Previously, on The Vampire Diaries

Katherine celebrates the first morning of her new life with a ridiculously huge breakfast at that greasy spoon she's been frequenting. The waitress, who must have been off when Katherine impaled Nadia on that dude's cane, doubts Katherine will be able to put it all away. I love how Katherine's big new human character trait is gluttony. The waitress compliments Katherine on her hair. Kitty snatches up a napkin dispenser and sees a big streak of grey. She quietly freaks.

Title card!

At the start of a round of TVD's patented intercut exposition scenes, Elena and Damon hang out on a couch in front of a roaring fire. Elena loves their life like this, which cues Damon to start counting down from 10 how long it will take before something blows it up. Sure enough, by the time he gets to one, Silas barges through the front door, flinging open the curtains with magic. Damon wonders what's put the lead in his Eberhard Faber; Silas is jazzed because this'll be the day that he dies.

Cut to Tessa's cabin, where Stefan revives amidst a wicked tequila hangover with crazy Tessa hovering over him. He wonders what's got her in such a good mood and, like Silas, she's happy that today is slated to be his last on Earth.

Elena wonders how she can trust Silas to, as one of his final acts in life, bring Bonnie back to life. Silas: "Did you want me to pinky swear?" She declines and Silas continues that he'll be sure to resurrect Bonnie just as soon as he finds the mystical anchor for Tessa's Other Side spell.

Tessa picks the exposition back up, explaining the anchor again and noting that she plans to have Silas dead before he can find it. Stefan approves and asks for the location of the anchor.

Damon is rather peeved to learn that the anchor is in a stockyard in New Jersey. Before Silas can continue Jeremy interrupts with a crossbow.

He too is skeptical that Silas will revive Bonnie, a point Silas concedes, allowing that he is "kind of a monster".. Elena and Damon try to persuade him to put the bow down but it's ultimately Silas setting his own hand on fire that does the trick. Silas revels a moment in what fun it is to be a witch again, saying that the constant reinventing himself makes him feel like "a supernatural Madonna". So, like Madonna.

Stefan wonders what's next now that Silas knows the anchor is in New Jersey. Tessa tells him that the Travelers do not want Silas to be at peace with his One True Love Amara but refuses to say why. Stefan grabs the tequila bottle to start his own private drinking game.

Atta girl!

The Travelers have had the anchor for the last 2,000 years, constantly moving it, and they'll never allow Silas near it. Stefan wonders what happens if they fail and Tessa insists Silas won't be able to destroy the anchor but again refuses to say why.

Silas, Damon and Jeremy prepare to head for New Jersey but Silas refuses to allow Elena because he doesn't want to stare at her "carbon-copy face" for the entire trip. Damon protests that that makes no sense but Silas says it would make perfect sense had Damon ever been in love with someone who looked exactly like Elena. Damon appears to consider mentioning Katherine for about half a second before thinking better of it. Elena goes all "no one puts me in a corner" but Silas ends the argument by magically triggering Jeremy's crossbow, sending a bolt into Elena's leg. Since he promises the next one will go through her heart, she concedes the point. The boys head out, Silas stating he only has until sundown before Tessa comes for him.

Stefan gives thanks that with his amnesia he can't remember how he got in the middle of this mess and Tessa assures him he needn't worry about it since she'll have Silas dead by the end of the day. "You don't scheme as long as I have without considering every possibility," she says, immediately before smacking into the barrier spell that Silas cast on the cabin, a possibility she hadn't considered.

They're trapped until sundown.

Katherine's just finished dying her grey streak at the Improbably Large Dorm Room when Caroline arrives with boxes. As she packs she complains about how Doctor Evil is threatening to out her and Elena as vampires if they don't drop out and on top of that Jesse isn't answering his phone. Katherine isn't even trying to play Elena at this point and Caroline picks up on that almost instantly, slamming Katherine against a wall and throttling her.

