THE VAMPIRE DIARIES RECAP: TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART

Ok TVD fans! This episode was a little frustrating to me. I don’t really like the over the top Bad Boy Damon (capturing and threatening to kill Jeremy? Really Damon?). I wasn’t a fan of the direction he was moving in, until the twist at the end. Also, I’m ready for Elena to come back. The whole Katherine taking over Elena’s body thing has run its course in my opinion. Now that I got that off my chest, there was still a lot of yummy goodness (Enzo) in this episode, so let’s get down to it!

The girls are at Whitmore getting ready for the Bitter Ball. Bonnie, Caroline and Katherine/Elena were in class together. Bonnie was distracted because the girl next to her was making a pen move with her hands. Bonnie watched her intently and knew she was a witch.

Stefan found Aaron dead in the trunk of his car and knew Damon was involved. He went in the house and it was a total mess. Damon and Enzo had too much to drink and there was broken glass everywhere.  Stefan was concerned about Damon turning to the dark side but Damon was perfectly happy being bad. Damon told Stefan, “Get another hobby, brother, because I’m not in the mood to be saved.” Dr. Wes was next on Enzo’s hit list and Damon was down for the ride.  

Dr. Wes was at a hospital (which looked deserted) and had a new victim (who was hot).  Dr. Wes had him tied up to a wall and he had already turned him into a vampire. He was back to his old tricks and wanted to make him a vampire that wanted to feed off of other vampires. A woman came to his lab and offered to help fund his project if he would analyze some blood for her. He wasn’t feeling the idea at first, until she told him that Aaron was probably dead and he was the next target.  

Damon and Enzo kidnapped the head of campus security and asked her where they could find Dr. Wes. She didn’t know and since she was no help, Enzo snapped her neck. Damon didn’t flinch and said, “Onto the next one!” Wow Damon is really doing the super bad boy thing.

Stefan found Enzo digging a grave in the woods and asked him to leave. Enzo didn’t care what Stefan thought since Damon warned him that Stefan was a do-gooder. Stefan knocked Enzo down and threatened him if he didn’t leave his brother alone. Enzo grabbed the handle of his shovel and stabbed himself with it. He told Stefan there was nothing he could do to him that hadn’t already been done. Stefan told him when he decides to do something to him, it will be final and he walked off.

Stefan called Elena and wanted to meet up with her to talk about Enzo. Katherine invited him to join them at the Bitter Ball and he agreed to go after some convincing. The first thing Katherine did was text Nadia to find out who Enzo was. Nadia’s job was to hang around Matt and ask him questions about Elena, and then compel him to forget everything she asked him (I’m sure that wasn’t what she had in mind when her mother asked her to stick around). They were at the bar and Tyler showed up. Tyler looked at Nadia and said “She’s new,” to Matt. Matt tried to keep him away from Nadia and told him she was Katherine’s daughter, but Tyler was intrigued. She said she was mourning her mother and Tyler’s cure all was to do shots. The three of them shared bad mother stories. We were reminded that Matt’s Mom hooked up with Tyler (Ewww) and they all drank to that.  Tyler left to go to the bathroom and Nadia took the chance to ask Matt who Enzo was. She wasn’t slick though because Tyler caught her compelling Matt and wondered what she was up to. Tyler told Matt that she compelled him and suggested he take some vervain right away and stay away from her.

Jeremy and Bonnie were getting ready to go to the dance (even though technically it was for singles and they couldn’t go together). Bad boy Damon showed up to kidnap Jeremy. He needed Bonnie (who has no powers) to find a witch who could do a locator spell to find out where Dr. Wes was. If she didn’t help Damon, he would kill Jeremy (or let Enzo do it) and as crazy as Damon has been acting, I really thought he would go through with it. I didn’t like that at all. Bad Damon. Of course Bonnie agreed to help, what else could she do?

At the Bitter Ball, Katherine had her sights on Stefan and asked him to dance. She told him she was doing ok and she was happy to be finished with Damon. Caroline caught a glimpse of Katherine/Elena getting close to Stefan and asked if she could borrow Elena. She took her to the shredding machine so she could shred some pictures of her and Tyler and the picture of the horse Klaus drew for her (aw, I loved that picture). Caroline wanted to move forward not look back and tried to make the point to Elena/Katherine but she went right back over to Stefan.

