‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 7, episode 3 review: Stefan’s surprising past with Valerie

“The Vampire Diaries” has made it clear that they are taking off in a new direction this season, and interestingly enough, they continue to find a way to place Elena in the spotlight. Tonight, it was a part of the continued negotiations between Damon and Lily Salvatore, as he wants to ensure that he wants to get Elena’s body at least back in a safe place.

Negotiations aside (which include Damon threatening to do away with another “child” in Oscar), most of this episode went back in time in order to tell us the story of Stefan and Valerie back when he was actually human. She was actually one of his first loves; not only that, but she was temporarily pregnant with his child. Their relationship fell apart under mysterious circumstances, but Stefan made it clear to Caroline at the episode’s end that despite the two having a past, he has no interest in Valerie now … and understandably so.

Ultimately, Valerie in the present is far from the nicest vampire in the world, and she continues to wield whatever sort of power that she can within the Heretic family … including taking down Oscar for one specific reason: trying to make sure that Lily cannot bring back Julian. At the moment, Julian has the potential to be the terrifying Big Bad even more than Lily is. Hopefully, if nothing else he can start to rival Kai.

Sure, most of this episode revolved heavily around backstory for a character we really don’t know or care that much about, but is it a crime to say we were still very much entertained by most of it? Grade: B.

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