Previously, on The Vampire Diaries: Elena and Damon got it on! Yes, I’m not going to lie, that was the most important part of the last episode. Elena and Damon had sexy time. Also, Elena may be sired to Damon somehow and as a vampire hunter, Jeremy now wants to kill Elena.
The episode opens with Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) having pillow talk. Damon smiles and Elena’s like, what is that? Damon says he’s happy. Ah, so that’s what that is… In the meantime, Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola) is going on to Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) about what a disaster it is that Elena is sired to Damon. Idk, they look pretty happy to me. I wouldn’t mind being sired to that sexy beast. Amirite, ladies?
Stefan says that a vampire being sired to another vampire is one in a million, so maybe it won’t affect Elena the same way. Caroline says Elena already does and says everything that Damon tells her, so she needs to talk to Tyler about breaking the sire bond. Stefan says to talk to Tyler, but that’s it! Which we already know means Caroline will tell about five other people, including Klaus.
Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) and his wolf friend Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) are helping another hybrid, Adrian, break his sire bond with Klaus. And by help, I mean he’s making him shift over and over again. Another hybrid who has already broken her sire bond, Kim, says that’s enough for the day and takes Adrian away. Hayley is upset, saying that he needs to finish breaking his sire bond. I can only assume this is because she’s secretly trying to amass an army of un-sired hybrids for some dastardly deed of Professor Shane’s.
All happy and giggly post-coitus (yes, I said it), Elena and Damon make out some more before she leaves for school. She asks what they are going to tell Stefan and Damon says they should just enjoy the day without worrying what they’re going to tell him. But as Elena opens the door to leave the Salvatore mansion, Stefan is standing there. Elena leaves and Stefan tells Damon he thinks Elena is sired to him. Damon refuses to believe that Elena is sired to him, but he refuses to try telling her she can drink from a blood bag. Stefan says just to do it, and if Elena’s weird doppelganger self rejects the blood he’ll drop the issue.
Elena is greeted at school by Caroline and Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) who ask her if she’s okay. Elena says she’s in desperate need of some girl talk, and Bonnie says she’s in. Damon shows up at the school and motions for Elena to follow him. Damon pulls out a blood bag and says he really thinks it will work this time. Elena drinks it and is elated that she’s okay after drinking it – now she doesn’t have to hurt people anymore!
Hayley tells Professor Shane (David Alpay) that she’s having trouble breaking Adrian, and he says it’s no problem because she’s already got the 12 hybrids that he needs. Hayley says that Tyler isn’t part of the deal, so she only has 11 hybrids. Shane says that once she brings him 12 un-sired hybrids with no alliance to Klaus she can have all the information she wants about her biological parents.
Caroline calls Stefan and tells him the sire bond exists out of the hybrids’ gratitude to Klaus for no longer having to transform every full moon, but there really isn’t a vampire equivalent. Stefan finds Damon looking through a bunch of old papers and Damon admits that he was wrong; Elena IS sired to him. While looking through the papers, Damon finds an old picture from New Orleans in 1942. Stefan asks him about “that girl he used to hang out with,” and we go to a flashback.
Her name was Charlotte and she was crazy about Damon, so he turned her into a vampire. In the flashback we find out that Charlotte was sired to Damon. Damon ended up having to find a witch, Valerie La Marche, to break the sire bond. Damon tells Stefan to pack his bags because they’re going back to Bourbon Street.
Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline have raided the Salvatore wine cellar for girls night and Elena reveals that now, thanks to Damon, she can drink from a blood bag. Damon texts Elena to tell her he’s out with Stefan and not to wait up, and Caroline asks what else they do besides text each other. Elena says she knows Caroline isn’t the biggest fan of Damon, but he’s changed her life. Elena asks Caroline to lay off the hate and Bonnie says no more boy talk. Bonnie then proceeds to pull out a bag of “spirit tea” to open up their “chi.” Caroline is judgey about it, but then promises to stop judging them about the bad decisions they’re making.
Damon and Stefan are walking down Bourbon Street and they get into an argument about Elena. Damon asks if it’s so hard to believe that Elena would like him without the sire bond and Stefan actually ends up saying he’s sorry.
We are taken in a flashback to Stefan and Lexi Branson (Arielle Kebbel) practicing Stefan’s apology to Damon. He’s going to say sorry for blaming his bloodlust on Damon and Lexi says to try not to pick a fight while making peace with Damon. They make up and Stefan tells Damon about his helping out with the war efforts. Stefan leaves Lexi and Damon alone for a second and Lexi tells Damon that Stefan is better off alone than with Damon. Charlotte shows up with a bleeding woman and Stefan freaks out. Lexi says that Charlotte is better off without Damon too. Back in 2012, Damon and Stefan show up at the last known address of Valerie La Marche, but obviously she’s not there anymore. Stefan then decides they should go try and find Charlotte.
Hayley and Tyler are at the Mystic Grille with Adrian and Kim, and Hayley is complaining to Tyler that they’re going to get in trouble. Hayley tells Tyler that Kim is challenging Tyler in his position as Alpha hybrid, and that he needs to put her in her place – now. Tyler tells Kim and Adrian to call it a night and Kim argues with him. Tyler ends it before it can go down in a fight, but Kim is in a fightin’ mood.
