Fall TV hasn’t felt complete until tonight with the return of The Vampire Diaries. Rather than picking up immediately after the devastating events of the fifth season finale, we catch up with our favorite Mystic Falls residents a few months later.
Everyone is coping with their losses differently. On the surface, Elena appears to be unchanged by the deaths of her boyfriend and best friend. It isn’t until we see why she’s so happy that her behavior starts to make sense. She’s been taking dangerous advantage of Luke’s initial offer of some ancient hallucinogenic herbs to let her “see” Damon again. Cutting an addict off from her supply cold turkey doesn’t help. Caroline is the only person to cut through her tough exterior when she gets her to admit that she emotionally cannot grieve for Damon without feeling like she wants to die herself.
Elena’s honesty with Caroline and herself leads to an interesting proposition for Alaric. Their scene at the end of the episode was my favorite for many reasons. For starters, someone finally asked Alaric how he’s coping with his new life as a vampire. It would be a different story if he chose this life but he actually chose to die the first time around rather than live as this all-powerful vampire. I also really liked that the writers are acknowledging his Original vampire roots. Besides his power to compel other vampires like Elena’s request to make her forget she ever loved Damon, this could hopefully be a gateway to him crossing over to The Originals sometime this season!
Stefan apparently fled town almost immediately after Damon and Bonnie were lost on the Other Side. He’s already got a new girlfriend, Ivy, but I have a feeling there’s much more to this story than he’s letting on. If he really did accept Damon’s death and give up looking for a witch to help them get him back, then the show itself would be over. The Salvatore brothers would never give up on each other so easily.
The Travelers’ spell remains in effect in Mystic Falls, allowing for a fairly peaceful town for once without any supernatural beings. That leaves literally less than a handful of recurring characters in town: Liz Forbes (how did she survive the explosion and crash at the Grill?! Thank God she did, but seriously?), Matt, and Jeremy.
Matt has finally found his calling in life to protect the defenseless humans. He’s training with a new guy in town, Tripp (guest star Colin Ferguson) as a part of a volunteer community program. There’s already some tension between Tripp and the Sheriff about how she handles things, namely the victim of a vampire attack that she and Matt quickly work together to cover up.
Jeremy’s moping around the Lockwood mansion with no real motivation to do anything. Since Elena can’t physically be there to force him to go to school, she asks Matt to help with the matter. I doubt that Matt’s pep talk actually helped matters because really what power does a hunter possess? Then again, maybe there’s a whole new back story about hunters to discover that could make Jeremy useful and relevant again.
With everyone scattered around in and outside of Mystic Falls, Caroline is the only one who cares enough to keep in touch with everyone. Or at least she tries. Stefan cracked and broke his phone screen before he was able to listen to Caroline’s voicemail. I feel bad for her. She’s truly the only one actively working to be able to go home again, even if that means dropping out of college in the process.
We finally got a glimpse at Damon and Bonnie in their current predicament. Last time we saw them, they were being engulfed in white light as the Other Side collapsed. Now is when the fun theories can begin! They were living in what looked like a cabin, listening to 90s alternative rock, and Damon was wearing a plaid shirt. This can mean they’ve actually time traveled back to the 1990s or they were transported to Portland (where the dream of the 90s is alive.) I’m betting on the former, as that would definitely be a new storyline to tackle. We’ve seen all sorts of witches and magic in general on this show before, but never time travel.
What are your theories about Damon and Bonnie?
[Photo via CW]
Follow Us
I was hoping more from a season opener and maybe think this show is going to limp to the finish. This episode felt like they didn’t really now where to take things after last season’s finale and they’re trying to be too heavy handed with the almost schizophrenic nature of everything. I purposely delayed watching this for a month so I could binge out, but after watching the first episode i was way less enthused to do so.
On a positive note, at least there was some great music in this one. I loved how they used “From The Wreckage Build A Home” by the Wind and The Wave when Elena walks to the crypt and narrates that she has chosen to be a doctor, and also it was cool to hear Alt-J’s “Hunger of the Pine” when Caroline calls Stefan and tells him she’s not giving up and wants everyone together again…but it’s kinda lame how just the music and the last scene are the only two things that really stood out to me, I used to love how action-packed this show was.