There was a lot of relationship drama in tonight’s installment of “TVD,” and not a ton of plot development—but somehow, I bet most of you didn’t mind.

As the episode opens, Ric is sitting in one of the Salvatores’ cells, waiting for his dark side to come out. The gang figures that when that happens, they’ll be able to figure out where he hid the last white oak stake. Elena and Damon, meanwhile, are heading to Denver to see Jeremy. They’re going to ask him to speak to the ghost of Rose, the vampire who sired Katherine. Hopefully, she can tell them which Original sired the Salvatores.

Our third plotline begins at Mystic Falls High, where students are setting up for an upcoming Decades Dance. Matt is acting extra nice to Rebekah, sticking up for her when Caroline attacks the other vamp and giving her a ride back to the Original mansion. What Rebekah doesn’t know is that she’s doing this so she can secretly meet with Tyler, who’s back in town—and ready to pick up right where he left off with Caroline.

Elena and Damon’s trip to Denver hits a snag when they discover that Kol has befriended Jeremy (who doesn’t know his pal is a vampire). Though the Original attacks our heroes, Damon manages to incapacitate him with a wooden bat, and the trio takes refuge in a seedy motel. There, Jeremy manages to make contact with Rose. She reminisces about the dream Damon gave her before she died, then tells them that she was sired by someone named Mary Porter. Though she doesn’t know where Mary lives now, she promises to do some detective work and find out.

Evil Ric isn’t cooperating, so Stefan decides to try to draw him out by getting Regular Ric drunk. As they’re having a meaningful discussion about the darkness within both of them, Klaus suddenly enters and savagely attacks Ric, intending to knock him out so that his evil side will come out. Instead, he kills Ric, and the vamps have to wait for him to revive.

Back at the Original Mansion, Rebekah discovers that she’s not alone. Her mother, Esther, is there—and she says she’s dying because the Bennett bloodline has been weakened. Rebekah is suspicious of Esther, but the Original Witch apologizes to her daughter and grabs her hands. Then she starts shaking and falls to the ground—apparently, Esther has died.

Back in the motel, Elena pretends to sleep and watches Damon brood. He notices she’s awake and lies down next to her. She asks why he doesn’t let people see the good in him; according to Damon, it’s because he doesn’t want to live up to anyone’s expectations. The air between them is charged, and it only gets stronger when Damon grabs Elena’s hand. She tries to diffuse the situation by getting up and leaving the room—but Damon follows her, and within a few seconds, she’s kissing him passionately.

The two make out until Jeremy walks out and catches them. Through his shock, he manages to reveal that Rose found Mary; she’s living in Kansas. The trio heads out to Mary’s place and gets there in what must be record time. Once there, Elena and Damon walk through the dark, creepy house, only to find that Mary’s been staked—by Kol. The Original taunts Elena and Damon, saying that now they’ll never find out which vamp the Salvatores are descended from. He savagely beats Damon for good measure before heading out.

Ric, meanwhile, is alive again. Unfortunately, his dark side still hasn’t come out. He tells Stefan that the only way they’ll get Evil Ric to emerge is to activate his sense of self-preseration… and to do that, Stefan’s going to have to nearly kill him. The plan sounds crazy, but of course it ends up working. Once Ric’s face gets bloody from Stefan’s beating, Stefan gives into his dark side, and his vicious attack draws out Ric’s alter ego.

By threatening to kill Evil Ric, Stefan gets him to spill that the last stake is in the cave that no vampire can enter. Klaus and Rebekah appear and get down to business. Rebekah’s going to go with Evil Ric to the cave and make him fetch her the stake, while Klaus will stay with Stefan. Klaus tells the Salvatore that he’s waiting for his old pal Ripper to come out, but Stefan says that he’s learned to accept his darkness. Now it can’t control him, and neither can Klaus.

