The Vampire Diaries recap: Prom Pictures of You

How did no one die at the prom? That’s a little disappointing. But on the upside: The Stelena fans got a nice moment, as did the Staroline contingent. Sorry, Stebekah hopefuls. It appears that ship has sailed. Let’s dig in.

We opened with Bonnie visiting Jeremy’s grave to say goodbye and something better than her last words to him, “We did it.” Jeremy appeared and told her to wake up. She’d been dreaming and set the room on fire. Over at Salvatore Mansion, there was another fire, and the brothers were tossing a football in front of it so we could admire Damon’s biceps and recap where we stand: Elena hasn’t killed anyone this week, but she will if they make a move to get the cure and shove it down her throat. Plan A: They have to make her flip her humanity switch so she’ll WANT the cure, and Plan B: Lock her up until they can think of a Plan C. Once it’s over, Damon will help her deal with all the emotions she’s repressed since Jeremy’s death and Stefan will leave town.

At Klaus’ mansion, he and Rebekah tried to convince Elijah who should get the cure, and again, provide a little recap: Silas will torment Klaus until he gets it, but he’ll also open the floodgates so every dead supernatural being returns to our side. Rebekah really wants to be human. Elijah, being sensible as always (except for when he’s sleeping with Katherine), told Klaus his personal discomfort wasn’t enough of a reason to put the world in jeopardy. Klaus’ smile turned to a frown when Elijah agreed to give Rebekah a shot at happiness, and he told Rebekah when she’s dying and asking for his life-saving blood, he’ll deny her and compel her to forget him. There’s the Klaus we love to hate. Elijah’s ruling had a catch: Rebekah has to prove this isn’t just a whim. She must live one day without vampire privileges. ONE DAY? Oh, okay, it’s prom. So that counts for, like, 20.

Elena, who’s bunking with Rebekah, wanted to accompany her to make sure she passed Elijah’s test because as soon as Rebekah downs the cure, no one can force it on her. Solid plan. I almost wish we hadn’t seen shots of Elena at the prom before this episode aired. When we saw Caroline walk out of the dressing room wearing that magenta print (dress details here!), we knew Elena must steal it. Cruel! But truth be told: It’s a better color on Elena. Anyway, Bonnie was with Caroline telling her about her dreams of Jeremy/killing time until Caroline could remind us that Tyler wasn’t there to be her date. Caroline, Matt, and Bonnie are going together as friends. Sweet. I had friend prom, too, because my boyfriend was non-existent out of town. Elena seemed surprised to see Stefan get out of the limo that came to pick her up. Who was she expecting to be in it? She wasn’t happy to see Damon either when he told her they were going to make sure she didn’t eat the prom queen (a joke, but she really did end up attempting it).

Perhaps the boys should have been worried about Caroline. She interrupted Klaus’ fireside brooding to inform him of the “real crisis” that was Elena’s prom dress theft. The tailor couldn’t remember who’d picked up the gown, which meant she’d been compelled. So the vervain is out of the town’s water supply. (THAT EXPLAINS HOW SOME OF THESE KIDS ARE GOING TO GET INTO COLLEGE!) Klaus laughed at Caroline, obviously, but couldn’t resist her when she smiled and begged him to go into his “creepy trophy chest of family collectibles” and find her a gown that would make her look “Princess Grace of Monaco” hot. Is that a reference the kids are making these days? I know we got a great gown reveal at the prom, but I would have liked to have seen a montage of Caroline trying on dresses for Klaus. Wouldn’t you?

NEXT: This prom’s budget was bigger than yours

The prom’s theme was “Pictures of You,” and the red carpet walkway was lined with large screens flashing photos (of Elena and Matt, and Elena and Jeremy) that were meant to tug at Elena’s heartstrings. It started to work, so Elena moved inside. Damon stopped her from drinking from a flask I assume she pick-pocketed from someone and started working the “I’m your boyfriend, and we’re at prom, how romantic!” angle on her. She wasn’t biting, but her dialogue was: She told him he’s nothing to her and that she’d only told him she loved him when she still had her humanity because of the sire bond. On the one hand, it’s nice to see a teen girl who doesn’t think the prom is EVERYTHING. On the other hand, No Humanity Elena still sucks.

