Several weeks
passed since Lily’s death. Damon and Stefan traveled to the other side of the
country in search of Julian. While searching, Stefan urged his brother to feel
something about Lily’s death. “You’re in denial.” Damon, with a scowl, denies
the denial. During the beautiful burial scene for Lily, beautiful for the
cinematography (the white snow against the night illuminated by the light from
the torches was the prettiest this show looked in awhile), Damon offered a
simple eulogy for his mother in which he stated his mother was terrible in her
life and un-life.
The only thing
that’d transform Damon in the time between now and three years from now would
be a descent to hell where he confronted his atrocities on a loop, and the only
thing that’d send him to that specialized specific hell is Julian’s sword with
the phoenix stone fixed in the end of it. Julian, like many villains before
him, talks more about stabbing Damon than he doing it. Multiple times he chose
to soliloquize instead of stab. Only when Julian’s facing off against the
brothers does he act. He struck quickly. Nora took care of Stefan at the very,
very end of the episode, with Caroline watching, to further set up what happens
three years from now.
Damon’s first
words to Lily three years from now, as he sat strapped to the chair in the
Dallas newsroom, gained poignancy. A reflective and mournful Damon living his
life in the physical world did not prompt it; a tortured hell transformed him.
Either way, he gained perspective. The phoenix stone is a tricky plot device.
Perhaps Stefan’s soul returned to Damon’s body, or vice versa; however,
Stefan’s with Valerie in the flash-forwards and Damon’s…Damon. Presumably,
Bonnie, after botching her first try at restoring souls, got better at it in
the time that’ll pass, narratively, between “Cold as Ice” and the January 29th
episode.
Stefan expressed
terrible regret for not letting go of his need for vengeance against Julian
minutes before Nora magically emerged from nothing (cloaked) to stab him. Damon
advising anyone to let go should be as notable as a kangaroo helpfully advising
tourists to be mindful of the goods and services tax when purchasing mementoes.
Nora was briefly written as an actual character before she devolved to her former
plot device identity. She retaliated because Stefan and Valerie used Mary
Louise as bait. Nora, earlier in the evening, thanked Bonnie for helping her
transition from dependent Heretic into independent Heretic. She spent her day
giving toys to tots. She resisted returning to Mary Louise, but Heretics can’t
become buds with the Mystic Falls crew. Anyway, Stefan’s regrets, his sadness
about losing his mother and Damon weeks apart, was the second best scene of the
episode.
The episode
ended before Caroline reacted. “Cold as Ice” showed a Caroline craving human
flesh hardcore. Every vampire instinct has been enhanced by the magical
pregnancy. Her and Alaric talked about what to do for magic twins. Can Caroline
feed on blood? Will the blood hurt the babies? I wanted Alaric to respond, “No.
Blood is life. Spike talks all about it in “Lover’s Walk.” In ANGEL, Darla
carried a baby though she was a vampire and dead. The wonderful twist to her
magical pregnancy is that she didn’t give it life; he gave her life; so, rather
than returning her vampire life wherein she’d gradually forget the love her son
filled her with, she staked herself to give him life. Vampire pregnancy
storylines shouldn’t happen after ANGEL absolutely nailed it over a decade ago.
Caroline visited
her mother’s grave. She laid a wreath on the grave, and then she opened her
heart about her anxieties, and she reiterated that she misses her. The scene’s
the best in the episode. The falling snow, the low light, gave it a mournful
and contemplative quality. Carolin is, essentially, alone. Stefan’s consumed
with Julian. Alaric’s Alaric. Sometimes, the person people need in their life
is their parent(s). One feels the loss more sharply during the holidays.
Whether
intentional or not, the coldest scenes in the episode—meaning the ones outside
in graveyards—were the warmest. The quiet scenes where the characters “sit
with” what they feel and experience how they feel it happen rarely. TVD’s ‘go,
go, go!’ all the time. This episode, for example, involved a plan gone horribly
awry, a bar full of dead Santa cosplayers, another plan gone horribly awry, a
potential friendship gone horribly awry, etc. Of course, any long-time viewer
knows TVD’s primarily about plans gone horribly awry until the plan goes RIGHT when
it counts the MOST (but there will be a tragic catch if it’s a season finale).
The narrative
still won’t jump ahead three years after the holiday hiatus. Nope. The Julian
nonsense takes precedence. But I’m a veteran viewer of The Vampire Diaries.
I’ve written, God help me, over a hundred reviews of the show. The mysterious
Huntress will be introduced in late February or early March—perhaps late April
or early May. I remember Klaus was introduced late in season two. Matt Davis
played Klaus-as-possessing Alaric.
Of course, I
think the flash-forwards will greatly improve the so far moribund seventh
season. I now doubt that the three years from now conceit will greatly improve
the show. The various hooks about it primarily consist of new romantic pairings.
“Cold as Ice” introduced Stefan and Valerie as a thing in three years,
footnoted by Stefan’s devotion to saving Caroline and Damon from the fearsome
“her.” The hook is “People you did not expect to hook up hooked up.” I can wait
for that.
A father pushed
his son out of a tower once. When he returned later in the scene, in a stunning
reveal that set up a great musical gag, his father reminded his son that he
pushed him out of the tower. The son replied, “I got better.” Damon and Stefan
are dead, but they will get better.
Other Thoughts:
-No Matt and his
newfound anti-vampire Initiative group this episode. Enzo remains in the dark.
I suppose “in the dark” has a double meaning.
-Ian Somerhalder
cracked me up throughout the episode. I laughed at the little things: his
facial expressions as they prepared to fight Julian and the walk down Sunbury’s
main street with Stefan come immediately to my mind.
-The Vampire
Diaries won’t return until Friday, January 29, 2016. That’s a long break from
the show. Will I remember anything about the past nine episodes? Bookmark this
blog to find out.
-Brian Young
wrote the episode. Geoffrey Wing Shotz directed.
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