The Rippah Diaries

With any teen show comes sporadic and sometimes unhealthy parenting moments, and The Vampire Diaries is no exception. This week, we're ranking the parents of Mystic Falls from best to worst. While choosing the best parent was easy, picking the worst is a challenge with so many contenders. We've got Abby, who abandoned Bonnie twice; Kelly, who made out with Tyler at a Founders Party; Bill, who tortured Caroline; and Mayor Lockwood, who encourages fights in parking lots. We also briefly discuss Giuseppe Salvatore and Mikael, but they're so bad they didn't even make the official list. Tune in to this week's episode to find out who we crown as the Official Rippah Girls' Worst Parent.Note: We are officially breaking for the holidays so this is our last episode this year. Stay tuned for 2025! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that we've finished the finale, we of course have to recap everything that happened in Season 3! This week, we're looking back at the main characters's highs and lows of the season, all of the great villains, and what some of the side characters were up to. We're also going to talk about some of our personal faves, like best performances, favorite episode, and favorite Delena and Stelena moments. We also talk about what we would do differently if we wrote Season 3, even though this was almost a perfect season of television. Finally, we wrap up Season 3 like we wrap up every episode and pick the best outfits, quotes, and songs and the most out of pocket moments from the whole season.This week: The Vampire Diaries Season 3 RecapNext Week: Ranking the Parents of Mystic Falls From Worst to Liz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After losing all of her blood and hitting her head, Elena starts reminiscing about happier times when her parents and Aunt Jenna were still alive (which unfortunately is also when she was still dating Matt - at least some things have gotten better). While on the mission to dump Klaus's body in the Atlantic, Stefan gets called back to Mystic Falls to protect Elena after her injury. Meanwhile, Damon gets stuck hiding the body in a storage unit, where he of course runs into Evil-laric. Back in Mystic Falls, Caroline and Tyler prepare to leave town so the Council doesn't come for them. And to protect everyone she loves, Bonnie goes rogue with her magic but Rebekah has the same idea and does what she can to stop Alaric.This week: Season 3 Episode 22 | The Departed Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Evil-laric on the loose, Klaus is ready to leave town, but he won't go without his doppelgänger. And since no one will invite him into the Gilbert house to get her, he takes matters (and fence posts) into his own hands. When Damon and Stefan finally get him to focus on stopping Alaric instead, Bonnie turns to Abby for a lesson in dark magic. With that situation sort of under control, the Salvatore brothers finally have the hard talk about what they'll do when Elena chooses one of them.This week: Season 3 Episode 21 | Before Sunset Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for arguably the best school dance episode: the 20s decade dance. While everyone is prepping for the dance, Esther starts plotting with Evilaric and makes him the ultimate weapon: an indestructible white oak stake. Fortunately, Damon has figured out Alaric isn't taking any of Bonnie's herbs, so he and Meredith are trying to get that under control. But not before it's time for the dance, where Elena has invited Stefan to be her date, Bonnie has brought Jaime, and even Klaus has come to try to woo Caroline and show up Tyler. It would be a great night if it wasn't a Mystic Falls High School dance, where something terrible always happens. This time, the chaos is caused by Esther and Dark Alaric trapping everyone but Matt and Jeremy in the school and luring Elena away to get her blood to make Alaric an Original Vampire. When everyone finally makes it to the Salvatore crypt Alaric is refusing to transition into a vampire and it's time for a hard goodbye. This week: Season 3 Episode 20 | Do Not Go Gentle Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that they know what happens when you kill an Original, Elena and Damon take a trip to Denver to check in on Jeremy and to see if he can contact Rose on the Other Side to find out which Mikaelson sibling sired their bloodline. As soon as they arrive, Jeremy tries to meet up with a friend, but his friend turns out to be Kol who immediately starts beating Damon with a baseball bat. While they hide out and chat with Rose, Stefan gets stuck with Klaus supervising him as he tries to get Evilaric to tell him where the last white oak stake is. And while Matt and Rebekah decorate for the 1920s Decade Dance, Caroline spends the day with Tyler, who's finally back from breaking the sire bond. But of course, the Tyler-Caroline reunion is not the only romance plot of the episode. You already know what we're talking about: the ICONIC Delena motel scene.This week: Season 3 Episode 19 | Heart of Darkness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After turning the Wickery Bridge sign into 12 white oak stakes, Damon and Stefan enlist the teens into Salvatore Boot Camp to practice taking out one of the Originals. So Matt, Caroline, and Elena are now trained to stake any one of the Mikaelsons on sight, which will also take out Klaus since they're all still linked. But if you know Klaus, you know he's always one step ahead, which means he's holding Bonnie captive and threatening her loved ones until she unlinks him from his siblings. While Bonnie works on that, right in the next room, Rebekah is torturing Damon as revenge for his scheme with Sage. She's also getting in his head and giving him daydreams of Elena rescuing him—absolutely diabolical. But even more unrealistic than Damon's hallucinations is the fact that the teens actually get a shot at staking Finn and Matt of all people gets the kill shot. Later that evening, it's revealed that Matt didn't only kill Finn, but his entire bloodline.This week: Season 3 Episode 18 | The Murder of One Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the Wickery Bridge Restoration Kick-off, Damon runs into Sage, and despite not seeing her for 100 years, he decides to get her help in figuring out what Rebekah is up to. Sage's