Elena is walking down the middle of an empty road at night. She lies down in the road and closes her eyes.
At Vamp Villa, Stefan’s anxious about the possibility that Elena will become someone different by turning off her emotions. Her humanity is a huge part of who she is. Damon thinks they should give her time to enjoy one of the perks of being a vampire. Stefan reminds him that Elena burned down Gilbert Gables with Jeremy’s body inside. Damon says they would have had to do something to cover up Jeremy’s death, so really, Elena did them a favor.
As a car approaches Elena, Damon tells Stefan that if necessary, he’ll use the sire bond to get Elena to turn her emotions back on. Stefan doesn’t want her to have to face all her grief again; they need to give Elena a reason to want to turn them back on herself. Damon wants to let her have fun first. His attitude is basically, “Let’s see what happens. Everything will probably be fine.”
The car’s driver runs to check on Elena, asking if she’s in any pain. “I don’t feel anything,” Elena replies. The driver goes back to her car to get a blanket and call for help, but Elena follows her and bites her. Damon intervenes before Elena can drink too much of the woman’s blood. He reminds her of their agreement that Elena can’t kill anyone. She says she’s just hungry, since everyone in town is full of vervain. Damon notes that she needs to do a better job of cleaning up after herself, since people are going to ask questions if they find bodies she’s left lying around. Elena says she doesn’t care. Damon surprises himself by telling her to show some restraint. Elena reminds him that she’s supposed to be having fun.
Hayley disappeared after causing chaos in “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” and she resurfaces at a truck stop, where she’s attacked by a vampire we’ll later learn is named Will. Klaus swoops in and bites him, so that guy’s toast. Hayley asked Klaus to meet her in an attempt to get protection from Katherine. Katherine used Hayley to find the cure, and now that Katherine has it, Hayley is just a loose end Katherine has no use for. Klaus will try to protect her, but first she needs to tell him everything she knows about Katherine.
The next morning, Elena takes a shower and eavesdrops on Stefan and Damon, who are in Damon’s room. Stefan wants to take Elena back to school while Damon goes looking for Katherine. Caroline is also in the house, and she supports Stefan’s plan. She’s there to take a shower since the Salvatores have water filters that keep vervain out of their plumbing. (Damon wants to kill Rudy for putting vervain in the water supply. I’d like to see him try, with Bonnie standing in his way.)
Caroline passes along a message from Liz that she needs help with something vampire-related. Damon says he’ll go after Katherine while Stefan goes to see Liz. Caroline will be on Elena-sitting duty. Elena agrees to that as she comes in, fully naked. Caroline averts her eyes but the guys don’t (they’ve seen it all before). Damon sire-bonds Elena to go be a good little student and keep her fangs to herself.
At school, Elena spots a flier advertising a memorial for Jeremy. Next to it is one about a cheerleading competition. Caroline leaves Tyler a message letting him know they’re keeping a leash on Elena. She hopes he’s listening to her messages so he’ll know everything he’s missed when he eventually comes back. Matt finds her and asks about Bonnie, who’s skipping school (and the episode). Elena tells them she wants her old spot back on the cheerleading squad. Caroline’s happy to hear that and knows Damon will be, too.
Damon goes to the Haus of Klaus with a list for Klaus called “things you suck at.” #1: Finding Katherine. #2: Covering up his phone conversations with Hayley. Damon wants to know where Hayley is and what she knows about Katherine. Klaus doesn’t see any reason to help Damon, since the gang killed Kol and trapped Klaus at Gilbert Gables. Damon tells him there’s a much bigger problem now: Katherine has the cure and most likely wants to force Klaus to take it. If Klaus helps Damon find Katherine, they can give the cure to Elena and everyone will be happy. Damon just wants to question Hayley. Klaus declares her off-limits, but he mentions Will, though Damon will have to hurry to find him before he succumbs to Klaus’ werewolf venom.
Liz tells Stefan that someone raided the hospital’s blood supply. She’s not accusing the gang of being behind it, but she needs them to head off any supernatural goings-on, since she’s already struggling to manage the cover-up of Jeremy’s death. She’s also dealing with her grief, since Miranda was one of her best friends in high school, and now her family is almost completely gone. Stefan promises to look into the blood theft. Liz asks who might want blood bad enough to risk exposing the gang as vampires.
