Elena and the Salvatores have asked Alaric to come by Vamp Villa so they can tell him about their new investigation into the Lockwoods. They wonder if Isobel’s research might shed some light on who or what they are. Alaric says she looked into both vampires and werewolves. Damon has never come across a werewolf, so he doesn’t think they really exist. If they do, where are they?
Well, one’s in the woods right now. Mason’s checking out the cellar of the old Lockwood estate. Tyler’s on his trail. Elena and the Salvatores tell Alaric that Richard and Tyler were both affected by the Gilbert device despite not being vampires, and Mason got animalistic during his fight with Carter. There must be something supernatural going on. They ask if they can get access to the research Isobel left behind at Duke.
Tyler enters the cellar after Mason leaves and takes some pictures. Damon says that having werewolves around probably won’t be a good thing. Tyler’s spooked to find chains and claw marks on the cellar walls. Damon continues that Mason could be Lon Chaney, and Tyler could be Lon Chaney, Jr., which means Bela Lugosi (AKA Damon) is in a lot of trouble.
Matt goes to Fort Forbes, where Caroline is stuck inside until the sun goes down. She won’t answer the door or her phone. Matt was hoping to spend the day with her, since Tyler’s invited a bunch of people to hang out at a swimming hole.
Elena, Damon, and Alaric have decided to take a road trip to Duke to look at Isobel’s research. Stefan suggests that they wait a couple days until Caroline is more settled. He wants to go on the trip, but he doesn’t want to leave Caroline alone. Elena offers to stay back with him and Caroline, but Stefan thinks she should be one of the ones to get answers, even if it means spending time with Damon.
Alaric and Jenna chat about the trip, which he’s told her is just to clean out Isobel’s office and let Elena look at her stuff. He hopes to get things going with Jenna for real when he’s past everything involving his ex-wife. Jenna doesn’t want a half commitment or any kind of promises that Alaric won’t follow through with. She wants him to take the time to do whatever he needs to do. As the road-trippers meet up, Damon promises to take good care of Elena while they’re on their trip. Elena sticks it to him making out with Stefan in front of him.
At Lockwood Landing, Tyler asks Carol if she’s ever been to the ruins of the old Lockwood estate. She says it was a plantation house that burned to the ground. He asks about the cellar, which she says is something we don’t talk about (“we” meaning white people whose families once owned slaves and don’t want to have to admit it). Mason joins them and Tyler says he’s going to have some friends over to go swimming at the swimming hole. Carol reminds him that if anything happens, their family is liable.
Stefan meets up with Bonnie at the Grill to ask her to make Caroline a daylight ring. Bonnie says she doesn’t know how. Stefan reminds her that Emily wrote about the spell in her grimoire. Plus, Bonnie can give psychic migraines; this can’t be harder to learn than that.
Really, Bonnie’s objection is moral: Caroline killed someone, and Bonnie doesn’t want to give her the ability to go out during the day and hurt someone else. Stefan argues that they’re giving her a chance to survive. Every day she has to sit out her regular life is a step closer to her losing her humanity. He can’t promise that she won’t hurt anyone, but they need to help her however they can and trust that she can control herself. Bonnie isn’t sure she can do that, so Stefan asks her to trust him.
The drive to North Caroline is tense, since Alaric doesn’t like Damon and Elena super doesn’t like Damon. Damon thinks Elena should get over the fact that he killed Jeremy, since it was temporary. Elena says that only happened because he was wearing a ring Damon didn’t know he was wearing. Damon asks why she’s so sure he didn’t know. Elena asks straight out if he did, and Damon says yes. She doesn’t believe him.
Speaking of rings, Bonnie has agreed to make a daylight one for Caroline. Caroline isn’t as appreciative as she should be, since she didn’t get to pick out the style. Bonnie tells her that since she’s the one spelling it, she has the power to remove the spell, which she’ll do if Caroline ever hurts anyone. Caroline says she won’t, but Bonnie knows that as a vampire, she has a natural urge to kill. If she gives in to it, Bonnie will stop her.
Caroline reminds Bonnie that they’re friends. Bonnie says she can’t ignore what Caroline did. If Caroline wants to stay friends, she needs to prove that she’s still the same person. Caroline says she didn’t mean to kill Carter, but intentions don’t matter to Bonnie – either way, an innocent person is dead. She reluctantly does the spell and gives Caroline her ring. Caroline’s skeptical that the spell worked, since nothing witchy happened. She questions whether Bonnie knows what she’s doing. Bonnie responds by opening a curtain so Caroline gets hit by sunlight. The ring works.
The road-trippers arrive at Duke and meet Isobel’s research assistant, Vanessa. She asks if there’s been any development in the case of Isobel’s disappearance. Alaric says no. Vanessa lets them into Isobel’s office, but before they can do too much looking around, Vanessa ambushes them with a crossbow. She fires it at Elena, but Damon zooms over to shield her and takes an arrow in the back.
