The Vampire Diaries 7×08 “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” REVIEW

A Murder Party with Mama Salvatore’s Heartbreaking Choice

On this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries 7×08 titled, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” the Heretics throw a murder party to celebrate an anniversary and the Salvatores put a plan into action to take down Papa Heretic. In this week’s three year flash forward, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is shown chained to a chair at a TV station in Dallas. He sees Lily (Annie Wersching) approach to save him,  but he’s beyond saving because he’s been shot with werewolf toxin and reveals he’s not who she wants. Damon apologizes to his mom for his awful behavior, but turns out he’s been hallucinating his conversation with her. Instead, he’s been chatting with the mysterious woman hunting for Stefan (Paul Wesley). Present day, Julian (Todd Lasance) and Lily throw a party to celebrate Mary Louise (Teressa Liane) and Nora’s (Scarlett Byrne) anniversary. Turns out that’s why Julian had been collecting all the compelled townspeople, so they could feed everyone at the anniversary party. Meanwhile, Stefan, Damon and Valerie (Elizabeth Blackmore) plan to crash the party and kill Julian with Lily’s help. But their plan is put on hold for a second as Caroline (Candice King) stops by to fill Stefan in on her mystical pregnancy. He doesn’t know what to say to her and ends up leaving in a rush to put the plan to put Julian down into action. But later after a heart to heart with Mama Salvatore, Stefan calls Caroline and let’s her know that he loves her and will be there for her no matter how unconventional the situation.

Elsewhere, as Lily searches for the perfect anniversary gift, Enzo (Michael Malarkey) surprises her with his knowledge of poetry and a breathtaking kiss at the end of a plea for her to leave town with him. She decides to stay and see to the plan to kill Julian. Enzo heads to the Grill to drown his sorrows and is confronted by Matt (Zach Roerig), who comes with back up.. Matt’s mysterious helpers capture Enzo and lock him up. While, at the anniversary party, Mary Louise proposes to Nora with a ring Julian stole from a princess and she happily says yes. Lily then gathers her family of Heretics to meet with her and Valerie in hopes they’ll side with her against Julian. Valerie shares her awful story and they believe her, but Mary Louise is hesitant at first.  Inside, Damon and Stefan confront Julian and tie him up until he’s unlinked from Lily, so they can kill him. Mary Louise throws a wrench into their plan freeing Julian and unlinks him from Lily. Furious, Julian captures Damon and Valerie and insists Lily cannot be part of the Heretic family and Salvatore family both. He demands she choose who dies, Damon or Valerie, but she can’t, so she stabs herself instead hoping to kill Julian as well unaware they have been unlinked.. Julian disappears and tells Mary Louise what transpired. Lily’s children then gather at her side to say their goodbyes. So much happened in this week’s episode, so let’s not waste anymore time and discuss!

Mama Salvatore’s Redemption

This week Mama Salvatore makes the ultimate sacrifice giving up her own life to save her children, both her sons and her Heretic children, from the evil man she’s brought into their life. Annie Wersching does an amazing job as Lily in this week’s episode. Viewers can see how much Lily has changed since returning from the 1903 witchy prison world towards the end of last season. When first reunited with her sons, all Mama Salvatore seemed to care about was bringing her family of Heretics back to be with her and seemingly shows no regrets about abandoning Damon and Stefan years ago, The audience begins to see how much Lily has changed when Enzo asks her to leave town with him. The old Lily wouldn’t have hesitated to leave her children for a man. She did it before. This time things are different. She has been given a do-over and wants to do right by children. Viewers can see how much Enzo’s offer means to Lily and how much she cares for him too. She is breathless after their kiss, but when she must tell him she’s staying, her eyes turn sad as she knows she’s must be breaking his heart. Then  when Lily arrives at Nora and Mary Louise’s anniversary party to find her family feeding on their guests, the audience can see from her facial expression just how uncomfortable she is with hurting innocent people. She takes a deep breath as if to show she’s just going to play along, so she doesn’t throw off the plan. Then as Lily reluctantly feeds on a party guest, her eyes widen in fear and her cheeks turn a reddish tint illustrating her embarrassment when she realizes Damon has seen her because she knows he and Stefan do not approve of feeding on the townspeople. Well, most of the time Damon doesn’t.

