VD, S3-22: The Departed

On the third season finale of The Vampire Diaries...

- Elijah returned to make a deal with everyone: if they helped him get the stake from Alaric, and gave him Klaus' coffin, he and his family would scatter to the ends of the earth, make it impossible for Alaric to find them and not awaken Klaus until Elena was dead.

But this plan fell apart after a lot of back and forth, with Alaric tracking Damon down to the storage unit with Klaus' body and staking him. He burned away. Klaus really is dead. So why didn't Tyler also die, following an emotional goodbye to Caroline?

Because Bonnie cast a spell, kept Klaus alive - to save those she loved - and put him... inside Tyler's body!

- Elsewhere, Elena flashed back to the day of her car accident. Turns out, she saw Damon first that day and he gave her a big speech about loving he or she who "consumes" you. But he then made her forget it ever happened.

- Fast forward to present day and Rebekah tries to kill Elena via another car accident. It's the only way she can kill Alaric, she figures. Stefan once again swims down to rescue her, but she insists he take Matt first. Stefan does so. But that makes it too late and Elena dies...

... except Meredith had earlier given her vampire blood. So, yes, the episode ended with Elena springing awake!

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E21: Before Sunset

On this wild episode of The Vampire Diaries...

- Abby returned and showed her daughter how to conduct a dessication spell. It was meant for Alaric, who kidnapped Caroline and tried to convince Elena to kill her friend... but it ended up being used on Klaus after he proceeded to kidnap Elena and drain her blood for his hybrid army.

It worked, but not before Klaus said he turned Stefan and Damon's bloodline, which does appear to be the case based on how Stefan reacted when Klaus was being dessicated. But the episode ended with the brothers driving away with Klaus' body, supposedly to dump it in the ocean.

- It also ended with Alaric outing the mayor and the sheriff as have vampire children, while outing himself as a vampire.

- But the final scene was of Elena falling to the ground after clutching her neck. Why? Tune in for the finale!

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E20: Do Not Go Gentle

On this episode of The Vampire Diaries...

- Esther is determined the turn Alaric into the ultimate hunter, which involves actually making him into a vampire. She traps all other vampires at the Decade Dance and steals Elena away to accomplish this mission. And it works, except... Alaric stakes Esther and killer her when he first wakes up.

But he knows it's just a temporary return to his normal self and volunteers to die before turning and killing everyone he loves. There's an emotional scene where he does just this, saying farewell to the Mystic Falls gang - except Esther then inhabits Bonnie's body, walks her into the cave where Alaric was about to perish and awakens him with Bonnie's witch blood.

The final scene of the episode of Alaric as a vampire, grabbing hold of the white oak stake.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E19: Heart of Darkness

On this episode of The Vampire Diaries...

- Elena accompanied Damon to Denver in order to bring Jeremy home and protect him from Klaus. Once there, she couldn't fight her feelings any longer and made out with big D big time! Jeremy witnessed it.

But later on, Elena was hesitant, which annoyed Damon and made these two get into a fight. They ended the episode driving back home, Jeremy in the car, ghost Rose along for the ride.

- Tyler returned, got it on right away with Caroline, but then got upset when he found she had kept Klaus' drawing.

- Stefan beat Alaric until he turned into Dark Alaric. He told him the dagger was in the cave where vampires cannot go. But Rebekah, who went along with Alaric to the cave, ended up walking in and saying she had a lot in common with him. How? Meaning what? It wasn't Rebekah! It was Esther in Rebekah's body!

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E18: The Murder of One

Our heroes in Mystic Falls schemed well enough to kill Finn this week, but Bonnie was pressured by Klaus right beforehand to reverse the Original linking spell. As a result, Finn died by his siblings did not.

HOWEVER, Sage also perished because it was discovered that when an Original dies, all of those in his/her bloodline also dies, which is a major problem for Damon, Caroline, Stefan and even Tyler. How can they kill an Original without first knowing his/her bloodline? They could kill themselves if they guess wrong.

