We’re so excited to announce the first recap for The Vampire Diaries season 5! Tonight, on The CW, our favorite Mystic Falls supernatural homies will be returning for the season 5 premiere, which is titled “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Not the most original of titles, but we’re super excited nonetheless, as we’ve been super stressed out ever since the end of the season 4 finale. If you missed the season 4 finale, CLICK HERE to get caught up so you can swoop into this new episode with style (also, you dont’ want to be saying to your friends every two seconds, “Pssst, what happened to her last freaking season!?!?”).
We’re expecting lots of things to happen during this episode. Of course, if you remember, at the end of last episode we were shown Silas’s true form, which looks like Stefan. He locked Elena’s Stefan in a safe and pushed him over a cliff. Now, he’s swimming with the fishes and we have a feeling it’ll be a while until we’re reunited with the Stefan we’ve grown to know over the past seasons.
Here’s a wonderfully detailed episode synopsis for you to sink your fangs into before the premiere.
The Vampire Diaries Season 5 premiere 2013 – After spending the summer enjoying her passionate relationship with Damon (Ian Somerhalder), and making sure that Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) is adjusting after his return from the dead, Elena (Nina Dobrev) is thrilled to move into the dorm at nearby Whitmore College with her new roommate, Caroline (Candice Accola). Still believing that Bonnie (Kat Graham) has been traveling all summer and will soon join them, Elena and Caroline are surprised when a student named Megan (guest star Hayley Kiyoko) shows up and announces that she will be sharing their dorm room. Katherine (Nina Dobrev) makes an unexpected appearance at the Salvatore house and pleads with Damon to help her now that she is human and vulnerable to her enemies.
Matt (Zach Roerig) and Rebekah (Claire Holt) return to Mystic Falls after spending a wild summer in Europe, where they met a mysterious beauty named Nadia (guest star Olga Fonda). Elena can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong with Stefan (Paul Wesley), and Silas (Paul Wesley) makes a terrifying appearance at the “End of Summer” party in the town square. Lance Anderson directed the episode written by Caroline Dries .
What are you looking most forward to during season 5? Make sure to stop by at 8 PM EST to get your LIVE recap! Also airing tonight is the series premiere of The Originals — find out why we’re super pumped for that episode HERE. We’ll also be recapping that for you, too, so be sure to check that out as well.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
Caroline and Elena are getting ready for college. Tyler is helping a wolf pack in Tennessee. Matt and Rebecca are in Amsterdam or Prague and getting busy. Bonnie and Jeremy are sitting in a park and Jeremy is writing back on her behalf. Elena thinks Bonnie’s with her mom but she’s dead and her ghostly self is hanging with Jeremy.
Katherine is rocking around looking scruffy not enjoying her human existence. Stefan is nowhere to be heard of.
Elena tells Damon she’s got a bad feeling that something is about to happen. He says it is – she’s leaving him to go to college. He wants to bribe her with champagne and romance to forget her plans. She’s not having it. She scrolls through her phone and considers calling Stefan then doesn’t.
Good thing since he’s in a safe at the bottom of the lake…
Jeremy explains that he’s been acting out since his aunt died and he lost his family. He’s rehearsing his speech to get back into school. He has to explain how he’s not dead. Damon tells her to get on the road to school and promises that he will take good care of Jeremy for her. The sibs hug and Elena asks Damon how the long distance thing will work.
He smilingly tells her he will forget her the second she walks out the door. They kiss passionately and exchange endearments. Elena grabs her last bag, heads out, but then sneaks back in for one last kiss. Jeremy is giving him a weird look and Damon tells him to get to school.
Elena tells Caroline that she’s having weird sensations about Stefan – a nagging pit. Carolina tells her it’s just guilt – nothing more and that she feels bad for making the mistake of dating Damon and she should reverse it. The two are cheesy-thrilled they’re in college. Bonnie stands beside them unbeknownst to the two.
The Sheriff helps them unpack but then tears up and says she has to go. Elena is shocked Caroline brought a Panini press. Sheriff tells Elena her dad would be proud to see her there and gives her a hug too and then leaves. Elena says they should have a drink and Caroline breaks out the blood bags. They are about to tear in when another girl comes in and says she’s Megan – their roomie.
Jeremy is pushing Bonnie to come clean to her friends about being dead. She tells him that her dad is oblivious and Elena is happy at school – she doesn’t want to rock their boats. The bell rings and he leaves her and heads to math.
