Tyler is in the hospital, pretending to recover from his gunshot wounds. A deputy guarding his door goes down the hall to investigate a sound he heard, and Connor grabs him and strangles him until he’s unconscious. Tyler hears from his room and hides before Connor comes in. He ambushes Connor, who injects him with a paralytic, then sticks a needle in his gums and extracts some werewolf venom. He leaves, disappearing before Tyler can catch up to him.
Connor does something with the venom in his RV, then reads Pastor Young’s note to April again. He has a bunch of articles and paperwork related to the farmhouse explosion, as well as files with Elena and Jeremy’s names on them.
Stefan bought a motorcycle, and he tells Damon he’s going to take Elena on a ride to cheer her up about her transition. Damon has heard about Connor’s visit to Tyler and knows it means Connor’s walking around with something he can use to poison vampires. So Damon’s going to find him and eat him. Stefan offers to help, but Damon thinks he can handle it alone. Once Connor’s taken care of, Damon will honor the deal he and Stefan made and leave town. He knows Stefan doesn’t want him around anymore. Stefan says Damon’s being dramatic – he already punched Damon for sharing blood with Elena, so they’re even. Yeah, but there’s no way Damon wants to hang around and watch Stefan and Elena together, so you can’t blame him for planning to leave.
Elena meets up with Matt so she can drink more of his blood. She feels bad about making him go through it again, but he figures it’s a small price to pay since he’s the reason she’s a vampire. Elena is very careful about her self-control, even though she doesn’t quite get enough blood. At least this time she drinks from his arm instead of his neck, so it’s easier for him to hide the bandage she puts on his wound.
Matt asks if Elena should really be at school while there’s a vampire hunter in town. She thinks it would be more suspicious if she stayed home. Plus, this is her senior year. She’s survived this long, and she wants to at least make it to graduation. She finds a flier informing students that the town has instituted a 10 p.m. curfew. People are freaked out about Tyler’s shooting, and for some reason they think a curfew is the best response to something that happened in the middle of the day.
Carol takes Tyler home, where Klaus is waiting for him with some brand-new hybrids. Klaus wishes he’d killed Tyler for stopping his heart and desiccating him. Tyler thinks they’re even, since Klaus used him for a body swap and kissed Caroline. Bro, kissing Caroline is nowhere on the same level as all but killing a guy. Klaus would like to leave Mystic Falls, but he also needs to protect his hybrids, since he can’t make more now that Elena’s a vampire. A couple of his guys will be serving as Tyler’s bodyguards.
Elena’s first day back at school since turning isn’t off to a great start since her first class is history, and Alaric is no longer there to teach it. Rebekah being there doesn’t help. She announces that she’s throwing an anti-curfew party at her new house. Elena’s invited if she wants to bury the hatchet. Rebekah’s feeling generous. Elena taunts that by moving out of the Haus of Klaus, Rebekah left the only person in the world who actually likes her. Hey, Elijah likes her! Sometimes. I think Kol might, too. Wait, why am I defending Rebekah? Besides, she can defend herself: “Well, your boyfriend liked me once. Actually, a lot more than once.”
Stefan asks why Rebekah’s still in town. She says history is her favorite class – where’s Alaric? She pretends to remember that she killed him. Elena throws a pencil at her, but she catches it and throws it into Elena’s shoulder. Somehow, no one else in the room notices. Elena storms out as Stefan tries to calm her down before her heightened emotions blow her anger out of control. Elena says she hates Rebekah more than she ever thought she could hate someone. She also hates that she hates her.
Then there’s a new problem: Connor’s at the school, approaching Jeremy. Stefan stops Elena from intervening and sends her to the bathroom to clean up the blood from her shoulder wound. Rebekah has a girl named Heather go in to check on Elena, but really to tempt her – Rebekah has bitten her neck and compelled her to let Elena feed on her. Rebekah joins them and tries to push Elena over the edge. Elena says this is her school and life, and she won’t let Rebekah ruin things for her. Rebekah taunts her about Connor and smears blood on Elena’s face so she’ll vamp out. Then she says she’ll see Elena in gym class, where they may be playing dodgeball.
Connor takes Jeremy to an empty classroom to talk about his family’s history. He’s very interested in the fact that Jeremy saw his tattoo. Connor calls it a hunter’s mark and confirms that he’s a vampire hunter. Jeremy pretends that it’s ridiculous that Connor believes in vampires, but Connor knows he’s playing dumb and says it makes him look dumb. Jeremy spots Stefan through the window, which Connor is facing away from, and gives him a little nod to say he’s okay. Connor reveals that the hunter’s mark is only visible to other hunters or potential hunters. He tells Jeremy to meet him later and Connor will train him to be a hunter. It’s BYOV – bring your own vampire. Jeremy asks how he’s supposed to do that. Connor suggests that he start by asking Matt, who’s obviously been recently chomped on by a vampire.
