'The Vampire Diaries': Sire bonds and sibling rivalry

Last week on “The Vampire Diaries,” vampire hunter Connor – killed by Elena – haunted the newbie bloodsucker, driving her over the edge until she nearly killed herself. The only cure – creating a new vampire hunter. So they did. In Jeremy.

 

This week, Stefan hid out in the woods, mourning his relationship with Elena. “She said she has feelings for Damon,” he told his “sober sponsor” Caroline. The whole thing made him want to go all ripper again.

 

Caroline was livid. “She can’t have feelings for Damon. I’m revolted. I’m going to shake some sense into her clearly diseased brain.” She told Stefan she’d investigate.

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But he didn’t really have all that much time to worry about it, because Klaus was really, really mad that he’d revealed the secret of the cure to, you know, everyone. Klaus ordered him to get on the whole Jeremy situation, so he headed home – and ran into Damon. He told Damon about the break-up, and Damon played it non-chalant, and yapped on about the cure. Damon said Matt had connected Professor Shane to Connor. But that could all wait, Damon said, if Stefan needed some brotherly bonding to get him over the split. Stefan scoffed. “Let’s not pretend,” he said, “that this isn’t the best day of your life.”

 

Caroline, meanwhile, was yapping at Elena as they prepped for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. “Stefan is your soul mate,” she reminded her. “He’s heartbroken. You weren’t supposed let Damon worm his way into your confused, newbie vampire heart.” As they were talking, Professor Shane showed up, asking him where the judges were supposed to go. Dude, he’s everywhere.

 

Later, Klaus showed up to remind Caroline that she owed him a date – and he decided it would be for the pageant. “Surely the reigning Miss Mystic Falls won’t be showing up at the party alone,” he noted. Resigned, she agreed.

 

Matt and Jeremy were prepping, too, and Jeremy showed off by carrying two kegs at once. He was all super-powerful thanks to his vampire hunting skills. Matt worried about the new penchant for vampire killing, given the fact that his sister was one. When Jeremy went home though, things seemed normal enough. But then, as he helped Elena with her necklace, he said: “I really wish you would stop acting as if you were still my sister” – and choked her with her chain. Ooops? Nah, turned out it was just a dream, but he woke up with his stake in hand. “It’s that hunter’s mark, Jer, it’s messing with you,” Matt said later. Then he read from the hunter’s guide: “Newly awakened hunters may not be fully conscious of their actions. Their sub-conscious pushes through until the urge becomes a basic instinct.” Matt said Jeremy had to tell Elena – or he would. Meanwhile, Jeremy got a text from Stefan to meet him in the underground tunnels.

 

Stefan went to the hospital and found a room with a cop outside. He went on in, found out the patient was a convicted murder with no regrets, fed him his own blood, then broke his neck. Yup, he was on a mission to create disposable vamps for Jeremy – on Klaus’s orders.

 

Hayley and Tyler were out in the woods, still working on the hybrids, breaking their sire bonds to Klaus one at a time. Tyler said he’d rather skip the whole pageant thing, but Hayley said they had to show up together to keep up the ruse.

 

At the Forbes mansion, Caroline and Elena were advising April Young on what to wear for the pageant when Damon showed up. He said she should wear the racy red, and Elena found herself agreeing with him. “What happened to 30 seconds ago when you hated the red one?” Caroline asked. “What happened to safe is good?”

 

But Elena was already following Damon out the door. He said Stefan told her about the break-up – and that Damon wasn’t sorry. She asked if Stefan had told him the reason why. “You,” she said. But before they could reconnect, Professor Shane showed up.

 

“So I’m in search of another hunter,” Damon told Shane. When Shane asked why, Damon said: “Same reason anybody needs a hunter: loneliness, drinking buddy, partner for golf.” But Shane said he couldn’t help. So Damon asked him how he knew Pastor Young. “I hear you two wracked up a pretty impressive phone bill. How did you convince Pastor Young to blow up all those people?”

 

Pageant time. Caroline was bossing around wait staff. “Pick up the tempo,” she told the band. “This is a pageant, not a funeral.” Klaus arrived, just in time to witness Hayley and Tyler getting cozy. Caroline hid her annoyance and got to the speech-making. Matt, meanwhile, asked where Jeremy was, then warned Elena about those sister-killing dreams he’d been having. When April’s name was announced – and Jeremy was a no-show – Matt offered April his arm. Then the dancing began, and Damon and Elena made eyes at each other from across the audience. Elena distracted herself by calling Jeremy. Voicemail. So she told Damon and Caroline what Matt said. Damon went off to find Jeremy.

 

Caroline used the opportunity to berate Elena. “Friend-tervention,”​ she announced. “I think your so-called feelings for Damon are really starting to cloud your judgment and I don’t like it. The thought of you two together really makes me want to barf.” When Elena walked off, Caroline wondered: “How did I become the bad guy?” She complained to Klaus about it. “Being a vampire only intensifies who you already are,” Caroline said. “It doesn’t make you into a whole new person.” She told him to hurry up and find the cure. Then she asked if he’d ever take it. “Why would I want to cure myself of being the most powerful creature on the planet?” he asked her as Tyler watched them in the distance. Klaus asked her if she missed simpler times, like when she was chair of the Mystic Falls beautification committee. He had her Miss Mystic application in hand, and was reading from it.

