'The Vampire Diaries' Recap: Damon Shows Elena The Way To His Heart. She Loves It.

Also, uh... is Katherine dead now? Just checking. Track and field! Bonfires! Cheerleading practice! After ignoring Mystic Falls High for what seemed like forever, the Oct. 20 episode of The Vampire Diaries was (literally) exploding with school spirit. But the best class of all was chemistry -- and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) racked up some major extra credit.

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I’ll start this week’s review by dissecting that epic “Delena” scene, because I honestly can’t stop going over it in my head. Elena started training in order to better protect herself against Stefan (Paul Wesley), so Damon seized the opportunity to get physical. Not even the most die-hard “Stelena” fan could deny the heavy breathing that went down as Damon’s hands worked their magic on every inch of skin they could find. For a girl trying to develop self-defense skills, she sure wasn’t putting up a fight.

The “Delena” love-fest continued at the bonfire when Stefan caught her pining over Damon from across the party. There’s nothing going on between Damon and Rebekah (Claire Holt), but seeing them acting flirty drove Elena insane — and rightfully so.

(CLICK HERE to vote for which brother had better chemistry with Elena this week.)

But while Elena and Damon moved ever closer to doing the inevitable nasty this week, not every Mystic Falls couple fared as well:

For starters, I guess I was right when I predicted a brewing triangle between Caroline (Candice Accola), Tyler (Michael Trevino) and Rebekah. Not only was Caroline totes annoyed that Bex joined the spirit squad — thanks for getting killed and leaving a spot open, Dana — but she was also miffed when she found out Tyler had been mingling with “Barbie Klaus” behind her back.

And even though Tyler and Caroline served up an amazing “Forwood” scene towards the end of the episode — he told her “Everything I love about myself… is you,” then proceeded to ravage her — Rebekah ultimately entered the scene to spoil their fun. She brought Tyler a little gift to snack on, and I’m thinking the more she’s able to push him towards his hybrid nature, the further she’s going to push him away from Caroline.

The ghosts also stirred up trouble in “Beremy” land this week, as Bonnie (Kat Graham) finally told off Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) for allowing Anna (Malese Jow) to stick around and get between them. And if you think Anna’s not a threat to their relationship, think again. By the end of the episode, Jeremy and Anna were actually touching hands — and that’s like third base for a ghost!

Bonnie also added fuel to my “Batt” theory when she chose to help Matt (Zach Roerig) with his own ghost problem over staying to help Jeremy with his. Vicki (Kayla Ewell) convinced her weepy-eyed brother to help her cross over to the land of the living, only to reveal her true intentions of killing Elena. After a very Secret Circle-esque scene that involved Vicki trapping Elena in a burning car, Matt realized the error of his ways and worked with Bonnie to send Vicki back into ghostly obscurity.

But this wouldn’t be The Vampire Diaries without a twist ending — and this week’s episode had two amazing shockers. First, Katherine’s life now hangs in the balance after she revived Mikael (Sebastian Roché) and he decided to have her for a snack. Honestly, why did she think it would be a good idea to bring back a vampire who freakin’ hunts other vampires? Sometimes Katherine makes Elena look smart.

And just when I thought the episode couldn’t get any better, along came twist No. 2: Damon was knocked on his butt by a not-so-friendly ghost named Mason freakin’ Lockwood! (Welcome back, Taylor Kinney. Mystic Falls simply has not been as beautiful since you left.

— Andy Swift

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