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S06.E17: A Bird In A Gilded Cage

Meredith Quill

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Meredith Quill

Meredith Quill

Episode Synopsis:

 

With the help of Bonnie and Kai, Damon and Elena set forth a plan to rescue Damon's mother Lily, who is trapped in the 1903 prison world. Meanwhile, when Caroline's plan for Stefan backfires, she is left to pick up the pieces. Elsewhere, back at Whitmore College, Enzo and Alaric's attempt to reel Caroline back in doesn't quite go as planned when they realize they're outmaneuvered. Lastly, an unexpected gift from Bonnie leaves Damon shaken to his core.

Morrigan2575

Morrigan2575

at Graham is criminally underused on this show. I love Bonnie, great character and beautifully played by Kat.

Loved every minute of the Stefan/Caroline interaction. Highly entertaining and massively dysfunctional. ..fun. seriously done with Enzo and sadly the Sarah storyline will continue. I loved the Kai/Bonnie scenes. Bonnie is so messed up but angry/bitter/vindictive Bonnie is a BAMF. At the same time I felt bad for how far to the darside she's fallen.

The last scene made me wonder if they really are setting up an Elena exit. Seemed weird and totally out of place so late in the season

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blixie

blixie

Yay, the cure, I'm excite, cause Damon is taking that bitch like he should have two years ago, making him far more suitable for Bon Bon. All I know is Kai needs to understand deeply that he DESERVES what she just did to him, save the Vampire Dollhouse (Heee).

 

Steroline were okay which is pretty par for the course, and even though I thought I was fine with Stefan not faking....I wasn't This was really shitty way to get them together. 

 

Dalena continues to be as gross as ever to me, she is just the worst most vacant version of herself, I hated that she came with but if it helped Bonnie get her revenge I guess it was worthy it.

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Goldmoon

Goldmoon

Par for the course they took a great story line of Carolyn super controlled and ruined it for the dramas.  I was not happy to see Ripper again.  It's like the writers think that no viewers have older sensibilities than teenagers.  I'm middle aged, and watch only for Bamon these days.  Elena was oddly cheerful about her Ripper MIL.  If even Damon is afraid to trust someone, then they can't be trusted! I cheered so hard when Bonnie left Kai behind.  I wonder if he will be a chew toy for the dessicated vampires and kept alive for his tasty witchy blood.  I appreciated that Elena ran off and left BonBon with Damon.  She is not showing signs of jealousy yet, but you just wait.  The note that didn't ring true is that Bonnie's mom is liking being a vampire.  Since when?

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Whitley Trillbert

Whitley Trillbert

I thought for a split second that the actress playing Lily was Stacy Haiduk and that me all excited because of Kindred The Embraced but alas it was not.

 

Go Bon Bon. How awesome of her to leave Kai behind to be vamp food for all the rest of his days. Jo and Alaric wer really cute to me this episode which only makes me sad that heartbreak is sure to come.

 

Stefan and Caroline's tit for tat was enjoyable and Candace and Paul oooze chemistry.

 

If Bonnie was able to get the cure does a new one magically comes each day ?

immortalfrieza

immortalfrieza

(edited)

Damon and Bonnie were excellent in this episode until that stupid cure showed up at the end.

Agreed, everything was good up until I saw that red vial, and then every swear word I know started running through my head. They wouldn't bring this back if they didn't intend to use it on somebody at some point, and I can't think of a single vampire character on this show whose actual character would benefit from be coming human again. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Stefan the one that wanted Elena to be human again, and that Damon was completely against it the entire time?

 

I suppose I shouldn't say everything was good, I also HATED that Stefan pushed Caroline over to straight up psycho. A humanity off vampire with some slight semblance of intelligence instead of just being mass murdering psychopath would have been interesting while proving that humanityless vampires are really responsible for what they do while their switch is off at least to an extent, and thanks to this we've officially lost that. Knowing these people I'm guessing that once she gets humanity back Caroline will probably spend a few episodes after hating Stefan and blaming him for every bad thing she did for no reason despite the fact that it was her that turned off her own switch and got Stefan to do it, and it'll also put a wedge into their relationship because they weren't "really" them when they had sex.

