On The Other Side, Matt wanders around with Bonnie, looking for his body "It actually hasn't been so bad. I have Jeremy, and I see Grams sometimes. Last night with my dad was the first really hard time...I'll be okay, I just have to get past these next few days"
"Bonnie, you don't have to pretend like it's okay. Your dad died, and you died. That's not okay"
Bonnie shrugs her shoulder as she didn't have a choice "It has to be, because there's nothing I can do about it"
"I am so sorry" Matt hugs Bonnie. She finally lets herself cry, sobbing into Matt's shirt as she hugs him back.
Back in the woods, Jeremy finds Matt's body. "Matt!" He crouches over the body, and sees the Gilbert ring on his hand.
Silas appears "Now, if my best friend died, I'd at least pretend to cry. Which leads me to believe he's not really dead. I take it that tacky old ring somehow protects him?"
"Too bad you can't get inside my head to find out for sure. Hunter's perk"
"See, that's what you don't get. When I can read your mind, I at least have use for you. Now...I'm just gonna kill you"
"You can try, but none of your abilities work on me, so right now, you're nothing. Slower than a vampire, weaker than a vampire. I, on the other hand, am a hunter" Jeremy picks up a small hatchet from the ground. "Plus, I work out" Jeremy throws the hatchet at Silas, who leans and dodges it. Jeremy runs at Silas, shoving him up against a tree. Silas pushes him off, and Jeremy staggers back. They throw punches at each other, each blocking them until they come to an impasse. Silas head-butts Jeremy in the face; Jeremy staggers back again. Silas takes the lantern and swings it at Jeremy but misses. Jeremy goes at Silas again and grabs him in a headlock from behind. Silas breaks a small branch off the tree in front of him.
"You might be stronger than me, but you're forgetting...that I...am immortal" Silas slowly pushes the sharp end of the branch through his own chest, until it impales Jeremy behind him. Jeremy groans in pain until Silas pulls the branch back out; Jeremy collapses. Silas picks up the hatchet, looking at Jeremy, who is crouched on all fours. Silas raises the hatchet, but suddenly he is struck by a gunshot to the chest — Katherine has shot him.
Jeremy looks up at her "I thought you didn't know how to use that"
"I figured it out" She shoots Silas again, and he's heard falling to the ground.
Matt and Bonnie are still looking for Matt's body "I think someone moved my body. It's weird, but I can feel it...it's like I'm drawn to it"
"There it is" They see Jeremy and Katherine at the truck; Matt's body is in the bed of it.
"So, if this happens every time I die with the Gilbert ring, the second I go back, that means I'm just gonna forget about all of this. I'll forget that you're dead. Bonnie, you and Jeremy can't keep this a secret anymore. I'm sorry your dad died. I know it's hard, but how are you gonna deal with his death if you can't even deal with your own?"
Bonnie smiles sadly "It's really good to see you, Matt" Matt nods, then walks toward his body. He lays a hand on it, and suddenly he gasps awake in the physical world.
Katherine looks down at him "Welcome back to the land of the living" Bonnie, invisible in the woods, turns and walks away.
It's morning. Brie loads a suitcase into the trunk of Damon's car. Caroline helps her "I'll be back, roomie. I don't know when, but I will be back"
"Just call me the minute you hear from Bonnie, okay? I've left her, like, a hundred messages"
"I will, I promise" They hug.
"You're gonna find him, Brie" As Caroline leaves, Dr. Maxfield approaches Brie.
"I didn't think Brianna Colace would give up so easily. Sorry about being a hard-ass earlier. It's kind of my thing. You're Colace daughter, aren't you?"
Brie raised her eyebrow, wondering how he knew her mom "You knew my mother?"
"Knew of her. She's a legend around here. Brilliant. I've studied all her research. I can only hope to do the kind of work she did and here I thought you were just passionate about microbiology. I have office hours tomorrow. Come by, we can chat"
"Um, yeah, I would, but I've got other important things on my plate right now"
"Let me know when that plate clears" Dr. Maxfield walks away, leaving Brie even more curious about him.
Damon returns "Well, I guess that's how a hero would do it. Honesty — who'd've thunk it? Aren't you the least bit curious about the whole Nancy Drew and the creepster-professor thing?"
