#like obviously stefan is no saint after being turned but his origin is tragic

[blairwaldcrf]

you know... stefan also being a minor who was compelled to be in love, have sex/ie be r*ped, and then fed on by katherine makes the season two arc where she preys on him so much more insidious? like the genders being reversed this is so close to if damon had become obsessed with making caroline "be in love with him" ???

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Vampire Diaries: It's Been a Hell of a Ride (8x14)

Hahahahahahaaa oh my God I should have seen this coming... this is just excellent. I've decided to go for broke and just roll with the punches for these final few weeks of The Vampire Diaries. Does anything that's happening actually make sense anymore? Nope. Do I care? Also nope.

Cons:

As I just said, I'm done caring about plot holes and cop-outs and all of those things. There was one moment, though, that tested my patience just a little. Damon sacrifices himself to save Stefan and Elena, and it's glorious and angst-y and all that, but then after Cade is killed, Damon strolls up, completely unharmed, and his explanation is "oh, Cade's death must have just sort of pushed me back into my body! How convenient!" Obviously I know that nobody stays dead in this damn show, but come on. That just felt lazy.

Similarly lazy is that Alaric ringing the magic McGuffin bell apparently hurts Cade enough to give Stefan a chance to beat him. Was that established somewhere? I don't know. That stupid bell is annoying.

And, okay, I don't know if I should put this under the "cons" section or what, but I'm getting mighty nervous that Stefan is going to be the one to die in the finale. We have this sort of stupid little side-plot going on where the twins are losing control of their magic, and Alaric wants to set up a school for them, and for other children with powers. He says that Caroline should help him and be his partner in this endeavor. Since I know Ric is going to go join the gang in New Orleans in The Originals after all of this, does that mean that his whole "Xavier's School" thing is going to be happening in that show instead of this one? And wouldn't Stefan's tragic demise be the perfect excuse to have Caroline jump ship to The Originals as well, or at least set her up to guest star? Maybe I'm being paranoid. If Stefan is the one to get the axe, I'm going to be pissed.

Pros:

Let's start with that little subplot, though, because as much as the twins don't interest me, I do like seeing protective father Alaric and protective mother Caroline team up to save the Gemini Coven twins from Kai, who has his own reasons for wanting them dead. This little plot detour doesn't go anywhere, since Kai doesn't hurt the girls, but it was a nice tense series of scenes, reminding me just how awesome Kai is as a villain. In particular, I liked how Ric hits Kai, says "that's for my girls," hits him again "that's for me," and "this - " but then of course Kai knocks him down, gaining the upper hand, taunting him. Caroline comes up behind him and knocks Kai out, saying "for Jo. That's what he was going to say." Bad-ass Caroline is the best!

Let's talk about Bonnie. I'm not entirely sure how it is she's communicating with dead Enzo, but I don't really care. All I want is for my girl to be happy. I loved that she helped to save the day here. She felt when Elena was in danger from Cade, then showed up and saved Damon from being pulled into Hell. She even seems willing to consider forgiving Stefan, though she's not quite there yet. Is anybody more of a saint than Bonnie Bennett? I love that girl.

Damon and Stefan's relationship got so much screen time here and I loved every second of it. First, they work together to bring in Kai. They find him singing karaoke, and when Kai realizes Stefan is human, he immediately goes to kill him. He asks Stefan: "any last words?" and Stefan says "Damon," calling for help from his brother. Kai, not realizing that Damon is there, says "aww, that's so sweet! I'll tell your brother you were thinking of him when you died."

Later, we learn that Stefan plans on killing Cade, instead of just handing over the dagger to get Elena back. Damon is not on board with this plan - he tells Stefan that he can't let anything happen to Elena... "or you." Stefan, a bad-ass even as a human, manages to stab Damon with vervaine and go off to meet Cade by himself. He almost gets the upper hand of him, too, but the B-plot distracts Alaric from ringing the bell, and suddenly Stefan is about to die.

Enter Damon. The scene that follows is one of those cliches that I'll never get sick of. This was a manifestation of everything we already knew about Damon, but still wanted to see. Cade gives him a choice. He'll let Stefan go, or he'll let Elena go, but not both. Stefan tries to give himself up, but Damon staunchly refuses to even consider it. He instead agrees to stab himself and condemn his soul to Hell forever more. Great acting from Paul Wesley in this scene. He's just lying on the floor, injured and weak, and he begs Damon not to do this. Begs Damon to let him die instead. Damon doesn't listen - he stabs himself, and dies.

We actually get to see Stefan cradling dead Damon in his arms. We actually get to see Stefan stab Cade, killing the devil in grief-stricken revenge for his brother's death. We actually get to see a very long, very sweet reunion hug between the two when Damon shows up. It's a thing of extreme beauty. And it doesn't stop there! Damon and Stefan have a talk about Stefan's relationship with Caroline. Stefan spends a lot of this episode thinking that he should probably just leave town, since he doesn't deserve Caroline, and has so much to atone for. Damon tells him that the way to redemption isn't to run away. It's to surround yourself with the people you care about. Then Damon has this quote: "I just need the people I love. The list is short and profound. You're right at the top, along with a great girl I hope to marry one day."

I... just... I remember how happy I was years ago, in the episode when Damon returned from the prison world, and Damon and Stefan finally shared a hug that wasn't in a flashback. And now, we get speeches like this? We get Damon explicitly saying that he loves Stefan and Elena equally, and cares for them both more than anything else in the world? It's not that I didn't already know that, but to actually hear it? A thing of beauty!

Stefan's re-proposal to Caroline was quite sweet. I don't care too much about their relationship, but I like the fact that with them, the drama feels more realistic, in a way. They're a friends-to-lovers couple. They're realistically in love, not passionately I'd-die-if-you-died in love, the way Damon and Elena are. It's a nice contrast.

Kai was honestly the best thing about this episode. I can't believe how much he's helped this show in the past few episodes. We end with him trapped in a prison world that Bonnie helped the twins to create. Fitting that he'd end up trapped by Gemini witches once more. Bonnie tortures him with a song by the Spin Doctors that he hates, which is just great. But if that is the end of Kai on this show, he leaves us with one final parting gift - the greatest thing he's ever done. Now that Stefan has killed Cade, Hell is supposed to be destroyed as well. But it turns out that Kai lied about that. Hell has a new ruler. Who, you might ask?

Katherine. Mother-f**king. Pierce.

I mean, I should have seen this coming. Nina Dobrev is coming back on the show, so why wouldn't she be playing Katherine? Why not take advantage of that? I just... I cannot even handle how excited I am for this. Only two more episodes left, and they promise to be epic. I get the feeling that the creators of this show are just leaning in to the chaos. Who cares if it doesn't make sense? Who cares if they just retcon all of their character deaths so we can have the gang back together? It's going to be so awesome!

I'll end this review with a question: what exactly is the deal with the cure? Now that Stefan has taken it, does that mean Damon can't? I always thought the plan was that when Elena woke up, Damon would take the cure and live out his human life with her. Isn't Elena a human? Damon is now talking like he's going to stay a vampire, and have to say goodbye to Stefan one day. But he also talks about how he's ready to spend his life with Elena, but doesn't this mean that he'll have to say goodbye to her too? I'm confused by the whole thing. And they've teased the fact that somebody is going to die in the finale. If it's Stefan, I'm going to riot. But who else could it be? What makes the most sense? I'm confused and scared!!

9/10