 

I think that's what I hate most about the humanity switch, it allows the writers to make characters into complete psychopaths for a while and allows those characters to be avoid any real responsibility for what they do while it's off at the same time.

 

Well, Kai is back in a prison world. Translation: The writers can't think of anything to do with Kai after this point so they're hiding him away for a while because having two witches around makes it near impossible to have any plot that can't be solved in 5 minutes with a spell. Like the two humanityless vampires that they could have had Bonnie use a locator spell on and had her snap her fingers and snap their necks so they could torture them back to humanity for instance.

 

Oh wait...

Edited by immortalfrieza
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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

(edited)

So let me get this straight - when Bonnie and Damon were trapped in the 1994 prison world, the grocery store magically restocked itself all the time so they were able to keep buying the same food every week but the stores in the 1903 prison world don't get restocked so Mama Salvatore has to ration the tiny amount of blood she has left? That makes no sense at all.

 

Part of me thinks that Elena is a selfish pushy idiot for inviting herself along to 1903 (not to mention that it could have been really dangerous - what if Mama Salvatore just ripped her head off as soon as she saw her?) but a tiny part of me is like okay, if I had the chance to magically time travel I would want to do it too.

So all that needed to happen to get Enzo to drop his pointless and tedious crusade, and become halfway likeable again, was for Alaric to call him sad? (if we can get Ric to squish a few more pointless storylines with other characters by insulting them, that'd be fab!)

Ha, so Alaric has turned into the Cordelia of the show? I would be totally fine with him giving people some truthful insults to get them to quit being so lame and boring (Caroline and Stefan should be next on the list if that's the case).

 

I will miss Kai's snark and hilarious comments! It would be great if he could somehow get a skype hookup between 1903 and present day Mystic Falls so that he could just give me some commentary on Elena & company every week. But based on the way he grabbed Bonnie, maybe he was getting back to his more Kai like self. Of course, now that she's left him in 1903 he is going to be SUPER pissed when he finally escapes which will mean no more Mr. Nice Kai.

 

I think Katherine just died of old age. So I think the cure will work on a vampire still in its original lifetime (Elena, Caroline…) but not old ones.

Yes, after she took the cure she started rapidly aging because she was hundreds of years old. That wouldn't happen to Elena since she has only been a vampire for a short time.

 

I mentioned this in the relationship thread last week, but my issue with the way the writers portray the humanity switch is they make it seem like you flip the switch and you instantly turn into a dick, which is not what actually happens. When you flip the switch, it just means that you don't care when you're being a dick but it doesn't actually CAUSE you to be a dick. They're trying to make it seem like the humanity switch is the equivalent of Angel losing his soul where he instantly became evil.

 

Lily is a vampire and therefore has vampire hearing yet Damon keeps saying things like "We are just going to use her to get Stefan back and then buh bye" knowing that she's in the house. Does he think she won't hear him? Is he hoping she will because he's being passive aggressive? Or does the show want us to conveniently forget YET AGAIN that vampires can hear things from miles away (despite the fact that in this episode Enzo heard Alaric's phone conversation from the other room)?

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Although I still think Klaus should be here, He would love this. forget about a triangle that would be a threesome.

Ha, Klaus would either insist on a threesome or kill both of them out of jealousy. Thanks for reminding me what a man crush Klaus has on Stefan, which I always found hilarious considering that Klaus has several brothers of his own.

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GraceAnne

GraceAnne

Oh good the cure is back again… Oh and Stefan’s humanity is off AGAIN!
It’s like déjà vu….

Everything this episode felt a little off to me.

 

Elena is not acting like someone who doesn’t have any of her preseason 6 memories of Damon.

 

Like most I have been enjoying Bamon this season, but something seemed different with them last night.
There was an awkwardness to Bonnie interrupting Elena and Damon that wasn’t quite in line with just walking in on two of your friends about to bone.  I wonder if they really are pushing the pairing or it’s just how the actors interpret the material.

