THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: 50 SHADES OF GRAYSON

What a mid-season finale! I was in shock at the end! Deep breaths people, deep breaths. Let’s get down to the meat and potatoes of this cliff-hanging episode!

We begin with Damon punching the wall of his cell. He was trying to escape and after a few punches, picking up a bullet that Aaron dropped, a few kicks and sparks he was out of that cell before the opening credits started.

Katherine woke up satisfied with herself in Stefan’s bed. She started to snuggle with Stefan but noticed a patch of grey hair that fell out. She covered herself with a blanket and instructed Stefan not to look at her. She ran out of the room and Stefan had a sly smile on his face. They must have had a hell of a night.

On her way out, Katherine bumped into a bloody Damon who was looking for Elena. Katherine told him that she was there all night and Elena wasn’t there. She added that she knew Stefan hadn’t seen her either because she and Stefan experienced “hot naked bodies collided in one unforgettable night of passion.” (Was anyone else jealous at that moment or was it just me?) Damon looked bothered and told her he wanted to barf and she left.

Damon found Stefan and told him about his rough few days of being shot and being held captive and that he couldn’t find Elena. Damon told Stefan he thought Dr. Wes had Elena or “Dr. Creepy Ken Doll” as he called him. He told Stefan to come with him to find Elena. They knew they needed insurance so they went to look for Aaron and found him on campus.

Elena was still restrained on the table. Dr. Wes examined her and couldn’t believe how much blood she could lose without going unconscious. Dr. Wes babbled on about how Aaron believed his family was cursed (because they kept dying) but they were murdered by the same vampire (Damon). He asked how could someone justify that and Elena responded by asking him how he could justify what he was doing to her and said “Science.” He started reading passages and research from a journal (we assumed was his). Dr. Wes then told her it was her father’s journal and everything he learned, he learned from her dad, Grayson Gilbert. Yikes!  

Damon and Stefan questioned Aaron about Elena, but he didn’t know where she was. Damon had Aaron call Dr. Wes and tell him that they would kill him if he didn’t let Elena go. Dr. Wes was in his lab with Elena (who recognized that she was in the basement of her father’s clinic) and didn’t believe that Damon was there because he was supposed to be locked in a cell. Aaron assured him he was there and would make promise on his threat if he didn’t get Elena back. Dr. Wes agreed to meet them in his classroom (but he had a different plan).

Dr. Wes decided to let Enzo out for a field trip. He injected him with what he referred to as an “insurance policy” to guarantee he would come back. He gave him some blood bags and told him to go play catch up with Damon (ooohhh this is going to be good).

Katherine wanted to get her sexy back so she was working out with Matt in the woods. She wanted to get in good shape to hold off the whole aging/dying thing for as long as she could. She couldn’t see or hear that well and she thought her body was falling apart. When Nadia was walking towards them, Katherine couldn’t make out who it was. Nadia wasn’t happy about the suicide note Katherine left and let her know it by slapping her across the face.

At the Salvatore house, Katherine was making a raw Kale shake (yuck). Nadia was there and Katherine assured her that the suicide incident was just a moment of weakness and it was over. Then Katherine got serious and asked her daughter if she thought she could be forgiven for all she has done over the years. Nadia thought she could be forgiven and thought of a plan to keep Katherine alive.

On the table, Elena had flashbacks from her childhood. She could hear screams coming from her father’s basement. Her father told her not to worry about it and that the basement was a kid free zone. Back to the present, Elena asked Dr. Wes how he and her father met. He told her that her father was working on using vampire blood as a cure for everything. Elena figured out that Enzo was the Augustine vampire that killed Megan. Her parents helped fund Grayson’s project because they knew he had some type of cure. But Megan got suspicious as she got older and ended up too close to a starving Enzo and that’s how she died.

Enzo was hanging out in the back of the classroom (looking hot I might add) when Damon, Stefan and Aaron entered. Enzo said Hello and Damon couldn’t believe it was him. He stood up and introduced himself as Lorenzo. He stuck his hand out to Stefan to shake it but Stefan left him hanging. Stefan wanted to know who he was, and Enzo was overly enthused to tell his story. As he started to talk, Stefan excused himself to call Dr. Wes. Stefan threatened to kill Aaron if he didn’t release Elena, and Dr. Wes made the same threat if they harmed Aaron.

