S08.E03: You Decided I Was Worth Saving

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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As Enzo continues to fight the control over him, Bonnie finds herself at the center of a deadly game and forced to make a heart-wrenching decision involving two of the most important people in her life. At the Armory, Alaric researches a mysterious artifact that he hopes will help in their fight to get Damon and Enzo back. Finally, Damon's downward spiral leads him to Tyler Lockwood who attempts to talk some sense into him before it's too late.

Promo:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

[prospazzinator]

Ugh. Of course these fools will forgive Damon for killing Tyler! Well, maybe not Bonnie because she seems done with his shit.

[2Old2BAFangirl]

Not loving zombie Damon for the final season.  It's not fun or entertaining.  It's just sad and annoying. 

And making it even less fun is the idea that he should be able to fight the ancient, mythological creature's mind control and blaming him because he can't.  It makes me unhappy with the characters I love blaming him and saying he's given up.  And has he really given up?  I don't know...applesauce penguin. So am I pissy with characters blaming him when maybe they're right?  I don't know. Not fun.

And then, to top it off, bring Tyler back for 2 minutes so Damon can kill him.  Great, like there wasn't already enough to hate on him for - yep pile on Tyler's death.  Not fun.

I will say something positive - the beginning Bonnie and Caroline scene was lovely.  The Wickery Bridge flashback was really cool, I'd love to see more of that night!  And the "Can't spell Damon without Damn" was awesome.  

Yep, that's it for me tonight.

[immortalfrieza]

Uh... has everybody forgotten that neck snapping a vampire knocks them out? I can think of at least 2 times where Bonnie, Caroline, and/or Stefan could have done that to Damon and Enzo during this episode alone not to mention this season in order to lock them up somewhere until they could deal with the Siren chick. In fact, they could just chain the two of them to a wall and drain them of blood so they desiccate until they can figure out how to undo the brainwashing. Enzo was an idiot in this episode (like everybody else in this episode) if he actually thought that Siren chick wouldn't turn around and have Bonnie killed the second he turned his Humanity off, I mean come on Enzo, you've been on both sides of the good guy/bad guy bridge and known more than enough psychopaths to be able to know that she'd do that.

 

Oh, and Bonnie? The next time you hurl your enemy out of a car and leaving them laying on the road unconscious how about running them over a few gazillion times to check to see if their immortality covers being reduced to ultra thin hamburger patties. Even if somehow it does (in which case Sirens have regenerative powers that put Wolverine to shame) she'll be out of commission for a good long while, maybe long enough for Ric to finish his research. Speaking of which, if you've got the means to capture her alive and you don't know how to kill her just find some dark dank hole in the middle of nowhere nobody ever goes to and some witches to seal in into it or maybe stick her in one of those prison worlds instead of just locking her in some room in the Armory where everybody and his mother escapes from, even if she got out eventually one of you immortal beings will have figured out how to kill her by then.

 

I've gotten used to and even have come to expect the entire cast having to be a total idiot in order for the plots on this show to work, but this season is idiotic even by TVD standards.

[TigerLynx]

40 minutes ago, immortalfrieza said:

I've gotten used to and even have come to expect the entire cast having to be a total idiot in order for the plots on this show to work, but this season is idiotic even by TVD standards.

This so much.  I miss Season One.

I'm also tired of the all powerful supernatural beings that can not be defeated in any way shape or form until the writers decide to finally kill them off or ship them off to another show.

So they brought Tyler back for two minutes so Damon could kill him?  Does this mean Matt and Jeremy will return to Mystic Falls for two seconds so Damon can kill them to?  Is Elena going to wake up to a bunch of journals explaining why everyone is dead - Damon killed them, or is she going to wake up to a bunch of journals explaining why they had to kill Damon?

[roctavia]

Tyler is back to being a werewolf again right? And I would assume in the years since he figured out how to control it again.... why couldn't he get a little bitey with Damon? It wouldn't kill him immediately, but it'd slow him down.

