BWW Recap: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES Sets Its Eyes on the Eclipse

I'm constantly trying to reinvent myself in different ways. Whether it's my hair color, style, clothing, last name, first name...oops, I've said too much. Just know that one time I tried to reinvent myself as a witch named Gertrude and things didn't work out so well for a guy that now has purple hair, one eyebrow, and a lizard for a left hand. I quickly reinvented myself as a 20-something New Yorker that watches and writes about shows on some network called The CW.

This week's episode of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, entitled "Black Hole Sun," was all about reinvention, discovery, and May 10, 1994 as Kai harassed Damon to confess to one of the most heinous crimes he had ever committed. In order to leave their TWILIGHT ZONE version of Hell, Damon had to come clean as to why they were specifically stuck in 1994. Apparently the answer to Damon's misdeeds in the past were way more important than getting answers from the literal stranger that was stuck with the two.

It turned out Damon had taken a trip back to Mystic Falls on May 10, 1994. Depressed over Kurt Cobain's death, Damon wanted to reconcile with his brother and move back home to the Salvatore Boarding House, now owned by human Zach Salvatore (welcome back, Uncle Zach!) and his pregnant girlfriend.

Back in the present, Elena was too busy "Enzo-size" harassing Stefan into staying in Mystic Falls while everyone else tried to find out where Jeremy's uncompelled girlfriend Sarah had run off to. While Alaric slut-shamed Jeremy to get an STD screening at the hospital, Matt appealed to Tripp for answers and to subtly push him into revealing the truth about his knowledge of vampires.

Stefan decided the best way to get Elena to leave him alone would be to take her on a short trip to Georgia to his favorite dive bar where he showed her that changing your identity, profession, and life were super easy. Stefan Cooper took Elena William's daylight ring and proposed to her in front of the entire bar. Now Elena just had to be pregnant and married to Stefan for the next thirty years.

Back at the hospital, Jeremy was getting his hangover physical while Alaric flirted with Jo. Only problem was the hospital was teeming with blood and Alaric couldn't keep his eyes fixated on the pretty doctor long enough to hold a conversation, which seemed to irritate her.

In 1994 Hell, Damon was being dodgy on the details of his flashback and Kai was growing restless. He explained that with Bonnie's magic, the eclipse, and some weird device he had hidden in his coat pocket (which he made Bonnie do a spell to locate just to be a jerk), they would be able to leave their plane and return home to their loved ones.

Damon finally came clean that on May 10, 1994 the Salvatore's had thrown an eclipse party where Damon flirted with Liz Forbes and looked at pictures of baby Caroline. Stefan quickly discovered Damon was feeding off of Zach's pregnant girlfriend and Damon compelled Liz to go home and forget him (hence why Liz never recognized him in Season One). Stefan locked Damon in the shed and snagged his daylight ring, but it was futile. Damon escaped, killed everyone at the party, and demanded his ring back. Stefan obliged, but it didn't matter. Damon killed Zach's girlfriend and compelled Zach to forget everything.

In the midst of Damon's rehashing of the past, Bonnie eyed a new story in the daily newspaper of a boy from Oregon that had murdered his entire family, including a gaggle of young siblings. Kai laughed at Bonnie, impressed she was tying everything together so quickly, and excitedly recounted the sick and twisted ways he had murdered his family. Kai had been a powerless boy in a family of witches belonging to the mysterious Gemini Coven. It wasn't Damon and Bonnie's version of Hell they had been sent to, it was Kai's.

Back at the bar, Elena had finally believed Stefan was happy in his new life and gave him her blessing to continue to live as a human with health insurance. As she left the bar, Stefan approached a local who didn't seem too happy to be in Stefan's presence as it was revealed Stefan had been a huge jerk in town and had been beating up the locals as a way to handle his grief. Luckily, Elena had forgotten her jacket and witnessed the whole ordeal. She judged Stefan for his life choices and Stefan laughed in her face. He had had enough and spilled the beans on Elena's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND treatment. Elena, horrified, ran back to Alaric to confront him. Alaric admitted he had followed through on her awful decision and shared with her a letter she had written herself. She decided to stay compelled for the time being.

As the eclipse began to take place in 1994, Damon begged Bonnie to go through with the spell. Bonnie, though, didn't want to bring Kai back to the world of the living. She didn't care how many people her friends had murdered because they all harbored guilt and empathy; Kai was a sociopath, devoid of any feelings. An angry Kai quickly turned on the two and showed them just how strong he was. He may not have had any magic of his own, but he was really an X-MEN and could absorb magic for a short period of time, grabbing ahold of Bonnie's wrist, and weakening her. They were going through with the spell on the next eclipse.

Jeremy was finally able to track down Sarah, who had been coincidentally chilling at the Salvatore mansion. She had rummaged through the house only to find a picture of her mom and Zach Salvatore. Confused, Sarah showed Jeremy the picture and he was able to reveal to her that she was none other than Sarah Salvatore.

Matt had spent the day with Tripp and had finally sweet-talked him into coming clean. When Tripp had returned to Mystic Falls all of his previous compulsion had worn off and he knew vampires were responsible for his wife's death. He showed Matt his secret vampire jail in the woods and his newest vampire captive, Enzo.

Stefan returned home to Savannah only to find his dead girlfriend, Ivy, alive, confused, and blood hungry.

Things we need to discuss:

• Stefan making fun of his own bunny diet in front of Damon. It was a nice nod back to the earlier days of TVD when Stefan was a laughable "vegetarian."
• I'm not too sure what the purpose of Jeremy and Alaric's spar in the woods was, but why were they wearing shirts?
• I was so sure Sarah was going to end up a Bennett, but instead she ended up a Salvatore! Nice twist. It will be interested to see what her presence means to Stefan and Damon.
• Elena's inability to take responsibility for her awful actions and her judgments towards everyone else. Just because Alaric went through with the compulsion doesn't mean he deserved her anger. Accordingly, just because you still want to live in dangerous Mystic Falls doesn't mean others do. Stefan deserves to have his own awful life of grieving.
• Kai is a sociopathic murdered that slaughtered his entire family. Who do you think his love interest is going to be?

How much longer will the trio be stuck in 1994? How many episodes will Ivy survive as a vampire? Did you know vampires still had to pay for health insurance? Comment below or tweet me @enr702 or find me live-tweeting @erinrlivetweets!

Below, watch a promo for next Thursday's episode "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here":

Photo Credit: The CW