The Vampire Diaries Season 5, Episode 8: "Dead Man on Campus" Recap/Review

[08 December 2013 12:35 EST--screencaps and gifs are added! Thanks for your patience. :)]

Before I get started, I just want to wish my American readers a VERY belated happy Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone stayed safe and happy and ate so much turkey and stuffing leftovers and took awesome carb-coma naps. If you're not American, or don't care for Thanksgiving (and I don't blame you if you are!), I still hope that you had an awesome and safe week/weekend as well! As you can probably guess, the lateness of this recap is 50% from it being dangerously close to finals week, and 50% due to a turkey/stuffing coma of such epic proportions that I was unable to break free from the tryptophan haze until like, yesterday. So, my apologizes, once again, for the lateness! I'm expecting the other two The Originals recaps to be up by Monday and hopefully TVD's will be up by Thursday!

ANYWAY, "Dead Man on Campus" was the perfect way to move on from all the doppelgänger shenanigans we've been experiencing for the last eight episodes, and man, am I fucking THRILLED to see what comes next! Not that I don't have my complaints about it (and, per usual, you will hear me explain them at length, as I am wont to do), but for the most part, this episode was solid A work. The shining star of the week was Katherine, of course, because catching these glimpses into her humanity is a joy to behold. Plus, this was the SECOND week in a row that she did something nice for someone without asking for or receiving anything in return. (And probably at least the third or fourth in this season, total) I'm just so worried for her, both regarding her state of mind, AND her currently-dwindling lifespan in general. As for the rest of the episode, I am happy to say that I'm actually enjoying this newest version of Stefan, I'm drowning in Jeremy/Bonnie feels, not to mention the how happy I was to see that Matt was actually involved and had his own stuff to do. But, last, but not least, I am SO EXCITED/(and also nervous/worried) to see where Damon's newest story line is headed, especially since he hasn't had a lot of focus thus far.

So, enough babbling, yeah? Let's dig in, amigos!

Previously, on The Vampire Diaries: Silas revealed his true face to be exactly the same as Stefan's, just before he staked him in the gut, and locked him in a huge safe that he threw down to the bottom of a quarry. Stefan drowned to death and reawakened countless times over three months before he was rescued, and now he's having some trouble with awful flashbacks and nightmares. He thought killing Silas would help end them, so he did just that by tossing a knife in his chest, but no dice--he's still having panic attacks. Bonnie died, but now she's alive again! Or, rather, she's the new anchor between the Other Side and the side of the living, so she's basically just a corporeal ghost now. Oh, and she's also like a tollbooth, in the way that every supernatural who dies has to go through her, and as a result, she feels their deaths. That's gonna be unpleasant. The cure did something funky to Katherine, and now she's basically dying from advanced-speed aging. Finally, Wes killed Jesse, once he learned that he had vampire blood in his system (thanks to a little accident with Amnesiac!Stefan, but that's another story for another day), and has been doing creepy experiments on him for a couple weeks now, unbeknownst to anyone else. Which is where we start today!


It seems that Dr. Wes has brought Jesse out from wherever he's been hiding him, because he's laying on the table of the lab while Wes rambles into his recorder. "Preliminary report, subject 62547." As he pulls a blood bag from his fridge, he continues. "Subject has transformed from human to vampire in approximately fourteen days." What does that even mean? Is he saying that Jesse was turned two weeks ago? That he's been starved for that long? That he hasn't vamped out at the sight of blood in that long? Kind of clunky dialogue. Anyway, Wes starts a blood transfusion with the blood in the bag, which is a little difficult, considering Jesse is still bound. "Indicators predict a positive response to the first bag of undiluted Augustine blood." Jesse must have really been hungry, because he starts to wake up after the blood starts to flood his system, which gives him the strength to pull against the binds until he finally frees himself.

For whatever reason, Wes didn't seem to have expected this outcome, and immediately is like, "OH SHIT I'VE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE." He tries to stop the transfusion, but since Jesse is unrestrained now, he just immediately vamps-out, grabs the blood bag, and sinks his fangs into it. Wes quickly explains into his recorder, for posterity, I guess, that he's activating his emergency protocols, which is done by pressing a red button on the wall. Unfortunately for him, Jesse zoops across the room and plants himself between Wes and the button before he's able to press it. Jesse's eyes are NUTS, for real-- his eye veins go all the way down past his cheekbones, which makes him all the more terrifying as he glares at Wes, just before he chomps down on Wes' carotid artery and drinks deep. TITLE CARD!

Across campus, Bonnie, who has an adorable new haircut, is using her product placement cell phone to record a video message for her mom. "Hi, Mom. I know we haven't seen each other, or talked in a while...so, I wanted to make you a video update! I finally finished my whirlwind summer tour, got a new 'do, and, I'm in college at Whitmore, where Grams taught!" She flips to the other camera on her Windows Phone so she can show her mom around the room that she now shares with Caroline and Elena. She even jokes about how huge the room is, and the fact that it has a fireplace, which is a pretty cute wink to the viewers, who have all been talking about how ridiculously nice it is for a dorm room.

Elena and Caroline walk in with a bunch of bags and booze, and when they realize that Bonnie is making a video for her mom, they awkwardly try to hide the huge case of cheapo beer that they bought behind them. Bonnie explains in the video that the girls are throwing her a "Welcome Home From The Other Side From Your Vacation party," and in the background, Caroline holds up the case of beer and makes it looks like she's chugging the whole thing. Bonnie is a little overwhelmed by the goofiness, so she quickly adds that she misses her mom a lot before she bids her adieu with an adorable blown kiss. Now that she's off-camera, the girls have the perfect opportunity to poke fun at their newly-alive-ish friend.

"By the way, Mom, I'm not a witch anymore, because I died, and then came back from the Other Side..." Elena begins. "Yeah, I'm this supernatural anchor that connects the two worlds together, so..." Caroline adds. Bonnie admits that she may have left out a few key deets in her update to her mother, but swears that she'll tell her mom everything when she comes to visit them. Knowing Abby's excellent motherhood skills, I wouldn't be so sure of that even happening, but whatever. She asks how large the party is going to be, but Elena and Caroline remind her that they deserve to throw a huge party, since they're finally rid of Silas and Tessa for good, and Bonnie is finally back. They hope it will be a massive party, though they concede that they've only made one friend each.

