Previously, on The Vampire Diaries: Alaric was evil, and then he became a vampire, and then he died. The Originals invaded Mystic Falls and Klaus caused all sorts of havoc. Elena had a cerebral hemorrhage and Dr. Meredith Fell helped heal her with vampire blood. Later on, Matt and Elena got into a car accident and Elena died helping to save Matt (with the vampire blood in her system).

The episode opens with Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) waking up in her bedroom from a nightmare. Sexy Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) is waiting there and he tells her she was in an accident. She asks about Matt, and it turns out Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) is in her room too. Talk about a nightmare turned into a dream come true…amirite? Ladies? Anybody? Damon is mad because Stefan saved Matt over Elena.

Earlier, when Elena had gone to the hospital for a bump on the head, it was actually much worse than anyone knew; Dr. Meredith Fell (Torrey DeVitto) had used Damon’s blood to heal Elena. Later, when Rebekah (Claire Holt) ran Matt’s truck off the road, Elena still had the blood in her system. Elena asks if she’s dead. Stefan says he talked to Bonnie and that she’s stronger than ever and might be able to help Elena. Negative Nellie Damon says the only thing that’s going to help is for Elena to feed and complete the transition. Stefan says they have a whole day for Elena to feed and they need to exhaust every possibility before they resort to Elena turning into a vampire.

Damon says there’s no other option, either Elena feeds or she dies. Elena is upset, obviously. She says she had been ready to die (she’s the one who told Stefan to save Matt over herself), and that she doesn’t want to be a vampire. Damon goes downstairs for a drink. It’s not his house, and it’s clearly morning, but that’s really never stopped him from drinking before. Stefan follows him and Damon tells him he’s getting Elena’s hopes up for nothing. Stefan says he will regret saving Matt over Elena for the rest of his life, so now he wants to fix it.

Elena is upstairs in her bedroom still and she’s starting to get the vamps – aches and pains, weird hearing and vision. Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) comes in and asks if Elena is doing okay; he saw Vicki Donovan go through the transition, and he knows it can be rough. Elena asks if he’s talked to Bonnie, and he says Bonnie made some kind of appeal to the witch spirits when he was shot, and maybe the same sort of thing will work for Elena. Elena says the consequences of that were horrible, but Jeremy contends that the consequences of her becoming a vampire would be much worse.

Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is lying dead in a coffin as Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) looks down at him. Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) sneaks up on her, but it turns out it’s actually Klaus in Tyler’s body. Bonnie says the deal they made with Tyler was that Klaus would leave his body the first chance he got. But Klaus wants to be put back in his original body. Bonnie says she can’t right now because she has to help Elena before she has to feed. Klaus says that because Alaric outted Caroline and Tyler to the Founder’s Council, Tyler’s body is vulnerable and he wants his old one back, and that Elena is none of his concern. Bonnie says that if she can keep Elena human, Klaus will have an endless supply of doppelganger blood to make his hybrids, so he backs down.

Over at the Mystic Falls hospital, Dr. Meredith is approached by Pastor Young, a new character I do believe. Pastor Young says the blood supply at the hospital has a habit of flying off the shelves, and the Founders’ Council has given him the authority to secure it. He also tells her that Alaric told the council everything, and that she should probably start looking for a new job.

Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) is getting ready to leave the hospital as he tells Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola) that Elena doesn’t want to be a vampire. He says it’s all his fault because he was the one driving and he was saved over Elena. Caroline tells him to keep his voice down because she’s supposed to be halfway to Florida by now. So he asks why she’s there. Caroline says Tyler’s dead and she doesn’t know where to go. One of the Pastor’s security guys busts in, but Caroline hides in time.

In the meantime, Tyler’s mom, Mayor Lockwood, is being arrested by the Pastor’s goons. Haha, that sentence was weird. He tells her that they just want to ask her a few questions about her son. She says they can’t arrest her because she’s mayor, and he says she isn’t anymore. Caroline’s mom, Sheriff Forbes, gets her badge taken away by the Pastor also. Sheriff Ms. Forbes calls Caroline to make sure she’s far away. Caroline is just leaving her house, and she gets attacked by the Pastor’s goon squad.

Elena is trying to eat a sandwich. Stefan asks if it’s disgusting. Elena tries to lie at first but then says she can’t stop thinking about blood. Stefan says he should have saved her first, and Elena says but then Matt would be dead. Elena says Stefan did the right thing, and if Bonnie can’t find a solution, then they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it. Elena starts laughing – get it? Because they drove off a bridge? Then she starts laughing hysterically, and then she’s crying. Stefan says her emotions are heightened and tells her to go upstairs where it’s dark.

