Noooooooooooooooo, oh my gods no. I hate this show’s morality
so much. It’s definition of redemption, forgiveness et al – gah. This episode.
Oh this episode.
Ok, take a breath and dive into this.
So, Kai is back because ringing the hell bell actually does
open the door to hell which gave several evil evil evil souls chance to escape
and come to Mystic Fall. After 8 season there were so many people who could
have come back from Hell (because everyone is evil in this series, yes,
everyone) we end up with Kai
Damon, being the amazingly self-centred person he is, instantly realises that this is his key for waking Elena early so is quick to stop Alaric from murdering him savagely and agreeing with Kai when he claims he can help them kill Cade. Ultimately it’s Damon deciding yet again to pursue his own goal, his own desires.
Along the way they realise that Kai is only halfway in
the real world (he can’t feel anything or taste anything) and he is being
pulled back into hell. Clearly killing more evil people will help with that –
which Damon, grudgingly does
At least we get Kai mocking Damon’s rather feeble
attempts at redemption – because, really, he’s in such karmic debt that sparing
the odd life here and there doesn’t even begin to cover it. Damon finally
decides to try and convert Kai to the redemption pathway by claiming Kai needs
to do a big selfless act to prove to Cade he’s not evil – wake Elena. And then
Damon will forgive him
Uh, Alaric won’t for killing his wife and trying to kill
his children. Or what about the gazillion other deaths Kai left in his wake? One
person forgiving him does not in any way make up for everything. And, for that
matter, I hate this very recent fixation of The
Vampire Diaries on forgiveness – that you are redeemed by your victims
forgiving you and can then guilt them into it. Most of their victims are dead
and they have no clue who their surviving relatives are - if at all. For that
matter, most of them died en mass or died so long ago that there’s very few
people they can actually seek forgiveness from. It’s a cop out – one which
allows them to focus “redemption” on proximate guilt and a clear path to
redemption: by foisting it on one victim who is obliged to forgive
This is especially true now we have the reality of hell.
That victim is now obliged to forgive or literally send you to hell – that’s a
guilt trip for you.
In other Damon self-servingness, he checks in with Bonnie
to see if she’s figured out how to save Enzo – not for her, nor for Enzo or for
her grief. It’s just about Damon getting his own way so they can save Kai and
he can resurrect Elena.
But Bonnie can contact Elena now – because she’s psychic just like Cade. Apparently. Hey she
has powers back which would be a good thing if it doesn’t mean she isn’t going
to be instantly pressed into service. And, like Cade, she’s created her own
afterlife dimension – in which she’s stashed Enzo. Cade isn’t a fan of this
because he’s decided Enzo’s soul is his so expect lots of him chasing Bonnie
around
Cade baffles me – I mean he’s owed all the evil souls in
the world so why spend so much time and energy with Stefan and Damon and now
Enzo. He must be getting thousands of souls a day and could easily reap more –
so why waste so much time on these singular offerings?
Time for the next broken mortality: one of the side
effects of Stefan being human is that all of his compulsions wore off. This
means we have lots of people in Mystic Falls remember his attacks and massacres;
Matt calls in Caroline to help reapply the compulsion
Which means Matt continues to annoy me – he already
attacked and shamed Caroline for being a vampire but still draws upon her
power, making my point again that if you want to stop supernatural shenanigans
you need supernatural shenanigans of your own. The Vampire Diaries continues to make Matt the worst by having him
rightly point out how terribad awful vampires are – but making Caroline the one
who has to put up with it when she is a virtual saint by Vampire Diaries standards (very very very very low standards indeed).
One part I do love about this is how it examines the consequences of all that
compulsion. That guard you tell to look the other way while you
kill/steal/rampage is going to lose his job. That watch man who you told to
fall asleep is going to carry a lifetime of guilt around from his apparent
negligence. These are victims every bit as much as the bodies and families and
loved ones. This would have been an awesome thing to analyse several seasons
ago when Vampire Diaries still had
the time and capacity for an actual moral discussion
Stefan himself has been kidnapped by Dorian who has him
dig a hole, drop himself in it – and then he shoots him. See, it seems Stefan
killed his parents. That’s it? Sorry, I hate to be callous, but I was vaguely
hoping that all of Dorian’s secrecy would point to an actual involving storyline
rather than another stepping stone on Dorian’s passage to redemption.
What does emerge during all this is Stefan briefly digging
up another moral point: vampires have an endless thirst for blood AND the
ability to turn their humanity off. On top of that, what he doesn’t mention, is
that vampires have hugely heightened emotions (which is why they’re such
drama-llamas). This is brushed off but this is another hugely moral question –
the thirst makes lethal accidents highly likely, both the guilt of that as well
as the standard emotional ups and downs of living make turning your humanity
off very very tempting which puts vampires in a place where it is, indeed, very
hard not to be trapped in a terrible spiral of killing and guilt. Again, this
would be an amazing thing to explore if Vampire
Diaries still had the capacity and time for an actual moral discussion! Too
late!
Instead we get lots of Stefan warning Dorian he’ll end up
going to hell too and generally trying to be all noble about his impending
death. In between Dorian angrily pointing out how little his redemption means
and him trying to make amends actually makes a different to the gazillion
people he’s killed especially since he has faced no consequences for his actions.
Of course Dorian changes his mind and gets Stefan medical attention.
We then get Stefan’s redemption moment: he lets Dorian
see the full file of all of his crimes and he gets to decide whether Stefan
should go to prison or not.
Fine, but Dorian isn’t the only victim of Stefan. Again,
this is the get out clause. Stefan’s redemption goes from being something which
may be meaningful, to just resting it on one man. So now Dorian has the duty to
forgive Stefan or doom him to hell or take responsibility for Stefan’s
actions/guilt/punishment. Redemption doesn’t mean creating work for your
victims. Nor can you get the forgiveness of one victim and call it good.
Anyway, Caroline is pretty much done with Stefan now –
his moping, his willingness to give up without taking a grasp of what he wants
or his new life. She’s also looking at her new life with the aging Stefan and
rather than declare the classic “I don’t care if you get all wrinkly” she’s
more having severe second doubts about living with hi angstiness especially
since she’s just spent all day giving
Go Caroline. You go – get away from his mopiness. You run
off with Bonnie and have your own spin off show.
Oh and Alaric’s girls are using all their scary magic and
he doesn’t know what to do so he turns back to Caroline despite dumping on her
about how dangerous it is around her and Mystic Falls.
Hey, notice this pattern? Humans shame Caroline for being
a terrible, evil, shameful vampire and then abandon her. Then come back when
they need her help with woo-woo.
