By Tegan O’Rourke

Finally after three seasons of wondering the writers and producers did it. Elena is a vampire just like in the book series.

The third season finale begins with Elena waking up in her bedroom and it’s obvious she’s different. She’s the giddy cheerleader she used to be before her parents died and vampires came to Mystic Falls. Elena goes downstairs and is greeted by the lovely and very much alive Aunt Jenna and her mother, Miranda makes her first appearance.

Next Elena wakes up in the hospital she was bleeding from the nose the night before after all.  Dr. Meredith Fell tells Jeremy all is well, just a slight concussion so he calls The Salvatore Brothers to fill them in.

The Brothers unhappy that Elena is out in the open, decide that Stefan should go back to Mystic Falls and Damon will keep heading out of Mystic Falls with Klaus’s body in the trunk.

Ric shows up at the hospital and destroys the last of Dr. Fells vampire blood and tells her Elena will be released to his custody and he’s having her medical license yanked because of her use of vampire blood on patients. What a Dic!

Caroline, Tyler and Matt take Elena home before Ric can steal her away.  As she lies on the couch she looks at an old photo of her and the gang from happier days and another flashback ensues.

Elena tries to get out of the Bonfire at school since her Aunt Jenna is visiting, Matt her then boyfriend tells her she has to go. He says goodbye and tells her he loves her, she does not respond in kind and Bonnie calls her on it, letting her know she can’t string him along.

Our favorite doppel  ganger wakes up and Matt asks her what she was dreaming about. She then tells him she is sorry she strung him along when they were together. Now she realizes she is doing the same thing to Stefan and Damon. He asks which one she will pick as Stefan comes through the front door.

Matt asks “Wouldn’t it be smarter if we just got you the hell out of town?” Smart boy.  Elena refuses she does not want to go on the run for the rest of her life. The gang is startled when Elijah shows up at the front door.

Jeremy runs into Ric at the Grille.  He wants Jer to reveal where the Salvatores are keeping Klaus’s body.  Jeremy is unsure about helping him, but Ric assures him he will kill all the Originals and then no vampires will exist plus Jer can hen lock him up and let Elena live a long healthy life, then when Elena finally dies, he’ll die. Sounds like a plan.

Elijah has his own plan, he wants the stake Ric carries and he swears he and Rebekah will take Klaus’s body and run and not revive Klaus during Elena’s or her children’s lifetimes. Damon is not eager to make the deal. But Elena agrees after Elijah tells her Klaus is his brother and they should remain together. She’s sucker for family.

Jeremy tells Matt about Ric’s plan and Matt thinks it’s a good idea. But Jer admits even if he wanted to help Ric he doesn’t know where Klaus’s body is, luckily Matt does. Jeremy calls Ric and tells him Damon is on his way to bury him in the woods off of Route 12. He hangs up and oh snap he lied, Stefan and the gang are there and they have devised a plan or so they think to fool Ric.

Tyler and Caroline meet their mom’s at the Lockwood Mansion where they are warned that Ric outed them to the Council and they need to leave town or else wind up dead. They decide to run, but first Caroline has to help her friends and get a curling iron. Tyler agrees to meet her in two hours. Caroline is so excited, she wants to call Bonnie, but Tyler tells her he will call Bonnie and Vampire Barbie smiles and runs off to help her friends.

Damon and Bonnie meet up at a Storage Facility, where he shows her one beef jerkified Original. Bonnie wants a minute alone with Klaus and Damon obliges once she reminds him of the people she loved that Klaus hurt.

She looks down into his coffin and tells him,”You should burn in hell but if you die so do my friends, so does my mother, what am I supposed to do about that?”

Elena almost tells Stefan her decision but can’t do it after all they just aren’t in enough peril yet.  Stefan kisses her just in case there is no later has he puts it. As he pulls away you can tell he knew the kiss was not the passionate foreplay they used to have.

Back at the Gilbert House, Matt drugs Elena’s tea but first finds out that Stefan makes her glad to be alive, but Damon consumes her.  Not what most guys want to hear from their ex girlfriends.