plan of course relies on Rebekah coming over for a “party” and getting in her head once her guard is down. So while they take care of that, Elena has to deal with Alaric being basically a confirmed serial killer, which is only further confirmed when she and Stefan come back to the Gilbert house to find that he stabbed Meredith. And as usual, the only person having a worse time than Elena is Bonnie. Back at Abby's house, Caroline and Bonnie try to deal with Abby's vampire transition, which does not go well and ends with Abby leaving AGAIN.This week: Season 3 Episode 17 | Break On Through Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even though there's a murder every other day in Mystic Falls, the recent Founder's Council member deaths remind Damon of a similar crime spree 100 years ago. Despite Liz explicitly telling him to stay out of the investigation, Damon tries to figure out what might have happened back in 1912, which reminds him of the mysterious, old vampire, Sage, who taught him how to enjoy life as a vampire. He also remembers when he passed Sage's advice onto Stefan, which may or may not have caused him to become the Ripper of Monterey. Meanwhile, Rebekah starts to very unsubtly look for records on the last white oak tree to figure out if there are any more weapons that can be used against the Originals. Elsewhere, Elena and Matt try to prove that Meredith is the serial killer by breaking into her apartment to investigate.This week: Season 3 Episode 16 | 1912 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After Elena tells everyone in town that Damon spent the night with Rebekah, she learns from Bonnie that Esther is planning a magic ritual to kill the Original siblings later that night. Unable to keep that a secret either, Elena tells Elijah about the ritual and that she wishes there was a way she could help save his life. But just like he tells her, be careful what you wish for: to help save his life, he traps her in the caves and sends Rebekah to keep her there and wait for the signal to kill her if Stefan and Damon don't find a way to stop Esther's spell. In a surprise to no one, the Salvatore Brothers go rogue and instead try to take down the Originals themselves. When that plan inevitably fails, they have to make a coin flip decision on who has to cut off Bonnie and Abby's magic.This week: Season 3 Episode 15 | All My Children Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An episode as iconic as Dangerous Liaisons doesn't require a description but instead an invitation: Please join the Mikaelson Family this episode for dancing, cocktails, & celebration. And don't forget the love triangle, romantasy, & general mayhem.This week: Season 3 Episode 14 | Dangerous Liaisons Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Sheriff Forbes officially investigating the town serial killer, not only will Damon be consulted first, but she's of course going to tell Alaric and Elena everything she knows, including that the weapon used was from the Gilbert vampire-hunting stash. While those three look into the murders, the Salvatore brothers continue to scheme to kill Klaus, but they each have different ideas on how to get it done. So while Stefan turns to Bonnie and Abby, Damon asks one of our faves, Elijah, for help. Damon and Elijah end up setting up a dinner party where they can all talk it out, but things don't go too well since neither Klaus nor Stefan are big negotiators. Just when it seems all hope is lost, Elijah pulls a real wild card move and kicks off one of the Rippah Girls' fav arcs. This week: Season 3 Episode 13 | Bringing Out the Dead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After having recurring dreams about Klaus's coffins, Bonnie realizes her dreams are trying to show her how to kill him. They also lead her to find her estranged mother, Abby. Speaking of awful parents, Bill Forbes returns to town to force Tyler to turn into a wolf to break his sire bond with Klaus. Meanwhile, Damon is focused on proving Alaric's new friend, Dr. Meredith Fell, is a psycho killer. Finally, Klaus makes a big move to get the coffins back that even Crazy Stefan can't stop, but Damon leaves him a little surprise that brings the return of a familiar face.This week: Season 3 Episode 12 | The Ties That Bind Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caroline is in no mood to celebrate her 18th birthday, so Elena, Bonnie, and Matt try to cheer her up by turning the celebration into the funeral she never got to have. Meanwhile, Damon and Stefan unsurprisingly can't agree on how to deal with Klaus, so Stefan goes rogue and nearly drives Elena off of Wickery Bridge. Elsewhere, Alaric gets closer to Dr. Meredith Fell at the Founders' Council meeting.This week: Season 3 Episode 11 | Our Town Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that Stefan has Klaus's one weakness, his daggered family, he recruits Bonnie to hide the coffins in the haunted witch house. Klaus turns to his usual tactics of stalking, threatening, and murdering to get what he wants. As usual, the Gilbert family is on the receiving end of this and Stefan isn't willing to help. After witnessing a literal beheading on the front porch, Elena and Alaric become more concerned than ever about Jeremy. Finally, Tyler gets a much needed reality check that maybe doing everything his hybrid overlord says isn't as safe as he thought.This week: Season 3 Episode 10 | The New Deal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stefan, Elena, and Damon scheme to lure Klaus back to Mystic Falls, and there's no better way than to tell him Mikael is dead. While they wait for Klaus to return, everyone decides to attend homecoming, but the dance is relocated at the last minute to the Lockwood mansion. The teens quickly realize the huge party with a live band was not pulled together by Tyler, it's a wake for Mikael thrown by Klaus. Damon and Mikael decide to make their move against Klaus at the wake, which nearly works, but Stefan swoops in at the last moment to save Klaus. Stefan earns his freedom from Klaus then skips town with Katherine. On their way out of town, flashbacks reveal that Damon was going to die with Klaus, and Stefan only saved him to save Damon. In retaliation, Stefan reveals to Klaus that he stole his coffins full of siblings.This week: Season 3 Episode 9 | Homecoming Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Down in the caves, Alaric works on deciphering the runes and figures out that the drawings tell the story of the Originals. Elena decides to go right to the source: Rebekah. After a mean girl power struggle, Rebekah invites Elena over for a fashion show, some snooping, and eventually a bit of storytelling. Through flashbacks, Rebekah tells Elena how their parents turned her, Klaus, Elijah, and their other siblings into vampires to protect them from the werewolves. Meanwhile, Damon checks in on Stefan in the Forbes torture cellar and decides to go rogue and break Stefan out to remind him what freedom is like. While the brothers day drink and feed on bartenders, Rebekah finishes the story of the Originals by telling Elena that Mikael killed Esther after finding out that Klaus was not his biological son. Once story time is over, Elena returns to the caves and figures out who actually killed Esther. Elena immediately goes back and tells Rebekah that it was really Klaus who killed her mother. At the bar, Mikael crashes the brothers' bonding time to get their help in finding Klaus. After he threatens Damon's life, Stefan eventually tells Mikael that he can lure Klaus back to Mystic Falls. So with Mikael as their weapon and Rebekah now turned against her brother, it's time to set up a plan to take down Klaus.This week: Season 3 Episode 8 | Ordinary People Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the Night of Illumination and the ghosts are back to celebrate. Damon gets a visit from our absolute fave, Mason Lockwood, or so he assumes, even though the ghosts aren't visible. So he immediately goes to Bonnie to get her to fix the problem, and her first step is to do a spell that reveals “veiled matter.” As the spell is cast, we see it really was Mason torturing Damon, Grams is there helping Bonnie, Elena can now see Anna making out with Jeremy, and Lexi is back putting Stefan in his place. Now that everyone can see the ghosts, they all get to work since there's no telling how long this will last. So, Damon and Mason go to the Lockwood cellar to look for a weapon to kill Klaus while Lexi and Elena start Stefan's ripper detox. Meanwhile, Grams, Bonnie, and Caroline try to find the Original Witch's necklace to destroy it and send the ghosts away, even though Elena wants the ghosts to stay now that Lexi is helping Stefan. Unfortunately, the tomb vampires also came back and are killing Founding Family members in the town square, so the search for the necklace is now URGENT. Eventually, Anna reveals that she stole it because she didn't want to be alone. So now that they have the necklace, Bonnie and Grams send everyone back, but not before an emotional family reunion between Anna and Pearl, a pep talk to save Stefan, and the possible key to understanding the Originals.This week: Season 3 Episode 7 | Ghost World Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the first day of senior year for the Mystic Falls teens, which means they finally have to go to class and Rebekah gets a chance to show off crazy stunts at cheerleading practice. While the girls are dealing with an assortment of boyfriend problems, Matt is talking to Vicki on the other side, and Tyler is enjoying his new hybrid lifestyle. It also wouldn't be the first day without the annual bonfire, which Elena chooses as the perfect opportunity to vervain Stefan. While Elena works on that, Damon makes s'mores with his new roommate, Rebekah. Matt chooses to skip the bonfire to perform a seance to give Vicki a foothold in the living world. It works, but her deal with the Original Witch requires her to kill Elena. As usual Bonnie saves the day, stopping Vicki before she burns Stefan and Elena alive. Even though they're safe, something has gone horribly wrong, because Mason Lockwood is now back and torturing Damon.This week: Season 3 Episode 6 | Smells Like Teen Spirit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To pretend like everything is normal, Caroline forces everyone to participate in senior prank night, but the night immediately takes a turn when Klaus arrives. Desperate to make a hybrid, Klaus feeds Tyler his blood, snaps his neck, gives Bonnie twenty minutes to figure out how to save him, and compels Stefan to feed on Elena when the clock runs out. Stefan fights the compulsion, but Klaus decides Stefan's humanity is holding him back, and compels him to turn it off. While Stefan's life is being ruined, Vicki tries to send Matt a message from the Other Side. Matt and Bonnie then realize they need Jeremy to talk to her. Unfortunately, Jeremy spent all day in the trunk of a car after being kidnapped by Katherine to figure out how to find Mikael. With Jeremy gone, Matt decides to take matters into his own hands and drowns himself to talk to his sister, who tells him the Original Witch said Elena has to die. Klaus instead decides to feed Elena's blood to Tyler, creating his first successful hybrid.This week: Season 3 Episode 5 | The ReckoningNext Episode will be on July 11th! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While looking for the Original witch's necklace for Klaus, Gloria gets glimpses of Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie getting ready for the Founder's Cookout. She of course has no idea who the girls are, but unfortunately, the images are enough for her to realize that Stefan is hiding something, so she decides to use some “old school voodoo” (torture) to get the truth. Just as she realizes the doppelgänger is alive, Katherine stops Gloria's spell and saves Stefan. Back in Mystic Falls, Bill Forbes causes problems for the Council and Alaric tells Damon not to start any sort of relationship with Elena, which Damon deals with by snapping Alaric's neck. After that he leaves town with Katherine, just as Klaus arrives in Mystic Falls to uncover Stefan's secrets.This week: Season 3 Episode 4 | Disturbing Behavior Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To get in touch with a witch that can help with the hybrid plan, Klaus brings Stefan to Chicago, which also happens to be where Stefan spent most of his ripper days. At the witch's bar, Gloria's, Stefan finds a photograph of him and his bestie from the 1920s. Through 20s flashbacks, we see why Klaus wanted Stefan to come along with him in the first place and we get