By Tegan O’Rourke,

Lexi smashing Stefan’s head off of a car awesome!  Why is Lexi not a regular? Hint, hint, make her a regular on the show.  No one ever dies in Mystic Falls as we have seen. I’m sure there’s a way to bring her back for good.

The show opens with Damon finding himself chained to a chair in the same manner in which he tortured and killed Mason Lockwood.  Stefan says it wasn’t him. Obvious vamp to blame. He loosens the chains and leaves the room as Mason who can’t be seen yet by anyone opens the curtains just for kicks. Damon starts to fry, but breaks free and drives into town to tell Bonnie (witchy) and Caroline (Blondie) that Mason is back  so Bonnie better get down with the witchery and fix her jacked up spell.

Last week, when Bonnie and Matt did a counter spell to make Vicki vanish, it apparently opened a portal for other supernatural beings. Maybe the next time a hundred dead witches tell Bonnie not to do something she will listen. They did tell her there would be consequences. The biggest one of all being that even though she saved Jeremy’s life she has still lost him.

As Bonnie and Caroline rush off to find an answer, Bonnie drops her handbag and her grimoire magically flies open to the page that explains how to close the portal. “Please tell me that’s a recipe for witch cookies,” Caroline says. This was one of the funniest lines of the night.

I put my money on that being the work of good witch, Grams, who shows up later to help Bonnie fix her mess.

Alaric, Elena and Jeremy discuss the ghost situation. Elena thinks it may be a good idea to bring Lexi back to help Stefan since she helped him through his Ripper phase before.  Stefan shows up and interrupts and mentions he’ll be at the festival that evening after all “There will be a lot to eat there,” he says with his Ripper grin. Elena and Alaric throw angry and confused looks at him and then he says that he is kidding. Luckily Lexi does show up and slams his dead head off a car window, which no one else seems to notice in broad daylight.

Back at the Grill, Mason shows himself to Damon and Alaric and smashes a glass against Damon’s head right at the bar once again no one else notices or cares? What kind of small town is this? Mason wants to help Damon destroy Klaus in order to save Tyler from a future wrought with debauchery.Tyler was noticeably missing from this episode as was Rebekah. They must have been off together having a snack.

Mason first needs to hear Damon apologize. This werewolf ghost has his priorities in order.  Damon offers up a weak apology along the lines of I sometimes do things I do not have to.  The same line he will use later in the cave to try and win back his bromance with Alaric.

Damon heads off to the cave with Mason and walks into a Founder booby trap where several stakes go through him, luckily missing his heart.  I think Damon worked off a lot of Karma in this episode.  Mason saves him and they move on, but at one point Damon gets stuck in an anti vampire barrier. Someone witched up the cave many years ago.

Back at Damon’s, Bonnie the good witch is desperately trying to find the ancient necklace that Elena used to wear, once again it is the main ingredient to close the portal and send the ghosts back to Dead Vampire Purgatory. Caroline and Bonnie tear through Damon’s place but can’t find it.

Elena walks in on Jeremy and Anna making out. All the good kisses get interrupted on this show.  And this was a kiss that was long awaited. Elena tells Caroline who tips off Bonnie.

She then takes off to help Lexi who has Stefan chained up in the vampire torture dungeon. She uses vampire psychological tactics to rip The Ripper out of him. Elena watches with hope and fear in her eyes as Lexi compels Stefan to think that he is starving of blood.  I didn’t think a vampire who wasn’t an Original had that kind of power over other vamps. How old is Lexi anyway? Maybe she is super old and can almost compete with the originals.

Meanwhile, The Annual Festival of Death and Blood in Mystic Falls came early this season with all the tomb vamps coming back.  One would think the town folk of Mystic Falls would get it by now that a night time festival at Town Square is only going to end in mayhem and death.  And yet the place was packed as usual. Anna runs into them and is understandably freaked especially when her and Jeremy see the dead Historian bleeding and on display for the town’s viewing pleasure. The town folk run for their lives as if surprised that horrible things happen in Mystic Falls.

Back at the Vampire Torture Dungeon, Stefan fights to keep his Ripper status. Elena gets worn down and goes outside for air. She sees Jeremy and Anna and tells her brother he has to let Anna go. She gives him this super great advice about not dating a ghost. My first thought was, hypocritical much? What about your dead boyfriend and his dead brother that you totally secretly are crushing on? Why can’t Jeremy have a dead girlfriend?  Any way Anna admits she took the necklace because she wants to find her mom.  Jeremy returns it to Bonnie for the spell.

Bonnie and Grams Sheila work their magic and the ghosts one by one start to vanish. Caroline catches a break while fighting a bunch of vamps that try to attack the Mayor. They vanish right as she is kicking the hell out of them.

Anna and her mom Pearl reunite and embrace then vanish off to the vampire nether world. Did anyone else notice how fabulous and done up Pearl looked; the other side is treating her well.  Pearl is another character that I think got killed off too soon. I would like to see more of her.

Elena returns to Stefan and tells him “I won’t love a ghost for the rest of my life.”  Stefan has a look of anguish on his face which made me wonder for a moment if he is coming back.  Elena leaves him chained up in the Dungeon, now that’s tough love.  Is Elena finally coming to her senses? It’s doubtful. This girl loves to love.

Jeremy tries to explain himself to Bonnie, but she is not having it, she tells him “Give me the respect of not making me listen to you explain yourself.” Good line Bonnie.  I think this relationship is over, because Bonnie is no Elena, she’s not even Caroline and she will not put up with her man, cheating, killing people and whatever else all the other girls put with in Mystic Falls.

Since Mason vanishes just as he has a eureka moment in the cave, Damon gets Alaric to come back and help him since there is a vamp barrier he can’t get across. Damon tries to use the same awful apology he gave Mason. Alaric calls him on it and Damon, who cannot express his emotions to men, gives him cute smiley looks and Alaric seems to halfway respond to it! He goes off into the cave and finds what Mason saw, old hieroglyphics that can’t be read. My first thought was “Oh just like on Smallville.” which also aired on the CW.  Speaking of Smallville, it would be fun to see Michael Rosenbaum who played Lex Luther show up in Mystic Falls, just an idea I’m throwing out.

I enjoyed the episode overall, some things that were missing were Katherine and Mikael. I kept waiting to see how her getting fed on at the tomb was resolved. I missed Tyler and Rebekah, especially Rebekah; she’s not the kind of girl to miss a town festival full of delicious locals. Since all these other ghosts came back, it would have been fun to see more of Pearl.

Predictions: Much fun ahead with the whole theme of going back in time to find out about the Originals. I bet Mama Original will make Rebekah look tame. Katherine of course will survive Mikael’s feeding. Bonnie and Jeremy are over at least for now. I think this is a good opening for Bonnie and Matt to get together. Stefan will keep on ripping, that storyline is too good to let go. Elena and Damon will get closer and Alaric will disapprove. Damon will have to decide between his favorite girl and his favorite bro.