Wes has successfully turned Jesse into a vampire and is now using him as a guinea pig. He’s kept Jesse in a lab for three days without letting him eat. He uses a tape recorder to take notes on his observations and ignores Jesse’s questions about what he’s doing. Wes declares that he’s a “perfect candidate.”
Elena has gotten a new journal and is writing about her attempt to move on in the wake of Bonnie’s death. She’s back at Whitmore and working on that whole normal-college-experience thing. She writes that Stefan still has amnesia, and he’s keeping his distance from the gang, except for Caroline. But Caroline is too busy to spend much time with him now that Tyler’s back and is basically the third roommate in the Super Suite.
Elena is now focusing on finding out more about Megan’s death and what Wes is up to. He runs into her and asks if he’ll see her at the costume ball on campus that night. Shouldn’t he be telling her to leave school again? Elena writes that she appreciates having things to distract her from thinking about Bonnie. Bonnie’s by her side, and though Elena doesn’t know she’s there, she believes Bonnie’s watching over her.
Damon calls and Elena ignores him, but he’s actually on campus and busts her. She’s been out of contact for three days, other than one text inviting him to the costume ball. He says he “definitely will maybe consider thinking about” attending. She tells him Caroline got them costumes, then heads off to class.
In the Super Suite, Caroline tells Tyler that she’s had him declared a sociology major and compelled him a single room. He doesn’t want to talk about school stuff, and he also doesn’t want to talk about all the time he was away. Basically, he just wants to have sex. Guys, at least do it in her bed instead of on the floor in the middle of the room. Caroline is making him go to the ball with her – it’s a combo costume party and exhibit by Whitmore’s historical society. Apparently attendance is mandatory for the gang, since Caroline has even talked Stefan into going.
Elena spots a classmate at Megan’s on-campus memorial and introduces herself to him. He says he and Megan knew each other growing up. He’s disappointed in how poorly maintained the memorial is. Elena says everyone mourns differently. Some leave flowers while others do what their loved ones would want them to do. The guy, Aaron (though he doesn’t tell her his name yet), says Megan would want to still be alive. He doesn’t believe the official report that she killed herself. Elena asks what he thinks happened, but Aaron just tells her that Megan liked sunflowers.
Nadia is still holed up in a motel with Katherine, and Silas is still unable to find them, thanks to Qetsiyah’s spell that took away his mind-control powers. Nadia says he can have Katherine when Nadia’s done with her. Silas asks how much longer Nadia needs her. Mom said to share the newly mortal doppelganger! Nadia notes that he’s immortal, so he can wait a few more hours. Silas is impatient, but she reminds him there’s nothing he can do. He warns that he’s still very smart and is learning how to track cell phones. Nadia quickly hangs up. Katherine offers up some advice: “Don’t piss off the diabolical ones.”
Nadia announces that they’re leaving, but Katherine is so sick of motel life and junk food that she’s willing to let herself be handed over to Silas just so she can stay somewhere nicer. Nadia tells her not to offer herself up when she doesn’t know the whole story. Silas can’t just take a sip of Katherine’s blood to get the cure. He needs to drink all of it. And since Katherine’s human now, she won’t survive.
At Vamp Villa, Damon presents Jeremy (and Bonnie) with an idea he doesn’t want Elena to know about yet. Silas wants to die and nature has that whole thing about needing a balance. If the gang works with Silas, maybe they can all get what they want.
In a flash-forward, Damon meets with Silas at the Grill to discuss this same idea. Damon tells Jeremy and Bonnie that he wants to use Silas’ death to bring Bonnie back to life. They need to make him mortal first, but then he would be a witch, and that means he’d go to the Other Side when he died. Jeremy notes that Silas got the veil dropped once already and failed to move on. Bonnie says he could have a plan B: destroy the Other Side.
Powerful spells are bound by powerful things. Since the Other Side still exists after 2,000 years, it has to be bound to something at least that old. Silas tells Damon it’s an anchor. Qetsiyah’s the only person who knows where it is, and Silas knows she’ll be at the ball that evening. Damon asks Bonnie (well, the blank space next to Jeremy where Damon knows Bonnie’s standing, even though he can’t see her) if it’s possible for Silas to swap his life for someone else’s after he dies. Bonnie says yes, but they can’t trust him, and there will be consequences. They shouldn’t do it. Jeremy takes advantage of the fact that only he can hear Bonnie to tell Damon that she’s on board.
Silas is only half on board. He’s fine with resurrecting Bonnie with his death, but he wants to know what’s in this for him. Uh, you get to die, which is all you want. What else do you need here? Damon asks what Silas is looking for, and Silas says he wants Damon to kill Stefan.
Katherine and Nadia stop at a diner for lunch and a Q&A session so Nadia can get information she’s been wondering about. She’ll let Katherine go after that. She starts by asking Katherine about the vampire roundup in 1864 and Katherine’s selling-out of Pearl and Anna. Katherine fully admits to it, as well as other misdeeds like messing with Stefan and Damon, triggering Mason’s werewolf curse, and chopping off John’s fingers.