Elena gets a little pleasure out of yanking the arrow out of Damon’s back. He wants to kill Vanessa, but Elena threatens to never speak to him again if he does. Damon denies that that’s an effective way to control him. Elena tries reverse psychology, telling him to do whatever he wants. He accuses her of manipulating her, but she says she just wants him to tell the truth.
Alaric confronts Vanessa, who’s familiar enough with Isobel’s research that she knows Damon was supposed to have died in 1864. She also thinks Elena is Katherine. Alaric’s like, “When you read the research, did you skip the parts about vampires?” Damon and Elena join them, and Elena introduces herself as Isobel’s daughter. She asks for all research related to Mystic Falls.
Stefan takes Caroline out to the woods for her first hunt. She’d rather be at the swimming hole, enjoying the fact that she can go out in the sun again. She’d especially like to spend time with Matt, since she’s been avoiding him even though he just told her he’s in love with her. Instead, she has to be out here with Stefan, eating bunnies.
Stefan laughs a little because Caroline’s natural behaviors are now amplified. As a human, Stefan was empathetic; as a vampire, he’s even more empathetic. Caroline, however, is “now an insecure, neurotic control freak on crack” (her words). Stefan promises that they can go to the swimming hole after they hunt. It would be good for Caroline to spend time with Matt, since he’s a strong connection to her humanity.
Vanessa finds a box of information on Katherine’s time in Mystic Falls in 1864. Elena quietly gives Vanessa some vervain so she won’t be so nervous around Damon, but he hears them talking anyway and says it doesn’t work. Vanessa asks if he can really hear her from across the room. He whispers that that would be creepy. Then she asks if he can read minds. Damon tells her that if she wants to see him naked, she just has to ask.
A bunch of people are hanging out at the swimming hole, though Tyler and Matt are the only two from their main friend group who are there. Tyler asks about Caroline, and Matt says he’s not sure what’s going on with her. Mason arrives and tells Tyler he needs to make sure the party breaks up before sundown, or at least moves somewhere else. He backs up what Carol said about the family’s liability.
Stefan and Caroline show up, and he and Mason exchange a long stare as Mason drives off. Caroline asks why Stefan’s making his “serious vampire look” (not to be confused with his “worried vampire look” or his “hey, it’s Tuesday look”). Stefan gets her message that she thinks he’s too serious.
Matt chats with a girl named Aimee, which ticks off Caroline. She tells/compels Aimee to go find someone single to stalk. Matt chastises Caroline for being rude after ignoring his calls all day. After he walks away, Stefan has his own criticism for Caroline for compelling Aimee to leave. She shouldn’t mess with people’s minds even if she thinks they deserve it. She shouldn’t let her jealousy get the better of her. Caroline complains that now her jealousy issues are amplified along with everything else about her. She should have stayed dead. Stefan’s amused.
Elena hasn’t found anything about Katherine that the gang doesn’t already know. Damon says it’s too bad they’re not friends anymore, or he would tell her what he’s found out. She asks who’s manipulating who now. Alaric calls them over to look at some stuff about legends in Mystic Falls. There’s something about an Aztec curse of the sun and the moon.
As Mason goes to the Lockwood cellar, Vanessa explains the curse: 600 years ago, the Aztecs were having trouble with both vampires and werewolves. A shaman cursed them, and vampires became “slaves to the sun” while werewolves became “servants of the moon.” That’s why vampires can only go out at night and werewolves can only turn during a full moon. Damon asks if werewolves can control that transformation. Vanessa says no, because otherwise that would be a pretty weak curse.
Mason unpacks some supplies in the cellar, including chains, as Vanessa says that, while werewolves will attack humans, their instincts make them prefer vampires. Damon doubts that, since he would have heard if vampires were being killed by wolves. Vanessa says that vampires killed so many werewolves hundreds of years ago that they’re practically extinct. The vampires wanted to be proactive and take out their enemies before the werewolves could get to them. Legend says that werewolf bites are fatal to vampires.
The sun goes down and the full moon comes out as the guests at the swimming hole start leaving. Stefan urges Caroline to talk to Matt, then takes a call from Elena letting him know what they’ve learned at Duke. Matt’s frustrated that Caroline is still acting insecure even though he made it clear that he wants to be with her. Caroline apologizes, promising that there won’t be any more drama
Elena isn’t sure if all the werewolf research is accurate, but if it is, Stefan needs to be careful, since there’s a full moon. He realizes that Caroline and Matt have left, so he tries to call her, but she’s left her phone behind in Matt’s truck. In the cellar, Mason rushes to finish chaining himself up. He hears Tyler and Aimee above ground, heading to Tyler’s newfound makeout spot, the cellar. Mason runs to his truck and chains himself to a tree. He makes it just before he starts transforming into a werewolf (in case it wasn’t already clear that that’s what he is).
