What would happen if Stefan never came back to Mystic Falls to meet Elena? The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 3, “You Decided That I Was Worth Saving,” answered that question.
Keeping with the theme of The Vampire Diaries season 8, this episode treated us to another flashback of the night that Elena’s parents died. Only this time, Stefan didn’t show up to pull Elena out of the water and Damon was standing idly by with Sybil, lamenting the loss of a girl that he’d never met.
This scene mostly served to reiterate the fact that Sybil truly had a hold on Damon’s memories, but it also gave us the opportunity to see Liz Forbes! The Delena flashbacks have been amazing, but if they’re going to keep using these moments to bring back old characters, too, I’m all for it.
Even though fans are still swooning from that precious Steroline proposal last week, Caroline, because she’s Caroline, isn’t wasting any time before getting down to wedding prep. Of course Bonnie, because she’s Bonnie, isn’t going to let her friend celebrate alone, no matter how much pain she’s in.
The Caroline and Bonnie scenes were so great in The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 3. Now that Bonnie has put everything on the table and Caroline knows how she feels, the girls can come at these things from a more honest place. It was amazing that Bonnie was so celebratory with Caroline and it was equally amazing how considerate Caro was of BonBon’s feelings. They’re perfect.
The June wedding is on and Bonnie is the maid of honor! Even though I loved everything about this scene, it did really emphasize the fact that Caroline and Stefan will be getting married without Elena present, which is really sad. She’s such an important part of both of their lives that it seems wrong to not have her there. It’s so tragic to think that this is only the first big event that Elena’s going to miss.
As tragic as that is, Salvatore and co. have bigger problems than choosing a wedding dress right now. Sybil finally found out about Enzo’s connection to Bonnie in the last episode, and in The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 3, she discovered that Damon is also very connected to her.
After some heavy Bamon hints in The Vampire Diaries season 7, it’s seemed like season 8 has been doing damage control by putting extreme focus on Delena and Bonenzo. This episode was actually the first of the season to really acknowledge that Bonnie and Damon were friends (or whatever they were).
It was cool to see Sybil flip through Damon’s Bonnie memories with confusion. They’ve definitely had their share of bad times, but then they finally got to the good. This little Bamon montage gives me hope that we will get some great moments between these two in The Vampire Diaries season 8, and that it won’t be all Enzo (and Elena), all the time.
Even the episode title, “You Decided That I Was Worth Saving,” is a Bamon reference from the season 1 finale. Yes, the quote was something that Damon said to Elena, but he was talking about how Bonnie saved him for her. Bonnie probably never would have grown to appreciate Damon without Elena, but she has been the one to save him so many times since then.
Unfortunately, Damon doesn’t really care how many times Bonnie’s saved him right now, because his humanity switch is completely off (even though he still fears hell). His memories of both Bonnie and Elena have been replaced with Sybil and he’s fully committed to the siren’s cause. Enzo, however, was still trying to hold on in The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 3. Sybil needed two loyal soldiers, so that just wouldn’t do.
If you’re still on the fence about who to ship, don’t worry, Sybil is too! So much so, that she demanded that Bonnie make the choice. Obviously Bonnie wouldn’t, so Sybil took things all the way back to Ancient Rome and forced the two boys to fight to the death. Whoever lived would get to be Sybil’s slave forever (yay?), and whoever died would go to this “hell” that we’ve been hearing so much about.
The fight took place at Mystic Falls High School, but I honestly didn’t realize that until Bonnie ran outside. It’s cool that they’re coming back to old locations, but they could be a little less subtle about it. The fight scene was great though. I loved that killing Enzo was completely off the table because of his relationship with Bonnie and that Caroline even stepped in to save him from Stefan.
Crushing some of the Bamon feelings that had been built up earlier in the episode, Bonnie eventually had to step in and choose Enzo. She tried to talk Damon out of killing him, but he was just too far gone. At this point, it’s looking like it’s going to be a long fight to save Damon.
Proving just how sadistic she is, Sybil informed Bonnie that she chose wrong and ordered her to be killed, along with Enzo if he wouldn’t submit completely. It was so sad to see Enzo finally give in to Sybil after fighting for so long. His confidence that Bonnie could bring him back almost made it worth it, though. Luckily, Alaric stopped Damon from killing her, so she’ll still be around to do that.
Alaric and Georgie discovered a weapon that can put Sybil down for a little while, at least. Could it be the pitchfork of the devil, himself? Probably not, but all of these hell references have me pretty certain that at least one character will be stopping by there. Georgie made it in and out unscathed, so we know it’s possible.
Related: The Vampire Diaries: Could we see Katherine Pierce in the siren’s ‘hell’?
Even though Sybil’s incapacitated, she still has complete control over her soldiers. Unfortunately, this may have lead to Tyler Lockwood’s demise. We didn’t see him die, so I’m going to assume that Stefan ran in to save the day…probably, right? Until next week, we’ll just have to have faith that his extra strong werewolf heart is still beating!