The episode ended with Stefan confronting Elena about her feelings for Damon, and her admitting she didn't know what she felt.

And also with Alaric realizing he misplaced his White Oak stake. Well, he didn't misplace it. His psycho killer alter ago apparently took it.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E17: Break On Through

Sage double crosses Damon this week, making him believe they are on the same side - track down the source of the White Oak, but only use it to kill Rebekah because Sage is in love with Finn - when she actually set him up just to get the information she needed:

The town's bridge is made of that white oak. She then passes this information on to Sage, who burns it down...

... but Damon secretly swipes a sign from it and ends the episode by telling Stefan: Let's go kill some Originals.

ELSEWHERE:

- Alaric tried to kill Meredith because he can be a psycho even without the ring on. Stefan and Elena also come across evidence that he's been collecting photos of his victims and even wrote a letter to Jeremy including a hit list of counsel members.

- Bonnie casts a spell on Alaric force him to chill and not try any mire killing for now.

- Bonnie's mom leaves once again because she can't handle being a vampire and thinks her daughter is better off without her.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E16: 1912

We traveled back to 1912 this week and met Sage, a woman who brought out all of the passion inside Damon. He used that to then light the same passion inside Stefan; i.e. feasting on humans.

This turned The Ripper loose.

In present day, Damon did all he could to try and wean Stefan's appetite, to control his brother whenever he drank from humans. It brought the brothers closer, but it also made for an awkward experience when Elena walked in on Stefan drinking from a woman.

Elsewhere, it turned out that Meredith framed Alaric only to then provide proof that he was NOT the killer. Why? BECAUSE HE IS THE KILLER! His ring has been making him go crazy, something that also happened to Samantha Gilbert, a relative of Elena's back in the day.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E15: All My Children

Damon and Stefan were forced to race against the clock this week in order to save Elijah, after he forced Elena to tell him the truth about his mother's plan and then kidnapped her and gave the brothers an ultimatum:

End the bloodline of the Bennetts by 9 p.m. - when the full moon is high and his mom will have all her powers to kill the linked children - or Rebekah will kill Elena. (Oh, and Elena also walked in on Rebekah pretty much doing the walk of shame out of Damon's that morning.)

Damon and Stefan came through in the end, with the former turning Bonnie's mom into a vampire in order to short circuit the witch connection. He did it so Stefan would have one less thing to feel guilty about. Abby is now in transition and Bonnie is very sad.

We concluded the episode with Finn and Esther having scattered, along with Kol on his own. Rebekah showed Klaus a videotape she had taken of Elena in the cave and behind her were ancient drawings, one that proved another white oak tree - the kind that can kill them - had apparently grown after they destroyed the original.

The final shot? Meredith firing at Alaric after he discovered evidence that makes it look like she's the town murderer.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E14: Dangerous Liaisons

Prepare for some fancy duds to be donned on this episode of The Vampire Diaries, as the Originals threw a ball for the town. During the event, Esther confided in Elena that she wants to kill all of her children in order to make up for betraying nature.

Elena is to tell no one of this plan, which involves linking all of the Original vampires together. If one dies, they all die. Finn is also in on it and seems prepared to die.

Elsewhere:

- Rebekah felt rejected by Matt, and Damon by Elena, so they totally got it on to close the episode.

- There was no real movement on the serial killer front.

- Caroline turned down advances from Klaus, but did see a much softer side to him. The guy is a painter!

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E13: Bringing Out the Dead

Sheriff Forbes has bad news for Alaric on this episode of The Vampire Diaries.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E12: The Ties that Bind

Three separate storylines dominated this episode of The Vampire Diaries:

FIRST, Tyler called Bill Forbes to help him break the sire bond. The only way, according to Caroline's dad? Continue to turn on your own until it is pain free, thereby removing your subconscious gratitude to Klaus for ensuring you never NEED to experience that pain again. Tyler succeeded at this once, but he has a long way to go.

