Tyler surprises Caroline as she’s leaving Fort Forbes, wanting to talk. Caroline thinks he wants to discuss their kiss, and she tells him that since she’s still interested in Matt, they can’t go anywhere. Tyler presents her with the real reason he’s there to chat: He thinks Stefan and Damon killed Mason, and he knows the two of them and Caroline are vampires. He demands to know if Caroline has known this whole time that Mason’s dead. She admits that she has, and he attacks her, throwing her up against her car. His eyes change and he blasts her for betraying him when he trusted her.
Damon takes a shower as local reporter Andie Star does a news story on the three people Rose killed at the barbecue the night before. Authorities say drugs were involved. There’s some suspicion that those deaths are connected to the death of the woman Damon killed on the road.
Over at Gilbert Gables, John is watching the same news report. Carol announces that there will be a town-wide memorial for the recently deceased. Elena demands to know why her uncle/biological father is back in town. He says he’s there to protect her, but he won’t give her any more details until he knows he can trust her. Yeah, because in this relationship, YOU’RE the one who needs to worry about whether you can trust HER.
Jenna and Alaric come in, stunned that John is there. Alaric leaves, and Jenna tells John he’s not staying in the house. He tells her she can’t kick him out, despite being the kids’ legal guardian. Apparently Elena never bothered to tell Jenna that John is her biological father. And apparently that makes a difference here as to who gets to decide who can stay in the house I assume Elena and Jeremy inherited from Grayson and Miranda. John, go take Katherine’s room at Ms. Flowers’ B&B. She’s not using it right now.
At Vamp Villa, Damon mocks Stefan for thinking that bringing John back to town was a good idea. Stefan thinks they’re desperate enough to accept help from a guy who once tried to kill Damon. They have to work under the assumption that the moonstone is still in play, and Stefan can’t trust Elijah to honor his deal with Elena. John claims to know a way to protect Elena from being used in Klaus’ sacrifice ritual. Of course, he hasn’t outlined it for Stefan either.
Stefan knows Damon’s grumpy because Rose died, even though Damon is still pretending he didn’t care about her. He taunts that he’s turning into a better person, which might lead him to get his own “hero hairdo” and show up Stefan.
As Caroline texts Stefan for an emergency meeting, Jules meets Tyler at Lockwood Landing. Stefan goes to Fort Forbes, where Caroline tells him that Tyler knows he and Damon are vampires, and that Damon killed Mason. Stefan blames Jules. He plans to not tell Damon, since he’s already itching to kill Tyler. But Stefan thinks Damon might be right to want all werewolves dead. Tyler could try to avenge Mason’s death and end up getting himself killed. Caroline wants Stefan to talk him out of doing anything stupid, since Stefan always knows the right things to say.
Jules asks Tyler to confirm that she was right about Caroline being a vampire. She tells him that he can never be friends with a vampire; vampires and werewolves are enemies by nature. It’s not safe for him to be in Mystic Falls. Tyler’s not about to pack up and run away with someone he barely knows. His life is in Mystic Falls. Jules tells him that he has a new life now, and he needs to learn what it means to be a werewolf. They have a code of loyalty and take care of each other. It’s both her duty and honor to help him.
Damon goes to Gilbert Gables, looking for John, who’s not there. He and Elena both agree that John is lying about being back because he wants to protect her. Damon half-jokes that he should just kill John. He assures Elena that he’s a good guy now and won’t do anything. They’ll just have a civil conversation. Elena, no idiot, invites herself along.
Stefan sneaks into Lockwood Landing so he can talk to Tyler like Caroline requested. He makes Tyler pretend he’s not home when Carol calls out that she’s leaving for the memorial. In the woods, Jules meets up with her boyfriend, Brady, who’s come to town to help her convince Tyler to accept their help. If they have time, they’ll also get revenge on the Salvatores.
