The Vampire Diaries - Because - Review

While last week's episode was a mixed bag for me, "Because" was actually a step down.  "I Could Never Love Like That" boasted some solid Lily and Enzo backstory, the reveal of the Heretics, and a pretty incredible scene of Stefan turning his humanity back on, alongside the maudlin predictability of the return of the cure and its impact on Damon and Elena.  "Because," on the other hand, felt like not only an in-betweener type of episode bereft of the tight plotting and many twists we've come to expect from TVD, but it was also actually quite depressing.  By the end of the episode, after watching yet more Damon and Elena angst interspersed with Caroline angst and the ever-painful variety known as Bonnie angst, frankly I was about angsted out and left feeling kind of numb while wishing more actually happened in this episode.  But ever the optimist, I'm hopeful that things are going to pick up both in mood and pacing in the remaining episodes of Season 6, with more thrills, romance, and humor to balance the inevitable sadness of what's to come.

"Oh, look at that! St. Stefan has a plan. Let me guess, whoever's holding the kitten gets to talk about their feelings?"  This part of the episode did provide some of the best fun early on, what with Damon tossing one-liners left and right and surprising Caroline at the door of her Bed and Breakfast room when she was expecting to snack on the staff.  But despite the awesome premise of Stefan fooling Caroline into thinking he was still a cold, emotionless ripper, Stefan turned out to be pretty terrible at keeping up the farce (though really, who could have predicted Caroline feeling quite so frisky while pasty, weakening, and deprived of blood?).  
                                     
After some utterly heartbreaking developments involving a last letter that Liz sent to Caroline, which Stefan burns in an ill-fated attempt to keep his disguise up, Caroline did finally let herself fall into a memory offered by Stefan.  Getting a glimpse of Liz again warmly encouraging Stefan to be there for her daughter (and Stefan's obvious affection for Caroline) after her demise was enough to trigger Caroline's desire to see and interact with her mother one more time.  The tragedy of not being able to connect with Liz caused Caroline to wake up to herself, her feelings, and all that she's done since flipping her switch off.  While not anywhere near as interesting as Stefan's own return to humanity last week, this was surely a potently emotional and devastating scene.  Maybe we've just been a little too inundated with emotions being turned off and on lately, because Caroline's return to the light didn't feel as effective to me as it should have somehow.  Now that she has to deal with the guilt of her crimes and the grief for Liz from which she ran, we should at least be in for an intriguing journey for Caroline, the question being how much she will be able to accept help from Stefan due to their complicated relationship and the role he played in her humanity-free misadventures.

"It's not about what happens if you don't give Elena the cure. You're scared about what happens if you do."  As you can already tell, my patience with the cure storyline is at a very low ebb, but I don't want to keep reiterating that ad nauseam...though this episode certainly took its sweet time drilling the same tired point home repeatedly.  Elena longs for a human life with children and family, one where she doesn't have to periodically relocate to conceal her immortality.  But she also wants a life with Damon.  Meanwhile, Damon was torn between doing "the right thing" by telling her about the cure, or side-stepping the issue so he can be with her despite her unfulfilled longings for the trappings of humanity.  Into this mix, throw Bonnie and Lily, each of whom had their own ideas about disposing of or keeping the cure.  And of course, even Jo and Alaric's well-earned happiness was just a reminder to Elena of what she thought she could never have, so we didn't get to enjoy the Jalaric cuteness all that much either.

I didn't like that all we got of Bonnie, after not having her at all in the previous episode, was sadness and anger, along with more problems in her still-new friendship with Damon (if she accuses him of not really caring about her one more time!  Meh!).  How about a pleasant Bamon scene sometime soon!  What I did enjoy was Bonnie standing up for herself again and putting herself first,  pointing out that to allow the Heretics to return for any reason is just crazy.  That's true, even though I was totally hoping the Heretics (and Kai!) would already be around to cause mischief in this episode.  I can't wait to see that.

Once Lily arranged for Elena to learn of the cure, I was glad that at least Elena didn't overreact, and understood Damon's reasons for holding it back from her.  Yet what is this development with Damon suggesting they both take the cure?  Can you split the cure?  I'm half-intrigued, but still quite wary of where this is going.

Enzo and Lily: This was, oddly, probably the best part of the episode for me, though I still wanted more to happen here than we ultimately got.  I was expecting to get some huge reveal about the past connection between Enzo and Lily at the end of the hour, but instead we just got Lily slipping back into her Ripper ways and Enzo comforting her.  This gives a frightening and poignant impression of just how isolated and lost both of these vampires are, that they need and understand each other so clearly in this random, horrific moment.  I really love the combination of refined, Edwardian lady and bloodthirsty killer that Lily brings to the show, and the unpredictability of her nature was a welcome contrast to how blasé events were elsewhere.  I hope we get to see more of her interacting with Stefan and Damon soon, as there is so much left unresolved between them.  On another note, have we seen the last of Sarah?  I doubt it and also hope not, as I was starting to like her and her relationship with Enzo.

What did you think of this episode, and what do you want to see happen in the remaining episodes of Season 6?  Share your thoughts in the comments!  And be sure 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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