Still a hostage of the heretics, Caroline suffers through Valerie’s narration of her romantic past with Stefan. Meanwhile, Damon, Bonnie, and Alaric track down Lily’s last family member, but the results aren’t what they expect. Here is a recap of the Vampire Diaries episode “Age of Innocence.”
Recap:
Three years from now, Tyler’s still alive! Stefan asks him to check on Caroline because his “X” scar opened up. He’s worried about her. In the present, Bonnie fills Elena in on the bad news, mostly that her coffin’s MIA, until she crashes into visions of screaming, bloody people and wakes up hours later. Stopping by Alaric’s, Bonnie double checks that he destroyed the Phoenix Stone. Yup. All gone, he says. Matt tracked the missing heretic to Myrtle Beach. Time for Damon, Bonnie, and Alaric to hit the road.
Stefan finds Lily in a tight situation. While practicing her driving, she saw an opportunity to parallel park, but she’s not great at it, so he decides to give her driving lessons. Valerie interrupts Caroline’s investigation into her relationship with Stefan and decides to tell Caroline the story herself. Because they worked in the same TB ward, Lily sent Valerie to check on Stefan after her “death,” and that’s how Valerie became the first love of his life.
Flashback to the 1863 county fair. Valerie and Stefan hit it off. Julian, Lily’s boyfriend back then, takes Valerie aside and scolds her for not keeping her distance. BTW, she wasn’t a vampire back then, just a rejected witch who could siphon magic from her amulet. She turns herself and Stefan invisible; they sneak past Julian for alone time in the forest. Stefan shows Valerie Lily’s grave. He visits every day to give her the same flowers he failed to bring back from town in time to save her. Valerie assures him that these flowers have no medicinal properties. It wasn’t his fault. She’s supposed to leave town, but sends a telegram to Stefan saying she’s coming back for him. Stefan waits and waits and waits. She never shows.
Joining Stefan in the spot where he waited for her, Valerie explains why she never came. Julian caught her sneaking out and knew she was pregnant, so he beat her to near death. On the ship, Valerie drowned herself, but because Lily healed her with her blood, she became the first heretic. Stefan has nothing to say because Valerie was invisible while telling this story.
At a motel, Damon, Bonnie, and Alaric find Oscar, the sixth heretic. He immediately recognizes Damon since Lily sent him to check on Damon in 1863. Oscar found freedom out here and doesn’t want to give it up, so they make a deal with him. If he siphons away Bonnie’s ghastly visions, they won’t tell Lily about him. When he tries, he realizes the stone still exists. Alaric defends his actions; if there’s a one percent change of getting Jo back, he needs to take it to not spend the rest of his life wishing he stayed dead. They tag team capturing Oscar.
Wanting to know how Stefan felt, Lily asks Caroline about healing after her mother’s death. Caroline hands her Stefan’s journals filled with writings about how he coped, so Lily releases Caroline. She reunites with Stefan, although he still can’t touch her without getting burned. Stefan assures her that he no longer wanders what would’ve happened if Valerie had shown up because he has her now. Damon informs Lily that he has Oscar in a vervain detox and demands Elena in return, but before they can trade, Valerie locates Oscar and kills him to prevent him from bringing Julian back.
Comments:
– “Age of Innocence” stepped up the game for the season, delving into the past in a way that sets up for the future. Not only did we learn about Stefan and Valerie’s surprising past (that we never knew we’d become invested in), which is sure to cause drama for Valerie and Lily down the line, but we also got a glimpse of Julian, a guy who’s sure to become a major player at some point this season. Overall, this episode kept me much more interested than the first two, and made me excited to see what’s coming up.
– “Age of Innocence” reminded me a bit of episode 1.06, “Lost Girls,” which was the first episode of the series where we saw flashbacks. Even though so much has changed since season one, and Valerie is certainly no Katherine Pierce, what has never stopped working are the opportunities the show takes to explore these characters backgrounds and focus on the relationships (romantic or not).
– With the season starting off good, but not great, the third episode finally succeeded in developing one heretic at a time, turning Valerie from a mysterious threat into a sympathetic victim who’s determined not to carry the status of victim. What’s most impressive about Valerie is how she was, and still is, so strong-willed despite living in circumstances under which she possesses little power. She’s just waiting for the right time to rebel, whether she knows it or not.
– Oscar, on the other hand, is a heretic I could do without seeing again. His constant laughing became grating and his personality was too over-the-top to fit in with the rest of the characters. Unlike the other heretics, he certainly stood out from the beginning, but that wasn’t such a great thing in this instance.
– Seeing scenes play out in a cheap motel threw me off. While I welcome a change of scenery, it felt like it didn’t fit the show because they were trying too hard to make it fit the show. If they were going to send characters to Myrtle Beach, then they should have capitalized on the change of scenery, even if that meant subpar green screen. Dimly lighting a trashed motel room and having a human snack lying nearby didn’t introduce a new character in a new and exciting way.
– It was such a nice surprise to see Michael Trevino back on screen, if only for a brief moment. I wish this episode had ended with a flash forward so we could have seen more of what he’s up to in the future.
– Was it just me or did the opening with Stefan torching his car look like it was playing at double speed? Maybe it was meant to be vamp speed?
– First drinking buddies and now roommates. Will Damon and Alaric’s new living situation prove to be as entertaining as it sounds or too much of a good thing?
– Lily is already a better parallel parker than I am … although, to be fair, I usually avoid situations where I’d need to do this, so she at least has more practice than me.
– That was a brilliant twist when Valerie explained her tragic past to Stefan, only for the audience to realize he can’t hear her because she cloaked herself. They set it up well with her cloaking at the county fair, and it still managed to provide a much needed moment of catharsis for Valerie if she ever wants to move beyond the past.
– Stefan’s inability to touch Caroline because of her cursed skin reminds me of Max and Logan from Dark Angel. I’m interested to see how this plays out on the Vampire Diaries because right now it strikes me as a stalling technique. I just hope one of them doesn’t decide it’s less painful to keep their distance than to be near one another and not able to touch one another.
– Stefan: Well, your first husband shot and killed his own son, so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t trust your type.
– Stefan: Your daughter and I were just appreciating the scientific wonder of gravitational force.
Julian: How wise you must sound to less intelligent men.
