Warning! Contains Spoilers!

Silas learns that hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn.

This week’s The Vampire Diaries delivered a plot of mind bending twists, turns, and revelations.

In a nutshell: Damon learns he’s in the way of destiny. Stefan is free from the underwater safe. Elena and Katherine have the same dream about Stefan and enlist Damon to search for him. Nadia breaks her alliance with Silas. Silas’ ex-fiance, Qetsiyah kidnaps and uses Stefan to get revenge on Silas. Matt is possessed by the spirit of Gregor, the Traveler. Nadia captures Katherine to bargain with Silas. Stefan is rescued by Damon and Elena but has amnesia.

Stefan (Paul Wesley), freed from his underwater prison, is hungry and on the prowl. He staggers into Joe’s Bar and attacks the female bartender. But as he munches on her neck, he suddenly pulls away and tells her to run. (Not exactly ‘The Ripper’ anymore, is he?). And run, she does. Stefan runs outside sees the sun has come up. He falls to his knees, and looks at his hand crackling. He cries out in pain as he begins to burn. (His daylight ring taken by Silas?)

Elena (Nina Dobrev) seems to be dreaming this entire scene of Stefan. She wakes up and recalls it to Damon, saying it felt real, as though she was with him. She describes the name and appearance of the bar. Damon (Ian Somerhalder) tells her it was just a dream. But, Katherine (Dobrev) walks into their bedroom and announces she’s had the exact same dream about Stefan.

At the Salvatore house, Damon checks his phone and tells Elena that no bars called Joe’s exist on Route 29. Elena tells Damon that she shouldn’t have ignored all summer how she felt something was wrong with Stefan. She says she was right, Stefan was in the safe, and probably killed the guy who found him. Damon thinks following her dream to find Stefan is crazy, but he’ll go along with it. They decide to take a road trip to find the bar. However, Elena doesn’t want Katherine along, but Damon says he can’t leave her behind because of Silas. Katherine blames Elena for the entire mess with Silas because she shoved the cure down Katherine’s throat. Then she takes a dig at Elena for losing her one shot at being human and still caring as much as she does about Stefan. (Ouch! Turn that guilt knife a little deeper, Katherine!)

Meanwhile, somewhere in Mystic Falls, Silas (Paul Wesley) is on the phone with Nadia (Olga Fonda) the Traveler playing a game of ‘What If’. He says, what if, killing her companion, Gregor
was all an act, and what if, he’s still alive. She counters that Silas buried Gregor’s body himself. Silas says, what if, Matt’s ring brought Gregor back to life. He tells Nadia that to prove she’s on his side, she must find Matt (Zach Roerig), ask him where Katherine is, take his ring, and kill him.

Stefan wakes up on the floor of a cabin with a women staring at him. He warns her away, but she offers him a blood bag which he devours. She calls him “a vampire doppelganger with a conscience”. Stefan correctly guesses that she rescued him from outside of the bar. She tells him she also got the former owner of the cabin they’re in, to free him from the safe, and that Stefan killed him. He asks her who she is, but she asks how much he knows about Silas. Stefan tells her he’s a monster who stole his identity and will kill him when he finds him. He goes to leave, but the woman reminds Stefan he can’t leave without his daylight ring.

The woman is Silas’ ex-fiance, Qetsiyah (Janina Gavankar). She tells Stefan that 2,000 years ago, in ancient Greece, she was in love with Silas and thought he was her true love. But he was not hers. They were two of the most powerful of the gifted people called Travelers (ah-ha! So this is a traveler?). When they decided to marry, she created the immortality spell for them. However, Silas was in love with Qetsiyah’s hand maiden, Amara, and stood her up at the altar. She took her revenge by killing Amar. She then created the cure, threw Silas into a tomb with a supernatural limbo for his soul, and hoped he would take the cure and die. But he didn’t and escaped. Qetsiyah tells Stefan who she is, and that she came back from the afterlife, for him. (She was able to return after Bonnie had lifted the veil).

In back of the Mystic Grill, Matt confronts Nadia about what she did to him (when Gregor messed with his head), who is she, and what she wants. Nadia responds that she’s there to keep him safe from Silas. Matt asks her what she knows about Silas (while backing away slowly). She tells him Silas wants him dead and that Matt needs to trust her. She places her hands on his face and says some weird words. Matt’s eyes go black and Gregor takes over. And he’s not happy. He wants to know why she killed him. Nadia says because it was the only way to salvage their bargain and stop Silas from killing him. (Uh, yeah, makes sense.). She tells Gregor she loves him and promises to make Matt his permanent body. She also promises to tell him where his body is buried after he calls Elena and asks where Katherine is.

At the cabin, Stefan tells Qetsiyah he has a hard time believing anything she’s said.
Qetsiyah says she saw an opportunity to come back after the veil was lifted, as a mortal and do what her hunters had failed to do (are they Nadia and Gregor?), which was to kill Silas. Stefan wants some clarity on the doppelgangers. She explains that when Silas and Amara drank the immorality elixir, they violated the natural order. Nature balanced it out by creating mortal shadow selves, or doppelgangers, of them (which are Stefan, Elena, and Katherine). Qetsiyah tell Stefan she needs his help to take down Silas.

