The Vampire Diaries returned with an underwhelming midseason premiere directed by the one and only Stefan Salvatore himself, Paul Wesley. Certain parts of the episode were dull, and overall, it felt like a lot of filler just to remind us of the Gemini coven’s Merge.
We were last left with Elena taken prisoner under Kai’s cloaking spell when she was supposed to be meeting up with Damon. Kai’s reason for taking Elena felt weak though. Out of an entire town of unsuspecting people, why does he have to experiment on Elena? It is super interesting how Kai’s problem is that he’s too strong from soaking up all the the Travelers’ magic, and Jo has the exact opposite problem. By the time the elements are right for the Merge to occur, they better be equals or else it could all be for nothing.
Luke and Liv are also eligible for this Merge, as it is technically supposed to be for them. In their case, the more powerful twin is already obvious, and it’s not who I was expecting. Luke is able to overpower Liv when she’s attempting to help Damon with a cloaking spell of his own to save Elena. Long (and boring) story short, Luke tells their dad they aren’t returning home for this Merge because he doesn’t want to lose his sister. How sweet. But was it really that simple? If they won’t go back home to Portland, the rest of their coven could just as easily pay them a visit in Mystic Falls.
The only storyline that remotely interested me was Caroline dealing with her mom’s cancer diagnosis. While it was very typical of Caroline to consult a world renowned oncologist on behalf of Liz, I was disappointed that Caroline and Stefan didn’t think it would be smart to see through her little “experiment” on the cancer patient in Duke. Vampire blood temporarily helped this guy with a similar inoperable brain tumor but by no means did that mean he was cured. Caroline desperately wanted Stefan to be on her side, and he was, but this might have been a good time to remain the logical one and talk some sense into her. He could have suggested they get a hotel room nearby and check up on this cancer patient tomorrow after his doctors had a chance to actually gather any proof of remission.
Sadly, it only appears that vampire blood speeds up the progression of cancer. Now I’m hoping for a last minute magical cure just as badly as Caroline because the guilt of essentially killing her mother will be devastating for both the character and viewers.
I can’t review this episode without mentioning the super cheesy scene with Damon and Elena. He accidentally threw a wooden stake at her under one of Kai’s many illusions in the high school before Jeremy took him down. As Damon was picking out the wooden pieces from Elena’s chest, she started gasping for breath as if she were dying from a trace of the stake left in her heart. He’s literally got his hand in her heart as she pretends that she’s dying. If that was supposed to be cute, I may have audibly gagged. For a second there I was wondering if that was the key to getting her memories back. It wasn’t, but it may as well have been because she’s the happiest she’s been in a long time.
I mentioned Jeremy showed up at the perfect time with his hunting bow in hand to save Elena and Jo from Kai’s torment. That was fine, but overall this felt like a very disjointed episode. Alaric and Jo are strangely happy given the circumstances that she could die soon and her evil brother would be all the more powerful. Tyler and Liv are floating around, not really central to any storylines right now. Out of everyone, Matt might be the one person who surprises us this season. He’s rightfully tired of death in his hometown, and it’s only been a day since supernaturals were allowed back in.
Do you agree that this was a mediocre episode or did the Delena and Steroline scenes save it for you?
[Photo via The CW]
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