The Vampire Diaries 7×06 “Best Served Cold” REVIEW

Mama Salvatore Hosts a “Welcome Back to Life” Bash & Magical Pregnancy is Discovered

This week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries 7×06, “Best Served Cold,” centers around a dinner party that introduces a new villain and a shocking revelation that changes everything. This week’s three year flash forward picks up with Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Alaric (Matt Davis) discussing Stefan’s (Paul Wesley) life being in jeopardy. Damon asks him to call his fiance for help, but the news comes on with Caroline (Candice King) warning Stefan he’s in danger and also reveals that Caroline is Alaric’s fiancee. Present day,  Lily (Annie Wersching) throws a dinner in Julian’s (Todd Lasance) honor to celebrate his return. She invites her sons as well as all of Mystic Falls (those that are left) and even guests from neighboring towns as an offer of peace. Damon has no desire to attend until learning of his brother’s murderous intentions and changes his mind. Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Enzo (Michael Malarkey) show up at the same time and at his request she pretends to be his date to make Lily jealous. Even Matt (Zach Roerig) makes an appearance at Mama Salvatore’s soiree. Damon spends the evening deterring his brother from killing Julian until Deputy Donovan assists Stefan. He distracts Damon to get him out of his way and then leaves with Bonnie for Mystic Falls High School to find out why one of the party’s waitstaff was so insistent on finding it. What they find is an entire classroom compelled with human blood bags for the Heretics.

Meanwhile, as Mama Salvatore hosts her party, Alaric discovers he must say goodbye to Fo-Jo (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) because her human body is rejecting the vampire soul. As he says his goodbyes, Valerie (Elizabeth Blackmore) discovers on Jo and Alaric’s wedding video the Gemini coven did a spell transferring Jo and Alaric’s twins into someone else. Valerie does a locator spell, which reveals Caroline is now carrying the babies. While back at the party, Stefan confronts Julian, but Lily finds them fighting and stops them, Damon rejoins the living and Mama Salvatore and her man crush scold both Stefan and Damon for their bad manners, Another fight erupts between Stefan, Damon and Julian and again Lily must intervene before Julian stakes one of her sons. Finally, after the party Stefan fills Damon in on the reason he wants Julian dead and Damon assures his brother he’ll help him. So much happened on this week’s episode. Let’s not waste any more time and start discussing.

Resurrected and it Feels So Good

Mama Salvatore finally has her man back and the arrival of Julian doesn’t disappoint. He is everything viewers have anticipated he’d be over the past weeks’ build up. Todd Lasance does an amazing job as Julian this week. Julian has a fun side to him that appeals to the Heretic family members and offers a slight reprieve from living under Lily’s thumb. In addition to his gorgeous face, Julian has an allure that viewers can easily see why Lily is so smitten with him. During his interactions with Lily, Julian turns up the charm and is super flirty with her. After sword fighting with Beau (Jaiden Kane) inside the house, something she frowns upon, he flashes her a sexy grin and compliments her with a naughty, seductive tone. His eyes are warm and he has a sly smile conveying to the audience he’s fully aware he has her wrapped around his finger. Then after the fight with Stefan and Damon, Julian knows Lily is upset with him, so he reluctantly confesses to suffering aftereffects from being trapped inside of the Phoenix stone for so long. His expression is sad, but viewers can see by his eyes that his confession isn’t completely genuine. Instead he’s manipulating her, so she’ll convince their Heretic family to protect him from Damon and Stefan’s wrath.

“Lily, perhaps I’m more affected by my time away than I wanted to admit. You know I was wishing that the hell had gone away, but my mind, it’s not right. I mean the truth is I’m frightened I am not the Julian you remember.” – Julian.

Charm and manipulation is just the beginning of Julian’s devious traits. Viewers first get a taste of his monstrous side in the Salvatore wine cellar with Mary Louise (Teressa Liane). He encourages her to snub her nose at Lily’s rules and feed on the waitstaff during the party. Taking a drink first to show her it’s okay, Julian entices Mary Louise to do so too with a sly grin and challenging eyes. The audience sees Julian go into full on monster mode during his fight with Stefan and Damon. It’s obvious he’s holding nothing back throwing them against the wall at full force breaking all kinds of furniture along the way. Julian’s expression conveys pure rage as he comes seconds from killing one of them. His eyes are detached as if he’s consumed by a red sea of anger illustrating that if hadn’t been for Lily stopping him he would’ve killed both of Damon and Stefan without hesitation. Let’s not forget Julian is the reason Valerie lost her and Stefan’s child, which is why the more peaceful Salvatore is hell bent on taking his life. Todd Lasance is perfection this week bringing to life the multiple sides that make up the monstrous yet charming Julian.

“I didn’t know I was Pregnant”

Since the first three year flashback between Alaric and Damon it’s been quite clear Jo and Alaric’s twins somehow survived Kai’s (Chris Wood) wrath and Jo’s death. But like most things when it comes to TVD, we don’t get all the details right away when it comes to the know how. For obvious reasons viewers suspect Jo returning from the dead or at least her body, the babies in turn would return to life as well. It quickly becomes apparent that Jo’s soul isn’t the only thing missing from Jo. Not only does her body hold the soul of an old vampire that was trapped inside the Phoenix stone, she shows no signs of pregnancy either. Again the audience is left wondering how the hell the twins are alive or even if the girls shown in the flash forward are even Jo and Alaric’s twins.

