Suspense masters Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson finally solved the mystery of the Salvatore brothers' vampire origins on last night's flashback-heavy episode of "The Vampire Diaries." And if that weren't enough, Pearl died, Anna and Jeremy totally hooked up, and Isobel returned. No big deal — just another day in Mystic Falls.
We first returned to the scene of the Salvatore brothers' murders — that's right, both brothers were killed the night of the whole vampire round up/church burning incident. And that's not even the craziest part — we'll get to that later. Stefan and Damon were both shot while trying to rescue Katherine, and woke up after Emily (Bonnie's witch ancestor) had dragged them to safety. She crafted them sunlight safety rings, and told them they were both in the transition phase of becoming a vampire.
Turns out, Katherine had been compelling Stefan to drink her blood over the past few weeks. On the other hand, Damon drank it willingly. The brothers Salvatore now had to decide whether to drink a human's blood to complete the transition, or die for real.
Stefan snuck off to confront his pops, who freaked out when he saw Stefan alive -- turns out he'd been the one to shoot his sons. That's right: Stefan and Damon were killed by their own father. Papa S. tried to stake Stefan, but Stefan didn't know his own strength and staked his father instead. The fresh blood proved too much to resist, and — eep! — Stefan completed his transition by drinking his father's own blood. Told you there was a crazier part.
Stefan brought his brother back a tasty treat in the form of an innocent girl. With Katherine dead, Damon didn't really want to keep living, but when faced with fresh blood he couldn't help himself. Once he'd turned, he told his brother that he'd hate him for eternity.
Back in modern days, however, Damon told Stefan that he didn't hate him because Stefan forced him to finish turning — he hated him because Katherine turned Stefan too. It was only supposed to be Damon.
The flashbacks occurred as Stefan sat in his cell, self-loathing, being all hot and muscle-y and extra-broody. Elena reached her boiling point on the Mopey Stefan scale, so she opened his cell to prove her trust: he wasn't going to hurt her. She later found him staring out into the lake, contemplating the permanent, crippling sense of guilt he feels because of all the people who have died since he forced Damon to become a vampire. There's also that constant threat of giving in to the urge to drink human blood and erase that guilt. He told Elena he didn't trust himself around her because he didn't want her to be the one around when he snapped. Elena convinced him to trust her, and to trust himself. (This was all quite cheesy, but I'll allow it because I like this whole "Stefan having a personality" thing.)
Things went well on the Anna-Jeremy front: The two lovebirds finally got hot and heavy made their relationship official, if you know what I mean. If you don't -- shirtless Jeremy and Anna in a lacy black bra. Get the picture now? Anna enrolled in school, and Jeremy finally seemed happy again. Too bad that won't last very long since Uncle John staked Pearl to death, even though Pearl had told him she gave Johnathan Gilbert's invention to Damon. Meanwhile, Alaric and Damon bonded over the fact that they were both on a quest to find their true loves, which is nice since they'd both tried to kill each other in the past.
Then, since apparently that wasn't enough action for one episode, Isobel came back. Plec and Williamson strike again!
Are you glad we finally got the Salvatore vampire origin story? Are you worried for Anna and Jeremy's future now that Pearl's dead? And how about Isobel's return?
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