The Vampire Diaries - The Day I Tried to Live - Review

We've had two almost thoroughly excellent TVD episodes in a row now, and it's an exciting trend I hope will continue.  While my only caveat is the weak and pointless Enzo storyline, when it comes to the main plots of the show, such as Bonnie's intense and admirable struggle, Kai's strange new issues, or the romantic overtones with Stefan and Caroline as well as Damon and Elena, I have zero complaints.  Let's review and discuss!

"I like being a sociopath, ya know? I'm not burned by things like guilt or love."  I was surprised by the quick, almost nonchalant way that the effect of the merge on Kai was explored.  After killing his brother during their merge last week, Kai is now saddled with pesky and persistent urges from Luke's better nature.  Despite his newfound immense power, Kai was practically pacing the floor worrying about what he'd done to his sisters and even feeling bad for Bonnie when Damon described her ordeal.  On the one hand, this humorous and brisk unveiling of Kai's new inner struggle might be poking a few holes in our perception of his threat level.  I can't expect him to go much longer falling prey to feelings like sympathy or guilt, not if he's going to keep being this season's big bad.  On the other hand, however, this turn of events was both unstoppably hilarious in its perverse absurdity and pretty darn helpful, since we really needed the characters to get a new shot at saving Bonnie (without Kai actively working to stop her from being rescued from 1994-land). 

Kai worked out a spell that let him visit Bonnie in the prison world, along with Damon, Elena, and Jeremy, but they appeared as ghostly figures invisible to Bonnie.  That wasn't doing much good, since Bon Bon was drinking The Salvatore's Oldest Bourbon and getting ready to commit suicide (!!).  After a failed first attempt to get through to Bonnie and instill some hope (plus Damon's brainstorm about a magical source in Novia Scotia that could hold the key to Bonnie's freedom), Jeremy was able to go back later right as Bonnie was huddled in the garage with the engine running, seconds from death.  Kat Graham's performance was lovely and heartbreaking as Bonnie recorded a video describing the reasons why she could no longer bear to live in the prison world.  Luckily, she happened to remember that Grams told her to stay strong, which was enough to make her resolve to survive despite her suffering.  But since Bonnie was already weakened by then, she needed an assist rather desperately.  Thank goodness that Jeremy was miraculously able to open the garage door.  In this excruciatingly suspenseful and highly emotional scene, Jeremy probably had his single most useful and significant moment in...well...maybe ever.  While I've always found him a problematic character, it's nice to see Jeremy going out on a high note since he'll soon be off to art school (which still can't happen soon enough for moi...haha).

I will admit that as the end of the episode loomed and Bonnie clearly wasn't getting out this week, again, it was a bit frustrating.  However, seeing her drive off with a new sense of purpose was certainly heartening.

Ms. Cuddles, my favorite minor character on the show.  For real.  Ms. Cuddles is such a wonderful and funny plot device, and never more so than in this episode, where Caroline's feverish attempt to dig up the original version of the bear (buried years ago during a childhood spat with Bonnie) brought her even closer to Stefan.  After all of her turmoil last week, and despite her ongoing sadness over Liz's impending demise, it was delightful to see Caroline get a minute to breathe and come to peace with how she feels.  Plus, the scene out in the woods, with Stefan mocking Caroline as she searched for the lost toy, was my favorite of the "Steroline" interactions we've seen this season.  I loved Stefan's laid-back, careless attitude, put on to push Caroline to confront her true feelings of anger and helplessness, and even to encourage her to take those emotions out on him a little if that's what it would take to make her feel better.  Their silly scuffle and subsequent fall to the ground beside each other felt like a much-deserved respite from all of their woes, and I don't know if we've ever seen Stefan so relaxed and open with another character, which is especially striking after how closed off he started the season.  Also, Caroline's sarcastic quip that maybe picking fights in a bar would be a better way to spend her time, referencing Stefan's behavior earlier in the season, was completely hilarious.  The slow burn of their interactions has gone from feeling slightly sluggish and directionless to quite poignant and charming, and I can't wait to see what happens next with these two.

"So was Kai right about me? By turning into a vampire, I completely changed?"  Even though it sometimes defies belief that the writers can still find elements of the Damon/Elena relationship that haven't recently been completely conversationally overanalyzed in yet another "can we really make this work?" crossroads situation...I still find these two so irresistibly fun to watch together that it doesn't bother me.  This time, some of Kai's random barbed comments prompted Elena to wonder if she would have chosen Damon had she not turned into a vampire.  Damon feels that she never would have picked him over Stefan if she had remained human, but ultimately Elena decided that this question doesn't matter.  After all, everything that happens keeps bringing Elena back to Damon, and that's more meaningful than all the bumps in the road and unknowable variables.  Now that "Delena" have fallen back into bed and blissful romance, I think they might have officially run out of excuses to angst out over each other for the time being.  This is a good thing, since we need them on task to deal with Kai's undoubtable future mischief and any help that Bonnie may still need!

Elsewhere in the episode...Liv was so overcome by grief over losing her twin that she set out to kill Kai, even though it would also kill every other coven member, herself included.  Tyler was typically both common sensical and kind of ridiculous as he strived to stop her, but I can understand his reasoning at storming out on her near the end of the episode.  Liv is going to need to find a better way to deal with her pain than that.  Meanwhile, Enzo stalked Sarah at college with Matt in tow, forcing Matt to flirt with and seek help from Sarah so that he could assess her character.  Now that Enzo has discovered Sarah's sweet nature, he is even more determined to enter her life so that he can twist her goodness and destroy her before making her beg to become a vampire, all out of spite towards Stefan (the depth of which has yet to be made believable or understandable).  Ugh.  This storyline is moving slowly and unsurely.  The one silver lining that I see here is that Sarah actually is rather likable, and it could prove intriguing to see her square off against Enzo in a battle of wits and morality.  Plus, if there's any chance this could unearth a little of Enzo's nearly-unfindable capacity for good and humanity, I'd be on board for exploring that.  

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 8/9c 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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