The Vampire Diaries 7×04 “I Carry Your Heart with Me” REVIEW

Night of the Living Dead

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries 7×04 “I Carry Your Heart with Me” focuses on the relationships of the couples in the series; both official and unofficial as well as the living and dead-ish. Damon’s (Ian Somerhalder) continues his quest to get Elena’s (Nina Dobrev) body back from his mother, while Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Caroline (Candice KIng) babysit the heretics at Whitmore College. In this week’s three year fast forward Alaric (Matt Davis) is featured. He’s shown trying to fix a doll and twin girls come into the room. Damon then knocks at the door asking to come inside. Present day, Damon discovers Oscar (Tim Kang) had his heart ripped out and is no longer an acceptable trade, so he asks for Bonnie’s (Kat Graham) help. She finds the spell and with the use of Phoenix Stone is able to resurrect Oscar, but gets loose in Mystic Falls just as haunted buses tours are in town. Meanwhile, Lily (Annie Wersching) knows something is up with the hostage swap, so she and sends Mary Louise (Teressa Liane) and Nora (Scarlett Byrne) to Whitmore in search of Oscar. Lily questions Valerie (Elizabeth Blackmore), but she keeps her secret from Lily. Valerie does confess to Enzo (Michael Malarkey) and the pair agree to work together to keep Julian (Todd Lasance) from returning to Lily.

At Whitmore College, Mary Louise and Nora sent out to kill an innocent every hour until Oscar returns, Caroline jedi mind tricks them into attending the ‘Heaven and Hell Ball’ on campus, so she and Stefan can keep an eye on them. Back in Mystic Falls,, Oscar, who turns out to have the ripper gene wrecks havoc, but Lily finds him rippering out, so she then agrees to return Elena to Damon. He decides to give her to Tyler (Michael Trevino) to keep safe. And back on campus, Stefan and Caroline team up and give Nora no choice, but to siphon the vervain spell from Caroline finally allowing them to touch (and touch they did). While at the morgue, Bonnie uses the Phoenix stone and brings Jo (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) back to life. So much happened this episode. Let’s discuss!

Damon’s Existential Crisis:

The Damon Salvatore viewers all know and love has always been driven by love. From the day we first met him, the reason he returned to Mystic Falls was in search of a way to rescue Katherine from the tomb he believed she’d been trapped. But the audience learns that meeting Elena Gilbert changes everything for Damon. Even during Elena and Stefan’s relationship, she constantly encourages Damon to be the better man. He tries and most times does, but not because he had to, but because of his love for her. Over the years Damon’s love for Elena consumes him. We see he spends so much time protecting Elena and those she loves that it becomes his life. She becomes his life and now that Elena is spelled asleep for the remainder of Bonnie’s natural life Damon doesn’t know what to do with himself. Mama Salvatore even sees and points out to him that he’s struggling to find himself in Elena’s absence.

“Damon you could hardly keep a covered box safe. Do you realize this innate desire to keep Elena physically present in your life, this boyish refusal to let her go will only put her in more danger? After everything you’ve been through what a shame it would be to lose her because you’re too terrified to find out who you actually are without her.” – Lily.

Ian Somerhalder does a great job as Damon again this week. Once Damon finally gets Elena’s body back from Lily, viewers can see by his expression that he knows what she’s saying is true. Damon has a serious look on his face and his eyes are wide with fear at the thought of losing Elena because of something he did. Then as Damon sits and writes his journal entry to Elena the audience can see how much he’s struggling with the notion of being separated from her even if she’s spelled asleep. The solemn expression on his face and the sadness in his eyes illustrate to viewers that he knows it’s the right thing to do, so they can be together again. Just like the bottle of wine he hid in a safe place for years, he’s doing the same to protect Elena from others wanting to harm her as well as those who want to harm her because of something he’s done. And in doing so Damon is forced to figure out who he is without Elena Gilbert, the one who defines him and as we can see by the fear in his eyes,  it scares the hell out of him.

