WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!

“Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies” – Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena

The 100th episode of The Vampire Diaries started out with a bang but limped over the finish line. Katherine is dying and everyone gathers to reminisce about her affect on their lives. Nadia hatches a plot to save Katherine. Elena and Damon try to deal with their break-up. Caroline has a surprise encounter in the woods.

The episode opens in 1492 in Bulgaria. A pregnant 17-year-old Katherine (Nina Dobrev) goes into labor in her home. The scene then cuts to present day Katherine, who is in the hospital after suffering a heart attack and the staff is trying to resuscitate her. Cut back to 1492 where her mother is coaching her and Katherine gives birth to a girl. But her father won’t let her hold her daughter, saying she has shamed the family, and walks out the door with her baby. Katherine pleads with him as he leaves, and then cries hysterically to her mother. Her mother tells Katherine it is for the best.

In the hospital waiting room, Nadia (Olga Fonda) finds Stefan (Paul Wesley), who tells her that Katherine has had a heart attack. She responds that Katherine Pierce will not die from it. Cut to Katherine, where the repeated attempts to restart her heart are successful. Stefan tells Nadia that the doctors say she is in organ failure and won’t last the rest of the day. He says he’s compelled the doctors to let him to take her home.

Back at the Salvatore house, Elena (Nina Dobrev) is in bed staring miserably at her alarm clock and pulls the covers over her head. Caroline (Candice Accola) and Bonnie (Kat Graham) burst in with a huge “break-up breakfast” tray (Enough for a horse!) and try to get Elena to get up. Bonnie wonders why Elena is giving up on Damon and Caroline fires back because Damon said it himself — he’s bad for her — and quotes the entire break-up speech. Elena admits she must face reality about Damon, that when he’s made his mind up, that’s it. She then gets a call from Stefan.

Damon (Ian Somerhalder) meanwhile, is seemingly passed out with his head on the bar at the Mystic Grill with a bourbon bottle and glass near by. Matt (Zach Roerig) and Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) walk in to find him, and wonder aloud why Damon broke up with Elena. Damon responds by “waking up” and pouring himself a glass while telling Matt and Jeremy he heard them (uh-huh!). When Matt asks if it was just a fight they had, Damon receives a call from Stefan.

In the living room, Damon is pouring shots of bourbon into several glasses, explaining the rules of his drinking game to Matt and Jeremy. Rule Number 1 is to talk about the worse thing Katherine Pierce has done to you (and take a shot); Rule Number 2 is to think of something worse (and take a shot); and Rule Number 3 is to repeat Rules 1 & 2 (and take a shot). Damon goes first, then Matt who says Katherine killed his sister Jenna (he couldn’t can’t think of anything at first — really?), and then Jeremy says Katherine had Silas kill him. Damon then has them take a fourth shot of bourbon after they’re done. (Everyone will be wasted in short order at this rate!). Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie enter the room where Elena announces that if anyone is going to be drinking to Katherine’s last days, it will be her, and throws back a shot. (You go, girl! Damon’s face is priceless). Then Bonnie and Caroline join in with their “reminiscing” of Katherine, quickly finishing off the first bottle of bourbon. Matt volunteers to go to the basement to get more.

Upstairs, Katherine is in bed with Stefan at the bedside. She realizes that what they are doing downstairs, but Stefan calls it reminiscing. Katherine insists she’s wrinkling and asks Stefan to kill her if she starts sagging anywhere. Stefan takes her hand in his and strokes it, saying she’s vain even on her deathbed. She asks him why he’s being so nice and he says because she’s dying, he thinks he stir up some compassion. (Face it, he’s got feeling still or is he really that nice?).

In the basement, Matt selects a bottle of bourbon and turns to find Nadia. He says her name as a question and she tells him to be quiet. She gives him a right hook to the face and promptly knocks him out.

Back upstairs, everyone is getting drunk, Stefan walks in tells them to knock it off and accuses them of being insensitive. Damon responds that a frail Katherine shouldn’t cloud Stefan’s memories of the psycho that she is, and offers him a shot of bourbon. Stefan recounts how Katherine in 1694 compelled him to love her, seduced Damon and made them both vampires, and then started a war with the town that got them killed. Then Stefan points out that Katherine was an innocent shunned by her family and for 500 years
she lied and manipulated her way to survive. He says that’s who he would drink to today; to Katherine the survivor. And he drinks the shot. Damon accuses him of being brainwashed by one night with Katherine, to which Elena is shocked to hear. Caroline blurts out that she forgot to tell her because Elena was kidnapped at that time.

