Again, my cable guide fails epically in describing this episode as “Klaus becomes violent after Stefan hides his family’s coffins.” It makes it sound like two little boys fighting over trains. Sure, it’s still a game of keep away, but it’s a bloody and adult game. Damn it.
Really, this episode is about reminding everyone where we left off, increasing the Damon/Elena connection, Tyler’s sire issues, and a whole lot of Jeremy. Oh, and Team Handsome is in full effect, even if there is a severe lack of shirtless men.
(Need to catch up? Visit our TVD recap index for links to past episode recaps.)
**********SPOILERS**********
Bonnie has returned to the “don’t ever come back here” witch house. And—shocker—ghosts of witches whisper to her. Real shocker: The basement is now filled with coffins, and when she opens one, Klaus is inside with Elena’s locket in his hand. Bonnie awakens in bed. The fact that this is a vision helps a bit, because Bonnie isn’t that idiotic.
Elena’s out for a run—and makes some special “I’m exerting effort while jogging” faces—and a guy with a pulled up hoodie is running right behind her. She picks up speed, turns a corner, only now he’s gone. He does eventually arrive and is both hot and apologetic. Not buying it. Everyone knows chasing girls down is creepy. Still, he just leaves right away.
Turns out Elena’s just being paranoid, and she knows it. She’s been waiting for Klaus to do something. Bonnie and Elena discuss their shared fear of hell raining down upon Mystic Falls again (likely!) and we learn Bonnie has been having the coffin dream repeatedly.
Our first taste of Elena’s perspective change comes quickly. Bonnie asks if we’ve had any word about Stefan, and Elena’s response is “he betrayed us.” At this point, I begin mentally chanting “Team DElena!” and sending up silent prayers for Damon to get some doppelganger love.
Unfortunately, Damon is not handling things well. He’s taken to the bar for “brunch in a bottle.” Team Handsome is still in effect as Alaric sits beside him at the bar.
“I can’t drink all this myself. Well, I can. (pause) Somebody’s getting naked.” Sober. Drunk. Bloodlust crazy. I love just about every bit of dialogue they write for Damon. Really. Alaric, however, passes on both the drinking and getting naked, suggesting he’s at Mystic Grill to meet Jeremy, not have liquid lunch with Damon. (Ten bucks says there is fan fiction with a totally different outcome there.)
Jeremy has given up. He’s copying papers directly off the internet, and Alaric wants to help get him back on track. The Gilbert siblings lost Jenna, and it’s nice to see Alaric stick with being a guiding figure for them. Also, then we get Team Handsome.
Instead of getting life lessons from Alaric, Jeremy is in the woods with Tyler (oh, another fan fic option!) getting drunk and shooting the beer cans via crossbow. Tyler suggests this should be therapy for losing Caroline and Bonnie. The requisite warnings of losing an eye are not lost on Tyler. No, he points out Jeremy can’t kill him because he’s a hybrid. An arrow isn’t going to take him out. Since the change, we’re seeing more of the arrogant entitled ass from season one. This does not score points with me.
Jeremy does indeed shoot at Tyler, and the hybrid catches the arrow mid-flight. Jeremy looks impressed. Me, not so much.
Back at the Grill, Damon is excelling at darts, despite inebriation and Elena is fretting over her brother. Jeremy is “spiraling” since Bonnie dumped him. Damon suggests that’s all typical teenager. Just as the two start getting into a nice repartee regarding just what Damon’s best looks are, Klaus interrupts. I am happy to see Klaus because he causes trouble. However, I’d much rather him interrupt other people. The more Damon and Elena alone time, the better shot we have at shirtless Salvatore and kissing.
Klaus has brought a friend with him who just happens to the jogger freaking Elena out earlier in the morning. He says he’s looking for Rebekkah, and clearly doesn’t know Elena staked her. Somehow Klaus is drawn in by the charms of Mystic Falls. Maybe he heard about all the dances and outdoor movie events? Either way, he’s staying put. He wants to know where Stefan is because he stole “something” (Dead family members!), but Elena points out that’s a “Stefan-Klaus problem.” He retorts that he’s widening the scope.
Looks like Damon and Elena are going to have to find Stefan to get Klaus out of their lives.
This time, Bonnie goes to the witch house for real. I still think this is stupid. Couldn’t she send someone non-magical in there so as not to piss off hundreds of dead witches? When she reaches the basement there are no coffins, but Stefan is there, and at first it looks like he was expecting her.
Instead, he admits to following her because he needs her help. He wants Bonnie to help keep Klaus’s daggered, coffined family hidden from the Big Bad vampire. Stefan is convinced he can ruin Klaus via his family, but doesn’t hear Bonnie’s protests that these steps will only make Klaus angrier.
