The Vampire Diaries: Fifty Shades of Grayson (S5: E10)

Let’s just pause for a moment and marvel at the badness that is the title of this episode, mmkay?

Enzo didn’t seem to want to murder Damon as much as he wanted him to feel terrible for leaving him. Damon, however, has deliberately left a single Whitmore alive in every generation just so he can continue killing them off. Regret isn’t really his thing. He made that point with his hand in Enzo’s chest cavity, wrapped around his heart, in case Enzo was having any doubts about just how NOT sorry Damon was.

Doctor Maxfield proved himself to be just as crazy as everyone feared by sacrificing Aaron, the one person he supposedly cared for, in the name of science/experimentation on vampires. He was busy screwing with Elena and her blood, trying to turn her into a vampire who craves only other vampire blood. Meanwhile, Elena was having flashbacks about her dad, and how she was afraid of the basement in his clinic as a kid, because you guessed it - Grayson Gilbert was torturing vampires right along with all the other good doctors. According to his journal he was only doing it to save people, but whatever -  at this point I’m seriously creeped out by both of Elena’s “perfect” parents.

Damon got busy drinking to drown his guilt over Enzo, and got pissed when Elena picked the one good passage in Grayson’s journal and made excuses for him, and then proceeded to make excuses for Damon’s slaughter of the Whitmore family. He dumped her, claiming he wouldn’t be responsible for changing her. I sort of see his point. Human Elena constantly berated his decisions and bitched him out for the terrible things he did, even though she cared about him. Elena the vampire, Damon’s girlfriend, never questions his behavior too closely. I think Elena likes how easy it is with Damon - the sex, the fun, the lack of introspection and morality. She doesn’t like looking at herself too closely anymore, either. It had to end, no matter how much people like the idea of Elena and Damon.

As for Katherine, well, she got closer to death. She made it clear the only thing that might motivate her to live longer would be getting Stefan to fall in love with her again. She even rejected Nadia’s idea of switching to a different body because, “Stefan likes this body.” She eventually confronted Stefan, asking if he would ever love her like he loved Elena. He didn’t answer, but he did hold her hand and tell her he was sorry she was dying. Apparently a sliver of hope was all she needed, because she was back on the phone to Nadia about the body-jumping spell when she took a tumble down the Salvatore’s stairs, unconscious.

Next week’s episode seems to be about Katherine, and whether she’ll live or die. I hope she lives. Also, there are photos of Damon with a VERY bloody face floating around. I’m guessing going off Elena means he’s going off the rails entirely. I hope Stefan and Elena don’t get back together. Maybe, in a surprise twist, she’ll hook up with Enzo? I would enjoy listening to him talk without a shirt on. Or maybe, because Maxfield did stab Elena with the syringe, she’ll go nuts for vampire blood. That’s probably more likely.

I know they can only fit so much into one episode, but I feel like Bonnie came back to life and now nobody cares.

As for Maxfield, Enzo was the only good thing to emerge from that storyline and I’m hoping Aaron kills the doctor and then himself and the Salvatore brothers get a more interesting enemy for Christmas.