"The Return" Vampire Diaries Season 2

****Warning right off this contains spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1 “The Return”*****

I was absolutely floored by this episode on several occasions. So we’ll just jump right on in….

We begin right where we left off—Katherine cutting off John’s fingers then stabbing him. Elena arrives home and rushes his side. Katherine leaves the house before Elena can see who tried to kill him. Elena calls 911, then runs to check on Jeremy, who thankfully is still alive. Stefan explains to Elena that Jeremy didn’t take enough pills to kill himself so he won’t become a vampire unless he dies before Anna’s blood leaves his system.

Meanwhile, Bonnie, Matt, Damon, and Sheriff Liz are all at the hospital, waiting to
see whether Caroline will recover from the car accident. Sheriff Liz is confused Mayor Lockwood’s death and she tells Damon that even though he was killed along with the vampires, there’s no way he could have been a vampire.
Elena arrives at the hospital and Bonnie explains Caroline’s condition, and Elena asks Bonnie if she can do a spell to heal their friend. Damon mocks Bonnie that she doesn’t have that kind of power. Damon’s blood has healing properties, so he offers to give some of it to Caroline in order to speed along her recovery. Elena’s hesitates but Bonnie tells him to go ahead.

Before helping Carolina Damon tells Elena that they have to talk about kissing earlier that night. Elena is shocked and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Damon finally realizes that it was Katherine and not Elena that he kissed. He says “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Finally Stefan catches on to Katherine’s true identity. Katherine shows up and pretends to be Elena and he plays it until she goes in to kiss him and he attacks her. She is much stronger than he is and she slips away right before Damon and Elena return home.
The trio doesn’t know what to do since Katherine has been invited into the house. Damon snidely suggests that Elena to “move.” Elena and Stefan want to figure out a plan but Damon says “I’m just gonna ignore the bitch” Then Damon confesses to his Stefan and Elena that he and Katherine kissed before he knew her true identity, which causes Stefan to become jealous.

The next day at Mayor Lockwood’s wake, where the Sheriff tries figure out why he was killed. Enter Mason Lockwood his amazingly handsome younger brother. Katherine also shows and Tyler mistaking her for Elena invites her into the house.
Meanwhile Stefan and Elena is at the hospital to visit John and ask him some questions. He wakes and sees Elena and mistakes her for Katherine. Unfortunately, John doesn’t know what Katherine is up to and Elena leaves in disgust. Stefan makes John drink his blood and tells him that he’d better leave town within 24 hours—or else he’ll be turned into a vampire against his will.
Bonnie sees Elena (Katherine) at the wake and starts to gripe about Damon. But Bonnie realizes that this isn’t Elena and calls Elena to find out that she hasn’t arrived yet. Before Bonnie can warn anyone about her presence, Katherine confronts her.





After mocking Bonnie’s attempt to hurt her Katherine slams her against a wall saying “I’ve been around a really long time.” Before Katherine can hurt Bonnie, Stefan finds them and tell her to leave Bonnie alone. She complies, and they go for a walk around the grounds. Stefan wants to know what Katherine’s up to, and after a lot of coy mockery, she gives him a reason: “I came back for you.” He tells her that he hates her, and that he never loved her. Katherine responds by stabbing him in the stomach and fleeing.

Elena arrives at the wake and has a conversation with Damon and he asks why she’s surprised that he would kiss her, and she replies, “That’s not a surprise. I’m surprised that you thought I’d kiss you back.” Damon replies that he wasn’t hurt before…. Now he is.

Elena leaves Damon to find Stefan and finds him stabbed, as Elena’s tending to Stefan’s wound, Damon shows up and makes a rude comment about how Katherine’s trying to steal her man. Stefan tries to calm his brother and says that Katherine’s going to try to play them against one another. It’s obvious that she’s clearly already gotten to Damon.

Damon goes home and finds Katherine waiting for him. She taunts him, asking him to “Kiss me or kill me” He kisses her and it really gets hot and heavy between the, Before anything goes too far Damon stops her and says he has to know the truth about something. If she answers the way he wants her to, they can start over with a clean slate. Katherine cuts him off by saying that she knows what he’s going to ask, and that she has his answer: “The truth is, I’ve never loved you. It was always Stefan.” She walks away, and Damon’s eyes well up with tears… I almost cried at his pain…

Meanwhile John has packed up his things. He and Jeremy have a brief conversation about the protective ring that once belonged to Jeremy’s father. At the Lockwood estate, Tyler is raging in response to his father’s death so that he almost attacks his mother. His Uncle Mason stops him and slams him to the ground until he calms down. Tyler tells Mason that he doesn’t understand why he’s acting this way. “It’s the curse of being a Lockwood,”

A drunken Damon is waiting for Elena in her room. He brings up “their” kiss again, saying that she must be lying to herself about her feelings for him. Damon says “There is something going on between the two of us, and you know it,” Then he grabs her and kisses her. But Elena echoes what Katherine said that she loves Stefan not Damon. Jeremy walks in and Damon tells Jeremy that he can take away his pain and snaps Jeremy’s neck. Fortunately he is wearing John’s protective ring and he survives.

The end of the episode shows Katherine paying Caroline a visit in the hospital and she says“I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me,” She mutters “Game on” and then she smothers Caroline with a pillow.

***Fades out***

I can't wait until next week when it looks like Caroline is "all better" and seemingly much stronger.