The Vampire Diaries 6×16 “The Downward Spiral” REVIEW

All Aboard the Hot Mess Express and A Dark Family Secret Comes to Light

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries 6×16 titled, “The Downward Spiral,” not only marked the series’ return from a short hiatus, but also was Ian Somerhalder‘s directorial debut. In the episode, Elena (Nina Dobrev) and Stefan (Paul Wesley) discover Caroline (Candice Accola) is missing in action and come to find she has flipped the switch turning off her humanity. Bonnie (Kat Graham) returns to Whitmore and is reunited with Elena. They witness first hand Care’s new “I don’t give a shit” attitude and learn she almost killed Liam (Marco James). Determined to force her to turn her humanity back on before she kills someone, Elena, Bonnie and Stefan follow Caroline to a rave. Stefan decides to confess his true feelings to make her care again, but instead it just upsets her and she goes into full on bitch mode. She then finds and compels Liam to ‘operate’ on Sarah Salvatore (Tristin Mays) and kill unless Stefan agrees to join her in her humanity-free high. Elena is unable to find Sarah and Liam in time before Stefan flips his switch to save Sarah.

Meanwhile, Damon sets out to learn how its even possible for he and Stefan’s mother to be alive and living in a witch created prison world. Kai (Chris Wood) agrees to help and give him the details of her entrapment, but first wants Damon’s help in apologizing to Bonnie. She is not happy when Damon surprises her at the rave with Kai and later makes that known by forcing him to feel exactly what she went through. Finally, Kai tells Damon the one thing he didn’t want to hear; that his mom is a vampire and a ripper nonetheless. A lot went down this week, so lets dive right in and start discussing.

Care Bear Just Don’t Care

Over the years the audience has seen many sides to Caroline Forbes. Viewers have seen her transform from a self-centered, bratty teenager into a brave, strong-willed vampire and loyal friend. While experiencing many hardships and loss along the way, nothing has affected her nearly has much as the death of her mom and she believes the only way to make it through is to turn off her humanity. Candice Accola is phenomenal in this week’s episode as Caroline and her trip down humanity free lane. In fact she is so good viewers can’t help, but feel a bit of deja vu being reminded of another sassy yet deliciously devilish vampire, Katherine Pierce. The scene at Scull Bar when Caroline demands another drink even though the bartender protests she’s had enough, her sassy reply is the audience’s first glimpse at her cheeky new mindset. At first she pretends to care about his opinion, but viewers she’s toying with his as she instantly changes her expression and scoffs at him. However, the audience can see Caroline is truly devoid of emotion as she tells the bartender about her mother cancer and death, but insists wearing heels was the worst part of the experience. Instead of sadness and grief her expression seems annoyed and unaffected. Then when Caroline returns to the dorm she does notice Bonnie has returned viewers really see a new side of a humanity free Caroline.There is no happy hug-filled reunion between the friends and Bonnie, one of her best friends who she hasn’t seen in months from witchy prison world. Her tone of voice is condescending and she threatens Elena and Bonnie not to force her to turn her emotions back. She does so with a stone cold serious expression on her voice and viewers can see Caroline isn’t messing around. At the rave as Stefan confesses his true feelings to Caroline,

That’s the problem Stefan. It doesn’t really matter how far away you are you’re still you…kind, loyal, who with one look can convince me that I’m not crazy. That’s the Stefan I feel for and that’s the Stefan that can bring me back. - Caroline.

Paul Wesley does a great job as Stefan delivering a seemingly genuine and heartfelt plea for her to turn her humanity back on. His expression shows true concern as his eyes are soft and loving and viewers can’t help but feel bad for him as her response is downright mean. Totally opposite of how the ‘real’ Caroline would react, she surprises viewers by laughing at him and then makes sure to point out it is just a little to late before walking away in anger. No longer playing nice, Caroline takes her trip down “Humanity Free Lane” on a slight detour kidnapping Sarah and compelling Liam to perform surgery on her. The real shocker comes to viewers when she takes a play out of the ‘Klaus Handbook on Negotiating’ and tells Liam to kill Sarah unless Stefan does turns off his humanity with her. Asking him to do this is the one thing Caroline promised Stefan she’d always help keep him from doing. She has an angry and almost spiteful expression on her face as she demands in a snide tone of voice for Stefan to make his decision. This shows viewers the sweet, caring, compassionate and a little bit obsessive, Caroline is gone, at least for now. While no vampire can truly fill the shoes of Katherine nor should they, Caroline’s new villainess attitude sure does help fill some of the void the vixen left behind and Candice is doing a fantastic job.

