Plot

A fellow Whitmore student named Jesse (KENDRICK SAMPSON) gives Elena some intriguing information about Professor Wes Maxfield (RICK COSNETT). Damon asks for help finding Stefan.

Once Damon realizes what must have happened to Stefan, he has the sheriff drag the lake, but the vault safe only contains another blood-drained corpse. Silas tracks down Damon at the girls' college, where they met black magic-expert professor Dr. Wes Maxfield who saw trough them stat. Silas uses a spell to make Elena torture Damon to make him hand over Katherine, but he finds the emotional way out. Jeremy is suspended at school for beating up a bully. He and Matt catch Katherine before any of the villagers under Silas's spell can hand her to him, but when Damon orders her brought in, she attempts to escape. Silas, who took over Stefan's body, catches up to kill the party, but neither boy remains dead.—KGF Vissers

Ghost Bonnie tells Jeremy about Silas killing her father in front of the whole town, then making them forget about it. She could use a hug, but he can't give her one because she's dead. Silas is using his mind control to get the town to find Katherine. "Whatever he wants with Katherine, we can't let him have it," Bonnie says.

Katherine stumbles into the road following her car crash. The woman who pulls over to help her recognizes her from Silas' mind control. She maces Katherine, Katherine decks her and knocks her out. Matt comes out with a shotgun.

Stefan imagines lying by the quarry with Elena in the brilliant sunlight, then she starts choking. He drowns yet again in his underwater tomb.

On campus, the students have a memorial for Megan. Elena and Caroline go through Megan's things in their room. Her death certificate lists suicide, signed by Dr. Wesley Maxfield, the microbiology teacher. Elena signed them up for his class.

At the quarry, Damon tries to convince Liz to dredge the quarry for drowning Stefan.

Jeremy calls Damon to report on their capture of Katherine. He tells them to keep her out of sight. She realizes she's the leverage, the thing that everybody wants. "I'm the frickin' moonstone," she says.

Caroline and Elena show up for Applied Microbiology, where Jesse flirts with Caroline and asks if she's going to the bonfire tonight.

Dr. Maxfield comes in and busts the girls for being freshman who shouldn't be in his class.

Later, Elena tells Damon about it and then runs into Stefan/Silas. Before she can hear Damon tell her it's not Stefan, Stilas uses his mind control to make her hang up.

Stilas apologizes to her for disappearing, then tells her Jeremy got expelled and he's looking for her.

Matt, Jeremy and Katherine pull over at a gas station. She claims she has to go to the bathroom and then asks them to get her something for her cold. With Matt inside and Jeremy pumping gas, Katherine tries to sneak out of the bathroom. The attendant sees her and his mind control kicks in. He goes for his shotgun and Matt disarms him just in time. Jeremy grabs Katherine before she gets away.

Damon shows up on campus and gets Caroline to go look for Elena, explaining that Stefan is Silas. Caroline mentions the bad feeling Elena had all summer that something was wrong with Stefan.

Walking across campus, Stefan tries to call Jeremy from Elena's phone and then holds onto it. Elena can't believe Damon didn't tell her about what's going on with Jeremy.

Stefan gets a text about Katherine and asks where Jeremy could be going on Route 9. Elena mentions a campsite they used to go.

Later, Damon finds Stilas, but he won't tell Damon what he did with Elena.

That night at the bonfire, Caroline points out to Damon that if he'd told the truth, none of this would have happened.

Jesse finds Elena at the keg and offers to tell her everything about Dr. Maxfield if she comes with him to get firewood. In a shed, he picks up a small piece of kindling, like a stake, and tells her Maxfield meets in a kind of secret society three times a week. Damon rushes in and knocks Jesse out.

At a campfire in the woods, Katherine is extra grumpy about having a sinus infection. Jeremy takes pity on her and lends her a blanket.

Matt creeps through the woods until Stilas finds him and uses his mind control to tell Matt not to scream. Matt screams at Jeremy to run.

