Elena’s having trouble sleeping, so she goes down to the kitchen to warm up some milk. Connor appears and taunts her, then disappears. He reappears as she’s leaving and mentions her guilty conscience. Elena says he can’t be there, since he’s dead. He confirms that he is, then asks if that was the first time she’s killed a human. Elena thinks he’s a ghost and calls out for Jeremy. But Connor’s able to grab Elena, which means he’s not a ghost.
She throws him into the dining room, then grabs a knife and jams it into his neck. She realizes too late that she didn’t stab Connor – she stabbed Jeremy.
In the morning, Jeremy’s still dead and Damon’s at the house, calmly reminding Elena that his Gilbert ring will bring him back. He says she should have called Stefan to help her deal with the situation. Elena tells him she doesn’t want to talk to Stefan, since he’s been hiding things from her and compelled Jeremy to forget about his conversation with Connor. Damon thinks this should be more important than Elena’s relationship problems. Elena admits that she doesn’t trust Stefan right now.
But Stefan shows up anyway (Damon: “P.S. I called Stefan”), so Elena goes upstairs to clean off her brother’s blood. Jeremy wakes up moments later and asks what happened. Stefan follows Elena upstairs and asks her to let him help, even though he knows she’s mad at him. He’s a little mad himself, since she called Damon for help. Elena won’t let go of Stefan’s secret partnership with Klaus and refuses to let him explain himself. She just killed her brother. She can’t deal with Stefan right now.
The hybrids spent the previous night drinking at Lockwood Landing to honor Dean. Is Carol okay with this? At least one of the hybrids, Chris, stayed up all night drinking with Hayley. Hayley gives Tyler a shot, then wipes his lip in a way that would make Caroline’s blood actually, literally boil and shoot out of her eyes if she saw them. Klaus arrives, unhappy that Dean and Connor are both dead. Hayley notes that he should have let Dean use lethal force. Klaus calls her “wolf girl” and tells her to mind her own business. Tyler asks why Klaus cares that Connor’s dead. Klaus just says he has his reasons, and they don’t matter now.
Caroline shows up with a box of Tyler’s things – they’re breaking up. Klaus guesses that she knows about Hayley. He leaves with his hybrids so Tyler can deal with his supposed love triangle. But this was all a set-up, and Hayley let Caroline know that Klaus was there so she and Tyler could fake the break-up. Hayley does seem a little sad that she’s not with Tyler, though.
While taking a shower, Elena hallucinates more blood. Downstairs, Damon cleans up Jeremy’s real blood, which is a nice change from Elena always having to do that sort of stuff. Jeremy’s so used to weird things happening that he’s gone to school like it’s a normal day. Stefan tells Damon that Bonnie got him to volunteer at an occult exhibit. Damon thinks Jeremy just used that as an excuse to not be around Elena after she killed him. That’s fair.
Klaus calls Stefan, who’s worried that Klaus will find out he told Damon about the cure. Damon tells him not to be shady, because “shady people get outed.” Stefan answers the phone with, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Heh. Klaus, however, has the same attitude as Stefan: There are four other hunters out there with the hunter’s mark, so they have four more chances to get the map. Stefan notes that Klaus is using his “calm voice,” which means he’s probably planning to kill someone. Klaus promises it won’t be Stefan. Elena, however, may be facing something difficult. Klaus asks if the hallucinations have started yet.
He’s already on his way to Gilbert Gables, and Stefan keeps him on the front lawn (not that he can go anywhere else, since Elena and Jeremy never invited Klaus inside). Klaus explains that there’s a curse that comes with killing a hunter. It’s kind of a way for a slain hunter to take one last vampire down with him. Klaus says he can lock Elena up and keep her away from anything sharp. If they leave her alone, she’ll kill herself before the day is over. Of course, Stefan would never allow Klaus to take Elena, but Klaus says it would be for her own good.
Elena hallucinates Connor again, and he offers her the blood she exposed by biting his neck. She justifies her actions as self-defense, since he staked her. He tells her she’s a monster and deserves to die. He urges her to admit it. Elena goes downstairs, where she imagines Damon as Connor and runs away from him. As soon as she gets out the front door, Klaus grabs her and zooms her away.
At school, Jeremy tells Matt that the hunter’s mark has started appearing on him. Matt asks if that means he’s the next “chosen one.” April and Shane join them with artifacts Shane is displaying in the occult exhibit. April thinks he looks familiar. She’s still in search of Rebekah, but the guys pretend not to know anything about where she might have disappeared to.