“So who is Damon Salvatore without Elena Gilbert? A selfish friend, jealous brother, a horrible son, or just maybe i will get lucky and do right by you. You may be a thousand miles away or a hundred years away, but you are still here with me and my heart is right there in that coffin with you. Until you come back to me..” – Damon.

Relationship Status Update

There’s major development made this week in the relationship between Stefan and Caroline. For weeks Steroline shippers have been tortured with their reluctance to take the next step. Add in a vervain skin spell from Stefan’s first love, Valerie, and things quickly turn to an ‘it’s complicated’ status. This week viewers as well as Steroline shippers finally see Caroline and Stefan’s relationship status become official. The two are forced to babysit Mary Louise and Nora at Whitmore’s ‘Heaven and Hell Ball.’ The audience can’t help, but squee in joy when Caroline arrives to the bash and confesses to Stefan she didn’t think babysitting a murderous pair of heretics would be a good first date. Our hearts melt when Stefan chats with Mary Louise about his and her relationship drama he refers to Caroline as his girlfriend. Viewers can see just how much he cares for Caroline purely from his warm expression and loving eyes. But if there’s any questions remaining in viewers’ minds whether Caroline and Stefan are a couple, it’s undeniable they’re together when we see them cuddling in bed together after their hot hookup. Both look so peaceful and happy sleeping in each others arms. Awe.

“The reason I’m not talking about Valerie is because I am not thinking about Valerie. I am thinking about you and how you and I have had more history in the past five years than most people have in a lifetime.” – Stefan.

Nora and Mary Louise’s relationship takes front stage as well this week.. Viewers can quickly see the pair is having some trouble adapting after being trapped in the prison world for so long. Its obvious when they arrive at the ‘Heaven and Hell Ball’ and head to the bar to order a drink. As Nora chats with the bartender, Mary Louise’s expression shows viewers she’s feeling annoyed and a bit jealous. Of both Nora’s ability to fit in so easily and of the fact her girl is chatting it up with another woman. Caroline even points out the tension between them watching Nora having a blast dancing and Mary Louise just standing in the middle of the dance floor beside her with her arms crossed and that uncomfortable look on her face. It’s as if she’s babysitting her own girlfriend instead of enjoying the party with her. Later when Mary Louise finds Nora feeding on the bartender, viewers see Mary Louise’s insecurities come to the surface when she rips the bartender’s heart out putting an end to all Nora’s fun. After the life threatening encounter with Stefan and Caroline the ladies realize how much they mean to each other. As the couple shares a slow dance looking on the empty dance floor, Mary Louise and Nora look lovingly into each others eyes conveying to viewers how much they love one another. The ‘Heaven and Hell’ was a win for both couples that attended. Nora and Mary Louise are reminded of their love and Stefan and Caroline finally take their relationship to the next level.

Necromancy

This week the audience finally sees the Phoenix stone put into action. With Damon’s Oscar problem and only a day remaining to bring Jo back to life,  Bonnie. uses the Phoenix stone to save the day and resurrect them both. It’s no surprise to the audience Oscar would be resurrected because, it was shown in the episode preview. What we weren’t ready for is him to go on a ripper bender through Mystic Falls because he has the ripper gene.

This week’s three year flash forward tells viewers that Jo would be brought back to life at sometime, but who suspected so soon. We see Alaric in full Daddy mode and to everyone’s delight, as Alaric attempts some resurrecting of his own, on a doll, adorable twin girls appear and he insists it’s way past bedtime. The final clue hinting Jo comes back to life is when Alaric calls one of girls Josiah, most likely after her mother, Jo. What the audience doesn’t see in the flash forward is Jo, leaving viewers wondering if she’s still alive or maybe just working the night shift at the hospital.  Sadly, it appears as Damon and Alaric’s bromance is heading toward a speed bump sometime in the future because Alaric looks rather shocked to him standing at his front door. Instantly, viewers wonder what could have possibly happened to put a rift in their friendship.