Cheerleaders from various schools come to Mystic Falls High for the competition, which means Elena has her pick of afternoon snacks. She follows one girl to her bus, feeds on her, and steals her hair ribbon. The girl returns with a scarf around her neck, and Caroline realizes what Elena did. She reminds Elena that Damon said not to feed on anyone. Elena replies that she doesn’t care and will do whatever she wants.
Stefan arrives and Caroline tells him that Damon’s order to Elena not to feed didn’t stick. Stefan calls Damon, who doesn’t get how Elena’s able to refuse a command. Stefan notes that that bond is based on the sired vampire’s feelings for their sire. Without feelings, it’s gone. Damon wonders what will happen to the sire bond if Elena turns her humanity back on. He tells Stefan to just get Elena home
Damon’s at the truck stop, looking for Will, and though he doesn’t find him, he does find Rebekah. She tells him Shane is dead, so they’ve lost that source of information on the cure. “Guess you won’t turn into a real girl after all,” Damon replies. Rebekah says she’ll still get the cure, and she thinks Damon can lead her to Katherine. She’s brought along some of Klaus’ blood so they can trade it to Will in exchange for info on Katherine. Damon agrees to let Rebekah tag along.
After allowing Hayley a break to eat and sleep, Klaus starts in on questioning her about Katherine. She notes that he’s wining and dining her instead of torturing or intimidating her, like most villains would. Klaus says he prefers hospitality to brutality, though she shouldn’t count on that forever. Hayley tells him that she doesn’t know where Katherine is. Klaus doubts that, since Hayley helped Katherine get the cure, and Katherine sent Will to kill her instead of rewarding her. She must have promised Hayley something.
Hayley explains that she met Katherine in New Orleans, where Hayley was looking for information on her birth parents. Katherine said she could help. Klaus thinks it makes sense that Hayley’s an orphan, what with her abandonment issues. She shoots back that he would know. Klaus reminds her that he’s the only one who can protect her, which requires her cooperation.
Elena makes Stefan help her stretch for the competition while he questions her about the cheerleader she fed on and the missing blood supply. She won’t answer the first question, but she says she’s sick of drinking from blood bags. Stefan says he knows what she’s going through, since he also enjoyed himself when he first turned, but it got less fun when he went full Ripper. He wants Elena to be scared of how she could turn out the same way. He knows how deep she could spiral and how hard it would be for her to get back out. He tells her she’s better than this. Elena disagrees – maybe she’s just becoming the better version of herself.
Caroline tries to bar Elena from the competition, but there isn’t time for a fight, so Elena joins the rest of the squad. During a stunt, she steps back and purposely doesn’t catch Caroline. Stefan makes an “oh, crap, we let this go too far” look. He’s lucky she took it out on Caroline, who’s fine because she’s a vampire but wouldn’t be if she were human.
Elena leaves, and Stefan catches up to her later as she’s texting and only half listening. He’s almost impressed that she got herself back on the cheerleading squad so she could have access to vervain-free blood from the out-of-town competition. Elena says that it was easy to fool the gang – they want her to be okay so badly that they didn’t second-guess her. Stefan tells her that the gym was too public a place to act out. If she really wants to have fun, they can take his motorcycle to a bar. Elena’s interested, so he tosses her a helmet (…why?), but it’s just a distraction so he can rush her and inject her with vervain.
Damon and Rebekah go to a hospital in Grove Hill, since Damon says it’s the ideal place for a vampire to hide out from the sun: It’s open 24/7 and there’s blood readily available. Well, normally there is, but the blood bank has been cleaned out. “Impressive. You’re like Sherlock Holmes with brain damage,” Rebekah comments. She thinks Will is responsible for the theft, but Damon knows he couldn’t have had time to rob two hospitals while dying from a hybrid bite. Anyway, the blood theft is a problem for another time.
Damon says Will must be nearby. Rebekah hopes they’re not going on another fruitless search. He tells her he wants the cure as much as she does. She questions that, since she heard his phone conversation with Stefan and knows that Elena broke the sire bond. If she takes the cure, she’ll go back to Stefan. If they get it, Damon should just let Rebekah have it.
Hayley looks through Klaus’ art at the Haus of Klaus but only likes one of his pieces. She asks why he painted it. He tells her painting is his way of being in control. He gets to make all the choices. When he was a child, he never knew where he belonged, but art lets him achieve a vision. You can do the same in life, but only if you don’t let anything stop you.
