Previously on The Vampire Diaries, after following clues left behind by Enzo, the gang discovered that he and Damon are under the spell of a mystical siren. They had been bringing the morally corrupt to the siren to feed on. After having her fill, the siren rose from the water taking shape in human-form –ready to wreak havoc on Mystic Falls. Also, Alaric decided he needed to live closer to the twins to protect them. He decided to move into Caroline’s house, and asked that Caroline move out. Without anywhere to go, she invited herself to live with Stefan.
This episode, “Today Will Be Different” doesn’t offer us nearly the amount of action and gore as the premiere episode, but there are some key developments that take place. Let’s jump in to the recap.
The Last Salvatore
Damon is napping poolside. This seems to be the only way he can drift off to that place of peace where he first met Elena. The siren thinks he’s just being lazy. She turns her attention to Enzo. She’s frustrated that he hasn’t full succumbed to all of her whims yet. He thinks he has enough willpower to keep all of his secrets from her, but all she has to do is peer into his mind just a little bit. The sirens sees quick flashes and then asks, “Who’s Sarah Nelson?”
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In order to keep Bonnie safe he had to give up some information to the siren. Bonnie and Caroline are googling around on the internet searching for more clues. They’re looking for any weird, out of place murders that have happened which in turn will lead them to Damon and Enzo.
They come across the names of two women who have been killed in North Carolina: Sarah Nelson McGowan and Sarah Jane Nelson. Stefan lets them know Enzo has left them another clue. There is another Sarah Nelson who lives in North Carolina, only her real name is Sarah Salvatore. She’s the last living Salvatore (who Damon doesn’t even know exists). They have to get to her before Damon does.
It would seem that they’re too late as Enzo and Damon have already tracked down Sarah. Of course, Sarah is shocked to see Enzo. She’s even more shocked when he introduces his friend — Damon Salvatore. She vervains Damon and Enzo tells her that she needs to leave town now! They go back to her apartment to pack up her things and find Stefan and Bonnie already there.
Bonnie seems to think this can be a happy reunion. She doesn’t understand why Enzo won’t just run away, even though he repeatedly tells her he can’t. It’s not safe for him to get too close to Bonnie. The more specific thoughts he has, the more in tune the siren is with him psychically — and she will eliminate the thing keeping him from fully letting go.
If he won’t willingly leave with her then she will take him by force. She vervains Enzo and attempts to drive out of town. Before they get too far Enzo starts screaming in pain. The siren is calling him back. His mind is bonded to hers. Bonnie says she isn’t going to let him out of her sight, that she can’t lose him again. He tells her she never lost him. She begs him to stay. He says she has to let him go.
The Siren Finds Damon’s Weakness
Meanwhile, Damon has recovered from being vervained. He attacks Caroline, steals her daylight ring, and breaks her phone in order to make his way to Sarah. He’s about to take a bite out of her neck when Stefan says that he can’t kill her because she is a part of their family. Damon hesitates. Stefan tells him he has to let her walk away, it’s what Elena would want. It appears like he is going to let her go. She opens the front door to run away and is met with a knife to the cut, stabbed by the siren.
Stefan breaks the siren’s neck in an attempt to buy time to save Sarah, but the siren is too strong. She quickly recovers and compels Stefan not to move. The siren is intrigued now. She heard Damon and Stefan’s conversation. She asks, “Who’s Elena?” She realizes she doesn’t have the full control over Damon she thought she had. He isn’t offering any answers so she looks into his mind. He goes to the same scene; the first time he meets Elena in the middle of the street. The siren knows how to fix this little problem. She replaces Elena with herself in Damon’s memory and introduces herself as Sybil. Stefan remains compelled unable to move. Damon is completely lost to Sybil. And Sarah dies.
Bonnie has a Breakdown
Bonnie makes her way back to the apartment. She finds Caroline struggling after being staked in the back. She admits that she screwed up, she shouldn’t have taken Enzo. Bonnie tells Caroline that Enzo isn’t safe. He’s still under the siren’s mind control and she had to let him go back to her. Caroline is annoyed that after it’s all said and done, Enzo isn’t safe and Sarah is dead.
Bonnie didn’t follow the plan. She explains she had a plan of her own. She had a plan to grow old with Enzo, to live the kind of life that Caroline and Stefan have. It sounds super petty until Bonnie really explains what she’s been feeling. When she sees Caroline and Stefan together and happy, it makes her feel so alone that she wants to die. Whoa! That took an unexpected, sharp turn.
Caroline tells Bonnie she’s not alone. Caroline has a classic Caroline moment. She realizes she has been caught up in herself and hasn’t been the kind of friend Bonnie needs right now. It really is a nice moment. She swears they’re going to find Enzo together, and then they will go back to their normal, crazy lives. She says Bonnie’s happiness is a part of her happiness — always.
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Alaric has been doing some research with Georgie, an intern at the armory. He is going through some old books and comes across a familiar date, 1790. He goes to the archive room. There he discovers a shipment from Mystic Falls that arrived on that date. The artifact dates back all the way to 2200 BC. The log book also reveals a mysterious symbol. Georgie sees the symbol and runs out of the room.
Alaric eventually catches up to her and asks what happened. She has seen that symbol before, it’s tattooed on her hip, and it represents hell. She says she knows because she has seen it before — when she died.
One night she drove her friend home from a party. She had been drinking, texting and driving when she crashed. She remembers waking up in an “intense awareness of pain, loneliness and fear.” She knew in that moment she had killed her best friend, and she knew what she was feeling was going to last forever. She knew she was in hell. She remembers seeing the symbol there too. The EMTs were able to revive her.
She was sentenced to one year for vehicular manslaughter which granted her a lot of time to spend in the library. She researched everything she could about the symbol and hell. Georgie is actually surprised when Alaric doesn’t think she’s crazy. He is excited about having someone who has firsthand knowledge of what they’re dealing with.
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One Final Question
Back at Salvatore Mansion, after a long, hard day of not saving people, Stefan seems sadder than ever. He is the last Salvatore standing. Every blood relative he has ever had is gone. He blames himself for either directly or indirectly murdering them. Caroline tells him that Damon isn’t gone. He can still be saved.
He takes Caroline upstairs to show her the room he has been remodeling. It’s a room for the twins to stay in whenever they come and visit. He also bought an antique dresser. Caroline is checking it out when she opens the drawer and finds a ring box.
She’s in shock,. Stefan says, “Caroline Elizabeth Forbes, will you do me the honor of wearing this engagement ring as a token of my love…” They kiss, and he finally finishes the question, “Will you marry me?” For a second it looks like she is going to say “no,” but in the end, she says “Yes!”
Bonnie and Enzo are a Love Story Too
Caroline and Stefan don’t get to have all of the steamy scenes. With Damon’s assistance, Sybil is finally able to get into Enzo’s head. She sees the scene where we left off earlier in the episode. Enzo is telling Bonnie she has to let him go. Bonnie tells him, “If you’re gonna leave, then leave – but I’m not going to watch you.” He grabs her arm, spins her around, and goes in for a hot goodbye kiss. He tells her he will never stop fighting.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below. It looks like things are going to start ramping up in the episodes ahead, after all there’s a wedding to plan!
The Vampire Diaries airs Fridays at 8/7c on The CW. Want more news? Like our Vampire Diaries Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of The CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