"And given that mine went radio silent after he kissed me, " Caroline rambles. "And yours was last seen at a tea party for a vampire-hating secret society..." Bonnie identifies the society as being called Augustine, and exposits that they covered up their former roommates death and wanted Elena and Caroline to gtfo of campus. The girls give her a look, so Bonnie confesses that she's kept up with everyone while she was on the Other Side, since it's totally boring over there and watching their dramatic lives unfold was her only entertainment. Elena declares the fact that Augustine wants them gone to be a non-issue, because they're not going anywhere, and they're moving on with their dysfunctional lives as "functioning vampires" and a "former-witch-anchor-thingy." "With jello-shots!", Caroline pipes up. God, they are so adorable. I have so missed their girl time! Bonnie checks her phone and exclaims that she has to leave to go register for classes. Caro and Elena totally see through that flimsy lie, though, and are like, "Oookay, you do that." Bonnie turns to leave, but when she looks back at the girls, they're both miming that they're making out with people. ELENA, you realize that you're pretending to be Bonnie, who is making out with your BROTHER, right? Your relationship with Jeremy is already creepy enough without that visual, girl. Bonnie is horrified, so she runs out of there to get away from her weirdo roomies.

(via qilbert)
Speak of the devil--we meet up with Bonnie again in a courtyard on campus, where she is making out with Jeremy on a bench. After a few moments, Jer pulls away and teases her for telling the girls that she was registering for classes to cover for their little rendezvous. Bonnie assures him that she knows that they have Elena's blessing, but she still doesn't really want to rub it in her face on their first couple days of living together. Jeremy suggests that they go back to his place, as if it's not like 100 miles away from their current location. "You mean Damon's house? While we're at it, why don't we just have sex in his bathtub! Maybe Katherine could watch?" Hey, BonBon, having sex in Damon's bathtub is an opportunity many would kill for, myself included. Have you seen that tub? It's amazing! Also, be careful what you wish for where Katherine's concerned...

(via giftvd)
Jer just smiles and kisses her, and points out how hot her haircut is. It really is super amazing, I am loving that bob. She smiles at him cutely, but her smile dims considerably when she sees an older lady with gray hair staring at her from across the courtyard. He can tell she's unnerved, so he asks if she's okay. She just grabs her bag and lies that she has to go to class, but promises that she'll see him tonight. They kiss, and Bonnie picks up her bag and leaves, while the old lady watches her the entire time. Bonnie speeds up her pace, and walks to a more secluded area of campus in order to evade the woman, but she ends up turning a corner and bumping right into her. She looks at Bonnie and states, "I'm ready," as she grabs Bonnie's arm. Bonnie falls to her knees and cries out in pain as the woman disappears. Yeah, this is probably not going to end well, is it?

Elsewhere on campus, Elena is passing out flyers for their party as she talks to Damon on the phone. Long story short, she wants Damon to come to their party tonight, since the reason they're having it is to celebrate Bonnie's return to the land of the living, and since Damon played a huge role in bringing her back, she thinks it's appropriate. Before Damon has a chance to protest, Elena spots Damon tells him to hold on before she runs over to him. She kindly greets him, and hands him a flyer for the party. Thankfully for her, he doesn't bring up that whole thing with Katherine-as-Elena spitting her tooth out at the tea party, and instead just sneers at the lameness of dorm parties. In the background, we can hear Damon scoff, "Who's Aaron?" Elena calls Aaron out on his avoidance, and tells him she knows that he's trying to push people away, but Aaron is just confused at how she knows anything about him.

She realizes in horror that she compelled him to forget about that conversation, and quickly turns on the compulsion-eyes to fix it. "Forget I said that, forget that I know anything. We're starting over. You're coming to my party. There will be free beer, and it will be really good for you." Aaron's mind is a little woozy from all the erasing, and simply states that he'll see her then before stumbling away. When Elena returns to her phone, Damon snarks, "Well, that was an embarrassingly close call. Maybe I SHOULD be there, so you don't spill all of our secrets and make out with Moody Mystery-Guy." Elena assures him that Damon is the only moody mystery guy with whom she wants to mack, and then suddenly remembers to remind Damon to invite Stefan to the party, as well. Damon's Stefan insecurity spikes a little bit, but he covers for it well by quipping, "Either way, he'll never show. His memory is back, and he remembers he hates us." Elena urges him to try anyway, and adds that she bought bourbon so that Stefan can just get wasted while he hates on them. He promises to invite him before they hang up.

Damon walks into the parlor to pass on the message to his brother, who is sitting in a chair in front of the fireplace. "So, apparently, we've been invited to a college party?" Stefan doesn't turn around or acknowledge Damon's presence in any way, so Damon walks around to join Stefan as he continues. "Yeah, that was my first reaction, too. Then, Elena promised a bottomless well of top-shelf alcohol." It's not until then that Damon actually sees his brother, whose eyes are closed. He's pale and sweaty, and he's clutching the arms of the leather armchair where he's sitting as he flashbacks to when he was drowning in the safe. Damon looks at his little bro with concern, and finally manages to bring him out of his daymare when he asks, "Stefan? You...okay?" Stefan shakes himself out of his reverie and lies that he is, but Damon isn't fooled. "How about my favorite reading chair?" Stefan lifts his hands from the arms of the chair to reveal that he was gripping the leather so hard that he clawed all the way through to the stuffing. Stefan mutters to tell Elena he's not really feeling a party that evening, and gets up to leave. I saw a lot of people on Tumblr calling Damon out for caring about his chair more than his brother, but come on, guys. He knows his brother better than anyone, and knows that Stefan won't tell him what's going on with him until he's ready.

At the Mystic Grill, Matt is working the bar, where Katherine is drunk and begging for free drinks from him. "How about now, Matty Blue-Blue? I want another drink!" I am still dying at her calling him "Matty Blue-Blue," that is absolutely hilarious. Matt rejects her, and informs her that she's too drunk and scaring off all the other customers. Katherine points out that his constant rejections do nothing but make him hotter in her eyes. Matt isn't paying attention, though, because he's too busy watching that same video he took of himself while he was blacked out/possessed by Gregor. Katherine takes notice of this, and gets curious. "What are you watching, some Czech reality show?" Matt is taken aback at the fact that she knows Czech, so Kat takes advantage at this opportunity to get more booze in exchange for a favor. Matt sighs, and tells her that if she translates the video for him, she'll get drinks.

Katherine takes his phone from him and asks him what she's looking at, so he fills her in on the backstory: he went to Europe with Rebekah over the summer, and they ended up in Prague, where they had a sexy threesome with a Czech chick who followed him back and helped some guy put "some kind of spirit thing" in his head. In the video, we can hear Gregor-as-Matt says, "Some day, my friends will come looking for this blade. Protect it at all costs," which Katherine proclaims to be very bad. Matt asks her why, so she informs him that Kristof (who, according to the TVD wiki, was one of the Travelers that Damon killed at the warehouse in New Jersey where Amara was held) "activated" him. Matt obviously has no idea what that means so she breaks it down for him. "He's a Traveler. Travelers are a faction of witches, they're big on spirit possession. You've got one inside of you. It's kind of like a human parasite that's hitching a ride in your brain." He asks her how the fuck to get it out of his head, so Katherine gets to the part she was dreading, and asks about the girl who followed him back. "Was she, um, I don't know, feisty? Little accent? Ridiculously beautiful?" Matt smiles awkwardly and admits that she was, and asks Kat if she knows her, and she admits that she does.

