Warning: Full spoilers ahead!
It’s another week, and fortunately another excellent episode of “The Vampire Diaries” has finished and has left us wanting more. Let’s dive right into the recap.
We begin the episode with Bonnie recalling to Jeremy the incident at the End of Summer Block party concerning the death of her father and Silas’ plan for Katherine. She explains Silas has compelled the entire town to look for a girl who looks like Elena Gilbert and to notify him if anyone should see her.
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In the next scene, we find Katherine running away from Mystic Falls. She is still injured from the car accident with Jeremy and is clearly desperate for help. Katherine gets to the highway and a woman stops her car to help Katherine. Once the woman gets a look at Katherine’s face, she realizes Katherine looks just like Elena and sprays something in Katherine’s face to injure her. Katherine is able to retaliate and beats up the woman to stop her from calling Silas. Suddenly, Matt comes out from nowhere and points a shotgun at Katherine, warning her not to run away.
Meanwhile, Stefan has another hallucination with Elena. In this hallucination, they are sitting on the banks of a lake. Stefan tells Elena the moments with her keep him from losing it. In their moment of happiness, Elena begins to cough up water, and Stefan wakes up from his underwater nightmare.
At Whitmore College, Elena arrives at her dorm room to show Caroline she was able to get Megan’s death certificate. The death certificate makes no mention of the vampire bites on Megan’s neck, therefore Elena assumes someone is covering up her death just like the Founder’s Council used to do in Mystic Falls. She notes a microbiology teacher on campus, Professor Westfield, completed the autopsy on Megan.
Back near Mystic Falls, Damon is at the quarry with Sheriff Forbes. He wants her to dredge the quarry to look for Stefan. With some strong convincing, Sheriff Forbes agrees to help Damon look for Stefan. After their meeting, Damon receives a call from Jeremy, and Jeremy lets Damon know he and Matt have Katherine and are hiding her from Silas and the town people.
Meanwhile, Elena decides she and Caroline need to take microbiology in order to learn more about Professor Westfield. In the class they find Jessie, who questions why two freshman are taking an advanced-level biology class. The girls ignore his inquiry and sit in the back of class. Professor Westfield arrives and kicks Elena and Caroline out of the class, noting they are freshman and do not belong. Elena is put off by his rudeness, but both girls notice how cute the Professor is.
While leaving class, Elena runs into Silas, thinking he is Stefan. Silas begins to tell Elena about Jeremy and his expulsion from high school. Elena is upset because Damon did not tell her about her brother. While inquiring about Jeremy, Silas is clearly simply looking for clues as to where Jeremy might be hiding Katherine. Silas gets a text from someone in town that they saw Katherine on a highway. Silas asks Elena where Jeremy might be going, knowing very well Katherine is with him, and Elena explains Jeremy is likely going to a campground they used to go to as children.
At a local gas station, Matt, Jeremy, and Katherine stop to fill up. Katherine convinces the guys she needs to use the restroom, and when Matt and Jeremy are distracted, Katherine attempts to flee. As she runs away, the cashier sees Katherine escaping and starts to contact Silas; fortunately Matt knocks him out before he can tell Silas. Jeremy stops Katherine and tries to explain she needs to stop running from them because they are trying to help her. Katherine argues she has survived all of these years because she works alone and always runs away.
Damon arrives at the college and finds Caroline in the girls’ dorm room. He tells Caroline that Silas is on campus with Elena, and explains that Silas looks like Stefan. Later, Damon and Caroline go to a campus bonfire together to look for Elena and Silas. Elena is drinking by herself when Jessie shows up, and they leave together to get more wood. While walking to the shed, Jessie explains Professor Westfield is rude but a genius. He tells Elena that Professor Westfield is rumored to be part of a secret society on campus. Before Jessie call tell Elena more, Damon arrives and knocks Jessie out.
