Season 2 opened with scenes from last season’s finale with Katherine posing as Elena kissing Damon and going after Uncle John with a kitchen knife.  Elena arrives home and hears the scuffle in the kitchen.  She finds John lying on the floor, losing a lot of blood.  As she dials 911, John tells Elena, “Behind you.”  She looks and doesn’t see anyone there.  In true horror film fashion, she picks up the knife and goes looking for John’s assailant.  While never seeing who attacked John, she does realize that it must have been a vampire.  The EMTs arrive and take John out on a stretcher and Elena and Stefan go to check out Jeremy.  Anna’s blood healed him from the overdose of the pills that he took without making him a vampire.  They talk briefly about Anna’s death and Stefan gives Jeremy a stern warning about trying to kill himself again because he would really die.  Elena heads to the hospital.

At the hospital, Bonnie arrives and talks to Matt about Caroline and the accident.   Damon arrives and talks to Sherriff Forbes about Caroline and Mayor Lockwood’s death.  Sherriff Forbes breaks down because she’s so worried about Caroline and Damon comforts her.   Elena arrives at the hospital and Bonnie greets her.  She tells Elena that they aren’t sure if Caroline will make it.  Damon offers to give Caroline some blood to help her heal and Bonnie tells him to do it.  She tells Elena that they can’t let her die. 

Damon tells Elena that they need to talk about what happened.  Elena tells him that one of the tomb vamps almost killed John in the house.  Damon mentions the kiss and Elena asks him what he’s talking about.  Jenna arrives and Elena asks where she’s been.  Jenna tells her that she’s been at the Fire Department like she told her earlier.  Elena tells Jenna that she didn’t tell her anything.  Damon gets a curious look on his face and then a moment of realization hits. 

Stefan watches over Jeremy as he sleeps and Elena comes home.  Stefan meets her downstairs and realizes that it’s actually Katherine.  Fangs are bared and they fight.  Katherine takes off before Damon and Elena come to the house.  Damon realizes that it was, in fact, Katherine that he kissed on the porch. 

Stefan, Damon, and Elena talk and Damon tells how Katherine pretended to be Elena earlier.  Stefan asks what happened when he thought that it was Elena and Damon confesses to kissing her.  Stefan goes after Damon with Elena stepping in, saying that she wouldn’t have kissed him.   Elena changes the subject and says that John must know something about what Katherine is up to.  Stefan agrees.  Damon shares his plan to “ignore the bitch” and then stake her.

Back at the hospital, Matt and Bonnie talk and Matt tells her that Damon stopped by to visit Caroline.  When Bonnie goes in to see a very healthy Caroline, Caroline tells her that “Jersey Shore” is on. Matt and Caroline kiss and Bonnie cries some happy tears.

At the Lockwood’s home, the Lockwoods are receiving friends and family paying their respects.  Mrs. Lockwood, Sherriff Forbes, and Damon talk and try to figure out why Mayor Lockwood was affected by the vampire device.  Mrs. Lockwood accuses Sherriff Forbes of being responsible because her deputies screwed up by throwing the mayor into the basement.  Damon diffuses the situation, urging them to trust each other.   Tyler is on the porch when his Uncle Mason arrives.

Stefan and Elena pay a visit to Uncle John in the hospital.  John freaks because he sees Elena and thinks that she’s Katherine.  Elena gives him his ring and asks what Katherine wants.  Stefan urges him to confide in them, reminding him that Elena is his daughter.  He tells them that Katherine never trusted him and tells Stefan to kill him or get out.  He says that he can’t stand the sight of a vampire with his daughter.  Elena storms out and Stefan forces John to drink his blood.  He tells him to leave town and that Elena doesn’t want him here.  He has 24 hours for the blood to leave his system.  Stefan tells him that if he’s not gone, he will turn him into a vampire.

Damon and Sherriff Forbes are talking and Damon asks who Mrs. Lockwood is talking to.  Sherriff Forbes tells him that he’s Mayor Lockwood’s brother, Mason.  She tells him that he’s not a believer and wants nothing to do with the Council.  Katherine arrives at the Lockwood’s and Tyler invites her in, thinking that she’s Elena.  Katherine enters the Lockwood’s house.

Stefan and Elena leave the hospital plan to meet back up at the Lockwoods to pay their respects.  Stefan tells Elena that he threatened John to leave and Elena is glad that he did.  Stefan tells her that he’s going to find Damon and she reminds him that Katherine is the problem, not Damon.

Bonnie and Damon talk about how the device also affected Tyler.  They exchange their usual snarky banter and then Bonnie does her mind trick and causes Damon to feel pain.  She walks off and walks up to “Elena”.  She talks about how Damon is driving her crazy and mentions how he healed Caroline, even though this is all his fault that it happened.  Bonnie reaches out to touch “Elena’s” arm and gets a weird vibe.  She leaves, saying that she needs to pay her respects to Tyler.  Bonnie calls Elena and asks her where she is.  Elena apologizes for being late and says that she’ll be there in 5 minutes.  Bonnie realizes that she wasn’t talking to Elena outside.  When she turns around, Katherine is there and introduces herself.  Bonnie tells her that she knows who she is.  Katherine talks about piecing together who all of Elena’s friends and family are and then Bonnie does her mind/pain trick on Katherine.  Katherine fakes pain for a moment and then goes after Bonnie.  Bonnie uses her telepathy to open the door next to them and Stefan is there.  He tells Katherine to leave Bonnie alone and she agrees. 

