The Vampire Diaries: The New Deal (Season 3, Episode 10)

"I need you so much closer..."

Bonnie walks around a creepy, ghost-y mansion. She enters the basement and finds five coffins, presumably Klaus’s family. Yet when she opens one, she finds Klaus inside, peacefully sleeping in a suit. He has a familiar piece of jewelry on his hand. Bonnie reaches for it, but whips around at the sound of a creaking coffin lid. This jerks her out of her slumber, and she sits up in her own bed.

Elena jogs past humongous houses and stops to catch a breath and check her time. She sees a man jogging behind her. She begins to run again, picking up speed in order to get away from him. Elena pauses again, only to bump into the same man. He smiles and apologizes before running off.

At the Mystic Grill, Elena and Bonnie commiserate about going insane. As far as they know, Klaus is still out there, but he hasn’t sought revenge. Bonnie keeps having the same dream about Klaus and the coffins, but she inexplicably attributes this more to stress than to premonitions, even though she is a witch. Elena says they haven’t heard from Stefan after he betrayed them all and is no longer the man they knew. Bonnie looks skeptical. (Why wouldn’t she be, considering Elena accepted Damon’s bad side for so long, but now cannot tolerate Stefan’s?)

Damon is drinking his pains away (aka the whole bar), and for once Alaric is putting his job above boozing with Damon. He has been waiting for Jeremy because he plagiarized his midterm. The barmaid tells him that Jeremy was fired last week.

I can only go out with you if I know you will become a vampire and die.

Jeremy is drinking and shooting things with Tyler, who is once again in jerk mode. Sigh. They are doing this because their girlfriends dumped them. (I might add the ladies had legitimate reasons to do this.) Tyler tells Jeremy to try to shoot him with a crossbow because hybrids are harder to kill than vampires and werewolves. Because Jeremy’s life is nuts, he tries to shoot his friend, who catches the arrow in the air, drunk and all.

Elena is furious at and worried about Jeremy. Damon points out that getting fired from the Grill is not a tragedy, and being moody is hardly uncommon for teenagers. He also says that Jeremy has one woman he cares about: Elena. She asks about his mental health and they flirt a bit. Then, who should show up but Mr. Klaus. He says he’s just having a drink with his friend Tony, the man who ran into Elena. Klaus says he won’t hurt them if they tell him where Stefan is; he stole from Klaus. Elena says this sounds like a Klaus and Stefan problem. (Even Elena knows about their tumultuous relationship.) Klaus laughs and says this is him broadening the scope. Also, Klaus is better at darts than drunk Damon.

Bonnie goes to the mansion and into its basement, as she did in her dream. Instead of coffins, she finds Stefan. He tells her to help him hide Klaus’s one weakness: his family.

Alaric and Elena cook dinner. Jeremy arrives but says he’s going to hang out with Tyler. The others disapprove, but he points out that Elena is a complete hypocrite when it comes to hanging out with dangerous individuals. Elena and Alaric don’t care if Tyler can hear them, because they point out that he is dangerous due to being sired by Klaus. Jeremy is either compelled or the most stupid person on the planet because he invites Tyler into the house.

If I can't have one Salvatore, I'll have the other.

Klaus visits Damon who is agreeable to Klaus’s come-ons. Klaus jabs Damon about plotting against him, Stefan’s betrayal, and Rebekah’s whereabouts. Damon points out that Rebekah betrayed Klaus, who has no mirth in his eyes even as he smiles. Damon wisely offers him a drink.

Tyler explains that being sired is totally different from being compelled. He has complete faith in Klaus, but he also has free will. Jeremy nods approvingly until Tyler admits that he would rip out his own heart if Klaus told him to. Tyler says Klaus would never do that, and that everyone, including Caroline, is thinking too much. Perhaps it is dawning on Jeremy that he is the stupidest kid alive.

Damon and Klaus have an interesting dynamic. Klaus says they have a lot in common. Damon asks if it’s a mutual hatred for Stefan, the buzzkill. Klaus explains that Stefan stole his family. Damon says he doesn’t work for Klaus, who retorts that Damon and company only seem to respond to violence. Klaus calls someone and tells him to do that thing he told him. Unfortunately, that doesn’t sound very threatening.

Tyler leaves, Alaric and Elena discuss his psychology, and Alaric hilariously goes on in a nerdy fashion about Tyler not being aware of his psychosis. When they turn around, only Jeremy’s ring is to be found. Jeremy is outside, standing in the middle of the road. Alaric pushes Jeremy out of the way and is smashed by the car. Perhaps he won’t die if a supernatural creature is driving the car. I honestly don’t care how this stuff works. Luckily Alaric will probably live, no thanks to that jerk Tony. Jeremy tells Elena that Klaus called him.

Poor Jeremy is a terrible shot. Good for me, bad for him.

Klaus is setting up shop with his hybrids. Tyler shows up and Klaus gayly calls him the man of the hour. Tyler is confused as to why Klaus tried to kill Jeremy, Alaric, or anyone. Klaus sighs and explains that this is what they do to get what they want. You can see him thinking, “Stefan all over again, both more pliable and stupid.”

