Downtown. Tyler can't find Carol so he calls her and leaves her a voice message that plans have changed. Everything's going to be fine. Oh Tyler. He promises he'll be back later to pick her up, then ends the call, when he sees Hayley. He asks her why she's there instead of taking the witch to the cellar. Hayley shakes her head. "There is no witch, Tyler. [...] I made it up. We cut to the woods, but I'd rather finish Tyler and Hayley's scene, so forgive me for going out of order. Hayley says, "I never intended for you to put Klaus down. I needed him for the sacrifice." Tyler says, "The what?" We cut back to the woods, but I'm staying here. Hayley says, "I don't know how to explain it, but I made a deal with someone who can help me find my family." Tyler demands to know what she's talking about. Hayley: "There needed to be 12 for the sacrifice, Tyler." I ignore another cut. Tyler says, "Twelve what?" Another cut. Hayley says, "I'm sorry." Another cut. Tyler: "Hayley, what did you do?" Another cut. Hayley: "If you run now, you might make it out alive." Another cut. Tyler backs away, his eyes wide open, literally and figuratively. As he rushes through the crowd, we cut back to the woods.

Out in the woods, during all those cuts I didn't cover, Klaus has killed eleven of the hybrids. O Holy Night plays the whole time. I'm not shedding tears for fictional characters, and I'm just not going to recap the violence this week. I don't have it in me. A blood-spattered Klaus follows Kim down to the cellar and demands to know where Tyler is. When Kim says she doesn't know, Klaus kills her, too.

Lake House. Damon is sitting on the on the deck watching as Elena, Bonnie and Jeremy examine the Christmas decorations and reminisce. When Jeremy pulls out an old sprig of mistletoe, Elena laughs that Jenna used it to make out with Logan Fell. This is a sweet scene, and I laughed when I watched it. Elena beckons for Damon to join them, but he demurs, so she walks out to the porch and tells him he's missing the actual fun part. When she holds the mistletoe up over her head, Damon tells her they can't. Elena refuses to believe this isn't real. She knows how she feels and that he feels it to. He should stop fighting it.

Damon changes the subject and says it was good to see Elena being all normal with Jeremy. He wants that for her again. He also waxes nostalgic about his childhood Christmases with Stefan. Damon knows he's been wrong to be there with Elena, when he promised Stefan he would invoke the sire bond and send her away. He knows he should have done the right thing by her and by Stefan, so he'll do it now. He tells Elena to go home. He'll stay with Jeremy, train him and help him hunt vampires -- without her. "I'm setting you free, Elena. This is what I want. This is what will make me happy." I don't think that's as strongly worded as it needs to be, but I'll give him an A for his effort.