The road trip trio finds Joe’s Bar. They leave sleeping Katherine in the car while they go inside. Damon compels the bartender to tell him what happened with Stefan. She does, and says some woman driving a truck (the owner is a guy who lives down the road) drove off with Stefan. The bartender offers him a drink (don’t take it, Damon!) and it ends up being nasty for him. Elena asks her what she did to Damon and out walks Nadia. She demands they tell her where Katherine is or she will shoot Elena. At that moment, an angry Katherine walks into the bar. Nadia asks which of them is Katherine, and Katherine points to Elena. Nadia figures out she is lying, and Elena tackles her while telling Katherine to run. The two exchange body slams and Nadia escapes. Elena goes after them while Damon follows up on the lead about the owner of the truck.

While cooking up something that is definitely not a daylight ring, Qetsiyah tells Stefan she needs to destroy Silas’ mind control capability. After consuming blood for 2000 years, he’s perfected this ability. Qetsiyah says she wants Silas to spend eternity with Amara and her as punishment.

Meanwhile, Elena finds Katherine hiding out in a near-by forest. They have a little bonding time together. Katherine thanks her for not killing her after she shoved the cure down her throat. Elena said she wanted her to have a chance to experience humanity that was hiding somewhere under 500 years of bad behavior. (Some habits would be hard to change). Suddenly, Nadia snaps Elena’s neck and kidnaps Katherine at gunpoint.

Damon shows up at the cabin and finds Stefan tied to a chair and Qetsiyah no where in sight (do we smell an obvious trap?). Damon asks what happened to him as he tries to free him. Stefan says Qetsiyah has come back from the other side. Behind Damon, Qetsiyah appears. She tells him she is going to link Stefan to Silas by casting a spell which will neutralize Silas’ mind control ability. Then she will make him take the cure. Damon tells her Katherine ingested it and Qetsiyah says she knows. She had expected Katherine to be with him. She’s the one who planted the dreams in Katherine and Elena’s heads. She tells Damon she’ll have to do the spell without Katherine. Damon tries to leave with Stefan, but Qetsiyah tries to convince him they can defeat Silas. Stefan asks Qetsiyah to go ahead with the spell.

Nadia takes Katherine back to her truck, only to discover Silas has found them. She tell s him she’s not ready to hand Katherine over yet. He uses his mind control to have Nadia point her own gun at her heart. Just as he compels her to pull the trigger, Qetsiyah’s spell takes hold and Silas crumples to the ground, holding his head in pain.

At the cabin, Qetsiyah is still casting her spell. Stefan is crying out in pain. Damon asks what’s she doing to him. She answers that she’s frying Silas’ brain. (Eww there’s a visual).
Cut to Silas, still on the ground now with blood coming out of his eyes. Same happens to Stefan and he passes out in the chair. Damon says they’re done and goes to take Stefan. Qetsiyah says the spell worked and Stefan will wake up eventually.

Qetsiyah tells Damon that destiny has been trying to get the doppelgangers together forever; that she and Damon are the same — “the two obstacles standing in the way of two fates” (Stefan and Elena). Damon wants to leave with Stefan, but she wants to keep him with her now that he’s linked to Silas and Silas can no longer mess with their heads. She says as long as Stefan is in the way, Damon will never be with Elena. Damon tries to kill Qetsiyah but she body slams him into the fireplace and disappears. A dazed Damon hears Elena calling out for Stefan outside of the cabin. As he lays on the floor, Elena comes in and goes straight to Stefan. She doesn’t see Damon lying nearby (He has that ‘hey, how about me, your boyfriend? I need help too!’ look on his face!).

At a motel, Nadia is holding Katherine prisoner. Silas calls Nadia and asks where she is.
He threatens to kill her if she doesn’t hold up her end of the bargain. Silas tells her that Qetsiyah is headed for Mystic Falls and neither one of them will stop until they get the cure. Katherine grabs the phone and asks Silas what he wants with her. He says her blood is the cure.

Back at the Salvatore house, Stefan wakes up on the couch. Elena and Damon express to him their happiness he is back, but he looks up at them and says he doesn’t know who they are. (Uh-oh, a little side effect of the spell he wasn’t told about?).

The last scene is of Matt pushing himself across the tile floor of his (?) house, leaving a trail of muddy boot prints. He answers a call from Elena. He says he doesn’t remember talking to her earlier that day, but then lies that he does when she says he sounded different. He quickly hangs up, he checks his pocket and pulls out a bloodied knife. (Who has Gregor whacked?)

Loads of questions as this multi-layered plot continues next week.
Where has Matt been? Will Stefan remember who he is? Will Silas or Qetsiyah be the one get Katherine and the cure first? Will Nadia betray Gregor again? Is Nadia after the cure for Gregor or herself? Will Damon fight destiny to be with Elena? Will we ever get back to Whitmore College and solve the mystery of the roommate killer?

What did you think of this week’s episode?