Nadia asks about the time she had a woman killed and ripped her away from her daughter. She explains that she had herself turned into a vampire just so she could hunt down Katherine. She was willing to look as long as necessary because Katherine killed her mother way back in 1645. She ID’d an innocent woman as herself so Klaus’ minions would kill her instead. Katherine realizes that Nadia isn’t really going to let her go. As they’re leaving the diner, Katherine grabs another customer’s cane and shoves it into Nadia’s chest, then runs.
Bonnie tells Jeremy to admit to Damon that he lied. Silas is too dangerous to work with. Jeremy notes that what Bonnie did was dangerous, too. She reminds him that there will be consequences, but he can’t think of anything worse than what they’re already experiencing. It’s not enough for him to be able to see and hear her but not touch her. He wants to let Damon at least try to bring her back.
Tyler and Caroline arrive at the costume ball dressed as Bonnie and Clyde. Stefan’s already there, in a barely-put-any-thought-into-this James Dean costume. I assume Caroline chose that for him so he wouldn’t be able to complain about wearing a costume. He invites her to dance, saying he’s drunk and close to having fun. Across the room, Damon texts Silas that Stefan’s there.
Elena joins him, dressed as Anne Boleyn to his Henry VIII. She’s not interested in dancing or having much of a conversation. She still feels bad that she had such a great summer while Bonnie was secretly dead. She knows Bonnie’s death isn’t her fault, but she’s upset that she didn’t figure it out sooner. Damon tells her she’s allowed to enjoy herself. Plus, Jeremy lied to them, so they couldn’t have known what was going on. Elena says she won’t let Megan’s death fall through the cracks like Bonnie’s did.
She spots Aaron and tells Damon he’s her latest person of interest. She goes to chat with him, still trying to learn his name. He wonders why she’s so interested in knowing who he is. Turning on her compulsion, she asks if he killed Megan. He didn’t. She asks why he’s being so shady. He tells her that everyone around him dies, like he’s cursed. If Elena knew what survivor’s guilt felt like, she’d leave him alone. Of course she understands exactly what he’s been through, so she backs off and compels him to forget about her questions. As a reward, she learns his name.
Qetsiyah arrives dressed as Cleopatra and joins Stefan at the bar. She apologizes for wiping his memory as part of her “ex-boyfriend drama” and offers to buy him a drink. Damon pulls Stefan into another room, where Silas joins them. Damon snaps Stefan’s neck, as per Silas’ instructions, which severs the link between the two doppelgangers and restores Silas’ mind-control powers. Silas will now pose as Stefan so he can stay close to Qetsiyah and read her mind to find out where the anchor is. Damon’s skeptical that Qetsiyah won’t be suspicious that “Stefan” wants to hang out with her. Silas notes that she went straight for Stefan when she got there because he has Silas’ face. “A woman never forgets her first love, no matter how badly it ended,” he says.
He goes to the bar and drinks some shots with Qetsiyah, who’s completely unaware that she’s hanging out with her ex. They head to the dance floor just as Caroline is suggesting to Tyler that they slip away for some alone time. He tells her he didn’t come to Whitmore just for sex. It’s clear he wants to say something else, but instead, he just tells her he’s glad to be there.
Silas asks Qetsiyah why she came to a costume ball at a college. She wants to relish being young and pretty again, since the last time she was in the world, she didn’t get to enjoy it. He notes that when she was college-aged, she was getting stood up at the altar. Qetsiyah gets suspicious because she told Stefan that before she wiped his memories, but Silas says someone else told him. She admits to being paranoid, though that’s understandable considering what happened the last time she got close to a guy.
Silas says he must have had some redeeming qualities. Wasn’t he at least funny? Qetsiyah has been seeking revenge for 2,000 years, and maybe hating Silas is a way for her to keep him in her life. Maybe a part of her still loves him. Qetsiyah says she hopes he thinks that. She wants to see his face when he realizes he’s wrong. Silas reveals who he really is, then compels Qetsiyah to tell him where the anchor is. She admits that she doesn’t know – the Travelers hid it and constantly move it. She’s at the ball to find a pendant that used to belong to her. It’s a talisman that enhances her power, and she can use it to do a locator spell on the anchor. Silas tells her to get looking, then compels her to forget their conversation.
Stefan is waking up, which takes away Silas’ mind-control abilities again. Stefan would like to know why his brother broke his neck and pumped him full of vervain. Damon says it’s not about him, so Stefan guesses that he’s trying to prove to Elena that he’s a good boyfriend. Damon replies that he’s going to get Bonnie back, then breaks Stefan’s neck again and texts Silas to hurry up.
Katherine finds Nadia in some alley, struggling to pull out the cane Katherine stuck in her. Katherine grazed her heart on purpose to make it harder. Nadia knows that means Katherine wants her alive – she must want something. Katherine asks why Nadia made up the story about her mother. Nadia says it was a test, and Katherine failed. Katherine had been running from Klaus for 150 years in 1645, so there’s no way his minions wouldn’t know what she looked like. But she guesses that Nadia knows how she thinks, and she knew Katherine wouldn’t fall for her sob story.