Stefan volunteers to get another bottle, but Damon gets up and greets Nadia (“the Devil’s spawn”- That’s accurate!) as she enters the room. Damon asks Caroline if she told Elena that one to which Caroline responds with a hand slap to her head, and Elena downs another shot. Nadia says she has found a way to save her mother, Katherine, and needs their help. Damon says no, and warns Stefan not to or he’ll kick him to Kentucky. He warns off everyone else from volunteering as well. Nadia says she has buried Matt on the Salvatore property without his ring (she shows everyone the ring) in the safe that Stefan almost drowned in last summer.

Nadia, with Stefan and Elena, pull up to a boarded up house out in the woods. Elena demands to know where Matt is, to which Nadia replies that she’ll tell them once they help Nadia get what she needs – a Traveler. She tells them that Katherine was born a Traveler and can be a passenger inside someone else’s body if a Traveler teaches her how to do it. Elena asks why Nadia wants to save her mother who killed her boyfriend (who was a passenger inside of Matt). Stefan says because MacGregor (the boyfriend) tried to kill Katherine. Nadia explains that she is going to make Katherine a passenger in her body.

Out on the property, Caroline, Jeremy and Bonnie search for where Matt might be buried. Jeremy talks about making bad choices in relationships and Bonnie takes offense, to which Jeremy’s answer makes Caroline realize they are a couple and asks Bonnie why she didn’t tell her since she is her best friend. Bonnie takes offense to that. She and Jeremy tell her that Elena doesn’t know. Caroline bemoans the fact why she isn’t having scandalous sex like everyone else. An uncomfortable Jeremy suggests they split up to find Matt and they leave Caroline by herself.

Katherine dreams about 1492 again. She enters her home to find her entire family murdered. Damon appears in the dream and Katherine tells him to get out of her head. He recounts how she ran when Klaus wanted to make her a blood sacrifice and when she returned, she found he had massacred her family. He says she is responsible for her family’s deaths. She fiercely disagrees and cries over the body of her dead mother. Meanwhile, Damon is about to smother her with a pillow over her face and Sheriff Liz Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) enters the room and tells him to put it down. (Can you blame him?) Liz tells him if he doesn’t, she’ll have to charge him with murder, lock him up, and do a lot of paperwork (hilarious!). Damon says everything wrong he’s every done is linked to Katherine and she’s ruined him. Liz takes away the pillow from him and tells Damon that Katherine still has power over him but needs to prove Katherine wrong.

In the woods, Caroline is calling out for Matt when she is surprised by Klaus (Joseph Morgan).

Inside the run down Travelers’ house, Stefan and Elena find out they have been tricked by Nadia. She introduces them to Mia, a Traveler whose services Nadia bought in exchange for giving Mia doppelgangers — Stefan and Elena. She says she has no idea why they wanted doppelgangers and she and Mia immediately leave the house together. Elena tries to go outside but is burned by the sunlight. Their rings have been compromised so they can’t leave. Several Travelers approach and surround Stefan and Elena, chanting something.

Meanwhile, Caroline and Klaus play tag in the woods. She confronts Klaus about being there to pay his respects to Katherine. She says he’s only there to gloat over 500 years of revenge. Klaus confronts her about Tyler; that he heard she and Tyler broke up (he smiles so devilishly as he says this). Caroline says he gave Tyler a choice: her or his revenge plans and he chose his revenge. She suggests to Klaus he learn from that and let Katherine die in peace.

Back at the house, Sherriff Liz has brought Katherine several syringes of sedative from the hospital to ease her pain, but she refuses them. Katherine says they will make her weak and more susceptible to Damon (who is at her bedside) getting into her head. Katherine tells Liz that it was her fault that Elena and Damon broke up and Damon responds by injecting her with one of the sedatives to shut her up for awhile. Katherine dreams about riding in a carriage with her friend Emily, through Mystic Falls in 1864. They are on their way to the Lockwood Plantation when they come across another horse drawn carriage with a broken wheel. Their driver stops to assist the young man, who turns out to be Stefan. Katherine immediately is attracted to him and wonders if his family would take her in as she is “a poor orphan girl”. She wakes up and Damon asks her what that was about and she responds that’s the real story about how she met Stefan. She doesn’t want to believe in the prophesy of the doppelgangers but she said she can’t explain how she felt it was fate when she first laid eyes on Stefan.