She wishes her mom was there to give her advice on whom to choose and queue another flashback to pre vamp Mystic Falls. She calls Aunt Jenna from the Bonfire and asks if her parents can pick her up. She had a fight with Matt because he was talking about college and marriage and she’s afraid she’ll lose him if she breaks things off. Her mom tells her she is not going to lose him, she is setting him free.

Jeremy gives Ric the real address of Klaus’s whereabouts. Damon thinks “Sexy Beck’s has arrived at the storage facility but it’s just crazy vampire killing Ric.  While Ric is ripping the storage facility apart Rebekah shows up to get Klaus.

Ric hears her, but luckily Damon sneaks up behind her first. Ric finds the correct locker but it’s empty. Rebekah and Damon are wheeling Klaus away when Ric sneaks up behind them and attacks them and stakes Klaus’s body. He goes up in flames, which was hard to believe. They can’t really be killing off Klaus now or can they?

Ric chases after Rebekah so Damon has time to call Stefan with the bad news. Stefan tells him he feels ok but reminds him that it took Sage an hour to get sick. They agree Damon doesn’t have enough time to get back to Mystic Falls to say goodbye to Elena.

Jeremy confesses to Stefan that Elena isn’t at home, that he and Matt got her out of town. Stefan says it will be fine Klaus was lying and they will all be ok. Elijah and Caroline show up and ask what happened, for some reason they are all in the woods when this happens.

Elena awakens in Matt’s truck; he is driving her out of town away from the vampire’s .Jer calls Matt to let him know Klaus is dead. Elena begs Matt to take her home, Matt tells her he can take her home or he can take her to Damon, she has to decide.

She calls Damon and tells him she is going home to Stefan and Tyler and Caroline.  Damon asks, since he is possibly a dead man, if it was just down to him and Stefan who would get the goodbye.

She tells him, it’s Stefan, no matter what she feels for him–she never fell out of love with Stefan. He tells her he knows it’s always going to be Stefan.

She tells Damon, “I can’t think about always all I can think about is right now and I care for you Damon which is why I have to let you go.”  She adds “Maybe if you and I had met first…. His call is cut short by Ric’s return.

Caroline in tears runs to Tyler at the Lockwood cells to tell him Klaus died. He takes it quite well for a young man now on his death bed and tells her she’s strong and has a beautiful future ahead of her. Oh and tell his mother he left town like he was supposed to. Then he starts to get all wolfy and appears to be dying. He growls at her to run or he’ll make her run.

Rebekah shows up at the cemetery to tell Elijah that Klaus is gone and there was nothing she could have done to stop it. He tells her that Tyler Lockwood is dead but since no one else is he knows something is up.   They converse about who created the bloodline, Rebekah swears it was Klaus. Elijah is curious as to why then are the Salvatores and their vamp buddies still alive.

Bonnie arrives at the Lockwood cells and Tyler appears! But Bonnie calls him Klaus. She found a way to keep him alive after all in Tyler’s body! She tells him she did it to save her friends and her mother not him. He reminds her the Spirits will not be happy with her. She responds “The Spirits don’t get to tell me what to do anymore; I’m done getting pushed around by all of you.”

Rebekah calls Stefan to tell him Matt and Elena will be arriving back in town any minute oh and her and the Original Brothers aren’t running anymore and the only way for them to survive is to kill Alaric and in turn kill Elena.

Caroline calls Elena to let her know the bad news about Tyler. Matt loses it. By the time he comes to his senses, Rebekah is standing in the middle of Wickery Bridge and Matt swerves to miss her. And thus his truck sinks into the waters of Mystic Falls which causes Elena to flashback to her parent’s car going off the bridge two years earlier.

Meanwhile Ric is kicking the crap out of Damon; he lies in his own blood and remembers himself back in Mystic Falls where he mistakes Elena for Katherine in the woods.

He approaches her as Katherine and she corrects him. Then they start conversing about her love life with Matt. She tells him she doesn’t know what she wants. He tells her that’s not true, she wants what everyone wants, a love that consumes her, then he compels her to forget they met as she goes off to meet her parents.