Damon finds Connor’s RV and goes in to take a look around. Connor was clearly expecting intruders because he’s rigged the interior with arrows. The ones that hit Damon are attached to a bomb, which will be detonated if they’re pulled out. “Um…yeah,” Damon says.
Caroline joins Stefan in the stoner pit to try to calm Elena down. She suggests that Elena call it a day and go home. Elena counters with the idea of getting the indestructible stake and killing Rebekah. Stefan says they should leave murder to Damon. Elena asks what she’s supposed to do instead, “ignore her to death?” He psychoanalyzes Rebekah, saying that since everyone hates her, she hates harder to make herself feel better. Thanks, Dr. Salvatore. He convinces Elena to skip the rest of the day’s classes. She agrees, but she also wants to go to Rebekah’s party.
As Elena goes home to change, Caroline notes that she seems “off-balance.” Stefan says she’s channeling all her emotions into rage. He did that himself back in his Ripper days. Once Elena comes to terms with things and confronts her situation, she’ll be able to let it go. Caroline praises Stefan’s skills at teaching newbie vampires and says he should write a book and go on The View.
Tyler’s also skipping school, which means he’s home when he gets a visit from a friend named Hayley Marshall. She’s annoyed that he hasn’t been in touch; she thought Klaus killed him. She’s also a little annoyed that Tyler said he lived in a trailer park in Florida, not a mansion in Virginia. They spent a bunch of time together in the Appalachians, where she helped him break his sire bond. Tyler says he didn’t want anyone to follow him back – any werewolves who came to Mystic Falls would be putting themselves right in Klaus’ hands. Hayley got a call from a hybrid she knew years ago who said he was coming here to protect Tyler. She followed to see if it was the same Tyler she knew.
Meredith shows up at Connor’s RV and immediately sees the bomb. Damon called her instead of Stefan so he wouldn’t have to admit that he shouldn’t have come alone. He figures Meredith is a good choice to cut out the arrows, since she’s a doctor. While she’s working, Damon reads Pastor Young’s note and asks Meredith how well she knew him. She says he was nice. Yeah, a nice guy who thinks evil and war are coming.
Damon ignores a call from Elena as Meredith asks how he got stuck with the job of investigating Connor. Damon says Stefan had a physics test. Meredith tells him he’s a good brother. Damon disagrees, but she points out that he’s trapped with a bomb while Stefan is with Elena. Damon’s doing a great job of acting like that doesn’t suck. She finishes doing whatever she’s doing, and Damon’s able to pull out the arrows without making anything blow up.
Back at school, Rebekah tries to talk to Matt, who completely ignores her. She tries to justify almost killing him by reminding him that Alaric killed Klaus and was coming after her next. She had to stop him somehow. She never wanted to hurt Matt. He finally acknowledges her, but only to scoff at her and walk away. Connor finds him and pulls off the bandage Elena put on his wrist to cover her bite marks. He asks who Matt is letting feed on him. Matt says he doesn’t know where the wounds came from. Connor puts a knife to his throat and demands to know which of Matt’s classmates is a vampire. Matt names Rebekah. Connor thanks him, says he’ll deal with her, and knocks him out.
Elena raids Damon’s room, telling him she needs bourbon to get through Rebekah’s party, and she knows he has a personal stash that’s better than what’s downstairs. Damon sends her to a dresser drawer that actually contains his underwear. He knows she’s actually looking for the indestructible stake. He’s finally learned his lesson from the moonstone and the other white oak stake and is no longer leaving valuable items just sitting around where anyone can take them.
Elena notices one of his arrow wounds and Damon tells her Connor’s responsible. She says he was at the school, talking to Jeremy. Damon already knows, which concerns Elena, since he shouldn’t be discussing supernatural stuff with her brother. Damon says Jeremy might actually be useful. He starts undressing, and she takes her time leaving.
Connor is carving the symbol from his bullets into some stakes when Jeremy comes to his RV. He hasn’t brought along a vampire, but he says they can find one through Meredith. He thinks Meredith is trading her blood for a vampire’s. Connor complains that when a town protects one vampire, more show up and you wind up with an infestation. Mystic Falls already has one. He knows about Rebekah’s party, but he wants to go to the hospital instead. He has the party covered already – any vampire drinking there will be dead by sundown.
