Welcome to the Legion!

After last weeks REAL murder fest, it seems very appropriate for Mystic Falls to be throwing some sort of event! Aka, the show can’t have a random high school prom anymore, so this season’s fun maker is a CARNIVAL! Of course, though we need a big bad Damon to come in and somehow screw some stuff up…cue the other event; a funeral.

So even though this recap started with a little bit of FAKE cheeriness and loop back to some of TVD’s favorite plot devices, this week’s episode ‘Coming Home Was a Mistake’ is a real downer. Also, it does actually break from some of the tropes and as last week’s episode showcased, they’re FINALLY willing to kill off some long-term story mainstays. Therefore this episode begins with Matt Donovan driving the body of Tyler Lockwood back into town. On the drive, Matt quickly lets the rest of the broken gang in on the damage and its the start of pure heartbreak.

Stefan and Caroline are breaking things and wishing that one of their friends hadn’t become collateral damage. Bonnie is having to mourn alone while she has Enzo trapped in the cabin with something called the ‘Flame of Imprisonment’, hoping that some good can come from their pain (maybe he’ll turn his humanity back on), and Ric has learned to air the tuning fork over an intercom system (they can torture Sybil regularly) allowing him to join the others.

vd805a_0328b

But this sets the stage for the episode when everyone arrives at the graveyard for Tyler and there stands Damon all ready with fresh graves dug for everyone. Seems he hasn’t regretted one minute of his slaughter and very deep down, knowing what misery awaits him, killed Tyler because it is the one thing that would have broken everyone away from him. So in a sick demented way, he’s protecting everyone and that’s why he doesn’t quite kill everyone and lets them live another messed up day.

Now everyone’s goal is to essentially put Damon in a cold long sleep. The best they can guess for themselves is that they can’t kill him, but if he’s out of the picture they can keep working on how to break him of Sybil’s influence and that is possibly the second siren (ironically the nanny, still should have known) and keep him from killing more of the Hero Squad.

The next stage of grief over Tyler gives Matt Donovan a little bit of the stage when he goes to the Lockwood mansion to pack up some of Tyles belongings (even though Tyler hasn’t lived there in a few years?!). However, it does open up the scene for Matt to receive a ‘post-death’ message from the deceased Lockwood. DUN DUN DUN…..it has photos of Seline in it. Seems like Donovan may stick around a bit longer to check out the nanny at some point.

When everyone is away from the Armory Damon seems to sneak in and have a conversation with his she-devil overlord. Still wondering where the intern went. Yet, Sybil points out one thing that we all seem to be picking up on a little; it pained Damon to kill Tyler and Sybil tells him that she wants all of him and not this version that has his humanity fighting to come back to the surface. It’s a nice little side chat that lets us all know that deep down Damon has become a better person, and thankfully all his bad actions have been because he’s being controlled. Here’s to hoping they can put Damon down fast enough.

So onto the next trope: Mystic Falls Carnival! Also back to your regularly scheduled bad guy playing a good guy, until everyone figures out they’re the evil other Siren child. Cool, though, she’s taking care of the only other characters on this show more powerful than herself; the twins. Hero squad seriously puts their trust in the wrong people (see: not telling the interns the truth, but giving a siren a raise).

However, since Seline is now such a secretive part of the story all the action of the episode is about to go down around her. While she’s at the carnival with the girls Stefan heads over there himself to confront his brother. Surprisingly the brothers approach each other a little differently, Stefan is on the offensive, and Damon on the defensive. The eldest Salvatore actually begs for help in their interaction and lets Stefan in on the fact that he doesn’t want to go to Hell, and that he has only been following Sybil’s orders to stay away (not falling into Cade’s hands).  None of this follows Stefan’s plan and he can’t get his brother to follow his humanity, but thankfully Caroline shows up to help with some vervain darts.

vd805b_0155b

On the upside to the episode Bonnie was able to get Enzo to turn his humanity switch back on by leveraging his biggest fears against him; being abandoned. In maybe one of my favorite Bonnie moments she tries to burn their cabin down and nearly kill herself to drawn Enzo back, and it works beautifully. RIP Cabin.

However, back to the rotted or DEAD in this episode. There is a small interlude with Seline and the twins that had them winning a dead goldfish. A little weird I’d have to say but has an even worse plot point later. Seline clearly knows of the girl’s powers and needs their help with a small burial…aka under the guise of giving the fish a funeral, the twins help Seline burn Georgie’s body. The one thing I wished from the last episode to not be true. My favorite, new and feisty lady is burned and her soul given over to Cade. Man, this episode has seriously been a one, two punch in the funeral department.

In the end, Damon is captured and put to rest, and the group is allowed to mourn without fear. Stefan sets up the Carnival for just the group and they all share stories and try to make some good memories together. The baby Salvatore puts it the best “they need so remember to keep making moments like these and remember to live.” Altogether, everyone seems happy by the end of a dreary episode. That is until Donovan sees a picture of the nanny and girls go missing…

Oh yeah, then Sybil escaped and broke Damon out to…

 

About author View all posts

Dash Wilder

Dash Wilder is a contributor at Legion of Leia and one of the crazier member of the HD1Jump team. A gaming and news community found at @HD1Jump. She games ever obsessively over Bioshock and Mass Effect during the day, and slings drinks for Geeks and Gamers at night.