Caroline talked to Stefan and knew something was up. He told her about Damon killing Aaron and how he didn’t tell Elena because he knew she would give up on him for good. He didn’t want that because he felt Elena was the only person who could save Damon from himself. Just as they were talking, Damon and Bonnie arrived. He shared that if Bonnie didn’t find a witch to locate Dr. Wes by midnight, then Enzo would kill Jeremy. Bonnie had a picture of Jeremy tied up on her phone and showed it to Katherine/Elena. Katherine did a good job of pretending to care but rolled her eyes when no one was looking.

Bonnie was off to find the girl from class who moved the pen with her hands. She suspected she was a witch and needed her help. Conveniently, she was working at the Bitter Ball.

Katherine called Nadia and asked if it was necessary for her to save Jeremy (which was a dumb question). She felt his death would score sympathy points from Stefan and allow him to get close to her, but Nadia told her Elena would do anything for Jeremy and it would blow her cover if she didn’t try to save him. After re-upping on vervain Matt was about to tell Tyler about Elena and Nadia got there and snapped Tyler’s neck before he had the chance to say anything.

Back at the dance, Katherine snuggled up to Stefan and asked him to help her save Jeremy. Bonnie and Caroline found the witch from class and Bonnie convinced her to help with the locator spell with Bonnie’s assistance. The new witch got a little freaked out because she didn’t know how to control her powers. She admitted to doing bad things in the past and just wanted it all to go away. To pull at her heart strings, Bonnie showed her the picture of Jeremy tied up on her phone (after Damon let Enzo threaten his life on speaker phone) and she was willing to try the spell again.

Enzo decided to have a little fun on his own and suffocated Jeremy (even though Damon did not tell him to). Stefan and Katherine got there just in time to save Jeremy. Katherine was disgusted because she had to give Jeremy mouth to mouth, but Stefan didn’t see her disgust because he was too busy fighting Enzo. Jeremy took a breath and Katherine was relieved. Enzo threw a stake a Katherine and Stefan removed it for her. Damon showed up and said that Dr. Wes was in Richmond. Damon and Enzo took off and Stefan told Damon not to bother returning. Damon told him that he didn’t plan to and left with his new BFF.  

Once Tyler woke up, Matt made up a story and said that Nadia wanted to talk to him about Katherine and felt she had to compel him to do so (which doesn’t really make sense but Matt was trying to protect Tyler from Nadia). Matt got in the car with Nadia after Tyler left and told her that he knew Katherine took over Elena’s body. Nadia threatened him but she wasn’t sure what to do with him just yet, but she knew she had to get the vervain out of his system (I bet Matt is regretting that threesome he had with her now more than ever).

Damon and Enzo went to the hospital in Richmond and found a bunch of travelers (who were chanting) waiting for them. Whatever they were chanting had an effect on Enzo and Damon to the point where Dr. Wes injected something into Damon.

At the house, Stefan helped Katherine get the remainder of the stake out of her back. She shared with Stefan that she figured out that Damon killed Aaron. She didn’t understand why Stefan didn’t tell her before. Stefan said that once Elena was into Damon, he kept waiting for Damon to blow it, but he didn’t and Stefan started to like the person Damon became when he was with Elena. Stefan didn’t want to lose that Damon. Katherine saw how much this meant to Stefan and said she would help save Damon, but not for Damon’s sake, but for Stefan’s. They hugged and Caroline walked in and saw them (is Caroline getting a little jealous of their relationship?).

Back at the hospital, Damon shared with Enzo that he hoped Dr. Wes didn’t inject him with the poison that would make him want to feed on other vampires. Damon saw Dr. Wes’ newest subject tied up and let him go free. At that moment Damon’s eyes got bloodshot and he looked really hungry. He attacked the new vamp’s neck and fed until the guy’s head snapped off. Well, there is your answer. Damon was the new super vampire. For the second week in a row, we ended with Damon’s bloody mouth, and Enzo knew Damon’s new hunger could pose a problem. Now this Damon should be interesting.

What did you think about this episode? Do you think Caroline is jealous of Elena/Katherine and Stefan getting close? What will Nadia do with Matt?  How will Damon’s new hunger affect him? Will Elena ever regain control of her body? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursday nights at 8/7c on The CW.