"Caroline will take over. I can't stay here knowing that Stefan's out there somewhere"
"Yeah, well" Damon pulls a ring out of his pocket.
Brie takes the ring and looks at it "That's Stefan's daylight ring"
"Snagged it from Silas yesterday" Damon says as Brie holds the ring in her hand tightly and presses it against her chest.
Damon's phone starts to ring and he answers it "Yeah"
"We found something" Liz said as she stood in front of a safe. Liz, Damon and Brie approach the safe that Stefan was locked in, washed up onto land. "We didn't find anything in the quarry, but a deputy found this a few miles away. Didn't open it. If Stefan's been in there for three months...chances are he's hungry"
Damon lifts the top of the safe open, and they see a bloody corpse inside "Oh, my God. That's not Stefan"
Damon shuts the safe "Well, you were right. He was hungry. I bet he still is"
It's night-time. Stefan is walking down a street at night. He looks very tired and can barely walk. He spots a bar and walks towards it. He walks towards the door which has a broken sign that reads "BA" (because the R is broken.) The bartender wearing the nametag "Jo" is wiping the bar and she turns around when she hears Stefan walking in "Hey, man. Last call was 4 hours ago. If you want some coffee, I could put some on, or" Stefan keeps walking towards her non-stop and bites into her neck. She screams. "Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahh"
Stefan stops feeding "Run. RUN!" Jo runs away. Stefan walks outside, still looking tired and weak, as the sun rises. He falls to his kness as his skin starts to burn and looks at his hand, realizing he does not have his daylight ring. He groans in pain.
Brie suddenly sits up in bed, scared, as if from a nightmare and takes deep breaths. "You must have restless sleep syndrome or something" Brie said looking over at Damon who was sitting on a chair adjacent to the bed.
Brie closes her eyes as she passes her hands through her hair and takes more deep breaths. Damon looks at her and sees she's worried "I had a dream about Stefan. It was more than just a pit in my stomach this time, though. It was real. It was like I was there with him"
Brie lies down on her side as Damon joins her. Damon decides to lie on his side and face Brie "Tell me"
"It was just so vivid. I saw Stefan walking out of this bar. It had a red awning and this broken neon sign, and he was screaming in pain"
"Well, should I go check in the attic, see if there's a crystal ball? Maybe you can conjure up an address"
"Route 29. Joe's bar" Brie and Damon rise from the bed to see Katherine standing at the bedroom door. "I think I had the exact same dream" Brie and Katherine exchange looks. Damon groans and buries his face in his pillow Downstairs, now dressed, Brie writes in a notebook, then pauses to pick up Stefan's daylight ring and look at it pensively.
Damon enters the room "So I've found 9 bars along Route 29, and none of them are called "Joe's"
"I had a feeling that there was something wrong all summer, and I ignored it. But I was right, Stefan was in a safe, and probably killed whoever it was that found him...I know it sounds crazy, that I'm following some psychic dream, but it's the only lead that we have"
"It doesn't sound crazy—it is crazy. But I'm open-minded"
Katherine joins them "Shotgun" Brie and Damon look at her "What? I get carsick in the back seat. Another charming, human side effect you stuck me with."
Brie looks at Damon "Please tell me that she's not coming?"
"Trust me, I have no interest in Katherine's well-being, but for some reason Silas wants her real bad, and if Silas wants her, I want her more"
"Can't we just stash her in the cellar? Or maybe a deep, dark well with a pair of water wings?"
"Do you really think that I wanna take a road trip with you, America's most boring, self-righteous vampire? Just remember, Damon wouldn't have to play bodyguard if you hadn't shoved that cure down my throat"
"You were trying to kill me!" Brie said getting defensive.
"I will admit, though, I take great pleasure knowing that you wasted your one shot at a human life on me I wanna find Stefan just as much as you do, and not just because I don't wanna be a pawn that you can trade off for his life. I care about him—I always have. And since we've been having the same dream...makes me think you care about him just as much"
"Okay, train's leaving the station. Choo-choo!"
In a cabin in the woods, Stefan wakes up to find a woman staring at him. He sits up quickly "I don't want to hurt you, so get away from me before I rip your throat out"
"Hello to you, too. I brought dinner" Tessa holds out a blood bag. Stefan hesitates for a moment, then grabs the blood bag savagely and starts to suck it down "A vampire doppelgänger who's burdened by a conscience. Now I've seen everything"
Stefan looks at her "You saved me from burning to death outside that bar this morning, didn't you?"
