Doppelgangers No More… Review: The Vampire Diaries – “Death and the Maiden”

Season 5, Episode 7

Air Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013, 8/7c on The CW.

RATING: ★★★★★

“So he’s dead; it’s over?” – Elena Gilbert

I’m beginning to think the writers of The Vampire Diaries create these cockamamie plot points thinking they’ll have an amazing way to repair the situation later down the line; then when it comes time to make reparations, things have gone so awry there’s no fixing them. That, my friends, is the crux of “Death and the Maiden.”

Observations and thoughts:

Rising To The Challenge

“Silas needs to die and I need to be the one to kill him.” Stefan (Paul Wesley) is on a mission. His anger fuels his rage against Silas (Wesley) and he won’t be put off seeking his revenge. I don’t blame Stefan one bit but I do worry about his mental state. Wesley has to stretch his acting chops a bit to portray a broken man who won’t be fixed with the usual glue. I sense a new story arc brewing, and my residual boredom with it.

Stef-las

Once again, I have to say I love Wesley as Silas. He’s more in tune with the character than he is with Stefan. It could be Stefan’s brooding and general glum attitude. I get it though. Stefan has little to work with outside of his Ripper persona and Silas is a lunatic, psychic, and witch. The characters are so opposite, it wouldn’t be difficult to find their differences and play them up. So why doesn’t Wesley do something different with Stefan? Why isn’t he more interesting?

Overkill

Dobrev needs to stick to playing sane characters. Amara (Dobrev) does not impress upon me the level of Dobrev’s skill. The constant screaming and appearing to be insane goes over the top. I don’t buy it and am annoyed by it. Dobrev excels with Katherine. So, of course, there must be a reason for Katherine to meet her demise in the near future. I implore the writers to leave well enough alone. Don’t kill off characters who bring something to the show. Don’t allude to killing off characters who have a large following. Their downfall won’t make ratings higher. In fact, you probably can expect the opposite. Now, if Elena were a better character and we got to see her regain her badass side, I wouldn’t complain about anything happening to Katherine. Besides, we only need one bad girl in The Vampire Diaries.

Bye, Witches

Tessa (Janina Gavankar) does the impossible and makes me care about what happens to her. She still shows her crazy but I finally understand her rage. Silas did a real number on her and she has yet to recover from it. I think seeing him again after 2,000 years gives her the closure she needs. Seeing him for who he is—an evil douche supreme—leaves her with a sense of peace. I won’t say she isn’t still deluded into thinking he harbors hidden feelings for her, but she won’t be anyone’s problem anymore.

Random Thoughts

“Great, even Katherine’s friends are bitches.” I miss this side of Caroline (Candice Accola). Can you remember back to season one when she was a stuck up, snobby party girl? I love the change in her, yet her feistiness remains.

I’m certain I’m not the only person to get teary-eyed along with the girls when Bonnie (Kat Graham) gets her ultimate wish. It’s a warm, genuine scene where friends and lovers are reunited under the best circumstances. Accola really knows how to turn on the waterworks. It is her acting which touched my heart. You can see how deeply Caroline feels for Bonnie and what their friendship means to her. Yay, girl power!

Doesn’t Damon (Ian Somerhalder) know you never remove a blade from a wound? He’s a vampire for crying out loud! Hello quick death. The scene with Amara hits me because Damon is watching a woman who looks like his beloved die in his arms. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for him but you get a sense of it by watching his face.

Memorable and funny lines:

Damon to Silas: “We need you back here to resurrect Bonnie before your Nutter Butter soulmate offs herself and destroys the other side.”

Damon: “The electricity is out in the whole house. What happened?”

Katherine: “Silas is here.”

Damon: “Well, Silas owes me a fuse box.”

I was expecting to love “Death and the Maiden” more than I did. The overwhelming emotion wrought from the characters should have been enough to engage me, but I found my attention waning at times. Truth be told, “Death and the Maiden” doesn’t hold my attention for more than a few minutes at a time and is predictable. Here’s the funny thing: the characters who die don’t leave an opening in the cast because there are so many twins running around, there’s bound to be someone left. The boring someones, that is. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment in the section below or on Twitter @ellemoe.

Tune in to The Vampire Diaries Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW. For more on the show, visit the official site.

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Follow The Vampire Diaries cast on Twitter: @ninadobrev, @iansomerhalder, @katgraham, @paulwesley, @zach_roerig, @candaceaccola, @McQueeninchains.

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Elle

Writer, mother, realist, cloud lover, daydreamer, dessert enthusiast, sweet tea addict, perfectionist, and lover of life and Christ, but not in that order. http://www.fanfiction.net/~vikingloverelle