Later, Alaric walked towards his car, and Isobel appeared...
"Hi, Ric."
"Isobel. What do you want?" He asked.
"Just cleaning up some loose ends."
"We don't have any loose ends." He tells her.
"You may not, but I do. I need to apologise to you."
"It's a little late for that." He says and tries to get into his car.
"No, not for what I've done in the past. We're beyond that. Although, I am sorry for outing you to your girlfriend. That was petty of me."
"Look, whatever jacked-up vampire amends... that you're trying to make with me right now, I'm not interested." He says.
"Of course not because I compelled you to let me go. I realised that I don't wanna do what I have to do... without you knowing how much I loved you. And I did. I loved you so much. And I wanted to say thank you for looking out for my daughters. He's all yours."
A guy came up behind Alaric and placed either hand on Alaric's head, and Alaric groaned and fell to the floor.
She walked away, and her eyes watered.
Damon was still standing outside the house...
"Wanna hurry it up in there?" Damon asked.
He was going to walk towards the house when the door shut on its own.
"Screw you too, Emily. You know, you're on your own in there." Damon said, walking away from the house.
Inside the house...
"Can you hand me the Grimoire?"
He signed and grabbed the Grimoire from his bag.
"Are you sure about this?" He asked.
"Are you worried about me?"
"Yeah, of course I am." He says.
She kissed him to reassure him.
"I'm sure."
She opened the Grimoire and closed her eyes, and they heard whispering nearby.
"What is that?" He asked.
"The spirits of the witches who died here. I can feel them."
"All right. What are they saying?" He asked.
"I can't... I can't tell."
She listened to the whispers.
"All right. Great." He said, crossing his arms.
She walked further into the house, and he followed.
He grabbed his bag.
"Where are you going?" He asked and followed her.
"Here."
Bonnie heard the whisper.
"This is it." Bonnie says. "Help me set the candles."
He did what she asked.
The whispering became louder.
"What the hell are they saying? What is it?" He asked, standing beside her.
"Nothing." She tells him.
The flames lit up around them.
"They're ready." She says.
Back at the Lockwood's...
"Here to accept the donation to the Miranda Sommers Gilbert scholarship fund... is her daughter, Ellie Gilbert."
Ellie signed, and everyone clapped, including Stefan, and he smiled at her.
Ellie walked over to Carol.
John watched Ellie walk over, and Isobel showed up.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I'm creating a distraction."
He frowned, and she bit into his neck.
Ellie had to make a speech.
"The historical society was my mom's baby. She considered all of you family... and would be honoured and touched by this gift..."
Ellie's speech was interrupted, and they all heard a thump down the stairs. Stefan turned around to see John.
Ellie went to walk over when Katherine appeared in front of her.
"Nice jumpsuit. Mind if I borrow it?" Katherine asked, speeding away with Ellie.
Stefan checked on John, noticing the bite mark, and he looked up the stairs.
Carol pushed through the crowd, and she stood in front of John.
"Please, let the Sheriff do her job." Carol said.
Liz came over and kneeled beside John.
"He's, uh, bleeding. Is he okay?" Stefan asked, staring at her, pretending to be clueless.
"Yeah, I got it. I got it." Liz tells him.
Stefan stood up, and he frowned, looking for Ellie in the crowd.
Liz saw the bite mark.
"All right. Let's back off. He needs some air. Everything's fine." Liz tells everyone.
Stefan walked back into the room where Ellie was making her speech.
"Ellie? Ellie?"
He turned around, seeing her on the phone. He frowned, looking at her, knowing he hadn't seen her there a second ago when he entered.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm calling Damon."
"Let's get out of here. Come on." He says, wrapping an arm around her waist.
Later, a car was driving down the road, and the real Ellie lay unconscious in the back seat...
Isobel was driving the car, and Isobel looked back at her.
Back with Stefan and "Ellie," they walked away from Lockwood's...
Ellie: "It's Isobel, Damon. It's gotta be."
"Tell him he needs to get over here and deal with John's body." Stefan tells her.
Ellie: "You got some serious explaining to do to the Council... about John being not-so-dead."
She hung up, and he shoved her against Ellie's car.
"What gave me away?" She asked.
"She'll never call Damon. Ever. She'll call me first. Where the hell is she, huh?"
She stabbed a needle into his side, filled with vervain.
He groaned.
"I'm sorry, Stef, but I can't have you following me."
He growled at her.
"I'm gonna kill you." He says.
She throws him into the bushes.
Back with Bonnie and Jeremy...
He jumped, hearing a voice whispering.
Bonnie stood there, crying.
"Oh, God." She says.
