The hunt continues in The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 15. The Salvatore brothers have their work cut out for them as Stefan runs from Rayna and Damon runs from his problems.
Sometimes it’s up in the air about who is on top between vampires, werewolves, hybrids, heretics, etc., but The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 15 scored one point for the mortals! We love our vampires, but sometimes even they need to be put in their place. Matt Donovan and Bonnie Bennett may have had their weak moments throughout The Vampire Diaries, but they showed nothing but strength in season 7, episode 15.
Hunting lessons
Just as Matt and Penny’s nice morning game of cat and vampire is being sabotaged by Krystal with a K, the one who actually has nine (actually, eight) lives interrupts her forest yoga session to save the day. It looks like Rayna has no problem taking out a few stray vampires on her way to her real prize, Stefan.
This is the first we’ve really seen of Rayna’s personality in present day and to be honest I could use a little more attitude from her. To stick with the doppelganger theme that Damon likes to keep reminding us about, she’s a little too much Elena and not quite enough Katherine.
On the other hand, Damon’s level of attitude and snark was at an all time high in The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 15 and it was absolutely glorious to watch. If you could get past the gruesome nature in which he had Rayna chopped up at the bottom of the well, he delivered so many laugh-out-loud lines in his taunting of the huntress.
Matt also did his part to elevate the attitude in this episode. It was nice to see him help Damon and Stefan by tipping Damon off to Rayna’s whereabouts despite his conflicted feelings toward vampires. Once Penny got involved though, things got a whole lot more “complicated.”
Even though it is sad that he sent Stefan out of town, everything he said was 100% true. The vampires do tend to exercise their power over humans in a way that makes it hard to be friends with them on equal footing. Matt is serious about saving the town and he believes this is the first step. Good for him for sticking up for himself and the town he loves. My question is, would he have done the same thing if Caroline and Elena weren’t safely elsewhere?
When you can’t deal, desiccate
The mystery of Rayna’s lifespan was finally solved on The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 15, and that proved to be one more problem than Damon was willing to handle. He had resolved to fix the Rayna issue once and for all and kill her so that Stefan could be safe, but like so many things in this episode, that plan had some complications. It was revealed that if Rayna dies for good, everyone who has an X scar from the Phoenix Sword will die as well. Unfortunately, that scar looks suspiciously like the one right over Stefan’s heart…
After a sweet moment where Stefan asks Caroline to take Valerie’s place and go “see the world” with him (sounds like a promise she’s heard before), he understands her desire to be in Dallas with the babies and realizes that it’s not safe for him to be around them. The Armory currently has Rayna locked up in captivity, but she has successfully escaped before and do we really trust the Armory anyway? Especially since we now know that they are after Bonnie.
Stefan turns to one person to help him get rid of his scar so he can be free of Rayna’s threat: his brother whom he has sacrificed so much for, time and time again. It turns out, though, that Damon is a “man with a plan” and has some better things to do than save the life of his baby bro. Do those “better things” include helping Alaric and Caroline tread the tumultuous waters of new parenthood? Nah. Returning Mystic Falls to its former glory? Try again. What about protecting his “best friend” Bonnie from whatever threat the Armory may pose to her? Nope! Apparently, he’s in a real hurry to get to a stationary coffin to desiccate himself for the next 60 years.
I was absolutely revolted at Damon’s decision to leave everyone else with their problems and I truly believe this is among the most selfish things he has ever done. The one thing I am thankful for is that he acknowledged that this was a completely selfish move in his letter to Alaric because it really didn’t add up that he was trying to somehow protect Stefan and Bonnie as he made it seem in The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 14.
What a slap in the face to everyone who loves him to say that he’d be happier lying in pain for 60 years than attempt to live without Elena. Just as I was gearing up to hop into that storage locker to give him a piece of my mind, Bonnie does just that and says exactly everything that I was feeling. He deserved all that and more since he didn’t even bother saying goodbye to her, knowing that he’d never see her again.
The icing on the coffin-shaped cake really is that he made Stefan deliver his goodbye notes after royally screwing him over! I am seriously in awe of his selfishness and he’s going to need to do a lot to come back from this with me and all of his loved ones.
Plan B
I really hope The Vampire Diaries writers don’t think that playing all of the flash forward scenes in sequence leaves everything explained because there’s still so much we need to know! Except for Damon, we don’t have any explanation for how anyone got to where they are in three years’ time so I’m excited to find out in the next few episodes.
It looks like Damon has had three years to think about, and potentially regret, what he has done as he volunteers to take Stefan’s place as Rayna’s victim. Either that, or he is already feeling the effects of the werewolf venom and knows he is on the way out. Whatever the reason, it looks like it’s either Stefan, Damon or Rayna who will have to die now. We’ll just have to wait to find out who gets out of this mess alive!