BWW Recap: Homecoming Horrors on THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

Hey guys, let's talk about college Homecoming. In case you didn't know, American college Homecoming mostly consists of underage co-eds drinking a ton of booze while bowing down to a mascot in the form of a lion, tiger, liger, or Velociraptor. My Homecoming was spent drinking boxed wine by a dumpster.

However, at Hogwarts Whitmore College, Homecoming is a wild night spent in a corn maze plagued with supernatural ghost stories. There's no telling what can happen in the middle of a dark corn maze, which is why I never hang out in mazes of any sort, especially ones made of corn where a cult of children could be hanging around with pitchforks. But I digress. This week's episode of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, entitled "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here," was filled with death, blood, love connections, and a reunion that made the coldest of hearts (mine) melt.

After being stunned with the resurrection of his now vampire girlfriend, Ivy, Stefan knew there was only one place to take the baby vamp: straight to Caroline's dorm room. Ivy was erratic and kind of pissed off she had now become a creature straight out of BUFFY and just wanted to murder a ton of sorority girls. Caroline was annoyed Stefan would saddle her with such a task of keeping Ivy company when he had been MIA for so long.

But it was Homecoming night and Elena was going to make sure everyone had a good time, especially after learning the ghost of Lady Whitmore may be stalking around wanting to kill all the students. She made sure to hassle Alaric, who really just wanted to drink and wallow in his own self-pity, and Jo into chaperoning the events. She even invited new human more-than-friend Liam to tag along.

Back in 1994 Hell, Kai was rattling off a bunch of nonsense about getting home, which included digging into the underground tunnels and making Bonnie go all "witchy-woo." He didn't impart any more info to them, as he had to go pick up several bottles of Zima and a new pager before leaving the 90s.

Meanwhile, Ivy was getting more and more awful at being a vampire, but made sure to snap Caroline's neck before escaping the dorms and feeding on a local. Unfortunately, she hadn't mastered compulsion yet and made the poor guy run for his life instead. It was most definitely all going to be okay.

Kai returned with his souvenirs only for Bonnie to come to the realization that the sociopath didn't know the spell to getting out of 1994 Hell. She quickly made the decision to turn him into a "douche-kabob" by shooting him in the chest with an arrow; too bad they were all technically dead already.

Tyler was so excited about his date night with Liv he conveniently forgot the rules of the road and began texting and driving. Too bad Ivy's victim was out and about stumbling around. Tyler swerved, hit the boy, and coincidentally rammed his truck through the entire corn maze of students.

The maze became a scene of horror as bodies of injured and dying co-eds were strewn everywhere. Elena used her doctoring skills she learned from Meredith Fell and fed a girl her blood, while Liam saved another by using actual medical practices. This life-saving moment made Elena swoon and left her utterly surprised that people could be saved by humans.

Doctor Jo was busy saving people as well, utilizing a very woozy Alaric. He was grateful Tyler had made him such a great midnight snack, but he couldn't start nomming on the students with Jo around.

Tyler was consumed with worrying about the boy he had driven over. If he died it was back to being a werewolf and for some reason that was the worst thing in the world for him. Elena was too busy in the maze and Dr. Jo bared the news over the phone that the boy was going to die; it was only a matter of time. Thankfully for Tyler, Liv was there to commit murder for him so Tyler's wolf gene wouldn't activate.

Missing the whole mess, Caroline was out looking for Ivy. She was furious at Stefan, who confessed he had literally bailed on her because he couldn't handle the pain of sticking around. But she wasn't going to let a hungry, new vampire run around alone. Too bad Tripp had beaten her to the punch.

In 1994, Bonnie was ready to finish the spell (which she suddenly knew) to complete her and Damon's journey home. Except, Kai was still alive and deterred the spell from happening, shooting Bonnie with an arrow and stopping her mid spell. A tussle ensued and Bonnie threw the Ascendant to Damon, sending him back to the land of the living and leaving her in 90s Hell with Kai (the Ascendant conveniently breaking as Damon departed).

Back at Hogwarts Whitmore, Elena was making mouth noises with Liam because he saved someone's life. She was so used to making out with serial murderers that this was a nice change for her. Meanwhile, Alaric tried to compel Jo not to make mouth noises with him, but compulsion mysteriously didn't work on the doctor.

On his way out of town once again, Stefan decided to stop by his family's crypt. He was finally facing his grief head-on as he spoke out loud to himself. Angry and devastated, Stefan threw his bottle of whiskey towards the wall, only for it to be caught by Damon. Stefan stumbled, not sure whether he was too drunk or hallucinating. But it was real. Damon was alive and reunited with his brother. Cue tears.

Things we need to discuss:

- The reunion between Stefan and Damon was excellent, but I'm really looking forward Damon and Alaric's reunion. That said, who is ready for the new love-triangle of Alaric/Damon/Enzo?

- Elena being impressed with modern medical practices. The characters have become so jaded in life and death situations it's almost laughable to see someone live without any supernatural forces at hand.

- Why is Tyler so gung-ho with staying human? His life expectancy goes up at least 20% if he reactivates his wolf curse.

- Did you like Elena's dig at Alaric when she compared him to Professor Shane? (Quick Q: How does Alaric know who Professor Shane is?)

How do you celebrate Homecoming? Are you excited for everyone's reunion with Damon? Do you want to play board games with Caroline? Comment below or tweet me @enr702 or live-tweeting @erinrlivetweets.

Below, watch a promo for next week's new episode "The More You Ignore me, the Closer I Get":

Photo Credit: The CW