"Previously on "The Vampire Diaries"..." "The only thing stronger than your craving for blood is your love for this one girl." "How long has it been since you had a drop of human blood?" "Since the night I threatened to drive Elena off the wickery bridge." "Look at the images on the wall behind Elena." "A white oak tree 300 years after we fled back to the old world." "That tree could kill us." "Brian Walters, the medical examiner." " He's not a vampire." " This was a murder." "Why don't you just ask Rick if his dirty little doctor had access to the weapons?" "You think I killed my ex-boyfriend?" "Dad." "You weren't supposed to see that." "Will you get home all right, Mr. Salvatore?" "I could send for one of the police vehicles." "A little winter chill never hurt anyone, sheriff Forbes." "I'm less concerned about the cold front, more for your safety." "One councilman's murder doesn't make an epidemic, Gerald." "Good night." "Night." "The mystery's not gonna get solved any faster with you yelling at me, Carol." "We have 2 council murders and an attempted murder on our hands." "If you have a suspect, it is your duty to keep me in the loop." "No, it's my duty to make sure" "I don't accuse an innocent person of being a serial killer." "Just tell me who it is, Liz." "I didn't do it." "You're arresting him?" "For what this nutjob Dr. Fell says?" "No, I'm detaining him." "The cell is for his own good." "You were shot." "Dr. Fell used vampire blood to heal you." "Dr. Fell is the one who shot me." "Because you came at her with a knife." "Yeah, with a knife I had found hidden in her things." "Are we gonna ignore the part where he's one of the killer's victims?" "I mean, the guy was practically stabbed to death." "Well, Dr. Fell suggested his wounds could have been self-inflicted." "My God, you think I stabbed myself?" "Look, I think I don't know what to think." "I've got nothing except murder weapons from your stash and a respected member of a founding family pointing a very long finger." "She is setting me up." " I'm being framed here." " Well, that may be so, but I don't have any proof of that." "Well, then we'll find some." "No, just stay out of this, Damon." "You getting involved is only gonna make matters worse." " Listen, Liz..." " Don't make me put you in that cell with him." "What are we running, a marathon?" "If you can't keep up..." "Elena, you can't outrun your problems." "Although it looks like you're gonna try." "I talked to Bonnie!" "What did she say?" "They're at her mom's house." "Abby's gonna complete the transition." "She decided to become a vampire?" "Yeah." "Caroline's gonna help her through it, teach her control and stuff." "Did Bonnie say..." "Is there anything I can do?" "She knows it's not your fault, Elena." "She's just..." "Upset." "Damon turned her mom into a vampire to save my life." "It's absolutely my fault." "You're gonna make me run more, aren't you?" "Who is it?" "Sheriff Forbes." "Everything ok?" "He what?" "Were you just with..." "Ric's fine." "Sheriff wants me to stay out of it." "But you're not going to, are you?" "Seems just as good a plan as any." "Your friend's in jail for murder." "You have to do something." "Well, I guess I could rip out" "Dr. False Accusation's throat or maybe her tongue." "You know, I could chew it up in little, tiny pieces and feed it to the squirrels." "Stop it, Damon." "Guess me staying out of it suddenly sounds like a good idea, doesn't it?" "I saved your life last night." "You're welcome." "You know, you could show a little compassion about Bonnie." "I know." "You're right." "Her and her mom must be really hurting right now." "Should I send lasagna?" "Ok, now you're just being mean." "I'm mean." "You hate me." "The earth is back on its axis." "You know what?" "If you keep pushing people away, you're gonna end up alone." ""Dear diary," ""the chipmunk asked me my name today." ""I told him it was Joe." "That lie will haunt me forever."" "What do you want?" "I was hoping we could hang." "You know, ttle brother bonding." "I mean, I know we don't actually" ""hang out."" "We team up." "We join forces, activate our wonder twin powers." "What are you doing?" "Digging up clues." "Most of the originals are gone, but we have a whodunit going on." "Hey, do you remember when we came back for Zachariah's funeral?" "Vaguely." "Why?" "'Cause if memory serves, he wasn't the first founders council member killed that year or even that month." "Your point being?" "I'm trying to remember what year it was." "1912." "So much for vaguely." "1912." "Or as I like to call it, last time Mystic Falls had a serial killer on its hands." "It feels so strange to be home again after so long away." "I thought I would never return, certainly not for a funeral." "I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Salvatore." "I'm told you're a distant cousin of Zachariah." "His nephew, actually." " Miss..." " Lockwood." "Mariana Lockwood." "And this is my friend