THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: Black Hole Sun Recap

Flashbacks, surprising reveals and a smiling Stefan – this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries featured quite a few of our favourite things! I’m really enjoying this season so far and the speed that things are progressing. Here’s what happened in the latest instalment…

We open up with an exasperated Damon snapping at Kai to tell them how to get out of their Twilight Zone hell. Kai then turns the tables on Damon, wondering why they seem to be stuck on May 10, 1994. What did Damon do on that day? Before Kai can annoy Damon any further, Bonnie returns with a whole lot of random things that Kai requested. (Really Kai, what on earth do you need a can opener, shower drain, grinding wheel, jam, pocket knife, volume O of an encyclopedia, a nail and a black marker for?) But hey, it isn’t too long before snarky new guy pesters Damon again. Bonnie urges Damon to play nice and wonders what the big secret is anyway. “Maybe because I don’t want to talk about the worst thing I did, Bonnie,” snaps Damon. “Ooh, now I’m listening,” pipes up an intrigued Kai. Us too, new guy!

We then flashback to Mystic Falls in 1994, where Damon has shown up at the Salvatore house where Stefan is staying with Zach. Remember him – the uncle/nephew? Younger Salvatore is not exactly happy to see his big bro, even though big bro has declared he’s turned over a new leaf. Who can blame Stefan for being sceptical though – after all Damon did kill his best friend. Nonetheless, Stefan lets Zach invite Damon into the house, because hey, you don’t just give up on family.

Back in the present day, Stefan and Elena are trying to find runaway Sarah and after deducing that she must be in Mystic Falls, Stefan decides to ride off on his bike back “home” to Savannah. That is before Elena pops up, opposed to the idea of Stefan returning to his “fake new life”. Elena’s not convinced that Stefan is fine after his brother died (yep, still weird hearing Elena refer to Damon as merely Stefan’s brother), but Stefan says he is and that it’s all part of his “system”. Elena wants to witness this system, so it’s on the road they go!

Since she, Stefan and Caroline can’t set foot in Mystic Falls, Elena decides it’s up to Matt and Jeremy to find Sarah. Seeing as a hungover Jeremy is puking while waiting at the university hospital with Alaric, I’m not sure whether Elena should count on him… But hey, at least Alaric gets to flirt with cute doctor Jo, even if he does mess it up later. (Nothing like a bit of fresh blood to distract you from your A game, Alaric!) At least, Matt is taking the cause seriously and goes to see Tripp, hoping to gain his trust and see if the community leader knows anything about deceased vampire hunter Jay.

Back in the other world, I’m still not sure what all those random items were for apart from Kai being hungry for jam and also sending Bonnie on a wild goose chase. Kai’s bored and Damon is ready to kill him, so Bonnie suggests that maybe telling them what happened in May 1994 would take his mind off murder. We flashback to Damon cleaning his precious car and Stefan leaning against it with a flask. Damon takes a swig, only to realise the contents aren’t exactly his drink of choice. “Mmm, it’s good right? I can’t remember if that squirrel was road kill or one I caught in the rat trap. Better hope it was road kill because the rat trap was full of rat droppings. Swish your tongue around, does it feel like hair or more like a grainy pellet?” taunts Stefan. I don’t know about you guys, but I love it when Stefan is all snarky and not brooding! Anyway, Zach is walking up the driveway with groceries to which Damon questions what’s with all the grocery trips. One of Zach’s borders has a craving for blueberry pancakes and that border happens to be Zach’s pregnant girfriend Gail. “Let me guess, you killed the pregnant woman?” snarks Kai. (C’mon, we were all thinking it, right?) Damon’s had enough of Kai and his commentary and finally the young troublemaker reveals that they need to harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic called the Ascendant, a relic that belonged to Kai’s family and was last seen in Oregon. Time for Bonnie to do a locator’s spell!

Now in Savannah, Stefan’s grabbing his paycheck and proposes that he and Elena go and get drunk. Elena’s sceptical that having a crappy paid job and health insurance are the makings of a great life, but Stefan points out that they haven’t gotten to the fun part yet – deciding who they want to be for the next 20 years. The two are drinking at the local bar when Stefan puts “the system” in action and demonstrates how easy it is to create new identities and new lives. He borrows Elena’s daylight ring and in a super cute scene, “Stefan Cooper” gets down on one knee and asks “Elena Williams” to be his wife, not because she’s pregnant but because she’s his rock who has stood by him through the multiple rehabs, jail time, bullfighting injury and has brought him back from the edge. Aww, how can a girl turn down an offer like that? Elena Williams accepts Stefan Cooper’s proposal, much to the delight of all the patrons in the bar. Well except for one guy, but more on that later…