Damon snaps back to the present will his mojo back and he jumps back up to fight.

Elena is in two sinking cars at this point. She remembers being in the car with her parents who drowned and then flashes back to Matt where Stefan shows up and she demands he save Matt before her. Ironic since her father demanded that Stefan save her and thus he and his wife Miranda drowned.

Elena sits back in Matt’s truck and drifts off, meanwhile Ric grows weak as he fights Damon and falls to his death.

Back at the Gilbert House Jeremy runs into Ric as he is looking for Elena. He quickly realizes Ric is his old self and a ghost, which means….

Damon rushes to the hospital and asks Dr. Fell where Elena is, he is frantic. She tells him that when Elena had come in earlier her injuries were worse then she let on, Elena had a cerebral hemorrhage and she helped her, ya know what she means, Damon did and what a look of shock, it was almost as good as Elena awakening and gasping for air for the first time as a vampire!

Predictions: Next season Elena will struggle in her new life a s a vampire and all bets may be off on who she ends up with after all she has forever to decide now. Bonnie may go down the dark magic road like Willow did on Buffy. Caroline and Klaus will develop their relationship. Bonnie will definitely find a way to get him back in his own body. And I doubt Tyler is really dead.  But I can’t wait to find out.

By Tegan O’Rourke,

Is Klaus really dead? Doubt it.  It’s hard to kill an Original.

The episode opens at the school with shots of the Civil War and Ric sitting at his desk quietly waiting for his vengeance to begin. He hears Caroline in the hall talking to Tyler on the phone.

She runs into Rebecca in the cafeteria, who informs her she’s late for the clean up committee that no on else showed up for. Caroline apologizes for Rebecca’s mom and in turn Rebecca apologizes what happened to Ric. It seems like the two blondies might be bonding.

Rebecca heads to the gym but Ric stops her in the hall, she tells him you are supposed to be dead. He says I am  then the two start to throw down, luckily Caroline comes running out and they both stake him in the heart but it doesn’t work. They run, he comes up behind Caroline and bangs her head off her car and breaks her neck then drags her into the school as his skin burns since he doesn’t have a daylight ring.

At the Gilbert house, Jer and Elena are repainting Ric’s room green.  Stefan shows up and Jer asks him to give them just one day without vampires in it. The doorbell rings and Stefan answers to find Damon holding up Bonnie.

Rebecca runs home and tells Klaus about Ric. He tells her he’ll get Elena and  they’ll be on their way, Tyler’s even there already packing.  Rebecca tells him they don’t need the hybrids they have each other. He rather have the hybrids.  So she bolts.

Back at the Gilbert House, Bonnie, Damon and Stefan are in the kitchen trying to figure how to kill Ric. Bonnie  tells them she was led their by the witches they wanted Ric to feed so he’d turn. Stefan asks how Ric survived and looks at Damon.  Damon says,” Blame Bonnie the blood bank.”  She asks Damon why he gave her blood to save her and he says “I don’t know Bonnie I do stupid things like trying to let my friend die with dignity when I should have just killed him.”

Meanwhile Ric  calls Elena while painting. She thinks it’s a joke at first. Ric tells her he’s at the school and he has Caroline and she better get to the school right away. PS, If she tells anyone he will kill Caroline.

Klaus rings the Gilbert House doorbell expecting to pick up Elena. Wow is he naive. Jer and the Salvatore Bros aren’t having it and slam the door in his face.  He paces in the front yard then starts throwing things through the windows, including parts of a white picket fence.

Elena shows up at the school to find Caroline pinned to a desk with pencils through her hands.  When she tries to help, Alaric stops her and in his loud parental voice says, “How many times do I have to tell you Elena, Stop trusting vampires.”

While Jer, Bonnie and the Salvatore Brothers are ducking in the kitchen, Ric calls Stefan.  Klaus brings the propane onto the porch as Stefan comes out and tells him Ric has Elena.  They all decide to, as Stefan puts it figure out a way to put Alaric down. Bonnie realizes she can use the same spell her mom did to put down Mikael. But she needs time to contact Abby. She makes it clear even with the spell she’ll need a lot of vampire muscle to help, even Klaus’s muscle.

