The Vampire Diaries recap: Gone Girl and Lost Boy

As is so often the case with The Vampire Diaries, we got to like a character most right before he was killed. We’ll keep seeing Enzo since he’s now determined to make Damon pay for killing Maggie in 1960 — and Stefan pay for his role in Enzo’s assisted suicide. Ghost Enzo as a villain is cool, of course, but this is the rare occasion when a guy is hotter playing good: The look of love that actor Michael Malarkey can give a woman is one that stays with you. I want to see good Enzo again! Let’s dig in.

We opened with Elena studying with tutor Stefan. She needed a distraction so she’d forget that Damon basically declared her dead to him. That would be the only time anyone on this show studies. Bonnie showed up to cram because she was in acceptance denial of the threat of her impending death. Funny, I hadn’t yet thought of it the way she put it: As the anchor to the Other Side, she only exists as long as it does. Even as someone who’s been okay with the show putting Bonnie out of her nothing-to-do-here misery for a season (or two), I felt a little sad. Then again, when Elena pointed out that Alaric, Grams, and other characters we’ve loved and lost would be gone as well if the Other Side disintegrated, I thought, is Bonnie going to get saved, AGAIN?

Jeremy and Matt tore apart Tyler’s house looking for the Traveler knife (which we know Markos has seemingly destroyed). Pause to appreciate Jeremy’s pretty blue Henley… and continue. Damon showed up wanting the knife so he could help de-passenger the good folk of Mystic Falls, and the boys had to tell him it was missing. That went over well. They finally realized they hadn’t seen Tyler in a while.

Tyler was chained, like Elena had been when Katherine was inside her, so that Markos could figure out how long Julian had inside of the hybrid before Tyler surfaced. Markos gave a speech reminding us how the witches cursed the tribe so nature would turn against them if they tried to settle as a people. They can break that curse, but first, they needed the power to undo a witch’s magic. Okay. Confusing. Sloan was the guinea pig. She drank from Tyler’s wrist (hot). Then Markos slashed her throat (not hot).

Damon called Enzo asking for help with finding Tyler and the knife because he didn’t think it was a good idea to let Tweetledee and Tweetledumber (ha!) out of the house. Smart. Enzo had other plans though. He crashed Elena’s study party and told her and Stefan about Maggie. The flashback of Enzo smiling at her through the bars of his cage — so sweet. But hold up: Sloan had given Enzo a crime scene photo of a decapitated Maggie in Mystic Falls dated 1960. Stefan said he wasn’t a Ripper then, so it wasn’t him. Enzo had enlisted Liv’s help to brain-torture Elena and Stefan so he’d talk (or some rugby players would hurt Luke).

After we got another flashback that led me to believe Enzo had clung to the image of Maggie’s breasts and legs as much as to that image of her face (let’s be honest, Enzo), we saw that he had Stefan and Elena’s hands bound with vervain-soaked restraints so he could read from the diary found with Maggie’s body. Bonnie tried to text Damon, so Enzo called him and told him, in a round about way, that he was going to kill Elena or Stefan — eye for an eye. Flashback to Nov. 8, 1960, election night. Stefan did bite a lady, but it wasn’t Maggie and he let her live. Maggie found him, called him more handsome than Damon (sorry, Delena fans!), and told him she’d been looking for Damon for two years — since she’d learned he’d caused the fire that she assumed killed Enzo. We knew that she wanted to kill Damon before Stefan did, but she told him quickly. Even though Stefan thought Damon was a lost cause then, he wasn’t about to let her kill him. So he vamped out — to scare her out-of-town, he said.

Enzo threatened Bonnie, so Stefan said fine, he did it. I didn’t believe him. Bonnie got escorted upstairs and told Liv that she knew she was hoping Enzo would kill Stefan or Elena because then, the Travelers couldn’t use their doppelgänger blood and the witches win. Enzo threw a stake at Stefan’s stomach. NOT THE ABS!

NEXT: More flashbacks

Damon tried to locate Caroline, but she was screening her calls. (Seriously, where was she this hour?) He got Maggie’s file from Sheriff Forbes — he was the one who’d killed her. Now that I believed.

Flashback: Maggie had wanted to be made into a vampire so she could free Enzo and they could run away together. Enzo bit his wrist and told her to come closer. He tore off her vervain bracelet and told her to leave and forget him, forget that he loved her. So that’s why she’d returned to Augustine after finding and reading her diary — she’d read about Enzo and how she’d cared for him.