I agree that this episode had some stupidity in it... why aren't they tuning forking the siren all the time, or keeping her knocked out... Though with the way this show goes, she'd get her hands on the tuning fork even sooner that way, so I suppose it's for the best for now.

The Caroline/Bonnie stuff was nice... but I'm so over "bad" Damon, we've been over this too many times.

[cynic]

I don't have super high quality standards for this show, but man, the actress who plays the siren is really bad, like distracting bad. Her line readings are terrible and she's not believable at all. Worse, she has zero charisma, which is a big problem when playing a supernatural being who is supposed to be able to have people in her thrall.

3 hours ago, 2Old2BAFangirl said:

Not loving zombie Damon for the final season.  It's not fun or entertaining.  It's just sad and annoying. 

And making it even less fun is the idea that he should be able to fight the ancient, mythological creature's mind control and blaming him because he can't.  It makes me unhappy with the characters I love blaming him and saying he's given up.  And has he really given up?  I don't know...applesauce penguin. So am I pissy with characters blaming him when maybe they're right?  I don't know. Not fun.

And then, to top it off, bring Tyler back for 2 minutes so Damon can kill him.  Great, like there wasn't already enough to hate on him for - yep pile on Tyler's death.  Not fun.

I will say something positive - the beginning Bonnie and Caroline scene was lovely.  The Wickery Bridge flashback was really cool, I'd love to see more of that night!  And the "Can't spell Damon without Damn" was awesome.  

Yep, that's it for me tonight.

Yeah, there were some good things in the episode like Caroline and Bonnie's friendship and I also loved the moment between Enzo and Bonnie, but I'm so disappointed in the final season treating Damon like this, especially considering he's not doing it of his free will. After giving up on this show for several seasons, I was tempted back by the better treatment of Bonnie and her friendship with Damon. Well, where the hell are heck are they planning on going with their relationship now? I don't see them coming back from this and that is depressing as heck. 

[DigitalCount]

33 minutes ago, roctavia said:

Tyler is back to being a werewolf again right? And I would assume in the years since he figured out how to control it again.... why couldn't he get a little bitey with Damon? It wouldn't kill him immediately, but it'd slow him down.

He is a werewolf; he killed Liv in the S6 finale in order to survive Kai's onslaught, because she was dying already. However, as far as I know, the only control he ever had over turning was courtesy of Klaus' gift a.k.a. being a hybrid. Once Markos hit him with the power of "oops these characters are a bit too powerful" he lost the ability to control when he turns.

I wasn't a fan of Tyler's return just to die, and was he working for the Armory? Was that what Damon said? That seems like a logical place for him to be, I guess, but it would have been nice to see that at least a bit. The glimpse of Liz at Wickery Bridge was a nice touch. TBH, all of the S1 callbacks have worked for me. I guess I'm a nostalgic sucker at heart.

Speaking of S1, I'm ready for Bonnie to re-commune with the spirits already and start handing out migraines like candy. I actually thought that she was going to do so this episode. I guess the Obvious Tuning Fork That It Took These People More Than 2 Seconds To Identify (you're fighting a Siren, for crying out loud) needed to be shown in action, but they name-checked Bonnie's former witchy juju over and over and over this episode. Make the feather float, BonBon!

I had to chuckle at the fact that they identified how much of a loser/loner Enzo is. I like him well enough now and don't find the Bozo ship quite so annoying anymore, but I remember when he was the lamest character who just kept hanging around bizarrely beyond his expiration date (both in a literal sense and figuratively as well). He never really became the Damon Jr. he was intended to be, but I guess he's tolerable as another random who's part of the team.

Did anyone have a LOST moment when Sybil made that crack about Hearts and Minds? Pretty sure that was Boone's single focus episode, and it feels like a reference, so I'll call it a reference.