 

While I love Caroline and Stefan as just friends, I think I could have (maybe) enjoyed them getting together if the writers had gone in a different direction to get them there.
IMO their relationship this season has been tedious to say the least.  I mean, I found it refreshing to see Caroline keep her personality and traits once she turned her humanity off… Why did she need to lose control and be just like Stefan and Elena when they were humanity-lite?   They still could have gotten together but with them butting heads it would have been a more enjoyable path.

 

 

Ha, Klaus would either insist on a threesome or kill both of them out of jealousy. Thanks for reminding me what a man crush Klaus has on Stefan, which I always found hilarious considering that Klaus has several brothers of his own.

Dude... I can actually hear Klaus demanding they both take their shirts off or he will ...... go pout quietly in the corner and watch? LOL

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CaughtOnTape

CaughtOnTape

So let me get this straight - when Bonnie and Damon were trapped in the 1994 prison world, the grocery store magically restocked itself all the time so they were able to keep buying the same food every week but the stores in the 1903 prison world don't get restocked so Mama Salvatore has to ration the tiny amount of blood she has left? That makes no sense at all.

 

Makes sense to me.

When they were in 1994, the day kept repeating itself.  So it would figure that the shelves would restock themselves because no one was taking anything from them because the day was starting over every time.

They didn't say that's what was happening in 1903.  (At least I didn't hear it)  They also never mentioned that animals, when killed, never came back even if the day did start over in 1903.  So it makes sense that once she went through all of them, they were gone.

Kaboom 2.0

Kaboom 2.0

Ha! Loved Bonnie getting her revenge on Kai and I say that as a card carrying member of the Kai Lurve Club. Also loved how she totally lied to Damon and Elena about believing that Kai perhaps has changed...and then literally stabbing him in the back a bit later and leaving him in 1903. I love Kai, the bubbly little psychopath, and really hope that he escapes 1903 and the Vampire Mummy Raisins (TM this site's show recapper). Hm sounds like a band name: Kai and the Vampire Mummy Raisins. He has to survive, right? Right?? He just has to!

 

Did anyone else think that Sarah's faking her amnesia or compulsion or whatever it is? At least Alaric's current blandness slapped Enzo in the face and snapped him out of his boring-ass weak vendetta against Stefan.

 

I'm actually looking forward to the havoc Mommy Salvatore must wreak now that she's out and about back in the world full of, to quote BtVS's Spike, Happy Meals on legs. I would actually laugh if she were to drive a wedge between Stefan and Caroline, all "hey son, let's go on a worldwide blood bender now that we're reunited."

 

I can't even with Caroline and Stefan. Pffft.

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patchwork

patchwork

(edited)

Could be that the idea of chasing down live animals and feeding on their blood didn't cross the minds of Mama Salvatore and her fellow upper class vampires.

 

I can't believe they brought back the cure, right in the middle of a switched off humanity storyline too. If it wasn't for the ageing thing I'd still say Stefan was the best candidate for being cured. Here's to hoping Mama S. goes mad without her friends and pigs out now that there's no reason to limit her feeding so they use it on her instead. 

 

I'm not sure what was going on with Elena in this episode, a bit of grieving orphan mixed with Meet The Parents? 

 

In a way I'm glad that without her humanity Caroline let's go of her control. I know there's a lot of recycling from Elena's trip down humanityless lane but flipping the switch is supposed to be a big deal and that's undermined if someone just has a case of the 'mehs'.   

Edited by patchwork
blixie

blixie

Uh I forgot they narratively came up with cure something that SHOULD (and still could in my view) have been interesting, and instead used it to defang and kill off Katherine Pierce for good AND render the cure itself useless and uninteresting. Fuckin Plec. I'd happily take any narrative retcon about that bit of bullshit,so we can see the cure go to anyone of them and not, plus given that dumbass traveler spell any sort of return to humanity should take the person back to their "death". Yup I've voting for lalalala retcon: per the cure. 