Bonnie gets summoned to Gilbert Gables so Stefan and Damon can tell her about Elena, the hunter’s curse, Klaus, etc. Since the curse was the result of a witch’s spell, the guys think Bonnie can help get rid of it. She’s still hesitant to use her magic, and she doesn’t think the witches will let her use the magic she needs to break the curse anyway. She offers to talk to Shane. Stefan approves of that idea, then leaves to find Elena.
She’s at the Haus of Klaus, in a room without windows so she can’t take off her daylight ring and burn herself to death. Elena scoffs at the idea of killing herself, but Klaus says he wanted to. He spent 52 years, four months, and nine days battling the hunter’s curse. Every moment of his life, including his dreams, he was tortured. Elena asks if Stefan knew about the curse when he got involved in Klaus’ plans. Klaus just says that Elena should have listened to her boyfriend when he said he knew how to handle things. She asks what else Stefan knew, but Klaus won’t answer. Then she asks how he made the curse stop. Klaus says he didn’t – it just stopped on its own one day. He warns that the hallucinations will take strange forms.
Stefan calls Caroline to ask her to get Tyler to take the hybrids out of the Haus of Klaus so he can get to Elena. When he goes to Lockwood Landing, Tyler tells Stefan that Hayley helped him break the sire bond. She was helping Chris do the same, so there are two unsired hybrids, one of whom Klaus doesn’t know is unsired.
Chris checks on Elena, who wants to be alone. Sorry, but Connor didn’t get that message. He tells her he’ll be with her forever, constantly reminding her of what she’s become. He asks how it felt to kill him. She says it was horrible, the worst thing she’s ever done. Connor badgers her about lying. Elena eventually admits that she liked it and asks if he’s happy. He replies that he’s dead. He had a family – parents and a brother, just like Elena.
Then he blames her for her parents’ death. They wouldn’t have been on Wickery Bridge if she hadn’t called for a ride. Elena tries to get away from him, but he tells her he won’t stop until she’s taken her last breath. She says she won’t let him torture her, so Connor suggests that she get rid of him by killing herself. She never wanted to be a vampire anyway. She’s a monster who deserves to die. Elena turns away from him, so he turns himself into someone she might listen to: Katherine.
At the school, Shane is starting a presentation about his exhibit. April remembers how she knows him – he knew her father. Shane tells the crowd about a witch named Silas, who created a spell that would make him immortal. Legend says he got help from another witch, Qetsiyah, who was in love with him. Silas wanted to make another woman immortal, so Qetsiyah killed her and buried Silas alive, leaving him alone and powerless for eternity. Shane jokes that this might be the origin of the phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Damon has popped in, but he leaves Bonnie to deal with Shane herself. He pauses when Shane continues that Silas is said to want to rise and regain his power so he can wreak havoc. Maybe they should worry about that. Or maybe the headstone Shane has that supposedly belonged to Silas is just an old rock. After the presentation, Bonnie comments that Qetsiyah sounds awesome. Shane tells her she was nothing compared to Silas.
Back at the Haus of Klaus, Katherine rolls her eyes at Elena’s distress. She’s usually the victim, but now she’s a killer. Katherine wonders what Stefan thinks about that. The girl he fell in love with is gone. Now Elena’s like Katherine – or maybe worse. Elena says she made a mistake and can do better. Katherine disagrees. Elena’s a vampire, and she’ll kill again. It’ll keep changing her until she’s just like Katherine.
Elena protests that she’s nothing like Katherine. “I was you before you even existed,” Katherine replies. And Stefan hated her when he found out who she really was. That means he’ll hate Elena, too, but at least she’ll still have Damon. Elena tells her to shut up and runs at her, but of course, she’s not really there.
Damon visits Alaric’s old classroom and finds a bottle of bourbon that got left behind. He says Alaric’s missing all the adventure. Bonnie and Shane join him, Bonnie saying that Damon is kind of an expert on the supernatural. Damon says his specialty is “the origin of the species.” He shows Shane Jeremy’s sketch of the hunter’s mark, which he says came to him in a dream. He asks if Shane knows about the hunter’s curse. Shane asks if Damon has a dead hunter in his trunk. Ha ha ha ha ha ha no, he’s buried in an unmarked grave in the woods.
Shane says that according to legend, a vampire who kills a hunter will suffer from the curse until a potential hunter is called forth and the legacy is passed on. Shane has some research on the subject and leaves to get it. Bonnie asks Damon how they’re supposed to find a potential hunter. He calls “Little Gilbert” and summons him to the classroom.
