The Vampire Diaries "I Carry Your Heart with Me" Review

“I Carry Your Heart with Me” was a busy episode. Halloween ball. Stefan and Caroline tried to prevent Nora and Mary Louise from murdering the student body. Nora and Mary Louise fought. The audience learning more about each character besides ‘they’re English, hot, and lesbian. Bonnie had to raise the dead twice. Enzo asked Valerine to work with him to stop Julian from returning. Damon opened a bottle of old wine.

Obviously, the most important part of the flash forwards is not the Heretics running Mystic Falls or Valerie pining for Stefan or Matt Donovan’s heroic daily duties as the only officer in Mystic Falls, it’s the damn phoenix stone and everything that’s going to happen because Bonnie and Alaric used it to bring Jo back from the dead. The flash forward in this episode showed a happy Alaric Saltzman failing to fix a baby doll toy. Damon showed at his door step and engaged in frosty discourse with his best friend (probably former at this point) and threatened to murder him and his family if he didn’t invite him into the house. Damon derisively noted Alaric got everything he wanted. As usual the narrative returned to present day Mystic Falls with the dramatically flat Heretic story. What’s the gist of this week’s episode? Save Elena. Sigh.

Stefan and Damon argued about Damon making stupid choices for Elena. Stefan’s point is that Damon puts her in danger because he doesn’t know what to do without her, so he’s doing something for her. I don’t know. The scene was confused. The brothers also sort of turned against each other after one day apart. I think Stefan expressed frustration because Damon’s plans to get Elena’s coffin back, of course, put her in danger; however, Stefan’s so in love with Caroline that Elena and him don’t exist as a past relationship (and hasn’t for a few seasons, besides a small scene in the season six finale). Damon thought Stefan sympathized with their mom. Stefan said he didn’t. Most of the episode Stefan spent arguing that he doesn’t feel anything for Valerie and that he doesn’t sympathize with their mom.

The mother issue drops. Stefan and Caroline move onto distracting Nora and Mary Louise. I learned Nora’s the free and friendly one while Mary Louise is the conservative murderous one. Mary struggled to adapt to 21^st century. Nora hasn’t. Mary feels vulnerable about losing the only girl she loved, the girl she endured nearly two hundred years of love with during a year when society didn’t tolerate lesbians—much less vampire-witch hybrid lesbians. Mary Louise killed some folk out of jealousy, but Nora and her reconciled. Neither character became two dimensional during the story. The other Heretic, Bo or Beaux, disappeared.

Stefan faux-bonded with Mary Louise after he showed her a picture of an alive Oscar. Mary Louise showed nearly as much emotion for alive Oscar as she did for anything Nora. Enzo, Valerie, and the mute Heretic, plus Lily will feud with Nora, Mary Louise, and Oscar later? Stefan threatened to kill Mary Louise so Nora would break Caroline’s vervaine spell. So many spells.

Damon trying to resurrect Oscar meant way too little Oscar, unfortunately. Apparently, Damon’s been in a downward spiral since Elena entered magic fairy sleep. He returned Oscar, got Elena’s coffin back, and had Tyler bring her coffin to where he’ll eventually go to wait, until Stefan wakes him up in 2016. Sipping wine, sitting on a log, Damon wrote Elena a journal entry about carrying her heart with him, sipping old wine, the oldest wine, the wine he let age as he waited for Katherine to return to him, which is why he began drinking bourbon, and seemingly he associates the aging wine he sips with the sweetness of Elena’s return in another sixty years. So far, his downward spiral includes drinking aged wine. It’s not the stuff of season one.

Alaric’s another dude who’s carried Jo’s heart with him since her death. Valerie has carried Stefan with her. Lily carried Julian with her. Oh, so much metaphorical longing for someone by someone. Bonnie surprised herself by the ease with which she magically restored Oscar to life. Jo, too, was restored quietly. It’s but only the calm before the supernatural storm of nonsense ahead, which, if it doesn’t involve the Heretics, would be welcomed.

Other Thoughts:

-Holy hell the exposition in the second scene of the first act. TV writers have said exposition’s the hardest thing to write because it needs to sound natural, flow, and matter for the characters. I don’t think exposition works particularly well on TV. In “I Carry Your Heart With Me” it was egregious. Executives want it for the sake of new viewers. I don’t know.

-This episode marked the first ball/dance of season seven.

-Damon’s invested in Matt’s mortality now. Matt partially motivated Damon’s return to Mystic Falls. Could Matt be Damon’s best friend in 2016?

-Neil Reynolds wrote the episode. Jeffrey Hunt directed it.