As promised, last night's "TVD" episode was full of "OMFGTVD" moments: one death, two near-deaths and plenty of tonsil hockey! The thing that excited me most, though, was that executive producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson wrote an episode that did not start with a flashback! Instead, we saw parallel scenes of Stefan/Elena and Mason/Katherine in bed, which really means lots of Nina Dobrev kissing two hot guys. So jealous!
Anywho, Katherine assures Mason that she loves him, so he promises to give her the moonstone. Stefan continues his daily dose of Elena's blood and propositions her with a shower quickie. Naughty vampire!
Jeremy tells Damon about the moonstone and offers to retrieve it for him. Jeremy + Damon = disaster, right? Apparently, moonstone trumps revenge for murder. Go figure! Alaric arrives with a box of Isobel’s research about Aztec legends, which reveals that moonstones can break the wolf curse. Interesting…
Since Mason helped the council take down the Salvatores, he's unpleasantly surprised to run into Stefan at the Lockwood's. Bonnie accidentally runs into Mason and sees a vision of him and Elena in bed together. Er, make that him and Katherine in bed together. Whew! Stefan tries to figure out what it means, then Damon fills him in on Jeremy’s moonstone intel.
Via obnoxious AT&T product placement, Elena and Stefan attempt to communicate incognito. Everyone thinks they’re fighting, remember? Jeremy finds out that Tyler gave the moonstone to Mason, so Damon creates a "Plan B": Bonnie. Damon asks her to use the "brain bursting into flames" trick on Mason, then probe him for moonstone info. Surprisingly, she agrees, and they successfully capture Mason and tie him up at the Salvatore mansion. First Damon and Jeremy, now Damon and Bonnie? What’s the world coming to? Bonnie searches Mason's mind for the moonstone’s hiding place: a well on the Lockwood property.
With her mission accomplished, Bonnie leaves the house, but not before she runs into Caroline, who’s a bit emotional after a mother-daughter bonding session in the underground cave. Bonnie decides to trust Caroline, even though she's a vampire, so they go to the well to meet up with Elena and Stefan, while Damon stays behind to torture Mason for answers about Katherine.
That’s right. TORTURE. With a freaking hot metal rod and an herb—wolfsbane—that’s the werewolf equivalent to vervain. After enduring plenty of pain, Mason reveals that Katherine's going to use the moonstone to lift his curse since she loves him. Damon laughs out loud at this admonition, and we did too. "Katherine will rip your heart out," he taunts. "Let me do it for her." At that, Damon literally rips out Mason's heart with his bare hands. Holy crap!
While Mason’s being murdered, Stefan has his own near-death experience. He and Elena get to the well first, so he jumps in and immediately screams in agony. The well's full of vervain water! Thankfully, Caroline arrives and belays Elena down to help Stefan. Elena and Caroline work together to get him out, and Elena finds the moonstone. Just as snakes start to attack her, Caroline pulls her to safety as well, moonstone in hand. Yikes!
After all that excitement, Caroline visits her mom again. In a shocking twist, Liz offers to keep the secret rather than have her memory wiped. Though it pains her to do so, Caroline wisely decides to compel her mom to forget everything. It’s such a sad, heartfelt moment. Seriously, Kevin and Julie, let something good happen to Caroline for once!
Stefan arrives home, moonstone in hand, and helps Damon clean up the Mason mess. They text Mrs. Lockwood from Mason’s phone so she'll think he left town again, then Damon decides to call the last dialed number. Who answers? Katherine, of course. She seems genuinely upset to learn of Mason’s death, but threatens that she's got lots of back-up plans. The epic wrath of Katherine continues!
Jenna and Alaric are cooking dinner together when Elena gets home. Jenna’s on the phone, but she passes the call to Elena. It's Katherine. "I will always be one step ahead of you," she taunts. Just then, Jenna takes a kitchen knife and stabs herself in the stomach! Katherine compelled her to kill herself! Jenna's rushed to the hospital and survives (whew!), but Elena’s totally freaked out. So much so that she ends things with Stefan—for real. "I’ve been so selfish because I love you so much, but it's over," she says. "It has to be." The scene is extremely emotional, full of hugging and kissing and crying. On her way out, Damon apologizes to Elena for riling Katherine up. "It doesn’t matter," Elena tells him. "She won." Don't let her win, Elena! Don't let her win!
In the episode's final plot twist, Katherine reveals that she needs a werewolf for her mysterious plot to work. Since Mason’s out of the picture, she sets "Plan B" in motion by compelling Matt to go after Tyler until Tyler kills him, which will activate the curse.
How long until Stefan and Elena are back together? Will Tyler really kill Matt and become a werewolf? Why does Katherine want the moonstone?
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