- Knowing she needs to come to terms with the loss of Damon, Elena turns to Alaric to help her move on with her life. Enzo convinces Caroline to join him as he tracks down a lead to get Damon and Bonnie back, but Caroline is shocked when they make an unexpected detour and uncover what Stefan has been up to. Meanwhile, Matt worries about Jeremy who is spending time with Sarah, a mysterious girl who has recently arrived in Mystic Falls. Elsewhere, Tripp, leader of the community protection program, makes an interesting confession to Matt about his connection to the town. Lastly, with the Other Side destroyed and gone for good, Damon and Bonnie reluctantly band together to uncover the mystery of where they are and how they are going to get back home.
- Enzo takes Caroline on a ride to Savannah, Georgia, where they challenge Stefan's retreat from their former lives and abandonment of the search for Damon, but he's convinced to have tried everything worldwide. Matt is increasingly worried about party animal Jeremy, who drowns his mourning in meaningless sex, even with wanted thief Sarah, one of the scum hunted down by Mystic Falls founder family member Tripp Fell. Alaric accepts to combine psychotherapeutic logic with vampire compelling to wipe Elena's memories of loving Damon, which only works after she admits it included some betrayal of Stefan. Damon and Bonie are puzzled to work out how they seem trapped in an eclipse day in 1994, without her witch powers.—KGF Vissers
- 4 Months Ago
After the bright flash of light on the Other Side. Damon and Bonnie open their eyes to find... nothing has changed. They're still standing in the forest, but now it seems like they're alone.
They walk into Mystic Falls and vampire can tell he's still a vampire. The Mystic Grill is still standing -- despite the fact Damon blew it up an hour ago. There are no people anywhere.
Today
Matt isn't pleased to run into a half naked Sara (the girl Elena chomped on at the border) in his house. Jeremy said she could stay. Matt asks her to leave. He's sick of Jeremy's apathy.
Savannah, GA.
Stefan is surprised to see his hook-up Ivy is still at his house in the morning, cooking breakfast. She can see he's surprised and tries to make an awkward exit, thinking they're in different places with the relationship. He suggests they have dinner.
At Whitmore, Elena packs up all her photos of Damon, along with his old clothes. She tells Matt and Jeremy her plan to have Alaric compel away her feelings for Damon and asks that they keep the truth from her.
At the Whitmore diner, Caroline is not happy to learn from Alaric that Stefan hasn't been doing anything to try to help Damon and Bonnie. She thinks no one is, but he says that's not true.
Cut to Enzo romancing a witch for information. As he nuzzles her belly in a coat closet, she tells him about the Gemini Coven in Oregon that found a way to communicate with their ancestors on the Other Side before it went away. They're interrupted when Caroline finds them.
Alaric sits down with Elena, explaining the process he's going to use to work back through her memories to find the signature memory about Damon that should affect all the others when he alters it. She's sad to be losing her memories of Damon, but knows she needs to.
Alaric walks her back through meeting Damon on the bridge in Mystic Falls and changes it to meeting a stranger.
Back in emptyland, Damon and Bonnie still haven't found anyone but notice all the cars seem at least 20 years old, but new. They come upon Elena's not burnt to a crisp and Damon picks up a newspaper. It's May 10, 1994. Bonnie recognizes it as a week before something.
Suddenly, there's a solar eclipse.
Back with Alaric, Elena is remembering when Damon kissed her. She still thinks of him as her boyfriend, so they've got a way to go.
In emptyland, Bonnie reminds Damon about her Grams telling Bonnie that she made a sacrifice so Bonnie could find peace. She figures Damon tagged long when they held hands as the Other Side disappeared and if magic got them there, it should be able to get them out. Bonnie tests hers, but it's still gone.
Elena talks to Caroline, who surprises her by objecting to her plan, but then tells her to do what's best for her. Caroline is on the road with Enzo, who won't tell her where they're going.
In Savannah, Stefan makes dinner, chugging blood before Ivy arrives. He's surprised when she walks in and Caroline and Enzo are right behind her.
Over dinner, Caroline and Enzo interrogate Stefan through polite dinner conversation. Enzo mentions that he's a neck person and had to get a witch to do a locator spell to find Stefan.
