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.