Katherine pleads desperation but Caroline counters with loathing. Katherine comes back with an offer; in exchange for safe haven (and Elena's meal card) she'll help get Doctor Evil off their case.

Elena calls Stefan and Tessa answers, sowing some seeds of discord with comments about how sweaty Stefan gets during certain activities and whatnot. Elena leaves a message: "Remind him you're a crazy bitch" and calls Damon on the road to whinge about it. Silas prompts Damon to reveal that he kinda sorta snapped Stefan's neck a couple of times last night to allow Silas to access his psychic abilities. Elena decides to head over to talk to Stefan personally despite Damon's counseling against it. Somehow this is Silas's cue to tell a knock-knock joke: "Knock knock? Who's there? The Mayor? The Mayor who? That's the joke, I killed the Mayor." Orange you glad he didn't say banana?

Doctor Evil in his lair is dictating notes about Subject 62547, otherwise known as Jesse. he keeps getting distracted by odd noises, which turn out to be Caroline zhooping around the lab swiping his recorder and distracting him from the syringe that Katherine plunges into his neck. he falls unconscious.

Coincidentally, also his O-face

Elena arrives at Tessa's cabin and Tessa invites her in. Elena and Tessa hiss and spit at each other a bit (and it turns out Tessa and Stefan didn't bump uglies in a tequila haze after all, so, yay?) before Elena turns to leave. Except oops, she's trapped by the barrier spell as well.

The boys arrive in New Jersey while it's still broad daylight despite its being a six and a half hour drive from Virginia to Jersey and find themselves on the set of an episode of Storage Wars. Silas tweaks Damon about Elena and Damon insult's Silas's hair and if I were Jeremy I'd consider staking both of them and being done with it.

Damon breaks open the door to a huge warehouse and Jeremy asks where the anchor is. Silas has no idea. He pulled the location of the anchor from Tessa's mind but not what it looks like. They start busting open crates.

Doctor Evil comes to as Caroline and Katherine strap him to a chair with rubber tubing and tape. Caroline wonders what Kitty injected him with. She has no clue, just that the bottle said not to get it in contact with the skin. "And do not ingest. Oops." They're going to bleed Doctor Evil out to rid him of vervain so Caroline can compel him to forget about her and Elena being vampires. That he has vervain in his system makes Aaron's lack of vervain even more incomprehensible. Doctor Evil wigs out while Caroline does the math in her head for how much to drain him of without killing him.

As he bleeds, Katherine threatens him with a scalpel for information. He's rather confident that they won't kill him yet and he's rather free with the information about the secret society that's onto our girls. There's a meeting at Whitmore House to evaluate possible candidates for membership. Elena was up for an invitation before her vampiric nature became suspected. Katherine realizes all she has to do is convince the attendees that Elena isn't a vampire. Doctor Evil rather smugly points out that no vampire can cross the threshold. Caroline and Katherine just grin.

The boys are tearing open crates, turning up the Ark of the Covenant and Jimmy Hoffa's corpse and Curly's gold but nothing that screams "anchor". Bonnie takes a moment to visit with Jeremy, worried that the spell to bring her back might not work. Jeremy tells her to have more faith and say out loud that the spell will work. Bonnie tells him she would die a hundred times if it meant he would live.

As Damon and Silas root through more crates Damon wonders why the Travelers care so much whether Silas finds the anchor. Silas says that the travelers are the element in his love story that every great love story needs, an obstacle that needs to be overcome. "Kind of like you, Damon." Damon threatens to kill him but Silas knows the threat is empty until he brings Bonnie back.

Damon fields a call from Stefan's phone. It's Tessa, ordering him to kill Silas before sundown since she's otherwise occupied. He refuses and Tessa Mystic Migraines Elena to force his compliance. If Silas isn't dead by sundown she'll kill Elena.