 

Jeremy met Stefan at the caves, where murderer-turned-newb​ie-vamp was chained up. He slammed the stake into Jeremy’s hand and ordered him to get to work. Jeremy resisted. “I hate this, I don’t want to do this,” Stefan said, “but your isn’t supposed to be a vampire, and we need to help her.” He said the guy was a killer – and he’d kill again. And so Jeremy had no choice.

 

Damon called Stefan, and they argued about Elena again, and then about the whole Jeremy situation. Stefan hung up, and asked Jeremy to draw the tattoo, which was growing. But Jeremy said he did not trust Stefan – and he couldn’t be compelled anymore. So he left. 

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As Damon watched Professor Shane flirt with Hayley, Tyler walked up. “Paranoid much?” Tyler asked. “The council just burned to a crisp, this mysterious hunter just blew through town and this guy seems to know everything about everything. So yes. Paranoid.” Damon confronted Shane, who said there was no other possible hunter. “At any given moment there are 500 potentials in existence, but most of them don’t know who they are or what their purpose is. That means finding more than one in a lifetime is next to impossible.” When Damon threatened him, Shane also said that clearly he was only interested in the mark and where it would lead. But the thing that would create the cure was sealed with a spell that only a certain type of witch could break. A Bennett witch. “And between the two of us,” Shane said, “who do you think she would trust to get us there?” Yup, that meant Shane would have to be kept alive. For now.

 

Jeremy finally showed up at the pageant – with all his hunter gear in tow. He was on a mission. But he ran into April first. April told him she’d talked to Shane about her dad, and he’d said that Pastor Young never seemed suicidal or anything. But Jeremy was only half-listening. He was really focused on Elena in a simmering, murderous rage. “Your dad was doing the right thing for this town,” he told April. “The whole council was. They died heroes.”

 

April was having a good night. Attention from Matt and Jeremy – and then the Miss Mystic title, too. But as she was crowned, Elena got distracted by Jeremy and followed him in to the mansion, where he was waiting with stakes. “Connor was right,” he said. “All I can think about is killing vampires. I don’t want to hurt you, but everything inside of me is telling me to drive this stake right through your heart.” When Elena took his hand, he seemed to come to his senses. But then she saw the blood and nearly attacked him. So he attacked her back. He was about to drive the stake through her heart when Matt showed up. “Jeremy, you don’t want to do this!” Matt shouted. “That’s your sister. It’s that stupid mark on your arm.” Stefan showed too, and pulled Jeremy away, then removed the small stake from Elena’s neck.

 

Hayley and Tyler were hanging out at the party, sharing stories about the first time they’d turned. She told Tyler that Professor Shane was hot and smart. And Tyler asked if she knew him. She said no.

 

Klaus was sharing stories, too – he told Caroline about the only time he’d wanted to be human. Climbing a mountain in the Andes, he’d come across a humming bird. “It’s heart was pattering like a machine gun, and I thought: ‘What a thing!’ To have to work that hard every day to stay alive, to be constantly on the verge of death. And how satisfying every day must be that it survived. And that was the only time I thought about being human.”

 

Tyler, naturally, had been listening in. “The sooner we get rid of this guy, the better.”

Elena confronted Stefan about his plot to turn Jeremy into a vampire hunter to get the map. “If getting my humanity back means stripping Jeremy of his, then I don’t want the cure. You don’t have to love me like this. But this is who I am now. The old Elena died when she went off that bridge. Let her go.”

 

Of course, that’s when Damon showed up, her shoulder to cry on.

 

At the Gilbert house, Jeremy was packing. But Elena had already moved out – and Matt was moving in. “I’m not one of them,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on you, and we can keep this hunter business in check.” So Jeremy wondered: where’s Elena going to go?

She showed up at the Salvatore house with her bags. And Stefan said he’d find somewhere else to go.

 

Back at the cabin in the woods, Tyler texted Hayley that the other hybrid’s sire bond with Klaus was broken. She grinned as she read the message, and then looked up and told Professor Shane the good news: “We got another one.” She asked if they could leave Tyler out of it when everything went down. But Shane didn’t seem too interested in that.

 

Damon and Elena shared a glass of whiskey. “Jeremy can’t live with me, Stefan wants to fix me, and Caroline flat out admitted she doesn’t like me this way,” Elena said. “Think it’s safe to say I’m not so great at this vampire thing.” But Damon knew just what to say. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you more alive.” Then they remincised about when they’d danced together at the Miss Mystic pageant a year ago. “I wanted to dance with you today,” Elena said. And so Damon offered her his hand. And they danced. And they kissed.  And they finally gave Delena fans what they’ve been waiting for.

 

Stefan was drinking, too, and venting to his buddy Caroline. “Elena’s right, I just need to let go.” But Caroline couldn’t. “You can’t give up on her. She’s lost. You and her: EPIC. Her and Damon: Ugh. There’s something wrong with her. Just promise me you won’t stop looking for the cure.” Stefan reminded her that he couldn’t: Klaus wanted to cure Elena to make more hybrids. And Caroline told him that they’d almost unsired the existing batch. Then she said: “Oh my God. Oh. My. God.” The answer laid in Klaus – in the sire bond. Every time Elena had a problem, Damon was the magic solution. When Damon said to do something, Elena did it. And it was Damon’s blood that had turned Elena into a vampire. “Elena’s sired to Damon.”

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