The Vampire Diaries - "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - Review

Intro

Alrighty then. I just finished watching this week's episode of Sleepy Hollow and my brain's a little frazzled. that review probably won't be up for a couple days, at least. Today's number of reviews, however, is entirely up to the amount of stuff I have to do/get distracted by.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for The Vampire Diaries, Season 5, Episode 4: "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I recommend watching the episode before reading my review because I will spoil things. It's in my nature.

The Vampire Diaries - "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - Review

Characters:

• Elena Gilbert - Played by Nina Dobrev. Jeremy's older sister. Damon's girlfriend. Doppelganger and Vampire.
• Jeremy Gilbert - Played by Steven R. McQueen. Elena's younger brother. Sees ghosts. Hunter.
• Stefan Salvatore - Played by Paul Wesley. Damon's younger brother. Elena's ex-boyfriend. Vampire. "Shadow-Self" of Silas.
• Damon Salvatore - Played by Ian Somerhalder. Stefan's older brother. Elena's Sire and boyfriend. Vampire.
• Matt Donovan - Played by Zach Roerig. Works at Mystic Grill. Human. Possessed by a Traveler named Gregor.
• Caroline Forbes - Played by Candice Accola. Vampire. Elena's best friend. Tyler's girlfriend.
• Bonnie Bennett - Played by Kat Graham. Witch. Jeremy's girlfriend. Elena and Caroline's best friend. Deceased.
• Tyler Lockwood - Played by Michael Trevino. Hybrid. Caroline's boyfriend.
• Jesse - Played by Kendrick Sampson. Human.
• Dr. Wes Maxfield - Played by Rick Cosnett. Human. Works at the college.

Review:

Essentially, this episode was a recap episode. It was a creatively done recap, but it was definitely a recap. I was mostly pleased because Jeremy finally told everyone that Bonnie's dead! Unfortunately, she's not going away so... that kind of soured things for me a bit.

I'd completely forgotten that "Remembrance Day" was a thing. I vaguely remember it happening earlier in the show, but other than that, it served a more plot-based purpose than I would have thought. It was interesting to see Stefan and Elena sort of rehashing their romance, even if that did add more fuel to the Stefan/Elena fire. It was somewhat annoying because I'm soooooo over Stefan/Elena. I'm glad the show found a way to hopefully kill it for good, though so... I guess it was okay.

I really had no interest in the Caroline parts of the episode. I love Caroline, don't get me wrong, but seeing her hanging around with Jesse and getting annoyed at Stefan was rather boring.

I thought the exploration of Stefan's "Ripper" thing was cool. Not sure whether or not his emotion baggage was actually tied to the "Ripper" thing, but it's as good a theory as they come. It was stated at some point that the reason Stefan put the pieces of the people he killed back together was because he was guilty about it so the psychological aspect worked for me.

I was really glad Jeremy finally told people about Bonnie being dead. I cannot express the amount of happy I felt at that. The funeral was... weepy. I cried, but mostly because everyone else was crying and the music was affecting me. I'm glad Bonnie's dead and now all I want from her is to GO AWAY. GAH!

But yeah, not really much else to say about the episode. That's the problem with recap episodes, even well done ones that aren't meant to feel like recaps.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• I liked Matt trying to figure out what was wrong with him in a very human way.
• Being threatened by someone inside your body is never good.
• What's with the knife?
• And look, Tyler showed up randomly.

Favorite Lines:

"You're a vampire, not a caveman." - Damon

"Hey, I never said I know what I'm doing." - Damon

Housekeeping

Slowly creeping closer to getting caught up with these reviews. I'm really sorry these are so late, but if it helps, I'm planning to get them done in the next couple of days... in which time I will also get more behind because I'm working while my shows are on. Drat.

Love ya, Jessie