Tessa nodded "And I pulled you from the quarry before that. That is, I figured out where you were and told the former owner of this cabin to pull your lock box from the water. You thanked him...by biting off his head"
"How do you know I'm a doppelgänger?" Stefan questioned as he didn't know how she knew things about him.
"Because I've seen your face before on someone who wasn't you. How much do you know about Silas?"
"I know that he's a bloodthirsty immortal who's killed more people than I can count, and that was before he stole my identity, locked me up in a safe, and dropped me in the bottom of a quarry I came very close to flipping off my humanity switch, but I didn't because I knew if I ever got out, I wanted to be myself when I killed him. He's a monster, and I'm going after him" Stefan stands up as though to leave.
"Except you'll burn to death in the sun without your daylight ring. Silas wasn't always a monster. He used to be a simple man in love with a simple girl...his soul mate. Silas and I were the two most powerful members of a gifted people called Travelers. When we were engaged to be married, we decided to reach even further"
"Yeah, look. I know the story. Everything was great for Silas until some witch named Qetsiyah or whatever came by and screwed him over, right?"
Tessa shook her head "Wrong. You don't know the story. Silas convinced Qetsiyah that he loved her so she would make the immortality spell, but when she found out that he was just using her, she dumped him in a tomb with a cure, hoping he would take it and die, because she had created a supernatural limbo to trap his soul, now Silas wants to destroy that supernatural limbo. Once the Other Side is gone, he can take the cure, become mortal and die, and finally pass on and find peace"
"Look, if you really are Silas' one true love and you're not dead, then why don't you just do us all a favor and run off into the sunset together?"
"Silas was my true love. I never said that I was his. I'm Qetsiyah, that sane, rational, well-adjusted woman you seem to know so much about" Tessa drags a finger along the wall, leaving a line of blue flames in its wake, which leads to the fireplace and ignites. "Clearly you've heard the man's version of the story, the one where I'm a back-stabbing lunatic who ruined everything for Silas, a raging bitch-witch whose obsession with vengeance created a whole new dimension of suffering in the afterlife"
"What are you doing here? I thought you were dead and on the Other Side"
Tessa looked out her window "I was—for two thousand years" She turns around to Stefan "But I came back...for you"
Damon is driving his car, with Brie in the passenger seat and Katherine in the back. "You sure you know what you're looking for? Last bar had a red awning and a neon sign"
"I'll know when I see it"
Katherine pops her head out between the front seats "Me, too"
Damon: Didn't ask you.
"I'm just trying to make conversation. Anything to drown out the sound of eggshells breaking. So, Brie, I couldn't help but overhear. You've been dreaming about Stefan all summer?"
"They weren't dreams. It was just a bad feeling, like something wasn't right with him"
"Oh, no, yeah, sure. I totally get it. There's still a connection between you two. Maybe deep down you know that he was your one true love and leaving him alone to drown Silas's body himself was a big mistake"
"Ignore her. As soon as the vervain's out of her system, we'll compel her and we'll put her on mute"
"Or maybe Stefan's been trying to reach out to you all summer, but you've been too distracted with college to help him so he reached out to the person that he trusts—me. Brie turns a long-suffering look at Damon. "Nah. You're probably right. Brie and I had the exact same dream on the exact same night. Why would that mean something?" Neither Damon nor Brie respond; Damon looks troubled.
Damon pulls his car into the parking lot at Joe's Bar, and he and Brie quietly get out of the car—Katherine is asleep. "Are we really just gonna leave her in the car?"
"The only time she shuts up is when she's sleeping, and I didn't want to disturb our peace and quiet" Brie stops walking toward the entrance and Damon turns back "I thought you said this was the one"
"It is. It looks exactly like it did in the dream. Isn't that a little freaky?"
"Yeah. It's a lot of freaky. Let's go see if Stefan's inside" They walk in and see the girl the Stefan attacked, working behind the bar.
"Can I get you something?" Jo said behind the bar.
"Yeah, sure" Damon starts compelling her "Why don't you tell me what happened to your neck, Jo?"
