TV Review: The Vampire Diaries 8×08 “We Have History Together”

It’s anger management time on the mid-season premiere of The Vampire Diaries “We Have History Together,” where Stefan is determined to be self-controlled in his new job dragging the worst of the worst souls to Cade.

It’s been three weeks, and Bonnie is in Paris with Enzo, Alaric is in “witness protection” with his kids and Caroline has been sent to Mystic Falls High School to cover the Founder’s Day events.

Back at the armory, it turns out that Matt’s family is connected to the gang’s siren problems. The Maxwell family used to create church bells back in the day, and they used to own an estate before their family went into debt. It was nice to see an episode so focused on Matt. We don’t get to see a lot of him event though he’s been on the show for eight years.

Sybil, meanwhile, is masquerading as a history teacher at Mystic Falls High. She tells Caroline’s supervisor to send her to Mystic Falls on assignment so she can teach her some “history.” It turns out that the Forbes, Lockwoods, Gilberts, Donovans and Salvatores weren’t the first families in Mystic Falls, but a group of 100 witches who burned at the stake. Sybil’s plan is to persuade Caroline to find the original carter bell which was thrown over wickery bridge back in 1992 by Matt’s father. Sybil has been sending people into the river to look for it with no luck but with some incentive, fire and a bunch of high school students tied at the stake, Caroline is swayed into helping her.

Why is the charter bell so important? Because the Maxwell family was treated poorly by the other families who founded Mystic Falls, so Matt’s father tossed the bell over the bridge in an act of vengeance. Also, the charter bell and the tuning fork can be put together to create a super-siren bell that Sybil wants.

When Caroline and Sybil go to Caroline’s place to look for the bell, they find a note from Seline saying that she took the bell. This doesn’t bode well for the kids because Sybil needs to vent. She lights the fire back where the witches were burned. Luckily for those kids, Matt and his father were there to save the day. Sybil on the other hand digs into Caroline about why she is marrying someone who is prone to going “ripper.”

Meanwhile, Stefan and Damon target a doctor named Tara they see helping an old woman on the street. Tara is a spitting image of Elena, so Damon is hesitant to drag her into their Cade drama even though Stefan believes there’s a “darkness” in her and that she is corruptible.

He injects Damon with vervain, and Damon ends up in the hospital being cared for by Tara. Interestingly enough, Tara’s parents were killed in a car accident very similar to how Elena’s were killed, which Stefan takes into consideration during his plan to corrupt her. Stefan bad-talks to Tara about Damon, telling her that his records say that he is an organ donor at the hospital. To top it off, Stefan compels Tara to believe that Damon was the drunk driver that kills her parents.

Stefan wins this battle and manages to convince Tara to pull the plug on Damon and try to kill him, thinking that he is just an average human of course. Damon believes that Tara deserves a second chance because of how much she reminds him of Elena; it doesn’t help that Stefan finds Elena’s necklace that Damon has been carrying around for weeks. Stefan is disappointed that Damon isn’t enjoying their work for Cade. To prove Stefan wrong Damon throws the necklace out the window and sinks his teeth into Tara.

Meanwhile, Matt is super upset about not knowing that their family had some sort of legacy. It is sort of a bad reason to be upset, considering Matt is following the same path by abandoning his father.

The next morning Damon is out on the side of the road looking for the necklace. He finds it and has an interesting conversation with an inmate about redemption. It’s the first big moment of the season because Damon didn’t kill this man. He could have sent his soul to Cade, but he decides not to, showing really who is the good and who is the bad brother right now.

Stefan, on the other hand, has gone full ripper and kills everyone in the hospital.

While The Vampire Diaries hasn’t improved much since season three, this episode wasn’t half bad. It’s nostalgic to see the show writers bringing back season one Mystic Falls traditions towards the end of it all, and, if I’m seeing the signs correctly, we will hopefully have a Delena reunion in the future.

Episode Rating: 7.5/10

The Vampire Diaries airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW.