The Vampire Diaries Season 5 (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Premieres tonight on the CW

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Very strong premiere. Until tonight's episode, I hadn't realized how Originals-centric "The Vampire Diaries" had become. After Rebekah was written out in the first act, the show was able to move on and get on with it with a brisk pace and a renewed focus on the main cast.I'm intrigued by the mystery with Elena and Caroline's now-deceased roommate. I thought it was weird that the roommate looked exactly the same in the cellphone picture of her with Elena's dad, but then I realized that the first four seasons took place over only two years in story time, and it's probably still been less than three years since her parents died. Given all of the development surrounding the character, I was expecting her to gasp back to life in the morgue fingering a Gilbert ring.And not since Elizabeth Montgomery on "Bewitched" has an actress had so much fun playing personifications of naughty and nice on the same show. Human Katherine was a hoot, and she proves that she's still a survivor.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I thought the explanation of how the Gilbert ring works was very satisfying. It makes you think about how long Alaric had to wander the last few times the ring brought him back.

 

[mattCR]

Yes, I think free of the Originals we're back to a lot of the things I loved about Season 1/2.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

All of the Elena/Stefan stuff was ridiculously contrived, but I thought Bonnie's memorial service was very well done. Steven R. McQueen (still weird that he's Steve McQueen's grandson) and Katerina Graham acted the heck out of that scene.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm guessing that Katherine's daughter gave her some of her vampire blood before she swung by the Salvatore residence, since Katherine is never without a Plan B. That being said, I kind of hope not. One of the fascinating things about turning Katherine human is that it made a static character into a dynamic one; for over half a millennium, Katherine's been more or less locked into the terrified but manipulative damsel in flight that she was when she turned. Since becoming human again, she's shown real growth and change -- with the introduction of her daughter being a real game changer. I fear that all goes away if she's back to being a vampire.