Elena calls Damon about the roommate situation and he encourages her to compel her ass out of there. Caroline wants to do that too but Elena says they have to face the real world at some time. She asks Damon if it’s really going to work out between them long distance and he says yes – but then… Katherine walks into Damon’s house looking all wild and wooly and he tells Elena he has to go take care of something.
Matt is at a party in the park when Rebecca finds him and starts making out with him. She begs him to run away with her again and he says he has to work. She tells him fine but he shouldn’t call, write or miss her. She takes off.
We see Stefan at the Mystic Falls event, but it’s Silas wearing his skin. He sits down with Elizabeth and pulls out a knife and cuts her wrist. He tells her that he’s there to out himself as Silas to her. He drains her blood into a cup while they talk. He tells her that vampires are nothing more than killable version of himself. He tells her to never call him a vampire. He says cheers and drinks down the glass of her blood. He says he can see that she can’t help him find what he’s looking for. He tells her she will only remember that Stefan stopped by to say hello. She tells him to call his friends and say hello. He smiles and leaves. She’s oblivious.
Megan is asking Caroline and Elena about their boyfriends and then Caroline tells her that they need ground rules. She should respect her privacy, not follow her around and not ask her questions. A cute guy shows up to give them a flyer for a party.
Jeremy is checking his phone when a couple of bullies knock it out of his hands. He makes a crack about him being back from the dead. They messed with the wrong guy! Jeremy kicks both their asses and walks away angry.
Katherine is knocking back liquor and tells Damon she no longer has any tolerance for alcohol. She tells him she’s a survivor and he says she’s a hot mess. He tells her that her hair and nails are a wreck and she’s miserable and that she’s there to ask him to change her. He tells her that he will and she can go bite the mailman and she’ll be one of them again.
Katherine says she can’t because there’s a chance she would never wake up. She says that Damon doesn’t want her to die – not really. He asks what she wants. The phone rings and Katherine answers – it’s the school. Jeremy was expelled. He says he has to go find Jer.
Katherine tells him that someone is chasing her and that she can’t protect herself because she’s weak, slow and human. She begs him for help.
At the bottom of the lake, Stefan wakes up and bangs on the safe then conks back out again. He’s hallucinating conversations with Damon who tells him to turn off his humanity switch so he won’t be scared and miserable while he’s stuck in the safe. He says he can’t because if anyone ever finds and gets him out, he won’t be worth saving.
Caroline is mad because Megan’s juicer is taking up too much space. She also thinks she takes too long of showers. Caroline wants her gone so they don’t get hungry and eat her. She doesn’t like her protein water and decides to drink it but then falls to the floor coughing and in pain – it has vervain in it! Just then Megan comes in and asks what’s going on and sees Caroline on the floor!
Megan runs over and asks if she’s okay and says the water just went down the wrong pipe. She tells her that she’s sorry for drinking her water. Caroline says that Megan knows who they are and could steal their daylight rings or stake them. Caroline wants to lock her up until the vervain fades and then compel her to find out what she knows. Elena says they just need to show her they’re normal – Caroline asks how and then poof – they’re at the party.
But they can’t go in! They have to be invited. Megan is on the threshold and wants to know why they haven’t come in and they make a lame excuse about waiting for someone. She walks away and Caroline is further convinced she knows what they are.
Damon finds Jeremy at the grill and chews him out for getting kicked out on day one. He tells him that Elena doesn’t need to know about it. He tells him to meet him outside but then turns and runs into Stefan! Stefan hugs him. Damon looks awkward about it.
Elena leaves a message for Megan to tell her they left. Caroline wants to grab her as she leaves the party. Elena says there is no way they were randomly paired with someone who knows about vampires. Caroline says it’s not random. Megan calls her and is screaming and saying someone is chasing her. She begs for help. They can hear her screaming. Suddenly there’s a thump and she has fallen to the ground and they see her neck has been ripped open. Elena says – a vampire did this.
Damon tells Stefan he knows he hasn’t called him back because of the Elena thing. Stefan says he’s over it and that he knows Katherine is at their house. He asks how he knows and he says he read Damon’s mind. Then he says he’s joking and that Katherine called him first because he’s always been first with her. Damon lets that go.
Jeremy walks up and Stefan greets him then leaves for home. Jer says something is wrong – that he got a tingle where his hunter’s mark used to be when Stefan touched him. He says that Silas grabbed him before he died and he felt the same thing. Bonnie is there and says when she died the magic that bound him broke and that he’s free. Jeremy insists that was Silas because he was trained to kill him. Damon says that Silas couldn’t fool that many people – he says no one is that psychic. Jer asks what he wanted.
We see Katherine in the tub when Stefan comes in. He asks why she’s in his brother’s tub and she asks why he’s not in there with her. She says she likes Elana-less Stefan. He says he likes her human – all weak and vulnerable. He says it works for her. He lunges at her and chokes her. She grabs the straight razor she was using on her legs and cuts him. She gets away.
Damon is there and pushes Katherine to Jeremy and tells him to hide her and not tell him where they’re going. Damon tells Silas that being downgraded to a vampire is slowing him down. Silas tells him to get out of the way and let him have Katherine. Damon tells him to drop the Stefan suit.
At the frat party, the police are bagging up Megan’s body. Elena wants to get out of there. She’s worried about the message she left on Megan’s phone. Caroline says she snagged her phone. The campus cop tells the girls that it was a suicide – says she even left a note – had been depressed. Caroline is outraged they think she killed herself but the cop seems convinced. Compelled maybe??
They ask if they’ve seen Megan’s phone and they lie. She asks them to let her know if it turns up.
Silas explains that he has a shadow self that nature created when he became truly immortal. He insists he’s not Stefan’s evil twin. He tells him to give him Katherine. Silas asks why he would ever think that Stefan would up and leave town for three months without a word after he took his girl. Damon asks where Stefan is and he tells him to have the hunter bring Katherine to him and he will tell him where Stefan is but he assures him that he’s suffering.
Jeremy is driving Katherine and she asks where they are going. He won’t tell her. Damon calls and tells him to bring her back. Katherine panics and says that Silas must have gotten to Damon. She fights him, unbuckles her seat belt and tries to get out. They struggle and end up driving head on into a light pole!
Silas tells Damon that his thoughts are spooling like pink taffy – he says he knows he’s worried about Jeremy. Silas says he knows he thinks something is wrong.
Matt sees Bonnie’s dad and asks when she’ll be back but he doesn’t know. Matt sees a beautiful girl and says “no way.” He follows her – it’s Nadya! He reminds her that she got him and Rebekah drunk and robbed them. He asks why she robbed them. She has his protective ring. She slips it on his finger. Then someone sneaks up behind him, grabs his head and does some chanting in another language!
Caroline deletes the message Elena left off of Megan’s phone. At their dorm room, they can tell someone has been there. Megan’s tablet and “suicide note” are gone. Caroline says she doesn’t get how she could maybe know about vampires and now she’s dead. Elena leafs through her phone and finds a photo of Megan with her dad!
Jeremy lies on the ground bleeding – Katherine leaves him there dying even though he begs her for help. She staggers away! Bitch!!
Bonnie tells Jeremy to hold on. A car pulls up. It’s Damon and he bites his wrist and feeds him blood. He tells him he can’t die on his watch. He tells him to wake up or he’ll kill him himself. He comes to and says Katherine. Damon hugs him! OMG – he hugged him! He looks genuinely distraught.
Caroline gets a message from Tyler. He’s blowing off school. He says he has to take care of the pack he’s working with. He tells her he’s sorry. Caroline cries into her pillow as Elena asks if she’s okay. She tells her she’s fine and Elena says she’s sorry. Caroline says she’s glad Elena is there and Elena reciprocates.
Elena rolls over and closes her eyes. Stefan is struggling in the water. He’s hallucinating again. Damon tells him to flip the switch and put himself out of his misery. He tells him it took him too long to come back last time. Damon tells him he doesn’t deserve it because he walked away and let Damon and Elena be happy. He tells him to turn it off.
But then Elena is there and she tells him to stay with her. He asks what she’s doing there and she tells him to stay with her and not let his humanity go. She says please and for me.
Damon calls Elena and tells her he had some car trouble. He asks if she’s all right and if she wants to come home. She says she has to figure out what her dad has to do with this. He tells her it will give him more time to bond with Jeremy. Jer says you didn’t tell her that Silas is in town. He reminds him he also didn’t tell her that Katherine is back, Jeremy almost died and Stefan is missing.
The mayor is making a speech and mentions Bonnie is off traveling. She watches from the crowd. Then Stefan interrupts and compels him to leave the stage. Bonnie realizes what’s going on. Stefan tells the crowd he has mind control skills and that he has consumed an immeasurable amount of blood over the summer and that he’s now wondering what the limits are of his skills. He wonders if he can compel the whole town. He commands them all to stop talking and they fall silent. He tells them not to move a muscle or make a sound. He cuts the mayor’s throat while Bonnie screams in horror. No one else moves. She watches the life drain out of her dad.
Stefan tells them he needs to find someone. He says for them to go find him someone who looks exactly like Elena!
