‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 8 debate: Can Michael Trevino’s Tyler be saved?

Tyler -

We presume that there are many surprises that are still ahead on “The Vampire Diaries” this season, given that this is the final season, and as a result of that, the final chance to see some of the writers really go all-out to deliver on some ideas that could be shocking, crazy, or simply plenty of fun.

Now that we’ve said that, let’s talk about something that’s not fun: Losing Tyler Lockwood already. When we first learned that Michael Trevino would be returning to the show for this final season, we assumed that he’d be getting a fairly substantial storyline. Yet, since his arrival we’ve seen him in roughly two or three minutes, and in the last one, he was dead in the back of a car.

On paper, it seems simple to call it: Tyler’s gone. In terms of storytelling, this is a great move for the sake of turning characters even further on Damon. This is the worst thing he’s done since allowing Sybil to overtake his brain, which we think he’s willing to do at this point, whether it be consciously or unconsciously. We’re just not getting the sense that he is going to be able to really walk this one back. We just hope that the show can for one reason and one reason only: This is a terrible way for Tyler, and also Trevino the actor, to go.

Look back over the entire course of the series to date. Tyler’s been a franchise staple, and one of the show’s most-popular people. There was a time when many thought that Tyler and Caroline were going to be endgame, and we’ve shifted from that. Having his entire legacy boil down to just two minutes seems wrong. Our hope is that whether it be through an alternate plane of the universe, a spell, or some other crazy supernatural occurrence, we get a chance to get some more closure here. Even if it’s just like what happened with Alaric after he was first killed off years ago, we’d be okay with it since we’d get more of his memory. (For the record, the season 3 finale in our mind is the best episode of the entire series.)

If this is the end, we’ll at least say that it proves the writers are being truly ruthless this season. We just want a little more from him before he goes.

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