The Vampire Diaries has sad seasons (S4, after Elena became a vampire), thrilling seasons (S1, once all the backstory of Mystic Falls started unfolding), scary seasons (S3, all those apocalyptic Klaus and Rebecca threats), off-concept ones (S6, where Bonnie and Damon spent half of it in an alternate world stuck on one day in 1994), and tragic ones (the sad story of Katherine and Nadia in S5, beautiful mother and daughter vampires of the same age, both fated to die just as they finally meet).
This is the sleazy season. Whatever else the sirens are, they’re murderous witches who work for a hell demon. What better place to conjure him up than a motel that seems to be frequented only by drug dealers and prison escapees, with no staff and certainly no janitors in sight? You do not want to swim in that murky pool, but that’s okay because when Josie and Libby use their siphoned magic to set it afire, it’s almost a blessing.
Damon and Enzo have been evil pawns since the beginning of the season, and it turns out Selene has been lying to Alaric and Caroline all along. Pretty sleazy, even if they’re generally killing flawed (not evil, per se, but selfish and foolish at least) people to feed their immortality. After all, that’s the vampire way, but this season wants everyone to finally admit how creepy they are. Even Caroline. Enzo has Bonnie to bring him back to life, but Stefan ends up right down in it with Damon, as always. You can tell it’s a Paul Wesley-directed episode when Stefan is at his most doomed and self-sacrificial.
Still not buying the passion between Stefan and Caroline (Benzo 4Ever!), but they do play a really tender scene well when she realizes just what sort of deal he made to free the girls. She’s had a hard day, because in their desperate search for “her” kids, Alaric lit into her about attracting evil to the children’s’ lives by her very nature. Which is pretty unfair, considering their mom was killed by her own brother, and he himself has been revived from the dead by this very same circle of vampires, werewolves and witches. He apologizes eventually, but he needs to admit that nothing’s going to keep Libby and Josie from manifesting their powers. They can attract evil all on their own. Maybe having a super-strong, fiercely loyal (if undead) mother figure isn’t such a bad thing.
The body count is high already this season, and it gets higher when the girls siphon Sybil’s magic at one point, revealing a wizened claw that she uses to kill an inquisitive cop. Stephan is beset by the anonymous miscreants in the motel hell, and nearly dies because he won’t fight to kill. Damon only gets taunted for it, and in typical Stefan fashion, rather than letting out the Ripper, he chooses to sacrifice himself for his brother and Caroline’s kids.
Alaric does deliver a doozy of a threat to Selene when she calls to ask him if she can keep the kids (moral gray area = sleazy), and is so badass this week that he teams up with Matt (still mad about Tyler’s murder) to kill Damon once and for all. Which is a pretty great visual, but that trick will never work.