The Vampire Diaries Review: “I Could Never Love Like That” (Season 6, Episode 18)

It’s not every day that the most consistent character on your favorite show loses her grasp on reality, but that’s exactly what fans were reunited with when The Vampire Diaries returned tonight after a month-long hiatus. Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola), even as a vampire without her humanity was managing to fair exceptionally well considering the circumstances. At least, better than any of her friends, that’s for sure. That is, until Stefan (Paul Wesley) crossed the metaphorical line in the sand that she had drawn and joined her on the darker side.

Since Stefan is Caroline’s trigger, it makes sense that the writers would choose to prolong her current state by establishing a clear cut roadblock in her friends’ path to restoring her humanity. The easiest way to create that diversion was to take Stefan out of the equation. Except the writers didn’t just want to simply delay the inevitable. Instead, they concocted a brief story arc to take Caroline out of her comfort zone, in more ways then one.

The real beauty in this convoluted plan was that it killed two birds with one stone. First, it was the catalyst for Caroline to finally give up the control that she’d been desperately holding onto despite giving herself a reprieve from emotions after her mother’s death. And, secondly, it acted as a practical use for Mama Salvatore, who had magically been stored away in a 1903 prison world for all these years. How convenient.

Like I mentioned in my last pre-hiatus review, The Vampire Diaries writers have relied heavily on bringing characters back from the other side for much of the series’ lengthy run. The close of season five brought about the end of that seemingly endless pool of reusable talent, but it was only a matter of time before they invented a new source – thus magical holding cells stuck in time.

Although the focus of season six has shifted from Kai (Chris Woods) and the Gemini Coven to Stefan and Damon’s (Ian Somerhalder) long thought dead mother and her band of merry companions, this is clearly still the year of the witch. With Bonnie (Kat Graham) absent from the screen tonight, presumably off somewhere licking her wounds and recovering from her ordeals as of late, it’s anyone’s guess how Lily plans to rescue her “family” without Bennett blood to help the spell along. And worse, what would happen if she succeeds?