Alaric's a temporary Original. Rebekah tells Klaus they need to get out of town. When he says he wants to collect Elena first, the Beckster tells him he needs to leave now, with her, or he'll have no family left. Klaus is okay with that -- and who can blame him? Why any of the Mikaelsons even talk to each other is beyond me.

Vamparic kidnaps Caroline and orders Elena to meet him at the school. If she tells anyone, Caroline will be dead meat. The fierce but ridiculously reckless Miss Gilbert does not tell anyone, because the writers want us to think she's too stupid to live. Meanwhile, Klaus shows up at Gilbert Gables, looking for his doppelganger hybrid wet nurse. It's only then that anyone realizes Elena and her giant white cell phone are missing. What? You didn't think she was going to leave it behind -- all vulnerable to Stefan the Cell Phone Slayer.

Vamparic uses Elena and Caroline to lure Klaus and the Salvatores to the school, where he is torturing our poor Care Bear! Thank you, Show, for making me okay with Alaric's death. Bonnie proposes using the desiccation spell Abby cast on Mikael -- to disable Vamparic. My word, why didn't anyone think of that before, and use it on Klaus and kin? Vamparic doesn't have a daywalker ring, by the way, so the Fellowship of the Falls has about eight hours to fail… as we know they will.

Abby Abandoner returns and tells Bonnie that to desiccate Vamparic, she must magically stop his heart. To do that, she also needs to stop a human heart, because witches are all about "balance." I'll be hitting this in the full weecap, believe you me.

Meanwhile, over at MFHS, Vamparic is trying to reeducate Miss Elena, such that she'll start killing vampires, and stop kissing them. He wants her to start with Caroline. Elena manages to vervain him in the face and free our Vampire Barbie, who escapes. Elena is less fortunate. Klaus and the Salvatores arrive. They're juiced up on Bonnie-blood, so that they'll be connected to her. Bonnie will stop a protect-o ring-wearing Jeremy's heart, while they make contact with Vamparic's blood, which, because of the Bonnie-blood link, will allow her access to his heart. Vamparic breaks the Salvatores' necks. Klaus manages to injure Vamparic. Bonnie starts her spell, but when Vamparic throws Klaus off, Bonnie loses access.

Elena realizes that Esther tied Vamparic's life to hers. She threatens to kill herself, so that Vamparic will stand down. Somewhere in there, Klaus manages to grab Elena and Stealth Salvatore her to Klaus Haus. He decides to bleed her dry. He'll end up with a good batch of doppelganger blood and Vamparic will be out of the picture. Klaus orders Tyler to help. Tyler tries to resist, and at first, it's not clear if he's still laboring under the sire bond or just playing the game. When the Salvatores wake from their broken neck naps, Alaric orders them to do what they do best: save their girlfriend.

Back at Klaus Haus, Tyler gets a moment alone with Elena. He tries to free her. Klaus catches him and realizes true love has trumped his sire bond. Just as he tries to rip out Tyler's heart, the Salvatores ride to the rescue. With Tyler's help, they hold down Klaus. Stefan sticks his hand into Klaus's chest. We cut to Bonnie who goes all Dark Willow, stops the Germ's heart and desiccates Klaus, instead of Alaric. Awesome.

The Salvatores take Elena home. Elena apologizes to them and explains she doesn't mean to string them along. She just knows that if she chooses one of them, she will lose the other from her life and she's lost too many people she loves. Call me crazy, but to me, that signals that she's leaning toward Damon. I mean, let's face it, if she chose Stefan, Damon would be pissed for a while. He'd act out, and then he'd get over it, because he's a huge Stefan/Elena 'shipper. Now, where was I?

Oh, here I am. Bonnie, Jeremy, Caroline, Tyler, Matt and Señor Tequila are waiting for Elena. While they failed to desiccate Vamparic, they've been waiting so long to beat Klaus that a victory bash is in order. As the kids party down, Stefan and Damon drive Klaus's corpse out of town. When the brothers are alone, they agree that if Elena chooses one of them the other will leave town without a fuss. They can catch up in 60 years, when Elena dies. They don't articulate those last three words, but it's what they mean.

Meanwhile, Vamparic has summoned the Council to a meeting at the Mayoral Mansion. He outs Carol and Liz as monster aiders, abetters and mothers. I hope these people have taken their vervain. I don't mind if they cooperate with Ric because they either fear him or agree with him, but I'm a little tired of compulsion. It's too consequence-free.

Anyhow, once their friends have left Gilbert Gables, Elena and Jeremy have a heart-to-heart. She understands that, in theory, Vamparic is right. He should just kill all the vampires, but she doesn't want to let Caroline, Tyler, Abby, Stefan and Damon die, so she's willing to be the bad guy. The Germ is willing to be the bad guy too, because he fears that were Vamparic to cleanse the town of blood sucking fiends, he would then commit suicide by murdering Elena. Little bro is not willing to lose big sis. He is willing to leave her long enough so that he can shower. Once Elena is alone, she winces in pain and passes out. Blood drips from her nose and...Title Card. Grrr argh.

"Before Sunset," moves at the breakneck pace typical of The Vampire Diaries. While I have a couple of canonical quibbles, they pale beside my delight that this seemingly immortal Original storyline will be put to rest, at least temporarily. I love the solution of desiccating Klaus, because it leaves a door open for Joseph Morgan to return, but also gets rid of Klaus for at least a little while. The show needs to detox from its Original addiction. I'm not spoiled, but I keep thinking there are only two ways to defeat Vamparic. If you don't want to read my speculation, avert thine eyes.

Now that we're free of those people so spoiler-phobic that they can't even bear unspoiled speculation, let's talk. The only way to stop Vamparic is to either desiccate him too, or kill Elena. If I were king of the forest (or Julie Plec), I'd choose that second option. Elena can either wear Jeremy's ring, or someone can vamp her. Here too, I'd chose the second option. Okay, granted, I just remembered that the gang thinks the ring won't protect Elena, since, as a doppelganger, she's a supernatural, rather than purely human. But even if that weren't the case, I'd choose it because Elena is in some physical danger already. Feed her some vampire blood to heal her, then kill her. Alaric will die and Elena will be a vampire. Her willingness to be the "bad guy" seems to foreshadow this. Furthermore, if/once Elena is a vampire that opens the door to letting her have a relationship with Damon, without it wounding the Salvatores' brotherly bond as deeply as it might, were Elena human. I'm just thinking aloud. No matter what happens, we'll have to wait 'til next week to find out.

I'll be back with the full weecap ASAP. In the meantime, please grade the episode up top and join us in the forum, where we never have a day without any vampires in it.