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The Vampire Diaries - Do You Remember the First Time? - Review

15 Nov 2014

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This episode was definitely firing on all cylinders, from plenty of Damon and Elena romantic moments to rising Stefan and Caroline tensions and some awesome twists with the other characters like Bonnie, Jo, and Enzo.  I loved the whole thing and continue to be impressed with how well Season 6 is going.  It feels thematically fresh compared to the past couple of seasons, has given several characters a sort of reset, and keeps raising the stakes of the various plotlines so that one can't look away from the screen.

"I literally went through time and space to be with you."  Good heavens, this episode was jam-packed with swoon-inducing Damon and Elena moments.  This newest obstacle to their being together, her memory loss, has provided ample opportunities to revisit that feeling of undeniable attraction and bittersweet longing between the two that always makes their relationship so compelling.  
Damon was generally on a roll in this episode anyway, from yanking and plucking at the medical equipment in Alaric's hospital room to trying to re-woo Elena, with nary a one-liner left unsaid.  As for the sweepingly epic remarks on true love, those were around in spades, too, with Damon vowing that no matter how much pain he was in, he never would have given up his memories of Elena.  And, you know, some of his favorite memories include a dance at Miss Mystic Falls, a certain ice machine...and a previously unseen-by-viewers night in the rain (when Elena said, "promise me this is forever" - I die).

Although Elena, poor thing, egged on by the beguiling and untouchable fragments these memories posed as Damon recounted them, was willing to cross the damn border into Mystic Falls to try and uncompel herself, this seemed to make Damon draw back from their endeavor.  After all, the idea of Elena endangering herself just to get those memories back was enough to put him firmly back in Season 5 mode, saying things like "I love you enough to let you go."  Oh, no, not that emotional tug of war again!  But I think this storyline is taking us beyond the "I must be with you / You cannot be with me, I am evil!" push and pull of last year.  Instead, it poses some fascinating and very touching questions about the depths of love and if it can be taken back from beyond its own remembrance.  And as for Liam, who's just annoying as hell with his whole "something is weird about this Elena Gilbert" routine, I don't think he has much of a future with Elena anyway, since she was willing to risk death just for the chance to remember having been with Damon.  
Bonnie versus Kai - I knew that the situation with just Bonnie and Kai being left behind in 1994 was going to be awesomely fraught, as even having Damon there provided something of a buffer (mainly of sarcasm) between the two witches.  But now Bon Bon, tough, feisty, and indefatigable, is alone with a stone cold family-killing lunatic, and she is determined to prevent him from escaping.  Because she's amazing.  I absolutely adored the twist of having Bonnie hide her magic inside her bear, Ms. Cuddles.  Haha, Kai, for thinking you could use Ms. Damn Cuddles to try and worm your way into Bonnie's good graces.  Equally awesome was Damon's "aha" moment discovery of said bear back in the world of the living.  He knew immediately that Bonnie was still alive.  Now that Bonnie's magic is back in the real world, surely it can be used to help bring her back, too, right?  Who could possibly help with that?  Maybe someone who knows a little something herself about hiding her magic away?

Jo's family history, revealed!  Yup, speaking of hiding one's witchy mojo away, seems that Jo did just that some time ago to get a clean slate after some horrific goings-on with her family.  Later, she also revealed to Alaric that she has a scar from her brother removing her spleen.  Yep, all of you clever commenters who suspected that Jo was Kai's sister, you were quite right!  Fabulous connection, and I can't wait to see what happens when Jo and Kai are inevitably reunited.  Meanwhile, as Jo continued to grow on me with her sassy remarks and honestly expressed affection for Alaric, I also liked how Ric reciprocated her feelings and called them "a match."  There's something really pure and irresistibly cute about how happy these two seem to have found each other.

"My fingers were covered with blood and the touchscreen wouldn't work."  Enzo's been spending too much time tied up since he was captured by Tripp, but thankfully that situation was finally resolved as Enzo, Stefan, and Matt formed a bizarre team to deal with the problem of Mystic Falls' resident vampire hunter.  After a trade was arranged to return Tripp to his people in exchange for Liz's life, Enzo pulled a fast one by turning Tripp into a vampire secretly, so that he died upon flopping back down into Mystic Falls.  This was a rather darkly hilarious turn of events, confirming Enzo's apparent favorite hobby of turning people into vampires on the sly, and evidently putting an unexpectedly swift end to Tripp's shenanigans.  While Tripp's character was a bit unoriginal and repetitive, I was enjoying Colin Ferguson's performance and was surprised to see him go so soon.  I wonder if there will be any ramifications from his death, continuing the vampires-versus-humans issue he represented.
"She hates you because she doesn't hate you at all." Enzo was right on the money in recognizing Caroline's angsty romantic feelings for Stefan, which is beyond interesting, seeing as Enzo's clearly quite attracted to her himself.  In fact, that one look on Enzo's face when he heard Caroline's mom was in trouble and realized how she would feel about that and actually cared was kind of hot.  While Caroline said nothing to disprove Enzo's theory, she also declared to Stefan that the topic was never to be discussed again.  So of course, the millisecond things calmed down enough for them to have another heated debate about their friendship problems, Stefan wanted to know "why" Caroline had a "thing" for him and how he could have missed it.  Did he really "miss it" because his own feelings have been so confused and undefinable, or because, as Caroline suspects, he doesn't feel for her what she feels for him?  Stefan actually seemed to be somewhere between denying that he has no romantic feelings for her and not declaring himself either, almost as if he still isn't sure. 

Caroline's own explanation of how and why she had a thing for Stefan was pretty sweet, and we all noticed her extreme disdain and lack of comprehension of how Elena could choose Damon over Stefan back when that all happened.  It was neat to have her finally put the real reasons into words.

I don't know, as fun and exciting as these tense and unpredictable scenes are with Stefan and Caroline of late, I'm ready for Stefan to make a move, to admit his own feelings and actually do something other than standing there kind of dumbfounded by the entire situation.    And of course, Caroline's hyper-defensiveness is making it harder for him to go there.  Hmm.  I suspect we'll see some further strides made in this relationship soon, though.  I do love Caroline's way of putting things, such as saying that she has to hate Stefan because otherwise she has to hate herself for ruining their friendship.  What?  My head just exploded.  No wonder Stefan's intimidated.  Time to step up to the plate, though, man.

Elsewhere in the episode...Tyler and Liv are still adorable, but their puppy dog eyes were criticized by Luke, who warned that they might have to leave if summoned by the coven, and that invitation won't include Ty Ty.  Hrm, wasn't Luke totally shipping Lyler earlier this season?  

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
Recent Reviews (All Reviews)

23 comments:

  1. Another episode of mixed emotions-
    First the good ones-
    1.I like jo and alaric together.As they said themselves-weird and dysfunctional.
    2.Although
    everyone suspected for a long time now,it was nice to see the
    confirmation that jo is indeed kai's sister.Looking forward to the
    family reunion scenes soon coming up.
    3.Tyler & liv look good together,give them more screen-time.
    4.I loved caroline-stefan final confrontation scenes.Candice is killing it every episode!
    5.Although
    everyone knew tripp would bite the dust in this episode,i was surprised
    by the way he died.That was a total genious evil move befitting enzo.
    6.They
    explained the reason why elena's compulsion didn't wear off last
    episode or also showed the possibility of bringing elena's memory back
    by throwing her over the town border line briefly and then bringing her
    back.Good continuity there.
    7.I'm loving all the kai and bonnie
    scenes together.Kai has proved himself to be a worthy villain.Let's hope
    he sticks around for a while.

    Now the bad ones-
    1.Liam is
    right for calling on elena's lies but he is also arrogant,self-righteous
    and annoying completely unlike aaron last season.I'm not any shipper
    fan so that's not my reason to dislike him.I am pretty sure enzo will
    kill him before/in mid-season finale.He needs to go.
    2.The delena
    scenes were epic proportions boring.I am so tired of hearing how their
    love is so great.We get it,but we certainly don't need 30 mins of
    whining back and forth between them.The rain kiss scene was so forced
    and solely done for delena fan-servicing.It makes me wonder do the
    creatives even care about other sane fans anymore or not.I guess not.
    3.Still
    not feeling anything for stefan.He has been the biggest disappointment
    of the season.He has absolutely no storyline and now he has resorted to
    match-making for delena!God help us all!Urgh!Give him something to do on
    the show or get him off.
    4.I was kinda curious about steroline at
    the beginning of the season but i have now lost any interest i had for
    them as a couple.Every scene between them is forced and awkward.It's
    ruined completely.Such a shame.They worked so good together as friends!
    5.It was definitely not enzo's place to tell caroline's feelings to stefan.That was a dick move!

