The Vampire Diaries Review: Hell is Other People (Season 7 Episode 10)

“Welcome back, hero. You’ve been out for a while.” Annoyed of those words yet?

Because I certainly am — seeing as I had to hear them more than ten times over the course of The Vampire Diaries Season 7 Episode 10, “Hell is Other People.”

And so it is.

The episode focuses on Damon’s personal hell, while being trapped in the Phoenix stone. I was so surprised that Damon’s hell did not include Elena to any capacity, but rather the relationship he had with his brother, and his mentality to not deal with pain.

This whole season has been about family — Alaric’s family, Lilly’s family, and the Salvatore family — so I guess it only makes sense that the root of all of Damon’s problems are his family.

Now, I understand that it makes for good drama, but the idea of forcing Damon to “succumb to a type of pain that breaks him” just so that he can forgive Lilly irks me a bit. Then, on top of it, to use Elena’s name, saying he should be able to forgive his mother for what she did, because his girlfriend wouldn’t want him to live a life of hate, just doesn’t make sense to me.

Lilly left.

Lilly didn’t try to find her way back.

And when she did find her sons, she made a point to prove that she did not consider them family.

One episode of conspiring to kill a horrible man doesn’t make them family, and I honestly do not believe that Damon should forgive her.

But aside from that specific plot point, this is a great episode. Ian Somerhalder delivers impeccably, showing the cycle of confusion and then irritation flawlessly. Damon’s last scene with a dying Lilly is worthy of a few silent tears — because even though I don’t necessarily agree with the path the writers chose, the scene is acted perfectly, and shows a side of Damon we have not seen before.

A vulnerable Damon, who loved his mom and was just scared and worried that she’d leave him again. And she does… in death.

Which leads to Damon waking up in real life. Succumbing to his feelings about his mom leads to him “being ready” to come out of the stone. This makes me think: Just how much will power does Julien have, because he was in that stone for centuries? But of course, now that he’s made some sort of peace with his mom, he doesn’t want to leave.

So he kills everyone in hopes of a reset.

It’s a jaw-dropping moment and one that takes some time to recover from if I’m being honest. And then it dawns on him… why isn’t he back at the camp? Why isn’t his friend sitting over him, telling him he’s been out for quite a while? Because this is real life.

And he just killed all his friends.

Now what?

It’ll be so much fun next week to see if this really is real life. If it is- I’m excited to see the consequences of the hell, and Damon’s actions.

If it’s not, I’d like to see how Damon reacts when he does wake up. By the looks of the promo for next week, it seems like we’ll also get a glimpse into Stefan’s hell, which has just as much, to do with Damon as Damon’s hell had to do with Stefan.

I wonder if this will be the situation that will cause some sort of rift between our favorite brothers. When Damon and Stefan do have a minute to talk, will Damon question if Stefan really does think that Damon’s behavior is too dependent on Elena? Is this why Damon decides to just lye in a coffin until she wakes up? Because no one believes he’s at his best without her?

So many questions! Too little every episode!

What did you think of this episode of The Vampire Diaries? Let us know in the comments below!

The Vampire Diaries airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW.

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