By Tegan O’Rourke

So happy to see Elijah back. He takes quick and appropriate action against Klaus and starts kicking his ass all over the newly renovated vampire mansion. Klaus tells him I just remodeled. But Elijah needs vengance and some doors will have to be reinstalled. Klaus finally calms him down with more family bonding talk, like all is well, I killed Daddy. Mikael’s death caught Elijah’s attention and saved Klaus a lot of money in redecorating costs. Now the new enemy is Stefan Salvatore. An enemy Klaus created but still a venerable opponent.

Meanwhile in Mystic Falls, a mysterious killer is on the loose and it’s just too obivous that its Dr. Meredith Fell, even though that’s the first thought Damon concludes. Sheriff Forbes shows up with the murder weapon of the medical examiner and tells Elena and Ric that it has Elena’s fingerprints all over it. Plus Elena knows its from her family’s vampire hunting arsenal. Ric tells Damon that the weapons are all over the place, in his car, the house, so anyone could have snatched a dagger. Damon suspects Dr. Fell right away afterall she bloodjacked him and he’s still bitter. But Elena holds out hope that Dr. Fell isn’t a pyschopath, “It’s not Meredith,” she says. “I refuse to  believe that your luck with women is that tragic,” she tells Ric.

Elena and Caroline go to the hospital to get a read on the mysterious doctor and pick up grumpy Bill.  Dr. Fell tells Caroline she knows her secret but will keep her mouth shut and she released Vampire Hunter Bill the night before, who by the way is still miffed about being saved by vampire blood. You just can’t make some people happy.

Caroline calls her dad and hears his cell phone ringing. Her and Elena find Bill stabbed to death in a supply room. Elena quickly reminds Caroline that he has vampire blood in his system so he will not die. He awakens even more pissed off than the night before.  Daddy Bill isn’t having it, he’d rather die than be a vampire. This guy is such a buzz kill, the only reason why I wanted him to live at all was because he’s Caroline’s dad and she’s the sweetest Barbie Vamp ever.

Caroline is heart broken, even though he’s a vampire hating zealot who tried to torture the vampire out of her, he’s still her Dad and she wants him to cross over to team vampire, so she takes him home thinking she can change his mind. Elena convinces her not to force him to transition and Matt shows up to give much needed hugs to the ladies of Mystic Falls. After a few hours at the Forbes House Bill tells her he accepts her as a vampire and she is the daughter he and Sheriff Forbes raised. This makes Caroline cry tears of joy and sadness as she lets her father die.

Where is Bonnie during all of this family drama, with her runaway mom Abby trying to open the fourth coffin with little regard for their own safety, after all no one knows what the hell is in that thing.  Damon hid the coffin in of all places the Originals’ Family Cave. Klaus would never think to look in his own family cave, its too obvious.

After an hour of chanting and making sure the whole cave had enough candles in case a romantic date showed up, Bonnie got annoyed with her runaway mom for not giving it a 110%. Abby tried to explain that the spirits were still pissed about her leaving and they will not help her. Then Bonnie threw the ultimate guilt at her by telling her that when she was a kid she used to pretend her mom was dead since she abandoned her anyway, it was believable. That stung so Abby dug deep and the candles flickered and wind blew through the cave and the coffin almost opened. Bonnie got excited and ran out to call Damon.

Who ever thought Bonnie would be excited to call him. Times sure are changing in Mystic Falls. There’s a rumor floating around that Damon may have a tryst with someone and wake up all Naked and smirky. I put my vote in for a Bonnie/Damon shameful encounter.

Damon tells Stefan they are going to Klaus’s for a dinner party and he better behave since they need to stall Klaus and make a truce until The Wicked Witches as he calls them, get the fourth coffin open.

To make his guests feel welcome  Klaus tells the Salvatores, “We can sit  and eat or I can reach down your throats and pull out your insides. The choice is yours.”  They decide to have some steak while Stefan tries to open up old wounds of Klaus killing his mom, and Damon reminds Stefan, hey remember when you killed our father, so lets dial it down. Luckily for Klaus he came clean to Elijah before the dinner party about killing mom.