Katherine arrives at Whitmore House and knocks. She's greeted by Diane Freedman, head of campus security whom we met the night that Megan was murdered. Katherine crosses the threshold without an invitation and heads straight for the food. In between stuffing her face and stuffing sandwiches in her purse she realizes Aaron has wandered up to her. She doesn't know him so figures he must be "the sandwich police". Which admittedly would make him a lot more interesting than he is now. She tries to pump him for information about "the secret society" but that well, she is bone dry. In the middle of that she starts to choke and coughs out one of her teeth.

That root. Jesus.

She and Aaron are as grossed out as I am and Katherine bolts.

Back at the cabin Elena's being all glum in the corner while Tessa and Stefan go over delivery menus. Tessa waxes rhapsodic for a moment about pineapple on pizza and I gotta agree. Elena asks how Tessa got back from The Other Side and Tessa explains that Bonnie left the door open when she distracted herself bringing Jeremy back. Elena continues that Silas was going to bring Bonnie back today before Tessa ordered Damon to murder him.

In the awkward silence that ensues Stefan offers to cook. Tessa suggests roasted duck. She doesn't have a duck but figures she can lure one inside seeing as how she was able to lure Elena. OK Tessa, now you're just being a Mean Girl; dial it back.

Outside the warehouse Jeremy insists that Damon go through with the original plan and not kill Silas until he resurrects Bonnie. Damon says there's no way that's going to happen if it means Elena's life. He heads back inside and Bonnie reassures Jeremy that it's OK. She would never allow one of her friends to die just so she could live. She's dead and it may be time for her to accept that.

Inside Damon confronted by two Travelers speaking what I think is Hungarian. He's in no mood so he advances on them only to start sizzling in a sunbeam. The Travelers have neutralized his daylight ring. Damon powers through it and plunges his fist into one Traveler's abdomen. He gripes that he was about to do them a favor by killing Silas. Traveler two explains that they don't want Silas dead yet. That doesn't really work for Damon so he grabs Traveler one's knofe and chucks it into Traveler two's gut before pulling his fist (and possibly an internal organ or three) out of Traveler one.

Caroline's bled quite a bit from Doctor Evil, who finds that her calm demeanor only adds to his terror. Caroline apologizes for spacing out and Doctor Evil's all "You could have killed me! I could have been killed!" Caroline snaps that she just broke up with her boyfriend and excuse her for having a moment. Doctor Evil: "I apologize. Is the moment over?"

It is, so Caroline compels some answers out of him. She learns that the secret society is called Augustine, which, sheesh. Most members are legacies but others are chosen for their unique talents. Like his super genius, for instance. He covered up Megan's cause of death because she was killed by "the Augustine vampire". Caroline demands the identity of this vampire but before Doctor Evil can answer Diane Freedman knocks on the lab door. Caroline compels Doctor Evil to believe that she and Elena are ordinary freshman, that he's light-headed because he gave blood today and to forget everything that's happened. She zhoops off as Diane enters.

Diane tells Doctor Evil that "Elena" crossed the Whitmore House threshold nice as you please and asks why he suspected she was a vampire. He can't recall and, to her credit, Diane seems slightly confused and possibly suspicious. She's no Sheriff Liz but maybe she's not a complete waste of space.

Cabin, sunset. Stefan cooks, Tessa tastes, they both flirt and Elena is on her last nerve. She tells Stefan that even if he hates her he would never go for someone like Tessa. Tessa faux-pouts a second then wanders off to call Damon for a murder update. Stefan speaks just loudly enough for Elena's vampionic hearing to pick up. He tells her he doesn't hate her and that he won't let Tessa harm her.

Damon reports on the Traveler attack and wonders why they wouldn't want Silas dead. Tessa posits that they want his blood which is now the Cure. Damon can't figure out why they'd care since they aren't immortal. As Silas approaches a particular crate, Tessa reminds Damon that she had to bind the spell to something immortal and indestructible, something that Silas could not destroy.

