The Vampire Diaries Season 6 Episode 7 Recap: Aching For Your Love

This week on The Vampire Diaries, we start where we left off in last week’s episode with Damon  in Elena’s room, where she tells him that she still can’t remember anything good about him or the memories they shared. She thought that once she saw Damon face-to-face, the memories would come back, but nothing is working. She feels bad and apologizes to Damon, but he can’t stand to look at her with her inability to share his strong emotions. I guess you can’t blame Elena for trying because she could’ve blown Damon off, but you can tell that she can’t resist that cheeky grin of his.

Looks like Enzo has teamed up with Stefan and Matt by holding Trip hostage after the stunt he pulled. Yeah, thanks a lot Trip. Poor Alaric was almost gone for good and now he’s human again. Oh yeah and since he’s human, Elena can’t get her memories of Damon back, which only adds to the drama. I’m not too upset that the guys have Trip chained up and are torturing information out of him.

Trip finally squeals and lets them know that he has guys out looking for more vampires —and Caroline is still at the top of the list. Stefan goes to visit Caroline to warn her but all she wants to do is shoo him away.

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Looks like she might need his help, though, because right before he leaves, Caroline gets a terrifying call from her mother: Seems like Trip’s guys are good at their job and already have Sheriff Forbes in their custody. She tells Caroline that they already ran her off the road and now they are threatening to kill her if they don’t get their leader back.

vampire-diaries-episode-6-bonnieWe get a welcome chance to see Bon Bon again, but things aren’t looking too good for her in Kai’s prison. He threatens her that he’ll drain all her magic if she doesn’t help them get out of there by the time the eclipse comes.

Since Bonnie broke the ascendant while getting Damon out, Kai has to also worry about getting that situation fixed in time. Bonnie doesn’t want to release this psychopath, so she stabs him in the neck to try to escape. She grabs the pieces of the ascendant and runs to the hospital, since she’s still suffering Kai’s arrow wound. Bonnie is able to find medication for her pain and get the ascendant back together, but she seems to be missing one last piece. As if it were straight out of a thriller movie, Kai shows up at the hospital with the last piece in his hand and starts taunting Bonnie. Looks like these two will have to learn to work together if they both want to stay alive.

Damon invites himself, like always, to the Whitmore fundraiser. He’s basically there to creep on Elena even though he won’t admit it. Things don’t go exactly as planned when Damon sees Elena show up with Liam as her date. He stalks them as the night goes on and watches them kiss.

Do You Remember The First Time?

That’s when Damon swoops in to work his charm on Elena and see who this new guy is. Being Damon, he has a little bit of fun with Liam by compelling him to answer some questions. Doesn’t seem like Liam is intimidated by Damon, though, because he tells him straight out that he feels he could take him in a fight. Oh if you only knew, little Liam. Damon then makes Liam go get Elena something to drink, allowing Damon and Elena some alone time out on the dance floor.

There’s just something about dancing that always gets so romantic on this show! Damon tries to jar Elena’s memory by hinting at stuff they’ve shared at dances in the past, but she assures him there’s nothing nostalgic going on upstairs. Still, I think Elena got a bit too comfortable with being in Damon’s arms, because she stops him and tells him that she’s there with Liam, even if she can’t resist his charm. She fell in love with him knowing his past at one point in her life, so it’s not impossible for it to happen again. Damon tells Elena that he would’ve rather suffered through all the heartache and pain than to give up his memories of her, but Elena can’t handle the situation anymore. She tells him she needs fresh air and leaves poor Damon looking like a sad puppy dog.

When Stefan and Caroline show up to pick up Trip, it’s a miracle that Enzo hasn’t killed him yet. You can see the tension between Enzo and Caroline, because they still have some unfinished business and unresolved emotions to talk about. Enzo says he can’t believe how quickly she got over being mad at Stefan since they’re working together now. Caroline gets mad at Enzo for even opening his mouth, but Enzo is smart and can put two and two together. Right before he leaves, he blurts out that the only reason Caroline is acting this way is because she has feelings for Stefan.

Caroline is shocked and speechless and you can tell the situation is awkward both for her and for Stefan. She tells Stefan that whatever Enzo just said will never be spoken of again and at that moment, Stefan seems OK with that.

Elena returns to the party and goes up to Damon to tell him that she wants to remember everything. I’m sure it has to deal with Damon himself, but she also says that she does feel like there is a piece of her missing. Well, Elena, that’s because there is a piece of you missing since you no longer have a huge chunk of your memories.

She tells Damon to take her back to the last spot where they expressed their love for each other and that’s right at the Mystic Falls border. He tells her other stories about their love, since this little, literal trip down memory lane isn’t helping trigger anymore memories. He also tells her about the last time they were together before he died, saying that she was the one who volunteered to get inside the car with him and drive into Mystic Falls to crash into The Grill and blow up the place.

