Cocky Ripper Douche

The Vampire Diaries - "The End of the Affair"

Klaus and Stefan go to Chicago to see a witch who might be able to help Klaus with his plan. The witch, Gloria, said that she needed to contact the original witch and that Klaus needed to bring “Rebecca” to her in order to do that. Rebecca has what the witch needs to make contact. Katherine gives Damon a call and tells him where Stefan is.

Damon and Elena go to Chicago. Damon takes Elena to Stefan’s old apartment, which Stefan must still own, because it’s the same as he left it in the 1920s. This is also where Stefan had a creepy list of all his victims written on the wall of a secret closet. Damon leaves Elena there to think about that, and Klaus and Stefan show up. Klaus wants to show Stefan his old list that he forgot. Stefan sees Elena but covers for her and gets Klaus out of there quickly.

Stefan learns that in the 1920s he and Klaus’ sister, Rebecca, another original, were in love. (Keep in mind that there are seven original siblings.) From this episode we also learn that, like Elijah, Klaus has a soft spot for family. He longs for a brother, and one of the reasons he picked Stefan as his wing man now was that he was his wing man and friend in the past. Sidenote: If Klaus wanted a brother so much, maybe he shouldn't have killed his entire family. Just saying. Anyway, they used to hang out at this old club that Gloria ran, but the cops raided it, using wooden bullets.

Klaus and Rebecca were apparently running from someone even scarier than they were, so Klaus compelled Stefan to forget him and ran off with his sister. Rebecca dropped her necklace given to her by the original witch, and this is the same necklace that Stefan later gives to Elena. Rebecca wanted to go back for Stefan and Klaus wanted to run. He asked Rebecca to choose between him and Stefan, and Rebecca chose Stefan. Klaus then stabbed Rebecca with one of those original-killing daggers and stashed her in a coffin.

Back in the present day, Damon gets to Gloria’s club to distract Klaus while Elena meets with Stefan. This is how Damon gets stabbed several times with a cocktail umbrella. Best weapon on this show ever. Nice one, Klaus. Damon tries to get Klaus to accept him as a partner over Stefan, but Klaus just decides to kill him. Klaus is stopped by Gloria, who wants no corpses in her club.

Elena tries, and fails, to stab Stefan with a vervain syringe, and Stefan reams her and says that he wants her to go home, nothing will be the same after all the things he’s done, that it would take him 30 years to get “sober” again, that he doesn’t want her anymore, and that he wants to stay. Ouch.

Klaus removes the dagger from Rebecca. She tries to kill him with it, but it doesn’t work now that he is a hybrid. Klaus brings Stefan to Rebecca and compels Stefan to remember everything. Klaus tells Rebecca that she has what Gloria needs to find the answer to his hybrid race-making problem. Turns out, it’s the witch necklace that Elena has on. Rebecca and Klaus still don’t know that Elena is alive, much less that she has the necklace, so Klaus rages again.

We catch sight of a very cute Katherine back in the ‘20s, watching Stefan pick up the necklace. It might be the best Nina Dobrev has ever looked. That 1920s style needs to come back, like, immediately. In this culture, it’s fashionable to wear either jeans and a t-shirt or nearly nothing at all/something overtly sexy. When did pretty go out of style? It’s like we’re all trying to look like or please the guys. We want flapper dresses, dammit.

In the B plot, Tyler goes to Sheriff Forbes to tell her all he know about Caroline disappearing. Bill, Caroline’s father, is trying to cure Caroline by burning her with sunlight and then showing her a blood bag, so that she will learn to associate blood with pain. Worst. Dad. Ever. More people get tortured on this show than on 24, jeez. But good job Candice Accola. It took the sheriff and Tyler all day to find Caroline, but they were able to save her. Tyler and Caroline's mom comforted her about what happened with her father, but she is still pretty devastated. Poor Caroline!

Yes, we noticed that Rebecca (Claire Holt) is also Samara from Pretty Little Liars. Nice to see her getting work in such good teen shows. We think we like her. Rumor has it that this is the season that Elena stops letting the boys dictate what happens to her; the season where she gets a little more bad ass. Will a day come when Elena is more Buffy than Bella? We can only dream. Actually, that was unfair. She’s not comparable to Bella. We really like Elena, but she’s been physically powerless through the whole series, and it’s a series where physical power and violence drive the story. We’d like to see her find some way to fight back and gain control over what’s going on.

Episode grade: A-