'The Vampire Diaries': An original bites the dust

Last week on “The Vampire Diaries,” Damon had to put his love on the line for Elena when Original vampire Kol compelled him to find Jeremy – and kill him. The pair had nearly come to blows, but Stefan – still unable to resist the sordid triangle he’d fallen into with Elena – came to the rescue once again. He’d grabbed Damon and now had him under lock and key, banning Elena from seeing her new Salvatore love on the premise that she was still sired and therefore would let Damon free, sending him straight back on a mission to slaughter her beloved brother Jeremy. 

 This week, Stefan awoke in bed with a hot blonde. Rebekah, naturally. But when he tried to sneak out to do the walk of shame, he ran into Klaus. Big brother was there to make a plan of action about Kol, who was being super-problematic, what with absconding with Klaus’s daggers and that uber-deadly white oak stake. You know, the one he tried to kill Rebekah with last week. So Stefan and Rebekah’s post-coital confusion would just have to wait. Rebekah wasn’t being terribly cooperative, so when she stormed off, Klaus turned his menacing charm onto Stefan. “I need that dagger, Stefan,” he said all cold and blustery. “Talk some sense into her.”

 

Klaus pointed out that if they could dagger Kol, Damon would be uncompelled, and they could all get to the task at hand: finding the cure.

 

Bonnie was busy prepping for the big Valentine’s shindig – do they ever NOT celebrate something in Mystic Falls, btw? – but chatting with Elena, who had Jeremy under house arrest so he wouldn’t accidentally get offed by Klaus or Kol or Damon or whomever else was after him today. Matt and Jeremy “trained” by playing video games. Meanwhile, Elena told Bonnie her big plan: Jeremy would kill Kol, thereby killing all the vampires that came from Kol’s bloodline. “Kol’s sire line must stretch to the moon by now,” she said. “If Jeremy kills Kol, every vampire that he’s ever turned, not to mention everyone that they’ve turned, will die. Which means the hunter’s mark will be complete and we’ll have our key to finding the cure.”

 

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Elena started to wash dishes, but leaped as if something had burned her – and something had. The water. Turns out Mayor Bennett had the town’s water supply spiked with vervain. He was also reinstating the town’s curfew and canceling all events. Too many people had gone missing or died in tragic accidents. Mayor Bennett wasn’t about to let it continue.

 

Alone in the hall at school, Bonnie sulked for a second. But then Kol appeared out of nowhere, attacking. “No one can get to the cure if you’re too dead to find it,” he announced before jumping her. But he’d underestimated her witchy powers. She focused on him, and all the pretty red Valentine’s balloons she’d just blown up started bursting as Kol convulsed.

 

Damon awoke in his cage, Stefan staring in at him from the window. Stefan tossed him a small vile of blood and a bottle of water. That’s when Klaus showed up. “Hello mate,” he said, “I’m babysitting.” Stefan headed off, giving Klaus instructions to bleed Damon out again if he gave him trouble – or if it struck his fancy. Whatever it took to enjoy his “villain bonding time.” “He’s still pissed at me for sleeping with Elena,” Damon said with a smirk. But Klaus announced that Stefan had moved on to Rebekah.

 

Elena called Stefan to tell him Kol attacked Bonnie. She told Stefan her plan. Stefan didn’t think that was such a hot idea. “Klaus and Rebekah will kill every single one of us out of spite,” he said. “They may be dysfunctional, bickering lunatics, but they stick together no matter what.” But Elena had a solution: they could dagger Rebekah. She couldn’t be all that vengeful if she was busy lying in a box. She volunteered Matt for the job.

 

Elena called Kol. He seemed pleased to hear from her. She told him they should call a truce, in the name of Silas. That’s when the doorbell rang. “You want a truce?” Kol said. “Open the door and invite me in.” He told her that he wouldn’t kill Jeremy himself – he didn’t want to suffer the Hunter’s curse. And he couldn’t compel Elena, either, thanks to the vervain in the water. So they’d be safe.

 

As Jeremy aimed his gun, Elena opened the door. Jeremy invited Kol in – it was his house, after all – and Elena spied the white oak stake in his inside coat pocket.

