The Vampire Diaries Review: Gods and Monsters (Season 7 Episode 22)

Well, that was emotional – wasn’t it?

While this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries entitled “Gods and Monsters” isn’t as fast paced and shocking as previous seasons, it definitely gives us hope that perhaps Season 8 can be everything and more – what the writers intended season 7 to be.

This whole season has been all over the place. In the beginning, the three-year time jump was exciting; so many possibilities lay ahead. The storyline, and the characters, could have done so much.

But the flash forwards fell short of excitement, and when the show did bridge the gap of what happened during the three years, there wasn’t a lot of shock value.

This week’s season finale tries to pick up and save face by getting down to a core problem: save Bonnie.

It makes sense and is a very basic plot that The Vampire Diaries has executed many times before, beautifully; however, since this season hasn’t been constructed around this plot, it all just seems very insignificant.

Bonnie’s been in a lot of trouble over the years. She’s even died a couple of times. But this time, it’s amazing to see Damon Salvatore put his neck on the line for someone who isn’t Elena.

The whole season has been Damon being grey. He’s said it over and over and over again – that he makes the wrong decisions to do the right thing.

In the end he doesn’t care if the ones he cares about hate him.

He cares if they live.

When you think about it, isn’t that true?

Try really hard to picture yourself in a world of inevitable danger, all the time, and ask yourself, would you be the moral compass of the group, or would you cling to those you love at any cost?

For the second half of the season, everyone just seemed unnecessarily pissed off at Damon for putting himself in that coffin, even Stefan. This week, we finally see them reconcile.

No matter how many shortcomings this season, or this episode may have, #Defan scenes are always my favourite and this week is no different. When Damon tells Stefan to let him go, it’s a nice call back from the “hell” Stefan endured.

Damon: I need you… to let me go. Let me succeed or let me fail… but let me do it by myself.

For a while Stefan felt extreme guilt because the only way he got out of his hell was by letting Damon drown.

We can now see that it’s a metaphor.

Unfortunately this great, hopeful scene just leads to what metaphorically happened in the hell stone.

Damon drowns.

And by drowns, I mean he goes into the vault, hears Elena, and somehow becomes a crazed killer with Enzo.

This is obviously the set up for the next season, and it seems suspiciously like when Stefan was around prancing with Klaus as the ripper. Remember that?

Speaking of Stefan – his love life is back on track and as a Steroline fan I’m incredibly disappointed in how their storyline this season has been handled. For a couple who owned the slow burn, it’s been great to see them together; however, their reconciliation this episode seems so rushed.

Caroline says she’s thawed a bit towards him, calling back an earlier conversation. But then they just kiss?

No! If she is as mad at him as she said, then I really think there should have been more Stefan’s grovelling or even some more dialogue about what happened and why between them.

Kudos go out to Rick though, who seems to really understand Caroline’s feelings before she does – or acknowledges them; although let’s face it, Caroline and Rick never really had a relationship. It was a plot device to get in between #Steroline.

The writers couldn’t just have Caroline wait for Stefan – that would have been boring.

So they gave her a family and a pseudo-husband.

Either way, the scene between Alaric and Caroline doesn’t hold enough emotional weight to matter – mostly because their relationship blossomed off-screen and then Caroline went to New Orleans for a while.

A great scene that does hold a lot of emotional weight is #Benzo’s.

Before Damon goes into the vault and torches the “last everlasting,” Bonnie has a stake very close to Enzo’s heart. I’m not sure how, but the writers have made me care about this couple. Maybe it was the one whole episode that gave us flashbacks, or maybe it’s because Kat Graham is an awesome actress.

Whatever it is, it is an emotional scene that holds its own in a series of scenes that hold very little.

The Season 7 finale of The Vampire Diaries sets up a lot for season 8.

Bonnie has just lost the two people she cares about the most and Stefan has just lost his brother, the one time he let him go. It will be interesting to see where we find the characters at the beginning of Season 8, but I just hope that the writers don’t try to do anything fancy this time and just stick to what they know best.

Telling a story about a couple of vampire brothers and their lives.

What did you think of “Gods and Monsters”? Tell us in the comments below.

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