I think that to a degree, this season lost me on Sybil when they made her almost completely unconnected to everything that has come before. Most of the other overplot villains have tied into the previous ones. Katherine led to Klaus led to Esther led to Alaric led to Elena led to Silas/Tessa/Amara led to the Travelers led to Markos led to the Heretics. I guess the next link should go Armory, then Sybil, but the Armory just sort of...appeared, rather than growing organically from the story, and Sybil's involvement seems almost tangential. It was almost like it just happened to be her lucky day when the MF group did something dumb that released her. I am glad that they seem to be hinting that there's a method to her madness beyond just being powerful, so hopefully it's revealed what she wants and how she plans to acquire it soon.

[GaT]

Was this really only the 3rd episode of the season? I am so over Sybil the Siren it feels like she's been here for at least 30 episodes. The plot is boring & stupid, & I feel like I missed something, where did Tyler come from? Why is Damon trying to kill him? Tyler was talking like he knew about Sybil, when did he find out? What am I missing?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Man, did everyone take stupid pills? I was rolling my eyes at these dummies like every five minutes. Look, Stefan, I am glad that you are childproofing the house so it's safe for the twins to come over (ahem, unlike CLAUDIA AND ALARIC), but even under the best circumstances, people are constantly strolling into your house and attacking the Scooby gang, so clearing out all the weapons and ammo is not a good idea unless you want everyone to die in the near future.

Great, Bonnie was smart enough to slam on the brakes and eject Sybil but then she just left her on the street? Run her over a few more times and then throw her in the trunk of the car bound and gagged. Later why did they bring her to the armory instead of just KILLING HER? This is going to end the same way it did every time they chained someone up in the Salvatore dungeon: escape and mayhem  

I have never been a big Tyler fan (mostly because I thought he was one of the weakest actors in original cast) but dude, bringing him back just to have Damon kill him? That is fucking weak penguin applesauce.

I was fine with Bonnie choosing Enzo, but I got annoyed when she tried to guilt trip Stefan about the fact that he would have protected Damon at any cost. Look, it's easy for her to be judgmental when she has no siblings, but I would defend my sisters over just about anyone else no matter what they did. Maybe that's not fair but that's family. Would Bonnie get mad at Elena for always protecting Jeremy and trying to save him? I know that it's not exactly the same because Damon has done a lot of terrible things but I'm pretty sure that even if Jeremy went totally psycho, Elena would never stop trying to save him even if it meant sacrificing one of her friends. She would cry pretty tears and whisper, "I'm sorry," and then choose Jeremy every time.

I can't believe that this is only the second episode where Sybil really had dialogue (I think in the first episode of the season, she just emerged from the water at the end) because it feels like she's been here forever and not in a good way. She really brings down every scene that she's in with her bad acting. It's painful to watch and it makes me dislike her character even more. I resent that she's taking up so much time with her stilted wooden line readings.

The best part of this episode was Caroline rolling over in bed and Bonnie scaring her which was hilarious and awesome.

Edited November 5, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Aeryn13]

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I was fine with Bonnie choosing Enzo, but I got annoyed when she tried to guilt trip Stefan about the fact that he would have protected Damon at any cost.

I thought this was pretty ridiculous. A staple of this show is the extreme "me and mine" attitude everyone has. How many times have we gotten a "fuck you random vampire(s), witche(s), werewolve(s), human(s)" moment because they needed to screw them over to save one of the core group. That was literally the point when they killed one of Tyler`s hybrid friends to ultimately help Elena. They always had that hierachical thinking.

Bonnie chose Enzo because he is the one she loves best, Stefan chose Damon for ditto reasons. Since Stefan doesn`t really love Enzo, she expected him to love Bonnie more than Damon so on that account he would choose her happiness? Not how this works. If it had been Damon and some random other dude, Bonnie would have chosen Damon as well.  

Somehow I`m not entirely convinced this isn`t a fake-out with Tyler. They never really knew what to do with the character but to bring him back for a weak-ass cameo and then swiftly kill him off seems a bit lame for a character who has been with the show since the Pilot. I mean we`re not talking someone like April here.   

