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"Oh, God, I&amp;#039;ve missed naughty Damon. I mean, sure, I guess it&amp;#039;s kind of sweet that he tried to be a &amp;#039;good person&amp;#039; for Elena - you know, relatively - but as self-help books always say, you shouldn&amp;#039;t change yourself for anyone. It&amp;#039;s a pleasure to have him back, wreaking havoc and not giving a flying monkey&amp;#039;s about the devastation he&amp;#039;s leaving in his wake. I do wonder whether Damon&amp;#039;s latest downward spiral was planned for ages, or whether it was introduced in an attempt to pull this season back. Last year&amp;#039;s episodes in particular weren&amp;#039;t quite there, but now we&amp;#039;re getting much better instalments. Mind you, they&amp;#039;re reminiscent of earlier years, with Damon being the bad boy and Stefan the one trying to keep him from falling off the edge.  That doesn&amp;#039;t mean it&amp;#039;s not enjoyable, but it does seem like something of an easy way out, returning to what we know works. Still, this isn&amp;#039;t a complaint, because it&amp;#039;s working. It helps, of course, that Katherine is also the centre of attention, with her wicked schemes and the fact that she rolls her eyes at the most inappropriate moments. Everything about her taking over Elena&amp;#039;s body is good fun, whether it&amp;#039;s her pursuit of Stefan or the fact that she seriously considered just letting Jeremy die to get sympathy. What a sociopath. Mind you, I don&amp;#039;t know if anyone would particularly mind if she&amp;#039;d gone through with that. Jeremy&amp;#039;s died plenty of times already, after all. But it looks like Katherine&amp;#039;s new lease of life could be about to come to an end; Matt is now aware of her true identity and is only keeping quiet because of Nadia&amp;#039;s threats. Matt might be easy to control at the moment, but the fact that he&amp;#039;s figured it out means that it&amp;#039;s bound not to remain a secret for too much longer.  Honestly, though, while I love Katherine and have enjoyed this storyline, I was far more captivated by Damon this week. Without Elena, he&amp;#039;s lost any pretence of caring, and Enzo is definitely what your mum would describe as a &amp;quot;bad influence&amp;quot;. So he&amp;#039;s getting drunk and murderous and going on missions to kill Maxfield in an attempt to end Augustine once and for all. He&amp;#039;s dangerous, because there&amp;#039;s no longer anything to stop him, no matter what Stefan might try. The dynamic between Damon and Stefan has always been special, but this incarnation - what some might dub the original flavour - is the most exciting for me, at least at the moment. Stefan is desperate to stop his brother from a downward spiral, but his efforts are for naught. How can you not love a show that includes the exchange: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re better than this.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;On the contrary, brother, I&amp;#039;m better like this.&amp;quot; It all culminated in a fantastic scene as Stefan finally rounds on Damon and warns him not to come back to Mystic Falls. &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t planning to,&amp;quot; he says, the sadness in his eyes hidden by all his bravado. It was so dramatic, and yeah, maybe a little over the top, but I loved it.  Of course, I suppose it&amp;#039;s a given that Damon&amp;#039;s behaviour cannot be rewarded, so by the time he and Enzo do eventually track down Maxfield, the dire consequences have already been foreshadowed. Maxfield has been introduced to a brand new traveller, Sloane, who brings him the bad news of Aaron&amp;#039;s demise and the fact that he&amp;#039;s in danger himself. So by the time Damon and Enzo finally turn up, Maxfield is prepared with a whole band of traveller security guards. Oh, and Damon&amp;#039;s injected with the fruits of Maxfield&amp;#039;s research and becomes one of those pesky vampires that feeds on other blood-suckers. &amp;quot;Okay, I can see how this might be a problem,&amp;quot; Enzo admits, displaying as much of the British stiff upper lip as is possible. Still, that&amp;#039;s not the only thing that this episode introduced - we also got to meet Liv, who kind of fascinates me. Sure, Bonnie noticing her using her powers on an unsuspecting pen in class is wildly convenient, given that later she desperately needs a witch. But I&amp;#039;m used to coincidences on this show, and I&amp;#039;m ready to get to know Liv, who&amp;#039;s a new witch with no idea how to control her power. Again, this is all very &amp;#039;early seasons&amp;#039;, but I&amp;#039;m ready to see a witch who doesn&amp;#039;t know what the hell she&amp;#039;s doing again - it got too easy for the show to fix things with these all-powerful spell-binders. But the best thing about this episode was how quickly it flew by. I&amp;#039;m not on board with everything - I really don&amp;#039;t want Caroline to have feelings for Stefan, because I love their friendship, though I suppose anything with them together would be great. But overall, the show seems much more focused now; after several weeks where it almost seemed like things were being made up as they went along - even if the episodes on their own were entertaining - we&amp;#039;ve got a clear direction and what seems like exciting twists ahead. Bites &amp;amp; Pieces   - The Vampire Diaries always has ridiculous parties, but is the Bitter Ball a real thing? WIth a shredder station?  - &amp;quot;Elena breaks up with you and your first instinct is to go on a killing spree. Could you be any more predictable?&amp;quot;  - &amp;quot;I happen to like my sadistic old self, Stefan. I miss that guy.&amp;quot; Us too, Damon.  - If Nadia does like Matt - as her mother suspects - then surely that puts Katherine in more danger of being outed. Will Nadia be able to bring herself to follow through on threats?  - Katherine gagging and ew-ing when she was forced to give mouth to mouth to Jeremy was incredible.  - &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like driving past a car crash, except you want to look away.&amp;quot; There were too many good Damon quotes this week. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m here to tutor some kids in calculus. I like giving back and being a good role model. Kidding! I&amp;#039;m here to kidnap your boyfriend.&amp;quot;  - You have to say this for Katherine - she is very good at this. Stefan will be putty in her hands for so long. Sure, it helps that their close-up moments are soundtracked by &amp;#039;Say Something&amp;#039;, but you know.  - &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m going to go ahead and say karma. Karma is happening to me.&amp;quot; At least Damon is self-aware.  What did you think of the episode? Let us know below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/vampire-diaries/review/a549646/the-vampire-diaries-devilish-damon-in-total-eclipse-of-the-heart/>