Do You Remember?
Picking up right where the last episode ended, we see that Elena’s memories of Damon do not come back to her when she opens the door. All she can remember is all the bad things he has done. She knows she loved him, but she doesn’t feel anything now.
Damon goes to visit Alaric after being shut down by Elena. He knows Alaric would take back the compulsion if he could. Jo comes in and tells Damon that saving Alaric wasn’t an act she can do for other vampires. Jo invites Alaric to the hospital fundraiser.
Liam arrives to invite Elena to the same fundraiser as his date and to tell him that he is going to look into that woman she healed at the corn maze.
Stefan and the Gang
Stefan, Enzo and Matt have Tripp locked and tied up in a secret place. Stefan wants to kill him, but Matt wants to wait for the vervain to leave his system so they can just compel him and Enzo wants to know what Tripp’s guys are up to. He spills that they are tracking vampires, like Caroline. Stefan goes to get Caroline but tells Enzo to take time to get more information and then kill him.
Stefan shows up at Caroline’s dorm to tell her she isn’t safe, but she doesn’t want his protection. Her mother calls because Tripp’s men have her. Caroline goes with Stefan and calls Enzo. He tells Tripp and Matt about Liz and Tripp says to send him with Matt to the border to exchange them.
Caroline and Stefan meet up with Enzo and Tripp. Caroline and Stefan start fighting and Enzo figures out that Caroline has a thing for Stefan. The exchange is made, but when Tripp walks across the border he starts to die. Enzo had turned him into a vampire.
Caroline has her mother get checked out, which gives Stefan and Caroline time to talk about what Enzo said. He asks why she has a thing for him and how he missed it. She tells him when she woke up as a vampire, he told her that she would get through it and she did. When she watched Elena move on with Damon she couldn’t imagine why anyone would let Stefan go. He was her best friend and she trusted him. He apologizes for not seeing it. She says she knows what he was feeling and it wasn’t the same thing as her or he wouldn’t have walked away. She accepts his apology, but still hates him because if she doesn’t hate him for ruining their friendship then she has to hate herself for ruining it.
Mystic Falls 1994
Back in 1994, Bonnie wakes up to find Kai trying to put the Ascendant back together. He threatens her that he can take her magic, but she stabs him with a pen and runs to the hospital with the broken pieces.
Bonnie realizes she is missing the last piece right when Kai shows up with it. She tries to out run him, but he catches up with her in Damon’s car. Kai brings her her stuffed bear and claims that he won’t try to kill the rest of the Gemini coven because he realizes he can get his family back. She pretends to believe him and tells him to get ready to go home.
Bonnie does the spell, but nothing happens. We see blood fall on the bear and we find out she hid her magic in the bear. The bear is gone and Kai isn’t happy.
Hospital Fundraiser
Alaric and Jo arrive at the fundraiser and we find out that Jo is there as the guest of honor because she patented a battlefield medical clamp. Damon crashes the party. He is happy to see Elena, but she is with Liam. He watches Liam kiss Elena. Elena has to explain why the boyfriend she said was dead is here alive. Damon compels Liam to tell him the truth about he feels.
As Damon and Elena dance, he describes how he filled in as her escort at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. She knows he wants to resume where they were, but she is guilty that she can’t remember anything.
Alaric and Jo toast to being human and we learn she gave up her magic and put it away from safe keeping. She has removed herself from her dysfunctional family.
Elena leaves Liam and goes off with Damon. She tells him that missing a part of herself is driving her crazy so she is willing to try to get the memories back. She asks him to take her to the last place she told him she loved him.
Delena
Damon takes Elena to the Mystic Falls border and tells her about the night she climbed into the car with him before they died. She wants a happy story so he tells her there’s an ice machine in Denver that has some happy memories and her post-grad speech about loving him, and a summer night where they went out to see a meteor shower that got wrecked by rain. She tells him that she only sees a stranger when she looks at him regardless how much she learns. She goes across the border and we see images of them together from past episodes, but she starts to cough up water. He pulls her back and she tells him she is trying to break the compulsion.
Damon takes Elena home and she tells him she remembers parts of it. She asks what happened after the rain started at the meteor. Damon tells her that she has a chance at the normal life she wanted before he came along. He loves her enough to let her go. He wants her to be happy so he tells her that it rained, got muddy and she asked to go home so they left.
Liam comes to see Elena and tells her that the girl she saved no longed needs the surgery she needed because her injury had healed. He thinks Elena has secrets and she has to tell him them or he will figure them out himself.
Damon walks to the family tomb and we see what really happened during the meteor storm. It did start to rain, but rather than leave, they kissed passionately in the rain after she made him promise their relationship was forever. As he walked by the tomb, Damon finds Bonnie’s bear. He knows she’s alive.