The Vampire Diaries - Do You Remember the First Time? - Review

This episode was definitely firing on all cylinders, from plenty of Damon and Elena romantic moments to rising Stefan and Caroline tensions and some awesome twists with the other characters like Bonnie, Jo, and Enzo.  I loved the whole thing and continue to be impressed with how well Season 6 is going.  It feels thematically fresh compared to the past couple of seasons, has given several characters a sort of reset, and keeps raising the stakes of the various plotlines so that one can't look away from the screen.

"I literally went through time and space to be with you."  Good heavens, this episode was jam-packed with swoon-inducing Damon and Elena moments.  This newest obstacle to their being together, her memory loss, has provided ample opportunities to revisit that feeling of undeniable attraction and bittersweet longing between the two that always makes their relationship so compelling.  

Damon was generally on a roll in this episode anyway, from yanking and plucking at the medical equipment in Alaric's hospital room to trying to re-woo Elena, with nary a one-liner left unsaid.  As for the sweepingly epic remarks on true love, those were around in spades, too, with Damon vowing that no matter how much pain he was in, he never would have given up his memories of Elena.  And, you know, some of his favorite memories include a dance at Miss Mystic Falls, a certain ice machine...and a previously unseen-by-viewers night in the rain (when Elena said, "promise me this is forever" - I die).

Although Elena, poor thing, egged on by the beguiling and untouchable fragments these memories posed as Damon recounted them, was willing to cross the damn border into Mystic Falls to try and uncompel herself, this seemed to make Damon draw back from their endeavor.  After all, the idea of Elena endangering herself just to get those memories back was enough to put him firmly back in Season 5 mode, saying things like "I love you enough to let you go."  Oh, no, not that emotional tug of war again!  But I think this storyline is taking us beyond the "I must be with you / You cannot be with me, I am evil!" push and pull of last year.  Instead, it poses some fascinating and very touching questions about the depths of love and if it can be taken back from beyond its own remembrance.  And as for Liam, who's just annoying as hell with his whole "something is weird about this Elena Gilbert" routine, I don't think he has much of a future with Elena anyway, since she was willing to risk death just for the chance to remember having been with Damon.  

Bonnie versus Kai - I knew that the situation with just Bonnie and Kai being left behind in 1994 was going to be awesomely fraught, as even having Damon there provided something of a buffer (mainly of sarcasm) between the two witches.  But now Bon Bon, tough, feisty, and indefatigable, is alone with a stone cold family-killing lunatic, and she is determined to prevent him from escaping.  Because she's amazing.  I absolutely adored the twist of having Bonnie hide her magic inside her bear, Ms. Cuddles.  Haha, Kai, for thinking you could use Ms. Damn Cuddles to try and worm your way into Bonnie's good graces.  Equally awesome was Damon's "aha" moment discovery of said bear back in the world of the living.  He knew immediately that Bonnie was still alive.  Now that Bonnie's magic is back in the real world, surely it can be used to help bring her back, too, right?  Who could possibly help with that?  Maybe someone who knows a little something herself about hiding her magic away?

Jo's family history, revealed!  Yup, speaking of hiding one's witchy mojo away, seems that Jo did just that some time ago to get a clean slate after some horrific goings-on with her family.  Later, she also revealed to Alaric that she has a scar from her brother removing her spleen.  Yep, all of you clever commenters who suspected that Jo was Kai's sister, you were quite right!  Fabulous connection, and I can't wait to see what happens when Jo and Kai are inevitably reunited.  Meanwhile, as Jo continued to grow on me with her sassy remarks and honestly expressed affection for Alaric, I also liked how Ric reciprocated her feelings and called them "a match."  There's something really pure and irresistibly cute about how happy these two seem to have found each other.

"My fingers were covered with blood and the touchscreen wouldn't work."  Enzo's been spending too much time tied up since he was captured by Tripp, but thankfully that situation was finally resolved as Enzo, Stefan, and Matt formed a bizarre team to deal with the problem of Mystic Falls' resident vampire hunter.  After a trade was arranged to return Tripp to his people in exchange for Liz's life, Enzo pulled a fast one by turning Tripp into a vampire secretly, so that he died upon flopping back down into Mystic Falls.  This was a rather darkly hilarious turn of events, confirming Enzo's apparent favorite hobby of turning people into vampires on the sly, and evidently putting an unexpectedly swift end to Tripp's shenanigans.  While Tripp's character was a bit unoriginal and repetitive, I was enjoying Colin Ferguson's performance and was surprised to see him go so soon.  I wonder if there will be any ramifications from his death, continuing the vampires-versus-humans issue he represented.

"She hates you because she doesn't hate you at all." Enzo was right on the money in recognizing Caroline's angsty romantic feelings for Stefan, which is beyond interesting, seeing as Enzo's clearly quite attracted to her himself.  In fact, that one look on Enzo's face when he heard Caroline's mom was in trouble and realized how she would feel about that and actually cared was kind of hot.  While Caroline said nothing to disprove Enzo's theory, she also declared to Stefan that the topic was never to be discussed again.  So of course, the millisecond things calmed down enough for them to have another heated debate about their friendship problems, Stefan wanted to know "why" Caroline had a "thing" for him and how he could have missed it.  Did he really "miss it" because his own feelings have been so confused and undefinable, or because, as Caroline suspects, he doesn't feel for her what she feels for him?  Stefan actually seemed to be somewhere between denying that he has no romantic feelings for her and not declaring himself either, almost as if he still isn't sure. 

Caroline's own explanation of how and why she had a thing for Stefan was pretty sweet, and we all noticed her extreme disdain and lack of comprehension of how Elena could choose Damon over Stefan back when that all happened.  It was neat to have her finally put the real reasons into words.

I don't know, as fun and exciting as these tense and unpredictable scenes are with Stefan and Caroline of late, I'm ready for Stefan to make a move, to admit his own feelings and actually do something other than standing there kind of dumbfounded by the entire situation.    And of course, Caroline's hyper-defensiveness is making it harder for him to go there.  Hmm.  I suspect we'll see some further strides made in this relationship soon, though.  I do love Caroline's way of putting things, such as saying that she has to hate Stefan because otherwise she has to hate herself for ruining their friendship.  What?  My head just exploded.  No wonder Stefan's intimidated.  Time to step up to the plate, though, man.

Elsewhere in the episode...Tyler and Liv are still adorable, but their puppy dog eyes were criticized by Luke, who warned that they might have to leave if summoned by the coven, and that invitation won't include Ty Ty.  Hrm, wasn't Luke totally shipping Lyler earlier this season?  

What did you think of this episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments!  And don't forget to catch an all-new The Vampire Diaries, Thursday at 8/7c on the CW.

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries and Beauty and the Beast for Spoiler TV. She enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @VMaeFontana

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