Let’s be honest, this is just a reason to give Paul and his amazing hair more screen time, right Julie? Anyways… because Rayna’s victims’ bodies were burned, they all went into different vampire and non-vampire bodies. One of those non-vampires is hanging out with Damon, pretending to be the real Stefan.
Meanwhile, the real Stefan was stuck inside the body of an addict who just crashed a bus full of kids. So, he headed to the middle of the woods, in the cold and was pretty much living on borrowed time — and literally freezing in the middle of nowhere. He tried asking for help but uh, with a killer on the loose, one young girl was smart enough to run. However, it wasn’t until Stefan was on his last breath until he realized she dropped her cellphone right next to him. Yup, really. Luckily, Damon called it.
Over the phone, Damon and Stefan had quite the moment — when Stefan finally called out Damon for not having instincts; and Damon finally admitted it: he was selfish and before Elena, nothing mattered — even his brother. It was a moment of bonding for the brothers that we haven’t seen in a bit; in a way, it brought me back to seasons one and two. And yes, before Marty/Stefan froze, Damon saved him. However — they only had 48 hours to make it back to his real body.
*We also got a nice glimpse into the life Alaric and Caroline had — and the relationship they really had. He proposed because he fell in love with her, and she said yes because it was right for the kids.
*We also got a look at what’s to come for next week, when Valerie sees that one of the vampires is at a fraternity; with that, Alaric remembers the man who was a serial killer before becoming a vampire — and he’d set his sites on frat kids.