TV Review: The Vampire Diaries 8×04 “An Eternity of Misery”

tvd-801-03
THE CW

The devil is in the details on this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries “An Eternity of Misery” delving into the truth behind Sybil, an ultimate foreboding enemy that puts Katherine, Klaus and Kai to shame and a hidden danger in the form of a nanny.

A story of sisters

Family, particularly the bond between siblings, has always been at the core of the show. It’s what drives Stefan and Damon’s character arcs and now is proving the same for our siren Sybil as well because it turns out that she has a sister too, one that makes her look like the good sibling. The episode starts off in 750 BC with two sisters lying by a fire, the eldest telling the younger a “happy” story about a man named Arcadious, Cade for short, who was a kind man with the ability to read minds, but was also betrayed by his people and burned at the stake. This is when Cade learned what true evil was, but he had his revenge.

The younger sister complained that the story wasn’t happy at all and the oldest comforts her by saying that they will have their revenge as well.

Flash-forward to now Stefan and Alaric are confronting Sybil, who they have locked up in The Armory. Sybil opens up to Stefan telling him the story about a village girl who was born in the Mediterranean with physic abilities and was banished from her people, placed on a raft, and stranded on a deserted island. She was not alone though. An island girl appears with the same abilities and the two become sisters luring in ships with their abilities only to destroy them on the rocks and take provisions needed to survive.

This is only the start of their story though, one that eerily mirrors Stefan and Damon’s because it turns out that there was nothing but sailors on those ships.

The village girl, who is Sybil, was unknowingly being fed human flesh by her sister truing them both into cannibalistic monsters. Similar to how Stefan forced Damon to drink human blood and become a vampire just so he wouldn’t be alone. The big question though, who is Stefan’s spirit animal? The good island girl or the evil village girl?

Like father, like son

Meanwhile Damon is in on the hunt for a man named Peter Maxwell at a car shop in the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t understand what’s so special about Peter, just that he has a Maxwell family heirloom that will help Sybil with her plans. He runs into poor Lou (a repair man who happened to have killed one of his  five wives) and lights him on fire.

When Peter arrives I had to do a double take. I immediately knew that he had to be Matt Donovan’s father because the actor they cast looked exactly like him only older. It turns out that I was right because just as Damon stabs Peter, Matt shows up and puts a bullet in his brain saving his father’s life by making him drink Damon’s blood.

Advertisement

When Damon wakes up Peter is safely in Matt’s car and catches Matt up on what had been going on in Mystic Falls since he has been away. He reveals that he attacked Tyler the previous night and has left him bleeding out in the trunk of a car ad if Matt doesn’t help him he will leave Tyler for dead. Matt ignores him though and races with his father to save Tyler. They don’t make it on time though, making Tyler the first main character since season one to die this season.

The devil in disguise

While all this is going on, back at Alaric’s house nanny Selene runs into Georgie who just picked the locks and broke in to look for a book. Selene goes from sweet to dangerous when she threatens to call Alaric. Suddenly we are back at The Armory with Alaric who is in the vault. Georgie shows up and locks him in causing Alaric to have to dig a long knife into his ears, because the only way you can find your way out is to be blind and deaf.

Hopefully Alaric will find some vampire blood in time for his hearing problems.

Meanwhile it is revealed that Georgie is Sybil’s sister, or at least that’s what we think when she knocks out Stefan. While sleeping Sybil gets into his mind and reveals the truth to him, that Selene is actually the second siren just using Georgie as her puppet and that when Sybil found out that she had been eating human flesh she tries to kill herself by jumping off a cliff.

Advertisement

She is saved by Cade though, but at a price. They two of them gain immortality, but they must feed off of human flesh and send the souls of the wicked to hell where Cade resides.

And it turns out Damon made the same deal, so he could avoid going to hell.

This brings up so many questions, is Damon beyond saving at this point? What’s going on with Bonnie and Enzo? They were annoyingly absent this episode. Is Cade really the devil? And if he is how will our heroes defeat him? And what does Selene want with Alaric’s children? Is she trying to turn them into sirens too?

And let’s not forget about Georgie, whose neck was snapped by Selene and soul was sucked into hell during the final minutes of the episode, is it the last we’ll see of her?

Advertisement

Episode rating: 7/10

Advertisement

Exit mobile version