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TigerLynx

TigerLynx

I disagree about it being hate sex.. it seemed pretty emotional too me but considering I have liked all of Stefan and Carolines relationships plus I like the snark Stefan has. Although I still think Klaus should be here, He would love this. forget about a triangle that would be a threesome.

 

 

If Klaus finds out about Stefan and Caroline, I fully expect him to be bitching about not being included, and demanding the three of them travel the world together.

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PinkRibbons

PinkRibbons

(edited)

Three things:

 

1. I found Damon's dismissing the Ripper genetics as Stefan being a "Momma's boy" kind of hilarious when the whole episode was clearly about Damon trying to manage his own reactions to a mother he was clearly close to. I think he probably had a deeper connection to her than Stefan just by virtue of having had more time with her. So I hope they address the Ripper gene, 'cause I actually like that idea of it being like alcoholism (which may or may not be genetic, I know). IIRC, even memory-less Stefan had trouble with control, and I've always found the "psychological trauma-induced lifelong ripperism" somewhat bizarre. It also explains why he goes "bad" immediately on flipping his own switch; the dude is hungry all the time and now no longer sees the reason why he should be.

 

2. I know Lily is being introduced as being creepy and weird, but I kind of loved her reaction to hearing that Stefan murdered Papa Salvatore.

 

3. That damn cure. I asked this last time and I'll ask it again, why the HELL, if they can't decide who to give it to immediately, don't they break it open, have every learned witch they can find take a look at it, and run a full analysis on the stuff? Aside from the fact that that gives them a chance to possibly refine said cure to keep the taker from rapidly aging, it could also mean making more to go around. Science, people! There's no down-side for the witches; they seem to hate vampires as a group.

Edited by PinkRibbons
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roctavia

roctavia

I guess I just assumed that the grocery store was restocked every day- that things reset.... but maybe that wasn't the case.

It could make just as much sense that the store didn't get magically restocked when the day reset, but more that the food wouldn't spoil because it was the same day over and over again. So the milk and eggs for pancake making would still be fresh-ish each day and they just had to go pick up a new carton every so many days. We did see that the whole place didn't reset every day- otherwise Bonnie would have had to go get her bear every day... so while it sounded like they went to the grocery story every day (but I could be remembering Bonnie's comment wrong... and just that the pork rinds had been there every time they'd gone to the store for the last 3 months, vs they are here every single day all the time) maybe it was just that they went there regularly, since they didn't have anything else to do.  Afte 100 years they'd probably be running low on food... but not after a couple of months. Kai had only been there for 20 years and had a whole nation of grocery stores to eat from...plus planes and automobiles etc to get around.

 

Mama Salvatore did say something about butcher shops and the like, so they were doing animal blood. Have we seen any actual animals in the prison worlds? I could see there being none.

 

Or they are just making things up for the fun of it and not caring about any sort of consistency.

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Moo

Moo

From what I remember, Katherine was fine as a human until she was drained by Damon and Silas. It was then she started to age rapidly. But wasn't she also incapable of being turned into a vamp again? It seems like such a silly thing to do to one of the characters on this show, if indeed they plan to. And I can't help but think - what with the way DE were talking about human Elena v vamp Elena the other week - that it must be Elena who finally gets the cure. Perhaps a way to dredge up the old triangle for what's probably the last season of the show? That scene where the writers essentially said Human Elena Loves Stefan, Vamp Elena Loves Damon was pretty anvilicious.

God, I hope not. I like that DE are happy, kinda stable and mostly in the background while the real focus is on the plot for once. I don't want to go back to squeezing out pointless drama from a triangle that people stopped caring about 4 seasons ago.

I'm a little sad that SC got the DE treatment i.e. their first time together was muddied by questionable consent/intent. That sucks a little. But eh, they have crazy chemistry so I'll take it.

I like that Bonnie is treading on the dark side a little, but can we now maybe give her some fun for once? Kat Graham has a nice smile. It'd be nice to see it once every few seasons.