[Primetimer]

She's not a manatee, but she's the pure evil this show needs as it gears up for the end times.

View the full article

[TigerLynx]

I kept expecting Tyler to use vervain or do something when Damon was biting him.  I can't believe they had Tyler trying to talk to Damon.  Maybe Damon would listen to Stefan, Elena, Alaric or Bonnie (although Damon has been shown several times to not listen to any of them either, and that wasn't when he was under mind control), but why would Damon listen to Tyler about anything?

It would be nice if this SL was some kind of fake out, and Damon was only playing along with the Siren in order to ruin her main plan, but smart Damon exited the show sometime in Season Two, and he's only made very rare appearance since then.

[Aeryn13]

Something I don`t get about the stupid off-switch (again) is that Damon is clearly motivated by fear of hell. How the hell does it fear it with his emotions off? Shouldn`t he be entirely blasé about it?

[Goldmoon]

So is Georgia the siren's sister, or is it the nanny?  I'm betting on the nanny.  Georgia is too annoying to know how to cultivate male interest.  Missed the first several minutes.  I don't think Damon can kill Tyler unless he takes out his heart, but he seemed invested in drinking werewolf blood.  Well, we don't tune in for the intelligent writing.

[lorbeer]

I never liked Tyler and the actor who plays him but geee in this episode he looked SO HOT...

[TigerLynx]

1 hour ago, Aeryn13 said:

Something I don`t get about the stupid off-switch (again) is that Damon is clearly motivated by fear of hell. How the hell does it fear it with his emotions off? Shouldn`t he be entirely blasé about it?

I've never understood the switch.  However, the reason I wondered if Damon was faking being afraid of the Siren is because whether Damon's switch is on or off, Damon has never been afraid of dying or being tortured.  Damon routinely laughs when people torture him, and taunts them to kill him.  Damon has been happy to tell every villain on the show that they can torture him, and kill him in the most painful and horrible way possible, and he still won't tell them what they want to know.  When Damon and Bonnie were left behind on the other side, and it was being destroyed, Damon wasn't afraid.  He told Bonnie he knew he wasn't the person she would want to die with or be stuck in a hell dimension with (something like that), but at least they wouldn't be alone.

[Cattitude]

That was in competition for the worst episode EVER in my book. That Damon Civil War groundhog day episode beats it narrowly b/c I couldn't even watch half of that one and I did sit through all of this one.

There was no cohesive story to speak of who wrote that one? I did see KW influences in the Enzo vs. Damon battle which I liked. I like the vampire superskills in use.

I'm with TigerLynx that this some kind of fake-out and Damon didn't really kill Tyler. Plus why did Tyler bring a GUN to a vampire battle? Sure it might have wooden bullets but with vampires stakes trump guns every time. Tyler is not that dumb. As far as werewolf blood and bites. Werewolves are only dangerous to vampires on a full moon when in transition or wolf form. All other times they are no stronger than a human.

I'm over everyone guilting Stefan about choosing his brother. It makes sense Bonnie would choose Enzo just as much as it makes sense Stefan would choose his brother. The kicker is Stefan would probably choose Damon over Caroline while Damon would always choose Elena over even Stefan. If people would to bag on Damon for something THAT is the thing to do.

I also didn't see why Bonnie didn't use her link to Elena as leverage against Sybil. It is obvious Elena would be a much more bothersome person to Sybil than Bonnie and killing Bonnie would awake the one thing that would assure she'd loose Damon.

[Aeryn13]

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It's one thing to have no fear of somewhere you have no theoretical understanding of. It's another to actually know what that end is. 

Didn`t she show it to Enzo, too? He didn`t seem particularly bothered.

Then again, hell on this show so far is a pretty weird concept. Apparently Katherine got sent there. Which, fair enough. But if she goes, half the main cast should go as well. And by Georgie`s account, she did make a very big, dumb, tragic mistake, yes, but if that is enough to earn you actual hell? Then the entire main cast has earned it by this point. Every single one of them has done at least one thing just as bad or worse than causing a tragic car accident by neglience. Give me a break.