Stilas doesn't understand why he can't get in Matt's head, so he peers in and sees that someone already put a spell on him and is in there. Stilas calls him "Traveler." Stilas snaps Matt's neck.

In the woods, Jeremy runs right by Matt. He sees Bonnie, who explains he's on the other side, the Gilbert ring brought him there. He'll stay there until he finds his body, but each time he dies, the ring puts him farther away from it. He asks why he can see her.

Back at college, Elena takes Damon to her room and jumps on him. Then she pours the vervane-laced water down his throat and ties him to a chair. He realizes Silas got in her head. He told her to get Damon alone, weaken him, and then kill him.

She pours more vervane water down his neck and he spits it on her. The burns momentarily snap her out of the mind control.

Damon explains what's going on. Elena asks where Stefan is and gets madder and madder. Stilas's mind control kicks in again and Damon explains her anger must be triggering it. She tries to resist killing him, then stakes her own leg to immobilize herself.

Back in the woodshed, Caroline holds a popsicle to Jesse's bruised face. They have a moment and Caroline blurts out that she has a boyfriend. He understands that people can change but still remain together even though they're apart. It just didn't work for him.

In the woods, Jeremy gives Katherine the keys and then plans to go back for Matt. She encourages him to just leave him. "That's why people treat you as an object, not like a person," Jeremy says.

Back on the other side, Bonnie talks to Matt about what it's been like. He tells her it's OK to be upset. He hugs her and she breaks down crying.

In the woods, Stefan finds Matt's body and Stilas finds him. None of Stilas's abilities work on him. "I am a hunter, and I work out," Jeremy says as he throws a hatchet at Stilas and charges him.

Jeremy beats on him until Stilas grabs his hands and head butts him. Jeremy gets Stilas in a headlock, so Stilas takes a pole and drives it through himself and into Jeremy's shoulder. Stilas picks up the hatchet to throw it at Jeremy, when a shot rings out -- it's Katherine with the shotgun, blasting Stilas.

Back at college, Damon explains that Bonnie's dad died and Elena starts to get angry all over again at Damon for lying to her about Jeremy. "Stefan's been suffering for months while I've been rolling around with you," Elena says. She gets angrier and angrier, until she rips the line to the gas.

Damon pleads with her to think about something stronger than her desire to kill him and prompts her to talk about what she feels about Stefan. She can feel that Stefan is scared and lonely and in a lot of pain.

Elena realizes her rage is gone, Stilas's mind control is broken.

Matt and Bonnie find Matt's body, with Jeremy and Katherine. Matt realizes he's going to forget that he saw Bonnie. Matt rejoins his body. Jeremy sees Ghost Bonnie walking away and goes to talk to her. "I'm not ready to be dead yet, Jeremy. I'm just not," she says.

He says he'll tell people her dad's death was too much for her, but he's there for her, no matter what she needs.

Stilas comes back to life and goes to the gas station with the mind controlled attendant, explaining he's hungry. He hands the man a knife and a cup and tells him to fill it up. The man slits his wrist and bleeds into it.

The Travelers walk in the back door, a man and woman. The one who was in Matt's head pulls a knife on Stilas. The woman with him kills her companion and tells Stilas she has her own agenda.

Elena packs up her car to leave college. Dr. Maxfield recognizes Elena as Grayson Gilbert's daughter. She asks her about the lie on Megan's death certificate. He invites her to office hours tomorrow, but she says she has other things to worry about.

Damon joins her, bringing her Stefan's daylight ring. He tells her he's secure enough in their relationship that he's not bothered that she's having psychic dreams about her ex-boyfriend. She promises they'll find Stefan and she'll still love Damon.

Liz Forbes calls.

In the woods, she shows them the safe they found. Not in the quarry, but nearby. They open it up, but Stefan isn't inside, another dead man is. Stefan was hungry.