'The Vampire Diaries': Sacrifices must be made

Last week on “The Vampire Diaries,” Elena and the gang headed off for a walk on the wild side – of Nova Scotia, to be precise – with the nutty professor Shane, who promised to lead them to the cure.

 

But it turns out his plot was to divide and conquer – and the gang would be part of a ritual sacrifice in raising Silas from his watery grave of 100s of years. Elena, Stefan and Rebekah formed one not-so-merry contigent, while Damon was kidnapped by some local huntsman. Bonnie and Jeremy were nabbed by Shane himself as the key players in his (ever-confusing) plot.

 

This week, Damon awoke to a cold but sunny morning at camp – where the Irishman who kidnapped him informed him that the itchiness was caused by the tubes slowly draining the blood from his veins. The guy, Galen Vaughn – another marked Hunter from the five, like Jeremy – had been spying on them all. His tattoo had magically appeared in full, unprompted. And he wasn’t messing around. He stabbed Damon in the neck while introducing himself. “Shrek,” as Damon so lovingly called him, had kidnapped the badass bloodsucker hoping to get to Bonnie – and Silas. Oops. He had confused Damon for someone Bonnie gave a rat’s ass about. But Galen said Damon didn’t understand: “Silas is immortal. So I have to cram the cure down his throat to kill him.” That meant no cure for the rest of them. Nope! “So it is written. There is only one dose.” Damon told Galen he could care less about the cure. He was trying to help his friends. He wanted to be a vampire. When Damon asked Galen why he’d helped Jeremy the day before, Galen declared he hadn’t. That’s when they stumbled across the body, throat slashed. “Maybe there is someone else on this island.”

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Elena – who suddenly had cell service – called Caroline to download what was going on. She asked Caroline to get the hunter’s sword from Klaus so they could translate the photos of Jeremy’s map. Caroline said she would get it – without any help from Klaus, who was still stuck in the three foot force field Bonnie had erected. A few minutes later, Tyler arrived, sword in hand. (And no, not being funny!) Caroline had the photos and sat ready to decipher it. But Klaus giddily informed them it was all Aramaic – a dead language. One he happened to know. Klaus explained the symbols as Caroline looked them up: that the process required a powerful witch, and a hunter in full bloom. Check! The tools of Silas’s destruction would be at hand. But there was something else – and that something, it seems, was Klaus’s way out of the box.

 

Shane, Bonnie, Jeremy, and the dread-headed man arrived at the cave – and man with dreads was ready to bail. He asked to be paid, and Shane handed over the tombstone. “In some witch circles, that stone’s more valuable than the Hope diamond,” Shane explained when Bonnie protested. Jeremy and Bonnie used ropes to rappel down into the cave, but Bonnie cut her hand on a rock. Blood was everywhere, seeping into the ground. Jeremy was worried about Shane’s agenda, but Bonnie said if Shane tried anything, she’d kill him herself.

 

Bored, Stefan and Elena decided to rehash the past. Again. She asked why he didn’t tell her that he’d really wanted the cure himself. “It had nothing to do with you,” he said. “Being human myself, being normal, that’s something I wanted long before I met you.” Rebekah, naturally, was unpleased by Stefan and Elena’s moves toward friendship. When Caroline called again, telling Rebekah they found the translation, Rebekah was surprised that Klaus had helped. When he said he wanted her to find happiness, she said, “Fool me once, shame on me, fool me a hundred times…” But he said he hoped she got to live, and die, as she wished. And then he told her: there’s only one dose of the cure. She’d have to find it and take it first.

 

Shane finally rappelled down, eager to get moving. He told them to look for anything out of place – and then found a geometrically perfect circle. This is it. The spot. Jeremy whipped off his shirt, and Bonnie used her hands to suck the power out of him, removing the tattooed map from is body – and, it turns out, Galen’s as well, even though he was nowhere near them. It worked. A passage was created. They moved forward, but Shane said his leg was broken. “Best to stay off it, then,” Bonnie said as she made her way.

 

Elena, Stefan and Rebekah got moving again – and came across a large cliff they’d have to traverse. As Elena leaped first, Rebekah told Stefan about the cure. “I guess that’s what happens when you’re dumb enough to hold out hope,” Stefan said. But Rebekah reminded him that there was still hope for one of them. Rebekah asked him, then, if she’d let him have it – he’d give it to Elena, wouldn’t he? And as much as he tried to play stoic, it was true. “Well, I’m sorry it couldn’t work out the way we all wanted it to,” she said, and then knocked him out cold.

 

Damon and Galen arrived at the cave, and Damon freed himself as Galen pointed a rifle at him. He said Damon’s attachment to his friends would be the end of him. “They’re not my friends,” Damon said, “they’re my enemies.” He wanted the cure only for Elena. It looked like the end of Damon for a moment, but Rebekah to the rescue – and Galen couldn’t kill her unless he had the white oak stake. No stake, but plenty of things to keep a good vampire down for a moment or two.

