Gilbert Gables: Aunt Jenna is sitting on the couch, hastily leafing through a magazine when Elena finally returns home from her big adventure. Jenna rises and walks toward her niece. "I don't set a lot of rules, Elena, not with you. I trust you to tell me the truth. Where were you? And why did you lie to me about it? I thought that we were closer than that." Elena isn't playing. "Now is not the time you want to talk to me about lies." Jenna warns her against turning the conversation around like that, but Elena doesn't back down. "Okay, question: am I adopted? I trust you to tell me the truth too, Jenna. How could you not tell me? I thought we were closer than that." Jenna stumbles all over herself, but it boils down to this: Elena's parents asked her not to reveal the truth. Elena doesn't want to hear it. She slams the door and we cut to...

The Mystic Grill: Alaric is grading papers at the bar when Damon walks in and orders a bourbon. He looks down the bar and nods at Alaric. Alaric flashes back to his last morning with his wife, when he told her he'd be late getting home. Then he flashes back to his last night with her. He enters her bedroom to find her in another man's arms. That other man is our favorite Evil Pixie Monster -- Damon, who pauses to sigh in ecstasy, before he sinks his bloody fangs back into the late Mrs. Saltzman's neck. Back in the present, Alaric realizes who is sitting five feet to his left. He lifts his drink with his bling hand, takes an oh so meaningful sip, and sets it back down on the bar. His hand shakes until he slams it down on the bar. And? Scene.

Well, you know, no matter the flaws in any given episode, I cannot fault the pacing. Williamson, Plec, et alia give us everything they've got -- every week the show airs. I'm drowning in bloody reveals. Still, I have questions. I truly don't get Bonnie's lineage. It's a surname thing. Emily Bennett's surname was... well... Bennett. Likewise, Bonnie's surname is Bennett. And according to anything I can find, Jasmine Guy's Sheila is a Bennett, too -- but according to a reader, who seemed to take umbrage at my genealogical confusion, Guy is playing Bonnie's maternal grandmother, so...yeah, how are they all Bennetts? We know Bonnie's dad is in the picture, because she lives with him (except for when she's staying with Grams). Okay, so maybe Bonnie's mother didn't marry her dad and didn't give Bonnie his surname. But so then are we to also think Sheila didn't marry Bonnie's grandfather and didn't give Bonnie's mom his surname? This is a little clunky, but it can be explained. Still, right now? It itches.