Samantha Gilbert." "As in Jonathan Gilbert." "My late grandfather." "Did you know him?" "Crossed paths." "I'm sorry." "I don't mean to be..." "Inappropriate." "But no one seems to be willing to discuss the details of Zachariah's death." "He was murdered, and he wasn't the first." "Samantha, don't be a gossip." "Why not?" "He should know." "He's a founding family like us." "Be careful, Mr. Salvatore." "It's not a good time to be a founder in this town." "Have you been eating the relatives again?" "Damon." "It's been a long time, brother." "It's been almost 50 years." "Surprised you came." "And miss the funeral of..." "What do you call him?" "Uncle Zachariah?" "I see you're still mad at me." "Why would I be mad at you, Stefan?" "You made me become a vampire, and now I walk the world alone drinking other people's blood." "Any chance you took it all out on our nephew Zachariah?" "If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who killed our family members." "May our father rest in peace." "I'm not like that anymore, Damon." "Well, congratulations, Stefan." "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to live out my eternal existence as far away from you as possible." "Damon, wait." "Let's grab a drink, catch up." "I've missed you, brother." "Sure." "Why not?" "What do you say, brother?" "You wanna go get drunk?" "Ah." "I get it." "I get it." "You're bored." "Your best friend's in jail, and you don't have anything better" " to do with yourself." " Well, there's that." "And..." "I was hoping you could help me solve a murder." "Thank you for meeting with me, mayor." "I figured as head of the preservation society, you'd be a good person to ask about the oldest trees in this community." "A long line of Lockwood women used to keep those records back before any of them had actual jobs." "I've been to the founders archive, but I can't seem to find any record of the tree I'm looking for." "It probably got cut down." "Big old trees built half this town in the 1900s." " Ho." "She-devil, 9 o'clock." "Do you happen to know who kept the milling ledgers during that period?" "Back then, all the logging mills were owned by the Salvatores." "So what does the Cal examiner, bill Forbes, and Alaric Saltzman have in common?" "Come on." "Knock it off." "Ahem." "You know, quitting blood cold Turkey after a ripper binge, probably not the best approach." "Every time you play that all-or-nothing game, you eventually leave a trail of bodies, so I'm thinking now's a good time to pay our old friend moderation a visit." "They were all on the founders council, Damon." "That's what they have in common." "But why them, huh?" "Brian Walters and Alaric weren't from founding families." "I mean, hey, if you gotta slaughter council members, go a-list." "At least in 1912, they killed a Salvatore." "Which Salvatore would that be?" "You'll have to agree, sheriff, there's no motive here." "Look, both the medical examiner and my ex-husband got into altercations with Meredith Fell before their deaths." "Now, she said you were a witness to her fight with Brian Walters." "So what are you saying, that I was defending hehono" "I barely knew her then." "She said she also told you bill threatened to report her to the medical board for giving him vampire blood." "No, she didn't." "A 2 a.M. Call on the night he was killed?" "I pulled your records." "You spoke with her for over an hour." "Ok." "I, uh..." "Yes, I..." "I remember calling her, but I..." "I was drinking, and I..." "I don't remember the conversation." "Well, do you have an alibi for the night Brian Walters was killed?" "I was there the night of the bridge fundraiser, ok, until midnight." "You saw me there." "Time of death was between 1:00 and 3 a.M." "Well, then, I..." "I must have been home sleeping, I'm sure." "I'm sure of it." "So Zachariah Salvatore was your nephew?" "Well, our father knocked up one of the maids during the civil war." "She had a son." "But as far as everyone else knew," "Stefan and I were dead." "Family name had to go somewhere." "And, uh, your family owned the logging mills back then." "You're full of a lot of questions." "I'm just researching the town history." "I grew up here, after all." "You know, you don't have to disguise your true motives." "Blondie bex." "If you want more sex, just ask for it." "Not enough liquor in the world." "On, come on." "It was too good for you to be this hostile." "You'll have to excuse my little brother." "He's jonesing for some o-positive." "I'm not jonesing." "So they ever catch the killer?" "Nope." "Wrote it all off on vampires." "Maybe it was a vampire." "Yeah." "Yeah, maybe it was a vampire, Damon." "Don't think for a second you didn't cross my mind, too, brother." "But these murders weren't your style, were they?" "Plus there were no other vampires circulating then." "Well, there was one other vampire." "Remember sage?" "Oh, right." "Sage." "Speaking of great sex." "Oof." " Maybe you've had enough." " Ladies