“You keep holding onto the hope that Stefan and Damon will love you again, that we’ll be one big happy family, but we can’t, hmm? And that hope is causing unwanted friction. Take a look around. You have all the love you need right here. All you have to do is accept it.” – Julian.

Later, when Julian demands Lily decide who dies, Damon or Valerie, to choose between the Heretic family or her sons, viewers can see how much it pains Lily to have to make such a heart-wrenching decision. As she stalls a bit for time, we can see in her eyes she’s thinking for a way out of making her decision. Its obvious Lily is choosing her words very carefully as she pretends to be considering who should die. Her words heartfelt and expression is solemn until right before she stabs herself in a last ditch effort to kill Julian, unaware they’re no longer linked together. As she stabs herself, Lily’s expression turns spiteful for a second with a look that conveys to Julian ‘How dare you make a mother pick between her children, you asshole.’ Upon realizing she’s no longer linked to Julian, viewers can see the sadness in her eyes and on her face, not only because she’s going to die, but has failed at saving her children again from another awful man she has brought into their lives. Annie Wersching is truly fantastic in her portrayal of Lily this week and bringing the emotion of her journey to life.

“You’re wrong about so many things. I never had the courage to tell you before…but I do now. You are wrong Julian. I can choose both.” – Lily.

Mother-Son Bonding

In addition to a wonderful job by Annie Wersching as Lily throughout the episode, Paul Wesley does a great job as Stefan as well. Lily and Stefan’s relationship continues to make great progress and the audience can see this during their conversation outside the party. Lily and Stefan share a sweet mother-son moment that is truly heartwarming. When Stefan opens up to his mom about the awkward situation he and Caroline are now facing with the mystical Gemini twin pregnancy, viewers see a different side of Stefan. His expression is vulnerable giving us the impression of a young man struggling with how to handle the situation. Stefan’s eyes are warm and tone of voice is soft conveying to the audience that he genuinely wants and values his mother’s opinion. During their chat, Stefan’s body language is open and he slowly walks towards Lily  with an adorable boyish smile on his face.

“Tell her you love her. Never forget what she must be going through. Be prepared for her to sacrifice everything for them.” – Lily.

While the audience can see Lily is just as genuine and vulnerable with Stefan. Her expression is kind and she’s pleased that her son is confiding in her about his personal life. He’s letting her in after all the years they spent apart after abandoning him and Damon. Viewers can see Lily is truly touched by Stefan choosing to ask her for advice and she too opens up to him. In a soft tone she confesses she might not be the best person to ask for relationship advice. Lily looks down showing us she’s embarrassed about her past, but doesn’t shut Stefan out and does offer him her opinion. She too then seeks Stefan’s opinion on how to essentially become a part of his and Damon’s life again after abandoning them and letting them believe she was dead,. She reaches her hand for his and they exchange loving glances as each tries to make the other feel a little bit better. Both Annie Wersching and Paul Wesley are truly perfection in bringing this sweet mother-son moment to life and stirring up the feels for viewers.

Holy Plot Twist Batman!

A new mystery unfolds this week when Deputy Donovan and his newfound friends capture Enzo unexpectedly outside the Grille. Matt confronts Enzo feeding on an innocent towns member at the Grille and Enzo pokes fun of Matt’s inability to protect Mystic Falls despite being the town sheriff. The jokes on Enzo though when Matt returns with reinforcements. He’s enlisted a team that obviously has experience and knowledge to take down and trap a vampire. Instantly, viewers wonder who and where Matt found these ‘friends’ and what that means for his vampire friends because let’s face it Matt doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to random vampire hunters. Surely, viewers remember Tripp and all the chaos that came along with him. These new hunters arrival in Mystic Falls also has the audience wondering if it has any connection to the ongoing mystery of the unidentified woman hunting for Stefan in a fatal attraction like story line. In a surprising turn of events when viewers think we’ve finally learned who is searching for Stefan, it turns out to be a werewolf toxin induced hallucination of Lily from Damon. After it sinks in that Damon is infected with werewolf toxin and could potentially die, the audience realizes Lily does die and the identity of the woman still remains in question. It’s so much information for the audience to process all at one time  that is has a compounding effect that leaves our jaws on the floor.

