Trama

Bonnie tries to replicate her favorite traditions, while reminiscing about happier times with her friends; Sheriff Forbes brings holiday cheer to Caroline at Whitmore College; Alaric turns to Damon and Elena for help when Jo goes missing; Tyler approaches Liv and Luke with a risky plan; Jeremy helps Matt carry out a plan to take down Enzo; Stefan is forced to break some devastating news to Caroline.

Jo calls Alaric from the hospital to say she's going to be late for dinner. Teens are being brought in with mysterious slasher wounds. Jo tries to ask one victim what happened and her back is turned as another rises up from the gurney behind her. It's Kai, covered in blood. "I stabbed her," he says before injecting Jo with something to knock her out.

In lonely 1994, Bonnie remembers back to happier snowy times for the tree decorating ceremony outside the high school. She is determined to set up a tree and ignore the eclipse.

Caroline returns to her dorm to find her mom waiting there to decorate it. Liz called Stefan to bring Christmas lights and Caroline is annoyed.

At the bar, Elena and Damon pour through Alaric's books for anything that references an ascendant. Elena is moved by how much he's doing to help Bonnie.

Alaric calls looking for Jo. They regroup. Elena reports about the stabbing victims brought in and the fact that one is now missing. They start to come up with a plan to find Kai.

Meanwhile, at Tyler's house he tries to convince Liv and Luke that they need to keep Kai alive because if he merges with Jo, they won't have to do the twin merge.

Damon calls Matt for help finding Kai, but he and Jeremy are too preoccupied arming up to hunt Enzo.

Alaric tries to figure out Kai's endgame. "What could possibly not make sense about magical twins absorbing into one another?" Damon asks.

The two groups talk through things and the fact that Jo's magic was hidden in a knife in Portland. Damon hid it and so Kai wants Luke and Liv to do a locator spell on it.

Luke argues they have a duty to their coven to merge, but Liv thinks they should take their chance to live out normal, human lives.

Damon isn't worried and reveals where he hid the knife -- but it's not there.

Cut to Kai with the knife, and Liv, Luke and unconscious Jo.

In the Christmas tree decorating flashback (when Caroline, Bonnie and Elena are freshman in high school), Elena makes plans to invite Bonnie to spend the holidays with her family because the three of them have never spent Christmas apart.

Back in Caroline's dorm room, she's annoyed enough with Stefan that he decides to leave. But Liz suddenly feels very woozy.

Out by the tomb, Jo wakes up. Kai tries to reunite Jo with her magic by stabbing her in the arm with the knife. It doesn't work and Luke is disgusted and leaves. Jo tells Kai she has to take the magic back by choice, but she'll probably bleed to death in 30 minutes. Kai goes to look for a bandage, threatening Liv to find a way to put Jo's magic back in her.

Elena joins Caroline at the hospital, where Liz is sedated. Caroline notes how supportive and helpful Damon is being, like he's always been for Elena.

Damon calls Tyler, having put together their angle. "I'm trying to keep my girlfriend alive, sound familiar?" Tyler says.

Damon is searching for the twins and runs into Luke in the dorms. Rather than threatening him, Damon points out how dangerous Kai is without magic and what a threat he would be if he merged with Jo. Luke listens.

Enzo comes to meet Matt in Tripp's old vampire torture cabin, expecting information on Monique (formerly known as Sara). Enzo is suspicious, and easily stops Jeremy's crossbow arrow when it comes at his back. But then Matt stabs Enzo in the neck when he turns, Jeremy fires again and Matt punches Enzo and floors him.

In the hospital, Stefan tells Elena that he overheard a radiologist mention cancer. Elena compels the doctor, who says they found a lesion on Liz's brain stem a few weeks ago and think it might have spread. They can't operate if it has. Liz knows, but apparently hasn't told Caroline.

Back in the torture cabin, Matt isn't satisfied with just killing Enzo, he wants to make him suffer. Jeremy warns him the us versus them mentality is liable to get him killed.

Back at the tomb, Jo asks Liv to free her, but Liv think Jo has gotten 18 years of freedom and now it's time for her to face her responsibility to the coven. Liv can't stand the idea of losing Luke in a merge. She suggests to Jo that she might actually beat Kai in a merge, since she's done so well for 18 years without magic.

Kai returns and saps Liv's magic and starts to kill her. Jo takes hers back to make him stop.

Alaric and Damon approach the tomb, with Ric still angry at Damon. They lure Kai outside. Damon rushes him but Kai pushes him over the magic border. Damon starts to burn and steps back across, then Ric sneaks up on Kai on the other side and holds a gun to his head. He's ready to fire, but Jo comes out and tells him not to, because Luke and Liv will have to do the merge if Kai dies.

Jo says she can beat Kai with time to get stronger. Despite Damon's urging to kill Kai, Ric listens to Jo and knocks Kai out.

Back at Tyler's, he confronts Luke for telling Damon where to find Kai. Luke doesn't think Jo stands a chance against Kai and, when Liv joins them, he reminds her that Kai will kill their whole coven and then innocent people.

Back at the hospital, Stefan volunteers to break the news to Caroline.

With Kai chained up across the border to protect him from Damon, Damon hurls rocks near him. Kai starts thinking about the magnitude of the Traveler's spell and puts his hand to the ground.

Alaric comes back to pick up Kai. Damon is angry they won't let him kill Kai and Alaric points out how selfish Damon is being. Meanwhile, Kai is soaking up magic from the ground.

In lonely 1994, at night, Bonnie plugs in her lonely little tree.

In Christmas 2009 (junior year), the girls celebrate another Christmas.

Stefan breaks the news to Caroline about her mom.

Outside the tomb, Kai is whipping up a storm. The lights go out on the town Christmas tree. The radio flickers in Tripp's vampire transport van, which Matt is driving across the border with Enzo in the back. Damon realizes that Kai stopped talking. His chains melt off and he's chanting.

Matt crosses into Mystic Falls and Enzo starts to burn and choke in the back of the van.

Kai keeps chanting.

Matt opens the back of the van and finds Enzo isn't dead.

Damon realizes what Kai has done. Kai lifts Alaric into the air and tosses him against a tree. Damon rushes Kai, but he disappears.

Damon goes to help Alaric -- inside the border of Mystic Falls. Damon's fine.

In the back of the van, Matt expects Enzo to kill him, but instead Enzo wants to go after Stefan.

Elena calls Damon, who is walking in the front door of his house. After her terrible day, she wants to see him, and says she has something to tell him. He invites her for dinner.

At the hospital, Caroline tries to understand what Stefan is telling her. Vampire blood doesn't cure cancer, it's too late for chemo. Caroline tries denial for awhile then finally collapses in Stefan's arm.

Jeremy and Bonnie stand next to Christmas trees and miss each other. Bonnie torches her tree.

At his house, Damon hears a familiar purr. Stefan rolls up in Damon's rebuilt car.

Elena knocks on the door and laughs when she sees mistletoe. Damon opens the door and Elena waits for him to let her in. But he can't see her.

Damon shuts the door. Kai is standing behind Elena. "I may have put a cloaking spell on us. How genius is that?" Kai taunts. Then he knocks Elena out.