At the Travelers’ house, one of the Travelers places two buckets at their feet. He attempts to cut Elena’s arm but Stefan tries to stop him. Elena says it’s okay; he probably wants doppelganger blood. They are both cut and their blood drains into the buckets. Elena asks Stefan why they aren’t healing (Because they want two buckets full of their blood?).

Back in the woods, Caroline continues to look for Matt. Klaus appears again, and asks her if she would give him the same choice she gave Tyler — to choose her or his revenge on Katherine. Caroline says he can’t just distract her while she’s looking for Matt (She almost looks like she’s trying not to laugh). Klaus says he’s heard Matt’s screams and Matt will be quite happy with his rescuer. Somewhere in the woods, Matt opens up the safe and climbs out. He looks around and finds a smiling Rebekah waiting for him. “I’m gone three months and look at the trouble you’ve got yourself in,” she says to him.

Damon sedates Katherine and she hallucinates about Jenna Sommers (Sara Canning) stabbing her in the stomach and John Gilbert (David Anders) cutting off her fingers (acts that she had done to them).Elijah (Daniel Gillies) seemingly comes to her rescue but as she touches his face affectionately, he turns into Damon (Cruel joke!). Just as Damon tells her that no one is coming to see her because no one cares, Nadia breaks Damon’s neck. (Ouch!). Nadia asks Mia to come into the room and to “get on with it”. (Transfer of Katherine’s soul into her? Not so fast…).

At the Travelers’ house, Stefan is thankful he’s not claustrophobic anymore, and Elena realizes that Katherine helped Stefan get over it and Stefan confirms it. He admits he just can’t hate her even though he should; he just wants her to find peace. Stefan tells Elena not to give up on Damon, like she never gave up on him. Damon just hates himself and all what he’s done. Stefan looks at his arm and it starts to heal. Elena wonders if all they wanted from them was a bucket of blood. She places her hand in the sunlight from the window and it doesn’t burn, so they both take the opportunity to escape.

Damon lies unconscious on the bedroom floor while Nadia asks Katherine to repeat the spell so she understands how the Passenger works. Once she does, Nadia explains that Mia will activate it by calling her forth and Katherine will live. But Katherine refuses to do so and asks Mia to leave them alone. She tells Nadia she regrets that she didn’t fight harder to keep her when her father took Nadia from her. Katherine says she’s spent 500 years not making the same mistakes and in the end, she’s had a long full life which included getting to know her daughter. She hands Nadia a syringe and tells her not to waste another minute on her, that it’s her turn to live. She wants to do the right thing as she’s been selfish all her life. Nadia refuses and tells Katherine to go ahead and leave her, that she won’t sit beside her and watch her die. An upset Nadia stalks out of the room and Katherine injects herself. (Does she really want to die?)

Back to the woods…Klaus says now that the quarterback has been saved (sort of like, “save the cheerleader” in Heroes?) he will leave Mystic Falls minus the gloating over Katherine’s corpse in return for a favor. He said he wants Caroline’s confession about him. Caroline looks at him sort of knowing; sort of confused. Klaus says when he leaves he won’t be coming back and Caroline will no longer have to cover their connection with hostility and revulsion. She won’t have to cover the dark part of herself that likes him despite what he has done. And she’ll be free. Caroline responds that she is in college; she has a future; she has plans and none of which include him. She admits that she uses hostility to cover her true feelings for him but if he promises to walk away and never come back, she will be honest with him about what she wants (Ohhh this is getting good). Klaus promises he will do just that. Caroline replies “good” and then goes in for a kiss. They part and smile at each other before making out up against a tree. (Can we say, hot scene?).

Meanwhile, Damon wakes up from Nadia’s attack as Stefan walks in. Stefan asks what happened and Damon says it was a shocking twist (typical Damon humor!) from Nadia. He tells Stefan Katherine’s all his; that he’s had his fun messing with her mind all day. He needed an outlet after a rough couple a days. He leaves and Stefan sits at her bedside. He says he came to say goodbye and asks her to close her eyes. Katherine goes back to the 1492 memory of her family massacre. Stefan asks her why she comes back to this memory. She says it was the worst day of her life, that it was her fault and she deserved everything that happened to her; she doesn’t deserve to be loved. Stefan asks her to open her mind to him. He asks her look at each family member, and Stefan makes them disappear. Katherine asks what he’s doing and he said she deserves peace. He tells her she was just a 17 year old girl and none of it was her fault. She hears her baby’s cries in the room and picks her up out of her cradle and holds her in her arms. In the present, Stefan kisses a sleeping Katherine on the forehead and tells her goodbye. Elena is in the room and asks if she’s gone but Stefan tells her not yet; but because of the drugs, she won’t wake up again.

