Vampire Diaries recap: The Sacrifice

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Elena hears something in the house, and bumps into Jenna and Alaric, who are getting some ice cream after what looks to have been a pleasurable evening. Jenna is happy, and Elena is okay with the couple spending more time together. But there is someone else in the Gilbert house. It’s Luka’s dad, Jonas. He grabs a some jewelry and a picture of Elena, waits until she goes back to bed and leaves through the front door.

Stefan and Damon go to the tomb. They ask Katherine for the moonstone. She gives them an offer. She gives them the moonstone in return for letting her get out of the tomb and leaving Mystic Falls. She is bored and hungry.

Damon and Stefan go back to Elena’s house. They tell her that Slater, who is Rose’s friend, told them that there is a way can release the spell that binds the Petrova doppelganger to the moonstone. Elena doesn’t want them to do it. She is afraid that Klaus will kill them all, and she doesn’t want everyone risking their lives to save her.

Bonnie and Luka talk at school. Bonnie tells him that she is having a bad reaction to performing witchcraft, including nosebleeds. He asks her if she has ever channeled another witch to draw power from them. They use her necklace to channel their power together. They do a little hocus pocus and get a strong reaction. The wind causes leaves to blow all around them and they both look very pleased. Jeremy walks up, Luka leaves, and Bonnie acts defensive when Jeremy calls Luka weird. Bonnie answers her phone and it is Damon.

Elena goes to see Rose at the boarding house. Elena says that Rose owes them so she wants her to take her to see Slater. Rose realizes that Damon and Stefan wouldn’t approve of Elena doing this. Elena asks her if she would like to walk in the daylight, and of course Rose admits after 500 years she would.

Tyler shoots some hoops with Matt at school. Matt apologizes for picking a fight with Tyler and with what happened to Sara. Tyler accepts the apology. Caroline walks up to talk to Matt. He cuts their conversation short. Caroline goes to Tyler, and she offers to help him with his first transformation.

Bonnie tells Damon, Jeremy and Stefan about her plan to get into the tomb to get the moonstone. She asks for something that belongs to Katherine.

Elena and Rose go to see Slater, and they find him dead. They snoop through his apartment to see if they can find anything of use. They find a girl named Alice hiding.

Bonnie, Damon and Stefan take Kat’s old photo to perform a ritual to turn the metal to ash so that it will incapacitate her long enough so they can get the moonstone from her.

Meanwhile, Caroline and Tyler are traipsing through the woods on the old Lockwood property. They find an old diary that belonged to Mason. It chronicles everything that happened to him. They found an SD card in the diary.

Bonnie talks to Jeremy in the house after the ritual. She promises to him that she will be fine. He grabs some of the ashes while she is not looking.

At Slater’s apartment we find out that Alice is Slater’s girlfriend. She is a human who wants to be turned. Elena asks Alice for Slater’s computer password. She tells Alice that she will ask Rose to change her. Rose tells Elena that she is not getting her blood. Although the computer’s hard drive is wiped, there is a back up server. They find emails between Slater and Cody Weber. Elena says that she wants to get Cody the message that the doppelganger is alive and is ready to surrender. Rose says it is a suicide mission for her to sacrifice herself for her family.

Jeremy goes to see Katherine. He demands the moonstone. He uses the ash to get it. He looks for it on Katherine but it’s not there. He goes deeper into the tomb to get it but Kat wakes up and attacks Jeremy.

Rose calls Damon. Stefan and Bonnie go to the tomb. They see the moonstone and knows something is up. Jeremy apologizes for his plan.

Jonas cuts Elijah’s hand for a spell to search for Elena. As Elena looks out a window, she sees Elijah’s reflection in it. She turns around, startled when she realizes no one is there.

Bonnie still has some of the ash from Katherine’s picture, and she says that she and Stefan can still get Jeremy out of the tomb. She uses Luka’s energy to help her for the spell to allow Stefan passage.

Tyler and Caroline take the card that they found and watch the video diary of Mason to see the measures he took to save others from his transformation. Tyler is distraught by seeing Mason’s pain.

Damon goes to get Elena from Slater‘s apartment. She doesn’t want to be saved, but Damon isn’t taking no for an answer. Moment of intensity when their strong wills come to a boiling point…He tells her to never do that again.

Bonnie causes Luka extreme pain from using him for the spell. Luka tells his dad that he showed her how to channel his power, and that he was doing what he asked when he told him to get close to Bonnie. Luka and Bonnie both pass out. Bonnie wakes up and realizes she can’t do the spell. Stefan jumps in the tomb to get Jeremy out, and it causes him to be stuck in there with Katherine.

Tyler questions Caroline why she cares so much. She says she was alone during her first change into a vampire and she killed someone. She doesn’t want Tyler to be alone. The doorbell rings. It’s Matt. They are happy to see each other, but then Tyler comes to the door too, and Matt looks sad.

Cody and a couple of his guys come to get Elena. Damon tells Elena he will break her arm is she goes to them. Elijah shows up. Cody explains to him that she is the Petrova doppelganger. Elijah thanks him for being useful and kills Cody and his sidekick. He then runs out the door, and Rose takes off, too.

Elijah is back at the Martins. He tells Jonas that he had a run in with Damon. He says that Elena will be safe with Damon, and that is what he needs right now, is for her to be safe.

Jeremy and Bonnie get home. They argue about what happened. Bonnie tells Jeremy that he can’t have feelings for her. He says him almost dying is a chance he was willing to take. They almost kiss. She says she can’t and walks out the door.

Damon takes Elena home. Damon tells Elena she was incredibly stupid for trying to sacrifice herself, but Elena doesn’t really care. Jeremy tells them about Stefan. Elena goes to the tomb with Damon tagging along, and Damon won’t let her go into the tomb to be with Stefan.