and gentlemen..." "Hit a man when he's down." "Sell your horse." "Come one and all to see the San Francisco world fair middleweight champion  greatest foe down." "Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, for an evening..." "Whoo!" "Who's next?" "$100 to any man who can beat me." "I can teach you how to survive without human blood, you know." "You do not get to lecture me on how to live my life, not anymore." "What's your name?" "Not interested." "Well, Mr. not interested, you seem to me like a gambling man." "I'm afraid you have me all wrong." "Humph." "Well, that's too bad." "I knew a sage once." "Trashy little thing." "You really think it was sage who was killing all those founders back then?" "Town questioned every grown man in Mystic Falls." "Probably never occurred to them that a woman could have done it." "I'm due in surgery." "Whatever case you're gonna make against Alaric, make it quick." "I don't have to make a case." "He didn't do anything." "How do you know?" "Sure you live with him, he takes care of you, but do you really know anything about him?" "I know enough." "Let me tell you what I know." "He was arrested for fighting 4 times before the age of 21." "When he was at Duke, his future wife Isobel filed a restraining order against him twice." "Although then she married him, so I guess that says more about her." "Ok, you're making all of this up." "Am I?" "How would you know?" "You took pity on a borderline alcoholic vampire hunter, and you never even thought to look any deeper." "How could you do this to him?" "He didn't kill anyone, and you know it." "You date vampires, Elena." "It shouldn't come as a shock to learn that your guardian is a murderer." "So, uh, tell me more about your old relatives." "I heard they tore down half the woods to make this town." "Easy there, lushy pants." "It's been a hoot and a half, but it's boys night, and you weren't invited." "Come on." "Wow." "Nice job." "I'll add breaking and entering to the list of life favors you owe me." "Ok, look, I don't know how much longer she's gonna be in surgery, so let's see what we can find." "Don't you think the police already combed through this place?" "She handed over everything she had." "Yeah, I'm looking for the evidence that she didn't hand over." "And you're sure it's her we should be investigating?" "I know him, Matt." "He's innocent." "And I know that Meredith's a Fell, founding family, which means..." "Skeleton in the closet..." "Just like a true founder." "Brian Walters, bill Forbes." "Alaric Saltzman." "So..." "Let's just say sage was killing everyone in 1912." "Who the hell is doing it now?" "It's not that psycho, Dr. Fell." "She's a woman." "There's no way she could stab 3 grown men." "That's a bit sexist." "A woman could easily kill a man with the right motivation." "You just, uh, don't give up, do you?" "Why are you so grumpy?" "He's on a master cleanse, trying to be a better man and all." "Yeah, you were a lot more fun in the twenties." "You'll rile him up." "He's testy when he's being self-righteous." "I'm not being self-righteous, Damon." "I'm just not interested in slaughtering innocent human beings anymore." "Oh, ok." "Fair enough." "My mistake." "You used to be self-righteous." ""Dear diary, Damon has lost his way." ""Though I have pulled my own life together, he continues to waste his."" "Ouch." ""His bitterness consumes him." "He is nothing but blackness and bile." Oof." "Judgey." "Oh, this is fun." "You know, if I'm being honest." "You don't seem like much fun either, Damon." "I wasn't." "Woman I was in love with was stuck in a tomb." "She wasn't getting out for 100 years." "I wasn't having any fun at all." "How sad." "You're doing it all wrong." "Bad vampire." "I was hungry." "Now I'm not hungry." "My quality of form is..." "Purely subjective." "A woman isn't just for food." "She's for pleasure." "I do not need a woman for pleasure." "I am spoken for." "We are all spoken for in some way." "But what is being a vampire if not relishing in the pleasure of it?" "Come along." "Let me show you." "Hit him!" "There we go!" "Hit him again!" "Again!" "Look at the women." "They're beautiful, aren't they?" "Not them." "They're too hungry for attention." "You want the ones who button themselves up." "Watch them." "They can't tear their eyes away." "Those are the women who secretly crave seduction." "They'll put up a good fight, but the game is in winning them over, making them beg for it." "What if they don't?" "You're a vampire." "You take it." "Her." "That sounded like sage, all right." "How did you know her?" "She was obsessed with my brother finn over 900 years ago." "What?" "Creepy, suicidal guy?" "You're doing it again." "All right, you know what?" "I need to, uh..." "I got to get out of here." "Sure." "First admit you're jonesing." "Damon, I'm not gonna..." "Admit it." "Ok, fine." "I'm freaking out." "I'm ready to eat the entire wait staff." "Why do you need to hear me say