Back inside the classroom, Enzo told his story. He wasn’t happy when they started talking about Elena and interrupted him. He ripped a desk out of the floor and threw it across the room to get their attention and it worked. Stefan found out how Damon left Enzo there to die in the fire but he was saved and put right back in the cell.  

Enzo left and Stefan began to question Damon, but it was cut short because Damon was ready to kill Aaron. Aaron told Damon that he had some family files that Dr. Wes gave him and that bought him some time.  Since Dr. Wes didn’t care about saving him, Aaron didn’t care if he helped Damon and Stefan. Enzo came back with some alcohol and said Damon would be staying with him. Damon stayed and told Stefan to kill Aaron if he didn’t find anything.

Nadia’s idea to save Katherine was spirit possession since Katherine’s father was a traveler; she was too. Katherine was not too keen on the idea but Nadia explained that since being a traveler was in her blood, she could live inside someone else’s body. Katherine said, “Stefan actually likes this body.” Then it dawned on Nadia that all the forgiveness talk was about Stefan, not her. Nadia was hurt that Stefan was the reason she wanted to stay alive. Nadia lashed out to Katherine and told her to kill herself and see if anyone misses her. Yikes!

Damon and Enzo were chatting and Enzo said the poison Dr. Wes injected him with was stopping his heart and he had to go back to Dr. Wes to get the antidote. Damon suggested that they go back and kill Dr. Wes together but Enzo wanted the antidote and was supposed to kill Damon to get it. He picked up Damon and threw him through a window. Ouch. They fought but Enzo desiccated before he could finish the job.

Stefan was with Aaron and Aaron tried to shoot him but failed, of course (this guy really needs to learn how to use a gun). Stefan started to choke him but Aaron told him that Damon didn’t tell him the whole story. Aaron told Stefan about Damon’s killing spree of his family and Stefan was disgusted with Damon. Aaron begged Stefan to kill him so that Damon couldn’t kill anymore Whitmores and Stefan said, “You know, not all of us are like my brother.” Aaron gave him the files and Stefan left.

Dr. Wes was about to turn Elena into a super vampire (like Jesse) and Stefan got there just in time to save her. Elena head butted Dr. Wes and Stefan helped her out and she took her father’s journal with her (why didn’t they kill Dr. Wes? Or at least destroy his vamp making serum?)

Enzo woke up in Dr. Wes’s lab. Damon took him there and injected him with every antidote until one of them worked. Enzo was grateful but made it clear that they were not friends. Damon shoved his hand inside Enzo’s chest and told him that he didn’t feel guilty after he left him because he shut off his humanity switch. Enzo responded, “Even if I forgave you, Damon, would that make you less of a horrible person?” He told Damon that he was the most important person in his life and he had ruined him. He told him he would always be a monster.

Elena read her father’s journal and figured out that her father saved Megan (her roommate) when she was little because she had a heart defect. Damon was shocked that she found some good in 100 pages of torture. She said she couldn’t not defend her dad, even if he did torture vampires to save people. Damon said, “I know you can, because you do it for me all the time. Why are you still here? I’m bad, Elena. I am bad for you.”  She made her choice to be with him because she loves him, but he flipped the switch and chose to let her go. He didn’t want to think about how she would feel every time a ghost from his past resurfaced.

Elena said she had done some pretty bad things too, and she said after being tortured for five years- Damon couldn’t take it. He screamed at her “Stop defending me! I won’t change who I am. I can’t. But I refuse to change you” (I got goose bumps at this point. Ian Sommerhalder killed this scene).

Upstairs, Katherine was looking at her wrinkles in the mirror with Stefan. She brought up their hot night together, and Stefan shot her down. He told her he wasn’t ready to forget everything she’d done to him over the last 147 years. She showed him her grey hair and asked, “What does someone have to go through to get a little redemption around here?” It didn’t work. He couldn’t forgive her for everything in one night. She turned to walk away, and Stefan stopped her. He grabbed her hand and said “I’m sorry that you’re dying.” She said, “Trust me, I am, too” and she left.

Katherine was on the phone with Nadia and agreed to the spirit possession. She said, “I’m a survivor. Staying alive is my specialty.” Just as she said that she dropped her bag, then her heart. Ahh! Then she fell down the stairs! OMG! Is she dead? We will have to wait until January 23^rd to find out!  

What did you think of this episode? Do you think Katherine will return? Will Elena try to get Damon back or run to Stefan? Will we see more of Enzo? What will Aaron do now? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

The Vampire Diaries airs at 8/7 central on The CW.