Before Elena and a wounded Damon can share another moment, she pulls away. Damon intuits that she’s hoping he’ll do something to screw things up between them; that way, she won’t have to decide between the two brothers. This time, though, Damon’s determined not to make things easy for Elena. He tells her that she has to figure things out on her own.

In the car on the way back to Mystic Falls, the ghost of Rose appears to Jeremy—guess his Colorado sojourn is over—and tells him that though he doesn’t like Damon, he challenges and surprises his sister. Though Stefan’s definitely good for Elena, Damon is either the best person for her… or the worst thing that could ever happen to her.

Tyler and Caroline hit a snag when he spots the drawing Klaus made of her. He asks if the Original has a thing for Caroline, and she says he’s incapable of real feelings. Still, Tyler is jealous, and he decides not to spend the night at Caroline’s place.

A bloodied Evil Ric takes the white stake out from its hiding place as Rebekah watches. But before handing it to her, he tries to make a deal, saying that if she helps him, he’ll make sure she isn’t the Original who gets staked. And then Rebekah drops a bomb: She wants all the Originals to die. But, she isn’t really Rebekah—she’s Esther disguised as Rebekah. And she intends on helping Evil Ric get rid of the vamps once and for all.

滬江娛樂(lè)快訊：本周四《吸血鬼日記》播出的是第3季第19集Heart of Darkness，Elena和Damon一起出發(fā)，確定她的弟弟Jeremy在丹佛是不是過(guò)得好，并且想看看他的特殊能力是否可以幫助他們揭露那古老吸血鬼血緣的秘密。很快，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)Jeremy和一些壞家伙們混在一起。Stefan和Klaus都在極端地尋找他們失蹤的武器。當(dāng)Tyler回到小鎮(zhèn)上時(shí)，Caroline非常興奮，但他很快就開(kāi)始懷疑在C和Klaus之間，似乎發(fā)生了些什么……

CW預(yù)定的第3季一共為22集，劇情將越來(lái)越攀升到一個(gè)新的高潮。第20集Do Not Go Gentle-無(wú)需仁慈將講述在學(xué)校舉行的1920年風(fēng)格復(fù)古舞會(huì)上發(fā)生的事，Elena邀請(qǐng)了Stefan當(dāng)她的舞伴，Tyler、Klaus和Caroline的三角戲碼將會(huì)非常好看。

而在第21集Before Sunset-日落之前中，Klaus希望Elena和他離開(kāi)小鎮(zhèn)，但是驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)新敵人。準(zhǔn)備困難新咒語(yǔ)的Bonnie叫來(lái)了Abby幫忙，為了讓咒語(yǔ)生效，Bonnie和Jeremy必須經(jīng)歷非?？植赖拿半U(xiǎn)。Damon和Stefan坐下來(lái)十分坦率地進(jìn)行了一次對(duì)話，兩人談到了未來(lái)。

而本季的大結(jié)局也是眾人非常期待的，因?yàn)椤段砣沼洝访恳患镜募灸┒疾粫?huì)令人失望：第22集名為The Departed-逝者，Jeremy為了保護(hù)自己的姐姐，下了一個(gè)將改變一切的決定。在本集中，Elena的父母也將會(huì)登場(chǎng)，Elena很希望她的父母和Jenna阿姨都還活著，她和Matt的關(guān)系也令她很擔(dān)心。Stefan和Damon離開(kāi)Mystic Falls小鎮(zhèn)，一起去進(jìn)行一項(xiàng)任務(wù)，不過(guò)他們很快就分開(kāi)了，因?yàn)镋lena需要他們其中一人的幫助。Caroline和Tyler被迫將做出一個(gè)改變他們生活的決定。而B(niǎo)onnie則做出了一個(gè)秘密交易，換來(lái)的則是令她心碎的后果……每個(gè)角色都將面對(duì)新的選擇，新的道路，特別是Elena，她將會(huì)面對(duì)最難抉擇的：Stefan還是Damon？

《吸血鬼日記》最后三集將分別在北美時(shí)間4月26日，5月3日和5月10日播出。