Elena returns to their dorm room, where Caroline is setting up for their parties. She informs Caro that she passed out all of their flyers, and adds that Damon promised to try to convince Stefan to join them that evening. Caroline, true to form, snits, "Funny, that sentiment implies that Damon is actually coming." Elena kindly ignores that remark and picks up Caroline's ringing cell phone, and suggests a phone call from her long-absent biology TA buddy will cheer her up a little. Caroline smiles as she answers the call. "Well, look who rose from the dead." Ouch, poor choice of words, Carebear. Jesse gets straight to the point and frantically tell her that he needs her help. Caroline gets serious and asks him what happened to him, but Jesse doesn't have time for details. He pleads for her to come to his room and help him, because his roommate will be home soon. Caroline doesn't ask any more questions, she just simply dashes out the door without a word about where she's going.

Jesse is pacing around anxiously in his room when he hears someone unlocking the door with a key. Jesse starts to panic, and it's revealed that AARON is his roommate when he enters and calls out for Jesse. He wanders around their dorm room for a bit until Jesse zoops behind him and apologizes for what he's about to do. He sinks his fangs into Aaron's neck and feeds like crazy until Caroline walks in and sees what is happening. She speeds over to push Jesse off of Aaron, and when she sees the bloody wound on Aaron's neck, and the blood covering Jesse's mouth, she realizes that Jesse has joined them as a member of the undead. "Who the hell turned you into a vampire?" I love that she wasn't even really pissed at him for attacking Aaron, she's just pissed that someone turned him without her knowledge (and probably because she knows that he was turned as a result of the fact that he died after Caroline had to heal him with her blood).

 After the break, we return to Jesse's dorm room/apartment to find him recounting the horrors of being a lab rat to Caroline as they sit on a couch. "It was torture. I was in a cell all day, and at night, he would take me out and do experiments on me." Caroline asks for details on the experiments, but he couldn't really tell what Wes was trying to do. "I don't know, he would starve me, and then inject me with some weird blood. What am I supposed to tell my parents? They left me all these messages, they're wondering where the hell I am!" Caroline soothes him by assuring him that they'll give his parents a call and say that he lost his phone. When she asks where Wes is now, Jesse admits that he locked him in his lab, though the actual attack was kind of a blur. Caroline shrugs this off, and says that he's new and hungry, so he shouldn't beat himself up about it. I agree, Caroline! Plus, if you're a human who is purposely starving a vampire, you're kind of asking to get eaten.

Elena pops in the room with a cooler full of blood bags and chirps, "Not for long! I brought our stash." She asks how he's doing, but Jesse is more interested in the fact that Elena is a vampire, too. She smiles the sweetest smile, and says, "You say it like it's a bad thing! First rule of being a vampire is realizing how AWESOME you are!" Aw, Elena! This is a big change for her, don't you think? This is coming from the girl who literally like, could not keep blood down at first, and who moped through the first few months of being a vampire. Damon has been a great influence on her in this regard. She opens the cooler and tosses him a blood bag, and he gives her and Caroline a little grin before digging into his midday snack.

As Jesse eats, Elena asks after Aaron, who is laying passed on the couch. Caroline assures her that he's alive, which is a good thing, so Elena walks over to him and gets ready to bite her wrist to heal him. Caroline has a better idea, and stops her. "Elena, wait. I was thinking that Jesse could do it?" She turns to Jesse and continues. "You're a vampire now. You may have hurt him, but you can also heal him, with your blood." She gently picks up Jesse's hand and seductively bites into his wrist. Then, she walks him over to the couch and puts his wrist to Aaron's mouth. Aaron starts to perk up after a gulp or two, and grabs his wrist to suckle more. That part really stuck out to me, for some reason, so I'm putting a pin in it in case his penchant for vamp blood comes up later. Jesse watches in amazement as Aaron's neck wounds magically heal themselves, and he gasps. "Holy crap, that is insane." Caroline grins at him, and then turns to Elena. "You want to teach him about compulsion?" Aw, it's like when Elena was a baby vamp! God, I love this show.

Meanwhile, Stefan is sitting alone at a table at the Grill. A waitress comes to take his empty glass, but Katherine gives her a look that sends her away. It seems she's stolen a bottle of bourbon from the bar, and waggles it in front of Stefan. "Hey, stranger! Lookie what I stole!" Stefan isn't in the mood for company, so he tells her to have fun with that and gets up to leave. Katherine calls after him. "Hey, come on, please? Just have one drink with me? Please, Stefan, I've had a bad...year, really, and it would be nice to have a friendly face." Stefan sighs and agrees that he will have only one "pity drink" with her, and that's it, which makes Katherine super happy. She starts to pour them some shots as she drunk babbles. "See? The universe at work. I don't know if you know this, but our doppelgänger stars are fated to be together. So, like it or not, you're going to end up with someone who looks like me. [beat] Also, the universe seems to have all of its eggs in the Elena-basket, but at this point, I don't really blame it." She takes another shot, and Stefan is a little weirded out, so he asks her what's wrong with her.

She lists the various ailments she's dealing with (joint pain, receding gums, and having to pee constantly, among other things) but doesn't get into details as to WHY she's experiencing them. Before he can ask what the hell that's supposed to mean, she changes the subject and asks him why he's sitting all alone. He points out the obvious, which is that he didn't want to have to talk to anyone, but Katherine knows better, and gives him an excuse to open up to her. "Well, if you did want to talk to someone, I'm right here. And, uhh, let's be honest, I'm wasted, so I'm not going to remember." Stefan sighs yet again, and admits that he deluded himself into thinking that killing Silas would help him make peace with the torture he endured over the summer, but he didn't. Now, he has moments of feeling fine in-between horrifying flashbacks of drowning and dying. Katherine informs him that what he's describing is textbook post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD), considering he just survived a very traumatic several months. Now that he's out of the safe and back in the real world, he has a shitload of time to think about what happened. She offers to help give his life purpose (which, if you didn't know, is one of the two major goals of treatment of PTSD) by him helping her with a little favor.

