Now this is more like it. The Armory continues to play a role with Alaric and his bright student (who apparently had a traumatic near-death experience) running it, as they delve into the mystery of the hidden cave of treasures and an unfamiliar but intriguing ancient trident. Well, not exactly tri- really. More like a bi-dent.
Caroline and Bonnie are trying to get excited about the former’s engagement, and pretty much no one is mourning poor Sarah Salvatore, as even Stefan is back to brooding over Damon, and pressuring Alaric to help find and free him from Siren Sybil’s control. That’s cold, and reflects how small their world has gotten since the destruction of Mystic Falls by the heretic witches. Has it recovered yet? Have people moved back home? It was always such an evocative setting for the show, and it’s missed.
Meanwhile Sybil’s pressuring Damon and Enzo to give up their annoying remaining human/vampire/witch/werewolf connections, and go all in as her mindless minions. She’s doing a nice pouty beauty-housing-a-beast sort of thing that the actress pulls off well, but it’s not like it’s our first time with this concept. Buffy had Glory, Angel had Jasmine, and this show has already had Rebekah, Katherine, Caroline in a bad mood and any number of hungry wolves, angry witches and predatory vamps pull the exact same nonsense. You only have the upper hand on this show until you lose it, and then it’s payback time in a (usually fatal) way.
What’s good is that payback (or at least a setback) comes quickly. Alaric’s daughters discover the neglected artifact on the living room coffee table, and when they drop it there’s a magic-disturbing sound. It’s a tuning fork, one that sirens probably don’t like. Convenient.
Damon busts up Caroline’s wedding dress party, which results (quite rightfully) in her impaling him into the wall and fleeing with Bonnie. The Salvatore home is no proof against Sybil, though, who pouts that her boys are still too attached to the women they care about. Even Caroline and Bonnie (the original mean girls of Mystic Falls, when they want to be) point out that her dreams are pitifully small for an ancient demon, and they try to escape her with a car accident.
She’s compelled Damon and Enzo to fight to the death, and trying to stop it injures Stefan and Caroline. But it’s all just a ruse to make Enzo turn off his humanity switch, and Bonnie face the Sophie’s choice of sparing Enzo or Damon, but not both. She picks Enzo (as she should), and Damon would be hurt had he not flipped his humanity switch already and forgotten about his past with her and Elena thanks to Sybil’s mind manipulation. Ultimately the Satanic tuning fork comes in handy for subduing Sybil, though Enzo and Damon both remain under her control. Seems Damon has given up, because she’s made it clear that an eternity in hell is all that awaits him. Why’s a pre-historic beast so worried about hell and an eternity of judgment? I suppose the argument is that’s where she’s from, but she’s coming across as annoyingly preachy.