The Vampire Diaries S06E16: "The Downward Spiral"

The universe craves equilibrium like you or I might crave sizzurp. The universe is frankly addicted to equilibrium, and nothing its friends or family can say will change that! Yes, that means that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction and all that, but equilibrium also applies to emotional states. Have you ever had a total blast at your favorite restaurant HomeTown Buffet, where you and all your closest taxidermied pets got to enjoy perfect food at reasonable prices, only to spend the next day feeling blue? That's because your brain needed to make you feel bad in order to make up for all those positive feelings you experienced the day before. Because equilibrium! So it makes sense that The Vampire Diaries' nicest and sweetest character has finally become a major dick. If anything, it's healthy! And Jah knows, it's REALLY fun for us to watch. While slightly worrisome from the standpoint of blonde dreadlocks, "The Downward Spiral" was VERY good and very fun.

Written by the heavy-hitter team-up of TVD showrunner Caroline Dries and nu-Kevin Williamson Brian Young, "The Downward Spiral" was also directed by some guy named Ian Somerhalder (who once changed cinema forever by jumping on the bed in his underwear to "Faith"). Story- and dialogue-wise, the episode was an example of TVD at its strongest: emotionally honest and dead-set on pushing huge plot points into motion while still feeling fleet and breezy. Direction-wise, it's always kind of difficult to isolate a single episode's style when a show has been on the air for so long, so it always comes down to a few stylistic flourishes, and the instantly iconic final shot of "The Downward Spiral" was any indication, Somerhalder definitely has a promising future in my opinion.

Anyway, enough technical mumbo-jumbo (what is mumbo-jumbo), let's talk about Caroline's descent into being a jerk!



We began only a few hours after Caroline's mom's funeral, and she was back at Whitmore drinking alone in the company of others. Tequila, specifically. She'd flipped off her humanity switch—which, just to clarify, did not mean she no longer had emotions. It just meant that she only had the emotions that were related to making her seem like a total asshole. Like, here she was flirting with one of Elena's former love interests:

And as we all know, one thing leads to another. (Kissing leads to cannibalism.)

So yeah, this was not the Caroline we once knew and loved. But, again, equilibrium! Just as one classic personality left the building, another re-entered:

Apparently word still travels as slow as ever in Mystic Falls, and Bonnie had been back for at least a day and Elena still hadn't heard. Or was it that Elena didn't actually care very much? Bonnie even joked that her "I'm not dead anymore" routine was getting kinda tired, but it seemed even more so this time around since everyone had long ago stopped looking for ways to bring her back. But anyway, welcome back to 2015 (?), Bonnie! The music's not as good, but at least jeans fit better now.

Over in the Salvatore Mausoleum, Damon was very intensely trying to dig up his mother's bones, if only to prove that the camcorder footage that Bonnie brought back did NOT involve his mother, and in fact featured some other lady who looked exactly like his mother no big deal.



And you guessed it: Her remains were not in her casket! The strange thing was that Damon's mom was in a 1903 witch prison, which would have put her in her 70s, but she still looked young in the footage, so it was clear by now that not only was she in witch prison, she was probably also some kind of immortal creature. It was a double-whammy discovery and a lot for Damon to deal with, plus the constant presence of a semi-nice Kai was not helping things. (Except for us, because this Damon-Kai friendship has been pretty great!)

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