At the Haus of Klaus, Stefan and Tyler meet with Chris, who’s worried that Klaus will find them together. Tyler assures him that Klaus is occupied. The gang has sent Caroline in once again to keep him busy at the Grill. She asks him to give Elena back, as if that’s the only reason she’s there, but Klaus insists that he’s helping her. He tells her that if Tyler were still sired to him, Klaus wouldn’t have let him hurt Caroline. Back at the Haus of Klaus, Stefan tells Chris he just needs access to Elena. Tyler says he’s free to leave after that. Chris worries that Klaus will send someone after him, but Tyler promises that he and Hayley will keep that from happening.
Katherine taunts Elena for being so willing to sacrifice herself for her friends when she was a human, even though those friends usually ended up getting hurt anyway. Elena says she never wanted that. Katherine reminds her of the bad things that have happened to Bonnie because of Elena. She thinks Bonnie secretly hates her best friend. She’d probably be relieved if Elena died. Elena firmly says she’s not going to kill herself. Katherine continues trying to convince her that she’s just a burden to everyone. She’s nothing now, just a monster who deserves to die.
Chris sends away the two hybrids guarding Elena’s room so Stefan can go in. She thinks he’s another hallucination of Connor and attacks him, stabbing him with some metal piece from the bed in the room. While he’s doubled over, she’s able to run off.
Bonnie’s annoyed that no one told her what’s been going on with Jeremy. Damon thinks they were justified in leaving her out of the loop since she’s not able to use her magic (AKA not useful to Damon). Jeremy rushes in, thinking there’s an emergency, but Bonnie says he just needs to kill a vampire. Jeremy’s like, “Awesome, there’s one right here – say goodbye, Damon.” Damon calls him Van Helsing and says they’ll get him one.
Stefan calls and Damon tells him they’ve figured out how to help Elena. Stefan says they have a new problem to deal with, since he’s lost her. He tells Damon to find her – she’ll listen to him. He then texts Caroline to let her know that a) he lost Elena and b) he needs a vampire to kill. Caroline decides to tell Klaus the truth, that she came to distract him while Stefan got Elena, but that all fell apart. Klaus is furious, but Caroline tells him that there’s a way to end the hunter’s curse.
Connor and Katherine continue harassing Elena as she finds herself at Wickery Bridge. Miranda appears and says she gets why Elena’s there – it’s the place she was supposed to die on two separate occasions. Elena says she doesn’t know what to do, but Miranda thinks she does. She needs to take off her daylight ring and wait for the sun to come up. Elena knows it’s the right thing to do. She repeats what Connor and Katherine have been saying to her all day: She’s a monster and she deserves to die. She takes off her ring and drops it into the water.
But after a little while, Elena realizes that if she dies, Jeremy won’t have anyone left. Miranda reminds her that she can still be with him as a ghost. That’s better than being someone who hurts him. Elena agrees and apologizes for disappointing her mother. Miranda promises that she didn’t. Elena was everything her mother wanted her to be. But she died, and she was supposed to stay dead.
Damon arrives, having guessed that Elena thinks her third time dying on the bridge will be the charm. She tells him he was right about vampires always ending up killing people. Stefan was right, too, and she can’t live with herself after what she did. Damon asks her to go somewhere and talk before she does anything she can’t take back. But she sees him as Connor, who tells her the sun will be up soon and this will all be over. Damon realizes that Elena isn’t wearing her daylight ring.
Tyler and Hayley say goodbye to Chris as he heads off to a Klaus-less life. But Klaus is right outside the door, and he’s very unhappy with Chris for not keeping a better eye on Elena. Tyler takes the blame, so Klaus says maybe he should die for it. Hayley intervenes, and Klaus tells her again to mind her own business. Hayley lies that she let Elena go. If Klaus wants Hayley dead, he can kill her. She’d rather die than end up one of his minions.
He’s tempted to take her up on that, but he has more important things going on right now. He reminds Chris that his purpose is to serve Klaus. Chris promises he won’t fail Klaus again. Klaus dismisses him, but Stefan’s waiting for Chris and stakes him. Jeremy’s right behind him with an axe.
Damon tells Elena she needs to get inside. Connor is still there, urging her to end her life. Damon gets desperate and tries to grab Elena, but she zooms away. Back at the Haus of Klaus, Stefan apologizes to Tyler. Jeremy raises his axe and decapitates Chris. On the bridge, Elena immediately feels the effects. She tells Damon that Connor’s gone as Jeremy sees his hunter’s mark grow. But the sun is coming up, so there’s a new problem. Damon tackles Elena and jumps off the bridge with her into the water.
