'The Vampire Diaries' Shipper-Cap: More Than a Feeling

There's nothing like death to bring out feelings.

The brothers Salvatore are serious about getting Elena to turn her feelings back on, but torture and starvation aren't doing the trick. Damon finally hits upon something that might get through to her: killing Matt!

His death triggers her emotional release, as Elena first feels sorrow and then joy when Damon reveals that Matt's wearing the supernatural ring. But with the return of emotions, Elena also feels hate. And it's all focused on one person.

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Let's check in with where the various couples, friends, and enemies are this week:

Elena and Damon

Damon's trying everything to persuade Elena to turn her emotions back on. He invades her dreams and burns her with sunlight. But none of it is working. Elena is defiant, taunting him about how she hated being sired to him and that she never did love him after all.

When she manages to escape, he decides to use Matt as bait. Elena starts to feed on him, despite Matt's pleas to spare him, but both Salvatores stop her before she can drain him. Then, Damon says he'll give her something to really be sad about -- he's going to kill Matt. "You're bluffing," she snarls. And then he breaks Matt's neck!

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Elena gasps and falls to her knees, eyes welling up with tears. It's happening … Elena is feeling sorrow! And then Damon shows her Matt's hand with the supernatural ring on it. "You feel that weight lifting off your chest? That's joy," Damon says. She starts to weep.

Elena and Stefan

Maybe Stefan really is over Elena. It's he, not Damon, who suggests bringing in Katherine to torture her.

After her emotions turn back on, Elena is feeling everything -- grief, shame, guilt, anger, fear. She cries about trying to kill her friends and murdering that waitress. Stefan forces her to look at him and orders her to focus on the one thing inside of her that makes her strong. Channel all your feelings into that, he says. And Elena starts to calm down.

Back at the mansion, he tells her to rest for a few days or even a few years. But now that Elena is feeling, she is filled with burning-hot, uncontrollable rage. And it's directed at one person: the person who is responsible for bringing Klaus to town, for turning Caroline, for killing Jeremy. She wants to take out Katherine.

Caroline and Klaus/Matt/her mom

Caroline just wants her friends back. But Elena tries to kill her again and Bonnie is MIA. Outside the house, she finds Klaus. He's back in town and wants to persuade her to go to New Orleans. She refuses, and he tells her she's afraid of giving in to her darkest desires. Then he pushes her against a tree and starts to choke her -- it's not Klaus, it's Silas!

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She runs away and finds Matt, but he's Silas, too! He wants to find Bonnie, and if Caroline doesn't tell him where she is, then he's going to kill the person most important to her -- her mother.

Caroline races home and finds her mother waiting and wondering what's going on. At first, Car isn't sure if it's really her mom, but she passes a cell phone check. Later, it turns out Silas was inside, and he attacks the sheriff. Weeping over her mom's body, Caroline tries to feed her blood and even injects her with a needle. But the sheriff isn't waking up. Caroline sobs, "You have to see me graduate!" And suddenly, her mom wakes up. Whew!

Bonnie and Katherine

What is Bonnie up to? She's meeting with Katherine, of all people. Turns out she wants Silas's tombstone. In a few days, it'll be a full moon and she's going to bring down the veil to the Other Side and help Silas take the cure and die.

When she shows up at Caroline's house, she spots Silas, and they have their confrontation. She promises to help him, and despite the fact that Caroline is crying for her mom, they leave together.

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Later, she meets again with Katherine, who's figured out why Bonnie wants the tombstone. It holds the blood of her witch ancestor and thus is powerful enough to bring down the veil without a full moon. Katherine, being Katherine, wants to know why she should hand it over. "What's in it for me?" she asks. Bonnie promises that bringing down the veil can help her get rid of Katherine's biggest nemesis -- Klaus.

Rebekah and Matt

Rebekah is trying to turn over a new leaf with Matt. After finding out that he's in danger of failing, she offers to compel his way to graduating and getting a college scholarship.

When Matt wakes up from his "death," he finds Rebekah watching over him. That was a brave thing for him to do, she notes. "She saved me from drowning," he replies, and he wanted to pay her back.

Rebekah says she can't apologize enough for running him and Elena off the road and causing her to become a vampire. And maybe she can't cheat his way into college, but, she says, "I will spend every day until graduation trying to find a way to pay you back."

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"The Vampire Diaries" airs Thursdays at 8 PM on The CW.