The Vampire Diaries 5.20 Review: “What Lies Beneath”

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A creepy new development is discovered this week on The Vampire Diaries as the Other Side continues to deteriorate.  Supernatural ghosts can now physically affect people and things, which Enzo takes full advantage of after his death last week.  (Side note for The Originals: this is not a good sign with the vengeful Mikael already torturing Klaus.)

Tyler breaks out of the chains the Travelers have him tied up in by changing into his wolf form.  He’s able to warn everyone else of Markos’ plan to capture and drain the doppelgangers of their blood, but then since he knows his control of his body is only temporary, he ensures that Matt and Jeremy keep him locked up in the cellar of his house.

Damon and Caroline accompany Stefan and Elena to Caroline’s dad’s cabin in order to hopefully keep the Travelers at bay as Luke puts a protection spell on the house.  While there, Caroline starts acting weird about seeing Stefan and Elena whisper to each other so much (and she even calls them Team Stelena when they’re playing charades.)  She doesn’t know that they’re keeping Enzo’s death a secret from Damon, but that all comes out eventually.  Elena even asks Caroline where her misguided suspicions are coming from that she thinks Elena and Stefan are back together, but Caroline can’t quite answer that.  I can tell you what’s going on.  Caroline’s a little jealous because she likes Stefan.  He might be on the same page but he’s harder to read.  When she asks him later why he couldn’t trust her with the truth about Enzo, Stefan very sweetly replies, “I didn’t want you to think any less of me.”  Aw!

Enzo seizes the newfound discovery that he can touch things in this realm to have some fun with the gang in the cabin.  First off, he drowns Elena when she’s taking a bath, which freaks her out enough that she tells Damon the truth about what happened to his friend.  Next thing you know, he’s knocking Luke unconscious to break his cloaking spell and dragging him out to a barn.  When Stefan and Damon find him, Enzo sets the place on fire.  Damon bargains with him that if he stops terrorizing them, he’ll find a way to bring him back to life.  That’s definitely easier said than done, since the only people who have come back to life are Bonnie and Jeremy but there were extreme consequences in both situations.  Oh well, for now it worked and Enzo is laying off on his menacing ways.

Speaking of Bonnie and Jeremy, they’re trying (and failing) to spend some alone time.  Grams is back to warn Bonnie that she needs to tell Jeremy the truth about the problems on the Other Side.  I don’t think Bonnie’s even faced the facts that her time is limited as the Other Side worsens, so I doubt she’ll be able to say her goodbyes to her friends before she’s ultimately swept away into the great unknown with the rest of the ghosts.

Bonnie, Jeremy, and Matt get some answers out of Julian, the Passenger inside of Tyler’s body.  Matt was awesome as the bad cop in this situation, throwing wolfsbane and vervain down Tyler’s throat until Julian started talking.  He couldn’t tell them where Markos is, but he did tell them of his intentions to make him permanent in Tyler’s body.  We saw this earlier in the season with Katherine taking over Elena, and the process involves burning the Passenger’s body.  Unfortunately Julian’s wife and fellow Travelers take his body before Bonnie and Jeremy can find him in the huge pile of Travelers’ bodies currently taking passage in Mystic Falls residents.  Keep in mind that the only knife that can rid a body of a Passenger was destroyed by Markos, and you’ll probably agree with me that Tyler’s not long for this world either.

By the end of the episode, the Travelers have found Stefan and Elena.  Oh, and Damon had just spilled his heart out to Elena before kissing her and leaving her confused as ever before she turned around to see the chanting witches approaching.  Even if Damon is quick enough to get back outside to save her from them, he’s already outnumbered and overpowered.

Only 2 episodes are left this season so this Other Side drama is only going to escalate.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the rest of the ghosts as the lines between this world and their purgatory get further blurred.  I, for one, am hoping we get to see Alaric back!  What about you?

[Photo via The CW]

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