Meanwhile, Bonnie’s trying to do a locator spell and well Damon’s being Damon and making snide remarks. Kai encourages Bonnie to think of Damon as white noise, a tip he picked up growing up with noisy younger siblings. Damon takes this tip as Kai’s attempt to hit on Bonnie and calls him out on it. Speaking of hitting on, we then return to 1994 where there’s a party for the eclipse at the Salvatore estate and Damon is getting chatty with a woman with long blonde hair. The woman is showing Damon a photo of her adorable daughter, a high maintenance toddler named Caroline. Yep, Damon is trying to charm the socks off none other than a (still-married) Liz Forbes! Also happening at the party is Zach taking a photo of Gail eating cupcakes. (Aww, Polaroid cameras, don’t you love them?) Gail spots Stefan and asks him to take a photo of her and Zach. After taking the photo, Stefan notices two puncture wounds on Gail’s wrist and realises dear ol’ big brother hasn’t changed his ways after all. He drags Damon away from Liz and tells him off for feeding on his new friends, but not before Damon compels Liz to go home and forget that she ever met them. Damon tells Stefan that it’s not a big deal – he’s only feeding inside the house. Stefan isn’t impressed with his answer and snaps Damon’s neck. Oh brotherly love!

In the present day, Bonnie’s performing the locator spell and it appears to be working. The spell leads them to Virginia, more specifically Mystic Falls, even more specifically right beside her where Kai is standing! Yep, he’s had the relic all along but wanted to test Bonnie and make sure her powers were ready. Now they’re ready to go home. Back in 1994, Damon wakes up in the shed without his daylight ring and Stefan wants answers. Damon tries to convince his baby bro to leave town and go on a road trip with him, but Stefan knows that no good things come out of him being around Damon and he lists their history to prove it. Ouch. That’s a no to the road trip then…

Speaking of road trip, back in Savannah, Elena and Stefan are discussing the “system” and how it works. She ponders that it must have been hard for Stefan to always be changing his life, especially without a constant, which then leads to addressing the elephant in the room – Damon. Stefan’s still not used to Elena being so indifferent to his brother and drops a few cryptic remarks, which Elena is not so indifferent too, but he changes the subject before she can question him about it. They toast a drink to “change”. (Yep, despite Elena’s “pregnancy”!)

Back to the Twilight Zone and Kai’s trying to figure out the exact spot for the eclipse to hit the Ascendant. Bonnie notices one of the newspaper planes Damon made earlier, more specifically a headline about a family being massacred in Portland, which if my geography is correct, is in Oregon. Yep, hate to break it to you Bon-Bon, but learning to turn his siblings into white noise wasn’t all your new friend did to them. Kai, aka Malakai is a serial killer! “You killed your own family?” cried Bonnie in disbelief. Coven to be precise. Turns out that Kai is a (now powerless) witch and this isn’t Damon’s hell the three of them are trapped in, it’s Kai’s! The Gemini coven banished him there. (Side note, anyone else wondering if he has a connection to fellow witches Liv and Luke? Gemini is after all a sign of twins…)

Elsewhere, Jeremy has recovered from his pukefest and is now sparring with Alaric in the woods. Too bad Jeremy prefers to have a pity party. Sure his girlfriend knew she was going to die and said goodbye to him over the phone, but things could be worse. Alaric’s wife left him to be a vampire (no thanks to Damon), his next love interest died while being turned into a vampire, then he died and then the guy who killed his wife and ended up becoming his best friend died. Oh and now he’s alive but has major blood cravings that are so bad that he can’t talk to pretty ladies anymore. Okay Alaric, you win. Your life sucks. (Pardon the pun) Although as sucky as his life is, he’s found a way to keep going and that’s what Jeremy needs to do.

Speaking of moving on, Elena has now accepted Stefan’s system and is ready to let him be. After she leaves, Stefan goes up to the bar and confronts the brooding stranger that didn’t seem too thrilled with his and Elena’s engagement. The verbal confrontation turns into a good ol’ round of fisty cuffs. It turns out Stefan put the guy’s brother in the hospital. Oops. While brooding stranger beats Stefan up, Elena intervenes and compels the guy to go home and forget the incident ever happened.