Stefan balks at this, and mutters that he should have known that Katherine had an ulterior motive, which actually offends her a little, and for a pretty good reason. "I'm just trying to help. What would I know about post-traumatic stress? I only had my newborn ripped from my arms by my judgmental father. Then, I had to run five hundred years after my entire family had been slaughtered by a psychopath. But hey! That didn't leave any lingering side-effects." I really liked this dialogue, because I really do think it's easy for us to only see the bad things Katherine has done, and forget all the horrifying things she's lived through in the past five centuries. Obviously, it doesn't excuse what she's done, but it does give us a lot of insight into her motives. ANYWAY, Katherine is a little upset now, so she gets up to leave, but Stefan grabs her arm to pull her back. "Okay, okay. Alright. What do you need?" Nadia walks over to their table out of nowhere, and asks, "I thought you never wanted to see me again? Why did you call me?" Katherine sighs and turns to Stefan as she gestures her arm toward Nadia. "Stefan, I'd like you to meet Nadia Petrova...my daughter." OMG! She admitted it to someone! That is major.

Bonnie's Welcome-Home party is well underway, and the room where they're holding it is surprisingly packed with people. Common room, maybe? Whitmore has a wayyyyy more lax policy regarding underage alcohol-consumption than my college, holy shit. Bonnie and Jesse are chatting, and Bonnie has just explained that her mom is also a vampire. She's distracted, though, and is looking around as she absentmindedly assures him that he'll adjust just fine. Jeese notices her indifference and snarks, "Your eyes keep scanning the room. You afraid I'm going to go postal on the fourth-floor freshman?" Tbh, it's probably not the BEST idea to have a two-week-old newbie vampire surrounded by tasty humans, but judging from what we learn here in a bit, that might not matter so much. Bonnie smiles apologetically and admits, "No, I'm sorry, I'm just looking for my....I'm not sure what he is, actually." Jesse helpfully fills in the blanks for her. "Boyfriend? Friend with benefits?" Bonnie: "He's my best friend's little brother. He's still in high school, and I...I think I'm madly in love with him?" Aw, BonBon!

Elena approaches Caroline, who is artfully arranging jello shots on a table, and asks her if she's keeping an eye on Jesse. "Yep! I've been teaching him the art of sublimating vampire hunger via grain alcohol!" Ain't that the truth, all of them have blood alcohol contents that are through the roof! They literally drink 24 hours a day. Elena informs her that she sent Damon to question Wes about what he's been doing to Jesse, and presumably, other vampires. Caroline isn't at all pleased to hear this news. "You realize that Damon's going to kill Wes, right?" Elena swears that won't be the case, because Damon knows he needs to get information from him, but Caroline can't believe that. "You realize you're wrong, right?" Elena tells her that she knows that Caroline is not Damon's biggest fan, but Caroline claims that isn't the problem. "No, no, it's fine. I'm fine with you two being together, as long as you can acknowledge the kind of person you're with." Caroline walks away, leaving Elena at the table, alone. Okay, you guys, I have SO MUCH to say about the Elena/Caroline dynamic, but I'm going to save it for the end, alright? Just a heads up, I don't blame Elena OR Caroline for feeling the way they do, and I'm not hating on either one, so if that's not something you're interested in reading, you can skip it. :)

Over at the MaxLab, Damon has tied Wes up to a chair, and is now rifling through the medical fridge. Wes asks him what he wants, and Damon quips, "What I WANT is to be drinking copious quantities of booze and making out with my girlfriend, but, unfortunately, I can't do that until I get a bunch of answers out of you." He stops when he sees a tray full of vials, and Wes scolds him to be careful with them. Damon lifts the tray out of the fridge and holds it up so he can see it. "These? These, right here? What? I mean, we're on a college campus, right? Full of students? I mean, I can't imagine an M.D. with a bunch of infectious diseases just lying around." Wes humble-brags that he's an M.D Ph.D, which means that he's a researcher.

This seems to make all of this stuff make sense for Damon, for reasons we'll learn in a bit. He tells Wes that he's known many scientists like him, who prefer science in general to medicine, and guesses that the vials he pulled out are used on his little "vampire lab rats." When Wes refuses to talk, Damon decides on a new plan, and starts drawing up liquid from one of the vials into a syringe. "We're going to play a little game, where I inject you with whatever the hell "necrotizing fasciitis" is--" Wes interrupts him to inform him that it's a flesh-eating bacteria. "Gross! So, I'm going to do that, and I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions, and if you answer me correctly, I'm going to give you some of my delicious vampire blood, and we'll heal you on up. If you DON'T answer me correctly, we're just gonna have to see how much flesh these little guys can eat." Damon injects Wes in the arm with the syringe, and he groans in pain. Two questions: 1) did Wes heal himself with some vampire blood in the fridge? He doesn't seem to have a neck wound anymore, but I would figure him to be a Bill Forbes-kind of guy who would be against using vampire blood to heal. 2) Can vampire blood cure everything? I thought it only healed injuries, I had no idea it could cure disgusting bacterial/viral infections like necrotizing fasciitis and rabies. Interesting!

(via sassy-damon)
Katherine, Stefan and Nadia are hanging out in the back room of the storage room at the Grill. Stefan stands and gawks at the two Petrova ladies. "So, just out of morbid curiosity, which one of you is younger?" As expected, both girls state, "I am!" simultaneously. Matt walks in with Gregor's blade in hand, and hands it over to Katherine. He explains that that's the knife the Traveler left behind with him, and asks what they're all doing back here. Kat encourages him to take a seat, which he does, and Stefan stands behind Matt's chair. Nadia proclaims this entire situation to be ridiculous, but still walks over to Matt and puts a hand to his face as she mutters, "Vyjde." ["Come forth" in Czech] Matt blinks, and his eyes turn black. When he blinks again, his eyes are back to normal. Stefan asks what the fuck just happened, so Kat explains that Nadia is calling on Matt's passenger.

Gregor-in-Matt begins talking furiously to Nadia in Czech. If I got this wrong, I welcome any Czech-speaking readers to correct me! Gregor: "Co tady dělám?" ["What am I doing here?"] Nadia: "To v pořádku, zlatíčko." ["It's okay, sweetheart."] Gregor/Matt tries to stand up and get in Nadia's face, but Stefan forces him to sit back down, again. Ah, so basically Stefan's only role in this mess is the muscle? Katherine stands in front of Gregor/Matt and sweetly says, "Hello, Gregor. I'm Nadia's mother. It's a pleasure to finally meet you!" Gregor asks her what she wants, so Katherine explains herself a bit. "Here's the thing. Nadia is my only child, so, naturally, I'm suspicious of anyone who wants to date her. Why don't you tell us the real reason you're in Mystic Falls?" Gregor maintains that he only came to kill Silas, so Kat pulls out the knife, and quips, "Hmmm, so, it has absolutely nothing to do with this?"