SECOND, Alaric learned Dr. Fell's secret, after Damon accused her of killing her ex-boyfriend and she responded by knocking him out with vervain and taking his blood. Turns out, she uses it to save patients who would otherwise die. Alaric responded to this by letting Dr. Fell in on all his secrets, including the supernatural ring. They kissed.

THIRD, Bonnie visited her mom for the first time in 15 years because she thought she could help her open the locked casket. But her powers were taken away after she left Mystic Falls long ago, following the entrapment of a vampire who came to town: Michael. She locked him in that tomb and escaped and enjoyed her new life.

But Klaus got a hybrid out to Abby Bennett's farm house, also and he compelled Jaime, a boy Abby took in many years ago... it was a long, complicated plan, but in the end, Klaus learned the location of the coffins. Fortunately, Damon got the locked one out in time and also undaggered one of Klaus' relatives: Elijah. He ended the episode by showing back up and killing a hybrid in front of Klaus.

Oh, and Elena told Stefan she and Damon kissed.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E11: Our Town

A lot went down on The Vampire Diaries this week. Let's get right to it...

- After initially refusing Klaus' order to bite Caroline, Tyler couldn't help it and put his ex's life at risk. But Klaus came over later, gave a passionate speech and fed Caroline his blood to save her. He even left her a birthday present.

- Stefan came very close to driving Elena off a bridge and turning her into a vampire, so Klaus could stop using her as a blood bank, but Klaus backed down and agreed at the last moment to remove his hybrids from town.

- Jeremy left for Colorado.

- Dr. Fell got closer to Alaric as a Founder's fundraiser. The latter caught the former arguing with her ex, a medical examiner named Brian. Dr. Fell said he's the one who covers for vampire attacks by writing "animal attacks" on the death certificate. Strangely, the episode ended with the sheriff calling Damon to a murder scene and showing him a murder Brian.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E10: The New Deal

On the first new episode of 2012...

- Stefan convinces Bonnie to use the former witch house to cast a spell and keep Klaus' family coffins invisible from anyone who enters.

- Damon later confronts his brother and makes a deal to help him get back at Klaus. They don't tell Elena about the arrangement.

- For Jeremy's own safety - after Klaus compels him and he nearly kills himself by stepping into traffic - Elena has Damon compel her brother to forget Mystic Falls and start a new life in Colorado.

- Alaric saves Jeremy's life by pushing him out of the way of a car and meets Dr. Meredith Fell at the hospital, someone fascinated by his ability to heal quickly.

- Tyler tries to explain the difference between siring and compulsion, but then feels badly after Jeremy tells him what Klaus did to him and also tells him to be careful, someone always dies when Klaus is involved.

- Elena gives a daggered Rebekah back to her brother in exchange for the safety of those she loves. Klaus is busy building a dream home for his family.

- Damon kisses Elena to close the episode because, hey, he might as well have something to feel guilty over.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E9: Homecoming

It all went down tonight during a homecoming dance thrown at Tyler's.

Damon came up with a plan to kill Klaus and it involved having Katherine pose at Elena. This way, when Mikael followed through on his threat to kill Elena, thereby ending Klaus' ability to make Hybrids, Klaus would give in, fight Mikael and be killed.

But Klaus, who had collected a Hybrid army and was surrounding the house with him, called Mikael's bluff. He proceeded to kill "Elena," Klaus was distracted and Damon swooped him to dagger him with the special stake - but then Stefan pulled Damon off him! Klaus grabbed the dagger and killed Mikael!

Klaus then rewarded Stefan by giving him back his freedom. Later, we saw Stefan in a car with Katherine and learned that Klaus had told her (when he thought she was Elena) that the Hybrids were instructed to kill Damon if he was killed. Therefore, Stefan actually acted to save his brother's life when he also saved that of Klaus.

Finally, the episode/year ended with one more surprise: Katherine had taken all the corpses of the Originals, who Klaus now wanted to awaken with Mikael dead. Stefan called Klaus to taunt him about this fact and we were left with one seriously pissed off Original.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E8: Ordinary People

Through a series of flashbacks told to Elena by Rebekah, we learned this week...

