The Return: Recap

The episode starts off with a clear statement of the time lines in which the events at the Gilbert house took place. We see that Elena comes into the house exactly at the time John gets stabbed by Katherine, which wasn’t quite obvious in the last episode of season 1. As she enters the house Elena calls out for Jeremy but hears a noise coming from the kitchen, she walks towards the sound and finds John bleeding on the floor; she tries to help and calls 911. John sees Katherine standing right behind his daughter and tries to warn her, Elena turns around quickly but there’s none there. Still she goes to investigate; she gets frightened when Katherine moves around at vampire speed {Daaaamn… Kat just loves playing games *Snickers*} the door slams shut as the she leaves, making Elena reel in fright. She then realizes she had forgotten about Jeremy and runs up the stairs to his room, sees him asleep and tries to wake him.
{HOLY SHIT! Is he really a vampire now??? OMG!!!}

Stefan arrives at the house while paramedics roll John out on a stretcher, he’s stopped by a deputy but Elena tells the man to let Stefan inside, the 2 go upstairs into Jeremy’s room. Elena tells Stefan about the blood Anna gave her brother and the pills he took so Stefan checks for any signs that Jeremy’s plan had worked. He concludes that he is fine, fact, which leaves Jeremy disappointed {Sorry, maybe next time}. His tone makes Elena angry, but Stefan even angrier. When Jeremy practically tells Elena that he wants to do it because Anna is dead Stefan reacts and tries to make Jeremy understand that the blood Anna gave him may not work if he tries to kill himself again. Elena asks if he’ll be ok even with all the pills he took, Stefan explains that Jeremy didn’t take enough to actually die and that the blood healed him {Not quite the result Jeremy was hoping for}, he then tells Elena to go to the hospital and that he’ll watch over her brother while she’s gone. Jeremy protests but Elena stares him down and agrees to leave the house.

Bonnie arrives at the hospital and approaches Matt, asking about Caroline’s condition. Matt tells her it’s not good and starts to recall what happened; when Bonnie hears that a noise had caused Tyler to crash the car she realizes it was the Gilbert device. {You can practically feel her guilt at that moment; you can see the regret in her eyes} Damon comes to the hospital after getting a message from Sheriff Forbes.  He asks about Caroline and agrees to help when Liz asks for it, he then comforts her when she starts crying, playing his role as the Council’s “go to guy” perfectly.

Elena meets Bonnie in the hospital corridor and gets the bad news about Caroline, she asks if Bonnie can do a spell to help her. Damon, who was listening into the conversation, tells her the young witch can’t do that. She confirms and after the usual witch vs. vamp “Who can take who down first” conversation, he offers to give Caroline his blood. Elena rejects the offer but Bonnie tells him to do it, but rejects the truce he requests in exchange because she knows he’ll give Caroline the blood for Elena’s sake.

After Bonnie leaves Damon ask Elena if they could talk about what happened earlier. She misunderstands and tells him a vampire came into the house and attacked John. He’s surprised to hear that and asks if it happened after he left and when Elena looks surprised about the news that he was at the house he tries to refresh her memory and tells her about the kiss. Elena takes it as a joke and turns to leave, Damon catches her arm and pulls her back telling her that even if she tries to forget about what happened, he won’t be able to. Jenna arrives at that moment and he backs away. Elena asks Jenna about where she was and when Jenna replies that she had told her earlier about having to go to the fire department Elena looks surprised and denies ever having been informed. Damon quickly puts the pieces together {I swear I could almost hear them sliding into place in his head, this moment is totally PRICELESS *Giggles*} walking away obviously not pleased.

Stefan, still at the Gilbert house watching over a sleeping Jeremy, hears the front door open and quickly goes downstairs to greet Elena. He asks about Caroline and the girl wraps her arms around him seeking comfort, she tries to kiss him and he bares his fangs at her pushing her away, having already discovered it’s Katherine. She’s content with stating she at least fooled one of them {OMG YOU BITCH!!!!} He pushes her around {WAY TO GO STEFAAAAAN!!!!! *Cheering* Too bad you didn’t have a stake around to make her really hurt!} but then he gets distracted by the sound of keys turning in the door and she twists his arm, making him fall to the floor and disappears. He twists him arm back into place just as Elena and Damon come into the house and gets up off the floor. Elena sees the mess and Stefan slightly breathless and asks what happened in the house but it’s Damon that answers her question: “Katherine happened”  {Oh, so NOW you know it was Katherine huh? *Laughs*} The brother’s talk and Stefan asks about what Katherine had meant about fooling one of them. Damon tells him she had pretended to be Elena with him earlier. {That look on his face could kill!}

