In a season full of half-baked relationships and unengaging plots, this episode bothers the most simply because of how empty it feels, despite how hard it works to convince that what’s happening is emotional and important. ... Careening through scenes and plot to get to the next big shocking moment isn’t what made The Vampire Diaries at its prime interesting. Grounding those moments in character and emotion and carefully constructed long-term plots is what made it interesting. This is just a mess. ... Look, I’m being hard on this episode, perhaps harder than it actually deserves. But as season seven progresses, it feels like every bad decision just keeps compounding each week, creating piles on piles of nonsense that the show has to wade through with no real payoff. And I’m not sure how long the show can keep this up without being buried in it forever.
The A.V. Club, review of The Vampire Diaries 7x16 “Days of Future Past”
