Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: C | 106 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT The Human Diary
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.05.2013
Whitmore Dungeon. With her sense of urgency rising, Elena begs Damon to tell her how he escaped. When he says she doesn't want to know, Elena says, "Why? Do you think that I'm going to judge you? Damon, I love you. I love you and these people tortured you for five years. Whatever you had to do, I don't care." Damon mulls this over. "All right, all right… the Augustine's next party was in 1958." We cut to...
1958. Present-day Damon narrates that while Enzo would drink a few drops to keep from desiccating, for the most part, Damon consumed both of their blood rations for the entire year. As Enzo predicted, Damon grew stronger from the extra blood. At the party, the caged vamps watch as Dr. Whitmore entertains his ghoulish guests. This time, it's Damon that Whitmore releases from the cage. Once out, Damon is strong enough to break his own bones, so that he can squeeze his hand out of its shackles. He holds up the broken mess, cracks his bones back into place, and waggles his fingers at Whitmore. "Now you see it..." Whitmore's eyes are wide with amazement, at least until Damon jams his thumbs into them.
As party guests start to scurry, Damon keeps the pressure on the screaming Whitmore's eyes, until he builds up a powerful thirst, and then sinks his fangs into his tormentor's throat. Lifeless, Whitmore falls to the floor. Guest scream and flee. One knocks over a large candelabra. The carpet catches fire. Damon bites some more party guests and snaps the neck of others. As the fire spreads, Enzo calls out to remind Damon they've got to get out of there. Damon rushes to the cage, but can't force it open. The Damon I thought I'd grown to know would have at least looked for Whitmore's keys, but this Damon doesn't.
In the present, Damon rationalizes his actions to Elena. Well, he rationalizes all his actions, except for his failure to look for Whitmore's keys. I mean, he dropped the doctor right in front of the damned cage. In the flashback, Damon again grabs at the cell bars, but hisses that they're coated with vervain.
In the present, Damon tells Elena, "Enzo trusted me with his life. The fire was getting out of control. I would have burned up, or they would have captured me again. There's no way I would have ever gotten another chance to escape, so I chose to save myself." I originally typed "safe myself" which makes me wonder how Stefan and Katherine are doing, but it's not time for them, yet.
1958. Surrounded by flames, Damon struggles with the bars one more time. To be fair to the guy who I thought was the Damon I'd come to know, the Enzo I've hardly met doesn't suggest getting Whitmore's keys, either. When Damon stops struggling with the bars, he and Enzo share a look. Finally Damon says, "I'm sorry, Enzo." Enzo pleads for his life.