FINAL VERDICT:

The eighth episode of The Vampire Diaries season seven, ““Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”” centers around a Heretic anniversary party and a plan to take down the evil Papa Heretic. There’s no better place for a premeditated murder than a Mystic Falls party. Brett Matthews penned an episode that has a little something for everyone including an unexpected death no one saw coming. Mathews pulls the ultimate Jedi mind trick with the first three year flash forward between Damon and who we all thought was Lily. Viewers are completely unprepared because Lily is shown in the flash forward that there’s no way she’s going to die. We all assume there has to be some spell or loophole to save her because she’s in the flash forward. Matthews brings the ultimate and quite the clever plot twist in the second flash forward. Sadly, it’s revealed Damon isn’t talking to Lily and instead she turns out to be werewolf toxin induced hallucination. Episode director, Leslie Libman, cleverly makes good use of camera angles as not to reveal the true identity of the mystery woman that Damon first believes is Lily. Viewers see what Damon is seeing chained to the chair and suffering the effects of the werewolf toxin. A special camera filter serves as a unique technique to transport the audience into the scene from Damon’s point of view and also keep the identity of the woman concealed. Libman shows only a blurry figure of the woman until the bottom of her boot comes into focus just before she knocks Damon out.

“Because you’re already dead to me Lily. I was 17. You went away. I cried. I grew up. You being here doesn’t change any of that. If I had to do it all over again, I’d left you in that damn prison world, so that I didn’t have to see your face again.” – Damon.

Matthews brings Lily’s journey full circle in a unique way. Given a do over of sorts with Damon and Stefan, Lily also has the opportunity to try to make things right and rid all of her children. biological and Heretic, of yet again another monster of a man she’s brought into their life. The irony of the advice Lily gives Stefan about he and Caroline’s situation is not lost because ultimately, Lily gives up everything for her children just as she says Caroline might one day do too. The scene when her children gather to say their final goodbyes to Lily is done wonderfully, Libman makes fantastic use of camera angles to capture the raw emotion of the scene. She alternates close up shots of each of the actors’ faces and of Lily as she lays with wood splinters in her chest. This gives viewers the overall mood of the room and how everyone’s feeling. Lily’s impact is fully illustrated as Libman infuses the emotional goodbyes of her children together with a furious, grief-stricken Julian and devastated Mary Louise at the Salvatore House. The emotion is dialed up even more and we get a double dose of feels with music supervisor, Chris Mollere’s, choice of Mikal Cronin’s “Alone” playing in the background. Not all of her children echoed sweet goodbyes to Mama Salvatore, Matthews cleverly reminds viewers through Damon’s mean spirited comments of the awful things Lily has done over the years, including the ‘sleeping beauty’ spell on Elena (Nina Dobrev), that warrants some of his lingering anger. While, the second flash forward serves as a clever way to show how Damon feels remorse for his actions towards his dying mother and haunt him. Unfortunately, Damon doesn’t get a do over and if he doesn’t get treatment soon, he too could die. Let’s hope somewhere in the future Klaus (Joseph Morgan) makes a trip to Dallas to cure him. And maybe we’ll finally meet this mysterious woman after Stefan and making everyone’s life hell. Surely, we’ll have a lot to discuss next week, especially since it’s the season seven mid-season finale.

Questions, Comments & Concerns:

• Where the hell is Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Alaric (Matt Davis)? Did they go on another European vacation and forget to invite Damon?
• How beautiful was Mary Louse’s proposal to Nora? So touching and gorgeous scenery. Too bad their engagement was shorter than Kim Kardashian’s marriage to Kris Humphries.
• Stefan telling Caroline he loves her is so sweet and their phone conversation is too cute.
• Confession: that kiss between Enzo and Lily was H.O.T.
• Is anyone else secretly hoping one of Matt’s new vampire hunting friends is Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) or Tyler (Michael Trevino) or both??

THE MID-SEASON FINALE OF THE VAMPIRE DIARIES 6×09 airs THURSDAY, DEC. 10 at 8|7c. on The CW