it?" "Because I'm feeling a little self-righteous, too." "She's got everything on him..." "Medical records, old court documents." "What's this?" "It's an old Gilbert journal." "Why is one of your old family journals in her closet?" "Didn't you say the medical examiner's time of death was between 1:00 and 3 a.M.?" "Yeah." "Why?" "Because the county coroner's office says that's wrong." "I think..." "Shh." "What were you thinking?" "I know that we had no right." "No right?" "You broke the law." "But we found something that clears Alaric." "It gives him an alibi in the Brian Walters murder you mean this?" "What is that?" "A letter from the county coroner's office correcting the error in the time of death of Brian Walters." "Meredith Fell received it today." "She brought it to me several hours ago, full of apologies for accusing an innocent man." "Why would she have a copy hidden in her closet?" "I can't ask those questions, Matt, because of the very fact that you broke into her home to find it." "Do you know how much I'm already protecting both of you?" "I'm sorry." "Just get out of my office and go home, please." "Alaric'll be released as soon as the letter is authenticated." "Go." "So he doesn't want to drink human blood?" "Ah, he has an eternally guilty conscience." "Funny." "When I knew him in the twenties, he didn't have any conscience at all." "It's one of the things I liked most about him." "He can't possibly think he can survive without feeding." "Oh, on the contrary." "He's determined to live his life pursuing one extreme or the other." "He's a stubborn one, my brother." "Think I'm gonna need some help with this one." "What can I do?" "Hmm." "Hello." "Hi." "This may seem very forward, but you're just so pretty." "Thank you." "And please don't scream." "You're about to have a very, very bad night." "Stop." "Stop it." "Sorry, brother." "It's dinnertime." "Have a bite." "What are you doing?" "Tough love, Stefan." "You're not gonna survive this cold-Turkey thing." "You never do." "It's time to get that monkey off your back." "No." "Feed..." "Or I'll let rebekah have her way with her." "You know she'll kill her." "Oh, I will." "Then her blood'll be on your hands." "Or you can just have a little drink, save her life." "Come on, Stefan." "You were the one that said you didn't want any more innocent life slaughtered." "Save her." "Go on." "Have a bite." "I snatched." "You eat." "I erase." "Hell, I'll even heal her for you when it's over." "Why are you doing this?" "You know what blood does to me." "'Cause you let it controntyou." "You always have." "I'm just here to help you learn how to fight it." "This is rubbish." "That's it, Stefan." "I got it from here." "Go ahead." "Night's just getting started." "Scram." "No one likes a lurker." "You're a real ass, you know." "So I'm told." "All right, that's enough." "Come on." "You're gonna bleed her dry." "You're gonna drain her." "Come on." "I said that's enough." "Hey, you wanna fight hunger, or you wanna fight me?" "I got you." "That's a good girl." "What are you doing?" "Stefan." "Elena." "What are you two doing?" "Relax, Elena." "Just a little experiment." "There's no need to make this more dramatic than it needs to be." "Elena, let's just go." "Elena!" "So..." "That's gonna take a little time." "Stefan." "Wait." "Hey." "Stefan, wait." "Just say it." "I just don't get it, your thing with them." "I know it doesn't make sense." "But at the beginning, after my parents died, there was something about being with Stefan that just..." "Felt safe." "Safe?" "Elena, he's a vampire." "I know, believe me." "Just saying it out loud sounds crazy, but..." "It's like I knew that he would never stop loving me, like he would never..." "What?" "Die." "Like he would never die." "Like your parents did." "And Damon?" "Damon just sort of snuck up on me." "He got under my skin, and no matter what I do, I just..." "I can't shake him." "Once you fall in love with someone," "I don't know if..." "I don't know if you can ever shake 'em." "I'm sorry." "Is... is this weird?" "Talking about them with you?" "No." "Not really." "I got you something." "The journal?" "It's your family's." "You should have it." "Meredith and that idiot deputy were too busy questioning you to give a damn about me." "Sometimes it pays to be the only normal one in a town of vampires." "Practically invisible." "Are you ok?