Bonnie’s PTKD (Post Traumatic Kai-ed Disorder)

After being trapped in a 1994, repeating day, witchy hell for months and alone for half the time, Bonnie going to a loud, crowded and crazy rave has to be the almost the worst idea. Oh, wait! No, Damon thinking he could bring Kai to the rave and surprise her with the one person who inflicted her pain thinking she’d be open to his apology has to be the worst idea ever. Kat Graham does a great job as Bonnie in this week’s episode conveying to the audience the aftereffects of being trapped in the prison world. When Elena, Stefan and Bonnie all arrive at the rave viewers can tell Bonnie isn’t feeling too comfortable in the situation. She acts like she’s fine, but there is a sense of fear in her eyes and her body is tense and rigid as if she’s scared. Walking through the rave, viewers still see a tenseness about her and how uncomfortable she is becoming when she almost jumps if accidentally bumped by anyone. Then when a male raver approaches her looking for a dance and he doesn’t quite know how to take no for an answer, Bonnie becomes very agitated. Her expression looks angry and the audience sees how deep her discomfort runs. She uses her magic on him like she’s defend herself from a murderer or something when in reality he was just hitting on her. And if things couldn’t get any worse, Damon surprises her at the rave and brings Kai to apologize even after telling him she didn’t want to see him again. Bonnie’s expression says it all. She changes quickly from a smiling, ‘happy to see my friend’ look to an expression of complete terror and anger as soon as she lays eyes on Kai. The audience sees the pain on Bonnie’s face as seeing Kai again triggers all those horrible memories of what he’s done to her. As viewers see each memory just when she remembers, the shots of Bonnie’s face in between convey her agony.

“…And he wants to play nice, huh, start over. He lied and then he stabbed me again! Then came the worst part. He left me. Alone….and I wish I could share what that feels like, but I can’t.” - Bonnie.

However, if any questions to if Bonnie has been affected by the time she spent in 1994 land remains, the answer comes loud and clear to viewers when Damon stops by the dorm to apologize to her. She interrupts him mid-sentence refusing to hear any of his rationalizations. And when he tries again her voice becomes angry, her expression hardens, and eyes lower as if she’s become possessed. As she tells Damon of all she’s been through and inflicts on him the same pain she’s felt, the audience is reminded of Bonnie from season four. The Bonnie that had been overcome by ‘expression’ or black magic, but this time was able to stop by herself. It was as if as switch flipped when she isn’t able to make him feel the deep sense of loneliness she experienced. Her head drops and tone softens and turns to sadness showing viewers the pain and how much she’s struggling that they can’t help, but feel bad for her.

Ripper Runs in the Family

Like a dog with a bone, Damon’s mission this week is to find the truth behind his mother being trapped in a Gemini coven prison world. He turns to Kai for answers since it was his coven who crested the prison worlds and of course spent years trapped in one himself. Both Ian Somerhalder and Chris Wood create such an entertaining dynamic between their characters that is fun for the audience. Not only is it visually pleasing, obviously, but the sarcastic banter and witty quips exchanged back and forth is great. When Kai meets up with Demon at the Salvatore crypt as he is prying open this mother’s coffin he almost taunts Damon with the idea that his mother could be a vampire. Kai expression conveys to viewers that he is experiencing a sense of twisted enjoyment from it. He has sly smirk and his eyes look happy. Damon can’t even fathom the possibility of her being a vampire and the audience can see the fear and disbelief on his face. His voice has an angry tone to it, but his eyes convey a sense of fear at even the idea of it. Finally, after unsuccessfully reuniting Kai and Bonnie, Damon resorts to what he does best to get Kai to spill the beans on his and Stefan’s mother, Lily Salvatore and spill the beans he does. Not only is one of his worst fears brought to life, but it’s way worse then he could have ever imagined. She’s not only a vampire, she’s a ripper. Viewers, who are just as shocked by the news as Damon is can see by his reaction he is devastated learning the truth. He leans away from Kai as his eyes widen in disbelief and he has a look of pure shock non his face. The hurt Damon is experiencing at this time is evident as his eyes then change to sadness as he struggles to make sense of this news. This is going to get interesting…

She’s a ripper. She turned in 1858, faked her death then went to Europe, where she went a little nuts. Bodies piled up, she moved, killed some more until she had to move again. They think 3,000 in total and for some reason my coven made it their duty to stop her. - Kai.

FINAL VERDICT

The sixteenth episode of The Vampire Diaries, “The Downward Spiral,” is a fun ride of suspense and drama with a few twists and turns ending in a surprisingly unexpected way. Episode writers, Caroline Dries and Brian Young, show viewers a new and yes, more entertaining side of Caroline this week which is quite Katherine Pierce-ish. While the whole ‘humanity free vampire needs to be rescued and forced to care’ has been done several times before, it is refreshing to see a different character sans their humanity. Candice does a great job and is deliciously devilish with the humanity switch flipped. Director, Ian Somerhalder, does a good job in his directorial debut this week. His use of camera angles during the rave scenes coupled with music supervisor, Chris Mollere‘s musical selection and including various shots of fellow ravers gives the audience the full on chaos of a rave experience. During Stefan’s plea to Caroline to come back Somerhalder’s decisions to zoom in on Stefan and Caroline’s facial expressions during their interaction really captions the emotion of the scene or lack of in Caroline’s perspective. Then the shot of Caroline sitting on the bar at Scull Bar is eerily chilling yet somehow sexy as well. Somerhalder ending the scene focusing on her silhouette in the hazy red lighting with her back towards viewers and then slowly zooming to just the back of her messy hair is perfection. Young and Dries’ decision to have Stefan choose between his humanity and Sarah comes as a pleasant surprise and who knew he’d go as far as to flip the switch. The writers give Caroline a dialogue that is bitchy yet still lovable and along with Somerhalder’s direction give viewers the full humanity-free Caroline experience.

Writers, Young and Dries, surprise the audience again not with the reveal that Mama Salvatore is a vampire, but the fact that she is a ripper nonetheless. Ian Somerhalder nails Damon’s reaction to the news both from an actor and directorial stand point. His expression conveys how much it pains him to hear this and he captures the expression effectively with the use of just the right camera angles. The dialogue between Damon and Kai is snarky and quite entertaining making the scenes between the two that much more fun. The writers also do a great job addressing the after effects Bonnie is suffering from being stuck in 1994 and Kat is great illustrating Bonnie’s struggle on screen. This week left us with two humanity-free vampire, one with the ripper gene, a witch with PTSD and shocking new information on Mama Salvatore. This is definitely bound to get interesting….

Comments, Questions, Concerns…

• Hooray for no humanity Stefan! #SorryNotSorry. No humanity Stefan + No Humanity Caroline = AMAZING (Can’t wait)
• Seems the Bamon friendship has hit a speed bump, but the phone convo between the two is quite adorable.
• How dumb is it for Kai to actually think Bonnie would forgive him.
• Where were Matt, Tyler and Liv? Wonder why they didn’t go to the rave.
• Nice to Stefan and Elena teaming up again.
• Ironic that Caroline loses her conscious and Kai gains a conscious.
• Who knew Stefan would be smart enough to compel Sarah to not care about anything to do with vampires.
• Kudos to Enzo for turning down Caroline because she’s not really her.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES 6×17 airs THURSDAY, MARCH 19 at 8|9c on the CW