- That the Original Witch was actually Klaus and Rebekah's mother. She was faced with an impossible task after one of her son was bitten by a werewolf: turn the rest of her family into vampires so they could fight back. She did so.

- But Rebekah said her father - Mikael! - then discovered that his wife had an affair with a werewolf and that Klaus was not his son. He killed his wife, and the family all separated from there, except Elijah, Rebekah and Klaus, who made a pact to stick together.

- That is why Rebekah is so afraid of Mikael being woken up... HOWEVER, Elena, with the help of Bonnie and Alaric, then interpreted the cave drawings and learned the truth: Klaus killed his mother! He blamed it on his father so he could have company for the rest of his life, but he was actually angry at his mom for placing a hybrid curse on him and making him the only one of his kind.

- When Rebekah accepts this truth, she breaks down crying.

Meanwhile, Damon breaks Stefan out of his dungeon and they have a night on the town. But Mikael arrives and threatens to kill Damon if Stefan doesn't tell him where Klaus is. Stefan says he can get Klaus to come to Mystic Falls. Mikael says: you better.

- Stefan then tells his brother that, yes, he wants Klaus dead so he can be free. But only so he can be free to leave. He's sick of acting all nice.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E7: Ghost World

Ghosts invaded Mystic Falls this week, causing some serious problems and even killing a history teacher in front of the entire town.

The only way to send them back was for Bonnie to destroy the talisman that anchored them here in the present day: Elena's necklace. But Elena didn't want this action to take place yet because Lexi was back and working some weird spell to get Stefan's humanity back. It maybe worked? Kind of? A little bit?

By the end, when Lexi was forced to leave, not a lot had been accomplished, but Elena possibly got through to Stefan with a threat that she wouldn't stick around forever.

Oh, and how did Lexi get forced to leave? Well... Anna stole Elena's necklace because she wanted to stick around and be reunited with her mom, but after she and Jeremy kissed (an action Bonnie later learned about and dumped him for), Anna realized it wasn't fair to be Jeremy's ghost girlfriend. So she gave the necklace back, Bonnie united with Grams to destroy it and all the ghosts left for The Other Side.

Except that the necklace then got spit out of the fire to close the episode.

Also, Mason led Damon in a search deep inside his family's dungeon. But Damon wasn't allowed to go all the way inside, and after Mason left he was forced to call Alaric to assist. He did so, and the hour concluded with Alaric stumbling upon some kind of ancient writing on the walls.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E6: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Katherine woke up Mikael this week, who told her he didn't feed on humans. So, who did he feed on? Cue a bite to her neck! Elsewhere on the episode...

- Matt cast a spell that actually placed Vicki in this world for a bit, but he then panicked when he heard her plan was to kill Elena in order restore nature (as was told to him by a witch on the other side) and used Bonnie to send Vicki back again after she failed to blow up a car with Elena and Stefan in it.

- Anna was still around, though, because Jeremy couldn't stop thinking about her. These two actually touched, and felt each other, near the end of the episode.

- It's unclear why or how, but the true end of the episode featured the return of Mason Lockwood. He shocked Damon in his own home.

- Rebekah, meanwhile, offered Tyler something he couldn't refuse as a hybrid who seems loyal to Klaus: human blood. He couldn't resist the temptation to drink it and help kill an innocent girl.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E5: The Reckoning

Wow. What a night in Mystic Falls. Let's run it down...

- Klaus showed up at school and apprehended Elena, while also breaking Tyler's neck after feeding him blood. The goal of this act was to pressure Bonnie into action to find a cure for why he could not make hybrids, lest Tyler die.

Klaus, meanwhile, stuck Elena in a gym with Stefan and compelled him to kill her after 20 minutes. Stefan tried to fight and when the buzzer went off he told Elena to run. He really tried to resist and he succeeded, actually snapping a broom handle to kill himself with - until Klaus intervened, compelled Stefan deeply again and seemed to eliminate all human elements from him.

At this, Stefan attacked Elena.