At the rate the humans are drinking at the party, they might be dead by sundown, too. Stefan and Elena show up and her anger at Rebekah boils up again. Stefan gets her a drink, hoping alcohol will loosen her up. But she spots April and heads off to say hi to her first.
Caroline goes to Lockwood Landing and tries to convince Tyler to go out somewhere with her. He tells her Klaus has him on house arrest. Speaking of Klaus, he’s inside, meeting Hayley. He hears Tyler talking to Caroline and trying to convince her to go to the party without him. Klaus guesses that he’s trying to get her to leave so she doesn’t find out Hayley’s there.
In Rebekah’s kitchen, Elena gives April her drink and the two chat about Pastor Young. April doesn’t buy that there was a gas leak in the farmhouse that her father didn’t notice. There’s no investigation because the explosion has been declared an accident, but that plus Tyler’s shooting make April uneasy. “Like something wicked this way comes,” Rebekah comments as she joins the conversation. She wonders if the town is cursed.
Elena sends April away, then asks if Rebekah killed the council. Rebekah dismisses them as a non-threat. She slams Elena for coming into her house and accusing her of murder. She takes Elena’s drink, and suddenly Elena starts burning up. She realizes Rebekah snagged her daylight ring when she stole her cup. Rebekah tosses the ring down the kitchen sink and turns on the garbage disposal. Elena has to run to get the ring before the sunlight burns her. And now she has a new motive for revenge – as well as the weapon she needs to carry it off.
Stefan catches her with the indestructible stake, which she says Damon gave her. She can’t take any more of Rebekah’s taunts. Stefan says Elena’s free to kill her – he won’t stop her. But he knows Elena will feel horrible about the deaths of all the vampires in Rebekah’s sireline. Rage is powerful, but guilt packs even more of a punch. Stefan suggests that they go for a motorcycle ride instead of killing anyone.
On their way out, Elena stops to get a drink. She does a keg stand and gets cheers from a bunch of partygoers. As Stefan and Elena leave, Rebekah’s vision starts to blur and her veins turn red.
Back at Lockwood Landing, Klaus teases Tyler about hiding Hayley from Caroline. He’s figured out how Tyler knows Hayley, and he guesses they hooked up while Tyler was out of town. Before Tyler can get too worried about what Klaus might do with this information, Damon calls. Klaus answers Tyler’s phone and says he’s too busy making decisions about honesty to talk. Damon relays the message that he’s going after Connor, if Tyler wants to come along. Klaus says Tyler doesn’t, but Klaus does.
Stefan and Elena ride his motorcycle on some road, and she gets a thrill out of standing on the seat. Does becoming a vampire improve your balance? Meanwhile, Jeremy and Connor go to the hospital and find Meredith, who has a bandage on her neck. Connor leaves Jeremy behind and follows her to a storage room. Damon’s waiting for him there, and Connor asks if he should be at a hospital when he’s a germaphobe. Damon says he’s actually a vampire. Connor starts to shoot him, but he’s hit with arrows just like the ones from his RV.
Stefan and Elena go to Vamp Villa and start to have sex, but Elena calls it off when she imagines that Stefan is Damon. Like Rebekah, her veins are turning red. Stefan realizes that this must be from the werewolf venom Connor took from Tyler.
Rebekah’s still weak from the effects, but she tells Matt that it can’t kill her. He says he came to explain how he feels, since she explained why she almost killed him. He thinks she’s amazing, but not for good reasons. She had 1,000 years to become a better person, but she threw them all away. Now she’s alone. She has to compel people to be her friends. Her brothers hate her. She just wants love, but she doesn’t have it because she doesn’t deserve it. Upset, Rebekah reaches into his chest and tears out his heart.
…But not really. It was just a hallucination.
Klaus and Damon have a captive audience in Connor, so they start asking questions. Damon would like to know about the “greater evil” in Pastor Young’s note, since he’s already fought Klaus and doesn’t think anything can be more evil than he is. (Klaus agrees.) Connor tells them that if they kill him, someone else will take his place. Damon likes the way this is shaping up, with vague threats and prophecies and a disappearing tattoo.
Klaus, who’s been enjoying himself, suddenly gets serious at that last thing. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there?” he says to Connor. Connor tries to stake him, but Klaus grabs his arm and takes the stake from him. He recognizes the symbol carved into it and says Connor’s one of the Five. While he’s distracted, Connor detonates the bombs. Damon is barely able to leap out of the room before they go off.
