Careful, folks: here be spoilers. Season 6 of The Vampire Diaries has been broadcast and boy, what a confusing episode it was! It really was a mix between the things that happened in the story’s real time and flashbacks slash dreams slash reality influences. I’ll explain, don’t worry.
The first of the two at least is easy in its concept: after the TVD version of a Red Wedding, everyone is rather busy licking their wounds and limiting damage as best they can. In some cases that refers to actually treating their wounds, in others it means killing an insane warlock who has recently also turned himself into a vampire – and to yet others it means killing your lover so you can become a werewolf too. Again. Not that you haven’t been avoiding that for an entire season or anything.
Werewolf, crazy sorcerer, Salvatore’s mother, barely weds and recently widowed, and of course the Salvatore duo caught up on romance and trying to save a very human Elena Gilbert. That alone makes for many threads to follow and to be brought to some form of conclusion. And while I agree that an ending, at least for now, has been found, I do have to say that it came at the cost of my sanity. Because I certainly lost track of who was trying to carry out what and just where I had seen him or her last. Going back and forth really didn’t help on that score.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, this flashback thing kept intermingling with the story in real time. So now and then we were presented with one character saying his or her farewells to Elena in her mind.
First of all: I have no idea how that is even possible, speaking from a series lore standpoint. Then again, I’m not the one who has to keep things consistent, nor am I the guy responsible for thinking said lore through, so I really have no idea what they did and how they explained it. However, let’s assume that they had good reason and explanation.
Buying into the mental farewells, I still have no idea what those were actually there for. To the best of my knowledge, the next season has already been approved. We hardly learn anything new about the characters from those small interactions. Seeing as they have to go through a number of them, there is hardly enough time to actually go into depth and thus there is no real development. Shamefully so.
What I find worse to handle is that we are left in the belief that Elena is not coming back. But is that even reasonable to think? After all she and the Salvatore boys are considered the main characters. I have my doubts though that they’re going to go all Game of Thrones on us and permanently kill either of them off. Especially the only female out of the three. But doing that would basically be the only thing that would convince me that having everyone say goodbye actually made sense, especially when you spend an entire episode on having them do that.
Confusing plot. Confusing scenes. Confusing ending. And while I usually enjoy cliff-hangers and confusions (despite the fact that they drive me nuts), I mean this in the bad way.
I guess everyone has their favourites in a show – and honestly, I don’t pretend to be the exception to that rule. So I will most certainly give the show another shot come season 7. Right now, however, they have me frustrated in the worst sense of the word. I am, in fact, a bit angry! So pretty please with sugar and cream on top, writers: make the next one count!