“You’re a witch. You hate Klaus. I know you can figure something out.” OK, now Stefan even sounds like Klaus a bit. Klaus learned his moves from The Ripper version of Stefan, and that element is back. I predict we’re going to see some single-minded revenge from Stefan this season with plenty of collateral damage.
Jeremy puts the breaks on family dinner night with Alaric and Elena. He has plans with Tyler instead. Elena warns him it isn’t safe, because Tyler is sired by Klaus. Jeremy points out the hypocritical aspect of her saying it isn’t safe to be spending time with hybrids. (She did date a vampire.) He tries to bail, much like when he used to duck out to see Vicki in season one. Really, the boy is regressing here. When Elena and Alaric try to stop him, he invites Tyler in. So now the sired hybrid has a free pass into their house. Nice move, jerk.
Tyler explains being sired as though it’s faith. He doesn’t see himself as serving Klaus, but repaying a debt. Klaus freed him from the werewolf curse and that’s not something one forgets. I get his thinking here, it even sounds plausible—that is, if we didn’t know he’d drugged his girlfriend before to keep her safe from what Klaus wanted. When he admits he’d rip out his own heart if Klaus asked, everyone makes the “see?!?!” face. But, of course, he doesn’t. He says they’re just overthinking things and he can still make his own choices. I hope he has to do something deplorable at Klaus’s behest to put him in the right mindset.
Back at the Salvatore place, Damon is getting his drink on (again) and Klaus shows up. What was the point of putting the house in Elena’s name if any vampire can just waltz in? Klaus wants help in finding Stefan and the boxed up Originals. Damon wants to find Stefan, too, but he has no intention of working for Klaus. The Original notes he can’t kill Damon because he’s the one most likely to find Stefan, but instead says he’ll encourage Damon via an act of violence. I expected some evisceration right there, but instead he makes a call. And we wait for the blood.
At the Gilbert house, we see Jeremy hanging up the phone. Tyler bails, to which both Elena and Alaric say good riddance.
Upon turning around, they find Jeremy gone and his immortality ring left on the table. He’s outside in the middle of the road with an SUV barreling down the street toward him. Alaric charges and shoves Jeremy out of the way, only to take the full impact of the vehicle. Afterward Jeremy and Elena run to Alaric’s side. Jeremy says he doesn’t understand. Confirmation: Klaus glamoured him.
Klaus has his stock of hybrids helping him with home renovations on his new Mystic Falls digs. Tyler shows up and Klaus says he’s still pleased, even though Alaric was hit instead of Jeremy. Tyler questions him, saying he thought they were only sending a warning. Poor Tyler. That’s the only kind of warning Klaus does. In his exact words: “Human life is just a means to an end. Our means to our end.”
Damon arrives to help Elena and Jeremy while Alaric is still dead. He has his ring on, so eventually he should pop back to life. Damon notices that Jeremy is no longer wearing his vervain bracelet and Jeremy doesn’t know how he lost it. Elena’s sure it was Tyler. As expected, Damon deciphers the message and fills the others in on Klaus’s request they find Stefan and his dead family members.
I love when Jeremy comes to his senses. “That’s your big plan? To steal back four dead Originals so this evil hybrid doesn’t kill me and everyone else we know?” The boy really sums it up well, but his solution is to pack bags and beat feet. He points out they do this every time and they’re never safe. It’s a valid argument, if Klaus wouldn’t just follow them.
Elena suggests giving Rebekkah back to him to make him back off. Damon, rightly, shoots that idea down right away. Elena appears to accept it (let’s hope!) and remembers Bonnie’s visions of coffins.
Bonnie’s advice upon Elena calling about coffins is: Don’t get involved. Suddenly everyone in Mystic Falls has become a pacifist. Still, once Elena mentions Klaus tried to kill Jeremy, Bonnie says she’s willing to help and even fesses up about Stefan’s location.
Also, she says the witch house is now safe to be in. Of course, that doesn’t mean the witch spirits won’t still mess with Damon. He gets fried a bit, and I hate seeing him in pain. Or a shirt. Really, far too many shirts this episode. Damon heads outside and Elena heads to the basement to talk to Stefan. He makes the valid point that “Bonnie sucks at keeping secrets,” but otherwise is less forthcoming. He doesn’t care about what’s happened to Jeremy (and gets smacked for it), and instead only cares about making Klaus suffer.
Outside Damon tries to calm her, offers to talk to Stefan. She points out the witches won’t let him, but he’s not deterred. This is our strong, protector Damon. He hands over his keys and tells her he’ll take care of his brother and she should take care of hers. And I want to hug him. Elena should have. Damon runs through the bits of light that sear his skin to get down to the basement with Stefan.
