What?!?

The title of this post directly relates to my feelings while watching The Vampire Diaries last night. As if things weren't complicated enough, let's add another girl for Stefan to dwell on and suffer over for the next one-hundred and fifty years. Only one problem, whether he admits it or not, EVERYONE knows he is still in love with Elena. Exhibit A: the phone call from the premiere. Exhibit B: the fact that he didn't tell Klaus Elena was in the closet when he found her in there. Yet he still decides to stay with Klaus. As much as he believes he is doing it for Elena, I have a feeling he is enjoying his Ripper lifestyle just a little bit. "I've left bodies scattered from Florida to Tennessee. Innocent people, humans," he says. Right, and why would you want that to continue if it's not who you really are? Why would you not let them at least try to help you? Come Stefan, use your head.

The episode had a quaint 1920's feel, you know plus a ton of blood and fangs. Stefan and Klaus go to visit a witch named Gloria, the jazz singer from the club Stefan attended in the twenties. Klaus is still trying to discern why his attempt at a hybrid army failed, and Gloria has the answer. But she needs Klaus' sister, Rebecca, to do that. Not only is there the threat of another original on the loose, but she also happens to be another woman Stefan was in love with. Only Stefan doesn't remember. Why? Klaus wiped his memory.

Elena and Damon continue searching for Stefan and Klaus and Damon still tries to put the moves on Elena. She wakes up at six in the morning on top of Damon's chest (yeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!). "You know you were dreaming about me, explains the drool," he smirks. "Do you really have nothing better to do at 6 am?" she asks. Personally I would love to wake up on his chest every morning ,but that's just me ;). Thanks from a tip courtesy of Katherine, Damon tells Elena that Stefan and Klaus are in Stefan's old hunting grounds, Chicago. "He's in Chicago? How do you know?" asks Elena. "Came to me in a dream. I was naked. You would have loved it." Um, yes I would have thank you very much. Anyway, the two arrive at his abandoned apartment and Elena, in Stefan's "alcohol" closet, discovers a list of names of all the people Stefan's murdered. He takes their names to relive the kill over and over. "Still think you can handle this?" asks Damon.

Little by little pieces of Stefan's past are revealed. He makes a gentleman drink a glass of his wife's blood just to torture him and we find out his relationship with Rebecca grew stronger when they fed together. He was in love with her. (Just like Katherine, although that's still debatable, and just like Elena. Come on Stefan, just pick one.). A group of hunters after Klaus and Rebecca cause them to flee and Klaus wipes Stefan's memory. "You will not remember us until I tell you to." When Rebecca finds out, she is furious and Klaus stakes her for future purposes. On the way out of the club, however, Rebecca drops her necklace. What necklace may you ask? Why the one Stefan filled with vervain and gave to Elena (who is supposed to be dead) for protection. It also happens to be the necklace Klaus needs for Gloria to figure out what went wrong in the sacrifice, but who needs details? "I'm never coming home," he tells her. That's obviously not going to last long.

In an unrelated story, Caroline is being conditioned by her father to relate her vampirism to the pain of the sunlight. I say this, as rude as possible, the humans in this show tended to get dumber and dumber. Since when does a human practice work on a vampire? And he is supposed to have grown up knowing about vampires? He didn't learn very much. In a heroic team-up between Liz Forbes and Tyler Lockwood (yeeeep again), the two free Caroline. Later that night at home, Caroline says to her mother, "Thanks for not giving up on me." After her mom leaves, Tyler holds Caroline. "He hates me," she cries. "My dad hates me." I was in tears.

Klaus decides to pay a visit to Stefan's old apartment as well, while Damon had stepped out and Elena was there alone. She hides in the closet. It was the smoothest cover-up I've ever seen. Stefan looks in the closet and sees a Elena, barely flinches, and says, "Look what I found." What does he hand over? Not Elena, but a bottle of liquor. Held my breath on that one. Now try and tell me he doesn't love her.

As much I stand by that fact, the replacement of his memories may cause something of a problem. "I remember you," he says to Klaus at the end of the episode. Stefan looks across the room. "Rebecca." The episode concludes with a shot of Katherine in Chicago and she is certainly up to no good.
So once again I say "What?!?" Thoughts, comments, questions?