Stefan tries to call Klaus as the werewolf venom makes Elena sicker. She sees Stefan as Damon again, and the hallucination tells her that now that she’s a vampire, she knows she’s a lot more like him than like Stefan. Klaus arrives, annoyed that Stefan left him multiple voicemails, and notes that if the gang had killed him, they wouldn’t be able to summon him when they need his blood in situations like this. Stefan starts to offer up whatever Klaus wants, but Klaus is done with his former friend. He gives Elena his blood without any struggle, telling her she might be of use to him after all.
Rebekah’s party is over, thanks to a visit from some deputies, but April has stayed behind to clean up. Rebekah offers to help her look into the farmhouse explosion. Poor, naïve, clueless April would appreciate that. Back at the hospital, Damon tells Carol that Connor was blown up by his own bombs. She’s pleased that they can call off the curfew and tightened police presence in town. She’s not quite as pleased about the damage to the hospital wing, but Damon says he’ll make a donation.
On his way out, he runs into Jeremy, who thinks he proved he can be a bad%$#. “Shh, bad%$#&@ don’t say that,” Damon tells him. He thanks Meredith for her help, though she’s also not happy about the explosions. He dismisses her concerns and invites her to get a drink with him before he leaves town. Meredith says he’s not going anywhere, and she’s not his new “partner in vampire crime.” He needs to fix things with Stefan and Elena so his pride doesn’t lead him to end up alone.
Stefan calls Caroline over to Vamp Villa so they can talk about what she was like before she turned. She changed when she became a vampire, and Elena’s changing, too. Stefan wants her to enjoy it without the guilt and shame Stefan experienced when he became a vampire. But going through this with her tempts him to go back to his Ripper ways, and he can’t risk that. The balance is between not holding Elena back and not going dark again. Since Damon and Stefan aren’t in a good place right now, he’d like Caroline to help him keep from going over the edge. She’s good at being a vampire, which she credits to him. She promises to stop him from losing control.
Matt goes to Gilbert Gables to check on Elena. He wishes he’d figured out what Connor was up to with the werewolf venom. Elena tells him that her hatred for Rebekah is turning her into someone she wasn’t before. Matt says Rebekah kind of deserves it. Elena admits that she keeps having violent thoughts because of her intense hunger. She drinks from his arm again, this time having a harder time controlling herself. When he tries to get her to stop, she puts her hand on his neck to keep him in place.
Damon zooms in and makes Elena back off. When she recovers, she realizes she went too far. Damon compels Matt to forget the incident and sends him home. Then he tells Elena she shouldn’t be ashamed of her actions. She’s a vampire – she just needs to figure out the right way to be one. He’ll teach her.
Connor is very much alive, thanks to Klaus, who zoomed him out of the hospital and took him home to his RV. He tells Connor that he’s more valuable alive than dead. Connor asks what Klaus meant when he said he was one of the Five. Klaus realizes that he doesn’t know his own history. “Let’s just say it’s made you the most well-protected vampire hunter in town,” he says.
Keep in mind: Only hunters and potential hunters can see Connor’s tattoo, the hunter’s mark.
When a hunter dies, he’s replaced by a new one.
Etc.: Claire Holt (Rebekah) and Phoebe Tonkin (Hayley) never have a scene together in this series, and their characters don’t even meet until The Originals, but they’re good friends in real life and starred together in the Australian series H20: Just Add Water.
I’m pretty meh on Hayley here, but I like her a lot on The Originals. She just doesn’t serve that big a purpose on this show. Well, more of a purpose than April does, at least.
They should have shown us Elena and Rebekah facing off in dodgeball while trying not to use their vamp strength and speed too blatantly. That would have been fun.
When Damon started getting undressed in front of Elena, the writers missed an opportunity to have him say, “I won’t give you the white oak stake, but I have another stake you might be interested in…” (That might be the dirtiest thing I’ve ever written.)
Elena’s obviously being sarcastic when she says she could ignore Rebekah to death, but that would actually bug her more than anything. Rebekah craves attention. Take it away from her and she’ll go crazy. Elena needs to engage in psychological warfare more often.
I like to think Nina Dobrev, a former gymnast, did the keg stand herself, but I doubt it.
At least Rebekah’s anti-curfew party goes better than the one in another Kevin Williamson production, Scream.
I’m not saying Damon and Klaus should team up on a regular basis, but it’s fun watching them play bad cop/slightly badder cop with Connor.
An Eternity of Misery 