This week's episode of “The Vampire Diaries” was a rough one to watch, even with the fabulous 1960 flashbacks. I love it when we get not only greaser-chic Damon but early “Mad Men” hair, cars and wardrobe. It almost made up for the part I didn't really want to see (no spoilers in the opening paragraph, don't worry).
Yes, Enzo finds out from Sloan that Maggie didn't totter through the decades to a peaceful old age of grandchildren and rocking chairs, but instead got her head forcible removed from the rest of her body in 1960. I'm not sure I needed to see her head plop onto the pavement, even from a distance, but I guess that's what you get when you come at Damon with a syringe full of vervain bearing the Augustine brand. Maggie may have been the love of Enzo's life, but she wasn't the brightest bulb, either.
Still, Enzo is pretty sure she was killed by Stefan, which leads us in short order to a study session during which many people think they've hit the books, but probably fail whatever test they take. Stefan is trying to be a study buddy to Elena and Bonnie, but instead he and Elena end up in vervain-soaked bonds and Bonnie is stuck talking to that sneak Liv when she isn't being tossed around like a rag doll by Enzo.
It's surprisingly easy to get Elena and Stefan under control when Enzo recruits Liv to lay down some witchy spell speak, which she claims she's only doing so that Enzo won't kill her brother. Of course, Bonnie is the first to point out the obvious — the witches don't really want two dopplegangers around since the Travelers want them so badly, so she wouldn't exactly cry if Enzo turned either one of them into very attractive meat.
Of course, there's a complication in that plan — Stefan didn't kill Maggie. Damon, unfortunately, did the deed, as he wasn't really inclined to ask for her name before he squeezed her head off. This really does seem like a pardonable offense, given that Damon didn't know who she was, she attacked him, and hello, he's a vampire. But when Damon finally discloses the truth to Enzo, he's devastated. He's lost Maggie and he's lost his best friend! How can he go on? Oh, he can flip his humanity switch. Never mind! That works!
Enzo does exactly that, and even though he no longer cares about Maggie, he really wants some payback. For him, it's all an eye for an eye, and that means taking out Elena. As in, taking out Elena. He doesn't kill her right away, instead preferring to drag her around town to look for a good 2×4. She attacks, he breaks her neck, and lo and behold, Stefan shows up.
Enzo and Stefan duke it out until they end up against the side of a car and Enzo has the bright idea to smash open the gas tan and pull out a lighter — Maggie's lighter, just to make the scene extra meaningful. Enzo wonders if he and Stefan should just go up in flames together, but ultimately he has a better idea. Stefan sticks his hand into Enzo's chest and grabs his heart, but I'm not sure he has any big plans after this move. I guess he's thinking that Enzo will back off or plead for his life, or at least not drop a lighter on top of the both of them. I'm pretty sure, though, that he's not expecting what happens next.
“It will be a sweet piece of revenge when he finds out you killed his best friend,” Enzo purrs in his extra sexy accent. “Have fun sorting this out with your brother.” And then, he simply falls back, leaving Stefan holding his heart (and the bag).
Stefan doesn't have to clean up the crime scene, but he does have to call Bonnie and warn her that Enzo will be passing through, and then ask Elena (who Damon has gently picked up and delivered to her bed) not to tattle. As if Damon will even let Elena tattle to him.
But wait! That assumes Damon will settle for the excuse that Enzo ran off to Cape Town to kill innocent South Africans for fun. No, Damon assures Stefan that it's his duty to find Enzo and help him get back in touch with his humanity, because he did it for him and he owes him one and blah blah blah. Basically, this Enzo problem isn't going away — and not just because of Damon. It seems Enzo is now a ghost (thanks crumbling Other Side!) and he's going to stick around and make everyone miserable whether or not they can see him.
If that wasn't enough, it seems that Bonnie's going to die. She isn't going to give Jeremy a heads-up, either, because hey, it's not like it hasn't happened before, and she might as well try to enjoy her last days without being a drag on everyone. I'm not sure how many times we can have Jeremy die or Bonnie die, but I think we need to let her either stay alive (preferable, because I like Bonnie) or kill her off for good. This is exhausting. I mean, can we really do another Bonnie funeral? Everyone's going to say, eh, our black dresses are totes at the cleaners.
I'm hoping someone finds a way to stuff Marko back into the Other World before it collapses completely, because this week he came across as kind of a jerk. He turns Sloan into a vampire (using poor Tyler's body as a vampire-making Slurpee machine), then turns her back into a human, then kills her… because she used to be a vampire? Because we didn't have enough of a body count this week? No idea.
Marko claims he will have no vampires in Mystic Falls once he uses the doppleganger cocktail to reverse magic, but, given that Sloan had been changed back from a vampire, I think she could have stuck around. As Ian Somerhalder joked at the “TVD” press event early this week (and that I couldn't repeat until now), he was sorry to see her go “because she was hot.” I'm sorry to see her go because, well, no reason for her to go. But hey, either way, she's gone, gone, gone.
Do you think Enzo is being unfair? Were you surprised by how Maggie died? Do you think Sloan needed to go?