Back at Lockwood Landing, Tyler asks what happened to Mason. Stefan doesn’t want to tell him. Tyler tries to take off, but Stefan stops him. As people gather in the town square for the memorial, John asks Carol what’s going on with the Founder’s Council. She tells him that Damon is running it now. Jeremy arrives and tells John that he can’t just show up and start taking on vampires. John says he’s going to behave himself. He asks about his ring, making Jeremy think he wants it back. John asks what kind of man he would be if he took it from his nephew. Ohhhhh, buddy, don’t get anyone started on what kind of man you are.
As Bonnie walks over to join Jeremy, Jonas sidles up to her to chat. She not interested, since sh’s upset that she trusted Luka when he was hiding the fact that he and Jonas are aligned with Elijah. Jonas says they’re looking out for her. She can trust Elijah to keep his deal with Elena and protect the gang. Jeremy breaks up the conversation, and Bonnie tells him that Jonas is just lying some more.
At the Grill, Jenna tries to wrap her mind around the fact that Elena’s birth father is her late sister’s husband’s brother, and her birth mother is Jenna’s boyfriend’s late wife. (Alaric doesn’t correct her mistaken belief that Isobel is dead.) (Okay, technically she IS dead, but not the way Jenna thinks.) She can’t believe Miranda and Grayson kept the secret about John for so long. Speaking of John, he wants to join them.
Elena and Damon arrive just then, and she warns him not to do anything stupid. He complains about that, since “stupid is so much more fun.” She tells him to keep himself together and be the better person. A better person than John? Not that hard. Damon fakely greets John like an old friend.
Stefan encourages Tyler to maintain his friendship with Caroline, since she’s someone you want on your side. Tyler’s confused, since Jules told him that vampires hate werewolves. Stefan says they can change that. They have the same friends and know the same secrets. He’s willing to keep the peace if Tyler is. Just when it looks like Tyler’s going to agree, his phone buzzes. He grabs it and tells the caller he needs help. Stefan hangs up and demands to know who was calling. It’s Jules, and she tells Brady there’s a problem.
Alone with John, Damon addresses the fact that John supposedly knows some things that would be helpful to the gang. John notes that he might not be able to trust Damon. Elijah could have compelled him like he compelled Katherine to stay in the tomb. Damon says that he and Stefan have been taking vervain, so they’re uncompellable. He orders John to spill what he knows about Klaus, or Damon will kill him (which he can do now that Jeremy has John’s ring). John reminds him that they’re on the same side. He needs to know that he can trust Damon before he’ll talk.
Matt finds Caroline outside the Grill and asks if they can talk later and clear up the weirdness between them. She tells him she’ll come back at closing time. As she starts to get in her car, Jules approaches and asks if she’s seen Tyler. Caroline says no, but Jules thinks she’s lying. Caroline vamps out to intimidate her, but a scary face and eyes are no match for Jules’ pepper spray or the bullet Brady fires into Caroline’s head.
Vampires’ ability to heal quickly applies even to bullets to the brain, so Caroline is fine, though now she’s locked in a cage in Brady’s RV. He tells her he has plenty of weapons to use on her, so Caroline has a long night ahead of her. He fires another bullet, this time into her chest.
Stefan’s still at Lockwood Landing, trying to convince Tyler that they can both have the lives they want in Mystic Falls. Stefan gets a call from Caroline’s phone; it’s Jules, with the offer to let Stefan fix his mistake. He asks for proof that she has Caroline, so Jules lets him hear her scream when Brady shoots her again. Stefan threatens to kill Jules if Caroline is hurt again. Jules replies that next time, they’ll kill Caroline. He has 20 minutes to bring Tyler to her.
Jenna happens to be friends with Andie, who asks Jenna to introduce her to Damon. He turns down Andie’s offer to buy him a drink. Elena chastises him for being rude (even though he wasn’t; he was perfectly polite and doesn’t owe her anything just because she’s interested; we all know Elena wouldn’t call a woman trying to blow off a man she’s not interested in “rude”; it goes both ways, Elena!). Damon says he’s avoiding all women right now.
Stefan calls to tell Elena what’s going on, and she and Damon go into a bathroom so she can update him on the Tyler/Caroline stuff no one’s told him about. Damon doesn’t see any point in protecting Tyler, but Elena doesn’t want anyone else to die after all the deaths they’ve already experienced. Damon tells her to stop assuming he’ll be a good guy just because she asks him to. She tells him again to be the better man.