Elena comes back and tells the two that she told Jeremy about what happened, Stefan tries to comfort her but it’s no use and she asks what the next move is going to be now that Katherine got invited in. Damon suggests they move out of the house and states that Katherine must have other plans in mind than just killing them, Stefan agrees with that and says they should find out what those plans are. He asks his brother about what happened when Katherine pretended to be Elena. Damon tells him about the kiss in his usual sarcastic way and Stefan tries to attack him, he dodges and Elena stops Stefan from doing it again and tells them both to stop. She suggests they talk to John, that he might know something about her plans. Damon rejects the idea telling them that Katherine’s plans won’t be revealed till she wants them that way, Stefan agrees with Elena. Damon tells them that he’s just going to ignore the bitch! That she’ll come out when she thinks she’s getting ignored and then they could kill her.

Meanwhile Bonnie comes back to the hospital and finds out from Matt that Damon came to visit last night, he then takes her to see an almost healed Caroline. {Very cute teary reunion}

At the Lockwood mansion Liz Forbs questions Carol about why her husband had reacted to the Gilbert device, Carol bites back throwing the blame on the deputies and the 2 women argue while Damon tries to make them stop. He finally succeeds with a motivational speech about how the Council has to stick together and trust each other {I can’t help but laugh at the irony! *Giggles hysterically*}. While the under cover vampire tries to bring unity in the Council {*Snickers*} Tyler sees “the black sheep” {As Ty calls him} return. He greets his uncle Mason at the door {Ok, what’s with all the long lost uncles? *shakes head* can’t they pick other members of the family? I’d like to see a long lost second cousin or something, but I Will Say, MAN! He is ONE HOT UNCLE!!}. The two hug {Awww, how cute} and go into the house.

Elena and Stefan put their plan into action and go to the hospital to visit John, which jumps at the sight of Elena {Damn! I was so hoping he’d have a stroke!} Stefan grabs his hand and takes the call button away, she tells him she’s not Katherine and he calms down a bit. Stefan asks where Katherine is and John tells them he doesn’t know. Elena then returns his ring and pleads with him to tell them why Kat has came back, when he doesn’t answer Stefan tells him that she’ll try to kill him again if he doesn’t confide in his daughter. He tells Elena that he never met Katherine directly and then turns to Stefan saying that he would rather be killed or leaves Mystic Falls because he doesn’t approve of his daughter being involved with a vampire. Elena gets upset and leaves; Stefan starts walking after her but stops and comes up with a better plan. He grabs John by the throat and bites his own wrist, feeding John the blood. Stefan threatens John that if he doesn’t leave town within 24 hours he’ll get turned and then leaves. {Oh..Please let that man leave town!}

Back at the Lockwood mansion Damon asks Liz about the new arrival. She tells him he’s Richard Lockwood’s younger brother Mason and that he’s in no way interested in the Council.

Meanwhile merely a few feet away from Damon a certain Kat walks up to the front door of the house and since she looks like a certain other popular girl in town {minus the fact that they have ‘COMPLETELY’ different styles!!! But then again who would expect an evil twin *Sighs and Shrugs*} Tyler invites her in. {Well now… this should be interesting…}
The ‘Real’ Elena walks out of the hospital with Stefan by her side and quickly realizes from his slight hesitance to reply that he threatened John to get him to leave town. She tells him it was the right thing to do but tries to convince him not to fight Damon when the real problem right now is Katherine.

Bonnie approaches Damon at the mansion and asks if he knows about Tyler being able to hear the sound the vampire device was making. The conversation turns into an argument and Bonnie uses her powers to show Damon she really CAN hurt him, even kill him if she wanted. She then walks away and goes directly to Katherine, rants about Damon and when she touches the her who she thinks is Elena she excuses herself and goes to call the ‘Elena.’ Katherine follows and finally introduces herself to the ‘Vampire hating witch’ as she states it. Bonnie tries to use her powers on Kat and appears to be hurting her, but it’s revealed to be merely an act as Katherine grabs the girl by the neck and forces Bonnie into a wall, baring her fangs as well. Bonnie uses her powers and opens the doors so that Kat is forced to retract her fangs. At that moment Stefan appears and asks Katherine to leave the girl alone, Katherine complies and walks past him.

