At last, an episode that I can write a somewhat mostly positive review on! After enduring an exhaustingly bleak, maudlin, repetitive eighth and final season of TVD, viewers were at last rewarded with an hour which, while not absent of flaws, at least passed muster. Let's discuss!
Return of Miss Mystic Falls Unlike previous Season 1 callbacks that seemed to toy painfully with fans' emotions with little to no payoff (see for example: last week's visit to MF High, which weirdly yielded no satisfying nostalgia but a whole lot of exposition about Matt's family, ugh), finally we had a return to an old-school TVD scenario that felt genuine, deserved, and played well throughout the episode.
I loved the perfect reproduction of the look and feel of the season 1 Miss Mystic Falls pageant, so fabulously evocative of the way this show used to be able to make us feel for the characters. Putting the characters back in a setting replete with so many memories established that Caroline and Damon would be put through the emotional wringer, but Stefan was too far gone to do anything but take glee in their angst.
Meanwhile, Candice King provided him a perfect counterpart as she showed Caroline veering seamlessly from helping Damon fumble his way back to morality and laying down the law for the currently-evil Stefan. Even though seeing Caroline give the engagement ring back to Stefan should be too reminiscent of when she did so just a few episodes back to actually work, her speech about how someday he'll remember what real happiness was (not fun, but happiness) was suitably heartbreaking and effective. What worked even better than this part of the episode was the way Caroline coached Damon towards remembering his love for Elena.
The classic Caroline was in full force here: tough, brave, and an endlessly capable multi-tasker.
As far as I'm concerned, the only good thing that bell has brought to the plot is one piece of it giving Damon something nice and heavy to hit Sybil with. Sure, this was pretty darn samey compared with his ripping her heart out the last time she tried to mess with his feelings for Elena, but this felt much more deliberate on Damon's part rather than the previous incident's haphazard, desperate cry for help within the disaster Sybil's made of his mind.
As much as I've despised the writing for Damon this season, it was awesome to see Ian Somerhalder finally get some good material again in this one. Watching Damon trying to understand his own inner conflict was intriguing and engaging, and the idea of him finally taking some control over his situation was way, way overdue.
Now that Sybil, angered by Damon's tirade about her while he held her prisoner, has forced his humanity back on, Damon may be driven mad by the guilt of what he did while under her control. The preview for next week is giving me a little bit of a vibe like last season's Civil War Hell World tangent, but let's see what they do with this development.
Although Bonenzo has again and again proved to be one of the few consistently great aspects of Season 8, it would also be very cool if Bonnie could get some storyline action going on in the main plot of the show, using her hopefully soon-to-be-restored magic powers to save the day! Furthermore, I know I'm not the only one missing the Damon and Bonnie interactions on the show, a friendship that was such a huge part of the last couple of seasons.
Overall thoughts: We're far from back on track, but this was a welcome shift back in the right direction. The villains and mythology are still not clicking as they should, but the main characters are starting to get their groove back. If we could make this much progress in one episode, I'm cautiously optimistic that the last batch of installments may gradually make their way to where the show needs to be by the finale.
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 8/7c on the CW.
