The Vampire Diaries "Coming Home Was a Mistake" Review

I read a comment on the TVD Previously TV message board about last week’s abysmal episode regarding Seline’s evil timing. She acted good up until Sybil explained her backstory to Stefan, and then she waited until the moment Matt told Caroline and Alaric the truth about to kidnap the twins so she could raise the not-quite-the-devil-but-close-enough Cade. I laughed with the comment because it poked fun at the writers’ reliance on lazy plot conventions. The plans of Sybil and Seline run parallel not because of any mind link between the sisters but because both act with incredible slowness. Sybil wanted to own Damon’s mind. Seline waited until Alaric was preoccupied, I guess, but she had plenty of opportunities to take the twins because him and Caroline are never around their kids.

Season eight continued its plodding pace. The end of the episode rushed to a mini-cliffhanger with Matt recognizing Seline as the second siren, Seline taking the twins, and Damon deciding that he’d like to quit humanity forever. Before that, Bonnie saved Enzo by making him realize his worst fear, which was losing Bonnie forever. Elsewhere, we watched the same old story between Stefan and Damon. The other characters were in standby mode.

Tyler’s death was the emotional anchor of the episode. Damon believed murdering him meant he couldn’t come back from it. Stefan decided to put Damon down for awhile in an effort to spare him from an eternally damning crisis. Their conversation at the carnival repeated the same brotherly beats. Damon felt that he’s beyond redemption. Stefan believes that Damon will find redemption when he quits feeling sorry for himself and tries to be good again. Sybil granted him permission to brighten his soul with Stefan to make it hurt, I guess, more when he decides to go all evil at the end.

You know that old line “I’ve been to hell and back”” Writers always give that line to the hero or heroine of the story in the third act after he’s been to a figurative hell and came back. TVD is about to make that line literal. Damon’s third act hero turn is coming soon in 2017.

Other Thoughts:

I think that Jeremy’s death would’ve resonated more. Elena, of course, forgave Damon for killing him once. I don’t know what happened between, if anything, Steven R. McQueen and Julie Plec, but he seems unlikely to make a cameo this season. Tyler’s funeral would’ve been the time for such a cameo.

-I couldn’t recall what Elena said to Tyler in her last episode, so I used TVD’s wiki to remember. I thought their last scene together had direct bearing on why Damon murdering would be unforgivable. It does not. She told him to leave Mystic Falls and live an extraordinary life. So, yes, Damon denied him an extraordinary life, but she’ll forgive the bugger. She always does.

-The carnival recalled the spectacular second season episode “Brave New World”. Stefan remembered his ferris wheel ride with Elena, and Caroline remembered that great scene when she freaked out after losing control as a vampire and Stefan helped her cope with her new nature. Season two was TVD’s best.

-I appreciated Damon reminding Caroline, Alaric, Bonnie, and his brother that they, too, will go to hell. It’s true. They will.

-Alaric's intern works all the time. He had the line of the night about the tuning fork.

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-Celine Geiger wrote the episode. James Thompson III directed the episode. It was his directorial debut. I wonder if the two fire scenes intimidated him. Probably not. He did a great job.