Over at Salvatore Manor, Damon doubts Abby will show and teases Bonnie that it’s just a Girl Scout at the door when she arrives.  Abby tries to warn Bonnie that her magic is pure and she cannot handle the dark places of temptation,  the magic will take her. Bonnie tells her, “ You turned your back on me for sixteen years you have no idea what I can handle.”Damon agrees with Bonnie, could there be a friendship brewing next season?

Abby tells Bonnie the spell requires her to stop the vampire’s heart but in order to do that she must also stop a human heart. Can Bon Bon handle that? For Elena you betcha! Jeremy’s heart is of course the logical choice.

At the school parking lot Klaus tells Stefan after they defeat Ric he is still taking Elena.  Stefan tells him he will accompany them.  Klaus asks what’s the catch?  Stefan tells him he’d turn his back on Mystic Falls to make sure Elena is safe. Klaus tells Stefan he thinks Elena is wasting her time with Damon and Stefan is the better option.  Klaus teases that maybe he should let Elena decide which Salvatore brother to bring along. Stefan tells him, “Go for it. Damon and I have been through a hell of a lot worse than you.”

Klaus, The Salvatores, Bonnie and Jer meet at the school parking lot to plot Ric’s take down. Bonnie gives them all her blood and tells them to drink it since they all need to be linked so when Bonnie stops Jer’s heart anyone of them will have the power to kill Ric if they pierce his heart. Klaus then decides to tell them they are all from his bloodline, so no one gets any funny ideas about killing him. Of course they don’t believe him.

Back at home room Alaric keeps torturing Caroline with rags soaked with vervain .  He tries to convince Elena to be the hunter he trained her to be and kill Caroline. Ric tells Elena that the council was her parents life’s work and it only took her six months to undue it all. Funny how did Ric know what Elena’s parents wanted?

He tells Elena to kill Caroline but she decides to go for Ric inside and after missing with the stake throws the vervain in his face.  Which gives her enough time to free Caroline who goes running into Klaus’s arms in the hallway.

It’s almost a heartfelt moment, Klaus tells her she’s safe and they’ll save Elena. He tells her to go home and stay inside. She looks almost lovingly into his dead vampire eyes and thanks him.

Elena isn’t so lucky. Ric throws her up against a locker and tells her she doesn’t deserve to live. She tells him to go ahead and kill her and she looks like she means it. He can sense it and he steps back as Damon and Stefan rush him. He of course snaps both of their necks, then Klaus goes for his heart and puts up a good fight, good enough that Bonnie knows contact has been made and starts to work her magic. But Ric prevails and tries to stake Klaus.

Elena tells him to stop. She knows that Esther tied her life to his and he has only life span to kill all vampires so if she dies, he dies and she threatens to slit her throat. Ric jumps up to stop Elena and Klaus gets the jump on Ric and kidnaps Elena.

Elena wakes up at The O Mansion having all her blood drained by a compelled nurse. Tyler walks in and Klaus tells him to go get more blood bags. Tyler almost forgets himself but decides to play along. But you just know he’ll be back to help in the last-minute. After all he’s a good hybrid.

Klaus tells her not to worry it’s going to be completely painless. She will just fall asleep as the last drop is drawn.

Damon awakens and asks why he’s still alive. Ric tells him to get up, Klaus is going to kill Elena and  Esther bound them together so if Elena dies his vamp hunting days are over. He lets the Salvatore Brothers do what they do best, save Elena. Which didn’t make much sense,why didn’t he just take one of their daylight rings while they were out cold?

Elena asks Klaus what about his hybrids he’ll need more than what he’s taking to make a hybrid army. He tells her it will do, he doesn’t need a lot of hybrids he has his family. She tells him he needs a backup family since his own doesn’t trust him anymore. Ouch!