Stefan follows Katherine and tries to find out what she’s doing in town. Kat fools Matt into thinking she’s Elena easily and plays with Stefan’s feelings for his human girlfriend and his brother, Damon thinking he was kissing Elena. Stefan stays focused on his goal for the moment and plays along with her but without giving her what she really wants.

Elena, Jenna and Jeremy arrive at the Lockwood manor and when she sees Damon on the porch, Elena goes to him, concerned about him. He pretends he’s ok and that Katherine’s presence doesn’t affect him and asks why she was so surprised about the kiss. Her reply breaks his carefully constructed façade and as he tries to leave, Bonnie comes running to tell Elena what happened.

Jeremy stumbles onto Tyler sitting on a couch in his father’s office, drinking from a flask. Jeremy tries to comfort the Ty by telling him he can relate and by not being like the rest of the people in the house that keep talking about the mayor as if he had been a great man. Tyler seems to appreciate that and offers Jeremy a drink. As the boy takes it, Mason Lockwood comes to the boys, grabs the flask, sends Jeremy away, drinks and then gives it back to Ty. {Hmm, I like this new uncle}  Katherine and Stefan walk around the Lockwood estate and she keeps flirting and playing her little mind games. He tells her to stop because he never loved her. She tells him that she came back for him and as he tells her to back off she turns around and stabs him in the gut.

Later Elena tends to Stefan’s wound and when Damon tells her Katherine is trying to steal her boyfriend, Stefan denies that and remains calm when Damon says he tried to steal his girl. Elena leaves the brothers alone and Damon tries to make Stefan fight him. Stefan doesn’t take the bait and tells Damon he won’t do it again, fight, then warns Damon that Katherine is trying to break him before he leaves.

Jeremy arrives home and finds John packing. John tries to explain that the hatred towards the vampires was something he was taught to feel, Jeremy tells him his father would have seen things differently but his uncle tells him that there is no other way of seeing it and that his brother would have agreed.

Speaking about boys missing their fathers… Back at the Lockwood house, Tyler looks at a family picture and starts smashing things, he pushes Carol away when she tries to help and Mason has to pin him to the floor to make him stop struggling.

Damon gets back to the boardinghouse and soon Katherine appears on the living room couch. She tells him she’s leaving and asks for a goodbye kiss, he says he’d rather kill her than kiss her and she asks that he can do either one. He tries to leave but she forces him down to the floor and asks again and this time he complies… he KISSES her… one thing leads to another… clothes get ripped and then he stops to ask the only question he knows that matters most to him.  She answers: “I’ve never loved you, it was ALWAYS Stefan!”  He freezes, everything shattered within him.  {DAMMIT!!! Damon didn’t deserve that!!! *Wipes a Tear away*}

Later at the Gilbert house Elena goes into her room and finds Damon sitting on the edge of her bed, obviously drunk and upset by what had happened at the boardinghouse. As the conversation goes on Damon’s walls fall and he leaves himself vulnerable again as he tries to prove to Elena that she DOES care about him the way he does for her. He kisses her but gets rejected and that drives him MAD, almost CRAZY! When Jeremy comes into Elena’s room to check on her Damon flips and tells the boy he’ll help him get his wish of becoming a vampire then in a split second Damon breaks Jeremy’s neck and lets his body fall to the floor. {HOLY SHIIIIT!!!!!!} Damon then leaves a screaming, crying Elena alone with the body of what seems to be her dead brother… but Elena notices something… Jeremy’s wearing John’s ring {He’ll LIVE! *Sighs in relief*}

Back at the Lockwood house Mason tells Tyler about the “Lockwood Curse”, saying the anger n aggressiveness runs in the blood. {Can you get any more CRYPTIC??? Just tell him already!!!}

Stefan comes to Elena’s side and waits for Jeremy to wake up. They reason that Damon has gone off the edge is because of Katherine and that he’s reverting to his old, cold, murderous ways. As they speak Damon arrives at the boardinghouse, takes a drink and smashes the glass into the fireplace clearly upset and on edge. Jeremy wakes up in Elena’s arms and Stefan checks that he’s ok.

Suddenly we’re taken back to the hospital, where we see a sleeping Caroline wake up startled to see who she thinks is Elena standing at her bedside, but Katherine quickly introduces herself and says she has a message for the Salvatore brothers. She approaches Caroline and when the girl asks what message, Kat plainly says “GAME ON” and smothers her with a pillow.
She leaves when Caroline is dead.

Written by: Jo @InkOnix
Edited by: Carisa @MNTwilightMom/@MNMysticVamp