In the Twilight Zone, Bonnie and Damon are bickering over what to do with serial killer, which of course leads to the next instalment of flashbacks where Damon has escaped from the shed and is Gail hostage with dead party go-ers all around them. A defeated Stefan gives him his daylight ring back and realises he’ll never escape his brother. Yep, declares his brother gleefully – Stefan owes him and it’ll take him an eternity to make it up to him. Damon then sinks his fangs into Gail’s neck. He killed the pregnant lady! “Ouch, poor nephew uncle Zach,” remarks Kai. Stefan compelled Zach to forget about Gail, but he couldn’t cover up all the murders, so the Founders Council was revived, forcing Stefan and Damon to flee Mystic Falls once again. Now that she knows the truth, Damon tries to convince Bonnie to work with Kai to get them back home.

Back in Mystic Falls, Matt and Tripp are driving back from the sheriff’s station. Matt remarks on tension between Tripp and Sheriff Forbes and Tripp reveals that Liz and his wife used to be high school rivals. Matt is surprised that Tripp is married…or at least was. It turns out Tripp’s wife died in a car accident, which is why he left Mystic Falls. Matt then changes the subject and asks Tripp what he told the sheriff about Jay. Tripp says he suggested it was just another mountain lion, and sensing his opening, Matt acts all innocent and reveals that Jay told him that he was a vampire hunter. Hook, line and sinker, Tripp buys it and decides to show Matt something. Dun-dun-dun!

So it turns out Elena forget her jacket, but hey good thing she did, right? Stefan doesn’t see it that way and retorts that she’s the last person to be lecturing him on how to deal with grief. Of course Elena has no idea what Stefan’s talking about and then goes on to criticise Damon and deems him unworthy of Stefan’s sorrow. Fed up with the Damon-hatefest, Stefan snaps and drops the truth on her: she asked Alaric to compel her to forget that she ever loved Damon because she couldn’t handle losing him. She loved Damon just like he loved Damon – because despite all the horrible things Damon had done, they couldn’t live without him. Geez, way to break the pact, Stefan!

We’re now somewhere dark in the woods and Tripp has taken Matt to a secret place that he only shares with people he trusts (good job Matt!). Tripp then reveals that after the “gas leak” that happened over the summer, he returned to make sure his grandmother was okay. When he crossed the border, a whole bunch of memories returned to him – including how his wife died. Tripp opens the door of his secret hideout and sitting chained on the floor, is…Enzo! Tripp knows that a vampire killed his wife and that Enzo killed Jay, so now he’s going to make Enzo reveal the names of all his vampire friends, including the one who bit Sarah. Pan to Matt’s shocked face. Nope, this is not good at all!

Speaking of Sarah, Jeremy arrives home to find her there demanding answers. She holds up a polaroid – the one that Stefan took of Zach and Gail. She knows that’s her mother and the reason she knows is because she has had another polaroid since she was born – the one that Zach took of Gail eating a cupcake. It turns out that Stefan dropped Gail off at the hospital and although “Jane Doe” died, the baby was saved with an emergency C-Section. Yep, Sarah is a Salvatore! Don’t worry Jer, we’re just as shocked as you are!

It’s an evening of revelations and now Elena is confronting Alaric about obliterating a chunk of her life. Poor guy can’t catch a break. He pulls out a box and hands a journal over to Elena. She opens a page bookmarked by a photo strip of her and Damon and reads a letter from herself before she had her memories of Damon erased. The letter confirms that yes she did love Damon and that Alaric can even restore her memories, but they were erased for a reason. The letter urges Elena to let it be and use this opportunity as a clean slate – to rediscover herself in the absence of the one who defined her. After going through the box of momentos from her and Damon’s relationship, she hands the journal back to Alaric, asking him to hold on to it and keep it safe for her.

While Elena is deciding to forget him, Damon is being psycho-analysed by Bonnie. She remembers that Gail liked pancakes and deduces that Damon keeps making them every day because he feels guilty. In an attempt to change the subject, Damon schemes that they can escape without Kai, but hey, speak of the devil! Kai pops into the room and taunts that it’s not that easy. He may not have powers but he can absorb them from others and grabs Bonnie to demonstrate! Looks like they won’t be getting rid of him anytime soon…

This episode has been filled with plenty of shockers, but it wasn’t done quite yet. Over in Savannah, Stefan is working on Damon’s car when he hears a noise. He looks up and there is a bloodied and frightened Ivy! “Stefan, I don’t feel so good. Your friend Enzo made me drink his blood and now I’m so thirsty,” she reveals before vamping out. Oh man!

What do you think about this episode? Did you enjoy Elena Williams and Stefan Cooper? Sound off with your thoughts in the comment section below!

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

Photos: ©2014 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved.