The Vampire Diaries 7×03 “Age of Innocence” REVIEW

A Stoner Heretic & A Tragic Tale of First Love

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries 7×03 “Age of Innocence” reveals each of the Salvatore brothers’ unexpected connections to the Heretics. Like previous episodes this season, a three year flash forward is shown. This week, Stefan (Paul Wesley) is shown throwing gasoline on his Porsche and making sure to grab his journal before setting it on fire. As he does, he calls Tyler (Michael Trevino) to see if he’s heard from Caroline (Candice King). Present day, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) puts his plan to get Elena’s (Nina Dobrev) body back from Lily. (Annie Wersching) into action. Along with Alaric (Matt Davis) and Bonnie (Kat Graham), he goes on a road trip to Myrtle Beach to find Oscar (Tim Kang), the missing Heretic, to trade him for Elena and hopefully rid Bonnie of the awful visions she’s been having since encountering the Phoenix stone. Turns out Oscar has met Damon before when he was human because Lily sent him to check on him. Oscar does not want to live under Lily’s thumb like the others putting a snag in Damon’s plan. He does agree to help Bonnie, but returning to Lily and giving up his newfound freedom takes a little bit more convincing. As Alaric and Bonnie settle their differences about the Phoenix stone, Damon attempts to persuade Oscar. Bonnie and Alaric come to help him just in time and they are able to subdue Oscar, The plan to trade him for Elena is back on or was until Valerie later rips his heart out.

Back in Mystic Falls, Stefan tries to convince Lily that he’s turned against Damon. In doing so, he asks how she knows Valerie (Elizabeth Blackmore) and Lily confesses to sending her to check on him before going to Europe with boyfriend, Julian (Todd Lasance). Stefan agrees to help Lily with her driving as she explains why she sent Valerie to him. Meanwhile, Caroline remains prisoner at the Salvatore House and Valerie gives her all the details of her past with Stefan. She too reveals Lily sent her to check on Stefan, but she fell in love with him confessing to being his first. She promised to return to him, but Julian would not let her, even though she carried his child. Instead he beat her near death and killing the baby. Valerie attempted suicide, but died with Lily’s blood in her system, so she became the first Heretic. A lot happened in this week’s episode. Let’s not waste anymore time and get right down to discussing.

You Always Remember Your First

Elizabeth Blackmore is great in her portrayal of Valerie this week. She does an amazing job taking viewers through the array of emotions Valerie experiences. In the flashbacks, she illustrates both an innocent young witch with the world ahead of her, who falls in love and becomes pregnant to defeated and so grief stricken from the loss of her child to a hundred and fifty-two year old Heretic still haunted by the past living in present day Mystic Falls. The audience can see by her expression that Valerie gets some kind of twisted pleasure out of telling Stefan’s current love about her past with him. Valerie stands arms crossed with closed off and cold body language as she knows she has or had something with Stefan that Caroline never can. With a slight grin on her face and a somewhat condescending tone, Valerie reveals she was the girl Stefan he lost his V card to.

“I’m sure you’ve been someone’s first, so you know what it’s like to have a completely unforgettable place in someone’s mind.” - Valerie.

While in the flashback sequences, viewers see a different side of Valerie and can easily understand how Stefan fell for her in 1863. Doe-eyed, she looks so sweet and innocent. Her eyes are warm and so is her tone of voice along with her body language, which is inviting and pleasant. Valerie is charming and the chemistry between her and Stefan is undeniable. When they sneak off into the woods both Elizabeth Blackmore and Paul Wesley are great conveying the emotion of the scene. The glances shared by the pair are sweet and pure. Then as Valerie reaches the heartbreaking part of the story, her gloating quickly turns to avoidance. She refuses to discuss it anymore and walks away. Viewers can see as she standing in the doorway how much it pains her to recall the awful time in her life. Valerie’s eyes are filled with pain and her expression solemn. And let’s not forget when Valerie locates where Oscar is being held. She has a friendly expression and kind tone of voice one second and then the next she literally rips out his heart. This illustrates to viewers just how unpredictable Valerie can be. Elizabeth Blackmore does a fantastic job conveying the range of emotions she experiences throughout the episode. Bravo!

Salvatore Six Degrees of Separation

The Salvatore brothers’ each having a connection to a Heretic as humans and before they become a Heretic is an unexpected twist viewers doesn’t see coming. Last week we learned Valerie has a connection to Stefan, but that merely touched the surface of their past. In a series of flashbacks viewers learn their story with a heartbreaking outcome. It’s no surprise for viewers to learn the handsome Stefan Salvatore found love before Katherine Pierce, but the fact that it was his mother who sent his first love to him is. No one could’ve ever imagined the possibility he or his brother for that matter could have fathered a child before turning into vampires. The past between Stefan and Valerie is beautiful yet tragic. While, it’s exciting for viewers to learn about Stefan’s first love and how he lost his V Card, their story is heartbreaking. Viewers find it hard not to feel sorry for both of them even though Valerie is now a big bad Heretic. Adding to viewer’s shock; not only does Stefan have no clue Valerie had become pregnant and lost their baby, but is how and who caused her to lose the baby and why she never returned to be with him. It’s hard to pick what part of their story is the most tragic and could bring a tear to the driest eyes.

“But now i get it. You loved me, time passed and you moved on with your new family. And so did I.” - Damon.

Stefan isn’t the only Salvatore to have a connection to one of Lily’s Heretic family members, Damon does too and again at Lily’s doings. Viewers are surprised to learn Mama Salvatore sends Oscar to check on Damon the same time she sends Valerie to Stefan. Oscar meets Damon in a Gettysburg bar during the Civil War and turns out he is why Damon left the war. A conversation about Damon’s beliefs ended with Oscar telling him to follow his heart was the push he needed to take leave. Ironically, Damon’s entire regiment was killed the next day. Unfortunately, no flashbacks are shown of their meeting treating the audience to Damon the sexy Civil War soldier. Not only is it surprising that both Damon and Stefan have met one of their mother’s new family members, but her sending them to check on her sons she abandoned also show viewers it wasn’t as easy as she makes it seem to leave them behind.

A Softer Side of Lily

Since her introduction, Mama Salvatore has been thought as a bad mom, devoid of emotion being able to just abandon her sons and never look back. Annie Wersching does a wonderful job this week in her portrayal of Lily and illustrating a new side of the Salvatore matriarch. She and Stefan spend some quality time together as he accompanies her as she practices driving. While he intended to convince her he isn’t getting along with Damon, Stefan learned more about his mom than he ever thought. After he questions her about knowing Valerie, he and viewers are surprised to learn she sent her to check on him before leaving for Europe. Sending Valerie and Oscar to check on her sons conveys Lily’s humanity to the audience and she is capable of feeling guilt. Viewers also see she feels of a different kind of love other than that for her Heretic family. As Lily remembers Julian and that time in her life, viewers can see the love she has for him purely by her expression. She smiles and her eyes are warm. She’s practically glowing and blushes slightly when Stefan refers to him as her boyfriend.

“Like any mother longing for her children, I was in a black hole of depression. Yes. Stefan I’m more than the cold-hearted snake you and your brother wish me to be. It took me a long time to get over losing you.” - Lily.

When Lily returns from her driving lesson to find Caroline in Stefan’s room, she attempts to talk to her about losing her mom. Caroline refuses, but assures her Stefan loved her and shows Lily his journal entries that he wrote about her. While reading an entry, a smile comes to her face. Lily entire expression softens conveying to viewers the weight of worrying that her son perhaps forgot or was even upset with her for dying (which both Stefan and Damon thought until last season) has been lifted off her shoulders. Letting Caroline go free shows us Lily still has a soft spot for her sons and harming them isn’t as easy at it may seem. Mama Salvatore shows a wide array of emotions this week and Annie Wersching is great conveying them to viewers, so we can understand Lily a little better.

FINAL VERDICT:

The third episode of The Vampire Diaries season seven, “Age of Innocence,” reveals the Salvatore brothers’ connection to Mama Salvatore’s Heretic family and puts Damon’s plan to get Elena back into motion. Melinda Hsu Taylor and Holly Brix penned an episode that not only keeps the audience’s attention, but also reveals new pieces of the story behind the origin of the Heretics as well as the shocking details of Stefan and Valerie’s love story, which also introduces us to a new monster. The audience is completely surprised to learn Stefan fathered a child and with Valerie, a Heretic no less. And if that wasn’t enough of a shock, Stefan has no clue she was pregnant or that she lost the baby at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend. Episode director, Michael Allowitz, does a wonderful job distinguishing the flashback sequences with the use of a camera filter which gives the picture an antique-like appearance. His use of camera angles throughout the episode captures the emotion of each scene.The lighting used in the scene when Stefan loses his virginity creates a warm ambiance. The romantic glow in the background of the scene along with “Don’t You Wait” by Cloves, selected by music supervisor, Chris Mollere, sets the mood for the scene. While the camera angle variation while focusing on both Stefan and Valerie’s faces and body parts by Allowitz adds to the emotion and emphasizes the innocence lost inf a young man’s first time. Then again when Valerie stands outside Stefan’s room remembering the tragic events of her past with him, Elizabeth Blackmore is exceptional. Allowitz focuses on her somber expression and zooms in slowly so viewers can see the pain in her eyes just before transitioning into another flashback.

Taylor and Brix giving Damon and Stefan a connection to one of her Heretics is a clever way to show viewers a softer side of Lily. Revealing Lily had sent Valerie and Oscar to check up on her sons shows them and viewers it wasn’t as easy as it might have seemed for her to walk away. Allowitz is great capturing the emotion on Lily’s face as she reads what Stefan wrote about her in his journal. While zooming in so viewers can see the smile on Lily’s face, he also makes sure to keep the journal in the frame as well as Caroline being set free. This emphasizes to the audience that Lily still cares about her sons and isn’t the evil bitch we’ve all come to know her as. Taylor and Brix give the audience a little bit of an emotional reprieve from the heaviness of the episode, they add a road trip mission into the mix. It’s always a treat for viewers to have Team Badass back in action. Add Bonnie and hard-partying, stoner Heretic makes for good entertainment. Like most plans on TVD, something always tends to go awry. It’s going to be nightly interesting to see how Damion manages to fix this one and if Alaric and Bonnie can bring Jo (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) back from the dead. Make sure to tune in and we’ll have even more to discuss next week.

Questions, Comments & Concerns:

• NEED to know ASAP if Alaric and Bonnie are able to resurrect Jo, does that mean the babies would be alive again too? And if so does that mean the rebirth of the Gemini coven?
• Julian is a monster, a hot monster.
• Going to get real interesting if or when Julian comes to town and Mama Salvatore finds out she could have been GRANDMA Salvatore.
• Oscar is HILARIOUS! Hope his resurrection in the promo for next week isn’t temporary.
• Amazing to know Tyler is still alive three years in the future.
• Sorry not sorry, but kind of Mary Louise (Teressa Liane) and Nora (Scarlett Byrne).

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES 6×04 airs THURSDAY, OCT. 29 at 8|7c. on The CW