“Of all the idiot plans, Stefan”, Damon says, after he once again matched wills with Elena and made her leave.

Stefan asks that Damon promise that he will protect Elena. He promises and then leaves. Katherine tells Stefan, “ that right there was the biggest mistake you’ll ever make.’

In the preview for the next episode: Stefan and Elena get steamy, and Damon has Elena all to himself.

So are you a Team Damon or Team Stefan? Do you think that Luka will ultimately help Bonnie? Will Stefan betray Elena by sleeping with Katherine? Leave your comments on the episode and what you hope happens next.

The Vampire Diaries 101: Your Guide to Season 2 (so far)

To get you caught up on all things related to The Vampire Diaries, my last blog entry focused on the overall premise of the show and a summarized bite-by-bite of Season 1. In this post we delve head first into Season 2, which we are smack in the middle of right now.

[caption id="attachment_1198" align="alignright" width="196" caption="Ian as Boone Carlyle on LOST"][/caption]

Just as an aside before we tackle the episodes of Season 2, I want to quickly share the importance of why fans of LOST would enjoy this show. First of all, when the cast of TVD was announced, I was thrilled (yes, I did a happy dance) when I found out that Ian Somerhalder was cast as the dashing, tortured and often mischievous (one might call him evil, but I won't go there) Damon Salvatore. Damon is the older brother of the brooding love of Elena, Stefan Salvatore. Most of us Losties know Ian as Boone Carlyle, who was the brother of Shannon and was sadly sacrificed for the sake of the Island by Locke in Season 1 of LOST. I will admit that initially the only reason I was sucked into the world of LOST was because of Ian's character. (I watched in reruns in the summer after the first season). When Boone was killed off the show, I was crushed, and for a while after, I had a hard time watching the show without being really mad. That was 2004. Flash forward to 2009, and Ian is now a member of the undead on TVD. Kind of fitting after all that happened on LOST, huh?

Anyway, in an interview regarding his character on TVD, Ian once said that he looked to Josh Holloway and his portrayal of James "Sawyer" Ford as inspiration for Damon. In my estimation, Damon and Sawyer do have quite a few similarities.Because I was have always been a big Sawyer fan, I enjoy Damon's sarcastic quips, his nicknames for others and the fact that on the other side of that high wall that Damon built to protect himself from hurt, there is a person that is loyal to the ones he loves the most and will protect Elena when all hell breaks loose. Also on the show is several flashbacks of events that happen and now they even have an online interactive game, The Vampire Diaries: Bloodlines Revealed, that goes along with the events from the second season. It give clips of what is to come in this season as well as giving the player a chance to get a deeper look into the TVD world and its characters.

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Along with the great actors on the show, the music of The Vampire Diaries is just as amazing. Harking on the same dark themes as the music of the Twilight saga, The Vampire Diaries soundtrack gleans from artists like Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Gorillaz, and Bat for Lashes to deliver the raw emotions of love, betrayal and teenage angst that make TVD so popular.

Having said all that, here's what you need to know about TVD Season 2:

"The Return": In the Season 2 opener, Elena walks into the kitchen to find John stabbed.  Katherine cut the ring off John's finger so that he would not survive the wound. Elena calls 911 and goes up to check on Jeremy. Stefan arrives. Stefan talks to Jeremy and explains that if Jeremy tries to kill himself that he would die. Meanwhile, Bonnie, Damon and Elena go to the hospital to check on Caroline's condition. Sheriff Forbes and Matt wait to find out if Caroline will survive the car accident. Bonnie, Damon and Elena decide that Caroline needs Damon's blood so she will heal faster. Damon confronts Elena about their kiss.  Elena does not remember any of what Damon is describing. Damon is the first to realize that Katherine has returned and is now impersonating Elena. At the Lockwoods' house, Bonnie meets Katherine and a short fight ensues - Stefan breaks it up. Both Stefan and Damon try to find out what Katherine wants, why she's back, and how much of a threat she is to the people they love. Tyler is surprised when his uncle, Mason Lockwood, arrives in town to console him. Katherine tells Damon that she never loved him and that it was always Stefan. Distraught, Damon goes to see Elena. Angry when he discovers that Elena also loves Stefan, Damon attempts to kill Jeremy, who survives because he is wearing John's ring which protects him from death from supernatural forces. Katherine later goes to the hospital to see Caroline, who mistakes her for Elena. Katherine asks Caroline to give the Salvatore brothers a message, before grabbing a pillow and smothering her with it. Before Caroline dies, Katherine delivers her message - "Game on."

"Brave New World" - Newly-turned vampire Caroline awakens in the hospital, craving blood, and begins to realize what she is. Mason quizzes Tyler about his bursts of anger. Elena and Stefan try to lead normal lives, unaware of Caroline's transformation. Jeremy confronts Damon. Tyler catches Mason searching for a family moonstone, which Mason claims he wants for sentimental value. At the carnival, Damon compels Carter (whom Bonnie likes) into picking a fight with Tyler to provoke his rage. Mason intervenes and breaks up the fight with his superhuman jumping ability and strength, suggesting that he is indeed a werewolf. Caroline arrives from the hospital to confront Damon, who realizes that she has been turned. He alerts Elena and Stefan, as a ravenous Caroline attacks and drains Carter. Damon wants to kill Caroline, but Elena and Stefan refuse; Stefan promises Caroline he'll help her. The vampire-hating Bonnie is horrified to learn what has become of Caroline, and what she did to Carter. This causes Bonnie to lash out at Damon and almost kill him. Tyler confronts Mason back at home, but Mason denies anything happened. This leads Tyler to take matters into his own hands and retrieve the moonstone which Mason has been seeking. Matt notices Caroline's erratic behavior, but admits that he loves her.