"Some sicko attacked me, bit me, told me to run, so I did, and when I looked back, he was on fire"
Brie looks at Damon "The sun must have come up. He doesn't have his daylight ring"
Damon looks back at Jo "And then what happened?"
Jo tries to think about what happened "Some woman shoved him into a truck, drove away. She was driving Cam Peterson's truck. He lives about ten miles down that dirt road out back. Here. Look like you could use one of these" She pours Damon a shot.
"Hmm. I could. Thank you" He throws it back, swallowing. Suddenly he starts gagging and coughing, his mouth and throat sizzling "Vervain!" He says hoarsely"
Nadia enters from the back room "I told her to pour him a drink or I'd kill her"
"Who the hell are you?" Nadia raises a gun at Damon and Brie. Katherine enters the bar, not realizing what's going on until it's too late and Nadia sees her. Nadia points the gun at Katherine and Katherine stops and puts up her hands "Which one of you is Katherine Pierce?"
Brie vamp-runs at Nadia, throwing her against a table "Katherine, run!"
Nadia's eyes vamp out, she straightens up and throws Brie against the wall with vampire strength, then vamp-runs out of the building. Damon helps Brie up "Wonderful. Now we've got a vampire bounty hunter to deal with. Let me guess: Euro-bitch was not part of the dream?"
Brie shakes her head "I've never seen her before"
"Yeah. Well, whoever she was, she wants Katherine, which means she's probably a Silas spy"
"I'll go chase after her. You find Stefan" Brie says before she tries to walk out the bar.
Damon grabs her arm and pulls her back "Wait, what? No, she almost killed you"
"We don't have time for a detour. Damon, Stefan's hurt. Find him"
"Wait. No. Stop. Just wait. Any sign of trouble, you let her go, do you understand me? I don't care how bad Silas wants Katherine. She's not worth the hair on your head. You got me?" Brie nods "Go!" They part ways.
In the woods, Katherine runs through the woods, stumbling through overgrown plants until she comes to a stop, crouching and looking over her shoulder. Suddenly someone grabs her and she spins around, standing up to find Brie, and she sighs in relief. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm really glad it's you. My leg is cramping and I'm freezing. Do you mind if I, uh—can I borrow your sweater?"
"Let's go before she doubles back" Brie turns to go, ignoring Katherine's request.
"Why didn't you kill me?" Katherine says as it makes Brie stop in her tracks.
Brie turns around "If Silas wants you, that means you're leverage"
Katherine shakes her head "No, I mean, after you shoved the cure down my throat. I was trying to kill you. Why didn't you finish me off?"
"You think that because we share the same dreams and both care about Stefan that we're alike, but we're not. I value my humanity, which is why I let you live—to give you a chance to find whatever shred of humanity's buried underneath five hundred years of bad behavior"
"Well...thank you. I'm glad to know that you care, even if you are a condescending bitch"
Suddenly Nadia appears behind Brie and breaks Brie's neck. Brie falls to the ground, unconscious. "Do I have to knock you out, too?"
"Not necessary" Nadia grabs Katherine and man-handles her away.
Stefan sits bound to a chair by vines and is surrounded by a circle of herbs on the floor. Damon opens the door and Stefan looks up. "Stefan. You couldn't call a brother?" Damon sees him tied up to a chair "What the hell is going on here?"
"Well, Silas' ex-girlfriend decided to come back from the Other Side"
"Qetsi-whatever?" Damon is trying to untie Stefan when Tessa shows up behind him, holding a flower.
"It's Qetsiyah" Tessa looks at Stefan "Do you see why I want to change it? You won't be able to break those vines. The spell won't release him until I get what I want"
"Well, I guess the rumors are true. You are a ray of sunshine. Question—why is my brother wearing your compost pile?"
"I'm going to link Stefan to Silas. Casting a spell on his doppelgänger will neutralize Silas' mental powers. Once he's weakened, I will force him to take the cure"
"Well, that's a great idea, force the cure down his throat. The cure is gone, done, it's ingested"
"Katherine, you mean? I'm aware of her condition. She was supposed to be with you"
Stefan looks up at Damon "Wait. Katherine took the cure?"
"We have a lot to catch up on, Stefan. Wait a minute. What do you mean supposed to be with me? Did you plant those dreams? What is it, some kind of, like, witch party trick?"