Klaus tries to get the Brothers sympathy by telling them the story of Tattia, the beautiful Original Petrova that both he and Elijah fell in love with. But Mommie Dearest wasn’t having it and used Tattia’s blood to turn all her children into vampires. I was really entertained by this and wondered if Tattia was in the fourth coffin, I hoped she was. Then I thought would Nina Dobrev end up playing three characters on this show? That would be awesome and insane. Talk about job security. However, now that they gave the storyline of Tattia I want to see her inact all kinds of ruin upon Mystic Falls. Maybe they can get an actress that just looks like Nina to join in the carnage.

Back to dinner, Damon offers a deal the fourth coffin in return, Klaus and the Originals leave Mystic Falls forever. Klaus doesn’t bite, he tells them he will never leave without Elena. Klaus the voice of logic tells the Salvatore Brothers, “Gentlemen, the worst thing for Elena Gilbert is the two of you.”  And suggests sweet Matt Donavon should marry Elena and have lots of children so that he can make hybrids from for generations to come. Neither of the brothers like the idea of Matt and Elena. Matt better watch his back. Stefan makes a stupid move and attacks Klaus who  puts his arm in the fireplace. He tells Damon and Elijah to go get the fourth coffin or he’ll burn Stefan to death.

While Bonnie is out the coffin flies open and knocks Abby out. The fun is about to begin! Coffins are getting opened all over. Instead of going to the cave, Damon and Elijah undagger the remaining Originals at Klaus Manor. Klaus is shocked and awed by his unhappy sibblings crashing the dinner party. Elijah tells the Salvatores they are free to leave  since this is family business. Klaus tries to explain, but after centuries of lying dorment in coffins they aren’t interested. Then he pulls the, “I’m the hybrid. I can’t be killed! I  have nothing to fear from you,” ploy. Elijah responds “You will when we have that coffin!” Take that, Klaus.  Just as you think Klaus may get daggered and locked in a coffin, Mama Original shows up and forgives him for killing her! She wants them all to be a big happy blood sucking family. I was thrilled to see Mama Esther back, this just gets better and better.

Damon and Stefan head through the woods to the cave along the way Stefan asks Damon why he didn’t let him die, after all he could then have Elena all to himself. Self righteous broody Stefan still doesn’t know his brother after 145 years. Damon loves his little bro maybe even more than he loves Elena.  They both profess their love for Elena and move on to find Bonnie and Abby knocked out and notice the opened coffin.

Meanwhile Matt walks Elena home to a dark house, as they search for candles they notice a pool of blood in the kitchen and bloody hand prints all over the walls leading upstairs. They foolishly rush upstairs without knowing if there is a killer in the house and find Ric stabbed in the chest like Bill Forbes. Ric doesn’t know who stabbed him and he tells Elena she needs to kill him so he can live, since he has his magic ring on. Matt comments on how messed up that is. But Elena explains Ric can only live if he is killed by a supernatural being and she is a supernatural doppleganger so she pulls the knife out of his chest and shoves it though his heart. Damn has this girl grown a pair in the last two seasons.

This should get interesting now that Stefan is coming back to his normal self, the battle for Elena is on, but as on other shows this storyline normally gets old after three seasons, so Elena will most likely settle on one of them or end up with someone else entirely just as its starting to look like Sookie is doing on True Blood.  There are so many vamps on the show now that they actually should consider adding more human characters. Otherwise eventually there will be no main characters in jeopardy of death or being turned. I do like the mass of characters though, I think its a smart move the bigger the ensemble cast the more directions the show can take and the longer it can logically run in case some of the original leads leave the show. If they do it right they could have a ten year run like Smallville and the show can evolve into something way different from its beginnings of a small town girl and her love triangle with two vampire brothers.