Klaus is trying to recover from the shock of finding out that Elijah has been undaggered. That shock leads Elijah to believe that Klaus wasn’t the one who undaggered him. Klaus offers his brother a drink and says they should talk, but Elijah wants to fight instead. They trash Klaus’ just-decorated house for a bit. Then Klaus says that while Elijah has a right to be mad about being daggered, Klaus did keep his word about reuniting him with their family. I don’t think it counts when they’re all in coffins.
Elijah starts another fight, so Klaus pulls out Kol’s dagger and threatens to use it on him. Elijah dares him to use it, since Kol will wake up and Klaus will have to deal with him instead. Klaus announces that he killed Mikael, so that’s one problem dealt with for good. Elijah asks why Kol and Finn are still daggered, then. Kol has been in a coffin for over a century, and Finn for a whopping 900 years. Klaus blames Stefan, since he has the one thing keeping Klaus from freeing them.
Klaus continues that there are things about their past that Elijah doesn’t know because Klaus never wanted to tell him. Now he does. Elijah just needs to remember their “always and forever” vow. Klaus redaggers Kol, then asks Elijah to stand with him and be his brother. If Elijah helps him destroy Stefan, the family will be made whole. Uh-huh. You already promised that if Elijah didn’t kill you, and look what happened there.
The next morning, Alaric wakes up hungover and tells Elena he had a weird night. He drunk-dialed Meredith in the middle of the night but doesn’t remember their conversation. Liz comes by Gilbert Gables to tell them that the investigation into Brian’s death has led to the identification of the murder weapon as a stake from the Gilberts’ lake house. The only clean fingerprints on it belong to Elena.
After Liz leaves, Elena and Alaric call Damon to fill him in. Damon suspects Meredith, but Alaric notes that he didn’t show her his weapons until last night, after Brian had already been killed. Elena’s sure that Meredith isn’t a killer, since that would mean Alaric has really, REALLY bad luck with women. Damon asks who else has access to Alaric’s weapons, but since he has stashes all over town, the answer is pretty much everyone. Damon thinks Klaus is trying to frame Elena. Elena thinks Stefan could also have had something to do with it.
Damon hangs up so he can have “tea with an old friend,” except “tea” is a conversation and the “old friend” is Elijah. Damon left a note in his pocket inviting him to meet and plot Klaus’ destruction after Elijah woke up. Elijah won’t say if he wants to team up with Damon, but he’s willing to talk. Damon asks what might be in the sealed coffin that could be considered a weapon.
Stefan takes Bonnie and Abby to the No Vamps Allowed Cave, where Damon compelled some humans to stash the sealed coffin. Abby is uneasy about getting involved, but Stefan notes that she’s probably on Klaus’ hit list, so this is a safe place for her to be, and working on opening the coffin is a safe task. Abby insists that she doesn’t have any magic, but Stefan doesn’t believe her. He tells her to figure something out before Klaus brings back his hybrids and sics them on her.
Elena’s waiting for Stefan when he leaves the tunnels. She asks if he killed Brian, which just makes him wonder why she thinks he would do that. She says she doesn’t know anymore what he’s capable of. He tells her to believe whatever she wants. Elena doesn’t want to believe any of what she does right now. Stefan asks if she questioned Damon about any murders he might have committed recently. Elena doesn’t answer. (But she has to know that if Damon killed Brian, he wouldn’t have left behind a stake with her fingerprints on it.)
Caroline meets Meredith, who complains that Bill isn’t grateful that she used Damon’s blood to save him. He’s threatening to have her medical license revoked. Caroline tells her that Bill has always hated vampires. Meredith backs off, apologizing for being cranky because of lack of sleep. She discharged Bill last night, which is news to Caroline, who came to the hospital to see him. Meredith knows Caroline is a vampire and says it must be hard for her to have a dad who hates the one thing she can’t change about herself. (Meredith keeps tabs on all the vamps in town but must put the info in the category of doctor/patient confidentiality because she promises she doesn’t spread it around.)
Elena’s also at the hospital, and Caroline tells her that Meredith seems kind of intense, but nice, and not murder-y. Elena still wants to look out for Alaric. Caroline calls Bill and hears his phone ringing somewhere nearby. The sound leads her and Elena to a storage room, where they find Bill dead with a knife in his gut. Caroline panics, but Elena reminds her that he has vampire blood in his system. Just then, Bill revives.