Tessa chants over a bowl "Adatu Khan Leala Ghan Breatvis Shemil"
Damon stands there awkwardly "Okay, well, thanks for the hospitality, but we should really get going if we want to beat traffic"
Stefan nods, agreeing with his brother while he is still bound to the chair "Yep, yep. He's right"
"Probably don't want to get on my bad side" Tessa says beginning to become impatient.
Damon scoffs "You realize you're not the only one with a bad side, right?"
Tessa chuckles "Aren't you brave. Without Silas' mental powers, he is an immortal nobody. We can defeat him. Isn't that what you want?"
Stefan didn't want to hear anymore of it "Just do it, all right? Just get it over with. Do it"
Nadia drags Katherine out of the woods and across a road to a car parked near an overpass "Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I like to know the identity of my kidnappers. Who are you and what do you want?"
"Ask me again, and I'll sew your mouth shut" Silas approaches them and leans against the car.
"What are you doing here?" He removes a small device from under the car.
"GPS tracker. It's even better than a locator spell" Cut to the house in the woods: Damon watches Tessa dip her fingers in the hot molten metal in the bowl, then approach Stefan from behind, chanting. She presses her fingers against the sides of Stefan's head, and he gasps "Thank you for working so quickly, Nadia"
"I'm not ready to hand her over yet" Nadia said still holding tightly onto Katherine.
"Oh, that's right. Your fascinating unfinished business I don't care about"
"Get out of my head" Nadia said keeping her eyes on Silas.
Katherine looks at Nadia then at Silas "What are you two talking about?"
"Let go of her arm" Silas uses his mental powers, and Nadia complies "Now I want you to pull out your gun...and aim it at your heart" Nadia obeys. Cut to the house in the woods: Tessa continues to chant over Stefan, who groans in pain. Cut to the road: Nadia lifts the gun and points it at herself "Good. Now, pull the trig—ugh!" Tessa continues chanting; suddenly Silas groans in pain and sinks to his knees, grasping his head. Nadia's arm falls, and the women watch Silas.
"Seriously, what is going on?" Nadia pulls Katherine toward the car.
Back in the woods. The circle of herbs surrounding Tessa and Stefan have ignited into flame "What are you doing to my brother?"
"I'm frying Silas' brain. No one said it would be pretty" Both Stefan's and Silas' eyes begin to bleed. Soon Stefan's head rolls to the side and he loses consciousness. "We're done. It worked"
[Damon takes Stefan's head in his hands, propping it up and shaking it slightly. "Stefan. Stefan! Stef. Damn it. Whatever you did to him, undo it"
"Relax. I just burned through his conscious mind. He'll wake...eventually. You sure you want to take him home? Damon starts undoing the vines holding Stefan to the chair.
"So, what are you suggesting, I leave him here with you while I run off and live happily ever after with Brie" Damon chuckles "You have a bad track record with men"
"I want to keep him safe. Now that he's linked to Silas, Silas can't mess with our heads, and as long as Stefan's in the way, you will never be with Brie. Take it from a woman who's had front row seats for two thousand years"
He grabs Tessa's throat; she struggles and manages to cast a spell. "Ah Sha Lana" Damon releases her, grabbing at his head. Tessa throws Damon off, and he falls to the floor. Some time later, Damon hears Brie calling out.
"Stefan!" She runs in the door and sees Stefan. She runs to him, touching his face. Damon watches from the floor "Stefan! Hey! Oh, no. Stefan, hey. Stefan, can you hear me? Stefan! Wake up. Oh, god"
In the Boarding House, Stefan lies unconscious on the sofa, Brie sitting at his side. She lifts his hand and puts his daylight ring back onto his finger. Damon enters the room "Well, he's got his daylight ring back. We're all set for a picnic"
"He's lucky he has a brother who looks out for him. Otherwise, you might have pawned it for a pinball machine" Stefan starts waking up on the sofa. Brie turns to see Stefan sitting and standing up.
"Welcome back, brother" Damon places his hand on Stefan's shoulder.
Brie smiles at him, she was glad to see him again "Stefan...we missed you" She said taking his hand.
"Uh, I'm sorry...I—I have no idea who you people are" Brie's smile falls, and she looks from Damon to Stefan, in shock.