The Vampire Diaries – S6E7 – Do You Remember The First Time?
Previously on The Vampire Diaries, ‘The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get’
Well, we all knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as Elena and Damon just looking at each other in order to bring all the memories back. But, poor Damon was really hoping it would. He overhears Jo & Ric discussing the hospital fundraiser planned for that evening and he invites himself to join. He manages to finagle his way into a dance with Elena in attempts to help her recall the dance they shared at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. No memories gained yet. Elena apologizes for erasing her love for him but excuses it with how much pain she was dealing with. Damon says that he would rather live every day in agony than erase the memory of her. Boom. You tell her, Damon! This seems to spark something in Elena because she suggests that they go through their memories together in order to trigger something that will help her remember. When did everyone decide that compulsion could be reversed without an un-compulsion (de-compulsion?), or some sort of magic? I’m not buying it!
They end up on the edge of Mystic Falls and discuss the night they crashed into The Grill, the motel they stayed in, Elena’s graduation night, and the night before she left for Whitmore when they watched a meteor shower. Elena is frustrated that the plan isn’t working so she walks right over the Mystic Falls border and instantly she sees flashes of memories between her and Damon. She also instantly begins to drown and Damon is somehow able to pull her back to the other side. He would rather her not remember him than risk her own life. Back at the dorm, Elena wants to know about the night of the meteor shower. She remembers bits and pieces, but doesn’t know the ending. He interrupts to tell her that she’s better off without him now; he just wants her to be happy and it looks like she is, and that on the night of the meteor shower it started to rain so they went home. Later however, we see that they in fact stayed throughout the storm, had a classic kissing in the rain moment, and Elena asked Damon to promise her that this –their relationship – would be forever. I’m so over Elena, but I’m a total sucker for romantic scenes in the rain, especially when Damon’s involved!
I thought Tripp was able to get away after the van crashed last episode but as it turns out, Matt, Stefan, and Enzo have Tripp all tied up in his vampire prison shack. Ah, how the tables have turned! The power shift doesn’t last long however, Tripp’s henchmen have captured Sherriff Forbes and are threatening to kill her if they don’t return Tripp to Mystic Falls.
Despite Caroline wanting to end their friendship, her and Stefan end up working together to save her mother so they head to the woods to retrieve Tripp. Enzo is perceptive enough to realize what’s going on in Caroline’s head and he lets Stefan know “she’s got a thing for you, mate!” The look of absolute humiliation on Caroline’s face is enough to prove to Stefan that Enzo is correct. What I almost didn’t notice, being so preoccupied with Caroline’s reaction, was that Enzo looked completely dejected by his realization. Poor Enzo. But also, tricky Enzo! As Tripp crosses the Mystic Falls border after being traded for Sherriff Forbes, his throat is slit and he dies. Enzo must have turned him before Caroline & Stefan arrived.
Though Caroline never wanted to speak of it again, her and Stefan have a heart-to-heart about Enzo’s revelations at the shack. Unfortunately, things end badly between the two with Caroline declaring that she has to hate him for ruining their friendship, otherwise she’ll hate herself and she believes she deserves better.
Bonnie wakes up in the Salvatore home to find Kai working to put the Ascendant back together. He makes an attempt at some small talk, but she’s not playing around. She stabs him in the neck, grabs the Ascendant pieces, and high-tails it out of there. She makes her way to the hospital and quickly locates painkillers and a new bandage for the wound where Kai shot her. Bonnie just about has the Ascendant repaired when she realizes there’s one piece missing. Cue Kai, who, of course, has the missing piece. Bonnie magic-blasts him against some shelving and into the wall and runs outside looking for an escape route. She finds Damon’s car but it won’t start and Kai somehow outsmarted her and is waiting for her in the back seat. Bonnie has no choice but to work with Kai to get home.
While waiting for the eclipse, Kai tells Bonnie that he would give anything to have his family back, that he wants to be a better person like Bonnie is. My bullshit meter went off the charts and apparently so did Bonnie’s. She is somehow able to transfer her magic into her teddy bear and therefore is unable to complete the spell to send them home. I love that Bonnie’s character is consistently so clever, cunning, and altruistic but damn, it would be nice if she could get home! It would be nice to see her character, even just once, not having to self-sacrifice for everyone else’s safety. I’m not sure how I feel about this idea of being able to store magic. I wish it had been alluded to a couple of episodes sooner – instead of just in the beginning of this episode where Jo tells Alaric that she “put her magic away for later” – because it would have had a better pay off if there was more time for us to understand what Bonnie was up to.
Top Four Moments
Elena crossing the Mystic Falls borders.
I honestly didn’t see that coming! Well, at least not that soon and not in the way that it happened. I never imagined Elena would be so spontaneous about it. I assumed that the decision, should it be made, would be drawn out and very precisely calculated. You know, like having some human backup at the ready in case she can’t get herself back out and things start to look fatal. The flash of images she sees confused me, though, because I assumed that if she was seeing them, then she was regaining the associated memories. Why not just show a longer clip of the night of the meteor shower if that’s all she was going to retain?
Stefan & Caroline discuss their feelings.
This conversation has been a couple of seasons in the making. At least that’s what it must have felt like for some folks. I’ve never been a “Steroline” shipper but this conversation completely changed my opinion on the subject. Usually I’m typing notes during every scene but this one got me to stop and just listen. I had never really noticed the awesome chemistry between these two, not in a romantic sense anyways. Candice Accola, who plays Caroline, really sold it for me, though, as she did an excellent job with her dialogue. There’s a second where her voice catches and she’s on the verge of tears and I could truly feel all of her rejection and heartache. Can’t wait to see what happens next with these two!
Jo reveals her scar from losing her spleen.
Kai told Bonnie and Damon that he removed a spleen from one of his sisters and Jo has the scar to prove it. She tells Ric that her brother attempted to gut her and that she has a tragic family past. I think most of us had guessed by last episode that Jo was Kai’s sister but this surely confirms it. Now how long before she takes her magic out to use again?
Damon finds Bonnie’s teddy bear.
I loved how happy Damon was when he found that bear! It’s frustrating to watch everyone move on from Bonnie since we know she’s alive and has the ability to come back home. Damon and Stefan are the only ones who know that she’s still out there, and now that Damon is letting go of Elena, and Stefan is still on the outs with Caroline, it’s time to GO FIND BONNIE!!
Other Important Goings-on
- Luke warns Liv, in reference to her possible relationship with Tyler, that when their coven calls them back home it won’t matter to them if they’re in love. She tells him that he sounds like their father, which is not a compliment. Anyone else think they have a connection to the Gemini Coven? Either way, I hope we get more backstory on these two. Liv can be comical at times, and I’m almost okay with her and Tyler hooking up.
- Liam knows something is up with Elena; he calls her a “liar with secrets.” First, she said her ex-boyfriend had died, but Liam met Damon at the hospital fundraiser. He also knows the woman in the corn maze was badly wounded, but after Elena tended to her she was completely fine. Then, when looking through patient files – which seems pretty shady to me – he discovered the same woman’s pre-existing injuries had vanished as well.
- Tripp is gone already! I assumed he’d be causing problems for the gang for a little while longer, but I guess his death makes way for Kai to be the new big bad!