In the cave, Bonnie tells Abby that the drawings are the Mikaelson family’s history. Their mother loved them so much that she turned them into vampires so she wouldn’t lose them. Bonnie’s been looking through a grimoire (I’m not sure if it’s Abby’s or Sheila’s) but can’t find anything that will help them take out Klaus. There’s a page missing, and Abby says it was the spell she used to seal Mikael away. She wanted to forget it, but she still remembers it. There’s another sealing spell in the grimoire, plus a picture of a blood knot. That means the spell requires two generations, like a lock that needs two keys to open it. If Abby and Bonnie work together, they could unbind it and reverse the spell keeping the coffin closed.
At Vamp Villa, Damon tells Stefan that he and Elijah have arranged for the Salvatore and Mikaelson brothers to have a sit-down. Stefan says it’s a waste of time, since Klaus won’t make a deal. Damon tells him they’re just stalling to give Abby and Bonnie time to unseal the coffin. Stefan isn’t impressed that their big plan is just to stall Klaus. Damon notes that they might have had more options if Stefan hadn’t targeted the hybrids.
Stefan continues his criticism of Damon’s recent plans, including undaggering Elijah. Damon thinks that was a smart move – Elijah’s mad at Klaus right now, so he could be an ally. Stefan knows they can’t trust Elijah, but Damon trusts Elijah more than Stefan at the moment. “Guess that goes both ways, doesn’t it?” Stefan replies. Damon knows he’s talking about Damon’s kiss with Elena, but he says that if it weren’t for Stefan teaming up with Klaus and going evil, the kiss wouldn’t have happened. Damon announces that they’re going to negotiate this fake truce, and Stefan better have the right attitude.
Caroline takes Bill to a patient room and tries to calm him as he starts getting anxious about transitioning. Elena asks if he saw who attacked him, but he was ambushed from behind. Caroline says they’ll figure that out later – right now, Bill needs to drink human blood and complete his transition. Bill announces that he’s not going to. He’s prepared to die instead.
That night, Alaric is inventorying his weapons at Gilbert Gables when Elena brings him the knife Bill was stabbed with. It’s Alaric’s, and Meredith knew where it was. The stake that killed Brian was in Damon’s car, which was at the fundraiser where Alaric saw Meredith and Brian fighting just before he was killed. Elena asks why Meredith would use vampire blood to save Bill, then turn around and kill him. Alaric isn’t sure, but he can’t ignore all these facts. He decides to take the knife to the police.
Stefan and Damon head to the Haus of Klaus to solidify their fake truce. Stefan makes it clear that he was forced to come, and Klaus makes it clear that he’s going to be forced to stay. The four men have dinner, and Klaus asks if this camaraderie is what Damon was hoping for when he undaggered Elijah. Damon says he knew how Elijah felt about his brother, so why not hang out with someone else who hates Klaus? Klaus says that he and Elijah have fought plenty of times over the past 1,000 years, but they always make up.
Stefan brings up Rebekah, guessing that she’s still daggered because Klaus doesn’t want to endure her wrath now that she knows he killed their mother. Klaus says he already discussed that with Elijah, so if Stefan is trying to rile Elijah up, that won’t work. Damon notes that Stefan killed their father, so he has no room to talk. Stefan says they’re there to make a deal, not suck up. Damon tells him to pace himself, since the night is just beginning.
Caroline left a message for Tyler telling him about Bill, but he hasn’t called back. Elena tells her that Alaric still suspects Meredith. She herself just wishes Alaric’s new love interest wasn’t in the middle of their current disaster. He deserves to be happy. Caroline and Elena are on the front porch of Fort Forbes while Liz talks to Bill inside. Caroline can’t remember her parents being in the same room since she was ten. She asks if there’s a chance Klaus got Tyler to stab Bill. Elena doesn’t think so.
Caroline decides she’s going to force Bill to feed and complete his transformation. Elena gently reminds her that he doesn’t want to. All he has left now is the choice whether he lives or dies. Caroline says she was furious with him after what he did to her, and now she just wants to save him. Elena gets it, having lost her own father. Caroline asks what the hardest part of that was for her. Elena says it was realizing all the things Grayson would miss in her life. She hugs Caroline, and Matt shows up to join in comforting her.