He tells her Stefan tries to blame him for trying to tear him from his brother. But they both know who came between them, she did.  “You know once you pick a Salvatore you will destroy their bond. Once you are dead you won’t have to choose and their family will stay intact. Just between us girls who would you have picked?” Elena tells him to rot in hell, he replies you’re welcome and wishes her sweet dreams. Then like all Hollywood villains he  leaves her alone to die so someone can save her in the nic of time.

Tyler see his opportunity and rushes back in to save her. But Klaus comes back and asks him how he broke the sire bond. Tyler tells him he broke every bone in his body one hundred times for the girl he loves. Klaus says it’s impossible, but the look on his face shows his doubt.

Tyler tries to leave with Elena but Klaus throws her into a table and attacks him. Stefan comes up behind Klaus and puts his hand into his chest and grabs his heart. Bonnie starts her spell again and starts to get all veiny as Klaus slowly dies. This part made no sense to me. Wasn’t Stefan afraid that killing Klaus would kill him and all his vamp friends?

When the spell is done Jer doesn’t wake up right away and Bon Bon panics and starts pounding on his chest then finally he awakens.  I think there’s some spark left there.

The Brothers take Elena home but no one gave her any blood and she lost a ton, which also made no sense, especially after Damon gave Bonnie, one of his enemies blood earlier in the episode to save her.

Elena apologizes for stringing them along,  “If I choose one of you I lose the other and I’ve lost do many people I can’t bear the thought of losing either one of you.”

They appear to be unmoved, especially Stefan and  leave on their journey to dump Klaus’s body in the Atlantic. Elena walks into her kitchen to a victory party including Caroline, Bonnie, Jer ,Tyler and Matt. Elena thanks Tyler for standing up to Klaus and they all toast to a Klaus free life.

Meanwhile Sheriff Forbes rushes into Mayor Lockwood’s house for an emergency Council meeting. The Mayor informs her she didn’t call the Council meeting Ric did. He spills the beans that the Mayor and the Sheriff have supernatural kids. The Sheriff tries to leave, and Ric reveals his true colors. The Council is tramped! How many of them do you think will survive? Most likely the Sheriff and the Mayor will.

The Brothers agree they are a good team but Stefan wonders what will happen once Elena makes her decision. Stefan offers to leave town if she chooses Damon. Damon begrudgingly agrees to leave town too, but you know he won’t.

Elena and Jer commiserate about how much they hate the room they are painting.  They both almost died earlier that day, where do they get the energy to paint? Jer leaves the room and Elena picks up a paint brush but starts to feel pain in her neck and falls to the floor with blood coming out of her nose. Fade out.

Predictions: Elena will make her choice in the Season Finale because if she doesn’t fans will go nuts. Besides love triangles get boring after three seasons and the writer’s know that.  I can even see her not picking either of them,  and moving on. Then the show can grow into more of an ensemble driven series. Either way, I can’t wait to find out.

By Tegan O’Rourke,

Ric turned into the ultimate Vampire Hunter? Is there anyone on this show who will not be turned at some point?

There needs to be some humans left in Mystic Falls otherwise there will be no one to protect. I rather see Elena be a vampire. When is that going to happen? She becomes a vampire in the book series.

Anyway the show opens with Esther in Rebecca’s body, who is doing a good job of fooling Klaus. She hands him a fake white oak stake and he tosses it into the fireplace where it burns his problems away or so he thinks.

He tells her now they can take Elena his doppelganger and leave town, Esther as Rebecca convinces him to stay for awhile since she wants to go the Decade Dance.  She teases that Caroline will be there. Klaus puts his evil plans aside for the chance to woo Caroline one last time.

Ric calls lost bromance love Damon, to let him know he is leaving town to clear his head and hopefully stop killing people. He assures Damon he has a ton of Bonnie’s magic herbs to curb his killer instinct. He gets off the phone and sure enough he is hanging with Esther at the O Mansion. She hands him a stake and he shoves it into Rebecca’s body so Esther‘s essence can re enter her own body.

Caroline is back in her element organizing the school dance and ditching the chandeliers Rebecca had wanted to hang from the gym ceiling. Speaking of hanging, Matt and Jeremy are bromancing it up hanging stars together from the ceiling.