He asks her where she found it, but Stefan has a short attention span, so he decides to hurry things up a bit. He takes the knife from Kat and snits, "I would much rather be getting drunk right now, so why don't you stop wasting our time, and tell us what you're doing here?" He holds the blade against Gregor/Matt's neck, so Gregor finally relents. He confesses that after Silas was killed, he was supposed to kill Katherine, which seems to not shock her a bit. Nadia is horrified that Gregor used her to get to Katherine, and asks him why he would kill her. "That's what the Travelers want. I don't question my orders." Katherine is not at all impressed with this guy, and spits, "See why I don't want you dating my daughter? Because Travelers are ruthless, manipulative, hypocrites." She turns to Nadia, and admits, "I know, because your grandfather was one." OMG! I also have a TON to say about this, so stay tuned, kiddos. Katherine takes the knife and stabs Gregor/Matt in the gut with it. Stefan is shocked, and asks her WTF she just did. "Give it a rest, Matt will be fine. Gregor, on the other hand, not so much. There's a reason why he wanted this knife so badly. It's the only thing that will truly kill a passenger." OH SHIT. Nadia, on the other hand, is not so pleased with her mother's actions.

Back at Maxlab, Damon is giving Wes shit for turning his TA into a vampire just to have another vampire on whom to experiment. Wes, who is looking pretty sweaty and pale, maintains that human subjects are pretty crucial to medical research, but Damon totally calls him out on it. "Don't people usually VOLUNTEER, or sign waivers to maybe get some dough for tuition?" Word, bb. Wes pulls that "Sometimes, you do what's necessary for the greater good"-bullshit, but Damon ain't buying it. He proclaims him to be spouting some "Mengele-level crap" and asks him what Wes' particular greater good happens to be. Wes just side-eyes him, so Damon pulls out another vial and starts to draw up another syringe full of it. "Rabies. Sounds fun, doesn't it? And appropriate, given the circumstances." Damon is almost gleeful when he stabs Wes in the arm with the syringe.

Bonnie is mingling with the people at her party when she notices that the elderly woman from earlier has come back yet again. Bonnie excuses herself and goes over to talk to the woman, and it's like they both go into their own little section of the Other Side to talk--the music fades, and the room goes dark, it's pretty neat. Can we learn the science behind the Other Side, already? The woman asks, "Am I on the famous Other Side?" Bonnie confirms that she is, and asks her how she got here in the most delicate way she can muster. The lady is like, "Duh, I died," but Bonnie means what supernatural being she is. The woman reveals that she was a witch, and asks Bonnie what she is, so she explains the whole "anchor between worlds thing." The woman sympathizes with her, because she doesn't imagine it's a very fun job, what with the constantly feeling death and whatnot. Bonnie accidentally blurts out, "It's better than being dead," before she realizes what a rude and thoughtless thing that was to say to the recently deceased. Oops!

The lady takes it in stride, though, and admits that while her death was NOT fun (which she acknowledges that Bonnie must know, having felt it herself), she isn't in pain anymore, so it's all good, especially since she gets to visit with a friendly face. Okay, I was always under the impression that supernaturals on the Other Side are pretty much all alone except for the witches, who can visit each other and whoever else they choose. Am I remembering this correctly? Because if that's the case, then she should have plenty of deceased witch friends to catch up with, once she finds them. Anyway, Bonnie takes the lady's hand to smile and laugh with the sweet old lady-witch, until Jeremy shows up and pulls her out of her little world. He apologizes for startling her, and holds up a couple jello shots in his hands. "Sorry, pretty much had to wrestle Elena to get her to give me these." He senses Bonnie's distance, and asks her if she's okay. Bonnie, having experienced one of the perks of being the anchor, which is that she gets to be a friend/psychologist to the recently deceased, believes that she is totally fine. Jeremy declares this to be excellent, because he wants her to come with him so they can ~register for classes~, if you know what I mean.

Elsewhere at the party, Caroline and Jesse are dancing closely, and Caroline strokes his hand with hers. He tells her that it feels amazing, which pleases her. "That's one of the other fun side effects. Everything is heightened." Man, if I had a dollar for every time they've used the word "heightened" in this show, I could probably pay back all my student loans. Jesse asks her if the feeling ever goes away, and Caroline grins as she informs him that it doesn't, and they pull each other closer.

Here's another one of those complicated scenes that are a pain to recap, because it cuts back and forth. Damon throws away the syringe he used on Wes and complains that rabies didn't work, and decides they need to find something with a faster incubation period. As he rifles through the vials, Wes finally admits that he has been trying to create a new kind of vampire. Damon's like, "Well, that's awfully ambitious of you," but Wes replies that he's really smart. Man, guy's got a bit of an ego, don't you think? Damon holds up a vial of ebola, which makes Wes flinch in horror, and asks him why he's making a new vampire. Wes: "Your kind is dangerous to humans. You're dangerous because we're your food source. I want to change that." OH SHIT I KNEW IT HE WANTS TO TURN JESSE/ALL VAMPIRES INTO MIKAEL OMG.

Jesse and Caroline are still dancing, and he's about to kiss her, but he chickens out and pulls back at the last minute. Caroline asks him what's wrong, so he reminds her that the last time they kissed, she acted weird and awkward afterwards, but that was before Tyler turned into an epic nightmare of a boyfriend, so she dives forward and goes for it.

Maxlab. Wes continues to explain that if vampires didn't need to feed on humans, then vampires would no longer be dangerous to humans. Damon gets a little violent with a table and states that he doesn't buy his whole "good doctor" routine. Wes is on a roll, now. "Human blood will only satiate Jesse temporarily, until he gets a taste of what he really craves." Damon is EXTREMELY concerned at this point, so he asks what Jesse will really crave.

Jesse and Caroline are still making out, but as he places kisses down her neck, his eyes start to vamp-out. He continues to kiss her, and eventually bites her lip, which weirds Caroline out. She pulls away and touches her lips to find that she's bleeding, so she's like, "Uh, what the hell?" Jesse is having trouble controlling himself, so he turns away, and man, he looks scarier than the other vampires, due to those super intense eye-veins of his. Caroline asks him if he's okay, but he just stammers that he needs to get out of there, and flees before Caroline can stop him.

Later at the party, Elena is passing out jello shots when Aaron finally shows up. He actually smiles when he sees her, and walks over to her. Is that the compulsion making him less shy and broody, or what? I'm still not really into his character, yet. He admits that this isn't the LAMEST party he's ever been to, and she replies that she's happy that he made it. He tells her that he almost didn't, because he only just woke up after almost being exsanguinated to death by his roommate "accidentally falling asleep." LOL. Oops! She hands him a jello shot and assures him that will make him feel better, because alcohol should always be the first thing to do when you've just suffered major blood loss. He figures that Wes told him to stay away from her because she was a bad influence, and after they down their shots, he calls her "trouble."

