The Vampire Diaries - The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get - Review

Well, we all knew there had to be a catch in Elena's not-so-perfectly thought-out plan to have her memories of loving Damon erased by Alaric.  I'm sure some of us were just waiting to know what the reason would be why she ultimately wouldn't be able to get those memories back, given that Damon has returned and they'd sure come in handy.  That further Delena-frustrating twist came in this episode, along with (naturally) a huge change for Alaric.  Meanwhile, Jo revealed more of her personality and background, while Stefan and Caroline's complicated disputes continued.  And as Damon struggled to communicate with a changed Elena, Tripp continued to loom large as a threat to vampire safety among our core set of characters.

"You have no idea how long I wanted to hear you breathe."  Okay, lines like that are a little cheesy, sure, but they get me every time.  I really enjoyed the lavish sentimentality that was put into the Damon and Elena scenes this week.  It takes the edge of off the irritating, harder-to-believe as the episodes go by fact of Elena's voluntary memory loss.  Because instead of hatred for the man she sees only as a monster, Elena reacted to Damon's return more with nervousness and indecision.  Somewhere in her abyss of not remembering that love for him, Elena does seem to have a tiny little feeling, an inkling that's pushing her in the right direction - and I don't mean out the window.  So yes, the hands-on-opposite-sides-of-the-door type angst was oddly satisfying, while Damon's funnier antics were a breathe of fresh air to a previously awkward storyline.  I loved him drawing himself into Elena's graduation photo and checking his appearance out in the mirror in anticipation of seeing her again.  That preview for next week makes it seem like Elena will still remain painfully unaware of sweet flashback moments with Damon, yet she was ready to regain the memories in the very same episode when Damon returned, another good sign (like her panic over Damon in danger, as well).  Even though its start was somewhat hard to believe, I'm hoping that the memory loss storyline continues to yield sweet and moving moments like it did in this episode.

Where's Bonnie? That's what all the scoobies naturally wonder, especially Jeremy, what with Damon's return, but he and Stefan thought it easier to let everyone believe that Bonnie was in a different place from Damon during his absence.  Does Damon think it's just impossible to help Bonnie from the land of the living?  Maybe it is, and I have every confidence that she can save herself.  Damon showed little flashes of sympathy and guilt while lying to Jeremy about Bonnie finding peace, and even latched on eagerly to Jeremy's hobby of calling her voicemail just to hear her voice.  The bond forged between Damon and Bonnie in 1994-land is still just too cute and poignant, and it's quite interesting how clueless the other characters are that such a friendship could even exist.  Jeremy had another "Bonnie's gone" breakdown, and I keep waiting for the writers to give him something else to do than wallow.  He's one rung below Matt in the useless-to-the-overall-plot position in Season 6 so far.

Sarah's search Sarah is a fairly cool and intriguing new character, and I think she'll be more so when she gets to interact with her fellow Salvatores instead of just Matt and Jeremy.  She's still digging into her history and seemed unfazed by Matty's advice that she avoid Damon and Stefan.  I'm still in hate with that whole twist of Damon having killed Sarah's mother, and that's sure to lead to some unpleasant scenes down the line; it kind of interferes with the otherwise fun idea of introducing a new Salvatore, but it wouldn't be TVD without the melodrama.

"It's probably a good idea to stay as far away from me as possible."  But despite Alaric's words of warning, Jo just can't stay resist his hot broodiness, and who can blame her?  I really liked Jo a lot more in this episode than the last few.  Finally, we learned more about her: that she's apparently a witch, and that she's savvy and understanding enough to let Elena basically go about her business after witnessing her heroism last week in the wake of the corn maze car accident catastrophe.  Even Jo's slight stalkeryness came off as quirky and cute, while her rescue of Ric after he was thrown across the town line into deadly-to-vamps Mystic Falls was so admirable that it's hard to be mad at her for setting in motion that aforementioned big twist that means buh-bye Delena memories for Elena (not that Jo even knows anything about that).

Meanwhile, Alaric also had an awkward reunion with Damon that sort of broke my Damon/Alaric bromance-loving heart a little bit.  Aww, guys.  Well, it's no worse than when Damon actually killed Ric back in season 3, and they rebounded from that.  Anyway, it was pretty hilarious that rather than lashing out physically, Damon simply retorted to Alaric's decision to wait for Elena to say it was okay to return her memories by swiping his bourbon. Plus, Ric totally looked wounded by that, haha!

"So am I your last stop on the Stefan Salvatore apology tour?" The scenes between Caroline and Stefan this week were definitely more fascinating and deep than we've been treated to lately, which is something I know Steroline fans have been looking forward to.  From the slightly heated look they exchanged after Stefan grabbed Caroline to safety at one point, to their argument towards the end of the hour, the tension was palpable.  I don't know if Stefan is really incapable of reading any of Caroline's blaring "I have feelings for you!" signals, but at any rate he decided to ask what he had to do so that they could get past their recent problems and be friends again.  Caroline's response that she doesn't want to be friends after everything that's happened was just about layered enough to confuse Stefan even more.  But let's face it, he hasn't been in a relationship for a while, so all this stuff is kind of new again to him.  On the one hand, Caroline isn't over his ditching her and the Mystic Falls gang and lying about his investigations, plus trying to leave town last week (oh, and by the way, was anyone surprised that Ivy turned out to be more of a plot device than an actual character?) in the middle of that episode's drama.  But on the other hand, she also isn't emotionally prepared to just be friends with him due to her romantic inclinations towards him.  This situation should definitely be fun to watch unfold.

Overall, this episode had a winning blend of quasi or actual romantic drama and big plot shakeups, along with some steady new character development (mainly Jo, but slightly Sarah) and another heart-pounding big action sequence with Tripp's vehicle launching several of our vampy pals into Mystic Falls.  In addition to his scenes with Caroline, I also enjoyed seeing Stefan's continued reunion with Damon and his commitment to help his brother even if that meant helping Enzo as well (I'm hoping Enzo gets a bit more to do soon, btw).  The only drawbacks to the episode were the lack of Bonnie (not too much of a drawback though, since it only intensifies the suspense of what's going on back in 1994-land with her and Kai) and the continued boredom of the Matt and Jeremy roles. Alaric being human again is, as Elena was kind enough to observe, a wonderful thing to him in many ways as he really never got comfy with vampirism.  I might have liked to have seen a bit more detail of how he adjusted and the usefulness of his Original powers, but oh, well. I'm looking forward to seeing how the stories of Season 6 will continue to build!

What did you think of this episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments!  And don't forget to catch an all-new The Vampire Diaries, Thursday at 8/7c on the CW.

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries and Beauty and the Beast for Spoiler TV. She enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @VMaeFontana

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