She hangs up and Stefan plunges a kitchen knife into her gut and yells for Elena to run. She does, with Stefan right behind her.

Damon realizes what a twisted genius Tessa is in her choice of anchor. As Silas pries open and clears out that crate, Damon talks Jeremy through it. The anchor isn't a thing; it's a person. Specifically, it's Amara.

Clearing out the rest of the packing material Silas drags Traveler two over to the ossified Amara and feeds him to her. She revivifies and opens her eyes in a neat visual callback to Elena's vampiric revival in season four.

Silas leads a freaked-out Amara out of the warehouse. He tells her that "Tessa" said she had killed Amara. Amara knows who he's talking about even though she wouldn't know Tessa by that name and says she couldn't kill her since there was just the one Cure. Silas tells her he took the Cure because he thought she was dead. Amara tells Silas she loves him, then snatches up a piece of broken glass and plunges it into his neck. She can't stand living another day so she drains him.

Doctor Evil looks around his lab for his recorder; Katherine arrives to return it. She asks whether Subject 62547 is the Augustin vampire. He suggests "Elena" leave and she suggests that if she does it will be to spread his secrets across campus. He accuses "Elena" of blackmail and Katherine reveals her real name. She hauls out her tooth and tells Doctor Evil she's dying and needs him to save her life.

Amara continues her freakout, now hearing voices which may be spirits from The Other Side or may be some form of telepathic contact. Reeling, she screams at the voices to leave her alone until she runs into Damon and asks if he's real. Damon: "Are you?"

Stefan and Elena return to Casa Salvatore and Stefan bids her good night. Elena comments how even with no memory, Stefan is still Stefan. He chalks up his response to instinct and Elena's all, exactly, your instincts were always to protect me so thank you for being you. Stefan heads up to bed.

Damon and Jeremy are in the living room and Damon's glad Stefan's back in his own bed. He tells her that they weren't able to bring Bonnie back. Ghost Bonnie wants Jeremy to tell them that it's for the best but he refuses, insisting that it's not for the best. Elena tells her they're going to keep trying.

Damon gives a status update: Silas is out and about and Amara's cured, so the fate of The Other Side rests on someone who's easy to kill who they need to protect. Elena's all, whadaya mean "we"? Damon takes her out to the garage to introduce her to Amara, who's bound and gagged in the back of Damon's car.

Not what the sponsors expected when they asked the show to highlight the ample cargo space

"Elena, meet Crazypants. Crazypants, meet Elena." Crazypants, unsurprisingly, screams.

Tessa has also made her way to Casa Salvatore, where she confronts Stefan. He offers to heal her but she prefers the pain, the better to match the pain she's about to inflict on him. As she Mystic Migraines him, Tessa taunts Stefan with memories of some of the many horrible things he's done, including murdering his father and forcing Damon to become a vampire. As she continues to recap Stefan's sins he continues to writhe in agony. The only thing keeping him sane through his ordeal in the safe was the hope that one of the two people he loves would rescue him. "But they didn't. I did. Always remember that." Um, OK?

Y'all, these Doppelgangers are turning into some Oprah-level shenanigans: "You get a Doppelganger! And you get a Doppelganger! And you get a Doppelganger!" It's been obvious from the start that Nina Dobrev has an absolute blast playing multiple characters and I'm looking forward to seeing what she brings to this third role. One of the things I love most about watching this show is that the actors always seem to be having such fun with the material. This episode was no exception. The stuff between Caroline and Katherine was great and the exchanges with Doctor Evil really elevated that character from a stock two-dimensional baddie to someone with a little bit of menace and a real drollery.

I had said last week that it felt like the Silas story line was winding down, possibly to conclude with the mid-season break. I still feel like that's likely and, with the revelation of the Augustine society (despite the derpy name) we're seeing more pieces move into place for what looks to be a confrontation with the society and its pet vampire in the second half.