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Previously: Damon is back, Elena doesn’t remember their epic romance, Bonnie is trapped on The Other Side with Murderous Kai, Alaric is human again and can’t compel Elena to remember her relationship with Damon, and Caroline tells Stefan that his apologies aren’t worth one good goddamn to her.
Let’s just delve right in, shall we?
Damon is determined to find a way to bring back Elena’s memories. There’s so much eyebrow acting here from Ian Somerhalder that my heart was doing flip flops. I am here for his eyebrows, y’all. He doesn’t let a door gently closed in his face deter him either. Damon crashes the hospital’s fundraiser, much to the amusement of Dr. Jo and Alaric, who accuses him of stalking Elena. Know who wasn’t amused? Liam. Do we care? Not so much. Thankfully Damon compels him to go to the bar so he can dance with Elena and try once again to stir up some memories. One we ALL remember is when he filled in for Ripper Stefan as Elena’s escort for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant.
Elena doesn’t remember and she’s frustrated and apologetic while the rest of us are like, “Girrrrrl how can you forget being wrapped up in Damon Salvatore??” He’s upset that she erased her memories, even if they were causing her pain. How could she want to forget him?
Alaric and Jo watch on and he tries to get her to talk about her witchy powers, so she tells him that she has hidden her powers away (FORESHADOWING) and that she came from a very dysfunctional magical family. GEE. I wonder who that could be. I’m actually kind of excited for this revelation, if only because I can now fantasize about Jo and Bonnie teaming up to rip Kai’s head off. Later on back at her place they get kissy and he sees her scar from when her crazy brother tried to kill her with a hunting knife. Yep, those fantasies are EVER VIVID.
Stefan, Matt and Enzo have Vampire Hunter Tripp tied up. Stefan wants to kill him, Enzo wants intel on the other hunters and Matt Donovan is conflicted, emoting his signature I Am Conflicted-brow furrow. Stefan plays hardball, smashing Tripp’s hand and gets him to spill out the obvious; that there are other hunters out there hunting, but he mentions Caroline and this gets Stefan’s fur up. He tells them to keep getting info from Tripp for the next two hours and then get rid of him. DAMN STEFAN. He’s not messing about.
Caroline isn’t too happy to see Stefan at her dorm room. She stresses that they are no longer friends. Caroline Forbes is either ALL IN or you are DEAD TO HER. Just ask Damon. She gets a call from her mom who’s being held at gunpoint by the Other Hunters, who want Tripp back. She and Stefan speed back to the Torture Shed, hoping that Enzo hasn’t turned Tripp into human tartare just yet, and luckily he hasn’t. You know Enzo isn’t happy about having to turn over Tripp but we have to remember that Enzo really knows how to play the long game. He’s flirty with Caroline which annoys her and it is adorable. He senses that something is off with her dynamic with Stefan and straight up tells him that Caroline has feelings for him, OBVIOUSLY. Stefan is stunned, Caroline is mortified and Enzo leaves. We all need an Enzo in our life.
They get ready for the Tripp/Liz Forbes swap and SNEAKY ENZO must have fed Tripp vampire blood because as soon as he crosses over into Mystic Falls he dies. Matt Donovan looks Conflicted (™), like all of his absentee father issues are coming to a head at once. The hunters bolt and Caroline gets her mom to the hospital.
Damon is drinking heavily at the bar and Elena joins him for a shot, telling him she’s ready to try and get her memories back. THANK GOD. She asks him for memories and so he takes her to the Mystic Falls border. He tells her about the night he died, that she was in the car with him. She asks for his favorite memory of the two of them and he tells her about the night she wanted to watch the meteor shower with him and it started to rain. Elena is super frustrated at her inability to remember and turns around and walks OVER the border into Mystic Falls. She gets flashes of Damon but also starts to DIE to the point where she’s vomiting up water from when she originally drowned. JESUS. Damon realizes that her being happy now is more important and is willing to let her go. It’s probably the most selfless thing he’s ever done. I mean, who wasn’t impressed that he didn’t immediately snap Liam’s neck when he first laid eyes on him with Elena? PERSONAL GROWTH, y’all.
MEANWHILE, on the Other Side, Kai is still trying to get Bonnie to take them both back. She manages to stab him in the neck with a pen while she runs to the Medical Center to patch up her stab wound. (How is it that they’re wounded in the AfterLife? Ok, just rolling with it.) He drags her back and tries to make nice, telling her that he’s changed, she’s inspired him to be a better person, and look! He’s even brought her her favorite teddy bear! Bonnie isn’t buying his bullshit and so she funnels her magic away into the teddy bear and transports it home instead of taking the two of them back. Kai is SUPER PISSED. Bonnie is justly smug.
Also there’s a scene with Liv and Tyler that didn’t really serve any purpose other than to let us know that she fancies him, he fancies her and Luke doesn’t approve.
In other scenes with characters we don’t care about, Liam accuses Elena of lying to him; first about her dead/not dead ex-boyfriend, and then about the girl she treated at the Corn Maze of Doom. Not only did she survive mortal wounds but turns out her old tennis injury is gone too. He pushes a medical file at her, makes idle threats and leaves. Whatever.
In scenes we most DEFINITELY care about, Stefan asks Caroline why she never told him about her feelings for him. He apologizes profusely for his dickish abandonment of her. Caroline is putting herself first and is done putting her heart on the line for Stefan Salvatore. “If I don’t hate you for ruining our friendship then I have to hate myself for ruining it, and I think that I deserve better than that.”
Damon is sad and drinking alone at his family’s crypt (seriously, what is is with these brothers and drowning their misery amongst dead relatives) when he sees Bonnie’s teddy bear! He knows she’s still alive and his face lighting up is the BEST. EVER. We also get to see his recollection of the night of the meteor shower and it’s pretty darn sweet.
Thoughts:
- When Alaric goes down the list of all the horrid things Damon has done I remember that I’ll never forgive him for killing Lexi and I’m still shocked that Stefan has. Weirdly I was fine when he snapped Jeremy’s neck. Oh yeah – because Jeremy is The Worst.
- Caroline really isn’t mourning the lack of Damon in Elena’s life. Forget Sicilian grandmas, no one can hold a grudge like Caroline Forbes.
- Speaking of, Caroline calling Stefan a piece of gum on the bottom of her shoe she needs to get rid of? ROUGH. But also fair.
- ”I’m not on the wrong side, man, my side is just really friggin’ complicated.” Truer words were never spoke, Matty.
- I tip my hat to Enzo even though I guess I should feel sorry for Tripp? Whatever, he was going to kill Caroline.
- “Let me get this straight, all Caroline had to do to get you to treat her with a modicum of respect is stop paying attention to you? Is that how this works?…she’s got a thing for you, mate.” BOOM.
- “I literally went through time and space to be with you…I would rather spend every moment in agony than erase the memory of you.” SWOON.
- New Tragic Hair Amber Alert: Luke. I think he’s been going to Jeremy’s stylist.
- “There’s a hotel ice machine in Denver that has some stories.” Yup, and I remember Jeremy Gilbert killing that moment too. The. Worst.
- Dr. Jo is the kind of woman who wants to peel out of her Spanx and order pizza the moment she gets home. She has my heart.
Let’s dish! Jeremy or Luke – Lead Contender for Worst Hair? Were there any Damon/Elena memories that you love that they didn’t flash back to?
About the Contributor:
Amanda Reid is an East Coast girl living in California who will never stop missing a true autumn. She’s a bookseller who specializes in kid and teen lit, and she bakes a damn fine pie.