Caroline tells Elena that she needs a date for the dance after all Bonnie is bringing Jamie, the hot guy her mom raised while she wasn’t raising her, it shouldn’t be awkward. Caroline suggests Stefan, but Elena thinks it’s weird since she tongued his brother at a sleazy motel just a few days prior.

“I didn’t tell you that so you could torture me with it.” She tells Caroline after Caroline mentions the whole kiss at the sleazy motel.

Caroline assures her it’s time to switch brothers and give Stefan a call. Stefan of course agrees to go with her and since Damon overheard the call you know he’ll show up too.

Esther has big plans for the evil new Alaric. She wants to turn him into the ultimate Vampire Hating Vampire Hunter.  Somehow I think our gang will find away to bring back the old good Alaric, but not until the season finale of course.

Anyway Esther takes him to the woods to the spot where she claims Klaus ripped out her heart a thousand years ago. The spot also happens to the home of the Salvatore Family Crypt. Sometimes the coincidences almost jump the shark. But luckily fans love this show too much to care.

She asks for his magic I can’t die ring, and he begrudgingly give it to her. She explains she needs to bind the magic in Ric’s ring to the stake since it will burn up on the first Original kill without it. Esther melts the ring in a fiery spell which melds it with the white oak ash stake and creates “The ultimate weapon for the ultimate hunter.”

Stefan shows up to get Elena and sparks fly right away as they exchange longing glances as he pins her corsage. He asks, “Given our dangerous dance karma are you up for this?”

Elena responds “Getting out of bed is dangerous these days.”

Back at the school dance, Caroline tells Matt that one way or another Elena is spoken for.  Matt tells her he’s just looking out for his friend. Caroline reminds him sometimes Elena’s friends get caught in the crossfire.

Tyler shows up for Caroline, guess he’s a forgiver. Oh no, wait he’s just jealous and wants to keep Caroline away from Klaus. Caroline tells him he shouldn’t be there, it’s dangerous.

“What’s he going to do draw you another picture?” Tyler responds.

How he knows or thinks Klaus would show up puzzled me, but then again his hybrid instincts were right on as Klaus makes an entrance.

Elena and Stefan hit the dance floor then the music goes slow and they end up in each other’s arms where Elena tries to tell Stefan about what happened in Denver with Damon, but he doesn’t want to know. They are sharing a nice intimate moment like old times until sure enough Damon comes barging in to tell them Ric lied to him and may be back to his old serial killing ways.

Jer sees them going into the hall and bumps into Bonnie and her new beau on the way.  Bonnie asks Jeremy why he is still wearing his ring, does he not know about Alaric.

“When my sister stops hanging out with vampires I’ll take it off.” Jeremy tells her.

Elena and the Salvatores talk in the hall where Damon who has chased Alaric around like a love sick puppy for most of the season, suggest they kill him. Wow, Elena better watch out if she doesn’t choose him.

Jeremy overhears and refuses to let them kill Alaric who has watched over them in between trying to kill everyone they know.  He runs out in a huff and Elena follows.

Elena tries to assure Jer that Ric will not be harmed, when Esther shows up. She asks Elena to come with her if she wants to help Alaric. Elena ponders the absurdity of it, while Jeremy runs to get Damon and Stefan. But Esther tells her she can come willingly or by force but either way she’s going. So Elena as usual voluntarily walks into the tornado.

Stefan and Damon run out to Elena but find themselves trapped by a line of magical salt, that Esther must have spread all around the school I’m assuming, not just one entrance?

Damon interrupts Bonnie’s Seven Minutes in Heaven with Jamie by telling her they have a problem.

Over at the Crypt Esther explains to Elena that she is going to dip into the dark magic one last time to create the ultimate vampire hunter to kill her kids.

Back at the dance, Klaus asserts his authority to get a dance with Caroline. She asks Klaus why he always has to be the alpha male.  “I don’t have to prove anything love, I am the alpha male. C’mon one dance I won’t bite.” How could a girl resist lines like that?