- But Klaus realized something: he didn't need the Doppleganger dead. He needed her blood. The Original Witch misled him. As an experiment, Klaus stopped Stefan from killed Elena and fed her blood to Tyler. It revived him and made him feel more alive - i.e. like a hybrid - than ever before. He bounded away happily with Caroline.

Klaus then placed Elena in the hospital to drain more of her blood, but Damon finally came to her rescue. He had been off with Katherine, but received texts from Bonnie and came as quickly as he could. In the time away, he learned - via Jeremy, who summoned Anna, who was told this information by Pearl - that a vampire named Michael actually hunted other vampires and was after Klaus. He was also entombed.

But Damon leveraged this information to avoid being killed by Klaus. He then got Elena out of the hospital and brought her home and swore never to leave her... but then Stefan showed up, acted like a jerk, said Klaus was gone for a bit and he was placed in charge of Elena's safety.

- Elsewhere, Matt drowned himself in order to have Elena revive him, which enabled him to finally communicate with Vicki.

- Finally, Katherine and Jeremy broke into Michael's tomb, opened up his coffin and his eyes snapped open to end the episode.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E4: Disturbing Behavior

A great deal went down this week. Such as...

- In Chicago, Stefan went to Gloria to try and feel her out, as she told him she wanted that necklace for herself and had a feeling he knew a lot about it. She proceeded to torture him and did learn all about Elena, but then Katherine showed up and killed her. They disposed of the body and Katherine left, but then Rebekah had a feeling of her own later on when alone with Stefan:

He was up to something. Klaus knocked him out, put him in a truck and the episode ended with the pair arriving back in Mystic falls.

- In town during the episode, Jeremy kept seeing Anna, who said she was alone on "the other side" and that she sensed "darkness" any time Vicki was around. Jeremy ended up telling Bonnie all about the ghosts and doing his best to shut Anna out.

- Bill Forbes was still around, as Damon learned he has trained himself to NOT be compelled. How would Damon therefore deal with this vampire hater? He tried to kill him, but Caroline intervened and these two fought a bit. She ended up saying goodbye tearfully to her dad, who still thinks she's doomed as a vampire.

- Damon was having a bad day all around. Alaric told him to take a little bit of a break from Elena, as many were concerned over how close these two were getting. Damon lashed out and screamed at Elena that he is not Stefan. He also lashed out and temporarily broke Alaric's neck. His pal was saved by his ring, but also so angry that he ended up joining the town council.

Late in the episode, Elena pretty much admitted to Caroline that she's attracted to Damon, while Katherine showed up under the guise of Elena and got Bonnie to give her the necklace. She then went to Damon and asked if he wanted to take a trip somewhere. He said yes.

Source: TV Fanatic

VD, S3-E3: The End of the Affair

The Vampire Diaries focused on two storylines this week.

In the first, Caroline's father kept her prisoner and tried to train her to associate pain with blood. He said it was for her own good. But eventually Tyler and Caroline's mom came to her rescue, with this plot concluding with Caroline crying into Tyler's arms.

Then, there was the big stuff:

- We flashback to 1920s Chicago often because that's when Stefan was at his Ripper-est. We learn he and Klaus were actually good friends and Stefan was dating Klaus' sister, Rebecca. So, what happened? The police - with wooden bullets! - came to the club one night and Klaus left with Rebecca in a hurry because "he" was coming. He glamoured Stefan to forget about them and told Rebecca later on she had to choose between Klaus and Stefan.

She chose Stefan and Klaus killed her.

- But he woke her back up in real time because a witch in Chicago said she needed Rebecca's help to contact the original witch and figure out what happened with the hybrid transformation error. One problem, said Rebecca (who was also reunited with Stefan, who Klaus UNglamoured and who remembered the entire past): the answer lay with her necklace... which Stefan picked up back in the day and which Elena now wears.

- Stefan also came face to face with Elena in present time and told her to leave. Klaus cannot know she's alive and that is why his hybrid process didn't work.

- And finally we learned that Katherine is hanging out in Chicago these days.

Source: TV Fanatic