroline's wedding. Sybil, who has just learned about Bonnie, sends Damon to kill her. When Damon shows up, Bonnie and Caroline manage to incapacitate him and escape. Sybil then learns from Enzo that Damon and Bonnie have a past. Sybil gets in to Damon's mind and messes with his memories of Bonnie, just like she's messed with his memories of Elena.
Now here's where things get interesting - Sybil decides that instead of having Damon go after Bonnie again, she's going to make Damon and Enzo fight to the death. She decides to give Bonnie a choice. If she picks one of them to live, then Sybil will kill the other. If not, the two will fight, and it'll be a tossup to see who gets away. Damon asks Stefan for help in fighting Enzo, but Stefan instead tries to stop them both from hurting each other. When it comes down to it, though, Stefan takes Damon's side. Caroline then shows up and stops Stefan from hurting Enzo. She promised Bonnie that she'd defend him. Damon gets the upper hand and nearly kills Enzo, but Bonnie shows up and she makes her choice: she chooses Enzo. Sybil then goes back on her promise, saying that she'll kill Bonnie unless Enzo flips his humanity switch. Enzo does, and then Sybil breaks her promise again, sending Damon to kill Bonnie.
Luckily, this is when Alaric swoops in and hits Damon with his car. He then uses the tuning fork, which incapacitates Sybil temporarily. Georgie, who followed Alaric unbeknownst to him, watches as the vampires do their thing, and she's thoroughly weirded out. The good guys get Sybil locked up, while Damon takes off to go kill Tyler.
The stakes (haha) this season have been really high. I think I mentioned in my review for the first episode of the season that this show has a challenging task for its final moments. There's no overarching A-plot to wrap up. Just... character stuff. And somehow they've managed to find a villain and a storyline that highlights the various character stuff that needs to be resolved. Bonnie deserves her happy ending. Damon deserves to break free of the darkness within. Caroline deserves an approximation of the normal life she's always wanted. Stefan deserves to get his brother back. Alaric deserves to get back to doing what he loves. All of these characters are poised to lose the things they need the most, which will make it all the more satisfying if and when they manage to get those things in the end.
The Siren is actually a really cool idea for a villain. I love the stuff with the pitch fork. I assumed it was a pitchfork like the Hell kind, just like Georgie did. But the reveal of it being a tuning fork seems to fit in so well with the idea of the Siren's powers. She controls people using sound. And she can be controlled using sound. Awesome concept! Also, I liked that Alaric got to be a bit of a bad ass, solving the mystery and rushing up just in time to save Bonnie from Damon. I'm also glad that Georgie will soon be in on the secret, since it's unrealistic that Alaric could have kept the truth from her for very long, anyway.
Bonnie was the real focus of this episode, and I adore that. She deserves the kind of attention she's finally receiving. Sybil was very astute in noticing that Bonnie is a sticking point for both Damon and Enzo. Neither one of them can give in fully to Sybil, due at least in part to Bonnie. There's something hilarious and relatable, too, about the fact that Sybil's quest for control over Damon and Enzo isn't about world domination or even personal glory. It's literally just a petty jealousy thing. She likes controlling men. She doesn't like it when she can't.
Bonnie's choice of Enzo was inevitable, but still really heartbreaking. You know the part that got me the most? When Bonnie says that she chooses Enzo, Damon looks totally crushed. He begs Bonnie not to do this to him. Ostensibly, this is because Damon no longer cares about anything but staying alive and avoiding the Hell he knows is waiting for him. But Damon seemed personally betrayed by Bonnie's decision. Despite the fact that Sybil has been messing with Damon's positive associations with Bonnie, he still seemed to understand how much she once meant to him. I mean, ouch.
The fight scene between Damon and Enzo, I should mention, was really freakin' cool. Neither one of them necessarily wants to be doing this. While Damon has been sans-humanity for a while now, he's still aware of the people he cares for. And Enzo has no real wish to kill Damon, either. Stefan playing referee was really cool, too. I love that Damon brought him along because he assumed that Stefan would automatically be loyal to him, while Stefan was trying so desperately to save everybody.
Bonnie and Caroline got a lot of great character moments. Caroline is such a good friend, and we're seeing the continuation of last week, where Caroline felt guilty for being so happy and settled in her own life while Bonnie was going through such terrible hardship. Bonnie puts on a happy face to celebrate Caroline's engagement, and indeed she really is happy for her best friend. The fact that Caroline would face off against Damon and Stefan to protect Enzo is just amazing. Obviously, everybody involved wanted the same outcome: for them all to walk away alive. But at the end of the day, if forced to choose, Stefan would choose Damon. Bonnie knows that without her powers, she can't protect Enzo and back him up the way that Stefan can with Damon. So... cue Caroline taking Enzo's side. That was a lovely moment of tension between these two sides.
The most powerful scene in the whole episode, though, comes towards the end, as Bonnie and Stefan look in at the locked room where they've locked Sybil. Stefan asks Bonnie if she needs any help with getting Enzo secured, and she testily tells him she'll be fine. She then asks him if he would have chosen Damon, if it were up to him. Stefan says yes. Even though, as Bonnie points out, Enzo is the one who has been fighting Sybil. Enzo is the one who has risked his life to help them. Still, Stefan would choose Damon every time.
It wasn't really fair or reasonable of Bonnie to judge Stefan for this. After all, Damon is his brother. Enzo is barely even his friend. But it made so much sense for Bonnie to be angry and upset. And you know what, after all of these years, I'm so here for Bonnie standing up for how she feels. She doesn't need to be understanding. She doesn't need to be neutral.
Of course, I love the fact that Stefan, who seems to believe that Damon really is gone, is still unwilling to give up hope. He comes when his brother calls, and he would have killed Enzo to save Damon. Sybil knows it, too. Just as she determines that Bonnie can't live without Enzo, she says that it's clear that Stefan can't live without Damon, either. Aw, yeah. Codependency. My favorite trait in fictional characters.
One last little aspect to mention: Alaric and Stefan end up grabbing a drink together, and Alaric congratulates Stefan on his engagement. Alaric has said he's "fine" with the whole thing, but this was his first time letting Stefan know he was happy for him. In addition to Ric and Stefan's shared connection to Caroline, there's the fact that they both love Damon. As Ric says, he's never had a brother before, but Damon was the closest thing he had. He believes that if Stefan could pull him back from the brink before, he can do it again.
This episode was great from start to finish, except for the fact that Tyler's death was tacked on awkwardly to the end. It didn't work for me at all, and it was a bummer to end such an otherwise successful episode on such a weird and oddly disingenuous scene. Still, the plot and the character work this season has earned my trust, and I'm actually willing to believe this show can go out on a high (relatively speaking) note. Now that the gang has captured Sybil, can they start to get some answers?
7.5/10
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