Season 8 is still slogging along at a snail's pace, inexplicably procrastinating on paying off any of its promises, and giving us the slightest bit of satisfaction only in blink-and-you-miss-it-intervals, but there were still a few good qualities to be found in this episode. Ian Somerhalder did a terrific job directing, bringing us back to Mystic Falls High and some of the cool mythology aspects of Season 1, culminating in a scary scene at the abandoned cottage which was the site of the infamous witch-burning in 1790. As Stefan and Damon competed to see who could cull the most vaguely evil souls for Cade, Caroline struggled with Sybil's latest scheme. The ending of this episode, showing a glimpse of impending redemption for Damon, was one of the more likable this season so far.
"Damon, I work for the devil. I don't have to play fair." Having flipped his switch and abandoned humanity for a year to work for Cade and save Caroline's daughters, Stefan spent the episode very close to going into full Ripper mode before his inevitable surrender to those old beheading habits. At the very least, Stefan's insatiable bloodlust and total lack of regard for innocent human life was enough to make even a mostly-also-humanity-free Damon concerned.
I know it's probably a mistake to attempt analyzing this season's mythology, but is Cade's complete disregard as to whether or not someone actually deserves to go to Hell a recent development? Earlier this season, you had to at least kill someone (accidental or otherwise) or do something somehow truly sinful on your own to be bound for eternal roasting, but nowadays, Cade's down with his servants tempting and tricking otherwise perfectly moral individuals until they do go down a sinful road. It's hard to believe that anyone who has as difficult a time sticking with basic hard rules as Cade could have ruled over Hell for this long, to say the least.
When Caroline gave Damon Elena's necklace at Christmas, she set certain wheels in motion that are starting to pay off. Although harassed and mocked by Stefan for supposedly caring about the necklace and continuing to love Elena, Damon denied it and even tossed the necklace right out the car window while on a drive. However, in the episode's best scene, Damon went back for the necklace, having a thoughtful conversation with a prisoner picking up trash by the side of the road that revealed Damon is certainly starting to come back to himself.
Sure, he should have come all the way back to himself by approximately episode 3 of the season, but if this is all we're getting for "give us the real Damon back" satisfaction this week, we'll have to take it. I did like the quiet, contemplative nature of this scene and its comparative complexity after most of the "hit you over the head with it" obvious plotting of the rest of the episode.
Back to Mystic Falls High...Believing herself called to her old high school to work on a story, Caroline had a rude awakening to discover that Sybil (the real cause for Caroline's presence there) had taken up the position of history teacher, where the siren has mind-controlled the students into thinking she is the best teacher ever (Sybil's latest shenanigans yielded soft laughter at best, but one does have to admire Nathalie Kelley's ceaseless charisma in this utterly thankless role of sorta-used-to-seem-to-be-a-Big-Bad).
Candice King, as usual, aced Caroline's sense of annoyance turning to foreboding and horror as Sybil's seemingly simple quest for an old bell nearly led to tragedy for the poor gang of helpless history students in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We must now, sadly, speak of Matt's involvement in this whole side of the episode, which was, again sadly, too large. Seems that Matt's Dad's family were around in Mystic Falls even before the supposed founding families, and were total steel industry trail-blazers and bell-makers extraordinaire! Oooh how thrilling! Stop the world, I need to get off! Yet the snobby founding families treated the Maxwells like black sheep personas non grata, leading Peter Maxwell to toss the bell Sybil's looking for off Wickery effing Bridge back in the day. Everything goes off of that bridge, doesn't it?
Putting aside the fact that we're supposed to care about Matt or his Dad in the slightest (because a dude who abandons his family and leaves town since bell makers just aren't getting enough respect around there is super worth investing time in), which is a train to nowheresville, we did get some not entirely loathsome scenes in which Alaric's surviving intern announced his intention to help the scoobies defeat Cade/the Sirens etc., to avenge poor, dear Georgie. The bell seems to have some witch-imbued power that could work against the villains, so it's too bad that Seline already has it. This enraged Sybil enough to instruct her students to burn each other at the stake, though they were improbably rescued by Matt and his Dad.
It's always great to have an episode that focuses in large part on just Stefan and Damon interacting. Who doesn't enjoy some Defan adventures, after all! But we could glean so much more out of Damon's reactions to Stefan's behavior than we could from what Stefan was doing. It was the depth of Stefan's depravity that combined with the increasing sense of returning humanity started by having the necklace back that caused Damon to start waking up to the massive problems of his situation-- but much, much, much more importantly, the undeniable truth that Damon does care. The next step is doing something about it!
What did you think of the episode? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to catch an all-new The Vampire Diaries, next Friday at 8/7c on the CW!