Back at Duke, Elena asks Vanessa if she’s done any research on doppelgangers. Vanessa says they’re doubles, like, yes, we got that. Thanks. Isobel didn’t look into them in relation to Katherine. Vanessa adds that doppelgangers like to torture the people they look like, “trying to undo their lives.” Yeah, we got that, too. Elena just wants to know why she and Katherine look alike. Damon pipes up that he knows something but won’t tell Elena because she’s being mean. Alaric makes a face that says, “I can’t believe I still have to drive back home with these two.” Elena reminds Damon that he wants to be her friend. Friends don’t manipulate each other.
Aimee decides she’s not feeling it with Tyler and tries to stop their makeout session. She’s not even sure why she went with him, since she likes Matt. Tyler’s at a loss for words, I guess because most girls don’t reject him. Elsewhere in the woods, Stefan hears growling and approaches Mason’s truck. There are claw marks on the ground and chains still on the tree. Inside, there’s a wolf. It bursts out the window and runs off.
The road-trippers prepare to head home as Alaric asks Vanessa not to tell anyone they were there. She wants an update if there’s ever news on Isobel, but Alaric says she doesn’t want to get involved – it’ll take over her life. He tells her that Isobel got a little too into her research and became a vampire. He feels surprisingly okay being back at the place where they met, and he thinks he’s finally ready to move on.
Damon gives Elena a book he nabbed from Isobel’s office, the history of the Petrovas, Katherine’s family. (Her original name was Katerina Petrova.) He tells her she has every right to hate him, but she became friends with him after hating him, and he doesn’t want to lose that. He asks if he’s lost her forever. She just thanks him for the book.
Matt and Caroline find their own makeout spot in the woods, and even though he hears growling, he won’t let that stop him from alone time with his girlfriend. Caroline gets a little aggressive and Matt ends up slipping and cutting himself on a branch. She licks the blood off of his arm, then bites him and starts sucking his blood. When Matt notices her vamping out, she bites his neck.
Stefan zooms in to stop Caroline before she can go too far. Then the growling returns, which means Stefan has multiple problems: a werewolf, an unstable baby vamp, and a confused human. He tells Caroline that they’re going to run and lead were-Mason away from Matt. They end up near the Lockwood estate, where they run into Tyler. While they’re distracted, Mason pounces on Caroline. Tyler faces off with him, and Mason runs away without hurting anyone.
Stefan and Caroline return to Matt, and she compels him to forget what happened and believe that he was bitten by an animal. Stefan tells her that he took care of Tyler. They’ll give Matt vervain so Caroline won’t feed off of him (though now she won’t be able to compel him anymore). Caroline feels horrible for hurting the one person she never wanted to hurt. Stefan warns that things won’t get easier. She’ll have to work harder to stay in control. Caroline wonders if she should end their relationship so Matt won’t be in danger. Stefan can sympathize with the dilemma. He should have walked away from Elena a long time ago, but he can’t do it.
Tyler finds Mason’s truck, along with his chains and clothes. Now human again, Mason joins him, and Tyler realizes he was the werewolf in the woods.
Caroline spots Matt and Aimee talking at the Grill. She watches for a few moments, then makes up her mind. She snaps at Aimee for flirting with her boyfriend again. Matt reminds her that she said there wouldn’t be any more drama. He walks away, and Caroline asks if he’s breaking up with her. He says he is. She’s upset, but she wanted this. Now he’s safe.
As soon as the road-trippers are back in Mystic Falls, Alaric goes to Gilbert Gables and kisses Jenna to show her he doesn’t need any more time to get over Isobel. Out on the porch, Elena asks Damon once again to tell her the truth: When he killed Jeremy, did he know that Jeremy was wearing a Gilbert ring? Damon admits that he didn’t. Katherine sent him over the edge, and he snapped. If Jeremy hadn’t been wearing the ring, Damon doesn’t know what he would have done. He’s genuinely sorry.
Elena thanks him for his honesty, then answers his question from earlier: Yes, he’s lost her forever. Damon guesses that she’d already made up her mind about that, and she used him today to get information about Katherine. He reminds her that friends don’t manipulate friends. “You and Katherine have a lot more in common than just your looks,” he tells her.
The next morning, Caroline wakes up to a visitor in her bedroom: Katherine. “We’re going to have so much fun together,” she announces.
Keep in mind: Werewolf bites are fatal to vampires.
Etc.: I hate the werewolf stuff on this show. HATE it. And why do vampire books and TV shows always feature werewolves, too? Yet Teen Wolf has no vampires.
Damon, who is a vampire, thinks it’s too out of the realm of possibility for werewolves to also exist. Okay, man. Whatever you say.
How many roles do you think Sara Canning (Jenna) had to turn down to stay on this show and do absolutely nothing?
$5 says Carol thinks critical race theory is a threat to democracy and has tried to get books about “uncomfortable” topics banned from schools.
Bonnie doesn’t seem to understand what an accident is.
An Eternity of Misery 