Torturing Elena scenes are not pleasant. Did the boys learn nothing about how wrong it is to do this to a self-regenerating vamp when Caroline’s daddy kidnapped her? It’s like what they do to Wolverine, just to watch him heal. It’s infinite waterboarding.
They lock Elena in a safe, they expose her to the sun, they mind-rape her back into high school: it’s all sucky, and her only response is to throw herself at the sunny window, knowing they won’t really let her die. It takes a fire extinguisher to save her, but of course they had one ready. She’s onto you, jerks.
So then they throw Katherine at her, which does not go well, surprisingly. And mostly boils down to Katherine begging to know why Elijah dumped her. You do not want to ask Evil Vamp Elena if that dress makes you look fat, dumb girl. You’re only going to get one answer. But she does at least set her free of the full-body safe, which is a smart move.
Matt finds Elena staggering in the woods, and tries to reason her back to human. It almost seems to work (or at least, she doesn’t drain him completely dry), but she’s so hungry. It takes one more bit of mind-game theater to really get to her, but it’s about the only smart move Damon has made recently. He “kills” Matt, which freaks Elena out so much that she comes back to us. Yes, he was wearing the reviving ring. Don’t kill Matt, show, he’s the only human you have left and you need him now more than ever.
Caroline earlier tries to reason with Evil Vamp Elena, but gets nowhere. She has her own problems, as now Silas is stalking her to get to Bonnie, who’s wisely hiding. Candice Accola does a great “blonde in jeopardy” bit whenever they ask it of her.
This eerie sequence does allow him to give her a proper goodbye in the guise of Klaus, and it’s fun to watch Candice to play Silas playing her a little more, but finally we get back to the Sheriff Forbes house where Silas may or may not have already killed the Sheriff. Bonnie shows up and tries to help, but has to deal with
Silas’ meltdown instead. Candace has to give Liz a shock of vamp blood in a syringe to the heart to revive her, but happily it works.
The only other story is Rebekah helping Matt study for his exams, which sounds silly but shows remarkable growth for both characters. She even offers to compel good grades for him, but he turns her down. Just remember we leave him alive, writers. In the end, Elena is Elena again, but with a new mission in life: Katherine, as the cause of everything bad, must die.
How coincidental that Bonnie just promised Katie immortal invulnerability in exchange for help with the Silas spell, right?