The two sit down, and Elena asks him how he knows Wes, so Aaron informs her that Wes is his legal guardian. I think Elena gets some Alaric pangs about Wes, and Aaron's relationship to Wes, which is why she becomes so protective of Wes later, despite his evilness. Gah, Alaric! I miss him so much it hurts sometimes/all the time. When Elena realizes that Aaron is an orphan, like her, she admits that both her birth parents and adopted parents are dead, too (plus the aunt who became her legal guardian, and her aunt's bf/her history teacher, who became her NEXT legal guardian, etc). Aaron asks for details, so she explains how the three of them got in a car accident. She lived, but they didn't as we already know. In turn, Aaron reveals that his parents were killed by, you guessed it, an animal attack in the woods while they were camping when he was six years old. After that, he did the distant-relative-shuffle for a while until Wes took him in. Aw, shit, I bet you his parents were in Augustine! Elena begs off to get more jello shots so she can call Damon and make sure he doesn't kill Wes. Meanwhile, Caroline is still looking for Jesse.

Stefan takes another shot up at the bar, but immediately afterward, he begins to get major drowning/dying flashbacks. He starts to get dizzy and clutches his shot glass in his hand as he closes his eyes. That doesn't help, because now he's really in the throes of his flashback, and when he opens his eyes, he realizes that he accidentally shattered the glass in his hand, and quickly dumps the bloody glass shards on the bar. Ew, dude! Unhygienic! He runs outside through the back door to get some fresh air, and bends over as he tries to catch his breath, which is when Katherine finds him. He yells at her to go away and turns away from her, but she ignores his order. "Stefan, you're okay. Relax!" Stefan grabs her in a choke hold and bellows that he can't, so Katherine is once again forced to think fast. "You have two options, Stefan. You either deal with this now, or you run, but either way, it's gonna catch up with you." And SERIOUSLY, no one knows this fact better than Katerina Petrova.

He tightens his grip in frustration, so Katherine is like, "Uh, I can't breathe, dude." When that doesn't work, she demands that he tells her the first person he ever killed. Stefan is super confused, but Katherine continues to push him, so he starts to list them off. Giuseppe Salvatore, Thomas Fell. He relaxes his grip a little bit, and Katherine praises him. "See? You're in control, on solid ground. You're not drowning. You're not dying. [beat] Name them." Stefan continues to name the numerous town founders that he murdered in his newbie days. Honoria Fell, Marianna Lockwood, Christopher Gilbert, Margaret Forbes.

LOL, he literally murdered like, all of his friends' ancestors, jfc. It's amazing that he left enough so that Elena, Jeremy, Tyler and Caroline were able to be born in the first place! Anyway, Stefan lets her go, and she smiles as she smugs that she really does know what she's doing. Still, he thanks her, and she nods at him in acknowledgment just as Nadia stomps out and ruins their tender moment. She informs them that Kat was right, and Gregor is really and truly dead. Katherine tells her, "You deserve better, Nadia," and my heart melts a little, because I really do think she means it, but Nadia doesn't agree with me. "Rot in hell," Nadia spits, right before she storms off, leaving Katherine in the alley, feeling like a supreme asshole.

Damon has stepped away from the sweaty and strung-out looking Wes so he can inform Elena about what's he's learned via cell. Elena is pretty shocked to hear that Jesse has been basically programmed to feed on vampires, even though, like I said earlier, Mikael already showed us that it was possible. "That's what Doogie said," Damon explains. "And apparently, once he starts, he can't stop." Elena is hoping the fact that Damon was told this information means that Wes is still alive, and Damon confirms that he is. For the time being, at least. Elena is relieved at this news, and begs Damon not to kill him, since Wes is Aaron's Alaric and she doesn't want him to lose any more people. After some coaxing, Damon finally agrees that he won't kill Wes, and they hang up.

He turns back to Wes and admits, "Problem is, I know people like you a lot better than you realize. If I let you live, you're just gonna do it again. You're gonna turn another vampire, you're gonna do another experiment. The only way to really handle you is just to snuff you out." Damon pauses just long enough for you to get nervous that he's going to renege on his promise to Elena, but then snits, "You're lucky I don't feel like burying a body." He grabs a scalpel and slices his wrist with it, and is just about to feed Wes some delicious vamp blood to heal his rabid necrotizing fasciitis when Jesse appears out of nowhere. He demands to know what Wes did to him, and Damon, knowing what he does about Jesse's diet preferences, urges him to calm down.

"Wasn't bad enough that you locked me up and poked me full of needles? Now I want to feed on the girl I like?" Wes corrects him, and informs him that he feeds on MONSTERS, not innocent people. That seems to remind Jesse of the fact that Damon has recently opened a vein to give to Wes, and he starts to vamp-out from hunger. Damon manages to throttle him against a wall, and sneers, "In case Professor Forbes forgot to tell you in your training, sweetie, I'm a lot older than you, and that means I'm a lot stronger than you." Wes is like, "Um, about that..." just as Jesse tackles Damon and they fall through the glass door of the lab. They both quickly rise to their feet, but Jesse quickly gains the upper hand and pins Damon against the wall. Damon seems to be equal parts impressed and terrified that this kid who has barely been a vampire for a fortnight is stronger than his ~170 year old self. "What the HELL did they do to you?" Jesse's vamp-face gets even more scary and veiny than it was previously, and he proceeds to chow down on Damon's neck.

Damon's still struggling to get away when Elena magically appears out of nowhere and finds him. She yells at Jesse to stop, but he's in a feeding frenzy that rivals one of Stefan's Ripper-binges, so he's definitely not going to stop for just anything. Damon gasps, "He's gonna tear my head off, Elena! Please!" She spots a broken 2x4 from when the door broke, and she jams it into his back. Of course, that's when Caroline decides to magically show up as well, and is able to catch the entire thing. She shouts "No!" and runs over to Jesse, who has fallen to the floor.

She pleads with Jesse to hang on, but he's already starting to turn that gray, mottled color that is characteristic of recently-staked vampires. She looks up at Elena and angrily asks her what the FUCK she just did, but Elena insists that he was about to kill Damon, which seems to be pretty accurate. He might not be able to die from exsanguination, but he can die if Jesse fed so hard that Damon's head popped off, right? Caroline reminds her that they promised to help him, but Damon is, of course, on Elena's side. "She didn't have a choice, alright? Once he had the taste of vampire blood, there was nothing stopping him. Go ask Dr. Frankenstein." Damon, probably trying to get out of this tense situation, tells the girls that he'll deal with Wes, and leaves them to figure out what to do with Jesse. You can tell Elena is remorseful for what happened, but when she tells Caroline she's sorry, she's too upset to take it. "Yeah, me, too, because the Elena that I used to know would have given Jesse a chance." Ouch.

Stefan has just finished his last drink at the Grill, and leaves some cash on the bar to cover his tab. He's about to head outside when he sees a note scribbled on the back of a receipt that is tucked into one of those black leather folder-thingies that waitresses use to deliver the check. Maybe he notices who it's addressed to, or maybe he recognizes the handwriting. Either way, he pulls the note out and begins to read it. As Katherine's voice narrates the letter, we cut over to where she's standing, which is on top of the Mystic Falls clock tower.