Bonnie and Matt tried to make Elena feel something next and failed. She knows Matt would have turned off his feelings if he could’ve after Vicki died, and Bonnie is just a walking reminder to her of the loss of Jeremy since she couldn’t bring him back. Bonnie stormed off for some fresh air and outside, she saw a photo of her and Jeremy at the ’60s Decade Dance. Because that’s a GREAT memory — that night that she faked her death in a confrontation with Klaus, who was in Alaric’s body at the time. Jeremy appeared in a tux and a teary-eyed Bonnie didn’t care if it was real. He asked her to dance, and she went to him.

Inside, while Matt delivered some brutal honesty to Rebekah at the punch bowl — no, he doesn’t think she’d make a good human since she never does anything nice — Stefan grabbed Elena for a dance and did his best to remind her what it felt like when he touched her waist, when their fingers intertwined, when he dipped her. “Does your heart really refuse to remember?” he asked her in a breathy, sexy voice. I certainly felt something! He raised her up, and you thought they were going to kiss. But no. “What heart?” Elena said. Cold! She walked away, and we saw that Damon had been watching. Elena may have felt nothing, but Stefan did.

Caroline finally made her entrance in a beautiful beaded gown that looked like it was from the ’20s. Stefan swept Caroline away for a dance before she could really lay into Elena. She is, after all, supposed to be killing Elena with kindness, not simply killing her. Even though Caroline talked about how she should be there with Tyler, and Stefan admitted a part of him hasn’t moved on from Elena, there was that lingering look when Caroline told him people eventually move on without even knowing it. Someday they meet someone new and fall in love again. (Or, they look at a friend in a new light?) Elena wasn’t jealous because something else had caught her attention: Rebekah trying to convince April to name her prom queen. Elena swooped in to threaten April, who’s still on vervain, and once again tell Rebekah what a horrible person she is.

Outside in the moonlight, Bonnie and Jeremy were still dancing. It was a beautiful shot, right up until we realized Steven R. McQueen doesn’t make the best Silas. Why was he altering his voice? It was distracting. Silas was still trying to convince Bonnie that she needs him to help her control her magic, which is now powerful enough for her to do the spell bringing down the wall to supernatural purgatory. She stormed back inside.

NEXT: Tyler comes home

Klaus and Elijah were doing another sort of dance at Klaus’ place. Rebekah had given Elijah the white oak stake, and Elijah presented it to Klaus as a peace-offering. Now Klaus had nothing to fear — except Silas’ torment, of course. Elijah said Klaus could outrun Silas if he had to, and that naturally made Klaus think of Katherine. What if he kills Katherine if Elijah won’t give him the cure? Elijah asked Klaus to let him have this opportunity to feel and to love — KATHERINE IS NOT WORTHY — and Klaus said hell no. If he doesn’t the get cure and ends up running, he’s headed to kill her. He’ll make sure Elijah is never happy. Elijah was unruffled. That little pat of Klaus’ face after Elijah called his life hollow was classic.

Back at the prom, Rebekah guilted Matt into dancing with her. In exchange, she flattered him by telling him why his opinion matters to her: He’s loyal, honest, kind, someone people root for, someone people die for. He’s a beautifully human busboy. Does that make up for her almost killing him? Discuss. Caroline bolted the prom after Damon was kind enough to share the flask he confiscated from Elena, and then this prom turned ugly — as all Mystic Falls High events do. Elena overheard Bonnie telling the Salvatores about Silas appearing to her as Jeremy, which she deduced means he still wants Bonnie to do the spell. Elena can’t have Alaric and Jeremy coming back and trying to make her flip her humanity switch. Matt and Bonnie were named Prom King and Queen — I can buy Matt, but Bonnie? No. — and Rebekah’s annoyance gave Elena an idea: Kill Bonnie to stop Silas.

At Tyler’s place, Caroline was prepping for the after party when Tyler showed up. Anyone else assume it was Silas because the hair was a little too high? Also, all Tyler wanted to do was dance with her? I expected a hotter reunion than that. We knew it was really Tyler when Silas posed as Stefan and stomach-staked Damon after arguing with him about Elena. Psychic Silas knew that seeing Stefan’s feelings resurface for Elena would be Damon’s nightmare. He’d staked Stefan in the woods, pretending to be extremely handsome Damon to get close to him. He wants them to back off Bonnie. She’s his, he said.