Elena goes upstairs and Damon is sitting there. He says, “cute PJs,” and Elena looks over and another Elena is standing there in her pajamas. Elena is seeing a scene from her past when Damon gives her the magical necklace. Damon tells other Elena that he loves her, and because he loves her he can’t be selfish with her. Damon then compels other Elena to forget the moment, but almost vampire Elena has obviously remembered it now.

Rebekah is over at the Original mansion and she’s looking at sketches that Klaus drew. Damon comes in and they trade some witty repartee, and then Damon tries to stab her with a white oak stake. As they struggle, gun shots come through the window, and then Rebekah is shot with some kind of wooden arrow. Back at the Gilbert house, Elena hears some noises so she goes downstairs. Pastor Young and the Goon Squad (great band name, btw) have Stefan at gunpoint.

Tyler/Klaus is sitting in the cave with Klaus’s body, when “Mom” calls. Klaus answers as Tyler, and Mrs. Lockwood tells him not to tell her where he is, as the less she knows the better. She says she was so worried that he was with Caroline, and then tells him that the Founders’ Council took Caroline. Flash to Caroline and Rebekah sitting in the back of a van. All of a sudden the van crashes, and Tyler/Klaus is ripping the doors off the van. Awww, that’s so sweet, Klaus has a crush on Caroline. Caroline asks how Tyler is alive and he says he’s harder to kill than she thought. He starts to walk away and Rebekah asks, “What about me?” Klaus reveals himself and says, “Keep them busy, little sister.”

Damon, Ms. Forbes, and Dr. Meredith all convene. Ex-sheriff Forbes says she was locked out of her office and they confiscated all her files. Damon is like, ok, so let me get this straight, the mayor and the sheriff of Mystic Falls never thought to think up a backup plan? Matt comes in asking to see Elena and Damon springs on him, asking in what world it is that he gets to live over Elena.

Elena is in some kind of creepy cabin with Pastor Young. He says he knows it seems crazy, but years ago it was her parents that advocated having a backup plan like the one he’s executing. Elena asks where Stefan is, and Pastor Young says he’s somewhere he can’t hurt Elena. Pastor Young, or PY as I like to call him, says they’re going to hold Stefan until Damon comes looking for Stefan and Elena, and they’re holding Rebekah until her siblings come back into town. And then they’re going to exterminate the entire vampire race. The whole time Elena is just freaking out at all the different noises and the food PY puts in front of her. She tries to run out of the cabin, but she doesn’t make it very far because of the sun.

Tyler/Klaus and Caroline are making out in the woods. He says “easy, love,” and she’s like yay, it’s time for hybrid/vampire sex. They keep making out and then she’s like, did you just call me love? She figures out that it’s actually Klaus and slaps the shit out of him. He says that he’s the one that risked exposure to save her, and she tells him to put Tyler back. Klaus says he would gladly put him back and then take her up on her offer for hybrid/vampire sex.

Bonnie and Jeremy are in the basement, and Bonnie is chanting her weird Latin witchy language. But it’s not working. Jeremy asks what else she can do, and Bonnie says if the witches won’t help her maybe she can go to the other side and bring her back herself. Elena is not fully dead and not fully alive, so what if her spirit exists on both sides? Jeremy says even so, how could Bonnie get to the other side if she’s not dead. Bonnie says she’ll stop her heart, go find Elena, and then bring her back. Bonnie says she’s stronger now with a new tapped power and she should be strong enough to do it.

Ex-sheriff Forbes says that PY and the Goon Squad have Alaric’s weapons and the Salvatores’ stock of vervain, and with all that they could be anywhere. Matt says that PY has a cattle ranch and that the cattle pens could be easily modified to hold a vampire. Damon says it looks like Matt has the chance to prove how sorry he really is.

Elena wakes up from being knocked out by a goon, and she’s in a cow cage directly opposite Rebekah, who is coughing from having vervain blown on her with a fan. Rebekah says PY thought Elena was a vampire so they stuck her in there with them. Stefan is in the cage next to Elena. She tells him that she didn’t feed, and Rebekah puts two and two together. Rebekah says Elena has three hours to feed before Rebekah gets to watch Elena die all over again.

