VAMPIRE DIARIES 5.19 "Man on Fire" Review: I'm Gonna Grab Barbie's Neck and Squeeze Until Her Expandable Hair Falls Out

What a brutal, beautiful episode from start to finish. Excellent performances and direction and an even better script made this a real highlight in an otherwise lackluster last half of the CW staple's fifth season.

Believing that Stefan killed the love of his life, Maggie, Enzo holds Stefan and Elena hostage with Olivia’s help. After some stake twisting, Damon arrives to confess that he was the one who squeezed and squeezed and squeezed until Maggie’s head popped off back in 1960. Enzo turns his humanity off and abducts Elena but Stefan is hot on his trail, swiftly punching his fist through Enzo’s beautiful chest. Enzo, however, is oddly pleased: what better revenge is there than for Stefan to kill his brother’s best friend? He then pushes away from Stefan, leaving his own heart in Stefan’s hand. Ew and sad. Stefan, Elena, and Bonnie conspire to tell Damon that Enzo left town while Bonnie also lies to Jeremy about the awful truth that her time is quickly running out as the Other Side disintegrates.

Elsewhere, Tyler learns that the Travelers, under Markos’ command, are using doppelganger blood to undo witches’ magic, which is there means of finally settling down. How do they figure this out? By having Sloan feed on Tyler, slit her throat, bring her back, have her drink the last of Stefan and Elena’s blood that the Travelers have on tap, and then watch her drop dead all over again because magic is no longer keeping her alive. Brutal. Unfortunately, this means that Markos is intent on getting even more doppelganger blood so his gang of Travelers can all partake in the magic-canceling goodness and they can finally find a home.

Let me give it to you straight: this episode was a slam-dunk. Wow. Solid character development for both Damon and Enzo from start to finish with a fascinating conflict for Stefan along the way. Bonnie had a great role, facing her own mortality yet again without it being repetitive, and Tyler helped advance the overall plot of the season. Everyone turned in fantastic performances but I feel like Michael Malarkey is the obvious MVP (although Kat Graham and Ian Somerhalder gave excellent performances and Paul Wesley was clearly having fun so the whole world was having fun with him). The fact that the love triangle was nonexistent in this episode proved that it has become extraneous dead weight, dragging down potential development in previous episodes of this season. Let’s let the characters breathe and deal with life like they did in this episode rather than forcing them into ridiculous fanfiction-like circumstances just to test the strength of their romantic relationships, huh? 

This episode gets an astounding A+ from me. What a riveting, dark, and funny (YAY, PAUL WESLEY!) script and the direction was especially gorgeous (THOSE SETS!).

ARROW 2.20 "Seeing Red" Review: When It Comes to Your Children, No Decision is Impossible

I had to sit with this monstrous episode for ten minutes before I could start writing. That’s how difficult it was for me to process the events that just went down. Here I expected “Seeing Red” to be a Roy-centric outing but what we got was another well-balanced episode that blew up at least one relationship and drove a sword through a character’s heart. And, dear lord, was I not ready for any of it.

THE ORIGINALS 1.19 "An Unblinking Death" Recap: The Bell Jar

Tonight’s episode followed two riveting plots and the fallout of each: Father Kieran’s deterioration under the witches’ curse and a lethal attack on the werewolves’ camp in the Bayou. As a result, we were rewarded to Klaus making one giant, authentic leap forward in his character development, Marcel proving that he is not above devious scheming, and Hayley being undermined by an untrustworthy growler. Oh, and two deaths.

ARROW 2.19 "The Man Under the Hood" Recap: It's Not Who I am Underneath, But What I Do That Defines Me

Tonight’s episode was “Arrow” at its best. Not only were there phenomenal action sequences – some of which were the best of the series – but the performances from the entire cast – notably Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy - were just as stellar. Everyone had a role to play tonight and boy was it fantastic.

THE ORIGINALS 1.18 "The Big Uneasy" Recap: This Place About to Blow

Previously on “The Originals:” Elijah announced he’ll take control of New Orleans if Klaus won’t and got every faction – vampires, witches, werewolves, and humans – to sign a peace treaty; Genevieve creeped on Marcel and Cami doing the nasty with her dreamcatcher (honey, I dream of that, too); Davina didn’t bitch-slap Mean Girl Monique; and Klaus offered the werewolves a moonlight ring, a possible key to the city – much growling ensued.