Back at the super-awkward dinner party, Elijah asks Stefan what Elena’s up to. “I don’t know – ask Damon,” Stefan replies. Klaus chuckles and starts to explain what that’s about, but Stefan threatens to walk out if anyone mentions Elena again. Klaus can’t help himself, since he knows all about Petrova doppelgangers. He suggests that he and Elijah tell the Salvatores about Tatia. Elijah resists, since they worked that out a long time ago, but Klaus thinks Stefan and Damon would love to hear about the first Petrova.
Elijah says that Tatia was already living in Mystic Falls when the Mikaelsons moved there. All the men loved her, even though she had a child. Klaus was her biggest fan, though he thinks it was a tie between him and Elijah. Stefan’s amused that the brothers both loved the same woman. (And since we know Elijah later fell in love with Katherine, he’s as fond of Petrovas as the Salvatores are.)
Elijah continues that their mother wanted to end the brothers’ feud over Tatia. Her blood was what was used in the spell to turn them into vampires. Tatia wouldn’t choose between Klaus and Elijah, which led to an estrangement and rivalry between the brothers. Eventually, they realized their family was more important than a woman. Stefan looks at Damon like he’s thinking, “Are you hearing this crap?”
Speaking of strained family relationships, Bonnie and Abby are trying the unbinding spell. Well, Bonnie’s trying. She doesn’t think Abby is. Abby says the spirits are mad at her for abandoning Bonnie, so they might be withholding her magic from her. Bonnie disagrees – the dreams she had about Abby and the coffins were the spirits’ way of reconnecting them. The problem here is Abby, who won’t accept her magic again.
Bonnie says that Sheila and her father never talked about Abby, and Bonnie didn’t have any memories of her. She used to pretend her mother was dead. It was easier than wondering why she left and never came back. Abby’s apologetic, so Bonnie urges her to prove it by helping. They try the spell again, and though they still can’t open the coffin, they’re getting close. Bonnie heads out of the cave to call Damon and let him know they’re making progress. While she’s gone, something bangs against the lid of the coffin and it flies open.
Damon gets a text from Bonnie asking for a little more time as Elijah says they should get to the terms of the truce. Damon says that they’ll return the sealed coffin if Klaus and his hybrids leave town forever. Elijah thinks that’s fair, but Klaus won’t go without Elena. He knows if he leaves her behind, Stefan or Damon will turn her, or she’ll get caught in the middle of a fight between them and end up dead. Klaus knows each brother believes he’s the only one who can protect her. In reality, the two of them are the worst thing for her.
Damon and Elijah both take a break while Klaus tries to tempt Stefan with a drink from a compelled woman he just has hanging around. Meanwhile, Matt walks Elena home as they lament how many loved ones they and their friends have lost. The electricity is out at Gilbert Gables, so Elena finds a couple of flashlights. She also finds a puddle of blood on the kitchen floor and bloody footprints leading up the staircase. Alaric is on the landing, having been stabbed.
Matt calls an ambulance while Elena asks Alaric who attacked him. He doesn’t know. He tells Elena that she has to kill him. Elena has Matt hang up, since Alaric’s right. He’s wearing his ring, but since they don’t know if he was stabbed by someone supernatural, they can’t be sure he’ll come back to life if he dies. If Elena kills him, he should revive as usual. Well, assuming a doppelganger counts as supernatural. Matt is hesitant about taking that risk, but Elena doesn’t see a better option, so she stabs Alaric.
Klaus keeps tempting Stefan over at Haus of Klaus, but Stefan isn’t interested. He thinks the whole evening was designed to try to drive him and Damon apart. Klaus says they’re doing that well enough by themselves. Elena will be the reason the Salvatores destroy their relationship, and it’ll be their own fault.
Damon and Elijah return, and Damon invites Klaus to make a counteroffer, since he doesn’t like Stefan and Damon’s terms. Klaus offers Elena’s future happiness. She deserves to be free of Stefan and Damon, and to be with a human. Maybe Matt. They can have a nice life and marriage, plus kids. Stefan guesses that Klaus wants that because the kids will continue the Petrova line and provide more blood for Klaus to use to make hybrids. Klaus calls it a return on his investment. Once he gets back the sealed coffin, he’ll ensure that Elena is safe for the rest of her life. (Which, if his theory about the Salvatores being her doom is right, won’t be very long.)
Stefan shakes Klaus’ hand as if he’s going to accept the deal, but he’s not. Klaus grabs him and puts his hand in the fire in his fireplace. Elijah grabs Damon to keep him from rescuing his brother, and Klaus demands his coffin in exchange for Stefan’s release. He sends Elijah and Damon to get it, promising again to undagger their siblings once he has the coffin.
At Fort Forbes, Bill is starting to fade. Caroline offers to call his boyfriend, but it sounds like that ended, and Bill doesn’t want to talk to him. Caroline tells him he still has time to change his mind about not completing his transition. He’s strong enough to handle being a vampire – he’s the strongest person she knows. Bill still can’t get out of the mindset that being a vampire is wrong. People shouldn’t be able to live forever. It’s what he believes, and he wants Caroline to respect that.
She can’t understand how her father can hate what she is so much. Bill promises that he doesn’t hate her. She’s beautiful and strong and good, and exactly the person he and Liz hoped she would become. Caroline begs him not to leave her and cries in his arms. He tells her parents aren’t supposed to outlive their kids. Liz cries in the doorway as Bill tells Caroline that this is what it means to be human.
Back at the Haus of Klaus, Stefan tells Klaus to go ahead and kill him. He knows Klaus will do it once he has his coffin. Klaus says Stefan has given up. He misses the Ripper he used to know. Damon and Elijah return, along with “dessert,” two Original daggers. Elijah knew better than to trust Klaus, so he’s running the show now. The group is joined by Kol and Finn, who are very unhappy about their brother having kept them daggered for so long. Rebekah’s the next to come to the party, and she stabs Klaus for killing Esther. Elijah tells Stefan and Damon they can go, since this is “family business” now.
Bill dies. Whatever. Elena shares the news with Matt and asks him to stay with her until Alaric wakes up. She doesn’t want to lose any more family.
On their way home, Stefan praises Damon for undaggering Elijah. Damon says Stefan’s gone soft, which makes Stefan think he doesn’t need to thank Damon for saving him from Klaus. Damon tells him to shut up. He was just evening the score since Stefan always saves him. Stefan notes that Damon could have left him there. Klaus would have killed Stefan, leaving Elena free for Damon. Elena calls but Damon ignores her to tell Stefan he didn’t do what he did on Stefan’s behalf. “I love her, Damon,” Stefan says. “So do I,” Damon replies.
Elena checks in with Liz, who tells her that Meredith has been in surgery for hours, so she couldn’t have been the person who attacked Alaric. Liz notes that he’s the third member of the Founders’ Council to be attacked. Alaric awakens just then, so Elena turns her focus to him, holding his hand.
Stefan and Damon go to the No Vamps Allowed Cave, hoping “big witch and little witch” got the coffin open and kept the night from being a complete bust. They find both Bennetts unconscious and the coffin empty. Over at the Haus of Klaus, Klaus tries to tell his siblings that he wanted his new house to be a home for all of them. They would never have to be alone again. They tell him that he’ll be the one who’s alone this time. They’re leaving him behind. First, though, Rebekah’s going to kill Elena so Klaus can’t make any more hybrids. Klaus will be alone “always and forever.”
Klaus threatens to hunt them all down if they abandon him. Elijah points out that he’ll be everything he hates – Mikael. Klaus yells that he’s the hybrid and can’t be killed, so he’s not afraid of his siblings. Elijah says he’ll have something to fear when they get the sealed coffin.
The front door opens and the siblings are shocked at who enters the house. It’s the former resident of the sealed coffin, the no-longer-dead Esther! Klaus is scared, sure that his mother is going to kill him. But she tells him she forgives him and is ready for all the living Mikaelsons to be a family again.
Etc.: It cracks me up that Klaus kept Finn daggered for 900 years and not one of his siblings cared. Finn is so boring (at least in this series) that you could completely remove him from all but one episode and no one would notice.
Yes, Bill, I’m sure the American Medical Association or whoever’s in charge of licensing would absolutely believe you if you told them one of their doctors was healing people with vampire blood.
I’m sure Klaus believes he knows everything there is to know about the gang, but he clearly knows nothing about Elena if he thinks she would agree to give up both Salvatores for a life with Matt, whom she’s already dated and realized wasn’t a good fit. Klaus has been running Rebekah’s life for so long that he thinks he can run any woman’s life.
I can’t really muster up any tears for Bill. I feel as sad about his death as I did about Richard’s. Don’t mistreat your child and expect my sympathy.
Not that I want more Tyler, but he should have been in this episode. Show us the tension of Tyler trying to comfort Caroline when he’s part of the reason her father’s dying. Show us his reaction to killing someone.
Seeing Elena and Alaric holding hands makes me feel all warm inside.
An Eternity of Misery 