Hayley asks if this is how Klaus tries to seduce women. He tries to flirt a little, but she’s not happy with his treatment of Tyler. She guesses that he didn’t kill Tyler because he knows Caroline would hate him. Klaus says killing Tyler would end his revenge right away. If Tyler spends a lifetime scared and paranoid, he’ll really suffer.
Klaus doubts that Hayley really thinks she and Tyler ever had a future anyway. Hayley says he might have left Caroline for her if she’d used the cure to kill Klaus. Klaus says that if Tyler’s as resolved as Hayley, he could survive the year. Hayley tells him survival isn’t about resolve – it’s about allies. That’s how Katherine has escaped Klaus for so long. He asks if Hayley knows the names of any of Katherine’s allies. She implies that she does and might be willing to tell him.
Elena wakes up from her vervain nap in Damon’s bed and asks if Stefan’s grounding her for messing with Caroline. He says it’s for feeding on someone in public. She starts changing out of her cheerleading uniform, and he accuses her of trying to manipulate him with sex. Katherine used to do the same thing. Elena says Katherine’s a scaredy-cat, while Elena is no longer afraid of anything. She’s also shut off her feelings for Stefan, and while she appreciates the sex they had together, she doesn’t feel anything about it anymore.
She sends some more texts, then asks why Stefan cares about her. He says he feels responsible for what’s happened to her. He brought the supernatural into her life. He already has to live with his guilt over the people he’s killed, and he can’t live with the people Elena will hurt or what that will do to her. She’s texting more, so he grabs her phone to make her listen to him. She taunts that his whole world revolves around her: “Maybe you’re the one that needs to turn it all off.”
There’s noise downstairs, and Stefan goes down to find a ton of people in his house. (Music: “I Love It,” Icona Pop) He realizes all of Elena’s texts were to organize a party. He summons Caroline, but he’s not that worried about things getting out of control. Either everyone will get bored and leave when they’ve finished all the alcohol, or Damon will come home and kill them all. Caroline notes that they can’t compel the guests to leave, since they’re all on vervain. I mean, Stefan could just tell them to go, but he doesn’t seem interested. He says they can just keep an eye on Elena and enjoy themselves. Well, as much as Stefan ever enjoys himself.
Elena’s currently dancing on a table with someone, feeling as much happiness as she’s able to with her emotions off. Caroline says she forgot what it was like to see her friend have fun. It almost makes her want to let go. Stefan’s hesitant to do that, because of how he tends to kill people when he’s not in control, but Caroline (his post-Lexi sober coach) tells him to let loose a little. He asks if he’s supposed to throw a girl over his shoulder and take her to the dance floor. She says he should at least try to have fun. He agrees, then throws her over his shoulder and takes her to the dance floor.
It’s night now, so Damon feeds on a nurse outside the hospital to use her blood to lure Will out of hiding. It works. Damon and Will recognize each other, and Will asks for help with his hybrid bite. Damon says he knows what to do, then kills him. He tells Rebekah that Will was too far gone and needed to be put out of his misery.
Once Rebekah calls to tell Klaus that Will is dead, Klaus lets Hayley know she’s free to go. Because…Katherine won’t just send someone else after her? She’s also free to stay. Hayley again hints that she’ll tell him something about Katherine, but she wants Tyler’s freedom in exchange. Klaus says no, so Hayley does, too. She tells him she liked his painting because it showed how twisted his soul is. She can relate. Klaus asks if she’s going to stay or go. She replies that since he likes to be in control, he should make the decision. They’re really close to each other, and he touches her face, then grabs her and kisses her. Their clothes quickly come off after that.
Back at Vamp Villa, Stefan and Caroline are happy, but suddenly Elena’s not. He thinks she’s jealous that they’re hanging out, though Elena says that would mean she feels something, and she doesn’t. She tells Caroline to “take him out for a spin.” Liz arrives and asks Elena what’s going on. She says they’re engaging in underage drinking and drug use, and Stefan is about to become Caroline’s rebound guy. Liz wants to break up the party, but Elena threatens to drink her blood if she tries. When Liz tries to move past her anyway, Elena gets aggressive.
Caroline rushes to save her mom, then tells Stefan she’s going to wring Elena’s neck. Elena zooms off before she gets the chance. Stefan and Caroline go looking for her in the woods, as Stefan thinks Elena’s intention the whole time was to distract them so she could get away from them. They split up, and Stefan tells Caroline to snap Elena’s neck if she finds her.
