This recap includes spoilers and if you have not viewed the episode, then please don’t read any further!
The episode begins and we see Connor, who has escaped from Klaus’ house after being kept prisoner, and Connor arrives back at his trailer with the hybrid’s head that he ripped off. Connor then draws werewolf venom from the hybrid’s gums. Then, there’s a quick flashback to a meeting between Connor and Professor Shane, who wants Connor to keep killing vampires so his tattoo will grow. Finally, after quite some time, we see Stefan and Elena writing in their journals! Elena writes how she hates being a vampire, and how at times she wants to end it, but she is trying to hold strong for Jeremy. Stefan writes how Elena has been spiraling since her transition and how there is hope now that somewhere in the world there is a cure for vampirism.
Connor then shows up at the grill, taking Matt, Jeremy and April Young Hostage. April thinks Connor is crazy because he keeps talking about vampires, and Jeremy and Matt play along. Connor tells April that they have met before and that he and April’s father have had some business together. Connor takes Jeremy’s phone and texts Stefan, Damon and Tyler and informs them there are hostages at the grill.
Elena wakes up and Damon appears in her room. He discovers she hasn’t told Stefan about getting high on blood and dirty dancing at the frat party. Damon says he thinks Stefan has been dodging him, and then tries to call Stefan from Elena’s phone, and there is no answer. Stefan alerts Klaus about the hostage situation. Klaus is in Italy during the episode, searching for Alexander’s sword at the church where he was buried. Klaus tells Stefan that Connor must be kept alive because he is the key to finding the cure, which Klaus also threatens Stefan to keep secret. Klaus knows Connor took the hybrid’s head and most likely took werewolf venom, so Klaus warns that his blood is the cure and since he is in Italy, they won’t have access to his blood if it is needed.
Stefan joins Damon, Elena, Tyler and Caroline, who are all planning on how to take down Connor. Tyler said he called in some hybrids, and Stefan takes an hour to do recon. Damon and Elena find some old maps of underground tunnels in Alaric’s old place to use as an entrance to the grill. Stefan returns and tells Elena and Damon that Klaus sent a hybrid to come help, and Damon gets suspicious. Stefan ends up vervaining Damon, and taking his daylight ring. Elena knows something is up and Stefan tells her to trust him and that it is very important she stay away from the grill, since Connor does not know she is a vampire. She agrees.
Stefan shows up to the grill, after one of Klaus’ hybrids gets a hole blown through his chest and sets off one of Connor’s werewolf venom bombs. Matt and April are in the back room, trying to find a tunnel to escape from, but it is bricked closed. Stefan tells Connor he will tell him about the Five and Jeremy ends up on one of the bomb pressure plates. Suddenly, Elena shows up begging for Connor to let Jeremy go and then attacks Connor. Connor threatens to shoot, and as Stefan is grabbing Jeremy off the pressure plate and the bomb explodes, Jeremy gets shot. Suddenly, Connor and Stefan are gone.
Elena feeds Jeremy her blood to heal him. She asks why Connor came after him and Jeremy mentioned the hunter’s mark and how he was compelled to forget his conversation with Connor at Klaus’s mansion the previous day. Elena knows nothing about this and is furious.
Stefan leads Connor to the underground Lockwood tunnels and then runs into Damon, who has woken up after being vervained. Stefan tells Connor to run, and Damon pins Stefan up against the wall and makes Stefan spill the beans about the cure. Elena runs into Connor in the tunnel and bites him and tells him to stay away from her brother. Then, she snaps his neck, killing him.
Elena then goes into the woods and starts digging a grave for Connor, her first kill as a vampire. Her guilt begins to set in, and it finally hits her that she killed someone. I understand that her first kill must be rough, but at least she wasn’t like Caroline who killed an innocent man as her first kill. Connor was terrorizing the town and everyone Elena loved- if that helps at all.
Elena is mad at Stefan for protecting Connor instead of Jeremy.
At the Salvatore mansion, Stefan and Damon discuss the cure. Stefan doesn’t want Elena to know that she killed her chances of becoming human again. Damon asks why Stefan wants the cure for Elena, and Stefan replies that she is not supposed to be this person and that he doesn’t want her to be. Damon says he is fine with Elena either way.
Matt and April meet Jeremy in the town square after stopping to see Caroline. Translation: Caroline compelled April to forget about the whole grill hostage situation. Jeremy then “drops” his vervain bracelet and gives it to April. Jeremy also notices that a hunter’s mark has appeared on his hand. Uh-oh!
Meanwhile during this whole situation, Bonnie is with Professor Shane, who is attempting to use hypnosis to get Bonnie to practice magic again. And Caroline finally meets Hayley, who has been staying at Tyler’s place for a few days. Caroline thinks something happened between them, and discovers Klaus thinks the same thing. Tyler tells Caroline that it is better that Klaus thinks that something happened between them than him know the truth- that Tyler and Hayley are helping other hybrids become free from Klaus and their sire bond.
At the end of the episode, Elena is overwhelmed with guilt and begins writing in her journal. Then she notices, blood dripping onto her hand and follows a trail of blood into the bathroom. The bathroom is covered in blood and the word “KILLER” is written in blood on the mirror. Elena slips and falls, and then realizes it was all a terrifying hallucination.
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