Lockwood Mansion: Tyler arrives home to find the place all gussied up for next week's event, and to hear the sad news from his mother: Mason has gone back to Florida. Tyler I know you were just bonding with him, hey, I was too, but buck up, kid. Thinking he's just flaked off to Florida is a lot better than knowing the truth.

Mossy Manse: Elena finds a tearful, shaken and recovering Stefan futilely trying to warm himself by the fire. He knows what's coming -- why she's there, but Elena needs to say it anyhow. She loves him with all her heart and knows he loves her, but they have to break up. They have to let Katherine win, because she has won -- already. She can't risk Jeremy or anyone else. As I said in the recaplet, I have to give a standing ovation to Paul Wesley here, because not a lot of guys, no matter how talented, could have pulled off this level of searing pain with such vulnerability. The whole cast (and hey, the whole cast was actually in this episode) did some sharp work this week, but if I forget that Nina Dobrev is playing two very different roles (and I often do, because she's just that good at it), I have to say Stefan, Mason, Caroline and Liz did an awful lot of heavy lifting, and made it look as effortless as breathing. As a sobbing Elena flees Mossy Manse, she's stopped by Damon -- who I'm totally not speaking to at the moment on account of him killing the pretty. But then he drops the Evil Pixie Monster act (and possibly the eye thing,) and tearfully admits to riling up Katherine. He not only accepts the blame for his actions, but actively courts it -- cracking the shell I so hastily erected around my admittedly fickle heart. It's different. He has a soul now. So now we're done, right? Oh, no siree, Bob.

Katherine, that evil bitch mistress from hell, is skipping through her alphabet of plans right to plan Trouble with a capital T, that rhymes with P, and that stands for Pudding Pop. That's right. Back at Miss Flowers' boarding house, she's compelling our darling Donovan in the worst of ways, because she needs a werewolf, see, so Matt has his marching orders: go at Tyler Lockwood and at him, and at him, and at him -- until Tyler kills him.