The Vampire Diaries - You Decided That I Was Worth Saving - Review

Oh Sybil, I am so done with you!  The evil siren's latest actions were entirely loathsome, despicable, and otherwise obnoxious...which is clearly the point, as watching our heroes face off against a formidable and nearly unstoppable baddie is incredibly suspenseful.  Let's talk about Sybil's continued reign of terror, the fall-out for the main characters, Alaric and Georgie's discovery about the villain's potential weakness, and of course, that ending.

Applesauce penguin, brother.  Sybil decided that the only way to get Damon and Enzo under her control completely would be to target Bonnie, the woman they both care deeply for, as her latest victim.  However, she added an extra maniacal twist by forcing Bonnie to choose either Damon or Enzo to die, or watch them fight to the death after she inserted that lovely idea into both of the mind-controlled vamps' minds.  Bonnie and Caroline's series of verbal barbs at Sybil were a saving grace of this otherwise incredibly tense and frustrating situation.  I don't think I'll be able to be patient with Enzo and Damon continuing to be under Sybil's control for much longer, let's put it that way.  

Damon got Stefan to come and help him under the pretense that he wanted help fighting Sybil's control, when really, he wanted a fight-to-the-death wingman...disappointing.  But Caroline knew she had to stand up for Enzo, since Stefan would never not protect his brother, causing Steroline to be on opposite sides in the middle of the whole mess, which they both hate, of course.  Then Bonnie couldn't take watching Damon murder Enzo, and in a moment of anguished inability to see her love killed before her eyes, chose Enzo's life over Damon's.  Would Sybil play fair after that?  Of course not.  She prefers the more malleable moral free-zone of Damon to Enzo's stubborn, resistant nature, and had no problem suggesting that Enzo had to shut off his humanity or Bonnie would die.

We should be clear that every single time this happens, I hope that the vampire character only pretends to flip their switch.  Sigh.

Sybil then cruelly ordered Damon to kill Bonnie, but little did the siren suspect that Alaric, with Georgie's help, had successfully found and figured out the use of the object that had once been forged to defeat her...a special tuning fork that once struck, can subdue Sybil.  Yay!  Finally, a moment of victory for our team of heroes after so many losses.  Thank goodness Bonnie survived (is anyone else beyond ready for her to get her magic back?), and I'm also pretty glad that Georgie caught sight of the unusual goings-on.  I am continuing to enjoy Georgie's character and relationship with Ric, and it will be fun to see what happens now that she's a little more clued in on his whole deal.

But alas, despite the gang now having Sybil imprisoned, she can still coo her annoying little melodies and maintain her sickening grip on Damon and Enzo's minds.  Hence, Damon is unable to break free and merely informed Stefan that he's hitting the road for reasons he is physically incapable of explaining due to the siren's gag order.

So not only does Bonnie have to try and convince Enzo to flip his switch back, but Damon's off on a mission of doom with a bunch of fake-ass Sybil memories taking the place of his precious Elena and Bonnie recollections.  I could not deal with the fact that Sybil hijacked the "flannel and pancakes" scene from season 6.  Oh, hell, no.  Really, Sybil?  Really? Is nothing sacred?! She's got to go.

What the actual what was that ending?  Tyler showed up out of nowhere with some nice new facial hair to confront Damon and try to stop him from continuing on his current path.  He had some useless weaponry from the Armory (so did they send him?  When?  There was no set-up for this scene that I noticed) and a really awesome speech about how if Damon killed him, there would be no going back, and no one would ever forgive him.  Naturally, as soon as Tyler started the awesome speech, I knew Damon was still going in for the kill, so my heart started to sink.  Out of the three pointless characters of TVD, Jeremy, Tyler, and Matt, Tyler is in my opinion by far the most likable.  I'm feeling a little resentful that this was not used as a chance to kill Matt or Jeremy, to be honest!  However, who knows what this bizarre and inconclusive scene really entails: did Damon seriously just murder Tyler?  Is that how Ty Ty goes out?  It just feels so random.  Shocking, to be sure, but super-sudden and a little anticlimactic for me, since it was such a predictable way for Damon to react given his current mindframe.  Watching the consequences of Sybil's control over Damon is truly getting exhaustingly depressing.  I cannot wait for this part of the storyline to be over.

Elsewhere in the episode, Bonnie showered Caroline with congratulations on her engagement to Stefan that she assured her were untinged with bitterness.  She even brought along Caroline's predictably fabulous Wedding Scrapbook from back in the day, which was adorable.  I loved watching Caroline at the wedding dress shop, where she was just as knowledgable about what she wants and doesn't want as we would expect!  It was also sweet that she asked Bonnie to be her maid of honor and funny that Caroline only begrudgingly admitted Damon would have to be at the wedding...but not at the head table!

I loved Stefan and Alaric bonding in this episode.  It was so classy that they came to a friendly understanding about Stefan's engagement to Caroline, and I adored Alaric's words about Damon, "You know, I never had a brother. Damon was the closest thing. And I have to believe that if you have gotten him back before, there has got to be a way to do it again."

Alaric deserves tons of extra brownie points for this episode, because this was the second time he gave me hope again in the midst of an incredibly bleak sequence of events!  Well done writers on this great scene.

What did you think of the episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to catch an all-new The Vampire Diaries, Friday at 8/7c on the CW!

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries 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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