Previously, on The Vampire Diaries: Elena died with vampire blood in her system, and after a crazy pastor took over the town, she was forced to drink human blood and complete the transition into a vampire. In the process of becoming a vampire, she remembered everything Damon had compelled her to forget. Bonnie did too much “bad magic” trying to help Elena not become a vampire, and the witch spirits did something bad to her deceased Grams. The aforementioned crazy Pastor Young forced a bunch of the Founders’ Council into a mass suicide.

The episode opens with Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) waking up out in the woods. Apparently, Stefan is trying to get Elena used to animal blood right out of the gate. Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) thinks it’s a bad idea, but Stefan says that Elena won’t be able to handle it if she hurts someone. Damon argues that she can’t learn to control the blood lust if she’s never truly experienced the blood lust, but Stefan takes her out hunting for deer anyway. Out in the woods, Elena learns that all of her senses are heightened, and she and Stefan end up having hot woods sex…almost. Elena stops because she has to throw up a bunch of blood…hot.

A crime scene investigator (I’m guessing) is checking out the scene of the mass suicide orchestrated by Pastor Young. He finds a note in the oven and takes it (which is weird because they used gas from the oven to blow up the house, so you’d think everything inside the oven would’ve gotten blown up too).

Damon is drowning his sorrows at the Mystic Grille, when I guess the now reinstated Sheriff Forbes shows him a newspaper. It’s the story of the mass suicide, only they don’t know it was a suicide yet, they think it was a “tragic gas line accident.” The CSI, who is actually a self-proclaimed “independent contractor,” shows up and asks Sheriff Forbes if they can speak in private.

Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) and Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen) are loading a bunch of lanyards into a van for a memorial for the Founders’ Council, when they are approached by April…some girl Elena used to babysit. It turns out April’s dad was Pastor Young. Matt and Jeremy offer condolences about her father and she says she’s not much for grief. She then goes off to register for school (previously she had been shipped off to boarding school).

Elena is leaving a voicemail for Caroline…apparently she is having “adjustment issues.” Stefan walks in with a bottle of champagne from the year Elena was born, saying they’re going to celebrate her first feed, and the fact that she survived it. Elena is like, yeah not really, seeing as how I barfed it all up. But Stefan claims it will get easier, and that she will get through it. As they’re “cheers’ing,” Damon calls.

Elena goes to the Mystic Grille and asks Damon if he set off the explosion that killed the town council. Damon says no, and then Elena tells him she can’t keep any of the animal blood down. She asks for Damon’s help, and he offers her a few different humans around the bar. She says no, so he takes her in the back and offers her some of his blood. The only caveat is that she doesn’t tell Stefan, because blood sharing is “kind of personal.” Elena drinks up, and Damon looks like he has his “O” face on.

Speaking of which, Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola) and Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) are in bed getting it on. Except Caroline stops things and says it’s wrong because a bunch of people died. Tyler says that “grief sex is healthy” and natural. Caroline says they need to be more sensitive, and Tyler says he loves Caroline, and how’s that for sensitive? They’re about to get it on again when the doorbell rings. It’s the investigator, Connor Jordan, at the Lockwood house there to talk to Mayor Lockwood. He asks why the whole council was in the house but Mayor Lockwood wasn’t. Tyler comes down and asks what is going on, he shakes Connor’s hand, but when he does he starts burning up. Connor pulls out a gun and shoots him, but Tyler manages to escape by jumping out a window.

Tyler shows up at the Salvatore mansion…Stefan is pulling wooden bullets out of him and notices that the bullets were specially carved. With the length and width of the bullets, if Tyler had been a normal vampire he would’ve been dead. Tyler thinks that Connor’s gloves were steeped in vervain.

Elena is at the memorial helping Matt set out programs. Matt asks how she’s doing, and she says she’s upset about all the people who died. Elena sees April Young and asks how she’s doing. April says she’s supposed to speak at the memorial, but she doesn’t know what to say. She’s worried that if she doesn’t speak, no one will. Elena excuses herself and gets sick in the bathroom; she’s throwing up blood everywhere…it’s really gross. And she gets blood all over her dress…it was really pretty too.

Stefan shows up at Bonnie’s house. She’s upset about her Grams. Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) says she’s been a mess and can’t even perform simple spells. Stefan shows her the bullets that he pulled out of Tyler; they burn to the touch and have some kind of weird etchings all over them. Bonnie says it’s not magical writing and that she doesn’t recognize the symbols.