John comes in, but Damon won’t tell him anything, since they’ve already established that they can’t trust each other. He tells John to keep Elena at the Grill while Damon goes to help Stefan rescue Caroline. Elena objects to being sidelined, but for once, John and Damon are on the same page.
In the RV, Brady asks Caroline how many vampires live in Mystic Falls. When she doesn’t answer him, he shoots her with a water gun full of liquid vervain. Are you taking notes on new weapons, Alaric? Caroline is suffering from all his torture, both physically and mentally, and she asks why he’s doing this to her. Brady says she’s a vampire, so why not? He shoots her with some kind of blowdart, either vervain-soaked or wooden. (Blowdarts? Really?) Poor Caroline screams to be let out.
Brady takes a break outside, where Jules (who’s apparently against this torture, but not enough to actually stop it) tells him this is just about getting Tyler to accept their help. Brady thinks he’s justified in taking out his anger on Caroline; the vampires crossed one werewolf, which means they crossed all werewolves. Yeah, but Caroline wasn’t the one who crossed you. Take it out on Damon.
Elena tries to leave the Grill, but John won’t let her. He lectures her for making her deal with Elijah, who’s never going to hold up his end. Elena asks if John thinks she should have trusted him instead. He acknowledges that they have their differences, but they’re family. “You don’t get to use that word,” Elena spits out. John says her attitude doesn’t change the fact that they’re related. She tells him that he may be her birth father, but she’ll never be his daughter.
Stefan and Tyler finally get to the RV, like, way to take your time and make Caroline suffer needlessly. Stefan has kind of, sort of taken Tyler hostage so he can swap Tyler for Caroline. He’s willing to keep things peaceful, assuming Jules agrees to leave town after releasing Caroline. Jules says she won’t go without Tyler. Stefan tells her that Tyler gets to make that decision.
Damon joins the group, which of course means this won’t end peacefully. He demands Caroline’s release, reminding Jules that since there’s no full moon, she doesn’t stand a chance in a fight with vampires. But Jules has backup in the form of a pack of werewolves. One of them has some kind of rigged-up blowtorch, though considering what werewolf bites do to vampires, that’s kind of overkill.
Damon quickly approves the hand-off of Tyler to the werewolves. Brady asks who killed Mason, and when Damon fesses up, Brady tells the pack to make sure he suffers. Damon assures Stefan that they can take on the pack. It’s two against at least ten, and the bigger side has teeth and blowtorches, but maybe Damon’s ego counts as a weapon.
As the vampires and werewolves start fighting, Tyler jumps in the RV. Caroline tells him to open the latch on her cage, since she can’t reach it. He hesitates before moving to help her, since technically, he’s helping the enemy. Thanks to his vampire reflexes, Stefan’s able to avoid being staked through the heart, but a werewolf gets him in the back. Tyler frees Caroline as Jules shoots Damon, then shoves Caroline up against the side of the RV, a gun to her back. Tyler just stares.
Brady’s about to stake Damon when he and Jules (the only werewolves still alive – nice work, Damon, Stefan, and Damon’s ego) are paralyzed by psychic migraines. Jonas emerges from the woods and tells Stefan that he’s upholding Elijah’s promise to protect Elena, which requires keeping the Salvatores alive to look after her. The wolves have lost consciousness, so Stefan, Damon, and Caroline are free to leave. Jonas tells Tyler that when Brady and Jules wake up, they need to leave Mystic Falls.
Stefan takes Caroline home, offering to hang out for a while in case she wants some company. She says she’s fine, but he knows she’s putting up a front. She assures him that she can handle herself. She’s not the girl she used to be.
John visits Vamp Villa to tell Damon that he knows he and Stefan will protect Elena, so he wants to make a gesture of good faith. He gives Damon a dagger and some ash from a white oak tree that existed back when the Originals…well, originated. Dip a dagger in the ash and you have a weapon that will kill an Original permanently. This tip comes from Isobel, and John says that if she’s successful in whatever she’s working on, Klaus will never come to Mystic Falls. John reminds Damon that they’re on the same side, at least when it comes to Elena.