Klaus still trying to woo Caroline tells her, “One day, maybe in a year or even in a century, you’ll turn up at my door and allow me to show you what the world has to offer.” She rebuffs him and he tells her that a small town boy and a small town life won’t be enough for her.  And I believe him. He then exits but is also trapped by the salt.

While Bonnie tries to break Esther’s spell. Klaus of course gets impatient and threatens to hurt Jamie. Stefan steps in and tells him hurting someone she cares about will not bring her to his side.

Over at the Crypt, Esther forces Elena to give her doppelganger blood to seal her spell. She gives Ric a drink, stabs him and he begins to turn into a Vampire/Vampire Hunting machine.

At the school, Damon gets some of Jeremy’s blood to help Bonnie with a locator spell. Damon apologizes for being forced to turn her mother into a vampire to save Elena in his own half snarky half he seemed to mean it kind of way.

Bonnie doesn’t give a damn of course and moves on with the spell, but realizes Esther is blocking her and she must be at a hotspot.

Klaus knows where she is, the old cemetery.  They send Matt and Jeremy since only mortals can get out of the school.

In the gym Caroline and Tyler have a heart to heart, where Tyler brings up the fact that it may be the best thing if Esther kills Klaus even if it means he’ll die too.

Elena tries to tell Esther that what she is doing is just as evil as what her kids have done.

” I desire a world where you and your loved ones will not suffer at the hands of vampires like your Aunt Jenna did.”

She tells Elena that Jenna is at peace on the other side, even as a vampire she remained pure. Just the mention of Jenna makes me think we will see her in the season finale.

Matt and Jer show up at the crypt all weaponed up but Esther forces them to point the weapons at each other and it looks like they are goners until Ric stakes Esther from behind.

The good Alaric is back at least until he makes his transition. Esther’s death beaks the boundary spell and the vamps are able to leave the school. Stefan thanks Bonnie for her help. She tells him she didn’t do it for him.

Alaric tells Jer he has chosen not to make the transition to vampire. Jeremy doesn’t take it well and tells him not to give him a crap speech about how he needs to be the man of the house. Ric agrees not to and they embrace.

Elena tells Ric this is all her fault, and he confides that taking care of her and Jer is the closest he’s ever come to the life he wanted. He walks her out of the crypt so he can die alone and they walk out to find the whole gang even Dr. Fell all with sullen faces and heavy hearts.

Back at O Manor, Klaus unstakes Rebecca and dares dead Esther to come after him again. He tells her he will build a huge army of hybrids and his survival will haunt her through eternity.

Jamie takes Bonnie home and offers to stay with her since her Dad is out of town, when are we ever going to meet this father of hers? He seems to be out of town a lot.

Matt and Jer have an underage drink at the Grill in honor of Alaric while Elena goes back to the school to clean out Alaric’s locker so no one finds out the history teacher was a vampire hunter.

Stefan tries to stop her and calm her down. He takes her to the gym where he tells her after that night in the gym when he was forced to bite her he never wanted to feel again. But Elena was the one who told him it was okay to feel again and never to lose hope.

She cries and tells him she doesn’t have anyone anymore, which is absurd since everyone in this town is continually willing to die for her. He assures her she has him.

Dr. Fell tells Damon not to leave Alaric alone in the crypt.  Damon realizes she is right that Ric probably doesn’t really want to die alone.

Ric jokes with Damon “Is this the part where you give me a dream?” That would have been fun. But alas no, they share a drink while Alaric drifts off.

Esther shows up at Bonnie’s bedroom and scares her awake. Jamie calms her and she lies back down or so Jamie thinks. She shows up at the crypt and Damon asks her what she is doing there so she gives him one of her vampire headaches and heads inside. She cuts herself and gives Ric her blood he wakes up and feeds on her. Fade to Black.

Predictions: Sara Canning will be back as Aunt Jenna. Caroline may realize there is something there between her and Klaus. Elena chooses Damon! Elena ditches both brothers and goes back to Matt. Anything can happen!