The vignette
drive season five has started to cohere into a united narrative during the
final stretch of season five. The Vampire Diaries’ writers told the season five
in fits and starts, sidetracked by more exciting tales about mothers and
daughters and hijackings, eager to show more of Damon’s bad side from the 1950s
when a prisoner of the Augustine’s and how their torture of him created a
vengeful monster that killed off-screen during these last five years of focused
and determined writing that rehabilitated that character (if you will). Season
five, though, had a through-line nestled in its seemingly unconnected stories
that now connect: vengeance/revenge. Damon wanted to take revenge on the
Augustine’s for what they did to him. Tessa wanted to take revenge against
Silas. The Travelers want to avenge the witches curse. And so on, and so on.
The vengeance-driven characters create end-of-the-world consequences. Sometimes
the end-of-the-world means the end-of-the-world, or, rather, the end of the
other side; and sometimes it means the end of relationships—brotherly
relationships, sexual relationships, and so on. TVD combines both.
Enzo drives the
action in “Man on Fire.” The Travelers alerted him to the fate of his Maggie,
the poor soul that kept him human during the years of tortured confinement, who
felt for him deeply enough that she tried to avenge his death when she thought
Damon burned him alive in the fire he set. Enzo suspects Stefan murdered
Maggie. Her death modeled The Ripper style of slaughter: head detached from
body in an artful style. Savagery requires perfection. Enzo threatens Elena and
Bonnie; he threatens Liv and her brother. Stefan accepts blame for Maggie’s
death, and spares Bonnie from death. Enzo tortures him for a bit. Damon, having
received a call from Enzo, researches the night. The research jars his memory
and he then recalls the night he murdered Maggie. Damon’s murder of Maggie
devastates Enzo. His only friend in the world murdered his only love in the
world. TVD characters react in one way to trauma: flipping the switch and
creating chaos for those who care for the emotionless friend. Very few care for
Enzo in Mystic Falls, among them Damon. And “Man on Fire” becomes problematic
when Enzo flips the switch, and Damon’s emotional stability suddenly hinges on
the salvation of his dear, dear friend, more dear to him than Alaric, who once
was the dearest.
Damon’s arc this
season involves what tethers him to humanity. Elena keeps him sane. Stefan
keeps him sane. Alaric keeps him sane. Enzo, more than these three, was most
important to his sanity, to his desire to not flip the switch. The Enzo revenge
plot moves quickly through beats and important plot points to create the
important conflict, which is brother vs. brother. Enzo’s plan for revenge
involves pitting the brothers against each other. Enzo loses his mind as the
writers lose track of the story. “Man on Fire” bounces from plot point to plot
point with the direction of a ball thrown against a brick wall with no one
around to catch it. Enzo threatens Elena. Damon has murdered Elena’s brother,
has murdered Matt, has threatened their lives, has murdered many other people
for Elena’s safety, and yet will not resort to murder to take care of Enzo.
Part of Damon’s reason involves their sacred bond forged during their tortured
years in the Augustine lab/prison. Another part is convenient writing. Enzo
uses Stefan’s hand to rip his own heart out, making Stefan the killer. His
dying words remind Stefan of Damon’s reaction to the news. Enzo hates both
brothers at his death because he flipped the switch. Other Side Enzo stands in
the large Salvatore living room to remind the audience about purposeful
vendettas.
Damon’s
heart-to-heart talk with Stefan follows a wildly chaotic penultimate act in which
Enzo dies, Damon searches for him like an owner searches for a lost animal, and
Bonnie learns she’ll die when The Other Side disappears, and Stefan ‘kills’
Enzo because Enzo put Stefan’s hand in his chest. Damon threated Bonnie’s life
dozens of times in the series’ history because Elena’s life was in danger. Stefan
listens to his brother explain why Enzo’s salvation matters to him. The reasons
include their sitting together, talking. Enzo helped Damon forgive Stefan for
not saving him during the five years of his imprisonment. Stefan listens to his
brother tell him that he owes Enzo as much as he, Damon, does for their
relationship. The frustrating part about Damon’s fragile mind is his list of
suggestions to Enzo after his confession about his role in Maggie’s demise.
Damon’s pragmatic, calm, and helpful. He asks Enzo to let go, to do whatever he
needs to but to not hurt his brother or the love of his life. Yet he’ll unravel
upon learning about Enzo’s death, upon learning Stefan kept it a secret from him,
and he’ll do something rash that will horrify Elena but will be forgiven by her
within the episode or by the next.
Other
characters’ emotional development or lapse in development depended on new
characters this season, retconned in to fit a particular character’s emotional
journey: Nadia and Katherine, Liv and Bonnie, the history of the doppelgangers
and the history of Stefan and Elena, Aaron’s importance to Elena and his later
death at the hands of the vampire Elena loves most. There’s nothing inherently
wrong in introducing new characters that affect a character; however, sometimes
such plotting seems like a lucid dream that betrays itself as a dream when the
dreamer realizes that he or she cannot feel, touch, taste, or smell anything in
the dream—that there’s something off about it that doesn’t fit with the
continuity of his or her life. Enzo informs so much of Damon’s past life, but
he didn’t matter during the previous four seasons. So, Enzo didn’t inform
anything; he was a straw writers grasped for and created for x, y, and z
purposes. Nadia fit more naturally into Katherine’s arc because significant
parts of her life were not colored in on the canvas.
The first half
of “Man on Fire” reminded me of two episodes—one from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
and ANGEL. The two respective episodes told a similar story to “Man on Fire.”
Those episodes stand out in my memory, especially ANGEL’s “Damage,” because of
the way the writers depicted the past. The Vampire Diaries’ tone is
reactionary. It reflects the culture. The characters don’t think about their
actions. They don’t contemplate. Past actions mean little. “Man on Fire” could’ve
been way more than what it actually was, which an excuse for violence, for
conflict, for chaos.
Other Thoughts:
-The Travelers’
storyline is a drag. Markos wants to eliminate magic so that he and his people
can have a home. I’d actually like way less magic in The Vampire Diaries.
-Where was
Caroline?
-Michael A.
Allowitz directed the episode. I missed the names of the credited writers.
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