
Last time, on The Vampire Diaries, a lot bad things happened to all of our favourite characters. Isn’t that just the way of the show? I could start every article for the show exactly the same way. This episode doesn’t promise to be any kinder to our beloved friends but it does delve into Silas’ past which is interesting but a little predictable. This episode is emotional and heavy, so get your tissues ready!

Elena is playing with Stefan’s daylight ring and brooding over her guilt from ignoring her bad feeling about his wellbeing. Sound familiar? Damon and Elena decide to search for the bar in her dream and an unwelcome Katherine invites herself along. She tells them she cares about Stefan and so wants to help him, besides, if Elena is having the same dreams, she must also care about him more than she is willing to admit.

Silas’ story begins in ancient Greece two-thousand years ago, is with his love, who looks remarkably like the woman telling the story and she reveals that she is the same woman. She and Silas were part of a group called ‘Travellers’, whom we briefly met in the previous episode. Silas convinced Quetsiyah, a witch, that she was the love of his life so she would make an immortality spell. After discovering Silas was only pretending to love her and so she dumped him into a tomb with the cure. She’d hoped he would take the cure and his soul would then be trapped in a supernatural limbo. Silas wants to destroy the Other Side so he can take the cure and die to find peace. The woman now exposes her name: Quetsiyah. Dead for millennia but, when Bonnie brought down the veil at the end of season four, she reanimated herself to gain revenge on Silas through Stefan.

Matt is at work when he runs into Nadia behind the restaurant. She claims that she wants to protect Matt from Silas but he must trust her. She casts a spell and Gregor - the friend she murdered in cold blood - awakens in Matt’s body. She promises him that she’ll find a way to make it permanent as she loves him. Poor Matt! Only three episodes in and he’s been pushed around, killed and possessed twice already!

Back in Greece, Quetsiyah gives Silas the cure. As an incentive to make him take it, she tells him that she knows it works as she has already tested it on an immortal. Silas sprints to Amara’s tent to find it covered in blood. Quetsiyah had assassinated her and taken her heart. Quetsiyah tries to make Silas take the cure through the force of her magic so that he would want to take the cure she he could be at peace with Amara. However, Quetsiyah wanted him on the ‘Other Side’ so she could be with him forever and watch his misery. Meanwhile, Stefan realises that she’s not making him a daylight ring.

Meanwhile, Stefan’s restrained into a chair amidst a circle of herbs - ominous much? Damon sneaks in but is caught by Tessa. Her plan is to link Stefan to Silas to neutralise his mental powers, then force him to take the cure. Damon deduces that Tessa planted the dreams in the doppelgängers’ minds to lure Katherine into her clutches. Stefan, who is clearly in pain again, tells her to just get the spell over with.
Nadia drags a very displeased Katherine out of the woods - where Silas waits for them. Silas tries to compel Nadia to shoot herself but Tessa’s spell gets to him first. His, and Stefan’s, eyes start gushing blood and both fall unconscious.
Tessa hated being trapped on the Other Side. Who wouldn’t be? For centuries she had to endure watching countless versions of Stefan and Elena, or Silas and Amara - same difference - find each other, fall in love and separate.
‘Destiny has been trying to get the Doppelgängers together forever."

Elena puts Stefan's Silas-stolen daylight ring back on his empty finger while Damon tells her a condensed version of what Quetsiyah told him. In short, the universe is against them. They both proclaim their love for one another as a confused Stefan awakens. They both look awkward - and rightly so - and call out to him, but he has no idea who they are. Uh oh...

What stood ot most this week was Damon’s suffering. To be told the person you’re in love with can never be yours is a nightmare; it would be mask the pain on his face and he didn’t bother to hide it from Elena.
Personally, I want Stefan and Elena together, eventually, but this episode ruined that for me. If they end up together at the end of the show now, it would be far too predictable. However, if she doesn’t end up with him then there’s a risk it’ll feel forced it so that they can change destiny. What’s so special about them that out of all of the shadow versions, they’re the ones with the power to change destiny? I feel like that detail backed the writers into a corner - I look forward to seeing how they get out of it!
This was a busy and confusing episode which will require a few watches to fully understand but interesting and enjoyable. The writers have definitely written themselves into a corner with the love triangle but this season looks like it’s going to be very interesting. Looking back to season one, it’s almost impossible to believe just how far the show has come...