"Bonnie? Bonnie? You're scaring me here." He says.
She screamed.
"Bonnie!" He shouted and went to walk over to her.
He got flung back. He tried getting up, but he couldn't move.
Bonnie continued screaming.
As soon as he could move, he ran over to her.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"I did it."
She rested against him, and he placed his arms around her.
Back with Carol and Liz, Carol saw the guests out...
"I'm sorry for the scare; it was just a bad fall. The paramedics are on their way." Carol says.
Damon walked in.
"Hey. How is he?" Damon asked.
"He's dead." Liz tells him.
Damon kneeled down. He checked on the bite mark, then lifted his hand up, seeing the ring, and dropped it again.
"He'll be fine in a couple of hours." Damon tells them.
"What are you talking about? Damon, he's dead." Said Carol.
Damon's face twisted.
"Well, here's the thing. John's ring? It's an old Gilbert family heirloom that protects its owner from death... by a supernatural entity."
"But he's not breathing. He has no pulse." Carol tells him.
"He will be. Trust me. We're gonna need a cover story." He said, pulling John's body with him.
Carol and Liz watched him.
"Epileptic fit, alcohol binge, banana peel. Whatever works. Right now, I just have to get him out of here."
Liz left Lockwood's on the phone, telling them it was a false alarm...
She saw Matt.
"Hey."
"Sheriff Forbes." He says.
"Matt, what's wrong?"
"I wanna see Vicki's file." He tells her.
"What?"
"My sister. I want to see her file. I wanna see how you covered up that she was killed by a vampire." He says.
"Matt, you need to calm down. You're upset. You don't know what-"
"Don't lie." He says, grabbing her arm.
She placed him over the car.
"You need to calm down now."
Back with Damon, he carried John in over his shoulder...
He looked around before he dropped him on the floor.
He signed, noticing he had blood on himself, and he went up to his bathroom to get cleaned up. He removed his shirt, and his phone rang.
Damon: "Stefan? How did I beat you and Ellie home? What?"
He slammed the phone on the counter, and he checked the soap bowl.
"Oh, no, no." He says, swiping it onto the floor angrily.
With Isobel, she continued driving, and her phone rang...
Isobel: "Are we good to go?"
Ellie was still unconscious in the backseat.
Katherine: "I'm at your house. But we have to hurry. Damon knows your lodging tricks. It will take them 20 minutes to find out where you're staying."
Isobel: "We'll be long gone before that."
Katherine: "Good. How far are you?"
Isobel: "I'm sorry, Katherine... but I had to do what I was told."
Ellie stirred in the backseat, and her eyes fluttered open. She heard Isobel on the phone.
Isobel: "He wanted the moonstone, and he wanted you."
Katherine: "He? He who?"
Isobel hung up, and Katherine turned around to find a guy standing behind her.
She screamed, and he used his magic on her.
Caroline stood outside her house, and she called Matt...
Caroline: "Hey, Matt, if you're listening to this, it means you've listened... to the last 25 messages I've left you, which all say the same thing. So call me."
She hung up and took out her keys to unlock the door when she saw Matt standing in her house.
"You're here."
"Your mom brought me here." He says.
"My mom?"
"I accused her of covering up Vicki's death, and she threatened to arrest me."
"Did you tell her anything else?"
"Nothing about you. I got the feeling she wasn't gonna believe anything I said, so I shut up. She brought me here to cool down, and then she got called away." He tells her.
"Matt."
He stepped back.
"Why did you stick around if you're scared of me?"
"Because I need to know more. About Vicki. About you." He says.
"I'll tell you anything you wanna know."
Back with Jeremy and Bonnie, they started the long walk home...
"There has to be something in the Grimoire to help us translate that chant."
"It was just a warning." She says.
"What kind of warning?"
"It's not important." She tells him.
"It is important to me, okay?"
"It's a lot of power to have access to. They were just telling me to be careful with it." She tells him.
"Exactly how much power can you draw from a hundred dead witches?"
She decided to show him, and the leaves blew everywhere, the light of the sky turning pitch black. Thunder strikes the sky.
"Bonnie."
She stopped, and she turned it back to the way it was.
"The answer to your question is: a lot." She tells him.
Damon and Stefan pulled up to the house that Isobel was in earlier...
"I swear to God, Damon, if they've hurt her..."
"Let's calm down. Let's see if she's here. If they've hurt her, we'll take it from there." Damon says.
"Think this is the house?"
"Better be. It's the nicest foreclosures." Said Damon.
"She better be here..."
They walked into the house.
"I got upstairs."
Damon nodded. He looked around downstairs, and Stefan ran back down.
