THE VAMPIRE DIARIES Recap: American Gothic

NiceGirl Lisa is taking time off for a few weeks so I’m going to do my best to cover this recap for her. Bear with me please.

Small Town USA: Rebekah and Elaina finally manage to track down Katherine in small town Pennsylvania. Not only do they find her whereabouts they find out Katherine has compelled the whole town to let her feed from them and to then forget all about her unless she was talking to them directly. It’s quite clever.
It doesn’t take long for Elaina and Rebekah to come face to face with Katherine. Elaina doesn’t even blink when Katherine comments on how she killed Jeremy. It’s not okay. After some more idle chitchat Katherine says she has changed, she doesn’t want to screw them over she just wants to give Klaus the cure so she can stop running from him.
They seem less than trusting of her and take her phone away to try to gather some intel. On the phone Elaina sees a meeting scheduled with em. Katherine won’t tell them who em is though.
Elaina isn’t fazed by Katherine’s refusal to help; Elaina takes Katherine’s clothes and accessories so she can go to her meeting with em. Elaina throws out some insults and sarcasm…it looks like she has Katherine down.
Rebekah stays with Katherine while Elaina goes to meet em. Oh. My. Word. Turns out em is Elijah and he greets “Katherine” with a hell of a kiss. What on earth does Katherine have going on that keeps men interested for centuries? Honestly?
He’s there to get the cure but before Elaina can escape back to the diner Elijah figures out its Elaina and not Katherine. Katherine is using Elijah to broker the deal with Klaus for the cure.

Brothers & Lovers: Let’s skip back to what the brothers are up to for a moment. Thanks to Sheriff Forbes they track down where the girls went. They decide they are going to get to the cure first because as Damon puts it Elaina without her humanity is, “A stone cold bitch and I don’t trust her.”
Once in PA they start looking for Elaina, Katherine and Rebekah. Damon is resolved to do whatever they need to do to get Elaina back home. He will not allow her to go off the rails and she is dangerously close.
Stefan: What happened to the guy who thought Elaina should embrace being a vampire?
Damon: That guy got his neck snapped in New York and this guy is royally pissed off.
The brothers find Rebekah and Katherine at the diner only to hear that Elaina is at a meeting with Elijah. Stefan calls Elijah to make a swap of Katherine and Elaina but Elijah doesn’t want to hear it, he wants Katherine and he wants her now. Elaina calls Elijah an idiot for falling for Katherine again. He says he knows exactly who and what Katherine is. When Elijah asks about her shutting off her humanity Elaina tells him she did it because Katherine killed her brother. That was enough to put a shocked look on Elijah’s face. It’s clearly something he didn’t know.
Across town Katherine takes Rebekah and Damon to her house to get the cure. Katherine opens the safe in her house only to say the cure is gone, someone took it.
Damon doesn’t believe her though and starts looking around her house. He sees a fish tank – an empty fish tank with a treasure chest in it. He reaches into the water only to find its vervain water in the tank. Katherine pushes Damon’s face in the water burning him. Katherine tosses the cure at Rebekah and darts out of the house.
With the cure in her hands Rebekah downs it while Damon can only watch.
The brothers start to fight when Rebekah comes too. Rebekah says she feels good and Damon says great, then I can kill you now. He throws a letter opener at her and she catches it, she is still a vampire. The cure Katherine gave her was a fake.
Elijah is still talking to Elaina, he apologizes for the loss of her brother, he knows what it’s like to lose a brother. Elaina mocks Elijah’s love of Katherine and compares it to Damon and Stefan’s love for the girl she once was. Just then Katherine shows up and breaks Elaina’s neck.
Elijah questions why Katherine would kill Jeremy, he wonders if he is collateral damage in her big scheme as well. She says no, of course not, she loves him. He wants to believe her but he just can’t. He leaves Katherine standing next to Elaina’s body.
Some time later Katherine stops by a house in town to get her package. It is the cure, the real cure.
Katherine finds Elijah before he leaves town to apologize. She wants it to work with them; she proves it by giving him the real cure and asking for his trust. He gets to decide where they go from here and she walks away leaving Elijah holding the cure.
Elijah next runs into Rebekah who says she wants the cure, she wants to be human, badly. She just wants to live a simple life. Rebekah begs him for the cure when her phone rings. It’s Klaus checking in on her progress. She hands Elijah the phone who says he is bringing the cure home to Mystic Falls. He and Rebekah get into the car.
That night Damon and Stefan are still in town. Damon admits he let Rebekah take the cure, he had a moment of weakness, he doesn’t really want the cure for Elaina, because as a human she might pick Stefan. Stefan says they keep making the same mistakes over and over, it has to stop, he is done. Once Elaina has taken the cure, he is leaving to start a life, a new life on his own.
They find Elaina in the diner by herself. She says she doesn’t want the cure; she doesn’t even want to talk about it anymore. They decide not to accept that so Elaina says if they don’t accept it there will be consequences. The boys don’t listen though and Elaina stands up and breaks the neck of the waitress, if they keep trying to fix her there will be more bodies.
Did I mention I don’t like Elaina without her humanity?

BFF’s: Klaus is still dealing with the splinter from hell in his back. He is shirtless so that’s nice and somehow he manages to look good sweaty, what doesn’t look good is the whole he is picking in his back trying to get the tip of the white oak stake out. That’s how Caroline finds him. She looks genuinely concerned and sooths his brow only to reveal its Shane in a Caroline suit. He wants the cure and he wants it now.
Later in the day Caroline – the real Caroline – shows up at Klaus’s. He thinks she is still Shane although I can’t see Shane using the phrase, “I’m supposed to be running three different prom committees and you keep phone stalking me.” can you? Klaus tells Caroline his predicament; he’s hurt so he called her. He wants her to cut the stake out of his back.
Caroline is trying to get the white oak stake out of his back but she says she doesn’t actually see anything. She then decides she wants Klaus to promise her Tyler can come back to town – safely. If he agrees she will continue to help him with the stake.
What I can only assume is hours and hours later with how stubborn Klaus is Caroline is still sitting there waiting for his word he won’t hurt Tyler. Klaus wonders why he would do that and Caroline says if he wants to be friends step one is showing she can trust him. Klaus who cannot get out of his own way with Caroline starts a fight with her. Yelling and screaming and just when it looks like they might kiss, seriously, I was sure they were about to, Klaus stops…the pain is gone, in fact the stake is gone, it was never actually there, it was all in his head. He thanks Caroline.
After Klaus’s phone call with Elijah Caroline is still there cleaning up and before she can leave Klaus thanks her again. He asks if they are friends now, she brings up Tyler and he says he hasn’t exactly been scouring the earth for Tyler if she hadn’t noticed. She smiles a little and leaves while the smile Klaus has on his face is quite hopeful.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday 8/9c  The CW