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "I'm all right." "They let Ric go." "Sheriff Forbes said she's out of suspects again, but Ric is in the clear." "I know it may not seem like it, but..." "You did really well tonight." "I mean, before you know it, you're gonna be the king of moderation." "Elena will understand." "Doesn't really matter what Elena thinks." "Uh-uh." "None of that." "No more no humanity Stefan." "There's a road called recovery, and we are on it." "Why do you even care, huh?" "The whole brother-bonding thing, getting Elena to hate you." "Why, you feel guilty because you kissed her?" "Is that it, Damon?" "Because you can stop." "Go back to hating me." "It was a lot easier." "Can you for one minute actually believe that I'm trying to help you?" "I don't need your help." "Don't need my..." "Are you kidding me?" "Do you remember what happened last time you said that?" "What are you talking about?" "1912, Stefan, the last time I convinced you to drink human blood." "Go ahead, Stefan." "Pick one." "They're people, Damon." "Yes, they are people, Stefan, people with blood pumping through their veins, waiting to be opened up and sucked dry." "You've just forgotten how good it feels." "So had I, but sage, she reminded me..." "It's worth it." "It's all worth it." "Not him, Stefan." "Not him..." "Her." "She's the one." "I don't do that anymore." "But you can, Stefan." "We can." "Let the past be the past." "Have a drink with me, brother." "I knew you still had it in you." "Don't be greedy." "Stefan." "Stefan." "Oh, my God." "Oh, my God." "Help me." "Stefan, stop." "Stefan, stop." "I'm so sorry." "I'm so sorry." "Stefan, stop." "What did you do to me?" "!" "Stefan." "What did you do to me?" "You just need to learn when to stop." "I can help you." "I don't need your help." "The founders council killer had nothing on you." "By decade's end, they were calling you the ripper of monterey." "I let you walk away." "I watched you go over the edge, and I didn't do anything to stop you." "You couldn't have." "Sure, I could have." "But I just didn't want to." "But I want to now." "Whenever you go too far," "I will be there to pull you back, every second, every day till you don't need me." "Why?" "'Cause right now..." "You're all I got." "Hey, I was gonna make some coffee." "I'm good." "Gonna head to bed in a few." "Hey, listen, Elena." "The, uh..." "The sheriff told me about everything you did today, and..." "While I appreciate it," "I don't want you getting in trouble because of me, ok?" "If not for you, for who?" "Well, still, I..." "I'm the one who's supposed to look after you, even if I suck at it." "Ok, well, how 'bout we just agree to take care of each other, then?" "Heh." "Deal." "What are you reading there?" "Old family journal." "Any juicy family secrets?" "It's hard to tell." "I mean, at first, I thought it was Jonathan Gilbert's journal, but it ended up being his granddaughter's, who apparently went just as crazy as he did, so great genes, huh?" "Well, at least you have something to look forward to." "Good night, Ric." "Night." "So I, uh..." "I dug into the old family archives from the early 1900s." "So now you want to be helpful." "Want me to go back to being mad at you?" "What'd you find?" "Well, nothing from 1912." "They never did arrest anyone for the founders' murders, but they did get a confession 10 years later." "They did?" "Who?" "Jonathan Gilbert's granddaughter Samantha." "They assumed she was crazy, locked her up in an insane asylum." "Then what?" "Trail ends there." "I mean, she was a founder." "You know they like to look out for their own." "Samantha Gilbert." "That is very weird." "Why?" "Because I'm pretty sure I had already killed her." "I know what this looks like." "Yeah?" "Well, I sure as hell don't." "You shoot me, you have me thrown in jail, and then you have me freed." "I did it for you, Ric." "I forged the coroner's note to clear your name." "Oh." "You know what?" "People are right." "You are psycho." "Yeah..." "Now that you've been cleared, they'll look somewhere else." "They won't look your way again." "Please, you have no reason, but I need you to trust me anyway." "If you let me in, I can explain." "I don't feel like myself." "I am losing time..." "As though I am going mad." "So you think Samantha Gilbert's still alive, running around Mystic Falls, killing founders?" "It's not possible." "If she became a vampire, we'd know about it, right?" "Well, then she must have had a ring that brought her back to life." "I mean, she was a... a Gilbert, right?" "Those rings are passed on through generations." "Yeah, but even if she had a ring, she wouldn't be alive today." "Doesn't protect her from old age." "Jonathan Gilbert only made two of those rings." "Jeremy has one of 'em, and the other is..." "Alaric's." "Like the sheriff said, the victims were killed with your weapons." " Why the stake?" " He's not a vampire." "I know." "This was a murder." "Oh, my God." "Dad." "Someone drove this stake through his heart." "It's one of ours." "Yeah, but I was attacked." "With your own knife, a wound that could have been self-inflicted." "It's impossible." "I would know if I were killing people." "Would you?" "Have you had any blackouts, instances of lost time?" "Y-you're insane." "No, but I think you might be." "You wear a ring that lets you cheat death, Ric." "How many times can you die before it changes you?" "I think you're sick, and I want to help you." "This has happened before almost 100 years ago." "Elena." "Ric, I think she's right."