Blah, blah, blah witch talk with Bonnie and Liv. Damon made his entrance to interrupt Enzo torturing Stefan. I loved how Elena mouthed “What are you doing?” to Damon when he rambled. But soon enough, he told Enzo he didn’t know it was Maggie when he’d killed her. Flashback: He’d gotten a message that a woman wanted to buy him a drink, so he and his badass black leather jacket met her. She said she wanted to interview him for the Whitmore College Alumni Gazette. She brought up the fire of ’58 and went to vervain him with an Augustine syringe. Damon stopped her, noted the logo, grabbed her by the neck, raised her in the air, and strangled her until her head popped off. It was almost comical: They were in public, but everyone was watching the TVs in a storefront and didn’t notice them, not even as he placed her head by her body. The shot of blood trickling from both her head and neck as he walked away was pretty great. Stefan was annoyed because Damon had clearly staged it to look like the Ripper had done it. He’d been pissed that Stefan hadn’t noticed him gone for five years. Damon apologized to Enzo but said he’d flipped his switch, so he was doing all kinds of horrible things back then. Damon wanted him to hate him and to take out his rage on him. But Enzo didn’t want to hate Damon because then he’d have nothing. The tears in his eyes — this was such a great episode for Enzo. Enzo closed his eyes and flipped his switch. No more pain.

Back to the Travelers. Sloan came to and drank human blood. Vampirism originated from the magic of witches, and it is in the prophecy that the blood of the final two doppelgängers will undo witch’s magic. Sloan drank some of the doppelgänger blood and…what????

Humanity-free Enzo liked to break bottles and probably caused tons of Whitmore students, who were compelled to think they’d spent the day studying, to fail their tests. At least they were free to go. Enzo drank from Liv, stabbed Damon in the neck when he charged him, and threw vervain on Stefan, who went all Matrix on him. Enzo ultimately bolted with Elena, who Stefan knew Enzo would want to kill to hurt Damon. Stefan had to feed Liv his blood before he could follow Damon.

Damon left Enzo a message saying he’d go with him to Cape Horn as long as he didn’t hurt Elena. Elena tried to take care of herself and kick Enzo’s ass, but he snapped her neck. Stefan arrived first. They went all out on stunts this week! Enzo went flying onto the hood of a car (which he hoped was insured — the dialogue was snappier this week, too). Stefan pounced, and punched and kicked him some more until Enzo sent him flying. Ooh, it was raining. Enzo looked great walking in the rain. So rain-backed Enzo = good Enzo. Remember that.

NEXT: Enzo’s revenge takes an unexpected turn

Bonnie was so hopeful when it seemed as though Liv had thought of a way to save the Other Side. Instead, Liv said with Markos out, the spell would implode on itself. Boom. She told Bonnie to say goodbye to her friends, to let Jeremy know she was leaving. Bonnie’s tears again made me feel slightly guilty.

Damon found unconscious Elena and carried her home (ah, feeling better, Delena fans!) while Enzo and Stefan continued their street fight elsewhere. In short: Enzo was going to set Stefan on fire, or himself and Stefan on fire, but then he had an idea — since Stefan was literally holding on to Enzo’s heart, he pushed himself away so it’d look like Stefan had ripped Enzo’s heart out. Enzo wanted him to have fun explaining that to Damon. Stefan didn’t want Damon to know he’d lost his only friend (again), and go off the deep end (again): He texted Damon back from Enzo’s phone, “Cape Horn it is.”

Damon was gone before Elena woke up. Good thing, because Stefan came to check on her and told her he’d killed Enzo but they’re going to lie to Damon and say he went away. Elena was reluctant but agreed. Stefan called Bonnie and interrupted her lying to Jeremy about Liv saying there was hope for the Other Side. He warned her that Enzo was dead and Damon couldn’t know. Enzo was there with Bonnie and said we’d see him again — yay! — because he’s good at revenge (boo!). He crossed over.

Sloan woke up and wasn’t a vampire anymore, which meant the Travelers could undo the magic in Mystic Falls and undo the curse that prevents them from finding a home. It also meant Sloan reverted back to her final human state — which was a woman with her throat slit. She’s dead. That’ll be the fate of any vampire who tries to live in their new home. They just need to get lots more doppelgänger blood.

Back at Salvatore Mansion, Damon told Stefan he felt responsible for Enzo and would find him and fix him. Stefan wanted Damon to let Enzo go because he wasn’t worth saving. But Damon told Stefan that Enzo was the one who’d talked him out of hating Stefan when they were locked up in the cells. Enzo had told Damon he was lucky to have even a crappy brother because Enzo had no one. He’d defended Stefan without even knowing him and said it was good to have people outside those cells that you loved to make you hold on to your humanity. They both owed Enzo, Damon said. Finally I understood how upset Damon would be if he heard the news. I think he’d believe that Enzo had forced his own death, but that doesn’t mean Stefan thought Enzo was worth saving.

Ghost Enzo was there listening. Damon was sincere, but humanity-less Enzo didn’t care. His vendetta has begun. How does it play into that strange little promo for the next episode? Enzo is going to be able to do things other ghosts can’t because the Other Side is crumbling, apparently. Interesting.

Theories?