The Vampire Diaries 3x12 Review

[iaria]

The Ties That Bind

This was a great episode. I really enjoyed it.

• Best Part: Elijah! Yay! Oh, I’ve missed him. Sometimes Damon has the very best plans and this was definitely the greatest of them all. I just can’t believe that it took them this long to de-dagger him.

• My biggest issue right now is still the fracturing of Elena, Bonnie and Caroline. Why wouldn’t/couldn’t Bonnie have told Caroline the truth about the coffins at the same time as Elena? Why wouldn’t she at least bring Caroline in on her search and eventual trip to meet her mother? It’s not like Caroline had anything else to do. Why is Caroline being kept so separate from not only Elena/Bonnie but the main plotlines? I don’t understand this choice but it’s really annoying. Especially seeing how it follows her almost death in the previous episode about which there is still no indication that the other girls even know about it.

Bonnie, Elena and Abby

• Hah! I knew Bonnie would tell Elena. So much love.

• “There’s nothing more important Bonnie.” – Elena. ♥ Bonnie and Elena made me really happy. I loved how gently supportive Elena was all episode.

• All the emotional stuff with Bonnie and her mom was excellent.

• I really liked the reason why Abby never returned – because she saw a chance at a new life where she wasn’t a Bennett witch – a very selfish decision but also still a bit relatable. I thought Bonnie sympathised with what her mother had been feeling when she made her choice if not accepting/forgiving of the choice itself because she understands that feeling.

• I also found the choice to include Jamie into the story interesting. Abby taking in her ex the deadbeat dad’s son and basically raising him as her own all the while having abandoned her own daughter. The show makes it very clear that Abby loves Jamie as a son and that she considers him her family. It doubles Abby’s betrayal of Bonnie – first in abandoning her and then in starting a new family without her. God, poor Bonnie.

• Also: “He is my family.” Because on this show everything is about family. And your family isn’t just the people you were born to (though sometimes the show is about finding your way back to them) but is also those you love and who love her back.

• “We kissed. Now it’s weird. Have a great trip.” – Damon. He is such a brat sometimes.

• So Bonnie’s non-reaction to the Elena/Damon kiss – was it just that she was not in the mood to start a fight over it? It’s just a little surprising.

• I love that Abby and Miranda were best friends. I want to know more. I wonder what the chances are that we’ll ever get to see a flashback to Mystic Falls say 20 years ago?

• So much love that it was Abby who took out Mikael and that she did it to save Elena.

• I’m a bit surprised that people knew Elena was the doppelganger all the way back when she was only three years old. I doubt it was based on appearance at that young so... witch spell? Did the Gilberts/Abby know before Mikael arrived?

• “Your grams is way better at this stuff than I am.” – Abby. Does she mean raising kids – which Jamie gives lie to – or being a witch/Bennett?

• I wonder if Esther’s witch friend Ayanna could be the ancestor of the Bennett line?

Elena and Stefan

• Elena getting out of her ropes, tricking Jamie closer and then knocking him out with his shotgun was awesome.

• I really, really wish that TPTB had put in a phone call between Elena and Bonnie before Elena confessing to Stefan that she kissed Damon. I liked how that scene played out but I couldn’t really concentrate on it because all I could think was “Bonnie! Kidnapped!” and was feeling pretty aggravated that Elena wasn’t immediately trying to figure out how to help her. So the first time I watched that scene I was all distracted by Elena’s apparent lack of priorities. It appears that Elena probably got a text from Bonnie and read it possibly at some point during the commercial break (taking a break from helping Stefan) and thus Elena knew Bonnie was fine. Or at least that’s how I’m choosing to read that scene now.

• “I don’t think you realise how bad you’ve gotten!” – Elena. Um. What? This line is just so nonsensical that I can’t really understand it. Stefan was a bit rough and compelled a human and that gets this line? Meanwhile in the past few months he’s gone on several killing sprees including killed Andi. Or maybe this line was meant for the last episode where he kidnapped her, forced her to drink his blood and then threatened to kill/vamp her by driving her over the bridge in the same way that her parents were killed?

• While I’m talking about it – is there really going to be no further consequences/follow through on what happened between Elena and Stefan in the last episode? That was pretty much the worst thing he has ever done to her and she’s over it like that? She’s a ridiculously forgiving person but this is a bit much even for her!

• I love that with Stefan Elena said “I kissed” (whereas with Bonnie she was all “he kissed”).

• "You're better than him. You're better than both of us." – Stefan. I just like this line.

• The final Stefan/Damon scene was great. No thoughts just I really liked how it played out. I loved Stefan’s expressions throughout, the way Damon just accepted the punch and then changed the subject.

Others (largely Alaric focused)

• You know with Elijah back (eee!) I would love for a small moment between him and Elena about Jenna. I would really like Elijah to apologise for failing to protect her and thus breaking his promise to Elena. (That always bothered me far more than him betraying the plan at the end and saving Klaus. That made sense. Letting Klaus capture Jenna was just sloppy.)

• “So what do you think my exes would have to say about me?" – Alaric
“Nothing. They’re all dead.” – Damon.

OUCH. But also: LMAO. It’s so sadly true. Maybe Alaric really should just date Damon.

• I really liked Damon trying to look out for Alaric. It’s sweet.

• “I think psychopaths are incredibly high maintenance.” – Damon. LOL. Well, he’d certainly know.

• Damon non-reaction to Meredith vervaining him and stealing his blood amused me.

• Meredith stealing vamp blood to save patients makes a lot of sense to me (I’ve always thought vamps could make so much money selling their blood or that if people knew about the healing properties of it there would be a massive demand for it) and yet something about it and her left me a bit... uneasy. I don’t know.

• So Meredith knows Damon is a vampire. Is this common knowledge now? Does the Council know he’s a vampire? That can’t be right. But then how did she learn the truth?

• It was a little weird that Alaric took Meredith back to the Gilbert house instead of to his apartment (which we know he still has and uses). Is he still living with Elena now that Jeremy is gone?

• I feel like Alaric telling Meredith about his ring is going to prove to be a really bad idea. I can’t believe he told her. Geez, Alaric, you’ve known her a couple weeks at most keep some mystery. The fact that she actually tried to take it off his finger makes me think that she’s going to steal it at some point.

• Tied into Abby’s line about family we get a really sweet scene between Alaric and Elena at the end with Elena basically confirming his place as a member of the Gilbert family. “We needed you and...and you stayed, so thank you for that.” Aw.

• I don’t know why Bill thinks he has any say in his daughter’s life especially after how their last encounter went.

• I really liked Tyler/Caroline but I wish that Tyler’s efforts to get free of Klaus’s influence was more about himself, being in control of his actions and being able to trust himself and have others trust him, than with Caroline and the desire to be with her. I mean I like that she, and what he did to her, is what’s motivating him but I want it to be about more than her.