    Overall,i think this show has/had potential but their incessant need to satisfy the delena fans will the death of this show!Such a shame!
    BTW,great review virginia!Next week looks interestinf,so that's something to look forward to!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Joy! I am so with you on your list of pro's and totally agree about Liam's annoying qualities. I do think the writers could spice up Steroline a little bit. I feel like it's my own sense of wondering where this is going and affection for the characters making me care, more than the specific way it's played out so far.

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  3. I think it has something to do with the way they are portraying stefan's character.As u said urself,he needs to do something,pronto!Don't just stand there,man!This ain't elena,she is not going to be persuaded by your awesome hair and innocent looking face!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hate all the Delena angst and whatnot and I just find it totally unnecessary. I didn't mind them in the earlier seasons but now it's just so repetitive that I lost interest a while ago. I'd rather see Damon trying to save Bonnie, not stalk Elena. Damon finding the bear and finally remembering Bonnie was my favorite part of the episode.

    I have no problem believing Stefan missed it. Caroline expressed interest in him back in the pilot and he told her it would never happen and he only had eyes for Elena, but until this season I've never felt like Caroline had any romantic feelings for Stefan. It's just so out of nowhere for me and Caroline seems to be more annoying this season because of it. I don't think Stefan will ever love Caroline more than he loved Elena because he's always put Elena first - for 6 seasons now. I think the Steroline romance is boring and unappealing and it's destroying Caroline's character (for me).

    I'm not really feeling Liv/Tyler. I want to like them, but I just don't. I don't like that she killed that guy for him and I just haven't seen anything interesting between them yet.

    I did like Bonnie/Kai though. That's really the only thing that's interested me this season - I loved Bonnie and Damon being in 1994, and I'm liking the Kai stuff so far.

    ReplyDelete
  5. this episode once again focused way too much on delena...Idk how many people have to say they are sick of it before the writers start listening...the ratings aren't that great and i think a part of that is because of Delena....too time consuming...The best part of the episode was bonnie scenes, Enzo spilling the beans on Caroline, and Damon finding Bonnie's Bear (sooo freaking cute). but seriously i really hope they stop trying to force steroline...she will never be a great love and i think that will end up ruining things further more...i dont think he will ever truly be over Elena...just my opinion...i did love that my predicitons were right about jo being kai sister....now im thinking jo and liv are probably from the same coven ....wheels are turning on that one lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ya,the same gemini coven that was mentioned way before in episode 2 of this season.Liv,luke,kai and jo all are/were it's members.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ITA with you about how S6 is going. I'm in the minority in that I enjoyed S5 a lot, but even I have to say S6 feels really fresh and new, it's the show back on top form again IMO and I'm loving it :)

    This episode was another great one! I can't add to anything you said about the Delena part of the ep, which was beautifully handled. And I said this in the ep poll but OMG I never got why people wanted a rain kiss until it happened and then I swooned and swooned and thanked the twitter fanbase for being crazy and obsessed enough to make it happen.

    I love that people are loving Bonnie this season!!! I've loved her since forever so seeing lots more people enjoying her makes me happy. Enjoying the Steroline angst especially bc it's going to make the payoff soooo worth it IMO! Enzo is still an A++++ addition to TVD, he needs to stay forever.

    Liv has grown on me this season but Luke is still a "why are you here, tho?" to me. Hope whatever is coming with their coven will give him something a bit more interesting to do.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Once again I'm going crazy over VD. This episode was once more a great one and besides the first 2 the show really found it's vintage groove.
    People nag about to much delena again but this was just enough of delena. Esepcially when their development is handled so well. Damon being selfless waa so amazing to watch Ian killed it.
    People it isn't Steroline it's Carfan cause Caroline is the one calling the shots. Can't wait to see Stefan move forward and try to sway her. I assume Caro will be moved into the Limbo cause they can't be to happy to soon.
    I must say I called it I knew Jo was Kai's sister and can't wait for them to meet face to face.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ooh, good point about the coven...it's cool to think those plotlines are linked; it makes me feel like Luke and Liv could become more relevant, which is good too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Delena Rain Kiss FTW! I agree with your points on Bonnie and Liv as well, and hope the Steroline angst is going somewhere interesting. Love Enzo, too. The funny thing is that last season, Luke was more likable than Liv, but this year I like her and agree that Luke needs more to do.