Matt calls as Caroline’s cleaning herself up, and she realizes she missed their meetup. She lies that Bonnie needed her for something. Matt knows she’s lying, since Bonnie is currently at the Grill with Jeremy, but he doesn’t say anything. Caroline goes back to picking shards of wood out of her neck, then pauses again when Tyler shows up at her door. He’s apologetic about the torture she suffered, but he’s also upset that she lied to him. Caroline blasts him for just standing and staring when the werewolves attacked her and Salvatores. Tyler says he didn’t know what to do. “You help your friend, that’s what you do,” she replies. But that won’t be an issue for them anymore, because Caroline is done being his friend.
Elena and John accidentally reenact the moment when Katherine surprised him in the kitchen at Gilbert Gables, pretending to be Elena (only this time, Elena’s in John’s position). He wants to make up, and she wants to continue not talking to him. He gives her a bracelet that belonged to her mother – Miranda, not Isobel. It was in a box with some things Grayson left him. Miranda and Grayson were Elena’s parents, no matter what biology says. But when Grayson died, Elena wasn’t the only one who lost a family member. John doesn’t think he’ll ever make things right with Elena, but he’s going to protect her and the family the best he can.
Stefan stops by after John leaves, and Elena tells him she still doesn’t believe John. Stefan tells her he could use her help with Caroline. Meanwhile, Tyler goes back to the RV to express his condolences over the loss of Jules and Brady’s pack. He asks if being a werewolf is always like this. They say it’s not; they’re just in vampire country. Brady wonders why Mason stayed in town anyway. Tyler tells him Mason was looking for the moonstone, something Brady’s familiar with. Too bad Tyler doesn’t know where it is.
Stefan returns to Fort Forbes with some “backup” in case Caroline isn’t as okay as she says she is. He’s brought Elena and Bonnie over so the girls can have a sleepover. Caroline drops her facade and her friends comfort her.
Damon has his own sleepover friend, Andie. Well, they’re in the bathtub right now, but it’s safe to assume this will turn into a sleepover. He tells her he wants a distraction because he’s been preoccupied with a problem: He’s in love with a woman he can never be with. He’s annoyed that he’s not in control. He tells Andie that he can’t trust himself around anyone – he’s a bad person who kills people.
Andie starts getting concerned, so Damon compels her not to be afraid. She asks why he kills people. He says he likes it, but it’s also in his nature. It’s who he is. He knows he needs to keep it together to protect Elena, and she wants him to be the better man, but that means he can’t be himself. Andie says this might be who he is now. Love changes people. She’s not saying what Damon wants to hear, so he opts for a different kind of distraction: a makeout session, followed by some biting.
So what’s Katherine been up to while everyone’s out fighting and making out and fighting some more? Well, not much, since she’s still stuck in the tomb. But things are about to get interesting for her. John comes by for a visit and tells her that Isobel got her message, but she’s busy so she asked John to come. No one knows he’s at the tomb; this is just between the two of them and Isobel. Katherine says she wants out of the tomb, and John replies that he’s working on it.
Keep in mind: An Original can only be killed with a dagger dipped in ash from a white oak. (More specifically, it’s the white oak that’s fatal.)
Etc.: Just a few months after this episode aired, Stephen Amell (Brady) got his own CW show, Arrow.
Andie Star is a fantastic name for a reporter.
It’s almost a joke what a meaningless character Jenna is most of the time, but for Elena not to tell her that she found out who her biological father is…that’s harsh.
Also, Jenna thinks Grayson and Miranda knew that John was Elena’s biological father, but I’m not 100 percent sure that’s true. If Isobel was a complete stranger to them when she showed up at Grayson’s office, John might never have told them he was her baby’s father.
Stefan and Caroline’s friendship isn’t very strong at this point in the series, so it’s really sweet of him to recognize that she needs support and to send Elena and Bonnie over to be with her.
An Eternity of Misery 