This is the third season of this show, so I shouldn't be surprised when they knock my socks so far off my feet this early on, but again, I am breathless. So much happened in "The Hybrid" that it's tempting to give you a weecap-length recaplet, but then what would I do for the weecap? So here's the skinny...
Elena hits Tyler up for werewolf intel. He explains that while some wolves lock themselves up like him, others go out to the wilderness, where they can run wild with abandon. He pinpoints a gathering point in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains that Elena figures must be where Klaus and Stefan are going on their Hybrid quest. Elena drags Alaric with her, by threatening to go alone if he won't accompany her. Alaric drops a dime to Damon who meets up with them, pushes Elena in a lake and then agrees to help them find Stefan.
Klaus and Stefan bring Currently-Dead-Ray to the spot where his pack congregates to greet the full moon. They're already hanging around in human form. As Klaus explains hybridism to the pack, Ray comes back to life. One of the she-wolves has her human boyfriend with her (really, Show, was he going to be kibble once they transitioned?) so Klaus has Ray feed off him to complete the transition from werewolf to vamp/werewolf hybrid, but Ray is bleeding from the eyes and his transition seems less than ideal. When he acts up, Stefan tries to control him. Ray bites Stefan and takes off. Klaus will only supply Stefan with his healing blood, if Stefan brings Ray back. While Stefan runs off after Ray, Klaus feeds the rest of the pack his blood and kills them, as steps one and two of his three step hybrid recipe.
Ray runs into Damon, Alaric and Elena. They scuffle and Damon ties Ray to a tree at one point, but his werewolf transition is starting, even though it's still daylight, so he breaks free. The gang tries to flee. Alaric and Elena make it to the car, but Damon gets caught behind. When Ray is just about to bite him, Stefan swoops in, pulls out Ray's heart and saves the day. He then reminds Damon he told him to stop following him. Damon says it would be easier to do that if Stefan would stop making late night phone calls to their girlfriend. Stefan tries to deny the silent, weepy call he made on Elena's birthday, but if you can't kid a kidder, then you certainly can't b.s. Damon. I'm just sayin'... Stefan had heard Alaric and Elena with Damon earlier, when he was hunting Ray, so he tells Damon to get Elena home and try to keep her there this time.
When Damon returns to Alaric and Elena, Elena is freaked until she's sure Damon hasn't been bitten. She's suddenly ready to go home. Once they are back home, Damon calls her out on this change of heart. Elena admits it's because Damon is vulnerable to werewolves, so she was fearful for his life while they were on the pack's turf. She wants to know why her reason matters to Damon, so he tells her: "Because when I drag my brother from the edge and deliver him back to you, I want you to remember the things you felt while he was gone." You can cut the sexual tension between these two with a knife, and yet it is clear how much they both love Stefan. Good show, Show.
In the B-plot, Carol Lockwood calls in back-up to help her deal with Caroline, who, you'll remember, she captured last week. That back-up comes in the form of Jack Coleman (HRG, Heroes) who, on The Vampire Diaries, is playing Caroline's father. After Tyler figures out that Carol is onto Caroline's vampyrism and has done something with her, he reveals his lycanthropy. He forces his mom to watch him transition from man to monster and back again. She has the expected change of heart, but when she calls Mr. Forbes, he seems far less sympathetic. Meanwhile, Caroline is chained up in some dungeon. When she hears footsteps approaching, she assumes it's Carol, and is shocked to find it's her daddy.
In the C-plot, Jeremy revisits the subject of Vicki's ghost with Matt and the two attempt to contact her. It works. She tells Jeremy they can bring her back. But after she disappears, smashing a Gilbert Gables window in the process, Anna appears to Jeremy and warns her that Vicki can't be trusted.
That's not even the half of it, because Klaus's plans to make the pack into his hybrid army go awry, and we get a shirtless Matt, so I'll be back with the full weecap ASAP. In the meantime, please grade the episode up top and join us in the forum, where Alaric is finally settling into a bedroom.