The opening scene is eerily deja vu, as Damon put it. Here sits our hunk, Mas- oh. It's Damon skewered to a chair, while Mason watches in the background. Damon thinks it's Stefan who's playing a "twisted ripper game", but no. It's ghost Mason - out for revenge! (Or so we think at first ;))
We are introduced to Night of Illumination day, another founder's celebration. Jeremy is chilling with Alaric and looking oh-so-hot, as usual. Oh but wait, there's more. Ghost Anna is there and she's happy to give ghostly quips and clasp Jeremy's hand, while Ric and Elena stand there oblivious. Kinda creepy?
Bonnie and Caroline are having a D'n'M over Jeremy seeing Anna, and it's obvious Bonnie is hurting (can you blame her? I mean, she freaking brings Jeremy BACK TO LIFE and he's enjoying the spoils of life after death? Terrible boyfriend I tell you).
Damon rolls up in his Chevy looking gorgeously pissed off . I always chuckle at Damon's witty remarks, but these few are going in the favourites vault: "Greetings blondie, witchy." [cue Caroline and Bonnie's rolling eyes]. "Yeah well I don't have time for vengeful Lockwood - when I kill someone, they're supposed to stay dead." [Caroline and Bonnie are miffed].
Elena, Ric and Jeremy are talking about "the other side" and Elena deems that Lexi is the only way to reach Stefan. Little Anna watches on (albeit very sad-looking). Matt promises he hasn't seen Vicki, and wants no part of the ghostly business. Bonnie's grimoire blows open to a spell that "reveals veiled matter": basically code for "ghosts" (hoo boy). Back at the Grill table, Rippah Stefan rocks up and is sexier than ever. "Besides there's going to be people everywhere tonight. So there's going to be lots to eat". LOL.
Bonnie and Caroline are on a mission to do the 'revelation' spell, but before I go into that:
JANNA MOMENT: Jeremy decides before it's all over, he's gonna pucker up and kiss Anna (he kissed a ghost? A DEAD ghost? I suppose I shouldn't be grosed out, considering Elena's been macking out with dead people since the beginning). Actually it was a super sweet moment. Lots of heart flutters. Steven McQueen is delicious.
Damon tries to convince Ric that Mason is back for revenge, and Ric's still a tad angry at Damon for snapping his neck. Herein comes my favorite part of the episode: "Grams?" BAM. "Lexi?" SNAP. "God I miss whisky." HELLO. "Told ya." YEP.
Lexi is back and she's BADASS. I actually yelped out loud when I saw her - and I was super excited that she was going to try bringing Stefan's humanity back (though let's face it... that wasn't gonna happen).
Grams tells Bonnie she's upset the balance of nature and she needs to set it right by destroying Elena's necklace. Elena is crazy pissed at Anna and Jeremy for kissing, and rightly so. But that's going to have to wait - Lexi grabs Elena and takes her on a "ripper detox 101: crash course".
Mason tells Damon (shocker!) he doesn't want revenge, just an apology. And in order to get information about how to kill Klaus that's just what Damon has to do (which he does... awkwardly). Mason accepts the apology with a laugh, and tells Damon to meet him at the old Lockwood Cellar with a shovel (curious?).
We cut to the old jail, where Stefan is tied to a chair and Lexi warns Elena that dragging Stefan's humanity out of the depths of his soul won't be pretty (funny that). Then she does some weird mind-control thing whereby Stefan's veins start to pop out of his skin and he gargles in pain.
Meanwhile Damon joins Mason in the Lockwood cellar, and the two smash through a wall to "un-bury secrets". Damon wonders if Mason is leading him into a trap, and I'll admit - I thought he was too.
Lexi is still torturing Stefan and his snarky Rippah side is showing (as well as a cruel jab at Elena; UGH I cringed for her). Lexi reacts and tortures him further and explains to Elena that she "has to make him see past the blood". Elena doesn't take it so well, and has to bail.
Caroline is forced to tell Bonnie that Jeremy kissed Anna, but (always amazing) she steps up and tells Bonnie to power on!
