Stefan and Damon use any means necessary to convince Lily to kill Julian, while Caroline splits her time investigating the compelled residents with IVs and her potential pregnancy. Here is a recap of the Vampire Diaries episode “Mommie Dearest.”
Recap:
Three years from now, Damon searches the news station for Caroline, but wooden darts take him down. Today, Caroline’s pregnancy test comes back negative. Oh well, worth a shot. Cooking cornbread, Stefan decides to host pre-Thanksgiving as a way to recruit their new ally: Lily. She comes bearing cranberries. When Stefan tells Lily about his almost baby, she questions Valerie’s ability to tell the truth, so Stefan gives a toast with vervain bourbon. Lily wakes up tied to a chair. The Salvatores reminisce about the not so great Thanksgiving of 1851, when Giuseppe served Damon’s pet turkey, then gave Damon an ultimatum: eat the food or spend the night in the cellar. Damon looks to Lily to help him out, but she stays out of it. Now, the Salvatore brothers want Lily to see her pattern of choosing very bad boyfriends.
Stopping by the mansion for his guitar, Enzo challenges Julian to a duel in the woods. Flashback. Giuseppe sends Lily to fetch him a bourbon and takes the time to ask which son stole his money. Damon finally confesses and receives a burn on his arm as punishment. In the present, a slash appears on the side of Lily’s neck. She linked her life with Julian’s and now someone’s trying to kill him. Lily admits to stealing the money so they could run away from Giuseppe. He found out and threatened to take them himself. Damon breaks up Enzo and Julian’s fight by stabbing Julian in the gut. Lily asks Julian why he engaged in a fight, knowing his life is linked to hers. He isn’t one to lose. She follows with a question about Valerie’s pregnancy, and he denies knowing anything about it.
Matt informs Caroline about the classroom of compelled people hooked up to IV drips. He cleared them out, but now a group is sedentary at the Grill. Weird thing is – they’re not being fed on. A nauseous Caroline drops by to suggest that Valerie could siphon the compulsion away, which she does. Beau shows up and gives the vamps brain pains, ignoring Valerie’s speech about how he’s better than all this. Matt stabs him, and he skedaddles. Searching County Impound for Oscar’s car, Bonnie gives Enzo advice on how to woo Lily. Inside the trunk, they find a sword Bonnie recognizes from her Phoenix Stone research. She stops by Alaric’s office, where he’s brooding and boozing. Pictures show the Phoenix Stone sitting atop the sword’s hilt, giving it power.
Annoyed at Bonnie for not taking his calls, Matt tells her that Tyler and Jeremy might have found a way to help. Caroline asks Valerie why she’s so convinced about the relocation spell. Valerie admits to using it once on herself. It didn’t work, but at least she did everything she could to save her and Stefan’s baby. Alaric crashes Caroline’s ultrasound, but it shows no babies, no heartbeats. Valerie has an epiphany. The coven wanted to protect the babies anyway they could; she removes their cloaking spell, and shows Caroline her twins.
Comments:
– “Mommie Dearest” was an emotionally disturbing episode of The Vampire Diaries as opposed to their usual bloody, shocking, disturbing storylines. Although (what little existed of) the plot doesn’t really stand out as memorable in a sea of seven seasons, what does stand out is the fact that they tackled two important concepts that have yet to be explored on a series with teenagers and young adults as their focus: abuse and protecting your children at any cost.
– Watching this episode, I realized I’m still not seeing the relationship between Lily and Julian, but I think that might be the point. To glorify their relationship would be to glorify Lily’s tendency to find an abusive partner, whether physical or psychological. It’s odd to see The Vampire Diaries tackle such a real world issue (other than death) in a world where everything is far from reality, but it was done in such a way that it didn’t draw attention to the disparity. It shed light on the problem without feeling preachy.
– The obvious title, “Mommie Dearest,” contradicts this, but this episode covertly characterized Lily without giving her much dialogue at all. It was her lack of action that spoke volumes about her character and her unwillingness to take control of her own life that showed how little she thought of herself.
– The writers have found themselves in an interesting predicament. It becomes difficult to establish the heretics as the “big bads” of the season while simultaneously turning them into sympathetic figures. The addition of Julian almost makes it work, if only there were a greater looming threat to our heroes of Mystic Falls.
– Trying to mislead the audience into thinking that Caroline wasn’t actually pregnant was an unnecessary mislead that simply didn’t work. It’s been advertised enough, especially by Julie Plec, that Caroline is indeed pregnant, so to spend time focusing on the contrary wasted time that could have been spent on a storyline that we would believe.
– The linking spell between Lily and Julian wasn’t nearly as cool as it was when Katherine did it to Elena back in season two. I wish there was a moment this episode when it surprised or impressed us with a clever or new take on an old trick. In addition, it didn’t seem like all that smart or effective of an idea sine there are a handful of people who want both Lily and Julian dead. Linking Julian to Bonnie, and thus to Elena as well, would have been just the trick I was looking for.
– Seven episodes into the season, Beau is still one of the least utilized and developed characters this series has had. It becomes difficult to flesh out the new arrivals when you introduce so many new characters at the same time, but it has reached a point where it’s problematic because the only things we’ve seen him do are subservient tasks. The fact that he’s mute doesn’t help matters at all. It’s an interesting concept that doesn’t seem to play well in a medium dictated by dialogue when he has not demonstrated a means to communicate. I’ve seen shows utilize American Sign Language exceptionally well, so I’m not sure what’s gained by shying away from giving Beau a voice in his own way.
– Julian continuing to pretend that Enzo was the help was an amusing character moment, even if it never amounts to anything more substantial.
– Shout outs for Tyler and Jeremy! Even though we’ve seen a glimpse of Tyler in the future, I’d love to see him drop by in the present, along with Jeremy to check on how his friends are doing in the wake of Elena’s absence. They were both such integral members of the show in the earlier seasons, that it’s nice to see them utilized well every now and again. Jeremy’s hunter skills could come in handy if he ever gets a break from putting out fires in Chicago.
– Alaric: Simple enough. Two lines, your pregnant. One line, you’re not.
Caroline: How many lines if you’ve been mystically knocked up by a coven of dead witches?
Alaric: I guess we’ll find out in three minutes.
– Damon: Bastard links his life to my mom’s and then engages in a duel. What is this, Hamlet community theater?
– Caroline: Isn’t it possible that “kill the psycho” and “save the babies” just sound similar in witch Latin?
