The Vampire Diaries: Has the Lily Finally Withered?
The Vampire Diaries unfortunately painted themselves into a corner with the character of Lily Salvatore that resulted in unsure emotions for viewers, either she was liked or disliked. Mostly the majority of fans didn’t know how to relate to her. In the episode “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” some of those viewers may have gotten a solution to the Lily problem. This article contains spoilers so if you haven’t seen the episode, please do not continue reading.
The unevenness of the character of Lily Salvatore since her arrival on The Vampire Diaries canvas made it extremely difficult to develop a connection with her. I believe that this was due to not really knowing whether the writers intended for her to be an antagonist or protagonist. She seems to shift from episode to episode. One week she’d be this cruel Ripper and head of the heretics, and the next she’d be this poor woman who craved the love of her sadistic vampire boyfriend and her heretic family. Strength and weakness should go hand in hand not be interchanging. Additionally, Lily mentioned last season when Damon used her to get Stefan to turn his humanity switch back on that the love she felt for her sons was gone. Yet, when Julian almost killed Stefan and Damon, she stepped in like a protective mother. Viewers were constantly scratching their heads in confusion.
The previous episode gave viewers a better understanding of Lily by showing flashbacks of pre-vampire Lily’s life with her young sons and abusive husband. But unfortunately, this may have been too late to save the character. Even though Lily sacrifices her life in “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”, the whole thing seems anti-climatic. Sure, she shares a mother/son moment with Stefan, (and I must say, I miss seeing this side of Stefan. It brought back the early traits of the character from the days of the Stefan/Elena touching conversation scenes) but even in the moment of his mother’s death, Stefan seems to not care less and perhaps spoke as the voice of the viewer.
But the most frustrating thing about the death of Lily is will she remain truly dead? After all, there’s the Phoenix Stone that can reunite the souls of dead vampires with their bodies. Also, does The Vampire Diaries intend to keep the rest of the heretics around even if it turns out that Lily is gone for good? Although I can’t speak for every viewers, the heretics don’t really work for me.
So, the Heretic Queen is Dead, will the Heretic King now rule? It remains to be seen how Damon and Stefan will deal with the Julian threat.
The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays 8/7c on The CW.