Elena can’t believe that she would do such a thing and breaks down, saying that whenever she looks into Damon’s eyes, she feels like she’s looking at a stranger. She adds that she won’t ever be able to give Damon what he wants. Fed up with not being able to remember, Elena goes past the border to try and get her memories back. Damon quickly grabs her back before she can die and tells her to never do that again. But now it’s clear how desperate Elena is to get her memories back — and how much she truly wants to remember Damon. He wants her to remember, too, but doesn’t want her to risk her life while doing so.

Since Bonnie has no other choice than to listen to Kai, she’s got everything set up to do the spell and get them both out of his prison. He tells Bonnie that he’s actually nervous about going back and that he wishes he wouldn’t have done what he did to his family. Kai jokes that Bonnie might have been a good influence on him, since he’s starting to feel less devious. Bonnie doesn’t believe a word he’s saying, but continues the spell. As she’s chanting her magical hymns, everything suddenly stops. Kai starts to panic and tries to drain Bonnie of her magic, but she’s outsmarted him this time. She uses his own words against him since he said he wanted to be kind and loyal just like her and leaves her magic in her teddy bear.  Looks like poor Bon Bon has sacrificed herself once again.

Stefan shows up with Matt and Caroline to do the exchange with Trip’s clan. Everything seems to be going well after Caroline gets her mother back and Trip is handed over. However, once Trip crosses the border of Mystic Falls, his neck slices open and he bleeds out. No one has a clue as to what happened, until Stefan notes that Enzo might have turned Trip into a vampire before they arrived to pick him up. If that’s the case, I’m pretty sure Trip would know he was a vampire and know about the border, since he used that so effectively as his secret vampire-killing weapon. I think Enzo has some major explaining to do.

Stefan and Caroline take her mother to the hospital to make sure she is okay. That’s when Stefan asks just about the dumbest question ever known to man: He asks Caroline why she has — or in her case, had — a thing for him. Really Stefan, who wouldn’t have a The-Vampire-Diaries-Season6-Stefanthing for you? Every female watching the show is drooling over you and considers Stefan Salvatore their idea of a perfect boyfriend, myself included. Caroline basically answers in the same way, saying she thought he was someone worth having a thing for. She thought Stefan was always there for her and she considers him her best friend and someone she could trust. Up until recently, all these things were true about Stefan; he was the most loyal friend you could ask for.

He apologizes for the way he treated her, but Caroline can only accept his apology and continue to hate him. She tells him that if he felt anything similar to the way she did, he would’ve stayed with her. She doesn’t want to blame herself for ruining their friendship because she doesn’t deserve that and she’s right. I’m not sure what happened but Stefan’s character did completely change once Damon died. Caroline understands that Damon was his brother, but he was the one that gave up hope and she wanted to still fight. I’m glad Caroline told Stefan all of this, because he needed to hear it from someone I think he still cares about.

Damon and Elena are walking back to her room when she tells him that when she crossed the border, she remembered some of the story that he mentioned to her, but she can’t recall all of it. She only remembers up until the point where it started raining and she keeps asking for Damon to tell her the rest of the story. Elena thinks that if she can trigger her memories slowly, more and more will come back to her. Damon notices how happy Elena has been since he’s been gone and she hasn’t been able to remember him, but he takes the selfish approach and tells her that he doesn’t want to continue this memory therapy. He loves her enough to let her be happy and let her go. Elena is shocked by what he’s saying, but Damon won’t let her know the truth about that night.

Damon walks to his family crypt, bottle in hand, to drown in his sorrows. He remembers the night that Elena started to remember and can’t help but get emotional. Since this would appear to be such a sad scene a little spark of hope shines through to make things better for Damon. He sees Bonnie’s teddy bear sitting outside the crypt and recognizes it instantly. Damon’s glad to see that Bonnie is indeed alive and can send him signs to reassure that she’s alright. Now let’s hope he’ll be able to hold and hug her instead of the teddy bear.

Another small but significant detail about tonight’s episode — Alaric noticed a scar on Jo’s stomach, and she tells him that the scar was from a time when her brother tried attacking her with a knife. Throughout the episode, she kept mentioning how she doesn’t practice magic anymore and also hid her powers somewhere safe because she came from a crazy dysfunctional family. I’m guessing Jo and Kai are related, since Kai did kill members of his family and that would explain  Jo’s scar and why she hid her magic. Anybody with me on this?

Next week’s episode is going to feature a Vampire Diaries “Friends-giving,” and it also looks like Elena is going to finally spill the beans and let Liam know the truth about what she is. But he seems pretty smart, so he would’ve found out eventually.

What were your thoughts on episode “Do You Remember the First Time?” of The Vampire Diaries? Do you think Enzo is the one that turned Trip? Why do you think Trip would willingly walk over the border if he knew he would die? Do you think Elena will ever get her memories back? I think Damon was her last hope and now he’s gone. Eventually he’ll probably want her back so he’ll probably try again soon. How do you think Bonnie will get out of Kai’s prison? I say that when Bonnie comes back she needs a huge party thrown for her because she has sacrificed everything. Then she needs a long relaxing vacation from everyone because I’m sure there will be new drama that she’ll have to be involved in. Do you think Kai and Jo are related? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

New episodes of The Vampire Diaries premiere Thursdays at 8pm ET on The CW

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