That said, one moment I really liked in this ep was Georgie getting to see supernatural events. It`s only amusing for a short while if you have a character who is not "in the know" when an entire clubhouse basically is. She is talking mythological stuff and Alaric wants to actually strategize about the newest supernatural problem. It reminded me of that rebound!dude Elena briefly dated in Season 6 at Thanksgiving dinner.  

Edited November 5, 2016 by Aeryn13

[GaT]

9 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I have never been a big Tyler fan (mostly because I thought he was one of the weakest actors in original cast

Aww, have you forgotten when Klaus was in Tyler's body?  Michael Trevino killed that.

[TigerLynx]

Didn't Damon and Stefan go through some sort of torture hell when they were trapped in the stone?  Being tortured, dying, going to hell, none of that has ever bothered Damon before.

At this point, with the number of completely unkillable supernaturals (don't get me started on how much I dislike that concept) that they have dealt with, they really should have come up with a better plan than let's wing it until we figure things out.  This has happened way to often, and the luck of them surviving when they should be dead is almost as annoying as everyone having to be an idiot in order for the writers to move the plot along.

[srpturtle80]

After seven seasons, for some reason I feel obligated to see this through to the end... but good grief they aren't making it easy for me. This siren chick is absolutely painful to watch. I cannot express how much I HATE this storyline, and pretty much the only thing I care about now are Bonnie/Enzo, so I'm not sure if I can make it through lol.

[Bort]

7 hours ago, Aeryn13 said:

That said, one moment I really liked in this ep was Georgie getting to see supernatural events. It`s only amusing for a short while if you have a character who is not "in the know" when an entire clubhouse basically is. She is talking mythological stuff and Alaric wants to actually strategize about the newest supernatural problem

I liked that too. Plus, Georgie saw Caroline vamp-speed up and kick someone in the head, someone that she knows is Alaric's ex and (as far as she knows) the mother of his children. 

[HunterHunted]

Why was Sarah "R.I.P." Salvatore smart enough to walk around with vervain, but these fuckwits don't even have rope, chains, or vervain.

Does Sybil or Julie Plec understand that if Sybil keeps substituting herself for people in Damon's memories that his memories will be swiss cheese and none of his "feelings" for Sybil will make any sense. At first she replaced Elena, but now she's altered his memories so he never meets Elena. What did she do with his other Elena memories? What about Katherine? Now that she's substituted herself for Bonnie, why would Damon be so eager to escape the prison world? And if Damon was so in love with Sybil/Elena why was Sybil/Bonnie trying to stop and or kill him for all of those years? It would have been a little better if she just erased all of his good memories.

Why bring Michael Trevino back just to kill Tyler 2 minutes later?

[MadamWrinkleFace]

Isn't Tyler a hybrid, and can't hybrids only be killed by removing their hearts or heads?

[Aeryn13]

No, Tyler was "cured" from being a hybrid and came back as human in the Season 5 Finale. He ended up a werewolf again in Season 6.  

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Does Sybil or Julie Plec understand that if Sybil keeps substituting herself for people in Damon's memories that his memories will be swiss cheese and none of his "feelings" for Sybil will make any sense.

No kidding. How does Damon remember situations where both Elena and Bonnie were present? Is it all Spartacus I mean Sybil now? How does he remember the first 3-4 Seasons at least without Elena? She was the plot impetus for fucking everything.

Considering the theme of the Season, it is deeply ironic that it went to hell in a handbasket so fast. Sigh. 

[Artsda]

They brought Tyler back just so Damon could kill him?

Yet probably Stefan/Caroline/Bonnie/Alaric and especially Elena will be "oh poor Damon, he didn't know what he was doing so it wasn't his fault."

Disgusted.

[Aeryn13]

I think Tyler might die but I`m not too sure this was the scene. It reminded me of when Silas was sucking Katherine dry and they did the dramatic pan on her fading away before the viewer`s eyes. And then, psyche, she survived it. 