our first glimpse of Rebekah. Katherine is of course not far behind, and she tips off Damon, who grabs Elena for a road trip to once again try to rescue Stefan. Meanwhile in Mystic Falls, Bill tortures Caroline until Liz frees her with the help of Tyler and a warning shot. Back in Chicago, Elena reads Stefan's journals and begs him one last time to come home, but unfortunately Stefan doesn't want to be saved.This week: Season 3 Episode 3 | The End of the Affair Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Klaus and his partner-in-crime off to the Smoky Mountains to create more hybrids, Elena, Alaric, and Damon go on a road trip to try to bring Stefan home. Meanwhile, in Mystic Falls, Jeremy asks Matt to help him with a seance to contact Vicki. Tyler spends his day looking for Caroline after she snuck out right after their hookup but eventually realizes that Carol knows Caroline is a vampire and he decides to reveal his secret to her. Back in Tennessee, Stefan saves Damon from one of the werewolves that Klaus was trying to turn, which gets Damon back on board with the plan to save his brother. Unfortunately, Klaus starts to wonder why none of his hybrid experiments are working if he did everything right, even killing the doppelgänger.This week: Season 3 Episode 2 | The Hybrid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Months have passed since Stefan went off with Klaus, and it's now Elena's 18th birthday. That of course means Caroline is going to throw her a party, even though all Elena wants is to know that Stefan is alive. And while Elena has spent all summer trying to figure out how to get Stefan to come home, Caroline and Tyler have become besties, Jeremy is still seeing the ghosts of girlfriends past, and Damon has been secretly tracking Stefan and Klaus's trail of bodies. He finally gets a good lead when he and Alaric go to Tennessee where Stefan and Klaus are looking for a werewolf. Luckily, Damon makes it back from the trip to Tennessee just in time to give Elena back her necklace as her birthday gift. But while everyone in Mystic Falls enjoys the party, Stefan kills our fave, Andie Starr, in front of Damon, and Elena finds all of Damon's research on Stefan. Unfortunately, Damon has to tell her to not get her hopes up because all of the bodies he's been tracking were left by Stefan, not Klaus. Happy birthday, Elena - your boyfriend is a serial killer. That's almost enough for Elena to give up all hope, but just as she's about to go to bed, she gets a call from Stefan (queue A Drop in the Ocean), granting her wish that to know he's alive.This week: Season 3 Episode 1 The Birthday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Because we love you guys so much and wish we could make you all cohosts, we decided to turn the mic over to you and answer all of your questions about The Vampire Diaries! Your questions covered everything from whether we think Damon and Liz would have been a good ship to what we would change about the ending of the show to what we think of Bonnie's OBVIOUS stunt double in Season One. We even answered some questions about ourselves like what other shows we like and whether we prefer the Twilight soundtrack over the TVD soundtrack. Basically if you asked it, we answered it.Huge thank you to everyone who submitted questions and thank you to our 1K YouTube subscribers! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As promised, we're finally devoting an entire episode to the humanity switch. We look at all of the reasons why characters like Stefan, Damon, and Enzo turn their emotions off and how they eventually get them back on. We also realized that so many iconic moments come from a vampire's no humanity arc, like Damon killing Matt to get Elena to turn it back on and Caroline burning the letter from Liz (we know you know the TikTok audio: BURN IT). And let's not forget the vampire that inspired us to even do this episode: Isobel. We still can't agree on what we make of her, but we do agree on a few things, like every humanity-less vampire will do anything to avoid getting their emotions turned back on.We also want to hear from you! Call (470) 205-4958 to share your theories and ask us questions that we'll listen to and discuss on our next special episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For every character there is to love on The Vampire Diaries, there are a few to hate. While the list mostly includes annoying villains, useless supernaturals, and guest stars there are two characters in the main cast that are well known for annoying the fan base. You already know we're talking about Matt Donovan and Elena Gilbert. But is Matt hated because he's boring or because he's a terrible boyfriend to Caroline? Is Elena hated because she's a pick-me or because she switched from Stefan to Damon? In this special episode, we talk about the main reasons why people hate these two and whether we actually hate Matt and Elena.To be included in an upcoming special: Call (470) 205-4958 to leave a voicemail sharing your theories and ask questions for us to discuss in a call-in episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before we get into Season 3 in a few weeks, we of course have to recap Season 2! This week, we're looking back at the main characters, the villains, and all of the great Season 2 side characters. We're also going to talk about all of the highs of the season, like best performances, favorite songs, best three episode run, and favorite Delena and Stelena moments. We also go over a few of the lows of the season (*cough cough* the Jules/werewolves arc) and what we would do differently if we wrote Season 2. We also wrap up Season 2 like we wrap up every episode and pick the best songs, quotes, and most out of pocket moments of Season 2.This week: The Vampire Diaries Season 2 RecapNext Week: Why Do People Hate Matt Donovan?May 30th: Season 3 Episode 1 The Birthday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Put on your PJs, grab your Brothers Bond Bourbon or your Fresh Vine Wine, and get ready to slumber it with the Rippah Girls! This week, we're having a girls night and playing TVD Trivia hosted by Producer Shea. With 90 questions created by Shea and 10 listener-submitted questions, we'll see who really knows The Vampire Diaries the best. You can even play along with us if you can pause fast enough or somehow blurt out the answers quicker than we did. With trivia categories including songs, quotes, Season 1, and Season 2, you might even want to listen to some past episodes to brush up on your trivia before listening. Join us this week for some drinks, trivia, and LOTS of laughs!Special thanks to Producer Shea for coming up with 90 trivia questions and reviewing all of your submitted questions!Note: Due to an audio malfunction the Season 2 Recap has been delayed to next week, May 2nd! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's officially been one year of The Rippah Diaries, or at least it will be on April 20th. Close enough for us. This week, we're talking about the past year of the pod, what inspired us to get started, and some of our opinions that have changed with this rewatch of Season One and Two. We're also going to turn the mic over to you guys and read some of the comments from YouTube and talk about our favorite moments on Instagram. And of course, no episode would be complete without some laughs, so we're going to relive some of our funniest moments. Thank you all for a great year! Hope you enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the werewolf bite getting worse, Damon is ready to give up, but of course, Stefan can't help but try to save him. The spirits in the old witch house reveal that Klaus will have the cure, so Stefan goes to strike a bargain while Alaric watches a sickly Damon. All goes well until Sheriff Forbes shows up with absolutely no plan and lets Damon out of the cellar. He immediately goes looking for Elena at the town square Gone with the Wind screening but finds Jeremy instead. Just as the two go into the Grill, Liz comes in, guns blazing, and shoots Jeremy, killing him. Bonnie and Alaric are determined to save him, so they take Jeremy's body back to the witch house to try a resurrection spell. With the Jeremy drama as a distraction, Damon escapes again, and as he's wandering through the square seeing visions of Katherine in 1864, Elena finds him and helps him get back to the Salvatore house. While Damon gets worse, Stefan tries to get Klaus to hand over the cure by chugging blood bags and embracing his true rippah self. Klaus finally agrees to let Katherine take his blood to Damon, and right before she arrives with the cure, Delena have so many tender moments and share their first kiss! So much to unpack now that Damon is going to survive, Jeremy is seeing the ghosts of girlfriends past, and Klaus has revealed his storage unit full of daggered Originals. But we'll get to that in Season 3.This week: Season 2 Episode 22 | As I Lay Dying Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that Jenna has woken up, Elena explains to her that she's in transition and Jenna realizes that she's the vampire Klaus plans to sacrifice with the doppelgänger. With the addition of Jules as the werewolf, Klaus has all three goddesses needed to begin the ritual. With the sacrifice underway, Bonnie and Jeremy spend most of the night looking for a way to keep Elena human and end up binding Uncle John's life force to Elena's. Meanwhile, Stefan finally asks the question we've all been wondering: can Elijah really kill his brother? Elijah tells Stefan more Originals lore and reveals he wants revenge because Klaus threw all of his daggered siblings to sea. That's good enough for Stefan, so the plan is on. As planned, Bonnie arrives right as Klaus becomes a true hybrid and starts a spell to weaken him just enough for Elijah to kill him. And just as Elijah gets his hand around Klaus's heart, Klaus promises to reunite him with their siblings if Elijah doesn't kill him. Bonnie and Stefan plead with him to go through with the plan, but Elijah chooses family above all else and leaves with Klaus. In the morning, everyone attends Jenna and John's funeral, where Damon tells Stefan that Tyler bit him.This week: Season 2 Episode 21 | The Sun Also Rises Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's finally the full moon, which means Klaus is planning to break the sun and moon curse tonight. Elena and Stefan are willing to go along with the sacrifice and hope that Elijah's magical elixir will bring Elena back to life, but Damon is not on board with that plan. In classic Damon fashion, he lashes out and feeds Elena his blood, almost guaranteeing that she will come back, but as a vampire that will hate him for an eternity. So Elena and Stefan go for a hike to spend one last human day together and talk about what Elena is feeling. Meanwhile, Klaus's witches gather all the “ingredients” needed to break the curse by luring Tyler back to town and kidnapping him and Caroline. Eventually, Damon realizes how badly he messed up and spends the day trying to postpone the ritual for another month. After asking Klaus nicely if he would mind postponing, Damon moves on to Plan B: rescue Caroline and Tyler. The rescue mission is mostly a success, thanks to Matt “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” Donovan showing up, but Klaus is ten steps ahead: he knows to have a backup werewolf and vampire. So, as soon as Elena gets back from the hike, Klaus takes her to the quarry, where she finds out who the backup vampire is. Damon is confused why it isn't him until Katherine reveals that Tyler bit him during the rescue mission, so he's as good as dead anyway.This week: Season 2 Episode 20 | The Last Day Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elena and the newly undaggered Elijah spend the day together so Elena can prove she's trustworthy and so Elijah can tell her about the last time Klaus tried to break the sun and moon curse in the 1400s. Through flashbacks, Elijah tells the story of how he and Klaus met Katherine, and he makes three huge reveals about Klaus and the curse. We also see that Elijah has incredible chemistry with both Elena in the present day and Katherine in 1492, but I mean let's face it, no one is surprised. Meanwhile, Jenna comes back to Mystic Falls only to find the Gilbert house is empty, and only Stefan will answer her calls. So, he comes over to fill her in on what's been going on, only to find that Alaric/Klaus beat him there and is about to tell Jenna everything. Damon decides to go rogue while all this goes down, so he and Andie pay a little visit to Katherine, who is still trapped in Alaric's apartment. Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for, in the very last few moments of the episode, the witches put Klaus back into his body, and we get to see present-day Klaus.This week: Season 2 Episode 19 | Klaus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for another decade dance: the 60s. Klaus continues to possess Alaric's body, and with help from Katherine, he is ready to act as our favorite history teacher and taunt Elena. As always, Elena tries to pretend everything is normal, which of course means she and Bonnie and Stefan are finally going to school. Klaus, teaching history as Alaric, lays eyes on his doppelgänger and uses the other students to tell Elena to save the last dance tonight. So of course, the whole squad agrees to go to the dance with the plan to use Bonnie as their not-so-secret weapon to kill Klaus. After posing as Alaric to learn all of this, Klaus plans to provoke Bonnie into using all of her magic, which will kill her. At the dance, Klaus gets Elena and Bonnie away from the others and reveals who he is. The girls get away from him and find Damon who comes up with a new plan with Bonnie. She goes to fight Klaus alone and before Elena can stop her, the lights explode and spark and Bonnie falls to the ground, not breathing. After the dance, Damon reveals that Bonnie faked her own death so she could stay in hiding and become their secret weapon again. Unwilling to let Bonnie risk her own life, Elena decides to look for another option. And what better person to help her out than Elijah?This week: Season 2 Episode 18 | The Last Dance Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After stopping by the Gilbert house to ruin Jenna and Alaric's relationship, Isobel convinces John that she's trying to help Elena. John is blinded by love and believes her, but Elena and Stefan are skeptical. Rightfully so, because Isobel immediately meets up with Katherine to tell her that she made a deal with Klaus to save Katherine's life in exchange for the doppelgänger and the moonstone. Katherine is of course all in for that plan, so she goes looking for the moonstone and finds it stashed in Damon's soap. After Elena's third kidnapping, Isobel reveals that she betrayed Katherine and that she was the doppelgänger Klaus wanted. Eventually, Elena and Isobel arrive at the cemetery where Isobel's tombstone is and Klaus's witch tells Isobel that her job is done and she's free to go. Though Elena gets to go home and live her life, she and Stefan realize that Klaus is letting her live for now because he knows Elena will just go along with the sacrifice when the time comes. Not all hope is lost though: while Isobel was kidnaping Elena and betraying Katherine, Damon and Jeremy were helping Bonnie harness the power of the witches that were burned in Mystic Falls, officially making Bonnie their secret weapon to kill Klaus.This week: Season 2 Episode 17 | Know Thy Enemy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that Katherine has manipulated her way out of the tomb, she's sticking around the Salvatore house to flirt with Stefan and Damon and antagonize Elena. And with Elijah now out of the picture, Stefan decides Team Save Elena should try to get Luka and Dr. Martin on their side, so he and Bonnie meet with the Martins at the Grill to plead their case. But Dr. Martin knows his best bet is just undaggering Elijah, so he astral projects Luka to rescue Elijah from the cellar of the Salvatore house. We all know how that tragically ends, which sends Dr. Martin on a rampage to find Elena. Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, and Jenna are having girl's night at the Grill, where Caroline decides to pour her heart out to Matt by jumping on stage and singing with the live band. Thankfully, Caroline gets to finish her ballad before Dr. Martin comes through and nearly burns the place down. When Jonas is unable to find Elena at the Grill, he shows up at the Gilbert house and finds Katherine, which doesn't end well for him. Later on, just when you think that's a wild enough episode, Jenna answers a knock at the door that turns out to be none other than Isobel.This week: Season 2 Episode 16 | The House Guest Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Elena reads the Gilbert journals, she finds out about Stefan's revenge on the founding families in 1864. Now that the truth is out, Stefan tells Elena about his ripper era and how Lexi brought him out of it. Meanwhile, Damon is desperate to get a chance to "talk" with Elijah—we all know what that really means. Andie gives Damon the perfect opportunity to “talk” by coming up with the brilliant idea that all of the adults should come over for a dinner party. This somehow comes together that night, but it does not get off to a great start: Jenna and Alaric are fighting, Damon is secretly plotting to use the dagger and white oak ash on Elijah, and Uncle John ends up crashing the "fun and games." As the dinner party is happening, Elena finds information in the Gilbert journals that throws off Damon's plan. Eventually Alaric gets the chance to dagger Elijah, bringing the gathering to an end. Unfortunately, Elena didn't finish reading the dagger chapter of the journal until later when she finds out it has to stay in the Original's body to be effective, which of course didn't happen. Reawakened and furious Elijah races to find Elena to take her away, but Elena risks it all and manages to pull off daggering Elijah again herself.This week: Season 2 Episode 15 | The Dinner Party Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a rare cute Stelena episode, Stefan and Elena decide to avoid Uncle John and go spend the day at the Gilbert family lake house. While Stelena have their romantic getaway, everyone back in Mystic Falls is scheming. First we have Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy plotting to get information from Luka about the sacrifice by putting him in a witchy trance. Then we have John, whose version of scheming is just stirring the pot, which he does by hinting to Jenna that Alaric is lying to her. And of course, the werewolves are also up to no good: Jules and her pack have convinced Tyler to be on their side in the race to break the sun and moon curse. Unfortunately, the plan to break the curse entails Tyler and Brady trying to kidnap Elena while the other werewolves torture Damon to