Trama

Damon and Bonnie are trying to come up with a way to come back from the otherside, while Stefan tries to help Elena start fresh.

Damon is forced to relive one of the worst days of his life while he and Bonnie find clues to get home; Alaric tries to help Jeremy cope with the loss of Bonnie; Stefan shows Elena what it is like to create a new life; Tripp tells Matt a secret.—Victoria Jackson

While trying to cope with the death of his brother, Stefan teaches Elena how to start over which has repercussions. Back in 1994, Bonnie and Damon learn more about Kai and why he is trapped with them. Tripp lets Matt in on a secret. Alaric and Jeremy have a heart to heart moment.

Kai continues his games toying with Bonnie and infuriating Damon, who is forced to recount his worst day ever, when he murdered uncle Zach Salvatore's pregnant wife and damaged Stefan's trust forever. The trapped pair learn Kai's a serial killer who lost his witch powers after exterminating his coven, but can tap into another witch's and knows how to get them back using the eclipse. Alaric has to take serially drunk Jeremy, into whom he confides his own sad experience with lost lovers, to the ER, but enjoys a verbal spar with Dr. Jo Laughlin. Matt offers to accompany his boss and militia chief Tripp Cooke to explain the vampire killing to the sheriff, but is shown the culprit is already captured for revenge: Enzo. Stefan lets Elena force him to explain about his repeated new starts in life and demonstrates how to do it.—KGF Vissers

In Nowhere Land, on May 10, 1994, Bonnie returns with a collection of the things Kai asked for. Kai wants to know what Damon did on that date, but Damon doesn't want to talk about the worst thing he ever did.

Finally, he spills. Flashback to actual 1994, the day after Kurt Cobain died. Damon shows up on Stefan's doorstep, wanting to make amends. Zack Salvatore, the owner of the house, allows Damon in on Stefan's promise that he'll keep him in line.

Present Day, outside Mystic Falls

Stefan, Damon and Caroline search the borders of Mystic Falls for Sara but come up empty. Elena stops Stefan from leaving town and going "home" to Savannah. He claims he has a system for starting over. She tells him to prove that he's OK and she'll let him go, otherwise she'll subject him to "Enzo-sized" harassment.

Alaric takes a super hungover Jeremy to the hospital, hoping to sober him up quickly. Jo (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) agrees.

Matt heads to Tripp's office, hoping to gain his trust and find out what he's up to as they search for Sara. Tripp is getting off the phone with Jay's parents after telling them he found their son dead in the woods. Matt says Jay was drunk at the party and insisted on walking. Tripp doesn't seem to believe him, but takes him to see Sheriff Forbes.

Back in Nowhere Land, Kai works on a jam lid with a can opener and demands Damon finish his story.

Back in 1994, Zach returns with groceries for Gail, a pregnant boarder at the Salvatore house who's craving blueberry pancakes. Stefan tells Damon that Gail and Zack are on vervane and off limits.

Back in Nowhere Land, Kai guesses that Damon killed the pregnant woman. Damon demands insight into Zack's plan. He explains they'll harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic called an ascendant -- and he just made a replica of it. He tells Bonnie his family had it last in the Pacific Northwest and asks Bonnie to perform a locator spell.

Back in Savannah, Stefan explains to Elena that he tries to live as human a life as possible. He kept his car because Damon isn't around to call it a "granny mobile." He finds it odd when Elena remarks on how much Damon liked to torture people.

He tells her the next step to starting over is deciding who you want to be for the next 30 years.

Back at the hospital, Jo is flirting with Alaric, but he's distracted by the sight of a kid's bloody nose.

In Savannah, Stefan asks for Elena's daylight ring then, in the middle of a bar at lunch, he gets down on one knee and proposes to Elena Williams. She goes along with it, asking if he's only proposing because she's pregnant. He says she's stood by him through his the multiple rehabs, the jail time, the bullfighting injury. She tries to keep from cracking up as she accepts his proposal. The bar claps.

In Nowhere Land, Bonnie can't get her locator spell to work. When Damon mocks her, Kai tells her to tune him out, like he did with his "ton" of little brothers and sisters.

Back in real 1994, Damon chats up young Liz Forbes. Stefan takes a picture of Zack and Gail and notices bite marks on Gail's wrist.

Stefan confronts Damon about feeding on Gail and after Damon compels Liz to forget ever meeting him, Damon breezily confesses that he swapped out Zack and Gail's vervaned coffee for a little in-house feeding. Stefan is angry and reminds Damon that these people trust them. Then he snaps his neck.

In Nowhere Land, Bonnie's locator spell works and homes in on Mystic Falls, and something very close to her. She puts her hand on Kai's pocket and he reveals he had the ascendant. He says it was another test of Bonnie's magic. Kai announces that Bonnie is ready and it's time for them to go home.

In real 1994, Damon wakes up in the shed without his daylight ring. Stefan wants to know what Damon's really doing there, and Damon says he wanted to feel a connection to his humanity again. He tries to convince Stefan to go on a road trip with him. Instead, Stefan reminds Damon of all the times he's ruined his life and how he can't seem to help doing it.

In Savannah, Elena asks Damon what made him come back to Mystic Falls after 15 years. She did. She again references Damon and Stefan finds it odd to hear Elena talk about him without love. Stefan notices a guy eyeing them from the bar. Elena regrets announcing she was pregnant and takes a deep swig of beer anyway.

