The Vampire Diaires: The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Recap

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky9rbgPT4XA]

The Vampire Diaries: The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Recap (6×06)

Synopsis: Damon’s back, but Elena doesn’t want to see him, so Damon spends the entirety of the episode stalking his girlfriend. In the meantime, the local vampire hunter kills Ivy and learns about Caroline’s identity. After Tripp takes Damon hostage, the rescue plan goes horribly awry, almost killing all the male vampires on the show and leaves Alaric human and unable to undo Elena’s compulsion.

Rating:  ★★★★★

This episode had me shouting at my computer screen because the stakes finally felt real this week. Damon’s back, Bonnie’s gone forever, presumably along with Kai (the true loss- I really enjoyed his flavor of anarchist sociopathy and he had spades of chemistry with his costars.) and new Elena never wants old!Elena to come back.

I’m such a sucker for the lovers-don’t-remember-each-other storyline that it hurts.

Put a door between two characters with romantic tension, give me an establishing shot of lining their hands up together on the other side of it and I’m hooked. I get that it’s cliché. I get that it’s melodramatic.

I honestly don’t care.

After Damon came back, the first thing he wanted to do was see Elena. He knows that she doesn’t remember him, but he’s confident that she will once they see each other. Unfortunately, Elena has other plans.

She’s happy, and she doesn’t want her memories of Damon back, and I honestly can’t blame her. She’s started over and from her perspective, all Damon has ever brought her is pain.

Bring on the door scene.

Damon’s on one side, and a conflicted Elena is on the other. It’s sweet and heartbreaking and both Dobrev and Somerhalder play it perfectly, especially because IRL it must be rough working with your ex on a consistent basis and pretending to pine for them. The chemistry on Damon’s part feels real, and so does Elena’s conflict.

Just as Damon opens the door, Elena vamps out the window, leaving their meeting to the end of the episode.

In other news, Tripp, president of the local neighborhood watch and resident pain-in-the-ass killed Ivy by exploiting the non-magic border between Mystic Falls and the outside world. After Ivy dies, Tripp steals her phone and figures out that Caroline is also a vampire.

Jeremy’s distraught that Bonnie’s gone forever. Damon lies to everyone and says that she wasn’t ever with him on The Other Side instead of telling everyone that she sacrificed herself for his safe return. Damon records a message saying he’s sorry to Bonnie on her voicemail, which I’m sure will screw up his story in a future episode.

When Tripp comes to kill Caroline, he finds Damon waiting in Elena’s dorm room. He quickly subdues him and prepares to drive him and Enzo over the border to Mystic Falls.

Elena changes her mind about her compulsion and meeting Damon just as Damon is kidnapped. Alaric, Elena, Caroline, and Stefan rush off to save him.

In a rather ill-conceived plan, the four pair off and pretend to have car trouble on the edge of both roads which lead in to Mystic Falls.

When I say ‘on the edge,’ I mean literally on the edge of the town border– which totally doesn’t make sense. Why not 100 meters away from the border that will kill you? No, let’s get about 3 meters from the edge because that’s not cutting it close or anything.

The team’s poor geographical planning skills end up almost killing Alaric and Stefan when Tripp crashes his car into Alaric’s and pushes them all over the town border.

Stefan runs over the border and saves Enzo and Damon, but Alaric’s bleeding out on the ground from an aortic nick.

Dr. Joe from the hospital (who is a witch, which is why she can’t be compelled) saves Alaric, but not before he becomes mortal. ‘Mortal’ here directly translating to ‘unable to undo Elena’s compulsion even if he wanted to.’

After everyone is out of danger, Caroline confronts Stefan, and in a fantastic ‘what do you want from me?’ moment where Caroline could either kiss him or rebuff him, Caroline tells Stefan to shove off.

The episode closes with Elena and Damon finally opening up the door. And Elena’s conflicted stare.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg4jU_uv_Rc]