find the moonstone. Thankfully, Elijah makes another iconic entrance and saves Damon while Elena outsmarts Brady to avoid her third kidnapping.This Week: Season 2 Episode 14 | Crying Wolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All of the worst characters come out to play in this episode. Uncle John returns and immediately stirs the pot with Jenna and tries to parent Elena. Meanwhile, Tyler confronts Caroline about lying to him about how many vampires there are and who killed Mason. Trying to do damage control, Caroline sends Stefan to talk to Tyler to help him cool off. Unfortunately, Tyler can't bear to talk to Stefan and screams “help, help” into the phone when Jules calls. Jules retaliates by kidnapping and torturing Caroline, telling Stefan he has 20 minutes to bring her Tyler. When the trade goes down, Jules reveals her whole pack is in town and they all attack Damon and Stefan. The wolves almost overpower the Salvatore brothers, but fortunately Dr. Martin shows up and saves the day because of Elijah's deal with Elena. Uncle John also shows up later with a “peace offering” for Damon and gives him a dagger with some white oak ash—giving Damon a way to kill an Original.This week: Season 2 Episode 13 | Daddy Issues Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Rose's werewolf bite getting worse every minute, Damon asks Elena to play nurse while he tries to get a cure from Jules. Despite Elena's do-gooder efforts Rose hallucinates, attacks her, and escapes to cause chaos at one of the town's many events. Just to lighten things up for a minute, both Matt and Tyler kiss Caroline, setting up a classic love triangle and Stefan is completely MIA on his own mission to find Isobel. Damon eventually finds Rose at the school and takes her home to give her a final moment of peace before staking her. This of course causes Damon to spiral even though he pretends that he's fine in an epic laying in the road existential crisis. And if that wasn't bad enough, Jules tells Tyler that Caroline is lying about how many vampires there are and Stefan returns with Uncle John.This week: Season 2 Episode 12 | The Descent Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's finally the first full moon since Tyler became a werewolf, and he is desperate to find Mason to help him through the transition. Thankfully, Caroline steps in and comforts Tyler through the whole experience. Unfortunately, the voicemail Tyler left for Mason is overheard by our least favorite side character, Jules. When Jules gets to town and starts asking questions about Mason, Damon and Alaric scheme to find out whether she's a werewolf. Meanwhile, Bonnie traps Elena in the Gilbert house and gets Luca to help her despell the moonstone—or so she thinks. While Elena is stuck inside, Jenna helps “an author” research Mystic Falls, who turns out to be Elijah. Elijah and Elena then decide to strike up a deal: Elijah will get Stefan out of the tomb and away from Katherine's mind games in exchange for Elena letting Elijah use her to draw out Klaus. Things are almost looking up when Jules decides to go after Damon while she's in her werewolf form and ends up biting Rose.This week: Season 2 Episode 11 | By the Light of the Moon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Desperate to save Elena, the Salvatore brothers plan to get the moonstone from Katherine with the help of Bonnie and Jeremy—not really a dream team. Elena wants nothing to do with their terrible plan, so she convinces Rose to take her to Slater's apartment to find out more about Klaus. At the apartment, they find a very dead Slater and Slater's vampire-groupie girlfriend who Elena manipulates into helping them. Elena then reveals in a very Katherine Pierce way that she also used Rose and wants to surrender herself to Klaus. Rose immediately calls Damon to come stop her, and shortly after Damon arrives, Elijah returns and saves the day. While all of this is going down, Caroline and Tyler check out the Lockwood cellar in preparation for the full moon and find Mason's journal and a video of his transformation. Back at the tomb, Jeremy tries to go rogue and get the moonstone himself and ends up being held hostage by Katherine. Stefan goes into the tomb to save Jeremy and ends up trapped with Katherine, maybe that's what she really wanted all along?This week: Season 2 Episode 10 | The Sacrifice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After Rose tells Elena that Klaus is coming for her, Elena goes to the tomb to give Katherine blood in exchange for the truth about the sun and moon curse. Through flashbacks to 1490, Katherine tells Elena about the child who was taken away from her, how she ruined Trevor and Rose's lives, and how she turned into a vampire. Damon and Rose also try to get to the bottom of things by visiting Rose's friend Slater, who is an encyclopedia of all things supernatural. While Damon asks Slater if there's any way to destroy the moonstone, Elijah makes an iconic return that nearly kills Rose and Slater. While all of this is going down, Bonnie meets the new kid in school, Luka, whose Dad is very unsubtle about the fact that he and Luka are “warlocks.” Back at the tomb, Detective Elena realizes that breaking the curse requires more than just the doppelgänger and that Katherine came back to town to give her, Tyler, Caroline, and Bonnie to Klaus for the sacrifice.This week: Season 2 Episode 9 | Katerina Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After being kidnapped for the second time, Elena is brought to an old, abandoned mansion where she meets her kidnappers, Trevor and Rose. Trevor immediately tries to feed on Elena, and Rose slaps Elena so hard she does a 360 spin, so things don't look good for her. Luckily, Jeremy and Stefan figure out Elena is missing and Bonnie does a locator spell so Stefan and Damon can rescue their girlfriend. Before the Salvatores can get there, Elena eavesdrops on Trevor and Rose discussing their deal with the person us Rippah Girls have been waiting for: Elijah. After Rose tells Elena how she and Trevor know Katherine, Elijah finally makes his grand entrance and is prepared to leave with Elena, but Stefan and Damon arrive just in time to "kill" him. Later on at the Gilbert house, Damon shows up to give Elena her necklace back and confess his feelings for her. But that tender moment