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Okay, so the title of this episode could have easily been "Really, Tyler?!" but we'll get to that in a bit. While the somewhat newly relevant former werewolf grappled with a violent incident that could have tossed him right back to his wolfy persona, Elena opted out of remembering her passion for Damon so she could keep flirting with Liam at a "fun" corn maze party. In all fairness, it did sound fun at first...aside from the avoidance of her true feelings and all. And Stefan continued to conduct his own manner of avoidance, mainly by evading responsibility for Ivy's vampiric state and foisting her upon a frustrated Caroline. But by the end of the episode, I honestly could have hugged Stefan myself. Bonnie made a major sacrifice, Damon slurped some Zima, and Kai revealed a little more about his conundrum. Meanwhile, Alaric and Jo's burgeoning romance hit a few speed bumps before mysteriously recovering. Let's review and discuss!
I'm not sure it works that way, Elena. Happy-go-lucky Elena wants to keep riding that college girl, flirty, party-hopping high, so she's eager to take her own past self's advice and forget that whole romance with Damon. Congratulations, Liam, you're the lucky recipient of Elena's sassy one-liners and smooches, but how much longer can you really remain clueless of Elena's true nature while she's relying more on vamp skillz than medical ones to save people on the brink of death? I did enjoy Alaric using his historical ghost lecture to vaguely (to everyone except Elena) mention Damon's love for his brother's girl, especially since I suspect it had more to do with not letting Elena forget Damon than joking about his dead bestie's life choices.
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Everyone's favorite occult professor. I avidly look forward to Alaric's parts of the episode because he was so missed from the show, and having him back is such a treat. This week, fresh off of smacking some verbal sense into Jeremy, Ric was onto confronting Stefan about trying to forget Damon, which is particularly offensive to Alaric given that Damon was his best friend (be still my Damon/Alaric bromance loving heart when Ric said that!). Even though it's getting a little repetitive to have Stefan called out for his attempts to move on by various characters, this time it rang especially apt and badass...although Alaric might be a bit guilty/hypocritical after taking Elena's memories away and helping her to forget Damon.
Later, after abandoning a perfectly good plan to drink 'n grade, Alaric went to the corn maze party and was promptly set up with Jo thanks to Elena's well-laid plans. I basically want to like Jo more than I've been able to yet, but that's probably because this new relationship is going so fast that we've hardly had a chance to get to know Jo or see the development of true feelings with her and Ric. Le sigh, this issue continued near the end of the episode, with Jo declaring that she feels she was meant to meet Alaric and giving a speech about all of his amazing qualities, only for Ric to reciprocate by listing her own attributes back and declaring that he'd love to emotionally invest in her concept of destiny, if he didn't have so many problems right now. Um, you guys just met a few episodes ago, but otherwise it's pretty cute. Most interestingly, Jo was unfazed by Alaric's attempt to compel her to dislike him, and instead planted one on him, revealing that she has common sense as well as either vervain or supernatural abilities. Or, I've also seen some theories online that Alaric's power to compel might be running out after what he did for Elena...is that even possible? Shouldn't his quasi-Original powers be too strong for that?
Oh, Ty Ty. Ugh. I generally think that Season 6 is improving Tyler's character, but it was hard to get past the frustration of seeing him read a text while driving, not only for his lack of basic common sense, but also since he knows that anyone he kills will activate his werewolf curse. Wouldn't one be extra vigilant about avoiding something they should already not be doing? Anyway, I guess we always knew Tyler wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree, so it's somewhat believable, if disappointing, that his attention lapse led him to hit the dude recently bitten by Ivy. This accident then led Tyler to crash right through the corn maze party, leaving victims all around. While the incident that set off the violent domino effect was irritating, it was a strong twist to have a disaster like this occur as Tyler panicked over potentially becoming a werewolf again, Liv rushed to help, and Elena (with Liam) tried to help those injured. Liv's move to smother Tyler's victim so that he technically wouldn't be the killer was intense and furthered the growing bond between the two characters, as did the quietly poignant hand-holding scene between them near the end of the episode.
Homeward bound: Still remaining as close-lipped as possible about the details, Kai led Damon and Bonnie to create the correct circumstances for the spell they needed in the woods. However, after ascertaining that they didn't need Kai to get back, since the spell most importantly required a Bennett witch (that crafty Grams! How did she know about this place?), Bonnie swiftly turned Kai into a "douchekabob." Shortly thereafter, Bon Bon was right on the verge of successfully transporting herself and Damon home when they were rudely interrupted in the midst of some sweet bonding (there are no longer about a billion other people Bonnie would rather be with) by a still-alive Kai. Turns out that he can't exactly be killed in the land o' 1994, inconveniently enough. The good news is that since Kai can't die, it's likely that Bonnie can't either, so while she couldn't get it together fast enough to leave with Damon, she should still be intact the next time we see her. The question is, after her sacrifice to send him home, will Damon be able to help Bonnie from the land of the living, or will she have to use her cunning and witchy skills to escape herself?
Damon's return happened to coincide with Stefan's would-be soliloquy to his supposedly dead brother in the family crypt. Finally, Stefan let his emotions flow and explained aloud his painful struggle to recover from Damon's loss. But as he tossed a bottle of bourbon woefully, it was caught by none other than Damon himself, and thus commenced one of the best scenes between the Salvatore brothers so far. Their happiness and relief at being reunited was touching, as was their hug. After Stefan had been repressing so much of his true feelings of late, it was so great to see him just let it out, and then have the source of that pain taken away all in one fell swoop.
What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments! And don't forget to watch an all-new The Vampire Diaries on Thursday, November 6 at 8/7c on The CW.
About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana
