MFHS; Exterior: Elena exits school to find Stefan seated on a picnic table, just waiting for her. She swallows hard as she looks at him, but says not a word. Finally, he rises and says, "We need to...talk."

Over on the basketball court, Tyler is ragging on Matt (who's wearing that black tank top abomination-that-causes-desolation, again) about Caroline and "tapping that" and whether or not they're becoming 'we' people, which I totally took as wee people -- at least long enough to imagine them as leprechauns and WANT! Ahem. Matt tries to shrug off the teasing. "We hung out like...twice." Tyler smiles. "Like I said. 'We'."

Picnic table: Stefan catches Elena up on the new vampire in town and that although he can never be sure it's not Damon, he really doesn't think it is, since Damon's been trying to lie low. Stefan's telling her now, because he promised her the truth, and because he wants her to be careful. Elena admits that when she saw him, she thought he was there to say goodbye to her. Stefan takes a deep breath. "Not yet."

Gilbert Gables: Germ is sketching a scary looking guy with an angular face and pointy teeth. He shows it to Jenna who deems it creepy. He tells her about Jonathan Gilbert's freaky journal full of stories of demons and slaughter. Jenna (who isn't a Gilbert; she's a Summers Sommers) tells Germ his great-whatever was a writer -- short stories, horror, etc. Jeremy seems surprised Jonathan Gilbert wrote fiction. "I figured he was either a lunatic or a drunk." Jenna laughs as she grabs a book off the nearby shelf and hands it to Jeremy. "Well, he was a Gilbert. Probably a little bit of both." Jeremy smiles. Again. I could get used to this.

Warehouse Exterior; Day: Caroline holds the ACTUAL VAMPIRE COMPASS while Damon instructs her, via cell phone, to wait there for him. He can't use the instrument himself on account of being an ACTUAL VAMPIRE. They bicker for a moment, and then Damon hypnotizes her -- instructing her to go home and forget all about what they've just done. She sounds like the Buffy-bot as she perks, "Okay, bye now." I think Damon rolls his eyes at her, but I've temporarily lost the ability to process this scene, because I'm so annoyed that not one person who knows better -- Stefan, Elena, Sheriff Forbes, or hell -- at this point, even Bonnie, has given this child some Vervain. And actually despite that, I'm also sort of torn, because I enjoy watching these two work together. I'm just tired of her being his buttmonkey. You know? Once Caroline is gone, Damon strong arms the (apparently) locked warehouse door. Once inside, he's immediately shot -- multiple times -- by Scum! Now, I sort of hate Scum and I sort of love Damon, but I laughed and cheered. Damon totally deserves whatever he gets for treating Caroline like his minion, and for killing Stefan's FBfBFF, Lexi. Shoot him again, Scum! Awww, not right now, dammit. Commercial.