Damon says the last time he saw Charlotte he had used his sire bond and told her to count every brick in New Orleans. Stefan asks what they’re going to tell Elena, and Damon says they don’t tell her anything. Stefan’s like, oh that’s such a Damon thing to do, and Damon says Stefan just wants Elena to return to her “I love Stefan” self. He walks away and ends up getting attacked by Charlotte, who is in the same place he left her 70 years ago. Charlotte is played by Madeline Zima by the way. It was really bothering me what I knew her from and it turns out she played the youngest daughter on “The Nanny.” So yeah, I feel kind of old now. Charlotte’s still obsessed with Damon; she says she’s been counting bricks for decades. Damon says on the plus side at least she knows New Orleans better than anyone, and they need help finding someone.
Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie are having a dance party at the Salvatore mansion. Yeah, girl’s night, woo, yay!!!11!! Caroline calls Damon a man slut and Elena says that he’s always been there for her. She tells them that she slept with Damon and they’re both disappointed in her. Elena tells Caroline and Bonnie to go home. Elena says she thinks she’s falling in love with Damon and Caroline tells her it’s not love it’s a sire bond. Elena opens the door for them to leave and Kim and Adrian are standing there. They rush in and start attacking the girls, and then they leave with Caroline.
Damon and Stefan walk into a “mysterious shop” and tell Nandi, the woman working there, that they’re looking for a witch. Nandi says that Valerie was her great-grandmother, and Damon says Val had a grimoire with a spell to break a vampire sire bond. Flashback time! The spell was dark magic which required the sacrifice of 12 human souls. In 2012, Damon says he was hoping “the recipe had changed” and Nandi says she doesn’t practice that type of magic. She also says that they lost all of Valerie’s magic stuff in Hurricane Katrina. Stefan and Damon leave and Damon claims the witch is lying. Stefan asks Damon if he killed 12 people in 1942 to break the sire bond with Charlotte and Damon says absolutely and that he’d do it again for a clean slate with Elena.
Elena calls Tyler and they go looking for Caroline in the woods. Tyler starts talking about the sire bond, and he tells Elena that being sired doesn’t mean you feel differently about the person. After all, he hated Klaus, but he still did everything he said. The bond affects how you act, not how you feel. They hear Caroline screaming and find Kim torturing her in the barn. All of a sudden Elena and Tyler are surrounded by hybrids. Kim is about to stake Caroline when Elena tells her to take her instead. She says if Kim really wants to get to Klaus she’ll use Elena because he’s fixated on keeping her alive. Kim walks over to get Elena but Tyler attacks Kim and threatens to rip her heart out. Tyler makes her submit to him and gets everybody back on Team Tyler.
Damon calls out Nandi for being Val’s daughter, not her great-grand daughter. He accuses her of being a practicing witch and she pulls out some magic on his ass. Stefan comes out and says they just need her help, but Nandi says the kind of magic Valerie practiced wasn’t natural – it was black magic called “expression.” Nandi says that Valerie just wanted access to some human souls, and that there is no spell to break a vampire sire bond. A vampire only bonds to another vampire when she has feelings for him before she turns – human feelings. The only way to break the bond is for Damon to tell Elena to live her life without him. Damon tells Charlotte that if she wants to make him happy she needs to leave and forget about him. He then leaves her crying in a bar. Stefan says Damon won’t be able to do the same thing with Elena and Damon says he doesn’t know him as well as he thinks.
Flashback! Damon joins the army to join Stefan in the war, but Lexi intercepts him. Damon says he’s been on his own since 1912 and now he just wants to be with his little brother. She tells him that them being together will destroy Stefan and that he needs to put Stefan before himself and let him go. So Damon lets him go. Back in 2012, Stefan says that after all is said and done, if Elena decides not to go back to him he wants to make sure it was her choice (and not the bond).
Caroline and Elena kiss and make up, and Caroline promises she won’t judge Elena anymore. They say that Bonnie’s magic helped (which it didn’t at all, but whatever) and Bonnie says that Professor Shane has really helped her with this new type of magic called expression. Uh-oh. Speak the devil, Professor Shane walks into his office and Hayley is there. Hayley says that Adrian finished breaking his sire bond and asks where her parents are. Shane says that they’re dead, and gives her the info on where to find them. Hayley says he just picked a fight with a werewolf and he says just because they’re dead it doesn’t mean she can’t see them again.
Stefan tells Caroline there’s no other way to break a vampire sire bond other than completely letting Elena go, and that he feels sorry for Damon. Caroline asks how Stefan can trust Damon and Stefan says he thinks Damon loves Elena as much as he does, and that he can’t be selfish with her.
Damon tells Elena that they need to talk and Elena says that she knows she’s sired to him. She asks if there’s a way to break it and he says that’s why they need to talk. Elena says that her feelings for him haven’t changed – just her actions. Damon says that everything has changed, but Elena says that she’s happy. Damon says that he wants to know that her feelings for him are real. Damon says he’s not used to doing the right thing, but he has to do the right thing by her. Elena puts his hand on her heart and asks if it feels wrong. And then…To Be Continued. Damn you, Vampire Diaries!
Next time, on The Vampire Diaries: The hybrids try to take down Klaus. And it’s the “mid-season finale” so it best be a good one!