Bonnie starts doing a new crazy spell. Her nose starts bleeding and Jeremy tells her to open her eyes. Veins start bulging out in Bonnie’s arms and neck, and then she falls over. Suddenly, Bonnie appears in the cow cage with Elena. Elena starts to try to leave with Bonnie, when all of a sudden, Bonnie’s grandmother shows up on the other side of the cage. Grams tells Bonnie she shouldn’t be there and that she needs to stay away from that sort of darkness. Bonnie says she needs to help Elena, but Grams tells her to just go before “they” try to keep her there. She says that if Bonnie touches that sort of dark magic again the spirits are going to make her suffer. Bonnie wakes up back in the basement with Jeremy and says that it didn’t work.

Elena tells Stefan that she’s out of time and that she needs blood. Stefan starts yelling and one of the guards comes in telling Stefan to keep it down. Stefan says that Elena is innocent, and the guard shoots him with wooden bullets. Stefan is down but not out; he tells Elena that Damon was right and that she should have fed in the morning. Elena says she was on the bridge to come back for Stefan; she had to choose between Stefan and Damon, and she chose Stefan because she loves him. She says that no matter what happens, it’s the best choice she ever made. They can’t see each other, but Stefan says that he’s smiling.

Tyler/Klaus and Caroline are in the basement with Bonnie and Jeremy. Klaus wants out of Tyler’s body, but Bonnie says she’s upset the spirits and she can’t use that kind of magic anymore. Klaus starts trying to rip Tyler’s heart out of his body so he can jump into someone else’s body, and ultimately manipulates Bonnie into using her magic. Bonnie starts chanting and gets Klaus out of Tyler, but then she can’t stop chanting. Grams shows up and tells her she warned Bonnie about using the magic again. Grams says Bonnie made her choice and now the spirits are taking it out on Grams. Grams gets all crazy veiny and then disappears.

Matt and Damon show up at the cattle ranch and Matt asks what they’re going to do. Damon says they need bait and all of a sudden rips into Matt’s neck. PY comes out and tells Damon to let Matt go. Damon says he’ll trade Matt for Elena and Stefan, when somebody shoots Damon. The guards come in and secure the cattle area to bring Damon in. Rebekah had been watching Elena and Stefan’s whole exchange and decides to help them. She lunges at one of the guards and then when he jumps back, Stefan bangs him against the bars. The guard falls down bleeding and Elena is able to get some of the blood and drink it.

The other two guards have gone out to get Damon, who is playing dead on the ground, and he jumps up and kills the guards. Damon starts to go after Matt and says it should’ve been you, when Elena springs out like a ninja vampire and tells him to leave Matt alone. Matt stumbles to the cow area, and Stefan tries to help him up. Matt tells him to stop trying to save him, and Stefan says it was Elena’s choice to save him, and now Matt needs to wake up every day and earn that choice that she made.

Elena is chiding Damon for trying to kill Matt, and Damon says it’s hard to keep track of all her choices lately. Elena says that she remembers everything that he compelled her to forget, like that fact that she and Damon met before she met Stefan. He’s the stranger that told her he wanted her to get everything she wanted from life. She tells him that he asked her to choose between Damon and Stefan – so she did. And if he’s mad about her choice he needs to take it out on her and not Matt or Stefan or someone else. He says that if it had been him in place of Stefan at the bridge, and Elena had asked him to save Matt, he would’ve saved her and let Matt die.

Klaus is back in his body, packing up a suitcase of blood and ice, as we all do for our journeys, when Rebekah comes into the house furious that he saved Caroline over her. Klaus said he only had time to save one, and Rebekah can’t be killed. He wants to go find werewolves to make more hybrids, but Rebekah grabs the blood, which I’m guessing is Elena’s, and spills it all out on the floor. Klaus grabs Rebekah and tells her that from now on she is not his sister; she is nothing. The he knocks her out and leaves.

Elena and Stefan are sitting on the roof of the Salvatore mansion. Elena says the whole council knows who they are now, and that things are about to change. Stefan says he’s sure Damon has a revenge plan cooked up and they’ll find some way to deal with it. Stefan says he’s not going to sugar coat it; transitioning to a vampire is going to be the worst thing she lives through. Elena says she’ll live through it though, and that’s the most important thing. Stefan gives Elena a daylight ring that Bonnie made for her, just in case. How convenient. Now ALL the vampires can walk around in the daylight.

PY is at his cattle ranch with his “friends.” He turns on the gas stove and tells them that all of the vampires have escaped, but soon they will be free to roam about without fear. And then he locks the door and sets them all on fire. Yay for crazy religious zealots and their suicide pacts, woohoo!

Next time, on The Vampire Diaries: Stefan teaches Elena how to be a vampire.

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