The Vampire Diaries Mid Season Return - Is there anything to salvage?

The Vampire Diaries came back to our screens two days ago with the episode I Woke Up With A Monster. Good old Vampire Diaries. I haven't wrote about this show yet so I have to get this off my chest: Changing the rules and the lore is WRONG. You can't just change things as you please to suit your needs. It's just not right, especially with a fantasy show where the lore is everything. As an adept of good lore and extraordinary worlds, Vampire Diaries fails at every turn. Even though this is a teen vampire show, from which I don't expect much quality, I was completely down for it until it all became too much to swallow. When everybody can just resurrect and come back whenever they like, there is definitely something weird going on. It just all stopped making sense and they added way too many loopholes. Let me tell you Vampire Diaries, I feel betrayed!

At least in the first few seasons, they were consistent and stuck to the lore and had people actually die when they should die. Also, Season 6 had to introduce this weird coven storyline which is extremely dull compared to previous seasons'. Is it me or are the twins very irrelevant and superfluous? I do not find their story interesting in the slightest. Anyway, now to the episode at hand.

Of course, when Elena wanted to talk to Damon, she got abducted, very easily at that. But she gets to hang out with Kai and this guy is the most exciting thing to spawn out of the producers' minds since Klaus and Elijah. He's different, he's a breath of fresh air with a great personality. I adore his sarcasm and his dark humor; the Vampire Diaries needs that type of character to give it a little "humph". The scene at the grill was again a good display of his wit and it was entertaining. But after this compelling dialogue, or dare I say monologue, we are back to that coven nonsense and I am very sorry but I don't care about the fate of any of these people. I am kind of hoping Kai kills the three of them and we'd be done with it. I liked seeing Caroline preppy and happy as we used to see her. I didn't like the whiny and desperate version of her. I thought she spent too long mopping about Stefan in the last episodes. I got back what I like about her character in this episode.

Then Elena had to come back on screen, urgh. Is it me or has her acting ability declined over the years? She is definitely not the most convincing actor when she has to play "hurt" or "suffering". Oh and come on, that glimmer of hope in her eyes when Kai tells her about his brother, like, get a fucking clue! You get from angry-as-hell and telling-him-that-he's-an-evil-bastard and that he-doesn't-care-about-anybody to, "oh maybe there is some good in you" in two seconds. Bullshit. Even Elena isn't that gullible right? But apparently she is or the people who wrote this episode thought she was as, at the end of the episode, she spits out, at the worst possible time, the worst line in the world "I've never felt more alive". No. No. No. I have written about the cheesiness and dullness of The Flash's writing. Holy cow, The Vampire Diaries trumped that with just one little line. Can you be more cliche? Nope. Also, who washes a shirt that has been completely torn apart by A. a stake and B. the hand of someone looking in your guts through your shirt! Give me a break. Everything is done to shove dialogue and scenes down the throat of the viewers, no matter if the surrounding elements make sense or not. And they don't.