After Bonnie and Matt took their yearbook photos, Rebekah warned Matt that Elena was up to something regarding Bonnie. She could have been a tad more specific, right? Strange. Elena followed Bonnie into a special beaded-off VIP section and prepared to bite her. But Bonnie worked her magic, bringing wind and smashing some lights. She ran out and Elena, thoroughly pissed off, took her anger out on poor April. She smacked her head into a table then bit her. April dropped, and honestly, I’d hoped she was dead. That character just never took off. How many times can she be a victim? Matt carried April outside, I guess. No one saw? Where are the chaperones?! He wanted Rebekah to feed April her blood, and Rebekah knew if she did it, she was giving up her shot to be human.

Also, no one heard Bonnie start car alarms in the parking lot and scream at Silas to get out of her head as he awkwardly shouted “Control! Control!” at her. Bonnie succeeded in getting Silas gone, and then bam, Elena swooped in and bit her. But Bonnie’s neck healed and Elena projectile-vomited the blood back up. What’s in Bonnie’s blood now? How did she heal? Bonnie rose and started making Elena’s bones break. That, I enjoyed. It’s time this No Humanity Elena suffer. Stefan stopped Bonnie from killing Elena. As Damon held Elena, Stefan vervained her. Yay! Plan B.

NEXT: Even Elijah gets fooled sometimes

In the end, Rebekah did feed her blood to April, and Matt was going to keep it a secret for her because now he realizes she’s not all evil. They’re gonna have to work a little harder for me to want sexual tension between Rebekah and Matt. I’m not ready to go there, even if they both need a love interest. The problem was that Klaus had decided to come to the prom for some unknown reason and saw what had just happened. Rebekah argued that she’d acted with human decency and Klaus said no, the most human thing in that moment would have been if she could stomach standing by watching April die knowing she couldn’t help her. I think Elijah would have sided with Rebekah on this one. It was an interesting choice to show us Klaus arguing with Rebekah at the same time as Rebekah returning home to profess her success to Elijah. Did you think it was the real Rebekah with Elijah, or did you guess that Klaus had come to the prom to distract her so Silas could pose as Rebekah and be handed the cure? Rebekah called Elijah a second too late. The cure was gone. Cue single tear!

Tyler and Caroline danced their last dance, and he thought he could sneak out before anyone saw him. Wrong! Klaus was on the porch waiting to ask if it was worth it to give Caroline the night of her dreams. I guess he went there after he didn’t see Caroline at the prom. In the shared interest of not ruining Caroline’s evening, Klaus gave Tyler a five-second head start. Wouldn’t Caroline have heard Klaus’ voice and come running out?

Elena was deposited in the Salvatore Cellar and the brothers decided Plan C would be to make her life a living hell since Damon had seen fear in her eyes when Bonnie was about to kill her. More torturing of No Humanity Elena? Yes! Damon was concerned about Silas, both in terms of him posing as people and him getting to Bonnie. Stefan thinks Bonnie’s strong now, so it’s really the posing thing they have to contend with. Damon wouldn’t tell Stefan how Silas made him think he was his brother. Damon lied and said Silas talked about his hair so he assumed it was Stefan. To quote Stefan, “Funny.”

Before this episode could end, we had to set up why Klaus is heading to New Orleans for next week’s backdoor pilot for the Originals spinoff. He got a letter from Katherine telling him about a witch in New Orleans plotting a move against him. What this witch will tell Klaus will rattle him so much that he’ll no longer be concerned with hunting Katherine. She thinks this makes them square and will spare her heels. We’ll see.

The episode’s final moment brought us our first look at Silas’ real face. Bonnie had sought him out. He was hiding in the dark because Qetsiyah had made sure no woman would love him if he wouldn’t love her. She’d disfigured him. So does he want to die to be with his one true love, or would he live if he could find a new love? Are we thinking Bonnie will fall for him, and he’ll just take on Jeremy’s body permanently so we get Steven R. McQueen back? Too simple, right? And could McQueen carry that off?

Your turn. What did you think of the episode? For scoop and photos from next week’s episode, click here.