The Vampire Diaries - An Eternity of Misery - Review

Wow, what an episode!  We learned Sybil's backstory and saw her character become a more nuanced and ever, ever, ever so slightly sympathetic villain.  Other happenings? Matt's comeback, Tyler's fate, and Alaric's revelations about the identity of a second siren that led to a neat bait-and-switch near the end of the hour.

"Who are you in the story?"  Much of the episode was taken up by an intense interrogation / confession scene between Stefan and Sybil.  I loved the way Sybil used her knowledge of Stefan and Damon's relationship to raise uncomfortable questions comparing her relationship with her own sister to the Salvatores' classic angst.  Stefan's reactions were wonderful.  He saw the validity of some of Sybil's points but held his ground, even after Sybil asked him repeatedly if he saw himself more as the sister from her story who tricked her sister into a life of misery or the victimized sibling.  Furthermore, given what Stefan and Damon have both done, is either of them simply the victim or the victimized in their relationship?  

As Sybil inquired, "Are you the victim, who tried for years not to feed on human blood, only for his selfish brother to blow into town and ruin it all? Or are you the monster who sealed his brother's fate the day you forced him to turn into a vampire, only to doom him to an eternity of misery because you were afraid of being alone?"

Stefan's response that he is both was perfect.  It's great to see such deep analysis of the characters coming right alongside strong development of the season's currently reigning baddie!

Speaking of Sybil's past, she explained that back in the day the day (the day the day), a psychic man named Cade was executed by his fellow villagers, vowing in the afterlife to take the souls of the wicked forever after in vengeance for this terrible injustice.  This, then, is TVD's version of Hell, (where Katherine went!  Where Katherine went!  Will we ever see her again, omg!  Calm down, Virginia!) and the place Georgie briefly experienced after her car accident.  But Cade doesn't work alone; he uses Sirens to lure and capture evil souls, and the Sirens feed off of the souls to remain young forever.

As a girl, Sybil was exiled from her village for being a psychic, washing up on a deserted island with another exiled girl who soon became her "sister" in everything but blood.  As the girls bonded, Sybil's newfound sister chose to shield her from certain hard truths about how they acquired their food, since Sybil couldn't stand the idea of it.  The other future Siren was luring sailors to a rocky death, then serving the poor guys up for dinner, with Sybil assuming the chow was culled from the sailor's rations.  Yes, trust issues for sure.  Hence, Sybil's parallel between her relationship with her sister and the more problematic stages of Defan's brotherly bond.

Where is Sybil's sister now?  That was the question.  As Sybil suggested to Stefan that her sister would always be there to help her, it became clear that we were leading up to that revelation.

Georgie, we hardly knew ye.  Needless to say, this part of the episode had a lot of highs and lows for me.  Alaric was led to believe by numerous clues that Georgie was the second siren, whereas I remained stubbornly suspicious of the otherwise personality-deprived Selene, who had no other function on the show than to seem like a baddie waiting to show her true colors.  Sure enough, it turned out that Selene is the true second siren and merely compelled Georgie to steal a book from Ric's house and trap him in that sensory- deprivation-is-the-only-escape cavern where poor Alaric was driven to desperate measures to get out (seriously!).  

Of course, scarcely had I processed my glee that Georgie was being honest about who she was, when Selene came along to murder my favorite new character (meh!) while blithering on about how Georgie can never be forgiven for causing her friend's death in the accident.  Cade and the Sirens have absolutely no concept of redemption (we have also heard Sybil claim that Stefan and Damon's souls are damned and there is no way they aren't going to Hell when they die), which in my opinion causes Cade and the Sirens' corruption and therefore the hypocrisy of their whole endeavor.  

So then we saw Georgie get dragged off to Hell just like Katherine back in Season 5, and it really makes me wonder if all the souls who actually could have been redeemed (for example, Georgie) are truly going to spend an eternity in Hell because Cade said so.  Surely this situation of Stefan and Damon being irreparably damned is a depressing concept to end the series on.  I hope there is a way to save their souls and that we see some of the possibly unfairly damned souls getting a better fate.  A lot of fascinating questions and long-dangled mythology issues are being unfurled here!

Matt's return and Tyler's fate.  Damon was off on a mission for Sybil, retrieving for her a family heirloom from a man named Peter Maxwell, who is, as we could probably foretell from Joel Gretsch's resemblance to Zach Roerig, Matt's long-lost dad.  Well, seems that Matt has reconnected with his father, just in time for Peter to find out in the most immediately apparent way that vampires exist -- being attacked by Damon.  What's the clueless-about-the-supernatural-till-this-moment Peter doing with an artifact valuable enough that Sybil needs it?  And what is Sybil going to do with it? 

Of course, we still needed an answer about what happened to Tyler after last week's cliffhanger, when Damon refused to take the incentive to break away from Sybil's control and viciously attacked his old frenemy. We got the big reveal once Damon sent Matt to where he'd left Tyler to bleed out in a car trunk: Tyler is no more.  On the one hand, at least this scene had one of the only genuinely compelling moments we've ever seen from Matt, as he broke down in horrified tears at the sight of his friend's corpse.  However, I find this an extremely underwhelming way for Tyler to die.  I do wonder if we'll see more characters who have been responsible for others' deaths, and are therefore possibly deemed "evil" by Cade and the Sirens being sent to Hell this season.  What happens to them if our TVD scoobies defeat Cade?  Hmm!

General observations:  I have to say that the disappointments in the episode, like Damon still being under Sybil's control, Tyler being dead, and Georgie getting killed, were justified overall by what an absolutely amazing installment of TVD this was.  The entire hour was a nonstop onslaught of suspense, complex and rewarding character development, and dark shocks that made for quite the emotional rollercoaster.  Great job so far, Season 8, but I wouldn't mind seeing a big and genuine win for our heroes very, very soon.

What did you think of this episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to catch an all-new The Vampire Diaries, Friday at 8/9c on The CW.