This week has been crazy in the Vampire Diaries fandom. Something happened and then people went crazy. Including me. Although the show must go on, I still feel as though these are issues this season must address. And soon, seeing as there’s not much time left.

For example, why are we still so concerned with killing the Originals at this point? Truth be told, the fact that the series has had two episodes consecutively without Klaus (nor Finn, nor Kol, no Elijah, nor Esther…) and contained the same amount of storytelling throughout is enough proof to tell you they are not a threat. At this point, we’re watching Rebekah search for trees to burn — and I suppose we should be feeling remorseful that they may die some day, but I don’t. So, that’s the problem. The Originals are not an immediate threat to anyone in Mystic Falls and I, certainly, would not feel the least bit saddened if they died. So what are the stakes (har har har) here? Why should I be invested?

The series answers that question by bringing in Sage. Their idea to couple her with Finn 900 years ago (ugh, love interests again — can we just continue to have weirdly pseudo threesome scenes like we did in this episode?) comes off as just a quick (god, is it awful if I say desperate?) attempt at conflict. So she loves Finn and doesn’t want to see him die. And also, if Damon tries to kill him, she’ll tear his head off.

Okay, great, I guess… if I even cared about Sage. Her love is irrelevant to me. And her morals even less so. Should we be rooting for someone that speaks of “taking” whatever you “want” and kissing those that just had recreational activities minutes ago? Either be creepily sexy or be gothic soap opera, but you can’t have it both ways, TVD.

That said, I feel as though that story will finally be going somewhere beginning in the next episode, that the Originals disappearing won’t be all for not and we’ll finally realize there is a direction to this. And if not, I’ll just cry, because I can’t continue to state the same thing week per week. (I mean, I could and I can and I will. But I’m beginning to sound repetitive to myself.)

Elsewhere, Elena is dealing with her creepy not-father, nor uncle Alaric who is becoming crazy. Truthfully, it’s just a way of getting her and Stefan in the same room — and for her to hug Bonnie at the end… and to call Jeremy for 30 seconds. Did they really need to spend money on affording Jeremy this episode if they weren’t going to tell him about the rings? Seriously? Because I’d rather have seen Elena and Matt do Regular Human missions yet again. But I digress, there was no point to the Stefan and Elena scenes. Being a fan of the Stefan and Elena pairing, that may sound weird… but there was nothing he told her in this episode that he hasn’t said previously. He just cannot be with her at this moment. Understandable. Now please, spend more episodes struggling internally. These scenes imply a sense of certainty… as if Stefan is only really trying to find whatever middle ground he intends on reaching, mostly so that he can be deserving of Elena. But I don’t care about that. I want him to be deserving of himself, to see that he is human and not a beast. His relationship with Elena is mostly an afterthought when it comes to Stefan’s actual character development. But even then, as I think about that precisely, I’m still not sure if “middle ground” is yet another thing the audience should be rooting for. Biting, drinking, compelling: those are all evil things. Yes, they’re vampires, but being a vampire is a curse. They are evil by nature. And once again, I feel as though Vampire Diaries is confused about whether it should veer into a teen gothic soap opera territory with this predicament, or continue with the sex orgy scenes with pints of blood flowing from compelled humans’ veins into bloodthirsty vampires’ mouths.

I just cannot see Elena being okay with Stefan drinking unsuspecting humans’ blood. And truthfully, can we fault her for that? It’s downright dark. What will the resolution be here?

Meanwhile, Alaric is cray cray. And I like it. As per usual. The scene in which Meredith was running away from a stab-ready Ric was probably my favorite in a while. I don’t care about Meredith at all (do you?), but seeing her being thisclose to that knife made me literally yell “RUN!!!” Like it or not, this ring story is the most suspenseful thing this show has done in a while. TVD isn’t a suspenseful show — it’s thrilling, exciting, and so on. But suspense isn’t usually part of the package. Tonight, it delivered by putting regular humans in normal irregular situations. And that scene where Elena and Stefan find the evidence and the note: creeeeepy.

But, no, seriously, someone should tell Jeremy that he might be killing people in Denver. His newfound friends might all be goners soon.

And finally, Bonnie is there to provide more plot devices. “Hey! Here are some magic herbs, Elena! By the way, I forgive you because I have to. Bye! Will probably not be in the next episode.”

Just. Ugh. (Although, I don’t think she should be mad at Elena, regardless.)

Anyway, I cannot get over whatever they’re doing with Bonnie. They introduce her mother, but only to have her open the coffins. Then, they make her a vampire which could have been interesting seeing as witches aren’t all that keen on vampires. But that happened offscreen. Now that we are given about three lines on how Bonnie wants to make it work with her mom… she’s just gone? Does anyone know why? She’s leaving to…? Uh…? Ummmmm…? It’s a definite problem. Maybe I’d be more caring of whatever Jamie thinks if we had seen more than five minutes of him prior. Literally, Bonnie had to ask him who he was in this episode for the audience to remember. There are so many new characters with about no characterization that it’s hard for me to care about anything they have to say or if their lives ever hang in the balance.

It’s about the weirdest paradox that could happen ever. This show is moving too slowly and yet not taking enough time to develop any new character correctly. Oh, look, Damon wants to kill Originals for the tenth time this year. Well, yeah, we know. And oh look, Sage (who?) loves Finn (that suicidal guy?)! Hey, let’s keep these coffins here for half a season to the point where you guess who’s in the final one. But, by the way, Jamie almost died twice and I still don’t care. The trick is balancing it correctly, and I just don’t think it’s done that this year.

Though, I think that I may be thinking about it too much. At least I did have fun this episode, right?

What did you think?