"Dear Nadia,Sorry I had to kill your boyfriend, but it was the motherly thing to do. Suicide, however, not very motherly of me. I ran from my enemies for 500 years. And then, one day, I stopped. Now, a new enemy wants me dead. Sure, I could run from the Travelers, but there's still one enemy I can never escape--time."

Katherine thrusts a foot out over the ledge and tries to muster up the nerve to jump, but she gets too scared and pulls back with a sigh.

"So, call it pride, or vanity, but after the life that I've led, I refuse to drift off into the sunset.
Goodbye, Nadia."

After considering it for a long moment, Katherine steels herself and turns to face the clock so she can't see just how far she's about to fall. She backs away from the edge and closes her eyes as she lets herself free fall all the way down. She can tell she's almost to the end, so she squeezes her eyes shut in anticipation of a shock that never comes, because instead of hitting the concrete, she falls into Stefan's well-muscled arms. She opens her eyes in confusion, almost like she can't believe she managed to escape death AGAIN, and then stares at Stefan, who kind-of-rudely asks, "What are you doing?" Katherine stands up to her feet and quips, "I told you, you either face your problems, or your run. I chose option 3." Stefan has a hard time believing that Katherine Pierce: Survivor has a problem that would make her want to jump off a clock tower, so she's forced to be straight with him.

 









(via pethrovafire)
"I'm dying, Stefan. I'm dying of old age. I don't know, the cure did something to speed up the entire mortifying process." Stefan kindly puts a hand to her cheek, just like he did in 1864, and you think he's about to say something totally sweet, right? Instead, he just deadpans, "Hey. You're Katherine Pierce! Suck it up." He turns and takes his leave, while Katherine just watches him go as she gapes at him. Hey, Steffo--your former lover-slash-sort-of friend just tried to commit suicide not 30 seconds ago, couldn't you at least stay with her long enough to make sure she's okay/not about to just go and try it again? Come on, now.

Apparently Jeremy managed to snag a hotel room or something, because he and Bonnie are completely alone. Bonnie is alone in their room as she tries and fails to light a lighter. When he enters the room, she snarks, "I admit it, I miss magic." He orders her to step away from the candles, so she turns to kiss him. He grabs her around the waist before lifting up  her legs and wrapping them around his own waist. After a moment, he sits her on the bed, where she takes his shirt off. Everyone in the audience thanks her for it, because DAMN, Jeremy! UNF. After she stands up and pushes him on the bed so she can undress and straddle him, they start making out for a while, until she notices something out of the corner of her eye.

That thing is actually JESSE, who is just standing there watching Bonnie getting it on with her revenant-hunter bf. Do all dead supernaturals just automatically know to go to Bonnie and what to do before they cross over, or something? Weird. Bonnie gapes at Jesse, and whispers, "Oh, my god, I think Jesse's dead." Jeremy turns to follow her eyeline, but he can't see him, since he has no connection to the guy. Plus, I'm pretty sure he's not technically on the Other Side yet, anyway. So, he's naturally confused as to what Bonnie's talking about. She walks over to Jesse and gives him a very sympathetic look as he cries, "I'm not ready. I don't want this." Still, he grabs her arm, so she automatically doubles over in pain and starts screaming.

Jeremy goes from confused to SUPER concerned and freaked out, and runs over to her. Maybe it's because Jesse's death wasn't super painful, or maybe it's because she's getting used to it, but she seems to get over the pain pretty quickly. Hell, it could just be because she's ready to FINALLY hop on that hunter dick, I know I would be plenty motivated if I were in her position. He asks her what's going on, so she finally confesses that every supe who dies has to pass through her to get to the Other Side. Jeremy asks her how often this happens, and then wonders why she didn't tell him, but she doesn't want to make a big deal about it.  

"I'm back, here, touching you. We knew there would be consequences!" After a beat, she tells him to kiss her. He laughs in frustration, like, "Really? Right now?", but Bonnie is serious. "You and me, this? This is worth it. Any consequence is worth this." GOD I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO. Bonnie lies back on the bed and gives him some bedroom eyes, so finally he's like, "Well, if you INSIST," and crawls on top of her so they can finally do it, after like three years of pining over each other. It's seriously about time Bonnie got a sex scene, jfc! Anyway, it's super hot, see for yourself!

 

(via vaultofheavens)

Elena is cleaning up the party mess in whatever room they held it in (I don't think it was their dorm room, have any eagle-eyed readers figured it out?) when Caroline comes in to apologize for her little outburst earlier. She admits that she knows she crossed a line, but she's just upset because Jesse actually treated her well, unlike Tyler did the last season or so. Elena maintains that she would never have killed him if there was anything else she could do, and when Caroline looks at her skeptically, Elena tells her that she needs her to believe her when she says that. "I believe you, okay? I believe you want to celebrate the fact that we can go to school and function like regular freshman. I get that. I want that, too, but Elena, when are you gonna figure out that the outside world is not nearly as dangerous as the person you're inviting into your own bedroom?" 

I've said this before, and I'll say it again--I don't blame Caroline for disliking Damon, I really don't. Not one bit. But, I have to admit that I don't really understand where she's coming from in that last line. Like, I don't think she's talking about Jesse anymore, but I don't understand what that has to do with anything. I'll come back to this in a minute. Elena is a little hurt upon hearing that statement, but tries to cover it up with humor. "Wow! Why don't you tell me how you really feel?" Caroline just looks at her bestie sadly and states, "The day that I stop telling you, is the day that we're no longer best friends. And, I hope that day never comes." On that note, she leaves Elena to deal with the sticky jello shot cups and spilled beer.

Damon is still at the MaxLab, searching through the various vials and not using his vampire senses to their highest potential, because somehow Wes got his hands on a scalpel and is using it to cut through the stupid rubber tourniquets that Damon stupidly used to tie Wes to the gurney. To cover for his escape plan, Wes whines, "If you're gonna do this, I'd much rather prefer a bullet through the brain." Damon informs him that the plan is actually just waiting until the vervain is out of his system again so he can compel him to forget as he moves on to digging around in the fridge. He spots a blood bag, and his eyebrows furrow in anger/confusion/frustration. "What the hell's that? Why does this say 12144?" Wes doesn't get why he cares, so Damon shocks us all by growling, "Because I was 21051." Professor Creepy 2.0 seems to recall the number, and is shocked to learn that Damon was an Augustine vampire. OH SHIIIIIT OH SHIIIIIIT SHITTY SHIT.