Elena explains to Jeremy that Tyler got him off of vervain. Damon tells Elena that Stefan stole coffined family members. She wants to wake Rebekah, who is too dangerous, according to Damon. Jeremy’s IQ skyrockets when he suggests they all pack their bags, stop worrying about school, and leave Mystic Falls. He emphatically states that none of them are going to get out of this town alive. Jeremy has gone from sub-moron to the smartest person in Mystic Falls. Still not very smart, but a complete genius in comparison to his company. Elena calls Bonnie and asks her to find Stefan and the coffins. Bonnie tells her to come to the magical mansion to find him.

The witches are still angry at Damon, so he has to wait outside. (Why do they like Stefan, who was even more sadistic?) Stefan tells Elena to go away and stop talking. She complains to him about Jeremy almost getting killed, but Stefan doesn’t react. He says he’s not giving Klaus anything and Jeremy isn’t his problem. She slaps him and tells him to go to hell. He’s getting a taste of Damon’s world.

Damon sends Elena off to deal with her brother and says he will brave the witches and burning sunlight to talk with his brother. Stefan responds to Damon’s approach by saying “so let’s talk.” He seriously worked for the mafia. Damon notes that everything is difficult with Stefan before tackling him, dragging him outside, and stabbing him in the stomach with a branch. Stefan explains that he was abused by Klaus, so he is taking everything away from Klaus in return. He saved Klaus to save Damon, who is appalled and tells him to stop saving him.

I shoot friends with crossbows all the time.

Jeremy tries to shoot an offended Tyler with a crossbow. Tyler explains that he didn’t think Klaus would try to kill Jeremy. He says his focus is his family, but he also says that Klaus isn’t done with Jeremy. Jeremy says to think about the fact that Klaus kills people left and right. As he walks away Tyler looks regretful, but all he can say is “stay inside.”

Elena asks when Alaric returned to the land of the living, and Alaric nonchalantly responds “just a few minutes ago.” Somehow, Klaus is able to get around the ring thing – maybe it was being hit by a car instead of being directly attacked – because Alaric starts coughing up blood. Paramedics arrive but so does Tony, who tells them to leave. He says he can save Alaric with his blood if Elena invites him in. Tony is shot in the back by Jeremy who grabs a cleaver and chops his head off. Jeremy has gone from his lowest moment to his most insanely awesome moment. Elena is understandably traumatized by the sight of her baby brother decapitating someone.

Damon interrogates Stefan about why he saved him. Stefan evades him, and Damon says, “Deflection: that’s not going to work on me, I invented that.” I love their conversations. Stefan thinks there is another way to kill Klaus. Damon says he wants in. Damon tells Stefan to look at his life choices: he’s been hiding out in a “haunted house.” Damon notes that they will have to be “cutthroat and devious,” and he’s so much better at that than Stefan. They agree that Elena will stay out of this. Stefan invites Damon into the haunted house and shows him the coffins – the witches are agreeing to hide them.

Alaric has recovered. He shares sexual tension with an astounded nurse. He says his health is due to both a guardian angel and selling his soul to the devil.

As good as Damon at invading personal space.

Klaus pushes past Elena, so she can show him Rebekah’s dead body. He shows how highly he thinks of Jeremy by saying, “my sister’s life for your brother’s, yeah, I’d say that is a deal.” He can tell Elena is lying about not knowing where Stefan is. Klaus threatens more of her loved ones, but Elena points out that Klaus is the one who turned Stefan into a heartless monster, so he’s Klaus’s problem now. (Does she ship them?) She also points out that Rebekah knows Klaus killed their mother. Klaus looks stricken, and Elena awesomely tells Klaus, the Klaus, to see himself out.

So Damon’s blood helped Alaric recover. Romantic. Alaric offers an ear to Jeremy, who says his life sucks, but murdering a hybrid is a typical Sunday.

Elena frets about washing blood off the porch, her brother, and Stefan. She says she made a deal with Klaus and gave him Rebekah, but she’s confident they won’t kill her. Then she and Damon share a romantic moment, and Damon tells her everything will be okay, twice.

In a poignant scene, Klaus talks to an unconscious Rebekah about how they’ve waited 1,000 years and he hoped he’d share this with her. But as she starts to move and gain color, he stabs her again. His eyes well up.

Tony the powerful hybrid, killed by a 16 year old human.

With input from Alaric and Elena, Damon compels Jeremy to leave Mystic Falls and never look back. This is so sad. The siblings are separating. They’re all they have.

Bonnie tells Stefan the coffins are probably shut with a spell. She approaches the one she dreamt about and says opening this is probably their answer.

Elena worries more about Jeremy, and Damon continues to tell her things will be okay – estranged is better than dead. She thanks him for everything. As they move in closer, Damon’s conscience prompts him to tell Elena that Stefan saved Klaus to save Damon. Elena gets flustered, asking what that means. Damon says that he was an idiot because he thought for once he didn’t have to feel guilty about what he wanted. He starts to walk away but soon turns back and says screw it, he’s going to do something to feel guilty about. They share a beautiful, sexy kiss, and he wishes her goodnight.