"This is Isobel's stuff. It's definitely the right place." Damon tells him.
"Then where the hell is Ellie? Where is she?"
"I don't know, Stefan." Damon says.
They left the house, and Stefan slammed the door shut behind him.
Back with Ellie and Isobel, a man now drove into Grove Hill Cemetery...
A man got out of the driver's seat, and he walked to the back to open the car door, and Isobel stepped out.
"Just because you can't be compelled... doesn't mean I can't force you to come with me."
Ellie groaned, and she got out of the damn car.
"Is that what happened? You were compelled to betray Katherine." Ellie said.
"If I was, I couldn't tell you."
"So you lied. You did find Klaus, didn't you? He knows where I am now. Are you taking me to him? Because if so, that little bit of guilt that I felt for what I said this morning... that would be gone." Said Ellie.
She ignored her, and she kneeled beside a gravestone.
Ellie scoffed. "What is this?"
Isobel cleaned the leaves off, and Ellie looked at the name. It was Isobel's own grave.
"My parents... yours and Elena's grandparents. They put it here when it became clear... that the police weren't gonna find my body. They visit every week, and they bring flowers... even though there's no one buried here. The Isobel they knew is dead."
"I've noticed that, Isobel." Ellie says.
"So maybe there's a part of me that's buried here. You know, the... the human part. The part that abandoned you two when I... when I chose to become a vampire. The part that used to dream... about the day that she'd know her daughters."
"What?" Ellie asked, looking confused.
Isobel shrugged.
"Instead, you both got to meet the other part. The part that would betray her own flesh and blood."
Isobel's phone rang, and she answered it for the guy who had taken Katherine.
Maddox: "I have Katherine and the moonstone. Is the doppelgänger safe?"
Isobel: "Yes."
Maddox: "Then let her go."
Isobel: "Let her go."
Ellie turned to look at Isobel.
Maddox: "Klaus has everything he needs for now. Your part is finished. You did what he compelled you to do."
Isobel: "I'm done?"
Maddox: "You're done."
He hung up.
She pulled the phone away from her ear, and Ellie saw the calm look on her face. It was almost like she was relieved.
"What was that about? Who was it?" Ellie asked.
"I'm so sorry, Ellie. I was such a disappointment to you."
"Let me give you some piece of advice. Hold on to Stefan. Don't let him go. No matter what he does. Anyone can see that he'll protect you with his life. Don't make the same mistakes I did."
Ellie nodded, confused. She had no intention of breaking up with Stefan.
Ellie watched as Isobel's hand went to her necklace.
"Wait! What...?" Ellie asked, trying to stop her, but it's too late; she's already done it.
She screamed, and the sunlight set her on fire.
Ellie watched, mortified.
Isobel fell to the floor, and Ellie gasped.
Back with Caroline and Matt...
"After I hurt you in the woods, I made you forget... and I promised myself I would stay away from you. But I couldn't... because I love you. I do. I love you, Matt, so much. And I'm so sorry about what happened to Vicki. And I really wish you'd say something." She says.
"I'm all alone."
"No, you're not." She says, shaking her head.
"My mom doesn't care. My sister's dead, and all of my friends are liars. And you're a..."
"I'm still me. I'm still me. It's just... I'm just a little bit..." She says, sitting next to him on the couch.
"Don't, no."
He stood up.
"This is too much. All of this is just too much. I don't wanna know this."
"Tell me what I can do. Tell me what I can do. I wanna help you." She tells him.
"You can make me forget. You've done it to me before."
"I don't... I don't think that's..." She stammered.
"Please make me forget, Caroline. I don't want to look at you and see what I'm seeing right now."
"But maybe after a little while..." She shrugged.
"Just make me forget, Caroline!"
He had never shouted at her before, and she cried.
"Okay. Okay, Matt." She said, standing in front of him, and placed her hands on either side of his head.
Back with Ellie, she sat on the chair in the living room of the boarding house, and Stefan walked over to her...
"What's that?"
She held up the necklace.
"That Isobel's?"
"I never thought I would feel bad about her being dead, and yet..." She said, trailing off.
"She was still your mother, Ellie."
"Why did they let me go?" She asked, looking up at him.
"Well, anything that John told Isobel, we have to assume Klaus knows, right? He knows that you're not gonna turn yourself into a vampire. He knows you have me keeping you safe."
"He knows I'm not gonna run." She says.
"Which is why we need to take some precautions. Because we got played. All of us." Damon says, placing a file on Ellie's lap.
"Okay. I'm tired; I've not slept in like 24 hours... what is it?" She asked, staring at them.
