So, Ben and Anna kidnapped Bonnie and Elena. They're holding them in a motel room. Anna, who just wants to free her mom, admits that nobody she knows wants to see Katherine again. "Except Damon -- love struck idiot." At Mossy Manse, Stefan appeals to Damon for help, but Damon hopes Elena dies. Later, Damon goes to Grams looking for Bonnie's help, but Bonnie is not there, and Grams is so not coming out to play with him. "I am not Bonnie. You don't want to mess with me." Relatedly, Anna calls the Salvatores, looking for the grimoire and some help. She tells Stefan that either he or Damon had better meet up with her downtown, or else Elena is a goner... After Anna leaves, Bonnie manages to light Ben on fire, but it's too little too late.
Downtown, Anna runs into Jeremy who is now into her, and invites her to a kegger being thrown by Duke the Douche from Duke, in the old cemetery. Since that's right near the church ruins, Anna's all for it. Poor Germ. When Damon shows up, Anna tells him "You're minus a witch and I'm minus a spellbook." Damon warns her that Stefan will come after her. Anna doesn't care. She'll kill Elena if she doesn't get what she wants. Damon gives in. It is on for tonight, after sundown.
Thanks to Grams' locator spell, Stefan rescues the girls and subdues Ben -- telling him to leave town at sundown, because if he ever sees him again, he'll kill him. Oh for crying out loud, Stefan. The time is now! Elena tells Stefan they have to let Damon have Katherine back. The couple enlists Grams and Bonnie's help. Now Elena must rebuild Damon's trust. So she does, even offering him a chance to compel her to see if she's telling him the truth. He declines to use his thrall and tells her he's trusting her. "Don't make me regret it."
Elena and Damon go to the church via the cemetery kegger. They run into Caroline and Matt who are there as a couple. More on that later. Meanwhile, at the church ruins, Stefan has gasoline and a flame thrower ready to go, in order to roast any vamps who might try to escape. Elsewhere, Jeremy and Anna have roamed away from the party. When she tells him she and her mother are leaving town, he kisses her and she goes all vein-y but tries to cover. No matter, Ben is there to knock him out. While Gram and Bonnie perform the spell, Stefan goes back upstairs to grab the gasoline. Damon brings Elena in the tomb with him, for insurance. Outside the ruins, Stefan finds Anna, and Ben, who is babysitting the unconscious Jeremy. While Anna hides herself down into the tomb, Stefan makes short work of Ben with the flame thrower. Once Anna is inside, Grams reveals that the door is open, but the seal is not broken. Although anyone can go in, vampires cannot get out. Impotent, Stefan waits for Elena to exit.
The scene in the tomb is gruesome -- creepy. When Anna finds her mom, she opens Elena's wrist and feeds her blood to Pearl. But Elena's screams bring Stefan rushing in, despite the seal. Bonnie pleads with her grandmother to open the seal. Grams insists they're not strong enough, but Bonnie convinces her, finally. When Elena runs out, she learns the score. When Stefan gets to the door, Elena tells him they can't leave Damon in there. Stefan goes back for him. Since Katherine isn't there, Damon is throwing a full on tantrum, which includes launching some bagged blood into the tomb wall. It bursts open and drips down onto the desiccated vampires below. Elena finally comes back in and convinces Damon to leave. Grams and Bonnie are taxed by the spell, but they keep plugging. Damon, Stefan, Elena, Pearl and Anna get out in the nick of time. Later, Anna and Pearl tell Damon that Katherine was never in the tomb. In 1864 a guard had a thing for her and let her out. Anna last saw her in Chicago, in the 1983. "She knew where you were, Damon. She didn't care."
Meanwhile at the party, Matt is ready to break up with Caroline for getting too clingy, but she wants this to work and explains that she knows she was stupid to grab his hand in front of Elena, but that seeing Damon fed into that a lot. The two decide they don't want to mess it up, and have A Moment, innocent of the horror their friends have just survived.
At Gilbert Gables, Elena checks in on Jeremy, who swears he didn't have too much to drink and doesn't know why he passed out. When she leaves, he does a web search on "vampires." Stefan sits with a brooding Damon at Mossy Manse. Over at Second-Sight Shack, Bonnie is tucking in her grandmother when she realizes she's dead. Bonnie tries to wake her, to no avail. Elena calls 9-1-1 and holds Bonnie as she sobs and flips through the grimoire, trying to find a way to bring back Grams, because Jasmine Guy is way to young to die, y'all.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously, on The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's century of secret. Elena is a dead-ringer for Katherine. Stefan tells Damon their love for Katherine wasn't real. Damon tells Stefan to speak for himself. Katherine and more than two dozen other vampires are in a tomb under the old church ruins -- magically sealed for freshness! Jonathan Gilbert's journal points the way to Emily Bennett's grimoire that contains the secrets Damon needs to bust Katherine out of that tomb on the tail on the frog on the bump on the branch on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea. Stefan says he'll help Damon, but he's lying. Anna (a vampire) is using Jeremy to get to the same information Damon seeks. Anna snatches Elena from Gilbert Gables.
Now: Elena wakes in a strange motel room. She tries to slip by the dozing Ben McKittrick and out the door. I yell at her to open the curtains and burn him up, but she doesn't listen and starts fiddling around with the locks. Ben Stealth-Salvatores her before she can turn the knob. He then attempts to compel her to not escape and not move. Elena's wearing her Vervain necklace, but he doesn't know that, so she feigns compulsion. Once his back is turned she whips open the door, but Anna is just coming in, damn the luck. Anna berates Ben while she throws Elena in the bathroom. Elena's looking for a way out until she sees a body lying in the tub. It's Bonnie!
Mossy Manse: Stefan knows Damon got the journal from Anna, so he asks him for any information that will help him get Elena back from Anna. Damon won't budge. Stefan tells Damon he knows that he (Stefan) is the source of the trouble between them, and makes a totally sincere, heartfelt (and yet unabashedly opportunistic) apology for Katherine's capture and entrapment. Damon does that thing where he acts like he's acting vulnerable. That is to say he pretends to be emotional over this to cover how emotional this is making him. Stefan doesn't even wait for his apology to cool in Damon's ears before he again asks for any information that might help him find Elena. They're standing so close that I think they're going to kiss, but alas, it is not to be. Instead, Damon says, "I mean this, sincerely: I hope...Elena...dies." He walks off and we cut to...
Motel Bathroom: Elena applies a wet cloth to Bonnie's face and revives her. When Bonnie starts to talk, Elena shushes her and points to her ears to remind Bonnie vampires have bionic hearing. She then runs the faucet, hoping to drown out their whispered conversation. She catches Bonnie up on all that's been going on -- that all the fang gangers want Emily Bennet's grimoire and a witch to open up Katherine's tomb. Just then, Ben bursts in and turns off the water. Bonnie must have been conked on the head pretty hard, because the first thing she tells Ben is that there's no way she'll help him. He grabs Elena and explains that he expects her BFF will be all the motivation she needs. He then throws Elena out into the main room, to talk to Anna, who tells her she is a dead ringer...wait for it...for Katherine. One of these days, I want Elena to throw a five-star hissy fit upon hearing that comparison. Don't you? Anyhow, Anna also reveals she's been be "practically dating" Jeremy (which we humans would define as stalking), just to rub salt in the wound.