The Vampire Diaries 2.20 “The Last Day” Review

Once again I must start this review with a point of exclamation and say yikes to what just happened as this show continues to hurtle towards it’s finale. The first ten minutes alone were packed with enough holy wow moments to fill this whole page as Damon acted in the impulsive manner that has both saved the day before and screwed things up, this time it fell in to the latter category.

So the first big moment of the episode looked like it was going to be a rather sweet and tender conversation between Damon and Elena where she explained her choices. It looked like it was going to echo many of the similar conversations that they had been having recently showing that the pair had come a long way since the start of the season, when she wouldn’t call him a friend. But like that time when he acted impulsively with Jeremy (we all remember the neck break right?) he did the same here, acting without thought by force feeding Elena his blood so she definitely wouldn’t die. This action prompted a recoil of horror from Elena and had Stefan resuming the fight that started last week. This time it was more brutal and both had reasons to lay in to each other, Stefan looked like he was winning the thing until Damon went for the dirty move and staked him good, a low blow that’s for sure.

Damon has most certainly got some control issues and whilst he “talks a good game” (thanks Elijah for this one) he has much to learn about how to behave. When Stefan was explaining to Elena that feelings are heightened when you are a vampire it seemed to apply more to Damon who seems more unstable, that his anger becomes rage and that sadness becomes despair. Whilst Stefan seems to have a lid on this stuff most of the time, Damon seems to care less about the control side of things. I’m inclined to wonder if this comes from how they both became vampires, it wasn’t originally a choice for either of them but in transition Stefan forced Damon’s hand, with Stefan then leading the overly decadent vampire lifestyle at first and Damon looking like the more stable brother. A lot has happened between then and now, with those positions reversed now but whilst what Damon did was unforgivable he realised quickly after that he had indeed screwed up.

What happens when someone realises that they have screwed up? Well they try and right the wrong so Damon’s master plan was to postpone the ritual by nabbing back Klaus’ werewolf (oh hey Tyler, good to have you back.) Alas, Damon hasn’t learnt that these older vampires always have a plan B and despite getting both Tyler and Caroline freed from their basement of doom, Klaus still has another werewolf in the form of pesky Jules. Amongst all these shenanigans, Matt revealed that he knows about vampires still with his wooden bullet of choice and Tyler transformed before they could get him locked up. In this process he bit Damon (uh oh), we all know that a werewolf bite is vampire syphilis, so let’s hope they find a cure soon.

Amongst all the peril there managed to be a sweet and romantic portion with Stefan taking Elena on a hike to enjoy her last day, well enjoy as much as she can as the possibility of her becoming a vampire loomed over their heads. They had to have ‘the’ conversation that plagues any vampire/human relationship about whether she wanted to be a vampire, it turns out that Elena is more a Buffy than a Bella in this regard. At the age of 17 (yes I forget she is that young) she still has all the life stuff that she wants to decide and so becoming a vampire is not the choice she wants. It does appear that all of these characters that are vampires were all changed not through a choice but because their hand was forced, even Katherine who did it to save herself was forced in a manner, so it is not surprising to see Elena feel like this. I was half expecting Stefan to do something stupid when Klaus turned up but that isn’t really his style, though I’m expecting some not so civil actions from him as the ritual goes ahead.

Speaking of choosing to become a vampire in another yikes moment, after Klaus realised that Damon was useless to him in the ritual with his new bite he demonstrated just how dastardly he is and chose Jenna as his vampire choice. Not a great week for Jenna, who in the last two episodes has gone from knowing nothing, to knowing everything and is now in transition.

Quick observations:

-After Alaric and Jenna rather sweetly made up one of them had to have DOOM tattooed on them somewhere.

-Where are Bonnie and Jeremy? With all of this going down you would think they would be around.

-Tyler and Caroline still have some great chemistry and it was really great to have Michael Trevino back.

-So Greta is with Klaus of her own free will, she either doesn’t know her father and brother are dead or doesn’t seem to care.

-Matt can see that Caroline is still the same but convincing her mother seems to be a hard task.

-The view at the top of the waterfall was rather lovely.

-Once again, isn’t Joseph Morgan fabulous as Klaus?! He has the right air of menace, charm and arrogance.

-Katherine plays a good game with pretending she is compelled, she really will do anything for self preservation.

Another excellent episode of TVD that was all kinds of heartbreaking and shocking. I’m not sure why it still surprises me as to how much they cram in to an episode considering that I have been reviewing it all season, but it does. A

What did you all think? Shocked by Damon’s actions? Will Jenna become a proper vampire? Will the ritual get stopped in time? Let us know in the comments below or join us in the forum.

Next week: ritual and sacrifice.