Mama Salvatore's veiny buds creeped me out a little, I won't lie.

I skipped Alaric, Jo and Enzo. Which sucks because I like Ric and Enzo. I just can't stand watching them do nothing.

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Oracle42

Oracle42

I kind of appreciated the idea of Stefan wanting Caroline to suffer for forcing him into such a shitty position. I actually think that Caroline has engaged in some fairly heinous emotional manipulation during the course of this "romance" and I don't like it.

It has occasionally felt like the female version of the "nice guy" with people telling Stefan how he should feel and being punished for not returning her feelings

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cynic

cynic

(edited)

I can't believe that I'm watching this show again. I don't understand some of what's going on since when I last regularly watched Alaric and Liz were dead and I don't recognize a quarter of the characters. The only thing that's been keeping me sucked in though is the relationship between Bonnie and Damon. Bonnie giving Damon the cure seemed to have a note of finality to it, like that signaled the end of their special journey together. I hope that's not the case, since I just realized that I could really give a flying fig about everyone else at this point. Caroline used to be my favorite character and I was kinda looking forward to her humanity storyline, but meh. Stefan was never that interesting to me and Elena just irritates me. The only time I actually like them is when they're having good emotional beats with Damon.

Edited by cynic
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scarynikki12

scarynikki12

By travelling to the parallel worlds (1994 and 1903), which are based off of the main one that our characters inhabit, they can access duplicates of whatever was in the main at the time they were trapped.  For example, in the main world Jo hid her magic just outside her family's house in that tree stump before Kai was imprisoned in the 1994 world.  People (including supernatural creatures) seem to be the only things that don't get duplicated when these parallel worlds are created, hence Kai being able to find the duplicate of Jo's magic in the stump.  By extension, then, every parallel world that was created after the cure was hidden away would have its own duplicate like 1994 did with Jo's magic.  So there could actually be countless vials of that cure, one per parallel world, that could presumably be discovered and used.  The show could easily reveal that there are tens of thousands of parallel worlds, one for each year of recorded history, which would mean there'd be tens of thousands of duplicated items waiting to be collected by anyone able to travel to them.  I don't think they will, mind you, but they could.

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sking24450

sking24450

Two things:

1) I thought there was only one cure, I don't remember anything about there being another one.

2) I didn't think Stefan murdered his father by ripping his throat out.  I thought Stefan pushed his father, he hit his head and died, and then Stefan fed from him.

 

Guiseppe was alive when Stefan started feeding on him.  Guiseppe attacked Stefan, and Stefan accidentally impaled Guiseppe and then the bloodlust took over and that was the end of Guiseppe.

Carrie Ann

Carrie Ann

I mentioned this in the relationship thread last week, but my issue with the way the writers portray the humanity switch is they make it seem like you flip the switch and you instantly turn into a dick, which is not what actually happens. When you flip the switch, it just means that you don't care when you're being a dick but it doesn't actually CAUSE you to be a dick. They're trying to make it seem like the humanity switch is the equivalent of Angel losing his soul where he instantly became evil.

 

I don't know how you're defining "dick" here, but I think the humanity-switch thing makes sense, insofar as anything really does on this show. Basically, the vampire thing on TVD, as I understand it, means that all of your emotions are ~heightened~ and your impulses are stronger, almost impossible to resist.They've shown that it takes quite a bit of self-control to stop from feeding on humans, and when vampires experience any negative emotion, they tend to...overreact. Your "humanity" is the only thing that would keep you from giving into your every impulse, and as a vampire, many of those impulses are bad. Your Ego/Superego is turned off. 

 

So if you're just referring to the personality changes--well, maybe that's a grey area? But what makes you "you," if not your humanity and your Ego? If all you are is a pleasure-seeking, selfish creature, it's hard to imagine how you could manage to do that without being a dick. Because the minute someone tried to get in your way, or bothered you, you would not react nicely to that.