If the writers wanted to make it clear-cut, they would have had Damon rip out his heart or take off his head or anything they can`t wriggle out of. 

[roctavia]

10 hours ago, MadamWrinkleFace said:

Isn't Tyler a hybrid, and can't hybrids only be killed by removing their hearts or heads?

I don't think he's a hybrid anymore... remember, he got turned back human... and was trying to avoid killing someone so he didn't have to be a werewolf... but then killed Liv so he could survive Kai...  So now he's just a regular werewolf.

[prospazzinator]

23 hours ago, Cattitude said:

I'm over everyone guilting Stefan about choosing his brother. It makes sense Bonnie would choose Enzo just as much as it makes sense Stefan would choose his brother. The kicker is Stefan would probably choose Damon over Caroline while Damon would always choose Elena over even Stefan. If people would to bag on Damon for something THAT is the thing to do.

While Bonnie's choice was not particularly interesting, I would love to see how Stefan would choose at this point if it were down to Damon or Caroline. 

[Aeryn13]

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 I would love to see how Stefan would choose at this point if it were down to Damon or Caroline. 

In a choice of strictly who gets to live, hm, I think Stefan might choose Caroline but couldn`t live with the choice himself afterwards and kill himself to join Damon in the afterlife.

If it is about choosing one relationship over the other, IMO Damon wins because he trumped even Elena. If Stefan thinks he has to do something to save Damon that he knows will ruin his relationship with Caroline, he will do it. He was fully ready to destroy his relationship with Bonnie here and I don`t think he considers that meaningless either though it`s not on the same scale as Caroline.

Since Sybil correctly identified that Bonnie was holding Enzo back in the end and Stefan couldn`t let go of Damon, I wondered why she didn`t try to rework Defan memories. I mean, she was still in Damon`s mind. And she obviously still has a hold of his mind despite her physical imprisonment.

Too bad they didn`t have a Peloponesian around. Enzo`s look when she said that was hilarious.

[miss-vanilla]

Ok, this episode took a step backwards for me, probably because I'm a tad confused as to what the heck is going on. More particularly what is Damon doing and how is Sybils mind control working on Damon and Enzo?

As far as I could tell, both of them were within her thrall, unable to resist her mind control hence why they were murder buddies on the rampage. They had no free will and therefore no choice but to do her bidding but Enzo can refuse and keep her at bay now? So why has he been murdering all Summer then? Apparently Enzo can prevent her from seeing inside his head but Damon can't, why? If she can't get to Enzo how has she been controlling him?

Damon has no humanity so therefore can't care, but he could fight against the control too if given the right motivation, yet he allowed Sybil into his mind which allowed her change all his memories. Why didn't he fight that? Is it because he can't care? Will the same happen to Enzo now that he has lost his humanity?

Also, Damon does not remember Elena but when Stefan mentions her "I'm not going to let Elena wake up to the fact that you killed her best friend" he seems to know exactly who Elena is because doesn't say who is Elena?  Everyone spends time pleading with Damon to fight but not one person uses Elenas' name to leverage him, really? Stefan knows it worked before when Damon was about to snap Sarah Salvatores' neck, so why did no-one think to use Elena to snap him out of his funk? Tyler alluded to her but he didn't directly say her name and neither did Bonnie.

I don't understand the final scenes either where Damon is driving away then he seems to be feeling some mind control, then suddenly he is lying in the middle of the road again and killing Tyler. Was all that real or was it part of Sybils mind control? Ughh!

I guess I'm tired of seeing Damon (yet again) vilified by the writing and doing the heavy lifting for the sake of drama and angst. So far he has attacked Caroline, Bonnie, Stefan, Enzo, Sarah Salvatore and Tyler while Enzo has been left relatively unscathed (only allowed to be seen killing randoms). Why? Are they planning on redeeming Enzo whilst condemning Damon to the role of villain for eternity after 8 seasons of story telling? I hope not, I hope we get to see some evidence that Damon is playing some clever game behind the scenes otherwise I think I will be truly disappointed if the this ends up being the outcome for Damons' character after all.

