That’s never going to happen, clearly. Yet, the characters seem to be only peripherally invested in what should be an all-consuming story arc. Instead, the writers have had to concoct other plot tangents to fill in the holes. Caroline (Candice Accola) having to deal with her mother suffering from stage four brain cancer, Stefan (Paul Wesley) and his great niece four times removed, Enzo (Michael Malarkey) and umm, what exactly is his purpose this season? The point is, there are an absurd number of events pulling focus from the central storyline – like patches desperately trying to cover up a problem area.
On top of all that, there’s characters who just appear to be blowing in the wind, like Matt (Zach Roerig). I don’t want to say he’s become a joke, but I’m at a loss for another explanation. His current self-righteous flare of aggression toward vampires seems a little late in the game. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate back in season one when he discovered his sister was transformed into one and then subsequently killed. At this point, Matt has enough blood on his hands to be subjected to a fair share of harsh judgement himself. He may not be a mass murderer like some people he interacts with regularly, but he’s definitely not innocent. His character’s evolution, or de-evolution, is its own mini-tragedy.
With the bad, also comes the good though. The writers have managed somehow to make the main character role almost obsolete. Instead of the main focus of the show being the illusive Damon, Elena, Stefan love triangle, they are spreading the attention and giving most of the large ensemble cast an equal shot at screen time. In fact, tonight’s episode of The Vampire Diaries did a superb job of just that. Fans got a decent amount of face time with all the characters except for Bonnie, who let’s face it, has definitely gotten the short end of the stick this season.
The Vampire Diaries is back, but we’ve seen better. Here’s hoping they clean up the storyline next week.