The Vampire Diaries 7.14 “Moonlight on the Bayou”

It’s starting to all add up, the direly different straits of the changed future, the increasingly hopeless fates of our heroes in the past/present. Well, if heroes are what they are, because I suppose they never were that, really. Only Elena qualified for that status, at least before she was vamped, and she could at least be the moral code of the show. But this season she’s a haunting absence, one that weighs most heavenly on Damon. He doesn’t just miss his bespelled lover; he depended on her to keep him sane, semi-human, and generally touchy-feely. Without her, he’s too apt to return to being an amoral killing machine. And the sad thing is, he knows it.

Stefan is still on the run, guided by heretic witch Valerie to various safe spots, one of which is in New Orleans, at a certain bar in the quarter, thus the “Bayou” of the title. We get a guest-spot/crossover from Klaus this week, totally worth it in his current wiser/mellower mode, and he and Stefan revive that great Michelson/Ripper chemistry for like two minutes until Klaus smell’s blood and realizes Rayna is tailing Stefan. This displeases the scion of the Big Easy.

Even worse, Enzo turns up again, this time in a repurposed set for the campus bar, now full of a collection of magical doodads and run by The Armory. Who are willing to help because they want to collect Rayna like a trophy? Who are also behind all the muscle Matt has been showing lately, not to mention the shenanigans with Tyler and Elena’s coffin from weeks ago. Tyler wasn’t killed by Damon’s attack, just left comatose, and the Armory has been keeping him alive long enough for the full moon to complete his healing.

Which is nice for Lockwood (almost always welcome on my screen except when torturing Caroline), but bad news for Damon, who is locked in a cell with him unless he tells everybody how to find Stefan. Bonnie is also knocked out and de-magicked while in The Armory, none of the above actually scoring any points for Enzo. Who thinks he’s finally found a home at last, and may even be right, as he’s acting with more believable purpose than he has since his introduction? Or maybe it’s just the still much improved haircut, but unlike Bonnie, I’m almost buying what he’s selling.

Bonnie is so over his nonsense, however, that she knocks him out, shoots him with his own vervain gun, and uses an ancient ax to hack off his hand when she needs door access to free Damon. “This is what happens” – WHACK! – “when you don’t have any friends!” Bonnie takes over the badass award from Rayna this week, whom we learn has some weaknesses after all.

Of course, Bonnie then nearly gets killed by a rabid Tyler, but Damon saves her and takes her to the actual hospital for treatment. Maybe he doesn’t even know how much he’s changed. His self-awareness and his suicidal tendencies do so often resemble each other.