FINAL VERDICT:

The fourth episode of The Vampire Diaries season seven, “I Carry Your Heart With Me,” primarily focuses on the romantic relationships in the show as well as keeping a Halloween theme to relate to the upcoming holiday. Whether the character is protecting their love, determining a relationship status, trying to adapt to a new world, reuniting with or winning over someone’s love the episode is filled with all sorts of relationship drama. Neil Reynolds penned an episode that keeps viewers attention with the a resurrected ripper heretic gone rogue in Mystic Falls while also featuring some sweet moments that really get the feels going. This week’s three year flash forward is a clever idea by Reynolds to allude to Jo’s resurrection and also intrigues the audience to wonder where Jo is because she’s not shown. In addition, showing the twins raises even more questions because it means the rebirth of the Gemini coven. While Reynold’s adding Damon’s appearance on Alaric’s doorstep makes us even more anxious to find out what happened between them and more so whose death they’re referring to. Episode director, Jeffrey Hunt, builds the tension in the scene by first showing Damon from Alaric’s point of view standing behind his daughters and then from Damon’s as Alaric comes to the hallway armed to protect his family. Hunt then alternates close up shots of both Damon and Alaric’s faces to capitalize on Alaric’s uneasiness in Damon’s reappearance and Damon’s expression that conveys to viewers that shit’s about to go down.

The idea to have some type of themed dance is nothing new from Reynolds. Dances have been a staple in TVD since the beginning of the series, but seem to be an anticipated episode for viewers. While, not everyone attended, but at least nothing terrible happened at this year’s featured bash, which is a change of pace. In fact dance’s events served as a unique way to show the difficulties faced by a same sex couple. Mary Louise and Nora are forced to adapt from living in a time period where their relationship was looked down upon and forced to hid their relationship to living in more accepting time where they can live and love how they choose. Hunt does a great job using camera angles to capture the emotion of each scene with the pair. He makes sure to keep Mary Louise in frame, so viewers can see the concern on her face as her girlfriend adapts more quickly to their new world. Then after their life threatening encounter with Stefan and Caroline and Mary Louise and Nora share a dance, Hunt focuses on both of their content expressions in the others’ arms and zooms out to show they’re alone on the dance floor hitting home for viewers Nora and Mary Louise are united as one. During Stefan and Caroline’s hookup, Hunt does an exceptional job here as well. The intimacy of the scene is illustrated by showing numerous angles of the pair and then focusing on them cuddling tells viewers this isn’t just a friends with benefits situation. While music supervisor, Chris Mollere, choice to play Arum Rae’s “What Good is a Heart” during the scene adds to the audience’s emotion seeing the passionate moment between them.

Then as Damon journals, Hunt makes sure to focus on the wine and him drinking it to emphasize the importance of the why he’s decided to hand Elena over to Tyler to keep her safe. Damon’s entry, penned by Reynolds is powerful and Damon’s tone of voice hits home for viewers how lost Damon is without her. Things are setting up for us to see a whole new side of Damon Salvatore as he finds out who he is without Elena Gilbert. And if six seasons of TVD has taught us anything, there’s always consequences to magic that brings back to life, so it’s just a matter of time till we see the aftereffects of the Phoenix stone. See ya next week when we’ll even more to discuss!

Questions, Comments & Concerns:

• Anyone else loving the Enzo and Valerie team up? They have some serious chemistry! #Valenzo
• Still not used to seeing Alaric so depressed and vulnerable. He lost Isobel and Jenna too, but Jo really got him. Hope the catch to being resurrected aren’t completely devastating because there’s always a catch.
• Can we please have a love interest for Bonnie already?
• Such a powerful moment between Damon and Lily at the cemetery. After all these years, she still knows him so well, Watch out Mama Salvatore!! Your humanity is showing.
• Sheriff Donovan. Just love the sound of that and seeing Matty Blue Eyes in a uniform each week.

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES 6×05 airs THURSDAY, NOV. 5 at 8|7c. on The CW