    ReplyDelete
  11. LOL, you are so right, Caroline totally calls the shots! Carfan, I love it :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm going to keep this simple. I got Delena, Steroline, and Konnie, in this episode. That was great enough for me. My shipping and love of Steroline gets stronger by the minute, (more than it has even though I've shipped them for years) and dare I say my interest in them is still overriding my OTP. (Since mid of last season). I watched that hospital scene, Sooo many times since Thursday that iI lost count. Hell I watched it last night over and over til I fell asleep. It was like a bed time story. Hahahahaha I truly do believe that Stefan missed it. And I loved what Caroline said to him. BUT YES I AGREE WITH YOU!!! HE NEEDS TO STEP UP!!! I love a slow burn as much as the next person but....C'MON MAN!!! She's walked away from you twice already and you've put your head down in grief,guilt,disappointment, b/c of it. Lift your freaking head up and GO AFTER HER! The feelings are already there Stefan, just realize it already. And realize it before we have to go on break please. BTW....Concrete Angel...perrrrfect song. And Enzo revealing to Stefan, Caroline's affections, b/c he felt offended by her words...dick move. But I did love his line of, "She hates you because she doesn't hate you at all." I loved that.

    Loved Konnie (No I don't ship em, just really enjoy them). I look forward to how they'll interact now, now that Bonnie has no magic. Glad that Tripp is dead, and I do believe they'll be consequences to that, he's a Fell after all. Liam needs to be next, I really can't stand him.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hehehehe! Caroline Forbes calls the shots. ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you! Yeah, it's definitely time for Stefan to make a move, and I think that particular aspect has been making this story go a little slower than necessary, but it will hopefully all pay off. I love that "Konnie" has their own nickname; Kai's too evil for me to ship them, but he and Bonnie definitely have a fun chemistry and badassness in their scenes together! :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. YW. And AGREED on all counts!! But you know what it is, I think about Steroline? Why it's going Sooo slow? It's b/c we've been waiting for yrs for it! And it seems every freaking couple or none couple (meaning just a hook up and nothing else) has gotten together, accept the two freaking people that are MEANT to be together. So just them having THAT conversation this Thursday was suchhhh a relief!!! And def. A wait worth having,

    ReplyDelete
  16. WOW and I thought I was the only person that hate the Damon that just follows Elena, I DO NOT like this Damon at all. Looks like this is what we are going to get the rest of the season..ugh. I agree loved Damon finding the bear and the smile.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I guess I'm in the minority. I thought it was a terrible episode, with only two stories advancing — Damon learns Bonnie still is alive, and the audience learns for certain that Jo is Kai's sister. Everything else was water-treading, in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Whoever asked for a rain kiss, thanks! I really enjoyed it, and they looked like they did too. Nice acting for a couple who broke up in real life. And then Damon finding the bear, showing his relief that Bonnie is alive. Awesome. Damon's character development this season has been great, cannot wait for more. For me it was not too much Delena, the issue of the stupid mind erase had to be addressed, and the way the writers did it was good and consistent with his character. Bonnie and Kai scenes are ok, but I like to see team Damon and Bonnie again, and rather sooner than later.


    I hope Enzo is sticking around, love him and I think he has a thing for Caroline. I like Caroline falling for Enzo, because she has been always so uptight and a hypocrite, imo Enzo would be way more interesting for her character than Stefan. But I guess Steroline fans will get their wishes - also fine with me. I like Tyler and Liv together it is new and nice to watch.

    ReplyDelete
  19. they need to bring more depth to the twins and hopefully that is coming...I'm not sold on Jo being such a good person either...idk If Kai spared her because she was nice to him or maybe she was sick like him too...idk something isn't right with Jo...

    ReplyDelete
  20. I'm sure Jo probably is evil just like Kai...Something bothered me about the episode before when she wouldn't move Alaric...i feel like she knew if he died in Mystic Falls she could bring him back human...idk might be overthinking...she just looks shady lol

    ReplyDelete
  21. Damon was way more awesome to watch when he was the single bad boys with no worries...now he is just annoying and sad...

    ReplyDelete
  22. Seeing as how she is kai's sister and we still don't really know anything personal about her or her family & no body in mystic falls is what they say or seem like except matt,i can't out-rule her as completely innocent TBH.Let's see the flashback in episode 8 and then decide about her more.

    ReplyDelete
  23. That's a good point...I will feel so bad for Ric if Jo turns out to be evil!

    ReplyDelete

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