doesn't last, and we see Elijah may still be a problem after all.This week: Season 2 Episode 8 | Rose Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katherine sends a message to the Salvatore brothers: hand over the moonstone tonight at the masquerade ball, or she will rip apart the town until it rains blood. But Katherine predicts that Stefan and Damon won't hand the moonstone over without a fight, so she brings her very own Bennett witch for backup and keeps a few tricks up her sleeve. Katherine knows her boy toys well because the Salvatore brothers enlist Bonnie, Caroline, Alaric, and even Jeremy to put their plan into motion. Their plan? Kill Katherine Pierce. Stefan and Damon are almost successful, but one of the tricks up Katherine's sleeve is linking herself to Elena. Anything Katherine feels Elena does too, so no one can kill her but fortunately, Bennett witches stick together. Though her plan to get the moonstone doesn't work out, triggering Tyler's werewolf curse does. After the party, Elena, who has barely recovered from the night, gets kidnapped for the second time.This week: Season 2 Episode 7 | Masquerade Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You know Masquerade is that episode when there's a whole episode about the set up for the masquerade party. Everyone in the show is involved in party prep, including Stefan and Mason. Mason is shocked to see that Stefan survived the last episode, but Stefan is even more shocked when Bonnie bumps into Mason and has a vision of him kissing “Elena.” Stefan regroups with Damon to tell him what Bonnie saw, and Damon updates Stefan on his and Jeremy's scheme to get the moonstone. They all combine their efforts and plot to kidnap Mason so Damon can interrogate him—we all know how that's going to end. The plot is successful, and they even figure out where the moonstone is. Bonnie, Caroline, Stefan, and Elena retrieve the moonstone from the vervain-filled, snake-infested well, which Damon rubs in Katherie's face at the first chance he gets. Katherine is rattled that Damon and Stefan got the upper hand for once, but she's Katherine Pierce, she has a plan B that she sets in motion.This week: Season 2 Episode 6 | Plan B Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new day in Mystic Falls means a new event, and today's event is the Historical Society Volunteer Picnic, which is the perfect opportunity for everyone to be in the same place to cause drama. This means Elena and Stefan can put on their best performances in their fake fight and Mason can prove to Sheriff Forbes that Stefan and Damon are vampires. Unfortunately for everyone, the classic vervain in a public drink supply trick works, proving Mason right. Liz and her deputies waste no time and go straight for shooting down the Salvatore brothers and dragging them away for questioning. Luckily, Caroline and Elena intervene with Elena doing pretty much nothing and Caroline doing everything, including taking out the deputies. Liz, thankfully, is spared because she's Damon's bestie. While all of this goes down, Jeremy uses his wolf drawings to get Tyler to tell him everything he knows about the werewolves.This week: Season 2 Episode 5 | Kill or Be Killed Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For a minute this episode makes you think its opening is a Steferine 1864 memory but instead goes for the classic "It was all a dream!" twist in what is really Stefan's Delena nightmare à la Katherine. Despite the rude awakening, Stefan lets her hang around the Salvatore House long enough to vervain and lock her in the basement. Across town Damon plots to get to know Mason by convincing Alaric to convince Jenna to host a barbecue. Which Caroline uses to tell Elena all of the reasons she shouldn't be with Stefan. She's not wrong, but Caroline is definitely not subtle about it and is clearly up to something. While Stefan tries to get to the bottom of why Katherine is in Mystic Falls, she reveals her history with George Lockwood in 1864 and that she's been drinking vervain for 140 years and is pretending to be held captive so that she can spend time with Stefan. After Damon has implored every wolf related pun he knows, he goes straight for stabbing the Gilbert silver in Mason, making yet another enemy—one of Damon's many talents.This week: Season 2 Episode 4 | Memory Lane Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's time for another Delena roadtrip episode! This time, Damon, Elena, and their third wheel, Alaric go to Duke to look through Isobel's research and see if Isobel has any information about werewolves. Poor Alaric, the vibes on the trip are so horrid since Elena obviously hasn't forgiven Damon for killing Jeremy like a day ago. Thankfully, the trip isn't a total bust, and the trio learns about the curse of the sun and the moon and that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires. And wouldn't you know it, it's a full moon and Stefan and Caroline stopped by a party at the swimming hole on the Lockwood property. Mason, of course, turns with the moon, confirming he's a werewolf, and Stefan and Caroline have to avoid getting bit when they have a run in with him.This week: Season 2 Episode 3 | Bad Moon Rising Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After being killed by Katherine, Caroline wakes up in transition and is immediately great at being a vampire in classic Caroline fashion. She completes the transition in record time, compels a nurse, and puts on a smokey eye so you know she's really in her vamp era. While Caroline figures out how to get out of the hospital, Elena and Bonnie get the carnival ready and try to act like they're just normal girls. Meanwhile, Mason and Tyler actually are just normal guys: they exercise, they exercise some more, and they talk about their anger issues—just boy things. Mason also tells Tyler he's looking for a precious family heirloom: the moonstone. Later at the carnival, Damon and Stefan test whether the Lockwoods are zombies, werewolves, or ninja turtles. Caroline manages to break out of the hospital and pretty much immediately kills Bonnie's carnival crush. Not related to the actual episode, Sarah calls out Rachel for totally flip-flopping on her takes, so definitely tune in for that.This week: Season 2 Episode 2 | Brave New World Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.