By Tegan O’Rourke,

What a ball! Klaus goes gaga over Caroline, she rebuffs him; Elena has two Salvatores on her arm, what a she devil; Rebekah falls for Matt after attempting to kill him, then gets fang banged by Damon!

So let’s start from the beginning, Matt and Elena part ways in the hospital parking lot after admitting Ric. As soon as Matt says “Get home safe,” you know she won’t. Rebekah shows up and tries to bite her, luckily Elijah just happens to be there and interrupts her midnight snack. Rebekah leaves all miffed and pouty while Elijah tells Elena that Mama Original Esther is back.

The next day while Elena is telling Stefan and Damon about Esther, an invite to the Mikaelson’s Ball arrives with a note on the back asking Elena to meet Esther. It’s a terrible idea for Elena to go and meet Esther so she does it.

Meanwhile Caroline is listening to a heartfelt voicemail from Tyler about how he is working on himself when her invite arrives with a beautiful blue dress and a note from Klaus asking her to save a dance for him. She is pissed and doesn’t want to go until after she sees Rebekah at the Grill inviting Matt. She goes home and rips her closet apart, but she has nothing to wear except the beautiful gown Klaus bought her. So off she goes to the ball, she also wears the bracelet he gave her, just to make the outfit complete.

Elena arrives in a sparkling gorgeous gown, wonder where she got that so quick. Perhaps Esther sent it. Damon and Stefan both greet her and she wraps arms with both of them. She’s becoming more and more like Kitty Kat every day. She can have both of these vamps and she knows it. Finn, the newly resurrected Mikaelson bro tells Elena she must meet Esther alone. Damon is against it so of course she must do it. But first, Elijah welcomes everyone to the Ball and asks them to take part in an ancient dance that everyone there seems to know.

Damon and Elena partner up, Klaus and Caroline partner up and Matt and Rebekah look good together on the dance floor. But Rebekah doesn’t plan on making this relationship work, she tells her other newly resurrected bro, Kol that she is going to kill Matt to get revenge on Elena. Kol is all in, after all he hasn’t killed anyone in centuries.  Stefan and Elena have a dance together where she tells him he needs to distract Damon so she can meet Esther. He agrees, wow has he turned into a first class Dic. Elena acting very Katherine like calls Damon over to her, so Stefan can come up behind him and break his neck. Elena rushes off to meet Esther.

Elijah greets her first and asks Elena to tell him what is on Esther’s agenda. Elena agrees since she knows Elijah can normally be trusted. Esther explains that one of the Original Bennet Witches helped her back in the day to be able to come back, so that’s why Bonnie and Abby were the only ones who could open her coffin. These Bennet Witches get around.  After the niceties, Esther asks for Elena’s blood and tells her she plans on not only killing Klaus but all of her children because she created an abomination when she created vampires. Elena obliges and her blood is put in the champagne all the siblings will drink.

Elijah asks Elena what Esther’s plan entails, and she lies and tells him Esther just wanted to apologize for trying to kill her. Then Innocent Elena watches as Elijah and the others drink to their eventual deaths. Wow is she turning into Katherine.

Damon wakes up and jumps Stefan who tells him he cares too much! Damon sadly gets the irony. He grabs Elena and they argue, she thinks he’s upset because she went to Stefan but he says, ” I’m mad because I love you.”  She angrily replies, “Maybe that’s the problem.” She tries to apologize but it’s too late, he snaps and the old Damon is back.  It just goes to show ya, even one hundred and fifty year old vampires can be emotionally immature. Klaus is over a thousand years old he hasn’t grown an emotional lick. He tries to romance Caroline with trips to Paris and anything else she wants, so she tells him she wants him to release Tyler from his control and serves him up good by reminding him that his daddy never loved him so he assumes no one else will and that’s why he creates all these hybrids because he doesn’t know how to emotionally connect with people.  Ouch.

Meanwhile Rebekah lures Matt outside to kill him but when he mentions its cold and gives her his jacket, she becomes smitten. Damn is she easy. She beckons him back inside so Kol can’t kill him. Which doesn’t sit well with her bro, so he corners Matt later up on the balcony, luckily an emotionally distraught Damon shows up and catches Kol crushing Matt’s hand and throws him off the balcony. Stefan rushes in to break it up and Damon storms off all sarcastic and hurt.

Esther is beyond annoyed that Kol and Rebekah embarrassed the good Mikaelson name, so she rushes upstairs with Finn to finish the spell that will kill them all.  Her only doubt is Elijah, who is Ritchie Cunningham compared to the rest of them. Finn is in on it, he’ll do anything to please Mama, even die.  Esther spills Elena’s doppleganger magic blood onto a drawing of a tree with the ancient names of her children, the blood magically flows to each name, one at a time for dramatic effect, when it lands on Klaus the spell is complete.

At home Caroline finds another gift from Klaus, a drawing of her with the inscription, “Thank you for your honesty.”  I see a romance down the road, but not anytime soon, Caroline will need to be conflicted for a few episodes then give in and kiss him in the season finale perhaps.

Stefan takes Elena home and not by way of Wickery Bridge. She tells him she feels guilty about helping Esther kill the Originals. He tells her they deserve it. She tries to get him to open up and be her caring boyfriend again even though she secretly wants his brother too.  He tells her he can’t allow himself to care because he will feel pain. What a whiner, he has centuries to work through his emotional issues, just get it over with.

After the Ball, the Grill is hopping with vamp and peeps not ready for bed. Rebekah shows up to apologize to Matt for Kol. He tells her she’s pretty and fun but he’s not interested. Damon shows up and offers her an alternative, they go back to Salvatore Manor where, Damon being Damon, bangs the hell out of her.

Predictions: Caroline and Klaus will eventually start to connect but not anytime soon.  Tyler will return and have his heart ripped out when he sees Caroline fighting feelings for evil Klaus. Damon banging Rebekah will put a kink in his efforts to win over Elena for at least two episodes because some horrible impending danger will bring them back together.