Damon gets some short flashbacks in rapid succession--what we can see is that he was strapped down onto a gurney, one of his eyeballs bleeding as a doctor with bloody latex gloves hovers over him. "Augustine. I haven't heard that name in decades." He starts to get angrier and more murderous, the more he remembers. "Vampire lab rats, coded subject names. I thought you were shut down sixty years ago." Wes assures him that he was misinformed, so Damon totally reconsiders his whole "no murdering Dr. Wes" promise that he made to Elena. He stupidly starts filling up another syringe with something else instead of ripping his heart out or breaking his neck or any of his usual tricks. Wes reveals himself to be cut loose and runs for the red emergency button on the wall. Damon zoops over to him, but it's too late--Wes has hit the button, which releases a gas into the air that makes Damon fall to the floor like a rock as he coughs and groans. "Atomized vervain. When working with vampires, you can never be too careful. I'm sure Augustine will be thrilled to have you back!" 

When Damon wakes up, he's leaning against a wall in a cell, where he begins to have more horrifying flashbacks that involve a doctor opening him up like a surgical patient and messing around with his internal organs. OUCH! I think I'm going to throw up. He looks around and becomes horrified when he realizes where he is. Next to the door of the cell, "DS '53" is carved into the wood. HOLY. SHIT. THIS IS TOO INTENSE FOR ME, MY FRIENDS.

Next week: Elena realizes Damon is Wes' new lab rat and recruits Aaron and possibly Stefan to help her bust him out.

[screencaps from KissThemGoodbye]

Click HERE to move onto my next recap of The Vampire Diaries!

NOTES/SPECULATION:
-Okay, first off--remember last week when I was all, "I AM SO SICK OF THESE CHARACTERS GLORIFYING SUICIDE AGAIN." I mean, at least Katherine didn't actually kill herself, and at least Stefan actually talked her out of it, but still! Come on, show, you are better than this.

-Also, if Katherine's father was a Traveler, shouldn't she be magical, too? How do witch genetics work? Are not all Travelers witches? This may just be me holding out hope that Katherine will figure out some magical means to stay alive a little longer. While we're talking about Katherine, I want to say that I really like the reveal that Papa Petrova was a Traveler. That would explain how Nadia was connected to them in the first place--she could have been adopted into a fellow Traveler family or something. Although, I can't imagine why they would be cool with her being turned into a vampire. That brings me to my next point: why would the Travelers want Katherine killed? She's not a vampire anymore, so it couldn't be their hatred of immortality. Could it be that they were pissed that she took the cure instead of Silas? It doesn't seem to make much sense, since he still ended up taking it and dying in the first place. The only other reason I could think of as a possibility is that they blamed Katherine for getting her father/family killed, or maybe they just want to get rid of all the doppelgängers? They wanted Silas/Amara dead, so maybe they were after Kat for the same reason? But, if THAT'S the case, why not go after Stefan and Elena too? Gah, this makes no sense to me. Anyone else have any ideas?

-ALRIGHT, let's talk about Caroline and Elena. As I said before, I love Elena, and I love Caroline. They're two of my favorite characters and it makes my heart hurt when they fight. That said, I don't really blame either of them for acting the way they did. We all know that there isn't one character in this show who isn't willing to kill for the people they care about. Caroline killed those police deputies to save Damon and Stefan, and like twelve witches to save Bonnie. Elena killed Connor to save Jeremy/Damon/Stefan, and that's not even going into the huge amount of people who have been killed by the Salvatores to save Elena or her loved ones. So, do I blame Elena for killing Jesse when she thought Damon was in danger? Not really. I don't hold this show to the same rules as real life, because this is pretty fucking far from real life, you know? Plus, unless they could deprogram him, or get some vampire blood donations going, there was no way that they were going to be able to be safe around him.

On the other hand, Jesse was a friend of Caroline's who made her feel happy and nice after dealing with the shittiness of her breakup with Tyler, and she promised that she would help him transition, so of course she's going to be upset. And, when people are upset, they say and do things they don't mean. Not to mention the fact that she at the very least dislikes Damon, if not outright hates him, so the fact that her friend died to save someone she likely doesn't believe is worth the cost is not going to be well received by her. And, again, I don't think Caroline is wrong to dislike Damon, based on what happened to her at his hands in season 1. That is a completely legitimate reason not to hate him. She tolerates him the bare-minimum amount because she loves Elena, and that's it, plus I don't think she's really seen firsthand the relationship between Elena and Damon. It seems pretty obvious this season that for the most part, their relationship has made them both better people/characters, but if she hasn't seen that interaction, then she's just basing all of her opinions on her own feelings, which is a totally human and understandable thing to do.

Now, here's where I start to diverge from Team Caroline a tiny, tiny bit. This episode, she has made several comments about Damon being dangerous, a killer, etc. And, I mean, I'm the first to say that she's totally not lying, BUT 1) Damon has become a much, MUCH better/kinder person since season 1, and has saved all of their collective asses, Caroline's included, on more than one occasion, at usually great risk to his own life, and 2) Caroline has no problem pushing the OMG STEFAN IS YOUR ~ONE TRU LOVE~ thing to Elena, when Stefan is arguably just as dangerous/killer-y, if not more so, than Damon is. So, my main point of contention/confusion is that Caroline is so anti-Damon when she has no problem with the things that Stefan has done in his life, many of which have hurt Elena in pretty lasting ways (off the top of my head, I can think of forcing his blood on her and almost killing her on the same bridge her parents died, putting Elena, Jeremy and her loved ones in danger when he stole Klaus' daggered siblings, and forcing Jeremy to kill vampires to grow his hunter's mark so that he could get the cure for Elena and make her his precious human girlfriend again) Obviously, again, Caroline is taking her interactions with Stefan, which have all been positive, and ignoring how they affected Elena, just as Elena seems to be doing the same with her interactions with Damon and what happened between him and Caroline. Also, I'm getting the distinct feeling that the RAH STEFAN/BOO DAMON thing is a writing problem and not a character problem (ie: they don't want to bring up the dubious consent issues between Damon and Caroline but still need a pro-Stefan/Stelena voice despite all the Delena advancements. Okay, I have blathered about this way too long, you guys totally get where I'm going with this, right? Okay.

-Now, let's talk about Damon! I get the feeling that the writers have been planning this story line for a WHILE, because so many of Damon's past comments make SO MUCH SENSE now in hindsight. Allow me to elaborate on an amazing post I saw on tumblr HERE, that highlighted the various quotes from as far back as SEASON ONE that seem to indicate that his time as an Augustine vampire was the main motivating factor in his decision to flip off his humanity. Particularly, "One of these days, you're gonna realize that you don't know me half as well as you think," (to Stefan in 04x08 "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street") and his conversation with Lexi:

LEXI: "What traumatic even was too much for Damon Salvatore to handle?"

DAMON: "Leave It To Beaver. The 50's bored me."

BASICALLY, I'm too fucking excited and anxious to learn more about what happened to him.