Then MORE SHOCKERS. Some of the tomb vampires are back, and they are DEFINITELY out for revenge! The illumination lights are switched on and looky here - Tobias Fell has been strung to a tree, his guts spilling everywhere (yuck). Cue mad panic.
[note: I'm really hating on this 'unfinished business' crap. I wish ghosts would just find peace and leave]
After Elena comes up for air, she walks right into the middle of the madness (amazing shot here by the way - lights flashing behind Elena's head. Brilliant cinematography in this show). Bonnie and Caroline still can't find the necklace, and Caroline blames Anna (rightly so!). Jeremy believes her puppy dog eyes and Caroline tells him to wake up before he loses everything (damn straight!).
We jump back to Damon and Mason wandering through the caves and Damon gets a little more than poker-stabbed as chooses the opposite route to Mason's suggestion (no my poor baby!). It appears as though Mason has left him and my heart literally stopped (who was gonna save him?!).
Back at the town square, Elena tries to snap some sense into Jeremy and lo and behold, Anna produces the necklace (yeah, I saw that coming).
Wonderfully, Mason is back and chops Damon free, and Damon can't understand why. Mason tells him that all they do on the other side is watch people and regret decisions they've made (redemption not revenge!) and you can see that Damon is a tiny bit baffled (hopefully that draws some more of Damon's soulful side out).
Caroline is on FIRE this episode. Rescuing Mrs Lockwood as well as keeping Bonnie together. What a babe.
Anna and Jeremy share a super-sad moment where Anna confesses she hasn't been able to find her mum, and then she hands over the necklace. Meanwhile Lexi realises she's almost out of time and tries to use the necklace as a way to lure Stefan's humanity out. Stefan: "ironic then that it's about to get blown into pieces" - isn't it just?
Bonnie and Grams team up and cast their spell to destroy the necklace - and all the ghosts begin to disappear. The tomb vampires are the first to go, then Mason (before he gets to deliver an important message to Damon ARGH!), then Lexi (who passes on her fight to Elena), and then, saddest of them all - Anna. But not before she reunites with Pearl, and tears out-pour all around the world. Before Grams leaves she tells Bonnie she's "the strongest of them all" and we are left with a sense that maybe everybody can move on now that all this 'unfinished business' has been taken care of (well... almost all of it).
Damon brings Ric into the cellar and expresses his trust towards him, and we all leave with a sense that their bromance is closer to being solved than it was before. I mean, could you really keep on hating that face? Really?
Elena tells Stefan she still hasn't given up hope and that he can break through the compulsion if he fights for it - otherwise she'll be gone forever (really love the use of "I won't love a ghost for the rest of my life"; completely fitting and beautifully tragic).
And then - SHOCK OF ALL SHOCKS: that necklace is alive! And Ric has walked in on a cave of - stick men? Huh? Oh wait, turns out it's stories of the originals. Which we will find out about NEXT WEEK.
Once again, TVD delivers on a fabulous episode. My only qualms? No Delena moments, and Aunt Jenna didn't come back [mega sad face]. What does everyone else think? Good episode? Favourite moments? Sound off below! :)
Mini rant (I had to do it, I'm SORRY!)
Ok. Was anyone else as irked with Jeremy this episode as I was? Granted, the Janna scenes were AH-mazing, but seriously? Bonnie was right- Matt gave up his SISTER (though I don't blame him, Vicki was physcho) STILL. And it must be said.... JENNA SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THIS EPISODE. Phew. Yes okay I know you all know my love for Sara Canning.. but c'mon, neither Elena or Jeremy decided to think of Jenna? Really? It's not like all her business was finished and she'd found peace.. she died a freaking vampire, staked to death by Klaus! You so don't find peace after that. You haunt the shit out of that town! You hang around your niece and nephew like a hawk! And apparently we're so moved on from her death that we don't even consider asking her to come round?
Okay. Breathe. End that rant. Comments please :D Or tweet me @jayneymoo