Bonnie comes home to the Salvatore house to find Damon making pancakes, chugging booze and dancing to Salt N' Pepa's "What a Man." She got a grimoire from her Grams' empty house and hopes she can reteach herself magic.
They're both surprised when suddenly there's another solar eclipse. The paper says May 10, 1994 again.
In Mystic Falls, Jeremy lies about Sara being around as Matt goes out for a jog. Matt runs into Tripp out on the road. He asks about Sara, saying some deputy friends told him the car she was driving was stolen.
Elena shares more Damon memories with Stefan, including when he stepped in as her escort for Miss Mystic Falls. She remembers it was the first time she noticed how sexy he was. But erasing that doesn't change things. They go through every moment she can come up with but none of them undo how she feels. She quits.
On yet another May 10 two months later, Bonnie is still stuck on the same down crossword puzzle clue. She thinks she hears something in the house, but Damon brushes her off. Damon continues making pancakes, making his argument that they're stuck in hell.
At dinner with Ivy, Caroline is infuriated to learn that Stefan has been in Savannah for almost two months, not trying to help Damon and Bonnie. Finally, Enzo has had enough and stabs a fork in Stefan. Caroline compels Ivy and takes her upstairs as Enzo calls Stefan a coward and they throw each other around the kitchen. Finally, Stefan snaps his neck.
Alaric calls Caroline for help figuring out when Elena fell in love with Damon. Caroline knows immediately, it was when she was still was Stefan. Stefan overhears Caroline.
Later, they clean up after the world's worst dinner party. Enzo is still dead. Stefan claims he doesn't care about when Elena fell in love with Damon. He tells her he had to move on after two months of searching. He already looked into the Gemini Coven. She asks how he could move on without her. She realizes he never listened to all the messages she left him.
"Well, let me summarize them for you: You're a dick. If you want him (Enzo) out of your house, you do it yourself," Caroline says, storming out.
Alaric finds Elena in her dorm room, leaving a desperate message for Luke. He confronts her about falling in love with Damon while she was with Stefan. He knows she never betrayed Stefan and it's OK to love them both. Elena remembers Katherine used to say the same thing.
Elena finally admits the day she fell in love with him, her birthday after she and Damon spent all summer looking for Stefan. He gave her the necklace Stefan gave her that she had lost. She knew how much it hurt him, the most selfless that he's ever been. In that moment she loved him. (As she tells Alaric the story, Damon finds the necklace in his house in 1994.)
Elena tells Alaric she's ready. He rewrites the memory, and she remembers the night ending with Damon snapping Jeremy's neck in front of her. Finally, she doesn't remember Damon as her boyfriend, but as a monster who died.
Outside Stefan's house, Caroline sobs in her car. She tries to pull herself together when Elena calls. She feels like things are taking a turn for the better and is ready to go to a party. Caroline offers to come spend the night in the dorms.
Enzo comes back to the car and insists on driving when he sees Caroline in tears.
But then Enzo goes back in the house and grabs Ivy. Enzo snaps her neck. He tells Stefan he's no brother to Damon. He remembers Damon promising Stefan a lifetime of misery, and says he'll be the one to deliver it. When Stefan tries to charge him, Enzo snaps his neck easily.
Back in Mystic Falls, Jeremy leaves Bonnie is a message saying he keeps paying her cell bill. He's still mad at her for telling him over the phone that she was going to die, so he keeps leaving her messages ranting every day.
Matt tells Jeremy about Sara, who readily admits she stole the car from her handsy boss. When Matt tells her she needs to find somewhere else to stay, she says her dad supposedly lives in Mystic Falls and she'll find him. Jeremy takes Sara to go stay at the Salvatore house.
The next day, Matt calls Tripp to tell him about Sara's supposed family connection. Tripp shares that grew up with Jeremy's dad. He's from one of the founding families, the Fells. But he took his mom's maiden name.
Tripp opens the sliding metal hatch on his van and checks on his captive vampires in the back. Then he drives them across the border into Mystic Falls and opens the sun roof, enjoying the screams as they all fry to death.
Back at the Salvatores in 1994, Bonnie serves Damon dinner, telling him she misses everyone too. Damon notices Bonnie finally got the crossword clue that was stumping her (Yellow ledbetter). But she didn't. It's filled in, but neither of them did it.
"There's someone else here," Bonnie says.
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