Last night’s Vampire Diaries “Memorial” brought us back to what we love about this show. It had lust, angst, blood, violence, humor, and heart. It made you cry, it made you scream and it hit you with so many feels that sitting down to write this review today is really difficult, but I’ll try my darndest.
First of all, let us rejoice because Damon is back! In the opening episode of the season it looked like we were falling into the Season 2 style Damon who ignores what he really wants as a coping mechanism to deal with all his “feelings”, man does that man have emotion, but in “Memorial” Damon is back where he should be…with Elena, well sort of. Ian Somerhalder acted the crap out of this episode stepping into the role of the brother who knows what Elena needs. Their relationship overcame leaps and bounds last night. The rift their rekindled friendship caused between Elena and Stefan was the icing on the cake. Nina Dobrev was brilliant in that scene. She’s always brilliant, but we don’t see her fight with Stefan with such conviction very often. It was also refreshing to see Stefan show a bit of humanity. The mix of ripper and good Stefan that Paul Wesley pulled off in last night’s episode was what we have been waiting for in his character. Stefan seems to have finally finding balance in his emotions and his way of life.
Let’s talk about Damon at Alaric’s grave. It had me sobbing and I’m not ashamed. In Season 3 we caught a glimpse of what it would be like for Damon to be happy and Alaric was such a big part of that picture, that seeing him now just hit me where it hurts. Damon is right, he does have to look out for the kids. The responsibility will surely lead him to go on a bender at some point during this season, but it will be great to watch him take on the challenge. Let’s hope we see a new character emerge (or maybe an old one) who will appreciate Damon the way we do, because that is what he really needs.
Damon and Elena’s “blood sharing” scene was possibly the hottest Vampire Diaries scene ever, which is saying a lot for a show that has a character whose sole purpose is to be undressed. Sorry, but is there really any other purpose to Tyler at this point? Michael Trevino and Candice Accola have a great light chemistry that is fitting to their character’s relationship. Surprisingly, Caroline and Tyler represent the most functional relationship on the show. Think about it, at least they’re the same age. But, they have nothing on the electricity that occurs in every Damon and Elena scene. Now that Elena is a vampire the one thing she needs is blood and Damon gave that to her. In the end, Stefan and Elena may want to be together, but Damon and Elena need to. Elena drinking Damon’s blood was a beautifully gorey way to get that point across.
The one downside to “Memorial” was the introduction of the new vampire hunter, Connor Jordan (Todd Williams). After Klaus he just doesn’t seem to be much of a threat. The most interesting thing about him was his thestral tattoos, which obviously were a hint that he is more than what meets the eye. The use of a somewhat non-threatening villain in this season may work to the show’s advantage. Elena dealing with being a new vampire will be a central plot line and a flashy Klaus style adversary is more time consuming, but hey maybe Connor will turn out to be awesome. We were also introduced to Pastor Young’s daughter April (Grace Philips), who managed to stay out of trouble for 5 minutes. Will she be the next on Jeremy’s epic list of dead girlfriends? (Sidenote: the memorial scene at the end was beautifully done and had me in tears, but Jeremy listing all his dead girlfriends made me laugh. There are just so many of them. Poor Jeremy) It will be interesting to see how April fits into the already established group dynamic and what she brings to the table.
All in all, this episode was a favorite and definitely needs to be watched again. Things are developing quickly this season, I mean look at what has happened in just two episodes! The love triangle is alive and kicking and so is Matt Donovan who had his first hero moment of the season last night, when he let Elena feed from him. Go team Matt!
So, what did you all think of the episode? Is there hope for Damon and Elena? Will Elena go crazy on the human blood? Who is Connor Jordan and what does he want? Let me know in the comments.
The Vampire Diaries airs on the CW Thursdays at 8/7c