 

Rebekah was busy dress-hunting for the dance when Stefan broke the news: the dance was cancelled. They made awkward conversation about where their relationship stood. She asked him if he wanted it to happen again – even if she didn’t give him the dagger. He pretended to be hurt that she though so little of him, of them, but Rebekah wasn’t buying the bullshit.

 

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So Stefan said they should go to the dance together. She noted that it was canceled. “Since when do you care about the rules?” Stefan said.

 

Klaus lectured Damon on how this was all his own fault. “You know how hard it is to get these X-box brains to focus?” Damon asked, annoyed. Eventually, it all came down to Elena again. Klaus said that there must be something beyond the sire bond that tied her to Damon. “Compulsion? Manipulation? What is it you say to her?” Klaus seemed genuinely interested.

 

So Damon gleefully called him on that. “I think this has something to do with a certain blonde vampire,” he said. Now that Klaus had offed Carol Lockwood, Caroline didn’t trust him at all. He’d blown his shot. “I don’t mind being the bad guy,” Damon said, “because somebody has to fill that role and get things done. You do bad things for no reason. You do them to be a dick. If you’re going to be bad, be bad with purpose. Otherwise you’re just not worth forgiving.”

 

Back at the Gilbert house, Kol told Elena about when they were all a family in New Orleans, all the Originals. That was before Klaus had daggered them all and put them in a box. Elena listened, but her focus was on her phone, messages from Jeremy. He couldn’t find Bonnie. They’d need her to kill Kol. And Matt hadn’t yet found the dagger.

 

Kol asked her about Silas. Elena asked why he thought Silas existed. No one else seemed to. He said he’d run with witches – who said if Silas arose, it would be hell on Earth. “The problem with people today is they’ve lost faith,” Kol said. “And in that loss, they no longer know whom they should fear.” She told Kol she’d do anything for her brother. But Kol was losing interest. He was ready to go. As he walked out, he issued one warning: “Trust me, Elena. Some things are better left dead.” Then he was gone.

 

Bonnie, meanwhile, was being held hostage at home by her dad. He wanted a family meeting. He’d taken her phone. Jeremy showed up, and he told them about Kol. Bonnie tried to push her way out the door, but it was blocked. By her mother, Abby. You know, the witch-turned-vampire​. She asked Bonnie who Professor Shane was, and what he was teaching her. When Jeremy intervened, Abby told him that her daughter was done helping Elena Gilbert. That’s when Jeremy nearly attacked with the stake – an involuntary gesture. Bonnie stopped him. She told him to go, and that she’d be right behind him. She tried to explain the expression to her parents, but they were not happy about it. “They found a cure, mom,” she said, “there’s a cure for vampirism. I can do the spell to access it. I can save you.” But Bonnie’s parents thought she was the one who needed saving. So they knocked her out cold.

 

Stefan and Rebekah entered the gym, which was drenched in red – balloons, streamers, party posters. On the boom box, Stefan played the Cure, then told Rebekah about the ‘80s: “Say Anything,” “The Princess Bride,” “The Breakfast Club.” “Love, friendship, the possibility of anything happening. You would have loved it,” he said. “Because as much as we hate to admit it, we care about those things.” Then he gave the ultimate ‘80s keepsake: one of those little tagalong koala bears.

 

When Jeremy finally got back to the Gilbert house, Kol was long gone. But then the doorbell rang. They thought it would be Bonnie. But it was Kol. “I’ve considered your request for a truce,” he said. “Request denied.” He barged on in, but both Jeremy and Elena were hidden.

 

Back at Damon’s prison, Klaus was losing his patience – and annoyed by Stefan’s MIA silence. He asked Damon how Elena felt, given the fact that he couldn’t overcome his compulsion to kill Jeremy – not even for her. “She knows impulse control is not my strong suit,” Damon said. But then Klaus daggered deeper: “Must be hard trying to live up to Stefan. I remember when I compelled him to feed on Elena. He fought so hard, he actually managed to resist. Now that’s love.” He said he knew Damon loved Elena. “But personally, I don’t see a fairy tale ending for you. All I see is Stefan and Elena. I think you see the same thing.”