Outside Mystic Falls, Katherine is in the woods with Matt and Jeremy. She is sick and cold, and Jeremy gives her a blanket to warm her up. When Matt leaves to get more wood, Silas arrives and tries to use mind control on Matt. When his compulsion does not work, Matt warns Jeremy and Katherine to run. Silas reads Matt’s mind and sees someone else is inside Matt’s head and is spying on Silas. Silas snaps Matt’s neck, but when Matt wakes up, Jeremy and Katherine cannot see Matt. Matt sees Bonnie and she explains he is on the other side. He questions why he can see her if they are on the other side. Bonnie explains what happened to her and that she is now a ghost.
After the bonfire, Elena takes Damon back to her room and starts to kiss him. In the midst of their make-out session, Elena forces the virvain water down Damon’s throat and ties him up. Damon assumes Silas got into Elena’s head and asks Elena what Silas told her to do to him; she explains she is suppose to weaken Damon and then kill him. Before she can kill him, Damon spits the poisoned water back into Elena’s face and snaps her out of the trance. Damon explains that Silas looks like Stefan and was not put in the bottom of the quarry. Elena grows upset with Damon because he has been keeping things from her about Jeremy, and she is mad at herself for sleeping with Damon while Stefan has been suffering. She grows obsessed with killing Damon due to Silas’ compulsion and the angrier she gets the more powerful the compulsion is. Damon encourages Elena to think about Stefan to get her mind off of her anger with Damon. She focuses on Stefan and explains Stefan is trying to reach out to her. She explains Stefan is alone and in a lot of pain. Eventually her anger dies down and she no longer has the desire to kill Damon.
Back in the woods. Jeremy finds Matt’s body on the ground. Silas arrives and Jeremy attacks him, confident he can fight Silas because he is a hunter. Silas reminds Jeremy he is immortal while stabbing himself with a huge stick while Jeremy stands behind him, thus stabbing Jeremy as well. Just as Silas thinks he defeated Jeremy, Katherine arrives and shoots Silas with the shotgun, finally stopping Silas.
Before Matt goes back into his body, he realizes he will not remember he saw Bonnie on the other side. Matt tells Bonnie she and Jeremy need to tell their friends about her death. When Matt wakes up, he goes back to Katherine and Jeremy and prepares to leave. Before they leave, Jeremy finds Bonnie’s ghost to see if she is OK. She continues to be upset about her father’s death and explains she does not want to be dead. Jeremy assures her he will be there for her.
Silas goes back to the gas station where Katherine was at earlier. He compels the cashier to let Silas feed on him, but before he can start two people enter the store. These two people are the ones who attacked and entered Matt’s mind last week. Silas calls them gypsies but explains they like to be called “travelers” now. While confronting Silas, the female traveler, Nadia, stabs her counterpart and reveals she never considered herself a traveler. She knows Silas can read her mind and lets him see she wants to help him and has an agenda of her own. Silas smiles as he sees her plan.
The episode ends with Elena packing up some belongings as she and Damon prepare to leave to look for Damon. Before she leaves, Professor Westfield finds her and explains he knows who her father is. He explains her father is a legend on campus. Once Damon and Elena leave the campus, they go meet Sherriff Forbes in the woods. She shows them they found the safe but once it’s opened, Stefan isn’t inside. Instead they find a dead human inside with his neck bitten. Damon asserts Stefan killed this person and he is likely still hungry.
And with that, the episode ends! As always, “The Vampire Diaries” leaves us with more new questions. How did Stefan get out of the safe, and why did he attack a human when he kept insisting in his hallucinations he was not going to give in to his predatory side? Who is this Professor Westfield and what is his connection to Elena’s father? What is Nadia’s agenda? Fortunately, this season thus far reminds me of the first two seasons of “The Vampire Diaries.” The smaller the focus of the show, the better the story always is. One great thing about this season so far is it seems we have another version of the Founder’s Council at Whitmore College; it should be interesting to see how this new challenge plays out for Elena and Caroline. The mythology behind the Founder’s Council was always one of the best plots in the first two seasons of this show. With all of the new characters and plot twists, I personally do not even miss the Originals nor feel their presence is missing; this is a credit to the great writing on this show. The writers on “The Vampire Diaries” are underrated and deserve more credit, but fortunately for us fans I am glad they are able to churn out what seems to be another great season of this show.