'The Vampire Diaries' recap: The New Deal 

As Caroline helped Klaus recover, Elijah returned and got himself hurt




This could be the moonshine cocktails I consumed at a party before watching this episode talking, but I was very sad to see the TV rating for this hour didn’t include an ‘S.’ I thought the shocking and horrifying thing that Daniel Gillies teased Elijah would do was get hot and heavy with Elena, who'd attempt to seduce him for the cure. But no. It was that he’s been hooking up with Katherine since she first heard about the cure and reached out to him to broker a deal with Klaus for her freedom. Couldn’t we have gotten a steamy flashback to their first time, Scandal-style? Perhaps someday...

As the episode began, Elena and Rebekah were having a tough time finding Katherine. Elena wanted to have a bite to eat before they drove to yet another town. She was about to feed on a woman when the would-be victim said, “Katherine, what are you doing?” Katherine had compelled
the whole town to let her feed on them. Though most people prefer the neck, this woman preferred the wrist. (Me, too, I imagine, unless I was, like, in love with the vamp. I told you I've been drinking!) Rebekah tried asking about Katherine, but then the woman didn’t know her -- Katherine had also compelled them to forget all about her unless they were talking to her. She is a clever one. Elena attempted to interrogate the woman about “her” whereabouts and friends, and the woman said they were told they could all be friends with her as long as they kept her secret. What secret?

An offscreen Sheriff Forbes proved efficient this episode: She tracked down Damon’s car after Katherine and Rebekah ran out of gas and abandoned it. She’d also tracked the car they’d stolen after it, so once Damon filled up the tank, he and Stefan were off to the cream corn capital of Pennsylvania, too. Damon was looking on the bright side of things: If Rebekah takes the cure, they can kill her. But then Elena is a vamp forever, Stefan reminded him. “Elena without humanity is a stone cold bitch, and I won’t trust her until we get the old Elena back,” Damon said. Finally, they're on the same page.

Klaus, meanwhile, was shirtless (yay!) and in pain (boo!) because he thought a piece of the white oak stake was still inside his back in a spot he could not reach.