"Bad Moon Rising' - Elena, Damon, and Alaric head to Isobel's old office at Duke University to do research on Katherine and the Lockwood family secret; they encounter Isobel's research assistant, Vanessa, who helps them locate information on werewolves and their relationship to vampires. Stefan stays behind to help Caroline adjust to life as a vampire, which includes teaching her how to control herself and hunt animals, and having a reluctant Bonnie make her a daylight ring. Meanwhile, Mason's plan to restrain himself during the full moon hits a snag, leading him to roam free as a werewolf, and come into contact with both Stefan and Caroline. Tyler saves them by shouting at the werewolf, causing it to run away; he later finds Mason in the woods, naked and covered in dirt, and connects the dots. Caroline cannot control herself while making out with Matt, and ends up feeding on him. She compels him to forget about it, but later ends up intentionally causing him to break up with her to keep him safe from herself. Damon gives Elena Katherine's real name (Katerina Petrova) to aid in her research, but Elena still refuses to forgive him for everything he's done. Alaric reaffirms his romantic interest in Jenna. Caroline awakens to find Katherine in her bedroom.

"Memory Lane" - Stefan and Elena are left without options after Katherine delivers an ultimatum. Katherine tells Stefan that she will kill everyone in Elena's life unless they get back together, but Stefan still refuses. Katherine then tells him she will kill Elena too. Stefan attacks her, which causes her to break free from the chains he has been using to hold her. But Katherine tells Stefan that she has been drinking a bit of vervain for the last 145 years and has developed an immunity to it. She stabs Stefan when Elena turns up at the house - after leaving Caroline who was attempting to break Stefan and Elena up - they both meet and Katherine said Elena was asking the wrong questions. Throughout the episode Damon tries to get Mason to touch anything silver. Mason realizes this and decides to call a truce. They shake hands, but Damon has other plans. Damon corners him in the parking lot and stabs him with a silver knife, which backfires when Mason says its all a myth and that they are now enemies. As she watches the full moon rise, Katherine remembers what happened back in 1864, after Stefan and Damon had been both shot in an attempt to save her. She goes to Stefan and kisses him, and later says that she'll be back for him, and that she loves him. Stefan and Elena pretend that they are no longer dating so that Katherine won't hurt anybody. They "break up" within earshot of Caroline and Damon.

"Kill or Be Killed" - Elena and Stefan continue their fighting facade. At the Mystic Falls picnic, Mason Lockwood tells Liz, the sheriff, that Stefan and Damon are vampires. He proves it by spiking Damon's cup of lemonade with vervain, causing him to choke after taking a sip. Next, Stefan and Damon are set up and shot by Liz and her fellow police officers. Meanwhile, Caroline listens and fills Elena in. They have a short run-in with Mason, during which Caroline fights him off easily. They get to the brothers just in time before Liz kills them; however, Caroline's identity as a vampire is exposed. Liz rejects Caroline as her daughter and Stefan drinks Elena's blood for strength. Caroline confesses to Elena that Katherine threatened to kill Matt if Caroline didn't spy on Elena and Stefan for her. Tyler almost kills a girl by accidentally pushing her down the stairs. After this incident, he gives up the moonstone to Mason. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Mason is working for Katherine (who wants the moonstone) and they are lovers.

"Plan B" - Elena and Stefan wake up together in her bed and frolic around, while the camera splits between them and Katherine and Mason, who are also making out in a bed elsewhere. Jeremy goes to see Damon and offers to help get rid of Katherine. Preparations get underway for the masquerade ball at the Lockwood mansion and Damon and Stefan ask Bonnie to help them apprehend Mason. Caroline tries to bond with her mother and later compels her to forget that her daughter is a vampire. Bonnie agrees to help the Salvatore brothers. Bonnie then incapacitates Mason by giving him an aneurysm - he is kidnapped by Damon. Damon tortures Mason, who believes that Katherine loves him. Bonnie has a vision of the moonstone hidden in a well. Stefan searches for it but quickly discovers the well to be full of vervain and screams for help. Caroline and Bonnie arrive, and help Elena to rescue Stefan and retrieve the moonstone. Damon kills Mason and tells Katherine of his death. Jenna is found to have been compelled by Katherine and is forced to stab herself as Katherine taunts Elena via a phone call. Elena decides to break up with Stefan for good. Needing another werewolf, Katherine compels Matt to attack Tyler, so Tyler will trigger the curse.



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"Masquerade" -



Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Jeremy, Alaric, and Caroline team up and form a plan to kill Katherine at the masquerade ball. Jenna returns home from the hospital, and Alaric agrees to keep an eye on Elena while the others carry out their plan. Katherine is visited by a witch named Lucy, who is to help her retrieve the moonstone from Stefan and Damon. At the ball, Katherine pretends to be Elena and threatens to kill partygoers if she doesn't get the moonstone. Bonnie intuitively realizes that Lucy is a witch. Matt, Tyler, and a girl named Sara are drinking and partying in a room at the ball when Matt- under Katherine's compulsion- begins taunting Tyler about his father and tries to fight him. Caroline hears them and breaks up the fight, but Sara- who is also being compelled- stabs Tyler with a knife, and he accidentally slams her into a desk, killing her. His eyes turn yellow, showing that the curse has been triggered. Stefan and Damon trap Katherine in a room that Bonnie has spelled to prevent Katherine from leaving it. Meanwhile, Elena becomes suspicious and goes to the ball to investigate. Jeremy and Bonnie tell her what's going on. Stefan and Damon try to kill Katherine, staking her several times, but stop when Jeremy comes running and tells them that every time they stake her, Elena is severely wounded too. Katherine reveals that she had Lucy put a spell on her and Elena, linking them together. Bonnie confronts Lucy and demands that she lift the Katherine/Elena spell. Lucy does so and incapacitates Katherine, who collapses. It is revealed that Lucy is Bonnie's cousin. Elena recovers from her wounds but refuses to get back with Stefan, saying she wants to feel that she and her family are safe first. Damon traps Katherine in the underground tomb. Before he seals the tomb, she pleads with him, saying that Elena is in danger, but he walks away. As Elena heads home, she is intercepted by a masked stranger, who grabs her and covers her mouth while she screams.

