Meanwhile, over at the Salvatore homestead, Papa walks with his boys and says that the town leaders expect to be able to count on them -- descendants of a founding family. Stefan confirms that they can. Father -- right in front of Damon, mind you -- says, "I'm not sure that your brother, Damon, understands the importance of duty." Damon's neck nearly snaps as he turns to face his father. How he refrains from saying, "Standing right here. Standing right exactly here," I'll never know. Stefan too, following his father's lead, speaks as if Damon isn't there, and reminds their father that Damon left the Confederacy on principle. It's his choice, and should be respected. Papa says, "You'll forgive me if I have trouble respecting a deserter." Me: Is the desire to shag Katherine a principle, Stefan? Damon: "I never asked for your respect." Papa: "Good for you, Damon, because all I have is disappointment." They face off, and Damon tries to out-sneer Daddy Damndest, so Stefan changes the subject, asking what father meant about the town being in trouble. The father says there have been too many deaths and it's time to fight back. "Vampires -- they exist and they live amongst us, but we have a plan to kill them, and you're going to help us."

Gilbert Gables: Damon prepares dinner while Jenna swills wine and watches with great appreciation. My kinda gal. Ian Somerhalder's Damon is, I think, like James Marsters' Spike. As they'd say at Buffistas.org Damon has the BBoC factor: "If they told James Marsters that his new love interest was a cement block, he would have chemistry with the cement block. We would all be Spike/Cement Block shippers, and there would be a S/CB fic list, and whenever JM looked at the block just so, we would all post things like, 'Whoa, Cement Block looked hot tonight'. We leapt on the phrase with glee. 'The BBoC factor' is a reference to the fact that James Marsters can generate chemistry with anything. Even Riley." Not that Jenna is a BBoC (or, heaven forfend -- a Riley); she has plenty of spark on her own. It's just that Ian has this way about him that lights his counterparts in the most flattering candlelight. Anyhow, he tells Jenna about how his father never approved of his girlfriends and asks Jenna about herself and if Logan is still missing. She tells him that the overly entitled Logan is in the Bahamas, working on his tan. "He's a Fell. They're all snooty." Damon laughs and pours Jenna another (largely unnecessary) drink, and then greets Elena. He asks if Stefan's with her. Elena's brow furrow as she answers that he'll be there, soon.