The Vampire Diaries 6x19 Because

 

If I was to make a list of all the things The Vampire Diaries does exceptionally well, playing with my emotions would definitely rank in the top five. Whether it be Elena driving to pick up a dying Damon and then choosing to be with Stefan instead, just to then break up with Stefan and sleep with Damon in the span of the next five or so episodes, dedicating a fantastically heartfelt and beautiful episode to the life of Katherine Pierce as she’s drawing her last breaths and then NOT killing her off, or just recently, making me believe that there might be cure for Liz’s cancer and then practically killing her TWICE... the term ’emotional rollercoaster’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. The reason I’m bringing this is up is obviously because there was a lot of that going around in this episode too, and with the imminent departure of Elena looming in the near future, I suspect that things are about to become more distressing and emotionally taxing than ever.

This very episode started with a very much non-human sounding Stefan meeting up with Caroline, which immediately made me draw my breath because they can’t do this, can they? Stefan getting his humanity back last week was pretty huge and it definitely seemed real to me, so this must be a trick right? Or maybe that was the trick and he really did figure out that his mother was lying to him about her feelings and only pretended to get his humanity back? Can vampires even convincingly do that? Oh boy, not even ten seconds into the episode and my mind is already in overdrive. Fortunately, Stefan explaining to Caroline that he’s still „inhuman” ended up being intercut with Stefan telling Damon and Elena that that is exactly what he’s planning to do, so I guess that answers this particular mystery. According to Stefan’s plan, they’re gonna gain Caroline’s trust, then drain her blood, make her weak, and bombard her with everything she used to care about, which sounds exactly as bloody and cruel as it actually is, but I guess there really wasn’t anything else they could have done. Elena was initially unconvinced that Caroline would even want to see Stefan again, but Damon being Damon just couldn’t help himself and told her that they’ve slept together, and it was really nice to see Elena being actually cool with that. Also she was hell-bent on getting Caroline back so she showed the others a letter that Liz had sent her to arrive after he has died, but Caroline had already had her switch off by the time she could have read it. Hopefully, if nothing else, this one will do the trick. Meanwhile, the plan was already in motion, as Damon showed up and shot both Caroline and Stefan with whatever it is that they always use to render vampires unconscious. Three days later, Caroline woke up in a bed of blood, and asked Stefan what happened, to which he could only reply: „We got caught.”

Later, Elena arrived to take Jo and Rick’s shift at guarding the prisoners, and this gave Caroline a chance to taunt her a little about all the people she has killed back when she had her humanity off. Elena wasn’t all that phased by this and instead gave Stefan Liz’s letter, hoping that maybe it would trigger something in her. I was a bit surprised by this as I figured they were keeping the letter as their trump-card to use when all else had failed, and they probably should have as Caroline clearly didn’t give a fuck, and made Stefan burn it. Naturally this was going to come back to haunt her later and we all knew that, but right then she was pretty sure that she would never care enough to want to read the last words her mother would ever say to her. Damon tried to take some quality time with Elena to discuss their „what it we were human” fantasies, while still not telling Elena that it was actually possible for her to achieve those dreams if she wanted to. Because obviously keeping this huge a secret from your loved ones always works out so well on television! Just ask everyone on Once Upon a Time. Or Laurel Lance. Anyway, Caroline heard all of their talk about their hypothetical „five years from now” ideas, and this time decided to taunt Damon about how he will never be able to give Elena the life that she really wanted.

Caroline eventually figured out that Stefan was only faking after he kept refusing all of her advances and she could sense his nervousness, and naturally she responded by snapping his neck and then breaking out the house. And if you’re wondering how is that possible if the door was vampire-proof, why didn’t they try it before either way, and why wasn’t anyone guarding them at the moment, well, it became pretty clear after Caroline was stopped for speeding by her dead mom. Liz told her that she’s not her daughter because she raised her daughter way better than this, and then the whole thing turned out to be only a hallucination, put into her head by Stefan. Which makes me wonder, at what point did it start to become a hallucination? It couldn’t have been that long ago because they were still locked in the room, and I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway. Caroline was a bit shaken about these recent turn of events and Stefan tried to capitalize on that, asking her to take his hand because he can help her. In classic Non-human Caroline fashion, she took his hand and then stabbed him, but that didn’t stop Stefan from showing her some more visions, or more like memories, about him and Liz. It was right after they found Bonnie’s teddy bear and Liz was talking to Stefan about how she hopes maybe one day he can become more than a friend for her daughter, to which he said that if he was going to start a relationship with Caroline, it would have to be perfect. Liz also showed Stefan the letter and said she hasn’t finished it yet. At this point Caroline was already on her way to breaking down and asked to see the rest, wanting to talk to her mom and read her letter, but she couldn’t get to her. She begged Stefan to show her the vision again because she wants to see what was in the letter, and when he told her that he already gave her the letter but she burned it, Caroline broke down completely and started to cry, saying that she ruined everything. God, this was heartbreaking. Everything about Liz and Caroline this season has been.