"Rose" - Elena's kidnapper brings her, unconscious, to a vacant lot off the highway, where she is transported to the backseat of an unnamed vampire's SUV. Jeremy realizes Elena didn't come home last night and tells Stefan. Elena is taken to a large, abandoned house by her captor, who is named Trevor. Another vampire named Rose appears, who tells her to stay quiet. At school, Tyler deals with the aftermath of Sara's death. He attempts to get Caroline to tell him what she knows about his abilities, and she eventually reveals that she is a vampire, but doesn't tell him about Stefan and Damon and swears him to secrecy. Elena overhears Rose and Trevor, who are seem to be arguing about a vampire named Elijah and whether or not to go through with a plan. Using Jeremy's blood, Bonnie finds Elena's location with a spell. Stefan and Damon set off to find her, 300 miles away. At the house, Elena tries to get information out of Rose, who tells her Elijah is one of 'the originals', and that they are using Elena, who is a Petrova doppelganger and the key to breaking the curse, as a bargaining position. Trevor reveals that he is the one who helped Katherine escape her fate, and he and Rose have been running from the originals ever since. Elijah arrives, and Rose offers him Elena in exchange for their pardon. Elijah agrees, but decides to kill Trevor. Elena tries to stall Elijah, saying she knows where the moonstone is, but he rips off her vervain necklace and compels her to tell him its and Katherine's location. Stefan and Damon arrive, fight with Elijah and stake him. Rose finds Stefan and tells him the originals will come for Elena; that they are doing it for Klaus. Elena returns home and is reunited with Bonnie and Jeremy. Later, Damon comes to her room with her vervain necklace. Before he gives it back, he tells Elena he loves her but that he doesn't deserve her and can't be selfish about her. He then compels Elena to forget what he has said and leaves. Back in the abandoned house, Elijah slowly pulls the wooden stake out and lets it drop.

"Katerina" - We see Katherine give birth in a flashback. The episode begins in Bulgaria in 1490. She asks to hold the baby but her father says that Katherine has shamed their family enough and takes the baby away, leaving Katherine sobbing. In current time, Elena goes to see Stefan, meeting Damon at the door. She sees Rose, and their is a discussion about Klaus, the oldest known vampire. Meanwhile, Bonnie meets a warlock named Luka, which makes Jeremy jealous.

Elena decides to skip school to go to the church to see Katherine. Caroline tags  along, and Elena implores that Caroline not tell Stefan about it. Caroline opens the church door for Elena. Elena explains in flashbacks that the baby given away because it was born out of wedlock. Elena was then banished to England. She met a nobleman named Klaus there. She found out what he wanted from her and decided to run away. A group of men come looking for her. Trevor was the one who comes to her rescue because he is in love with her.

A dopplegänger from the Petrova line can be used to break the curse. Elena, as Katherine's descendant, is the current Petrova dopplegänger. Katherine came back to Mystic Falls to offer Klaus what he needed to break the curse: the dopplegänger (Elena), the moonstone, a witch (Bonnie), a werewolf (first Mason, then Tyler), and a vampire (Caroline).
Flashback, Rose is in England. Elena runs to her because Trevor tells her to do it. Rose does not want to help

[caption id="attachment_13431" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Slater tells Rose and Damon what he knows about Klaus. Quantrell D. Colbert/The CW ©2010 THE CW NETWORK."][/caption]

her and pushes her out the door. Rose and Damon go to see a guy named Slater. Rose is older and stronger than him. Slater seems to  know all about Damon. Back to Elena and Kat in the Church. Flashback… Rose has a change of heart. Rose give Elena blood. Trevor shows up and says he loves Kat. Kat hangs herself. Kat offers to make Elena a vampire. In flashback, She became a vampire to escape Klaus and incriminated Trevor and Rose in the process, thus causing Elijah and the originals to hunt them for the next five hundred years. Caroline and Stefan are at a restaurant eating. They have a bff moment. He says she reminds him of Lexi.
Bonnie talks to Luka and is introduced to, his dad. They came from Louisiana. Jonas asked her if she has relatives from Salem. She says yes. Awkward moment.  Damon, Slater and Rose talk about Trevor. Craig’s List is the way to get in touch with Klaus, through Elijah, who Slater and the others thinks is dead. However, he’s undead again. He has one of the rings on. Meanwhile, Caroline won’t tell Stefan where Elena is, no matter how hard he tries. Also, Katherine had Mason to find the moonstone all in the hopes of taking Elena to Klaus, along with Mason, Caroline and Bonnie. Kat says that Elena is correct. Explosion!!!!! But who is to blame??? Damon demands answers from Rose. She insists it’s Klaus.
Luka comes up to talk to Bonnie. His dad picked up on her powers. Come to find out, they are both witches (ahem, I mean warlock).
Back at the church, Stefan finds Elena at the church. Stefan said that Kat is a liar.
In flashback: 1492 - Kat rides up on a horse at her house. People are dead. Kat starts running. All of Kat’s family is dead.

