These aren't your baseball playing Twilight vamps, these are eldritch beings stuck in their own worst patterns for centuries, torturing each other to epic degrees.
Big changes on every Vampire Diaries front, the validation of Valerie as a major player, and side adventures for Bonnie and Matt make this a lively, fast-paced episode.
It's too bad that there's so much murder and mayhem in this story, because it's also one of the most exciting tales of this season of The Vampire Diaries.