Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Vampire Diaries 5.04 Review: Memories Make Us Who We Are


For all those that have yet to watch tonight’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, entitled ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, I suggest you go and do so immediately. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.
Not a bad episode overall. Everyone whose name isn’t Jeremy finally learned of Bonnie’s death, and it came rightfully around the time of the bell ringing remembrance day in Mystic Falls. Although that’s more likely just because the writers wrote it that way.
While the funeral thing they gave Bonnie was a very moving ceremony between the friends, it was a little lackluster – I think – for the audience because Bonnie is still circulating within the series. It’d be different, and more memorable if we knew for certain she would not be coming back. Like on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Buffy’s mom died and there was no possible way she would be able to come back. That gave the cast very harrowing material to work with. But on this series, it’s almost like they’re cheating because she’s still sticking around and watching over them. Although I do have to say that I enjoyed what she said to each of her friends, and the fact that Tyler came back. It was definitely the perfect moment for that, even though I do want him to go away and never be spoken of again now.
For the most part, the whole amnesiac Stefan wasn’t quite that convincing. He still acted a lot like Stefan, not like someone who didn’t know who they were and were a little weirded out to find they were, of all things, a vampire. Maybe the writing isn’t up to par, or maybe Paul Wesley lacks the skill of being able to play the character that way. Probably a bit of both, because I still don’t think he was convincing enough in playing Silas. However, the man does do angry well, especially in the moment where he’s seething about how much he doesn’t want to go back to the life where all these things he’s done and had happened to him. That was probably my favourite part with him this week.
A few other things to note about the episode definitely begins with how Elena was far too flirty with amnesiac Stefan, as she tried to show him his memories. She really did lead him on to want to kiss her, so it’s kind of her fault he blew out on her after that. I almost thought she was actually going to kiss him, but thankfully she didn’t break Damon’s heart by doing that. I mean, enough with the back and forth already, settle on one of them. The other thing was the ludicrousness of Damon hugging Jeremy. Sure it may have been to show how far along Damon has come, in not trying to kill him after Jeremy tells him the bad news, but it just wasn’t completely natural. And they both kind of looked weirded out by it.
Overall, this series is becoming a little too much too handle, I’m really not sure how much longer I’ll be sticking around. I very well might just try and give it this season, but if the writing and acting doesn’t get a little more natural, who knows? Really, there’s way too much back and forth in this series, and it’s almost like the characters are stuck in a loop, so much further than where they began in the first season. Almost like the character growth, and story growth, has stagnated.
My rating: 6 out of 10.

Best Lines:
“Well I’m no shrink… right?” – Amnesiac Stefan asks Damon.
“And my girlfriend let him.” – Stefan states, in a surprisingly powerful speech about his life and how his brother “stole” his girlfriend. Such power behind these specific words.


Anyways, I’m off to go watch Once Upon a Time in Wonderland now. After that it’ll be Grey’s Anatomy, and then The Crazy Ones. Stick around.

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