Elena gets some sleep at home and wakes up to find that Damon fished her ring out of the water. Apparently that was a hardship because vampires hate swimming. Okay, well, you could have just asked Bonnie to make another one, so don’t play the martyr here. Elena feels like everything that happened was a bad dream. She thanks Damon for saving her. She can’t believe she almost killed herself. Damon reminds her that she wasn’t herself. Still, she wants him to have credit for this.
She takes his hand, but Damon decides he needs to be a good person here. He tells her that everything Stefan has been doing has been to help her. He’s looking into a way out of this for her. He announces that there might be a cure.
Tyler’s drinking again, honoring another fallen hybrid. Caroline tries to convince him that the gang didn’t have a choice. Tyler laments that he told Chris that he and Hayley had his back and would help him stay free. Caroline says they needed to help their friend, as if Chris wasn’t also Tyler’s friend. He was in Tyler’s pack, and he wanted the same thing Tyler did. Tyler asks how Caroline got Klaus to agree to give up a hybrid. She admits that she agreed to go on a date with him. That should also help make Klaus continue to believe that Tyler and Caroline have broken up. Tyler angrily smashes a bottle of booze.
Also drinking: Damon, who orders two drinks at the bar at the Grill, even though his usual drinking buddy is gone. Matt tells him that he found some dirt on the council explosion. April got him thinking when she said that she’d met Shane. Shane knows stuff about the supernatural, which Matt says makes him “creepy until proven otherwise.” Thanks to Liz, Matt got a hold of Pastor Young’s phone records. He called the same number every day for the last month of his life. The day he died, he called the number ten times. Guess whose number it is? Shane’s!
Bonnie thanks Shane for his help and asks how he knows so much about hunters. He says he’s studied every supernatural creature ever, and he knows witches are the most powerful. But when the newest hunter completes his mark, they need to come to Shane. He’ll be the only one able to help.
Stefan goes to Gilbert Gables, where Elena apologizes for stabbing him. He knows she knows about the cure, and he seems ready to let the whole gang know so they can all work together. She asks why he sent Damon to find her instead of looking for her himself. Stefan says that Damon seems to be able to get through to Elena in ways Stefan can’t. She trusts Damon even when she can’t trust Stefan. Elena tries to make an excuse, but Stefan urges her to just admit it.
She appreciates how helpful and strong Stefan has been since her transition, and she especially appreciates his search for the cure because she’d love to go back to who she used to be. Somehow, the person she’s become is different – she’s darker. Elena starts to talk about what she wants, but Stefan thinks she really means who she wants. She acknowledges that something has changed between her and Damon. Everything she used to feel for him has been magnified.
Stefan says that when he was his Ripper self, he understood why Elena cared for Damon. He practically pushed her toward him. Now he can’t sit by and watch her wrestle with her feelings. Elena understands. And though they don’t spell it out or really make it official, this is the end of their relationship.
Keep in mind: A witch named Qetsiyah created a spell for immortality, but Silas wanted to share it with another woman, so she buried him alive.
Etc.: I think Elena accidentally killing Jeremy is one of the most shocking things that’s happened on the show. Even knowing he’ll be fine because of his ring, it gets to me every time, and not just because of how gruesome it is.
I’m from Virginia and went to public school there, and there’s absolutely no way anyone approved Shane coming in to talk about occult stuff. I’m from a liberal area and our school board wouldn’t even let us put on Grease. The school board at a school further south from us, in a town with as many traditions as Mystic Falls, would never be okay with this.
People don’t talk about Alaric much over the next couple of seasons, so I always enjoy it when we get a little reminder that Damon was his friend.
It cracks me up that every time the gang needs Klaus distracted, they use Caroline, and every time, he falls for it.
For those who care about this sort of thing, Klaus calls Hayley “little wolf” for the first time in this episode.
Killing a hybrid was a step too far, especially since Chris was an ally. When Stefan texts Caroline, he says he’s willing to turn someone into a vampire so Jeremy can kill him, so why didn’t they just do that?
Thank you to the writers for the phrase “creepy until proven otherwise.”
Interesting that Stefan was so worried that Elena would turn off her humanity if she killed someone, but she doesn’t seem to even consider it here. Maybe she didn’t have a chance to think of it, with all the harassment from her hallucinations.
An Eternity of Misery 