Kai Takes Jo

The episode starts with Jo calling Alaric to tell him she is going to be late for dinner. A young woman comes in with a wound to her abdomen. Then Kai stabs Jo.

Elena and Damon are looking through Alaric’s books for the Ascendant, but are interrupted with Alaric calls to ask if they have seen Jo. No one has seen her since last night when she and one of the stabbing victims went missing. That victim was clearly Kai. Damon makes a plan: They find Kai and kill him.

Tyler tells Liv and Luke they need to keep Kai alive so he can merge with Jo. But Luke argues, if Kai becomes their leader he is still a problem. Damon calls Matt and asks him to look out for Kai, but he and Jeremy are more focused on killing Enzo.

Damon isn’t worried about Kai searching for Jo’s magical knife because he hid it…Or so he thought. Liv and Luke did the locator spell for Kai and find where Jo is.

Kai tries to stab Jo’s magic back into her, it doesn’t work. She put her magic in the knife by choice, which means it has to be her choice to take it out. Luke leaves, but Liv stays and Kai threatens to slit her throat if she doesn’t figure out how to make Jo have her magic again.

Caroline’s Hour of Need

Caroline assumes she and her mom are canceling Christmas because she can’t return to Mystic Falls, but Liz brings Christmas to Caroline.

Stefan tries to make amends with Caroline by helping her decorate her dorm, but she wants him to go. He returns to catch a fainting Sheriff Forbes. Elena comes to Caroline’s aid and waits for word on Liz’s condition.

Stefan admits that after Tripp’s guys grabbed Liz, they brought her in for tests and found something. Elena compels the doctor to tell her what’s going on. The MRI has show a lesion on her brain stem that they think has metastasized on her spine. The worst part is Liz hasn’t told Caroline any of this.

Stefan tells Elena he will tell Caroline the news about her mother.

What To Do About Kai?

Damon figures that Tyler and the twins helped Kai find the knife. He calls Tyler who insists he is just trying to keep Liv alive.

Jo assumes Liv wants to help free her, but Liv won’t. She wants Jo to just merge with Kai because she thinks she is strong enough to defeat Kai. Kai returns and steals some of Liv’s magic to torture her. Jo takes her magic back to save her sister.

Damon and Alaric arrive at the cemetery. Damon makes a move on Kai, but gets thrown into the town border. Alaric is there ready to shoot Kai, but Jo stops him. If Kai dies, Luke and Liv will have to merge, but if Jo defeats Kai they don’t. Damon begs Alaric to shoot Kai, but he instead knocks him out.

Damon throws rocks at Kai, who is hiding behind a tree, when Kai realizes that it must have been a large spell to keep magic out of Mystic Falls. He sucks it up through the earth while Damon and Alaric fight about Damon wanting to kill Kai.

Elena tries to call Damon and tell him about Liz, but Kai’s magic has picked up and the reception is bad. Damon realizes that Kai is chanting something.

Damon tries to beat Kai, but he disappears. They find out the magic border is no longer there.

Matt’s Plan

Enzo shows up to meet Matt, who claims he has information about Monique. Enzo takes the file but only finds blank pages. Jeremy fires a stake at him, but Enzo catches it. Matt stakes him in the neck. He turns to attack Matt, but Jeremy stakes him in the back.

Jeremy wants to stake Enzo in the heart, but Matt wants to make him suffer. He warns Matt that an us against vampires mentality will drive in crazy and get him killed, but he still helps him move Enzo.

Matt drives Enzo over the border, but when he checks he finds Enzo alive and well.

Instead of killing Matt, Enzo tells him he was right earlier when he said he’d jealous of Stefan. He has everything and doesn’t deserve it. Enzo wants Matt to help him take Stefan’s happiness away and then he will decide what to do with Matt.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Damon goes back to his house and gets a call from Elena. She’s not sure what they are anymore, but she knows that after the day she’s had she wants to see him.

Stefan tells Caroline about her mother and holds her as she cries.

Stefan comes back home and gives Damon his car all fixed up. He tells Damon not to die again. There’s a knock on the door and Damon answers it. Elena’s there trying to speak to him, but he doesn’t see her. Kai has put a cloaking spell on Elena and then knocks her out.

1994 Christmas

Bonnie is still stuck in 1994, but she is remembering old Christmas memories as she drags a tree to the High School parking lot because it is time to decorate the tree.

As Bonnie tries to decorate the tree we flash back to the girls freshmen year in high school. It was around the time Caroline’s father comes out as gay and Bonnie’s father was about to move away.

Bonnie lights her tree up and in the flashback we see Liz give a speech at the Winter Festival and tree lighting in 2009. Caroline is upset after Stefan gave her a snow globe key chain, but Bonnie happy with the bracelet Caroline gave her.

Bonnie and Jeremy are both at the town Christmas trees. Bonnie misses everyone, he misses her. She lights her tree on fire and walks away.