Back in present day, Katherine tells Elena that she is the safest one in the town because no vampire will enter into the tomb. They would never be able to get out.
Damon looks sad. Rose apologizes for the day. He says he will save Elena. Rose said that Damon reminds her of Trevor. To survive, she says he needs to flip the switch on his emotions. Damon and Rose sleep together. BOOOO!
Katherine looks at a sketch of her and her parents. She tears up. Maybe she has some emotion after all.
Rose (after doing the deed with Damon) says that you can’t turn off the switch. Slater calls and he’s okay. He said that the curse can be destroyed. Come to find out, Elijah had COMPELLED Slater. He then tells Slater to stake himself. And he does…… ouch.
And we also find out that Luka's dad is working for Elijah. EEEEEEEK!!

The Vampire Diaries 101: Your guide to Season 1

Welcome to the world of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Population: vampires, werewolves and witches, oh my! It's a world of love triangles, betrayal and vampire revenge. If you haven't watched a single episode of The Vampire Diaries, here's your chance to get caught up on one of the most popular TV shows on right now.

To begin your Vampire Diaries education, the first thing you need to know is The Vampire Diaries was originally created as a book series by the New York Times #1 best selling author L.J. Smith. There have been six major novels and two companion books written in the series, and the seventh novel, The Return: Midnight, is set to be released in March 2011. But if you have read these novels and not seen the TV show, viewer be warned: it is quite a bit different to the books. Not that the changes have been worse, but I can say that I still Twitter scream from time to time, "That's not what they do in the book!" I have learned, however, that the TV series, now in the middle of its second season,  is just as good as the books, thanks in major part to the genius of writers/producers Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek, Scream) and Julie Plec (Kyle XY, Scream). With all this said, let's dig in to the series!

Season 1:

Pilot: We follow the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and her brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) who are trying to get over the death of their parents. They continue to live in the house they grew up in, and their aunt Jenna (Sara Canning) has become their primary guardian. Elena goes back to school to capture the attention of a new student, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). All of Elena's friends are abuzz with gossip about the new boy, but it's Elena's ex-boyfriend Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig) and her rival Caroline Forbes (Candice Accola) who are the only ones who don't seem to get that Stefan has paid more interest in Elena than the rest of the school girls. Matt's sister Vicki (Kayla Ewell) is bitten by what everyone thinks to be an animal, however we soon find out that Stefan is a vampire. Stefan does not drink the blood of humans, but rather feeds of forest creatures (poor little squirrels). With this "animal" attack, Stefan realizes that his older, and rather devious vampire brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is back in town.  The two brothers had not seen each other in 15 years.

To make it easier to consume this massive first season, here's a cram session I compiled from Wikipedia.

"The Night of the Comet":

• Mystic Falls celebrates the passing of a comet


• Vicki recuperates in the hospital from her injuries caused by a vampire.


• Stefan tries to use his abilities to erase Vicki's attacker from her memory, but is interrupted by Matt.


• Mr. Tanner tells Jenna tells that she is doing a bad job of taking care of teenagers based on the signs he is seeing in Jeremy.


• Elena and Damon meet for the first time at the Salvatore house.


• Elena and Stefan kiss.


• Damon takes Caroline as his next victim.

"Friday Night Bites":

• Elena invites Stefan and Bonnie to dinner so that they can get to know each other better.


• At school, Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) tries to make a fool out of Stefan by throwing a football at him, but Stefan catches it and passes it back.


• Stefan joins the football team.


• During dinner, Damon and Caroline unexpectedly show up.


• Elena "invites" him into her house.


• Stefan gives Elena a necklace filled with vervain, a plant that weakens vampires, to  protect her from Damon.


• Stefan tries to tell Damon that he still has some humanity left in him.


• Damon attacks and kills Mr. Tanner just to prove him wrong.

"Family Ties":

• Elena and Stefan go to the town's annual Founders' Party, hosted by Tyler's parents.


• Damon tells Elena about the history of the Salvatores after Stefan tries to cut Damon out of his life.


• Damon also retrieves an amber crystal from one of the historical artifacts in the Lockwood Estate.


• Stefan uses Caroline as a vessel to poison Damon.


• When Damon sucks Caroline's blood, he falls ill (dang that vervain!).


• Caroline wakes up, sees the amber crystal and puts it in her purse.


• Stefan locks up a weakened Damon at the Salvatore property.


• The Founders Council, including Mayor Lockwood (Tyler's father), Carol Lockwood (Tyler's mother), Sheriff Forbes (Caroline's mother), and Logan Fell, have come to the conclusion that vampires have returned to Mystic Falls due to the drained bodies, and must retrieve a pocket watch that belongs to the Gilbert family.


• In the end, Vicki goes to Jeremy and they go to the bedroom.

"You're Undead to Me":

• Damon grows weaker


• Jeremy's and Vicki's relationship grows stronger.


• Bonnie discovers more about her powers.


• Logan has dinner in the Gilberts' house which leads to his stealing the pocket watch.


• Elena finds out from a stranger that Stefan eerily resembles somebody named Stefan Salvatore he knew in 1953.


• Elena questions who Stefan really is.


• Damon uses his connection with Caroline to free himself and later feeds on Vicki.

"Lost Girls":

• Stefan tells Elena that in 1864, that he and Damon loved a woman named Katherine, who then turned them into vampires.


• Damon spends the day trapped inside the Salvatore Boarding House with Vicki. They feed off of each other and he changes her into a vampire.


• Stefan discovers  Vicki and attempts to persuade her to die instead of completing the transformation into a vampire by feeding on human blood.


• Logan uses the pocket watch that tracks down vampires and finds Stefan and Vicki in the woods.


• Logan shoots Stefan with a wooden bullet, thinking Stefan was attacking Vicki.


• Damon saves Stefan by attacking Logan.


• Vicki is overcome by the hunger and feeds on Logan, completing her transformation.


• Stefan tells Elena that Vicki has become a vampire, and Elena decides to keep his secrets, but not without ending their relationship.

"Haunted"

• Stefan tries to help Vicki deal with her urge to feed, but is unable to control her.


• Caroline gives Bonnie the amber crystal which Damon took from the Founder's Party.


• At a Halloween party, Vicki attacks Jeremy and Elena, and Stefan stakes her through the heart, killing her.


• Stefan swears Elena to secrecy so she won't tell Matt and Jeremy what really happened to Vicki.


• Elena asks Stefan to use his powers to make sure her brother does not remember what happened. When Stefan tells her he is unsure of it working effectively, Damon volunteers to "take away his suffering."

"162 Candles"

• An old vampire friend of Stefan's arrives in Mystic Falls, the 350-year-old Lexi.


• Lexi makes Elena realize the value of love, and helps her to take the first step towards renewing a relationship with Stefan.


• Jeremy stops doing drugs and putting off homework after Damon alters his memory of Vicki's death. E


• Elena asks Damon if there is anything else that he did to her brother but all Damon says is that he "removed the suffering".


• Damon gives a box of vervain to Sheriff Forbes and she reveals to him all of the vampire hunters in town.


• Damon frames Lexi for the death of a local boy by altering his girlfriend's memory and changing her testimony.


• The police apprehend Lexi. Outside the bar, Damon stakes Lexi and kills her before she can attack the sheriff.


• Stefan takes off and attacks Damon, but stops short of killing him. He spares Damon's life to repay Damon for saving him from Logan.


• While wearing the amber crystal Bonnie has a nightmare and she wakes up in a cemetery.

"History Repeating"

• A new history teacher arrives, Alaric Saltzman, to replace Mr. Tanner.


• Jeremy notices his ring, which resembles one worn by vampires.


• Jeremy introduces his new teacher to Jenna, who then becomes infatuated with Alaric.


• Alaric asks Jenna to invite him into her home, but she refuses after realizing Jeremy is there.


• When Bonnie is having dreams about her ancestor Emily, the girls decide to hold a séance, enabling Emily to possess Bonnie.


• Damon reveals the reason he really came back to Mystic Falls: to resurrect Katherine with the help of the crystal that Katherine gave to Emily on her last day alive.


• Stefan tries to stop Damon, knowing that it'll cause a disaster in Mystic Falls due to the fact that all the vampires held in old Fell's Church were burned to death by the townspeople, and that they would take their revenge on an innocent generation of townspeople.


• On her way to the ruins of old Fell's Church, Damon greets Emily and reminds her about the deal they made a century and a half ago. Damon will protect Emily's line and Emily will protect Katherine. Damon goes for the crystal, and Emily uses her power to throw him up to the branch of a tree. Then Emily performs the ritual to destroy the crystal and thwarts Damon's plan. Emily releases Bonnie from possession. Furious Damon attacks Bonnie, but Stefan saves her by making her drink his blood. Bonnie is frightened of Stefan until Elena reveals everything to her.


• Matt continues to be there for Caroline when she needs it.


• Logan returns into the picture as a vampire instead of a corpse at Elena's house, and he tries to get Jenna to invite him in.

"The Turning Point"

• Jeremy decides to return to his hobby of sketching fantasy creatures that he had stopped upon the death of his parents.


• Logan attacks and kills several people throughout the town.


• Matt and Caroline continue to hang out together. He tells Tyler that he likes hanging out with Caroline.


• Sheriff Forbes tells Damon of a new recent attack, and he discovers Logan doesn't know who turned him.


• Alaric helps with a small dispute among Jeremy, Tyler and Mayor Lockwood.


• Logan kidnaps Caroline after a dispute with the sheriff, but Stefan and Damon save her.


• Logan tells Damon he knows of another way to resurrect Katherine.


• Elena tells Stefan that she loves him and he decides to stay in Mystic Falls.


• Stefan and Elena sleep together. But when Stefan goes to get a drink for Elena, she discovers the photo of Katherine and leaves his house abruptly, leaving her vervain necklace behind with the photo.


• Alaric confronts Logan and tells him to leave Jenna alone. Logan tries to attack him, but gets staked and dies.


• Elena is involved in a car crash while trying to avoid a man in the middle of the road, but realizes that the man is more than human. A stranger approaches the car and Elena screams.

"Bloodlines"

• Damon's arrival causes the mysterious stranger to flee, and Damon frees Elena from her overturned car.


• Damon brings Elena with him to Georgia to see Bree, a witch and an old flame of Damon's, hoping she can help open the tomb to free Katherine.


• Bree calls Lee, Lexi's boyfriend (as Lexi was her friend), who wants revenge on Damon.


• Elena saves Damon, and he kills Bree after she tells him to find Emily's spellbook.


• Stefan opens up to Bonnie's grandma in an attempt to help Bonnie come to terms with her new power.


• Jeremy meets Anna, who knows the true past of Mystic Falls.


• When Elena and Damon return, Stefan reveals that he saved Elena from the crash that killed her parents. Stefan also tells Elena that her parents adopted her, but knows nothing more about her parentage. He claims his love to Elena and she forgives him.


• Alaric sits at the Mystic Grill bar and recognizes Damon as the vampire who killed his wife.

"Unpleasantville"

• The vampire that has been stalking Elena knew Katherine and he is killed by the Salvatore brothers.


• Before dying he reveals that the way to get into the tomb lies in Gilbert's journal.


• While Jenna and Alaric are walking home from the party, Alaric tells Jenna that his wife was named Isobel, the same name as Elena's birth mother.


• Anna keeps on trying to get close to Jeremy, because she wants to get her hands on his ancestor's journal.


• At the end of the episode, it is revealed that both Anna and Ben are vampires and appear to be romantically involved with each other.