This was a cruel episode pitting the gang against one another in sadistic ways, I hated it and found it all a bit sick tbh. I hope they move this on at a quicker pace going forward since I feel we didn't really advance the plot that much at all.

Edited November 6, 2016 by miss-vanilla

[Aeryn13]

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I guess I'm tired of seeing Damon (yet again) vilified by the writing and doing the heavy lifting for the sake of drama and angst. So far he has attacked Caroline, Bonnie, Stefan, Enzo, Sarah Salvatore and Tyler while Enzo has been left relatively unscathed (only allowed to be seen killing randoms). Why? Are they planning on redeeming Enzo whilst condemning Damon to the role of villain for eternity after 8 seasons of story telling?

This is like the 107th "Damon goes off the rails evol" arc they have done and I really have no idea what the purpose is anymore. After following the character for so long and being asked to get invested, I, too, would find it sad if the conclusion was just "yup, evol". That`s it? Could have resolved that in Season 1 then. 

But moreso, it is repetitve. They could have explored the idea of the Siren and hell and damnation without this gimmick. I would have loved to see the gang all working together for the final Season without the manufactured angst. Or, they could have just done it with Enzo and focused on Bonnie that way. Build the couple more. Build the friendship with Bamon and Denzo more.   

And  it`s not even fun. Charismatic jovial evil-doers can be fun but mind-controlled, Puritan-level-of-heal-fearing evil just comes across as bland. After having high hopes for Sybil to be a new and intriguing kind of creature, she disappointed me here. Stereotypical mean girl evil character with superpowers. 

[DigitalCount]

On 11/5/2016 at 7:49 AM, Aeryn13 said:

Somehow I`m not entirely convinced this isn`t a fake-out with Tyler. They never really knew what to do with the character but to bring him back for a weak-ass cameo and then swiftly kill him off seems a bit lame for a character who has been with the show since the Pilot. I mean we`re not talking someone like April here.   

Responding in the all-seasons thread.

[miss-vanilla]

2 hours ago, Aeryn13 said:

This is like the 107th "Damon goes off the rails evol" arc they have done and I really have no idea what the purpose is anymore. After following the character for so long and being asked to get invested, I, too, would find it sad if the conclusion was just "yup, evol". That`s it? Could have resolved that in Season 1 then. 

But moreso, it is repetitve. They could have explored the idea of the Siren and hell and damnation without this gimmick. I would have loved to see the gang all working together for the final Season without the manufactured angst. Or, they could have just done it with Enzo and focused on Bonnie that way. Build the couple more. Build the friendship with Bamon and Denzo more.   

And  it`s not even fun. Charismatic jovial evil-doers can be fun but mind-controlled, Puritan-level-of-heal-fearing evil just comes across as bland. After having high hopes for Sybil to be a new and intriguing kind of creature, she disappointed me here. Stereotypical mean girl evil character with superpowers. 

There doesn't seem to be much purpose at all. The overuse of reducing characters to mindless shells of themselves is pointless and overused. Like you said, it's not even fun. Damon is most fun when he is walking the fine line of his dubious morality with full agency and don't give a crap attitude. This version of him is resigned, morose and defeatest, the exact opposite of fun. Stefan for once called it spot on, he is a drone. If we are to take the writing at face value then I am disappointed. If they are going to take Damon to the darkest place, like he was in S1, they could at least make him exciting to watch but currently i'm just frustrated and quite frankly bored now. Who cares what Damon does, he isn't in control so therefore it's meaningless.

I'm also sick of this "you need to fight" mantra. What? 

Since when has any of them been actually able to fight against mind control in any of it's forms? I was hoping to see a different spin on this type of storyline but as far as I can tell, the Sirens mind control is pretty much compulsion repackaged, so was Bonnies' urge to kill vampires last season.