Now that Caroline’s humanity was back and she was also a complete mess because of everything she has or hasn’t done, Stefan thought that she wouldn’t want to see him because he remembered what it was like to get your humanity back: all the emotions that she had been repressing suddenly rushing back, she probably wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, let alone Stefan, since in a way he was indirectly responsible for Caroline switching it off in the first place. Jo was having none of that and told him that maybe she should let Caroline decide whether she wants to talk with him for herself, so he went to see her and true enough, she wasn’t overjoyed at the sight of him. At least she started to talk, but then couldn’t finish the sentence that was basically saying that it wouldn’t work between them, and then she walked away. Of course, this being TVD and TVD being what it is, it’s practically guaranteed that they will get together for real eventually, so I wouldn’t worry about this too much. I give it until the end of the season.

So now that that particular problem has been taken care of, how about our other, slightly more life-threatening one? You know, the one about the six deadly witch-vampires (plus Kai) who Lily plans to bring over from the prison world? The one which could have been taken care of forever if Damon hadn’t given the ascendant to his dear mother? Yeah, that’s the one. It turns out nobody is particularly worried about that at the moment, except for Bonnie, who was understandably furious when Damon told her about his fuck-up and also that Lily actually plans to ask Bonnie herself to help her out with the appropriate spell. Naturally she wants nothing to do with that. "You better fix this before she becomes my problem. Don't ever show up here pretending to care about me again.", she told right into Damon’s face. Ouch. But hold up. Next thing we know, Lily actually has a lunch date with Bonnie? What? Turns out Bonnie actually made plans with her just so that she can get her out of the house and search for the ascendant. We know this because Enzo showed up at the bar, and approached Lily, who finally recognized him this time. She told him he wouldn’t have abandoned him if she wasn’t captured by the Gemini coven the same night when she turned her, and she also told him about her plans to let her friends out of the prison world. Enzo realizes that something is up when he hears that Bonnie has agreed to do this, so she takes Lily back to the house just so he can show her that the ascendant is missing, and to prove that Damon has lied to her. Sigh, Enzo. He used to be such a promising character, but nowadays his only purpose seems to be sneaking around, annoying people, and changing allegiances every other episode. I thought Stefan was his mortal enemy, not Damon? Yeah, whatever. Lily called Damon and thretened to destroy the cure if he didn’t give the ascendant back to her, so Damon went and tried to stop Bonnie from destroying it, but she told him that if he wanted to give the cure to Elena he would have done it already. Nevertheless she offers up the ascendant telling him that he can take it if he’s ready to face whatever comes out of the prison world, as well as watching Elena grow old and die. Damon turned around without taking it, and showed up at the Salvatore house just in time to see Lily burning the box with the cure in it... except that Elena not getting the cure and living forever is exactly what Damon wants, so she reveals the box to be empty just as we watch Elena finding the cure and walking in on them. Lily tells her that she has left it out for her to find, since Damon was never going to offer it to her, and then leaves them alone to deal with the consequences.

Damon admits that he wanted to let Lily destroy the cure, even though he also wants Elena to have her dream-life as a human, but Elena tells him that it’s okay, she wouldn’t want to live without him anyway. So naturally there’s only one solution to this problem: Damon’s gonna become human too. Yes, he really said those words out loud. I have to say, I’d be lying if I said I never thought about this possibility. After all, another prison world means another copy of the cure at Silas’ grave. They can easily go there and get it and become human together. Now, naturally, there’s no word about Ian Somerholder leaving the show and I honestly can’t think of a way it could go on without both Elena AND Damon... so yeah this is not going to happen, but it doesn’t mean they won’t at least try, and I for one am VERY excited to see how it turns out.

Episode MVP: Candica Accola as Caroline Forbes and Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett

Quote of the episode:

"You better fix this before she becomes my problem. Don't ever show up here pretending to care about me again." – Bonie Bennett

Random tidbits:

 - The last scene featuring Lily and Enzo in this episode was about her crying because she had almost caused a car accident and then killed a driver earlier, and him comforting her about this. This was just so out of place and completely in opposition with everything Lily has done previously in the episode, that I honestly can’t make any sense of her character at this point.