"Children of the Damned"

• The episode begins with a flashback of Katherine and Damon in 1864. Katherine stops a carriage and attacks and feeds on the people in it. Katherine and Damon kiss.The scene fades to Damon interrupting Elena and Stefan in bed. Damon reminds them he can be trusted then leaves. The scene fades to Damon and Katherine in 1864.


• In flashbacks, Stefan and Damon recall the long-ago actions taken by townspeople, including their father, Giuseppe Salvatore, leading to the devastating events that caused the rift in their relationship.


• In the present, Bonnie’s date with Ben takes a frightening turn when she discovers Ben is a vampire.


• Elena helps Stefan as he and Damon race to find the missing journal that belonged to Elena’s ancestor.


• Stefan learns the reason behind Alaric’s interest in both the journal and the town’s history and that the way into the tomb is in the Grimoire.


• Stefan got a photocopy of the journal that Alaric had made.


• Stefan and Elena go to Giuseppe Salvatore's grave to find Emily's spell book.


• Jeremy's friend Anna is revealed to be the daughter of Pearl, one of the vampires trapped in the tomb beneath the ruins of old Fell's Church.


• Damon takes the journal from her and goes to his father's grave.


• Damon finds Elena and Stefan there after they dig the Grimoire up from his father's grave. Damon takes the book.


• Stefan brings Elena home and goes down stairs to get her some aspirin.


• He learns that Jeremy has Anna over. Stefan recognizes the name and runs upstairs to find Elena gone.

"Fool Me Once"

• Elena wakes to find that she and Bonnie have been kidnapped by Anna and Ben.


• Stefan has been trying to find her and asks Damon for help, but he refuses.


• With help from Grams, Stefan eventually saves Elena and Bonnie.


• Stefan later ends up killing Ben for not obeying his order to leave town.


• Jeremy asks Anna to a party in the woods, unaware that she has her own reasons for wanting to meet him there.


• With the help of Bonnie and Grams, the tomb is opened and Damon realizes that Katherine is not inside.


• Anna enters the tomb to find her mother Pearl and helps her escape by having her feed on Elena's blood.


• Stefan warns Damon that the seal of the tomb has only been temporarily broken, and Elena helps them both escape in order to not be sealed in forever.


• Out of the tomb, Elena sees how upset Damon is and comforts him.


• Damon afterward confronts Anna and Pearl, and learns that a smitten church guard had let Katherine go, and she was never inside the tomb.Anna admits to having seen Katherine in Chicago in 1983, but she was indifferent regarding Damon.


• At home, Bonnie checks on Grams, but finds that she has died from the strain back at the tomb.


• The episode ends with one of the vampires escaping from the tomb.

"A Few Good Men"

• Harper, the vampire who escaped from the tomb, kills a man in the woods and steals his clothes.


• Matt and Caroline are surprised by the sudden reappearance of Matt’s mother Kelly.


• Stefan and Elena are worried about Damon’s new attitude.


• Damon is asked by Sheriff Forbes to take part in a fund-raising bachelor auction and asks the Sheriff for information on Alaric.


• Alaric discovers that his wife Isobel was Elena's biological mother, and was turned into a vampire by Damon at her own request.He confronts Damon, and the confrontation ends when Damon stabs Alaric to death with a stake. However, Alaric comes back to life, saved by a mysterious ring that Isobel gave him.


• Elena is determined to find out everything she can about her birth mother, but encounters warnings -- possibly from Isobel herself -- to stay away. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Harper will be staying with Anna and Pearl.

"There Goes the Neighborhood"

• Anna pays a visit to Damon, bringing along her mother Pearl, who wants to take control of the town.


• All the vampires in the tomb have been released, and most are staying at an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town.


• Pearl offers to help Damon find Katherine if he helps her out, but the visit turns violent when he turns her down.


• Anna arrives unexpectedly at Jeremy's house. Jeremy cuts his hand to tempt Anna, who then sucks his blood, but is interrupted by Jenna.


• Elena, Stefan, Caroline, and Matt go on an awkward double date to Mystic Grill where Frederick, a now-freed vampire from the tomb, mistakes Elena for Katherine.


• Kelly, Jenna, and Damon have some drinks at the bar, but Jenna leaves when things start heating up between Damon and Kelly.


• Frederick and his girlfriend Bethanne, who blame the Salvatore brothers for their entombment, break into the boarding house and attack Stefan and Damon. Stefan stakes Bethanne, but Frederick escapes and returns to the farmhouse, where Pearl punishes him for leaving the house against her orders.


• Anna sneaks into Jeremy's room and chastises him for cutting himself in front of her, but Jeremy insists that he did it because he wants her to turn him.

"Let the Right One In"

• A great storm approaches Mystic Falls.


• Jeremy keeps trying to convince Anna to turn him, but she refuses.


• While out hunting, Stefan is captured by Frederic and his friends, who intend to torture him before killing him.


• Damon goes to the house, realizing he cannot get in because the owner of the house has been compelled not to invite him in.


• Damon and Elena convince Alaric to work with them to help Stefan.


• Damon won't let Elena to come into the house with them.


• Pearl meets mayor Lockwood in the Mystic Grill.


• Matt is angry with his mother Kelly, but is fearful of pressuring her too much, afraid that she may leave again.


• Alaric enters the vampire house under the pretext of borrowing the phone.


• Damon kills the human living in the house, thus enabling him to enter.


• After her car breaks down in the storm, Caroline discovers the remains of Vicki Donovan. Matt and Kelly are heartbroken by the news.


• Damon and Elena rescue Stefan, but a fight erupts in which Damon and Alaric kill most of the vampires.


• Frederick comes after Elena and Stefan, wounding Stefan badly.Elena has to feed Stefan her blood to revive him. Stefan briefly loses control of himself.