Elena is frantically trying to clean up the bathroom when Connor the vampire hunter tries to get in. Damon shows up in the nick of time with a new dress for Elena. Connor tries to introduce himself and shake Damon’s hand, but Damon introduces himself as “Damon, germophobe” and refuses to shake his hand. Connor says he’s in town for “environmental cleanup.” Damon says to enjoy his stay in town and that the scenery is to “die for.” He then fake gasps and says, “funeral pun…too soon.” Oh Damon, I love you so much.

April Young is practicing her speech for the memorial, when all of a sudden Connor the vampire hunter comes up and stabs her…WTF?? Damon and Elena walk outside and Damon gives her a blood bag to drink. Elena tries to drink it but gets sick. Damon says her doppelganger blood must be rejecting the transition. Elena asks if she’s dying, and Damon says no, she just needs to drink blood from the vein.

Stefan sees Damon stashing away a blood bag and asks what’s going on. Damon tells him that she needs to drink human blood, because Elena can’t even keep his blood down. Stefan’s like, “she drank from you?” And I was like, “Oh. Shit.”

Elena stumbles into the memorial, and Jeremy says that April was looking for her. Too bad April is tied up in the balcony while Connor packs up his crazy gun with wooden bullets. The memorial starts, and it turns out Tyler and Caroline are there too. Elena goes up to speak and Connor gets her in his crosshairs. All of a sudden, all of the vampires start to smell April’s blood dripping down from the balcony. Damon tells Stefan not to turn around because it’s a trap. Elena smells it too and starts freaking out at the podium, so Stefan comes up and gets her.

Damon wants to go get the vampire hunter, but Stefan says it will expose all of them. Matt tells Elena to feed from him. He pretends to console her, and Elena sucks on his neck right in the middle of the memorial…in the middle of church. She shows incredible restraint, and stops feeding, but says she can still smell the blood. Tyler goes up to the podium to speak, and Connor shoots him. Of course, everything breaks up into anarchy inside the church.

Tyler has been shot with a pretty big wooden bullet. Caroline pulls it out and he’s okay, but Mayor Lockwood says she still has to call an ambulance since the whole town just saw him get shot. Damon goes after Connor, and Connor shoots him. Stefan comes to help Damon and Connor gets away. Instead of helping Damon up, Stefan punches Damon and says he knows what that is for. Elena finds April, and the smell of blood is irresistible to Elena. She’s about to feed on April when Caroline stops her. Caroline gives April some of her blood, and then teaches Elena how to compel April into forgetting what just happened.

Matt and Jeremy are in the Mystic Grille, and Connor is sitting there in plain sight. Connor asks Matt what happened to his neck, and Matt says it was a girlfriend gone overboard. Jeremy compliments Connor on his arm tattoo and as they’re walking away, Matt says that Connor didn’t have a tattoo. Only Matt can see it, apparently.

Connor goes back to his RV and reads the letter that he found in the stove at the suicide house. It was a letter to April from Pastor Young saying that his death is just the first of many deaths to come in Mystic Falls.

Elena is back at the Salvatore mansion with Stefan. He gives her some scotch (whisky?) and he tells her he’s mad because she didn’t tell him she was getting sick, and then she went to Damon for help. He says that feeding on Damon may not have meant anything to her, but it meant a lot to him and it certainly meant a lot to Damon. Elena says that her grief is heightened, and that she keeps feeling everyone’s grief; she feels like she’s been crying since her parents’ funeral.

Stefan calls everyone to the school in order to finish the memorial and let everyone finish grieving. Damon says they have more important things to do, like figure out who the vampire hunter is. But Stefan says grieving is important. He passes out lanterns to everyone. Everyone lights a lantern for who they’ve lost, including Lexi, Alaric, Jenna, Vicky, Caroline’s dad, Tyler’s dad, Elena and Jeremy’s parents, and Bonnie’s Grams. They all release their lanterns and I get a little teary.

Damon refuses to do the lantern ceremony and takes a bottle of booze to go talk to Alaric Saltzman (Matthew Davis) at his grave. Damon says Alaric owes him big for leaving him to take care of all the kids. Alaric is sitting there and says, “I miss you too, buddy.” Awww…Damon misses his bro.

Next time, on The Vampire Diaries: Connor the vampire hunter continues to wreak havoc on Mystic Falls.

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