The Vampire Diaries - "Monster's Ball" - Review

Intro

Another day, another dent in my review back log. Luckily, we live in this age of not watching stuff when it actually comes out... or so the media says anyway.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for The Vampire Diaries, Season 5, Episode 5: "Monster's Ball." If you haven't seen this episode, please watch it before reading this review. I spoil things.

The Vampire Diaries - "Monster's Ball" - 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. Amnesiac.
• 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.Vampire.
• Dr. Wes Maxfield - Played by Rick Cosnett. Human. Works at the college. Studying the effects of vampirism.
• Silas - Played by Paul Wesley. Original "Stefan" doppelganger. Vampire.
• Nadia Petrova - Played by Olga Fonda. Vampire. Long lost daughter of Katherine.
• Katherine Pierce - Played by Nina Dobrev. Former Vampire. Doppelganger. Walking "Cure." Mother of Nadia.
• Aaron - Played by Shaun Sipos. Human. Some relation of Dr. Maxfield. Former friend of Megan's.
• Qetsiyah/Tessa - Played by Janina Gavankar. Witch. Silas' spurned lover.

Review:

Holy Ridiculous Loopholes, Batman!

My opinions on this episode aren't incredibly enlightening and there's not really a lot to talk about, in my opinion. I will try my best to squeeze something out of my sparse notes, but don't expect a whole lot. This episode wasn't really full of things to discuss.

First thing, the "Silas gets his powers back while Stefan is dead" loophole. I sort of understand how that works, but since Stefan is a vampire and therefore dead to begin with, it sort of falls apart. Also, it's just dumb. Like, why even have a loop hole like that? I suppose it served to get Stefan angrier at Damon and showed Qetsiyah to be less brilliant as a character. The entire concept there was just dumb.

Gonna jump back to the beginning of the episode and Dr. Maxfield. I think it's good that someone's looking into what happens to a new vamp if they don't feed. However, I'm not sure why it's Maxfield or why Jesse seems to be lasting so long without feeding. It's just weird.

Nadia being revealed as Katherine's daughter wasn't much of a revelation, really. It figures it was something like that. Not to mention someone on Hypable's Vampire-Hype Podcast theorized that. I don't care either way, though I do wonder what Nadia's going to do about it.

Damon's plan to bring Bonnie back made me groan. Why can't we just let her stay dead? Yeah, it's taking a toll on Elena, but she seems mostly fine. I don't like that Jeremy's on board with the plan. I don't like that they're prepared to do whatever it takes to get Bonnie back. Bonnie's been a raging bitch for most of the series, damn it!

Lastly, the Tyler situation. Why bring him back at all if he was mostly there to dump Caroline? Nail in coffins, I suppose.

I was not impressed at all by this episode. It was just kind of there. I am interested to see what happens in the aftermath of Silas apparently draining Katherine, but other than that... I'm beginning to not care.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• I kind of like the new Stefan. He's crafty.
• Katherine being motherly all of a sudden is creepy.

Housekeeping

Next up, my review for last week's Reign.

Love ya, Jessie