"Stefan's idea. He can explain." Damon says.
"The deed to our house. In Zach's name. As soon as you sign it, it will be in your name." Stefan says.
"You're giving me your house?" She asked, looking at them.
"Isobel had a point about the safe house, but you can stay here with me until it's over. That way, you have complete control over who gets invited or who doesn't." Stefan says.
"I'll be super-pissed if you lock me out." Damon said, smiling at her.
John gasped, sitting up, and Stefan sped over to him, grabbing him by his clothes.
Ellie stood up.
"I swear, Stefan, I had no idea what she was gonna do. I'm sorry." John tells him.
John looked at Ellie.
"I'm so, so sorry."
"Stefan, it's okay. I'm okay. Let him go. Stefan." Ellie says, looking at him.
"You're lucky. She's not hurt, John. Because they would be sewing all ten toes and fingers back on." Said Stefan.
"John and I... we need to talk." Ellie tells Stefan.
Back at the Gilbert house, Jeremy was looking over at some papers, and Bonnie walked in...
"I told you not to worry about that." She says.
"A warning. That's all you felt like telling me? This is some kind of warning, Bonnie. It says here, if you use too much of your powers at once, it will kill you."
She sat on the couch beside him.
"How much would it take to kill an Original?"
"All of it." She tells him.
"No. I'm not gonna let you do that."
"Do you think I was born with these abilities, Jeremy, so I could float feathers and blow out candles? There's a reason I was called to do this." She says.
"No one's called to get themselves killed. We all had a go at Ellie for that. Plus, Ellie's not gonna let you die for her."
"That's why you're not gonna tell her, Jeremy. Promise me?"
"Do you even understand what you're saying now?"
"Yes, okay, part of it is for Ellie. But it's not just for her, Jeremy. It's for you; it's for everyone. If I am the only one who can put an end to this... then it will be my decision. No one else's. Mine." She said, and stood up, walking away.
He throws the pad on the table.
Later, Matt got into Liz's cop car...
"I did it. I drank that vervain stuff... and I went over there, and I got her to tell me everything. Then I asked her to take it away."
"Thank you, Matt. I know this isn't easy... but I'm glad you told me what happened last night. I want you to tell me everything she said." She says, her voice cracking.
"I feel like she died."
"Oh, she did." She cried.
With John and Ellie...
"I always knew that she and Katherine were close... I never realised that Isobel and her were working against me. Two of the world's most uncaring and selfish vampires... and yet they were genuinely friends."
"John..." She says, signing loudly, looking at him. "If that's what you thought of her, why did you put your trust in her? Why bring her back into our lives?"
"Don't you get it, Ellie? I've never lied to you since I've come back here. I watched her give birth to you and Elena, Ellie. I saw how heartbroken she was to give you two up. And because she was the first girl I ever loved. And when she said she'd help keep you safe... I stupidly believed her. At this point, Ellie, I will do whatever you want me to do. If you feel safer with me not around, just say so. I'll go."
Her mouth opened and closed, and he nodded at her.
He got up from the couch, and he walked towards the front door.
"You know, ever since you've set foot in Mystic Falls... I've just wanted you to get the hell out of Mystic Falls. You screw everything up, John. Everything you touch falls apart. And I really, really want to put my trust in you... but all you've done is let Elena and me down." She tells him.
"I know."
"I'm not finished. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. I wanna see if you are being honest. And quite frankly, you're the only parent Elena and I have left. So maybe I can learn not to hate you." She tells him.
He smiled.
"Okay. Are you scared?"
She shrugged.
"Honestly? Yes." She says, nodding softly, looking down at the carpet.
"Then we will find a way. I'll even work with Stefan and Damon."
With Stefan and Damon...
"Hey, Bonnie said the spell worked. She's locked and loaded."
"At least something went right. Hm. You know what I've just figured out? Katherine has no idea that Bonnie got her powers back. And Isobel had no idea... what you and Jeremy took Bonnie to do today." Stefan says, handing him a drink.
"Uh-uh."
"We're the only ones who know." Stefan tells him.
"That literally makes Bonnie our secret weapon."
Stefan and Damon clinked glasses.
Later, Maddox was chanting, and Katherine woke up on the ground...
She sat up, and she saw the blood in the small containers.
Maddox stopped chanting, and the man in the chair stood up.
Katherine looked up at him.
"Alaric?" She asked.
He smiled at her.
She ran towards the door, but she was locked in that room and was spelled not to leave.
"Zdravei, Katerina." He says in a foreign language.
He grabbed her face.
"I have missed you."
"Klaus." She says.
He smiled at her.
Song: No song was played during these scene.