Damon gets home and is actually fine with the party. Rebekah bugs him about why he killed Will. She thinks he did it to keep her from finding Katherine. Damon asks if she really wants the cure. The girls around them are happy now, but in a few years, they’re going to get into mediocre marriages and uninteresting careers. They’ll soon learn what Damon already knows: “Life sucks when you’re ordinary.” Rebekah will become a nobody if she takes the cure and becomes human. She should see the loss of the cure as the best thing to ever happen to her.
Stefan texts Damon to get him to join the search for Elena. Meanwhile, Elena ambushes Caroline and the two of them fight. Though Caroline should have the advantage, since she’s been a vampire longer, Elena learned how to fight a vampire from an actual hunter, so she knows moves Caroline doesn’t. Caroline stops the fight and asks Elena how far she plans to go with her new “I don’t care about anything” attitude. She’s already hurt Liz. Elena asks if Caroline wants her to feel bad about that. Once again, Elena doesn’t care about anything.
She thinks Caroline should give turning off her emotions a try. Then she’ll stop whining about Tyler leaving and feeling guilty about her interest in Klaus. Caroline starts the fight back up, and Elena tells her she fights like a girl. She overpowers Caroline and is about to stake her when Stefan and Damon zoom in and stop her. Damon’s like, “Normally I would totally let you two keep going at it, but I’m going to be mature for once and end this.”
Caroline leaves Tyler another freaking message back at Vamp Villa. Matt texts her to come to Lockwood Landing. Stefan reminds her that Elena isn’t herself; she’s the worst version of herself now. Caroline worries that they’ll never get her to turn her emotions back on. She has no reason to go back to her life. Stefan says that Elena never gave up on him, even when he was at his worst, so they can’t give up on her.
Damon looks through some old keepsakes upstairs as Elena wonders when she’s allowed to leave timeout. She thinks he’s ridiculous for judging her for trying to kill Caroline when he’s tried to kill his own brother multiple times. Damon finds a picture of himself and Will but won’t tell her who Will is. Elena is tired of people telling her she needs to feel because what she feels right now is amazing. Damon tells her she doesn’t want to be like this. She asks if she should go back to the scared, uncertain little girl she used to be. Damon wanted to be with her for a long time but was afraid of her finding out who he really is. Now it doesn’t matter who he is because – say it with me – she doesn’t care. She thinks he likes her better like this.
Caroline goes to Lockwood Landing and is surprised to discover that she can no longer go inside. Matt invites her in and gives her a letter from Tyler. He’s decided he can’t come home as long as Klaus is alive. It’s safer for both him and Caroline if he stays away. He’s given Matt the deed to the house, so it’s now up to Matt to decide which vamps can and can’t enter. Caroline sadly realizes that her boyfriend is gone for good.
Hayley is getting dressed to leave the Haus of Klaus when Klaus notices a little half moon on her shoulder. She says it’s a birthmark, but he’s seen it before on others – a werewolf clan from Louisiana. Hayley’s eager to learn more.
Liz calls Stefan to tell him there’s another problem. He relays the news to Damon, who’s out for a drive: The two blood-bank thefts aren’t the only ones in the area. Stefan thinks Silas followed them home from the island and is trying to satisfy his hunger after not feeding for 2,000 years. Damon doesn’t want to “Scooby-Doo” this mystery right now, but he’ll jump on it when he gets back. He and Elena are currently on their way to a place he thinks every newbie vampire should visit: New York.
Etc.: Rebekah did what the gang should have done long ago – she got some of Klaus’ blood in case anyone needs healing from werewolf venom.
It’s ridiculous that Hayley spends half of this season looking for information on her birth family, and then on The Originals, that practically gets dropped. It’s also ridiculous that Hayley started her search in New Orleans, then left because Katherine sent her elsewhere, when all along, all the information she needed was, in fact, in New Orleans.
We’re supposed to believe that the world’s most powerful supernatural being, who’s controlled his siblings for 1,000 years, only feels in control when he’s painting?
The choice of “I Love It” as the song for the beginning of the party is great both because it reflects Elena’s current state (“I don’t care”) and one of the reasons she’s in it (“I crashed my car into a bridge”).
Hayley and Klaus’ hookup would make more sense if they’d spent more than two minutes together before this episode. But it’s crucial for the bulk of the two spin-offs, so whatever.
An Eternity of Misery 