In Nowhere Land, Kai stares at the sun through the ascendant (which looks kind of like a really complicated compass). Bonnie notices a newspaper headline that reads: "Family Massacred in Portland." The whole family was killed and the 22-year-old son Malakai is missing. Kai points out that not everyone died, he had a soft spot for one of his sisters. He cheerily tells Bonnie and Damon how he slaughtered his siblings -- members of his coven, although he has no powers.

He says the Gemini coven banished him here. "This place is a prison. They created it for you," Bonnie says.

"Yep. This isn't your hell, Damon. It's mine," Kai says.

Back in Mystic Falls, Alaric and Jeremy spar in the woods and Alaric doesn't go easy on him. Jeremy lays out his list of reasons to be resentful, beginning and ending with the fact that Bonnie saved everyone but herself. Alaric raises him his own list: including that his wife ran off to be a vampire, Damon was the one who turned her then killed her and then Damon ended up dead too. And now Alaric can't even look at a woman without fantasizing about biting into her.

"I get it, OK? But I find a way to keep going because that's what we do," he yells.

Back in Savannah, Elena says good-bye to Stefan. At the bar, Stefan goes over and talksthe guy who was eyeing him earlier. The guy reminds Stefan that he put his brother in the hospital. Stefan is aloof and jokes about it, asking which guy it was because he was drunk that night. He goads the man into bashing him over the head with a beer bottle and then takes his beating until he's bloody on the floor. Finally, Elena rushes in and ends it by compelling the man to go home and forget everything.

In Nowhere Land, Bonnie announces to Damon that they can't let Kai out. She asks Damon if Kai killing a bunch of kids isn't a big deal to someone who's murdered a pregnant woman.

In 1994, Stefan and Zack hear screams and go to the library to find bodies everywhere and Damon covered in blood, holding Gail hostage. He demands his daylight ring back from Stefan, who returns it, realizing he'll never be rid of Damon.

Damon gives his own version of their past. "In 1912, I showed you who you were, Stefan. In1942 I gave you your freedom and in 1977 I almost killed your best friend because it should have been you there to help me. You owe me. It'll take you an eternity to pay me back," Damon says. Then he attacks Gail.

"An eternity of misery, brother. Just like I promised," Damon says, before running off.

In Nowhere Land, Damon recaps. He compelled Zack to forget about Gail and the baby and the Founder's Council was restarted. He and Stefan left down for about 15 years. Damon says it was a relief when he finally killed Zack.

Damon and Kai try to convince Bonnie to go home, although Damon makes it clear to Kai that he's still on Bonnie's side.

Back in Mystic Falls in Tripp's truck, Matt asks Tripp why he doesn't get along with Sheriff Forbes. Tripp says she and his wife were high school rivals. He says his wife Chris died in a car accident and that's why he left Mystic Falls.

When Tripp says Jay's death was probably caused by a mountain lion, Matt plays naïve and tells him that before Jay died, he said he was tracking a vampire. Tripp says he has something to show Matt.

Back in Savannah, Elena realizes that Stefan letting himself get beat up was part of his system. He tells her she's the last person who should be giving him advice on coping mechanisms. He scoffs when she says she fought through her grief over Bonnie all by herself.

She asks Stefan why he's inflicting so much pain on himself for such a hateful person. "He doesn't deserve your grief," she says. Finally, Stefan can't take it anymore and tells her that she had Alaric compel her to forget loving Damon.

Tripp takes Matt to a brick shack in the woods. He tells Matt that he came back after the gas leak in the summer to check on his grandmother and when he crossed the border into Mystic Falls, tons of memories came flooding back, including that his wife didn't die in a car accident. She was drained of all her blood in front of him.

Tripp opens the door to his brick shack and tells Matt that vampires are real and he has the one who killed Jay: Enzo. Tripp lays out his plan to make Enzo talk about other vampires as Matt tries to play it cool.

Jeremy comes back to the Salvatore house to find Sara waiting for him. She's ready to call 911 about Elena, but has a question first. She found the picture of Zack and her mom in the house. She explains that her mom, Gail, was brought to the hospital as a DOA Jane Doe, but she was delivered via C-section at six months. Jeremy tells her her father is Zack Salvatore.

Elena goes back to Alaric for answers and he gives her her own journal, which is full of Damon and Elena. She wrote an entry to herself, in the event somebody spilled.

"Facing an eternity without your soul mate, you turned into someone you're not: A monster," she wrote. She wrote that she hopes she won't have Alaric restore her memories and she'll find a way to start over.

She gives Alaric the journal back in case she needs it.

Late at night, Damon finds Bonnie eating pancakes. She reminds Damon that Gail liked pancakes and Damon has made them every day. She thinks he's punishing himself, which means he feels remorse.

Damon suggests they take the ascendant from Kai, but Kai sneaks up and explains why that won't work. He doesn't have magic of his own, but he can take it from others temporarily. He grabs Bonnie, then uses her magic to paralyze Damon as he lays out his ultimatum: he can either kill them both and use Bonnie's magic to go home, or they can go home together.

Meanwhile, in Savannah, Stefan feels someone sneak up on him at night in the garage. He turns around to see Ivy, covered in blood. She says his friend made her drink his blood and now she doesn't feel so good. She's a vampire.