This was an episode full of shocking moments, delving a little further into the crazy events of the "3 years from now" sequences while dealing with the fallout of Oscar's demise and even handling a little closure regarding Elena. Let's review and discuss!
This week's flash forward: For me, this was the most shocking one of these scenes yet. The surprise was not necessarily that Alaric has twin little girls, raising the question of who's the mama and what is his life like now, though that is certainly thought-provoking. No, the real surprise was to see Ric and Damon so clearly filled with animosity towards each other, with Alaric shielding his daughters from Damon. What in the world happened to drive a wedge between these best friends? I found this scene just as sad as it was disturbing, but most of all, suspenseful! I am absolutely dying to get some answers.
The Phoenix Stone had a field day in this episode, with the handy MacGuffin furnishing two resurrections. First, the Damon-Bonnie-Alaric dream team schemed to bring Oscar back in order to finish their plan of leveraging the prodigal Heretic to get Lily to return Elena. Oscar came back feral at first and started feeding on anything in sight. Yet once back under Lily's wing, he seemed ready to return to normal; time will tell. So what will happen now that Jo has also been brought back by the stone? I have to suspect that Oscar's potential well-being may be related to the fact that he was already dead, being a vampire, when he was resurrected by the Phoenix gem. So if Jo was really dead dead, her soul "at peace" as Bonnie suspected, what will she be like now? I'm worried for her and for poor Ric, as getting the real Jo back among the living surely won't be so simple and easy.
It really was adorable to see Caroline typically obsessing about Stefan potentially still having feelings for Valerie, and his characteristically level headed and sweet manner of showing her that he is only interested in her. While Stefan clearly is committed to his relationship with Caroline, mentioning the immense amount of history the two have compiled in their time together and implying the deep emotions that come with that, the unresolved nature of his bond with Valerie is bound to cause complications down the line. Stefan still doesn't know that he was almost a father, or the real reasons why Valerie stood him up, so we'll see how he reacts to these revelations. While Steroline is probably rock solid this season, Valerie brings an intriguing twist to the proceedings, and I do feel for her ordeal. I also liked Nora mentioning that Valerie was the wrong person to cross, showing that while there's no love lost between Valerie and Nora / Mary Louise, they also wouldn't want to mess with their imposing fellow Heretic.
Enzo and Valerie come to an understanding: Enzo used his detective skills and the fact that he has nothing else to do in order to find out that Valerie was being sketchy about her whereabouts the night of Oscar's disappearance. But once Valerie confided in him about her need to prevent Julian's return, Enzo was interested in helping her accomplish this, since he's smitten with Lily himself. While this isn't the most fascinating idea of something to do with Enzo's character, and while it needs a lot more development to gel (like more scenes between him and Lily to give depth to their relationship so we can buy into the emotions), it's better than the meandering, weird vendetta subplot he was mired in last season. Plus, Enzo and Valerie are rather interesting together.
Elsewhere in the episode: I loved the Weekend at Bernies-esque bit with Stefan and Damon lugging around Oscar's dead body, as well as the ridiculous and doomed Mystic Falls ghost tour bus that lent a wonderful Halloweeny feel to the episode.
What did you think of this episode? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to catch an all-new The Vampire Diaries, next Thursday at 8/7c on the CW.
