“The Vampire Diaries” S5/E1 Recap “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
Warning: Full spoilers ahead!
It’s been a long wait, but finally the new season of “The Vampire Diaries” began last night! The multiple cliffhangers we were left with last season will definitely make for a unique and interesting plot for the coming months. Fortunately for us, “The Vampire Diaries” writers wasted no time answering some of our pending questions and moving the story forward from last season. So let’s dive right into the recap!
The Vampire Diaries Season Four Recap
In Mystic Falls, everyone is preparing for the start of a new school year. Caroline is packing and prepping her and Elena’s dorm room at their college, and Jeremy prepares himself for reentering high school and making a convincing story as to why he disappeared last season. Ghost Bonnie has Jeremy writing letters to her friends and family making them think she is alive and traveling the world. While this is happening, Damon and Elena cannot keep their hands off one another and seem to be truly in love. And sadly, Stefan keeps dying and coming back to life underwater in the safe Silas locked him in at the end of last season.
The night before she leaves for college, Elena receives an email from Bonnie. She asks Elena if she has heard from Stefan. Elena gets nervous thinking about Stefan and senses something is wrong with his disappearance; no one has heard from him in three months.
The next day, Caroline and Elena move into their dorm room. Caroline brings blood bags for the girls, and before they take a drink from some bags, a third and unexpected roommate arrives, Megan. Caroline is not too pleased to have another roommate and questions how this happened. Elena calls Damon, and he tells Elena they should compel the roommate. Caroline agrees but Elena explains she does not want their lives to be like it was in Mystic Falls with them constantly lying and compelling those close to them. Once Elena and Damon end their conversation, Katherine arrives at Damon’s, much to his surprise.
Meanwhile, Matt is back from his European vacation with Rebekah. Matt is working at the End of Summer block party, and Rebekah shows up to his surprise. She takes him away from his job and the two kiss, showing they clearly have feelings for each other. Rebekah gives Matt one more chance to change his mind and leave Mystic Falls with her forever, but he continues to refuse.
At the same party, Silas, who looks exactly like Stefan, arrives and sits with Sheriff Forbes. He slyly takes her hand and cuts into it, controlling her emotions while he drains her blood into a cup. Silas drinks the blood while explaining to the Sheriff he is not a vampire, but a 2,000 year old immortal creature that is superior to anything on the planet. Once he is done drinking the blood, Silas compels her and tells her to remember she met with Stefan, not Silas.
At the high school, Jeremy starts a fight at school because some guys start taunting him about his disappearance. He gets expelled and the principal calls Damon. Katherine answers the phone and pretends to be Elena, and she breaks the news to Damon. Drunk and desperate, Katherine drinks away her misery because she is now human. Damon offers to turn Katherine back into a vampire, but she refuses because she does not know if the curse will prevent her from turning back into a vampire, and thus she might die instead.
Inside the safe, the real Stefan wakes up again from the dead to find himself submerged under water. He begins to hallucinate a conversation between him and Damon. In the hallucination, Damon tries to convince Stefan to turn off his humanity in order to stop his misery, but Stefan won’t because he is afraid he will become a monster and should he ever escape, he will wreak havoc.
Back in their dorm room, Caroline starts going through Megan’s belongings trying to figure out who she is. She drinks one of Megan’s water bottles and finds out it is laced with virvain. When Caroline screams and spits out the water, Megan rushes into the room to check on Caroline because she heard screaming. After Caroline convinces Megan she is fine and simply choked, Caroline becomes convinced Megan knows they are vampires, but Elena tells her to wait it out and see what happens.
In order to get their minds off of their roommate situation, Caroline and Elena decide to go to a party on campus. When they get to the house, they find out they cannot get inside because they have not been invited inside. Megan is already inside and finds Caroline and Elena standing in the doorway. She asks them what they are doing, and the girls make up some excuse and leave. Their odd behavior makes Caroline believe Megan must definitely know they are vampires.
In Mystic Falls, Damon eats with Jeremy at the Mystic Grill and tells Jeremy he was able to get him back into school, but Jeremy needs to calm down and not start fights. Silas arrives and finds Damon at the bar. Happy to see his supposed brother, Damon has some drinks with Silas and talks about his summer. Silas reads Damon’s mind to see Katherine is at their mansion and asks Damon about it. Damon asks Silas how he knew about Katherine, and Silas explains he had a lucky guess. Jeremy approaches the brothers and when Silas puts his hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, Jeremy senses something is wrong. Silas leaves and Jeremy tells Damon Stefan is Silas; he knows this because he is a hunter and right before Silas killed Jeremy, Jeremy felt the same odd sense. Ghost Bonnie is with Jeremy and confirms his beliefs, but Damon cannot see her and does not believe Jeremy. Jeremy makes some valid points about Stefan’s disappearance and how odd it is for him to not contact anyone for three months, which makes Damon consider Jeremy’s claims about Silas.
Back outside the party, Megan calls Elena in a panic saying someone is chasing her. Elena and Caroline ask Megan where she is, and suddenly Megan falls from a window and lands lifelessly on the ground. Elena and Caroline rush to her body to find a vampire bite on her neck. Before the police come, Caroline steals Megan’s phone in order to look for clues and protect themselves. The police explain to Elena and Caroline that Megan committed suicide and left a note. The girls are left speechless as they know this is not the truth.
At the Salvatore mansion, Silas finds Katherine bathing. He tries to choke Katherine but she is able to run away. She runs into Damon and Jeremy who just arrives at the mansion, and Jeremy takes her away from Silas. Damon confronts Silas and figures out Silas is Stefan’s doppelganger. Damon wants to know what Silas wants with Katherine, but Silas won’t tell him. When Damon asks where Stefan is, Silas says he will tell Damon where Stefan is if he gives Silas Katherine. Damon doesn’t hesitate and calls Jeremy to ask him to bring Katherine back. While driving back, Katherine makes Jeremy crash their car in order to prevent Jeremy from bringing her back to Silas.
Meanwhile, Matt is still working at the End of Summer block party when one of the girls he and Rebekah saw in Europe shows up, Nadia. Matt follows Nadia to a dark alley and she gives him back the Gilbert ring. He questions why she would travel 4,000 miles to give him a ring, and she says she wanted to see him. As she puts the ring back on Matt’s finger, a man comes up from behind and grabs Matt’s neck. The man’s eyes turn black as he chants some spell, and snaps Matt’s neck.
Elena and Catherine go back to their dorm room. They find their door open and see someone has gone through Megan’s things. They notice her laptop is missing, and begin to through Megan’s phone to see if they can find any clues about why she was murdered and why the school seems to be covering it up. Elena finds a picture of Megan with Elena’s dad, and suddenly the story becomes much more complicated.
Back at the car crash, Katherine is severely hurt and Jeremy crawls away from the car and dies. Damon arrives just as Jeremy dies and rushes to his side to give him some of his blood to revive him. Damon’s blood works and Jeremy wakes up. Damon tells Jeremy to stop dying.
Inside the safe, Stefan wakes up again from the dead and has another hallucination. In this hallucination, Damon nearly convinces Stefan to turn off his humanity. Right before he turns his humanity off, Elena enters the hallucination. Stefan asks why Elena is in his hallucination, and she asks Stefan to not turn off his humanity for her. Stefan considers her request and decides not to turn off his humanity for Elena.
The episode ends with Silas interrupting Bonnie’s dad’s speech at the End of the Summer block party. Silas frankly tells the town about how much blood he has consumed from all of them and how he has manipulated nearly everyone in town throughout the summer. Bonnie is watching in horror as all of this happens, and once Silas has everyone at the party under his spell, he cuts Bonnie’s dad’s throat. Bonnie screams in horror and rushes to her dad’s side, unable to do anything about it because she is a ghost. Silas proceeds to compel everyone and tells them all he needs their help finding Katherine.
And that ends our first episode of season five! What a great way to start the new season! I am happy the writers wasted no time with letting our core group know Stefan is really Silas and that the real Stefan is locked up somewhere. I’m also glad they seem to be creating some new conflicts and mystery at Elena and Catherine’s college, because frankly the Silas story has nearly run its course. What has always been great about “The Vampire Diaries” is the writers ability to answer so many questions but what pose new ones all in the same episode. What does Silas want with Katherine now that she is human? How strong are Elena’s feelings for Stefan? And what did Nadia do to Matt? We will have to wait six more days to get some answers. See you next week!