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ByTor

ByTor

Guiseppe was alive when Stefan started feeding on him.  Guiseppe attacked Stefan, and Stefan accidentally impaled Guiseppe and then the bloodlust took over and that was the end of Guiseppe.

I just re watched that scene...wow I have no idea where I got the hitting on the head thing from!

And thanks Scarynikki12, that makes sense in show. Continuity from the writers, who would've imagined that :)

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slayer2

slayer2

(edited)

scarynikki12  I don't think that it's the end of Bamon 

Kat filmed scenes with Mama Salvatore today.

 

venusnv80  Have I told you lately that I love you? This episode was pretty great (and the ratings agree). I am so here for Bamon working together and for the sadistic little 1994 family that is Bonnie/Damon and Kai. I love how Damon didn't want Elena anywhere near their fucked up little family reunion with Mama Salvatore and Kai backed him up immediately like "You can't sit at our table." Oh the happy feels!

 

I realize a lot of this (like the amazing cock-blocking and Damon moaning Bonnie's nickname) is probably unintended awesomeness but I'm going to take what I can get. I also enjoyed watching Stefan and Caroline although not nearly as much as Bamon/BonKai/ BamonKai (and I'm still bitter at the glittery hoo-ha that is the Caroline schtick) but I feel for the Steroline fans who deserved better than two soulless, humanless assholes as their first hookup, it was the same kind of let down as Bonnie and Caroline's (non-) reunion which was basically all about Caroline. I really wish they would just let Caroline have her highly functioning year and bring her back to deal with things after, she seemed to be in pretty good grasp of things until Stefan started fucking it up.

Edited by slayer2
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vavera4ka

vavera4ka

Something makes me think that Mama Salvatore will go full on ripper again after her "family" isn't there to keep her in check. And gloomy Stephan, who totally needs another cloud over his head will feed his mommy the cure and watch her die. And then he will be guilt tripping the rest of the show until in the last episode Elena magically will make him feel better by smiling at him and saying "chill bro" and they will all ride off into the sunset.

miss-vanilla

miss-vanilla

I loved this one, this season is shaping up to be one of my favorites fast.

Where to start?

Everything Damon was just so so great, from him waiting for Stefan to arrive home in his fireside chair,to him tearing up the room full of rage at humanityless Stefan, to his cynical coldness to his mother whom he believed to be dead for over 150 yrs. 

I loved him teaming up with Bonnie to get rid of Kai, gah!

 

So torn about Kai, he is so entertaining, I found myself smiling like a great big idiot at at him catching snowflakes in his mouth, such a childlike thing to do, and that is how he has seemed to me, very childlike, which is why I am so torn about what happened to him, because I love Bonnie, but I get her POV too! Hmm!

 

I loved the macabre vampire dolls, I wonder who they are? I have a little theory brewing, that might relate to the Augustine roots, anyway, I am sure we haven't seen the last of them or Kai.

 

The Lily Salvatore story was very interesting, I can't wait to see what they do with her, I believe her backstory will be fleshed out in another FB episode, similarly, Enzo is going to be treated to some backstory, I wonder if this a coincidence? I couldn't help noticing the dialogue regarding the vamp dolls giving up their blood rations to save Lily from her ripperness, perhaps she/they knew or had hope that they would find a way out, or that someone might find them, and that at least one of them needed to be alive to save the others? I think it sounds very Damon/Enzo.

 

The Caroline and Stefan parts were light relief and entertaining, and I am glad that the show hasn't forgot that there are vampires in this show, so I enjoyed that especially the parts where Caroline handed Stefan his ass over and over, too funny.

 

Memory altered Elena continues to be a little superficial, and overly optimistic, but I guess she is supposed to be, she isn't really whole without the true memories of her past.

 

The cure. I'm not going to lie. I let out a huge groan when that was revealed to be Bonnie's gift to Damon for 2 reasons; 1) I wasn't surprised, 2) it feels redundant to revisit a story already told, but, I am warming to it's potential. This could be really good if done right.

 

So, all in all, The Vampire Diaries is back to making me excited for what is coming next, and that is a good feeling.

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