• Anna agrees to turn Jeremy, but she figures out that the real reason he wanted to be turned was to be with Vicki, whom he now knows to be dead.


• Damon discovers that Stefan has lost control of his bloodlust, drinking large amounts of human blood from Damon's stores of IV bags.

"Under Control"

• Stefan struggles to maintain control of his new circumstances, and Elena and Jeremy's uncle, John Gilbert, unexpectedly shows up in Mystic Falls. Stefan exhibits some unusual behavior at the Founder's Day event, and things turn ugly when Damon tries to find out why John Gilbert has returned. Matt and Tyler find themselves in conflict after an incident at the party, and the relationship between Matt and his mom reaches a new low point. Meanwhile, Elena is unable to comfort Jeremy, causing him to take action.

"Miss Mystic Falls"

• At the Founder's Day Gala, Elena and Caroline compete in the "Miss Mystic Falls" contest.


• Bonnie returns to town and Elena is very happy to have her back, but Bonnie still feels alienated from Elena because of her association with the Salvatore brothers.


• At the Miss Mystic Falls contest, Damon tells Elena that Stefan has been drinking human blood again.


• Stefan gets angry when Elena confronts him with this information, and breaks a mirror. To his despair, one of the Miss Mystic Falls contestants sees him do this, so Stefan takes her.


• Anna shows up at the dance, and Jeremy attempts to apologize for using her to become a vampire. Jeremy tells Anna that he knows that the only reason Anna wanted to be friends with him was so she could use his blood to revive her mother. Jeremy says he knows everything. Anna and Jeremy make up and Anna says she would never do anything to hurt him.


• Back at the dance, Damon poses as Elena's escort, since Stefan was not there.


• Later Elena and Damon, with major help from Bonnie, locate and get Stefan under control.


• Meanwhile, John Gilbert tries unsuccessfully to intimidate Damon.

"Blood Brothers"

• Stefan and Damon reveal pieces of their history to Elena, including the truth about how they were turned into vampires.


• Pearl and Jonathan Gilbert have an an ugly confrontation.


• Damon and Alaric attempt to track down a mysterious invention before Jonathan can find it.


• Jeremy and Anna's relationship continues to grow as Anna enrolls at Jeremy's high school just so they could spend time together. Jeremy attempts to learn as much as possible from her. Soon after, Anna and Jeremy begin making out.


• Jonathan Gilbert kills Pearl by staking her and Anna cries over her dead body.


• When Elena releases him, Stefan goes blood crazy and wants to die but Elena manages to talk him out of it. They return to the house and Stefan seems to be cured of the blood-craze but Damon doesn't seem happy about it.

"Isobel"

• Isobel returns to town and surprises Alaric with her demand that he arrange for her to meet Elena; it appears that she still loves him and that she is not truly happy with her life as a vampire.


• Isobel refuses to answer most of Elena's questions, but states that she is also looking for the mysterious invention that John Gilbert has been seeking.


• Isobel orders Elena to obtain the device from Damon and threatens to kill Elena's loved ones if she refuses.


• We learn that Isobel and John are working for Katherine.


• Isobel tries to intimidate Damon into giving her the device and offers to reveal Katherine's whereabouts in return, but he makes it clear that he will not tolerate her threatening him or the people he cares about, and that he no longer wants anything to do with Katherine.


• Isobel later kidnaps Jeremy in order to force Elena's hand, and Elena begs Damon to give her the device, which he does.


• Bonnie offers to remove the spell from the device, which can supposedly kill vampires; it is later revealed that Bonnie only pretended to deactivate the device, due to her vendetta against vampires.


• Elena gives the device to Isobel, who reveals that she knew Damon would surrender the device to Elena because he's in love with her.


• It is revealed that John is Elena's biological father, and that he and Isobel had dated in high school.


• John plans to use the device to kill all the vampires in Mystic Falls, including Stefan and Damon.


• Isobel, who appears to care for Elena after all, expresses her fear that the Salvatore brothers may eventually turn Elena into a vampire- a life that she doesn't want for Elena- and that getting rid of them is the best thing she and John could do for their daughter.


• Anna appears and tells Jeremy that her mother was killed, and that she knows she should not be there, but she has nowhere else to go. Jeremy hugs her and attempts to comfort her.

"Founder's Day"

• It's Founder's Day, and everyone is preparing for floats and fireworks.


• Anna gives him a vial of her blood and offers him the choice of becoming a vampire.


• Though Damon and Alaric team up to try to stop John Gilbert from utilizing the mysterious device to kill vampires, John sets his plan in motion, leading to a chaotic, destructive, and deadly end to the Founder's Day celebration.


• Caroline is severely injured in a car accident involving Tyler, and it is suggested that Tyler and his father, the mayor, are werewolves.


• John kills Anna and burns many of the tomb vampires alive; Tyler's father dies along with them.


• Stefan realizes that he does love his brother.


• Elena confronts John with the knowledge that he is her father, Stefan having informed her so.


• Bonnie saves Stefan and Damon from John's rampage for Elena's sake but tells Stefan that if Damon kills another innocent person, she will not hesitate to take him down.


• Damon finally realizes that there is some good in him, and that he may actually want to become a better person.


• Jeremy learns of Anna's death; he drinks Anna's blood and overdoses on pain pills, hoping that his emotional pain will ease if he becomes a vampire.


• Damon kisses a person whom he believes to be Elena, who is then invited into Elena's house by Jenna and stabs John Gilbert, who recognizes her as Katherine, pretending to be Elena.


• Major Cliffhanger: the real Elena enters the house and goes toward the kitchen, where Katherine is.

Soon to come: The Vampire Diaries 101: Your Guide to Season 2 (so far)