Stefan and Katherine go for a walk outside.  He tells her to leave and asks her what her game is, saying that he can’t play along if he doesn’t know the rules.  She tells him that there are no rules.

Elena, Jeremy, and Jenna arrive at the Lockwoods’ with food.  Elena sees Damon and goes to talk to him.  She asks him how he’s doing.  He tells her, “I kissed you.  I thought you kissed me back.  Doppelganger hijinx ensued.  How do you think I’m doing?”  She talks to him about being hurt and he denies it.  He tells her that she’s scared that Katherine will send him off the deep end.  He asks why she’s surprised that he’d kiss her.  She tells him that wasn’t a surprise – the surprise was that he thought that she’d kiss him back.  Damon tells her, “Now I’m hurt.”  as Bonnie intterupts.

Jeremy finds Tyler in his father’s study with a flask.  Jeremy offers his condolences and empathizes with him on all of the strangers offering sympathy and saying what a great guy his dad was.  Tyler says that his dad was a dick and Jeremy agrees with him.  Tyler offers Jeremy the flask.  Jeremy doesn’t get a drink because Mason interrupts them.  Mason takes a pull and passes it back to Tyler.

Katherine and Stefan are walking outside and Katherine comments about the land and how the Lockwoods built their wealth on the possessions of the tomb vampires.  They exchange some banter and Stefan tells her that none of his feelings were real because she compelled him.  He tells her that he believes that she’s the “same lying, selfish, manipulative bitch that [she’s] always been.”  Stefan threatens her and asks why she’s there.  She tells him that she came back for him.  He tells her that he hates her and she stakes him. 

Elena and Damon join Stefan outside as he heals.  Stefan says that he’s OK and he was trying to figure Katherine out, but he let her get to him.  Damon tells them that he tried to track her, but she’s gone.  Damon tells Elena to watch out because it looks like Katherine is trying to steal her guy.  Stefan denies it.  Elena leaves to check on Jenna and Jeremy.   Damon continues to tease Stefan and Stefan refuses to fight Damon.  Stefan points out that Katherine will try to play them against one another and that they have to stay united against her. 

Uncle John is preparing to leave when Jeremy comes home.  Jeremy confronts him about killing all of the vampires and John explains that he was taught to hate them, just as Jeremy’s father was.  Jeremy asks about the ring’s power and why it didn’t save his father.  John tells him that his parents’ death was an accident, not supernatural.   Jeremy tells him that he refuses to believe in the family legacy.

Tyler is still in his father’s office and looks at a family photo before going into a rage and trashing things in the room.  Mrs. Lockwood comes in and Tyler is out of control when Mason jumps him and gets him to calm down.

Damon arrives home and pours a drink.  Katherine is there on the couch, telling him she wanted to say goodbye.  Damon downs his drink and walks out.  Katherine tells him to kiss her or kill her, baiting him.  They end up making out and then Damon stops, asking her for the truth – just once.  Katherine tells him that the truth is that she never loved him.  She says, “It was always Stefan.” 

Elena arrives home and goes into her room, startled to find a drunk and dejected-looking Damon sitting on the end of her bed.  He accuses her of lying to him, to Stefan, to herself and kisses her.  She stops the kiss, telling Damon that she cares but she loves Stefan.  She tells him, “It’s always going to be Stefan.”  Jeremy interrupts them and Damon snaps his neck.  Elena notices the ring on Jeremy’s finger as she holds his crumpled body on the floor.

Mason and Tyler talk about Tyler’s rage.  Mason tells him that it’s the “curse of being a Lockwood.” 

Stefan is there while Elena continues to hold Jeremy on the floor.  Stefan says that Katherine undid everything good about Damon.  Elena says that she hates Damon just before Jeremy is revived.

Caroline awakens in her hospital bed and finds Katherine walking into the room.  Katherine introduces herself and asks her to give the Salvatore Brothers a message.  She tells her, “Game on.’ just before she smothers Caroline with a pillow.

I thought that this was a great start to Season 2.  I had wondered how long they would drag out the Katherine pretending to be Elena storyline and I’m so glad that they resolved it so quickly.  It would have been such a pain to see that go on for 3 or 4 episodes – too much like a soap opera.  They certainly kept the story moving by letting Damon, Stefan, Bonnie, and Elena figure it out quickly.

Poor, poor Damon!!  Rejected twice in one night by two women who look identical to one another for the very same reason.  My heart absolutely aches for the guy! 

So…will Jeremy end up as a vampire since he was wearing the ring? Was there enough of Anna’s blood still in him to turn him? Will the ring keep him from turning?

What about Caroline?  Do you think that she’s going to wake up as a blood-thirsty vampire in a hospital full of blood?

Did anyone else notice the piano music playing while Damon and Bonnie were talking at the Lockwoods’ house?  It was Coldplay’s “How To Save A Life”.  Interesting choice for a wake, huh?

What did you think of the episode?  Join us in the forum and share your thoughts.  We’d love to hear from you!