 

Elena, meanwhile, had stayed back to help Stefan – who told her what Rebekah had said. “I can’t take it,” she said. “It’s over. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.” She told him, even if she could be human again, she wouldn’t be the person she used to be. “I need to figure out a way to start living the rest of my life.” Stefan pointed out: sired to Damon. Which reminded them both: Klaus. Yup – that’s the one they really to cure, or he’d kill them all. They got to the cave just as Rebekah was down and Damon was pinned to the wall by a silver wire around his neck. He told them to go. They’d be right behind him. But Stefan didn’t leave him. He told Stefan to go get the cure. Damon didn’t want it. He’d stay behind.

 

Tyler and Caroline fretted, too, because Klaus’s freedom was inevitable – which meant instant death for Tyler. “He’s got nothing to lose, Car,” he said. “All he wants right now is blood, starting with mine.” But Caroline said she could fix it. She went in to talk to Klaus. She told him to let Tyler live – somewhere far from there. Ha, Klaus said. Fat chance of that happening. Caroline said they all wanted the cure. But Klaus asked her if she did. “If you could, you wouldn’t, would you? You prefer who you are now to the girl you once were. You like being strong. Ageless. Fearless. We’re the same, Caroline.” She told him to show her. By showing Tyler mercy. “Very well,” Klaus said. “Tell him to leave town immediately, to run and hide in a place that I would never find him.” He’d give Tyler a head start, for her sake, but not by much.

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Outside, Caroline asked, “How many times are we going to have to say goodbye?” But Tyler said, “This isn’t goodbye – this is until we find a way. We’re immortal, remember? We will find a way.” She told him to forget her, to move on and find a way, to live a full and happy life without her. So he did. And then he kissed her goodbye. “Until we find a way.”

 

Bonnie and Jeremy moved forward, on the path to Silas. Bonnie led the way. “I just know,” she said, but her grandmother was there, helping her. “This place allows the living to talk to the dead,” Grams said. “You are this close to bringing me back to life, for good. Silas can do it. All you have to do is reach him, and feed him, and everything will go back to the way it was.” But Jeremy told Bonnie it was a hallucination – if it was really Grams’ ghost, he’d see her, too, remember? “What you’re seeing, it isn’t really. I’m here, I’m real. Silas was in your head. He was trying to control you.” Jeremy told her to focus on his voice alone.

 

Stefan, making his way into the depths of the cave, found Shane. He said he’d help Stefan if he helped him. But Stefan was mad. “You know what it’s like to have hope, and now you know what it’s like to lose it.” When Stefan stormed off, Shane saw his dead wife. “You did everything I asked you to,” she said. “Everything is going to be just fine.”

 

Elena, solo, made her way through the cave. But before she could make it to the crypt, something, someone, found her.

 

At long last, Bonnie and Jeremy got to the crypt. Where they saw one small vile. “How is that supposed to cure every vampire in the world?” he asked. Which is when they realized. It wouldn’t. But Silas was fossilized, along with the cure. If they wanted it, they’d have to wake him. By feeding him their blood. That’s when Galen stabbed Bonnie. “Listen to the witch, boy,” he told Jeremy. “We have to raise Silas. And we have to do it now.” He sliced his finger and dribbled blood over the crypt. “I’m going to raise Silas,” he said, “and then I’m going to kill him.” When Jeremy attacked, he told him, “You’re confused Mr. Gilbert, we’re on the same team here.” He reminded Jeremy that the cure was meant to kill Silas. “Your sister? Sorry lad, it wasn’t meant for that.” Naturally, that’s when Elena showed up.

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Damon revived Rebekah by removing the wooden bullets, one by one. She asked him if he’d given up. “I just realized you can’t control everything,” he said, “no matter how hard you try. Let’s just say I made peace with that fact.” But Rebekah told him, if Elena became human, he’d never know peace. He’d done something selfless. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were becoming a halfway decent person.”

 

Klaus walked outside to where Caroline sat, mourning. “I fear something awful has befallen your friend Bonnie,” he said. Caroline went to make a run for it, but he told her to stay. He wouldn’t hurt her. “I’ve shown kindness, forgiveness, pity, because of you, Caroline. It was all for you.” Then he walked away.

 

Stefan was alone in the drippy wet cave, the walls marked with blood. He found Elena, bleeding. “She’s here,” she said.  Stefan was confused. Who?

Back in the crypt, the alternate Elena was pushing Jeremy to revive Silas, while he was trying to get her to help Bonnie by giving her blood. “The cure, Jeremy, after everything we’ve been through – it’s right there!” But when he said Bonnie first, she said, “God, I forgot what a brat you were.” Boom. He knew it wasn’t her. It was Katherine. She took Jeremy’s arm and stuck it onto the mouth of the mummy. Nothing. So she bit his neck pouring his blood directly into the mummy’s mouth. And then she took the cure. The mummy, revived, by Jeremy’s blood, wrapped its bony fingers around his neck, snapping it. Jeremy, apparently dead, hit the flood, Bonnie watching from where she lay, horrified.

Could Jeremy really be dead? For good this time? 

"The Vampire Diaries" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.