Sitting outside the house, Damon and Stefan share a drink. Stefan tells Damon that he needs to work things out with Elena, that she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him. Damon responds he knows that and he can’t live without her. However, he thinks she’ll be better off without him because he’s no better than Katherine. Stefan looks at him like he’s nuts. Damon says he’s being selfless. He asks why can’t he have a selfless moment like Katherine did. He tells Stefan that he’ll remind him that it’s his fault if the universe isn’t happy the doppelgangers aren’t together.

Back inside the Salvatore house, Bonnie, Jeremy and Matt are in the living room when Caroline walks in, looking a bit disheveled in a sweat jacket (different from what she had on earlier in the day!) and pulls a leaf out of her hair (hilarious!). Matt asks her where she’s been and she says she got lost in the woods and zips up her sweat jacket higher. She sits down and asks what they’re doing and Jeremy says they’re waiting for Katherine to die. Matt asks Bonnie if she’ll feel Katherine when she dies and Bonnie says probably since Katherine is human. Matt asks her who else she sees on the other side, like anyone he knows. She says she sees Grams, and the other witches and Vicki but she doesn’t really like to talk about it. A female voice behind her says, “because it’s depressing as hell.” It’s Vicki (Kayla Ewell) and Bonnie tells Matt that she says she loves him. Vicki also says she watches over him and “to stop knocking around with the blond Original chick who almost got him killed.” (hilarious). Tyler (Michael Trevino) arrives and says Rebekah told him to tell Matt that he was her parting gift. He looks at an uncomfortable Caroline who acknowledges him back. A happy Matt gives Tyler a bear hug.

Stefan walks in and asks if they really went through four bottles of bourbon (Really? That’s all?). A male voice says. “Someone tell these idiots to lay off the booze.” Bonnie turns around and smiles as Jeremy looks over his shoulder and exclaims, “Alaric?” Jeremy tells Alaric (Matthew Davis) he thought he left them to go find peace. He says he wouldn’t leave Damon in charge. Damon looks around and asks if he’s talking about him, which Jeremy confirms. Damon holds up his glass and says cheers. Alaric responds with same. Just then, Bonnie looks across the room and says Katherine is here. Damon asks if “ding dong the witch is dead (funny boy)”. Katherine looks at Bonnie and says it’s too soon, she can’t leave yet.

Katherine then wakes up in her bed with Elena at her side. Elena exclaims that Katherine really doesn’t want to die and swore she heard Katherine’s heart stop. Katherine asks where she is, and Elena tells her she’s still alive. Katherine says she still has unfinished business to which Elena responds that she does too. She tells Katherine that she forgives her; that because Katherine lost everyone in her life and having no family to take care of her, she became evil. Elena doesn’t believe Katherine was born that way. She feels they are similar in ways. Katherine asks Elena if she can help her out and give her the last syringe. As Elena goes to inject her, Katherine thanks Elena for her forgiveness. As Elena begins to inject her, Katherine grabs her and chants the Traveler spell and Elena passes out. She wakes up to answer her cell phone. Mia who is riding with Nadia in her car, says one word and activates Katherine inside Elena. Nadia asks her if it worked and Elena checks Katherine’s body for a pulse (there is none) and says of course it worked, she’s Katherine Pierce (still vain!). She tells Nadia she’ll see her soon. Elena/Katherine checks herself out in the mirror and practices being Elena.

That was quite the episode, although a bit underwhelming in parts and seemed forced in others. It left more questions than answers. Now begs the question if Katherine and Elena will be as one for a while. Will everyone figure out what has happened? Why is Katherine like Teflon and not die? Why would Rebekah take Tyler out of his prison in The Garden in New Orleans and bring him back to Mystic Falls? Why is Klaus back chasing Caroline when there’s so much happening in New Orleans right now? Why did the Travelers collect Stefan and Elena’s blood? What will they do with it or has it to do with Katherine? How will Caroline deal with Tyler and vise versa now he’s back?

What did you think of this week’s 100th episode? Did it live up to your expectations?