The mysterious re-appearance of the twins is solved this week in a shocking revelation that leaves us with even more questions about their survival. Valerie’s discovery at the end of Jo and Alaric’s wedding video begins to shed some light on the how. She recognizes that chanting at the end of the video is not the Gemini banishing Kai, but transferring Alaric and Jo’s twins into another person to save the Gemini line. Instantly, viewers wonder who could now being carrying the babies and the person not know they’re pregnant. Only two names come to mind. Bonnie and Elena (Nina Dobrev) appear to be the only possibilities at first because never has a vampire carried a child except for Twilight and well, this is TVD. That adds to viewers surprise to learn that neither ladies are carrying the babies, but instead it’s Caroline who is pregnant. From season one we’ve known vampires are not able to procreate, but never would we have suspected a vampire could be surrogate to human babies. Which kind of makes sense from the Gemini coven’s standpoint because a vampire’s immortality better ensures the child’s survival and continuation of the coven’s bloodline. Things are about to get even more complicated for Stefan and Caroline.

A Final Goodbye

In an episode filled with confrontations and surprises, the final goodbye between Alaric and Fo-Jo tugs at the heartstrings for viewers. Matt Davis does a wonderful job as Alaric this week. The audience can see the pain he’s experiencing as he re-watches Jo and his wedding video. His expression is somber and eyes are sad as he realizes that he came so close to being reunited with the love of his life and mother-to-be of his children. Bonnie calls to inform him of Fo-Jo’s whereabouts and insists he head to Scull Bar to keep tabs on Jo. Viewers can see he’s reluctant to see Jo knowing even though she looks like Jo, she’s not. Seeing her reminds him this and adds even more to his pain. Even though it isn’t Jo’s soul inside her body, Alaric still has a tenderness to his voice and a warmth in his eyes when he talks to her showing that just the physical presence of her makes him feel some type of way. He has a soft spot for her because she looks like Jo.

“It’s been so nice to hear her voice again. Thank you for allowing me to say goodbye.” – Alaric.

After discovering Jo’s human body is rejecting the vampire soul from the Phoenix stone, Alaric is forced to say goodbye yet again to Jo. While the circumstances may be different this time around, it doesn’t make things any easier for Alaric. It’s heartbreaking to watch him try to says goodbye one last time. With tears in his eyes, Alaric thanks her for allowing him to hear Jo’s voice again. Reliving the pain of losing her as well as the realization setting in that he is also losing the hope of resurrecting the real Jo is pure torture. Viewers can see how much this pains him to let her go by the quivering in his voice and his heartbroken expression. This scene between Alaric and Jo is gut-wrenching for the audience. Both Matt Davis and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe are great illustrating the raw emotion to viewers.

FINAL VERDICT:

The sixth episode of The Vampire Diaries season seven, “Best Served Cold,” centers around Mama Salvatore’s ‘Welcome Back from the Dead’ party where Stefan has big plans for revenge and elsewhere a shocking revelation is uncovered that changes everything. Caroline Dries penned an episode that’s filled with action keeping viewers’ attention, but leaves room for a heart-wrenching goodbye as well as a few unexpected twists we don’t see coming. This week’s flash forward is a clever way to incorporate information from previous flash forwards to reveal Caroline and Alaric’s future engagement. This also foreshadows Caroline’s tie to Alaric and Jo’s twins, which makes complete sense why she is the one carrying the girls once it’s discovered they’re still alive. Keeping the babies alive by transferring them into another body opens a whole new can of worms. Not only does it make a uniquely awkward situation between Caroline, Alaric and Stefan, but also marks the rebirth of the Gemini witch coven and the whole twin merge ritual, quite a sneaky move from Dries. Add in some Salvatore bickering and some heartwarming brother bonding, a fan favorite, makes for an entertaining episode.

“Well, I’ve been on this Earth for 160 some years. I’ve traveled to every continent and I’ve seen the world at 30,000 feet and learned to cook. Built a Porsche. I think my only regret would be not having a kid.” – Stefan.

Dries wrote poignant and powerful dialogue to emphasize the emotion of each scene. Episode director, Darren Genet, makes great use of camera angles to capture the raw emotion on each scene. As Alaric says goodbye to Jo, Genet alternates close up shots of them both and really gets viewers’ feels going. Coupled with standout performances from Matt Davis and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe and the lyrics of Birdy + Rhodes’ “Let It All Go,” a choice from music supervisor, Chris Mollere, and it brings out the ‘ugly girl cry’ in all of us. While to lighten the mood of the episode, Damon’s dialogue is snarky and fun. Some of his comments even has viewers literally laughing out loud at times as he attempts to keep his brother from attacking Julian at Mama Salvatore’s dinner party. But when he and Stefan bond over a drink after the party, the conversation is serious and heartfelt. The soft lighting and great use of camera angles by Genet illustrates the love shared between the two. Now that Damon and Stefan are on the same page to take down Julian, he better watch out. And after the gruesome discovery at Mystic Falls High, it’s probably not going to take much convincing to get everyone on team “Take down Julian,” except Caroline, of course, since her eggo is now preggo. It’s going to get even more interesting next week. Surely, there will be much more to discuss. See ya then!

Questions, Comments & Concerns:

• Holy hotness! The chemistry between Bonnie and Enzo is smoldering! Wow!
• Soooo many questions about Caroline carrying Alaric and Jo’s twins. How does a vampire nourish humans babies? How the hell didn’t she know she was pregnant? Aren’t a vampire’s emotions heightened? WTH?!?
• Matt Donovan in a suit is a reason in itself to throw a party. Anyone else picking up some vibes between Matt and Nora (Scarlett Byrne)?

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES 6×07 airs THURSDAY, NOV. 19 at 8|7c. on The CW