The Vampire Diaries S07E04 “Age Of Innocence” Review

Airing in the UK on ITV2, Weds 11pm
Writer: Neil Reynolds
Director: Jeffrey Hunt

Essential plot points:

• Flash forward three years and we see Alaric has twin daughters and Damon pays him a visit. Alaric does not look happy to see him.
• In the present, Caroline and Stefan manage to convince Nora to remove the vervain spell so they can finally be together properly.
• There is couple drama between Nora and Mary Louise. Nora is doing far better at adapting to the 21st century than Mary Louise who struggles to remember that their love will not be prosecuted any more.
• Damon convinces Bonnie and Alaric to test the Phoenix Stone’s resurrection power on Oscar so that he can get Elena’s body back from Lily. It works but the side effect is an insatiable hunger and Oscar kills an entire bus of tourists.
• It’s Halloween so, of course, there is a ball at Whitmore Academy. This one is Heaven & Hell themed. Caroline and Stefan spend the ball having to babysit Nora and Mary Louise who have threatened to kill one student per hour that Oscar is not returned.
• Meanwhile Enzo is convinced that Valarie is up to something and after convincing Matt to let him look through the town’s security cameras he accuses Valarie of killing Oscar. Valarie admits it and tells him to ask Lily about Julian. They team up to stop Julian coming back into Lily’s life.
• After a talking to by Lily Damon decides to send Elena’s body away with Tyler so that he is not obsessing over her and and move on with his life and find out who he is without her.
• Alaric and Bonnie are successful in bringing Jo back to life.

Good points:

• Damon letting Elena go, at least for now, means that he can finally move on and everyone can finally stop mentioning Elena every five seconds! Obviously, because she was the main character for the first six series, her name will crop up a few times but for the first couple of episodes it’s too much. It is an exciting prospect to see an Elena-less Damon.
• The flash forwards are continuing, this one gave us a glimpse of Alaric’s future where he gets everything he ever wanted. Good for him! Looks like the Phoenix Stone not only resurrected Jo but the twins that she was pregnant with when she was murdered.
• Caroline and Stefan can finally touch each other and the tension that has been building up finally broke. However Caroline might ruin the relationship if she continues to be neurotic about Stefan and Valarie’s past.
• One thing that The Vampire Diaries can do very well is making you identify with one of the antagonists. Valarie might be a stone cold bitch but she has a solid reason to be that way. And now she has finally returned to her true love, Stefan, only to find him in love with someone else. She can’t tell him why she didn’t return to him sooner for fear of Lily’s reaction to what Julian did so she must suffer Stefan’s resentment or indifference.

Bad points:

• There are definitely too many heretics. Beau (the mute) was not even seen or mentioned in this episode. He is the one we know the least about.
• The drama between lesbian couple Nora and Mary Louise is a little forced. It’s hard to care about these characters and empathise with them in the same way as Valarie because they’re so unlikeable. Nora is extremely mean and cutting and Mary Louise is very uptight and clingy. The only redeeming quality in each is that after many squabbles they realise in the end that they love each other and that’s all that matters. It would be far better if they didn’t keep asking Caroline for fashion tips while threatening her, it seems childish and silly.

Random:

• There was a lovely little moment when Caroline and Bonnie have a hug in the dorm room they are sharing and have a chat about their day. This culminates in Caroline saying, “Our lives are weird!” which is probably the understatement of the year.
• Damon and Stefan need to hide Oscar’s body from Nora and Mary Louise so they hang it out of the window. Luckily it’s Halloween and it just looked like a hyper realistic zombie decoration!
• Bonnie trying a load of different spells to bring Oscar back was highly entertaining, especially when she accidentally set him on fire and shouted, “Oh crap!”

Review by Georgina Tyson

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