Nadia says she wanted to get under Katherine’s skin. It must have worked, since she came back. Katherine asks what game Nadia’s playing. Nadia says Katherine did kill her mother, but not in Paris in 1645 – it was in England in 1492. Nadia’s last name is Petrova, and Katherine is her mother.
Back at the ball, Elena finds Wes, who’s dressed as Dr. Jekyll, like, way to be subtle about being a mad scientist. She asks him to dance, which he agrees to because she’s not his student. She asks again about Megan’s death certificate, and he notes that he couldn’t tell her parents what really happened. His theory is that Megan was killed by a vampire. Elena scoffs and asks what he knows about vampires. Wes says it doesn’t matter – they’re never going to see each other again. There are people at Whitmore watching her and asking questions she doesn’t want them to ask. She needs to go back to Mystic Falls.
Tyler finally tells Caroline that he’s not ready for college. She acknowledges that he needs to do his own thing. What’s important is that they’re together. He notes that they’re only together because Klaus said it was okay. Tyler can’t live like that. He can’t just move on after what Klaus did to Carol. He only came to Whitmore to say goodbye before he goes after Klaus. Tyler wants to destroy Klaus’ life the way Klaus destroyed his. Caroline comments that Tyler sounds a lot like this guy he keeps saying he hates.
Qetsiyah slips away from the party to look for her pendant, which is on display. Silas finds her using it for the locator spell, and she tells him it’s done its job. Stefan wakes up again, though this time he pretends he’s still out so he can get a jump on Damon and break his neck instead. He then finds Qetsiyah and tells her she’s been talking to Silas. He warns that Silas and Damon are working together, and everything Silas said tonight was a lie.
Qetsiyah guesses that Silas read her mind and found out where the anchor is, but she doesn’t plan to let him find it. She starts a spell on him, and he reminds her that she can’t kill him. He doesn’t think she’ll hurt him, since she loves him. Qetsiyah says she did, but he broke her heart, so now she’s going to break his. Well, really, she’s going to stop it so his blood no longer flows and he rots from the inside out. Basically, he desiccates, and now he looks like the monster he is.
Wes runs into Aaron and takes his car keys, since he’s been drinking. This scene is only meaningful because we learn that Wes is Aaron’s legal guardian (or was before Aaron turned 18) and controls his trust fund. Elena finds Damon standing over Silas’ body and thinks they should be happy that he’s dead. Damon doesn’t want to tell her that he had plans for Silas that are now ruined.
Nadia wakes up in a motel room with the cane removed from her body. She tells Katherine that Silas was right and she shouldn’t try to run. Katherine thinks she can stay ahead of another diabolical person. Besides, Silas can’t do anything with her until he figures out how to destroy the Other Side, so she has some time. Katherine asks Nadia where she was in 1498, when Katherine went back to Bulgaria. She searched everywhere but couldn’t find her daughter. Nadia is surprised to learn that her mother wanted to get her back.
Caroline finds Tyler in the Super Suite and tells him she’s not going to wait for him. She asks him to stay: “Love me more than you hate him.” He says he can’t. He starts to leave, and Caroline tells him if he takes another step, they’re done for good. Tyler hesitates but keeps walking out.
Damon and Elena take Silas’ body to Vamp Villa, where she tells him about her conversation with Wes. She’s not sure what she’s going to do. She does know that finding out what happened to Megan won’t bring Bonnie back, though. Damon notes that Silas won’t bring her back, either, in the state he’s in. Elena knows Damon’s intended plan now, but not the detour he’s decided they need to take.
Katherine shows up, pleased to see that Silas has been neutralized. She taunts that Damon and Elena finally did something right for once. Then she realizes that Damon has something in store for her. He bites her neck, planning to feed her blood to Silas so he’ll get the cure and become mortal. Katherine begs for her life, and though Elena seems concerned about what’s happening, she doesn’t interfere. Damon feeds Katherine to Silas in a way similar to how she fed Jeremy to Silas. Katherine looks at her doppelganger as he drinks.
Silas becomes mortal again but stays unconscious. Katherine falls to the floor, and after a few moments, Damon and Elena hear her heart still beating. Even having her blood drained didn’t kill Katherine. She doesn’t get that, though, since she looks up at them and asks, “Am I in Hell?”
Keep in mind: Qetsiyah used an anchor to bind the spell when she created the Other Side.
Etc.: You can just start college in the middle of the semester, huh? I assume compulsion was involved there.
It must be so awkward for Bonnie to pop in to check on one of her friends and find them, like, having sex or something. If she were a meaner person, she would probably use their embarrassing secrets against them later.
Caroline getting Damon and Elena costumes as a doomed couple is hilarious.
There’s always at least one person at a costume party who barely tried, and of course Stefan’s that person at this one.
So obviously Nadia has to exist so Katherine has a bloodline Elena can be descended from. But Nadia would also have to have a child to continue the bloodline, and he or she is never mentioned. Someone dropped the ball there. Also, please imagine a child having Katherine as a grandmother.
An Eternity of Misery 