Damon drags him outside and stakes his stomach with a tree branch. He wants to know why Stefan stopped him from killing Klaus and why on earth he’d steal his family instead. Simply put: “Piece by piece Klaus took everything from me and I’m doing the same to him.”
When pushed further, Stefan admits he stopped the staking of Klaus to save Damon. Damon accepts these facts, but reminds Stefan that he needs to stop saving him.
Jeremy comes up on Tyler in the woods with the crossbow, calling the hybrid out for being a backstabber. Tyler admits to taking Jeremy’s vervain. He refuses to see it as a big deal because Klaus just wants his family back. Jeremy takes a shot. Tyler catches it, but the two have an understanding. Tyler advises Jeremy that Klaus isn’t done with him and it’d be best to stay inside, lay low.
Alaric rejoins the living, but something is wrong. He’s coughing blood. Paramedics arrive, only to be stopped by Klaus’s friend and Elena’s jogging buddy. The hybrid offers his blood to save Alaric, but she refuses to invite him in. Jeremy shoots the hybrid with the crossbow, decapitating him. And quickly refocuses on getting Alaric to the hospital.
Damon and Stefan continue their woodsy brotherly powwow. Stefan is sure there is another way to kill Klaus and Damon says he wants in. “If you go after Klaus, you’re going to have to be cutthroat and devious, and I’m so much better at that than you.” Stefan can’t argue with that. He agrees to let Damon in on the plan, but only if Elena isn’t part of the pact. Back in the witch house, Stefan has the witches unveil the coffins. They really are hidden there, but veiled to only be visible when the witches so desire. And they really hate Klaus, too.
At the hospital, Alaric wants to leave. His ring has finished up the task and he’s healed up. But the doctor takes one look at his chart—internal hemorrhaging, broken ribs—and wants to examine him. She tells him patients who follow their advice get to call her Meredith. Two words: Love interest. He, of course, isn’t going to listen to her, because he’s healed, but I’d bet he’ll get to call her Meredith anyway. She’s definitely curious about how he’s managed to heal so quickly.
Elena invites Klaus over to the Salvatore house and instead of giving him Stefan, she returns Rebekkah. Elena strikes a deal: Jeremy’s life for Rebekkah’s. Klaus agrees and promises he can keep Rebekkah from killing her. Though he still expects her to find Stefan for him, and while Jeremy is off limits, everyone else is fair game. Klaus even suggests he’d kill Damon. So, of course, Elena lets him know that Rebekkah is aware Klaus killed their mother. Brave move, but it does get the final tidbit from the midseason finale back on the table.
Leaving the hospital, Alaric confirms with Jeremy it was Damon’s blood that saved him. Alaric is more worried about how Jeremy is doing. At the house, Damon has disposed of the body and Elena is cleaning up the blood. Very vampire domestic. Damon asks how she’s doing, and she reveals how she gave back Rebekah.
Klaus re-stakes Rebekkah back at his place. Elena may think he’s controlling her, but his plan really is just to keep her dead for the time-being.
Elena and Alaric decide it’s time to send Jeremy away for his safety. She has Damon use compulsion to convince him it’s time to visit family friends in Denver, meet living girls and leave Mystic Falls behind and “never think twice about it.” They want to give him a better life, one where he doesn’t have to use a meat cleaver to remove hybrid heads.
Back at the witch house, Stefan and Bonnie are looking at the coffin that Bonnie dreamed of. It’s sealed with a spell though, whatever’s inside will likely cause Klaus pain.
Elena is already feeling guilty over having Damon use compulsion on Jeremy, but all Damon can point out is it is better than being dead. He comforts her, and she thanks him for everything. Then he tells her that Stefan betrayed them only to save Damon’s life. She asks what it means, he says he thought it meant he was going to not get to feel guilty for wanting her. He starts to leave, then says if it’s going to feel guilty it should be for something…then EPIC KISS!!
Finally. Finally. Finally.
And, yes, I watched it three times. So good. He whispers goodnight, and I bet her lips are still all tingly.
Mostly this episode was breaking us back into the Klaus chaos, and I would have said it was meh, but then there was an EPIC KISS. (Caps required. I am shouting.) What did you think? Did you miss Caroline? (I did.) Are you pissed about Jeremy leaving? Do you think Bonnie will let that fly? Hit the comments and gush.
Damon/Elena kiss image from Tumblr’s thevampirediaries
While Chelsea Mueller runs Vampire Book Club, she won’t turn down a sexy werewolf, demon or faerie. (Her husband often reminds her that she’s taken.)