 

Saved by the bell. This time it was Kol calling. Kol told Klaus that Elena and Jeremy were trying to kil him – and he knew Klaus was in on it. He’d kill them all – then kill Klaus, too.

 

Klaus immediately jumped Damon, compelling him to tell him what he knew. But Damon said he knew nothing. Then Klaus told him to stay. But the water he’d been downing was laced with vervain. So Damon was very much a free man.

 

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Rebekah was rocking out to Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive,” and Stefan told her about his ‘80s fun traipsing with Lexie, compelling the band to do tequila shots with them. “She was fearless,” he said. “Kind of like you. I was a better person when I was with her. I didn’t think I’d ever feel that way again. Until Elena. And now that’s over.”

After their little chat, it was back to dance mode – but not before Rebekah showed Stefan that she’d had the dagger all along. Hidden in her boot.

 

Elena, meanwhile, was fighting for her life (and totally destroying the Gilbert house) – and Kol was bearly breaking a sweat. Kol staked her in the leg, and Jeremy managed to fire a few bullets, but the didn’t slow Kol down. He grabbed another stake from the stair rail, and stabbed Elena again, right in the stomach. Then he turned his attention to Jeremy.

 

In the hall at school, Rebekah and Stefan were practicing “the Breakfast Club” slide. He told her she’d have to lose the shoes to make it work. So instead she just took out the dagger, and handed it to Stefan. As Matt listened in, hidden in the darkness, she told him she did care. “I want koala corsages and a prom. I want kids with someone who loves me enough to stand outside with a stupid boom box. I want to be human,” she said. So if that meant letting Klaus put down her brother, so be it. “Let’s go find the cure.”

 

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As the Bennett’s planned a ritual to cleanse Bonnie, she awoke and attacked with her magic. “I don’t belong to the spirits anymore. I belong to myself.”

Kol hovered of Jeremy, who play tied to the giant island in the Gilbert kitchen, ready to chop off the hunter’s arm with a butcher’s knife. “Sorry about the sting,” he said. But as he was about to make his move, Elena grabbed him. Then Jeremy, suddenly free, sprayed him with vervain water. And Elena threw him the white oak stake. So Jeremy did it. He killed the Original. Kol burst into flames as Klaus stood in their doorway, watching. He was livid. “I was going to make him suffer on my terms!” Klaus said. “I’m going to burn this house to the ground. And then when you try to flee with your lives, I’ll kill you both without blinking.”

 

Jeremy said he’d never find the cure without them. But Klaus said he wanted the cure only to destroy it. And he would have destroyed them, too. So better now than later. But before he could make a move, Bonnie crippled him with her witchy powers. She told Jeremy to invite Klaus in, then take him to the living room – where the white oak stake was. She held him in her powers, and locked him into some kind of forcefield.

 

Stefan told Rebekah that Kol was dead. “You knew. This whole night, you knew.” But Stefan said Kol would have killed her – and he would never have let them find the cure. “Everyone deserves a second chance, right?” he said. But she couldn’t trust him. “I could give you my word,” he said. “But at the end of the day you just have to take a leap.”

Jeremy examined his arm. Nothing was happening. No Hunter’s Mark. Nada. But Bonnie said he had to trust it. That’s when Damon showed up: “Where’s that Gilbert optimism?” He was no longer compelled. Jeremy was safe. Stefan showed, too, carrying the Silas headstone.

Everything was going as planned. Except one thing: Stefan hadn’t dagger Rebekah. “She’s on our side,” he said. But no one else was buying that. And Damon pointed out that it was probably the post-sex haze that was clouding Stefan’s pretty little head. Elena blanched. What? Yup. Damon quite gleefully announced. Stefan had moved on. So Stefan once again brought up that whole sire bond thing. Damon threw a punch, and Stefan would have thrown one back – but Jeremy yelped in pain. “It’s happening,” he said, as the map to the cure magically appeared all over his body.

 

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