"I don't know what's happening to me"
Stefan locks Damon away who uses his connection to Caroline to free him.
Bonnie starts to wildly manist her witch powers.
Elena learns Stefan's secret.
Tropes present in the episode:
- Alpha Bitch: Tiki, Bonnie's fellow cheerleader who acts like a bitch to her and the customer during the car wash fundraiser.
- Amicable Exes: Elena and Matt, enough that she can talk to him about her "boy troubles"
- And I Must Scream: Stefan explains this is what happens to a vampire when starved of blood. Their skin desiccates and their muscles atrophy, leaving them paralyzed, essentially mummified, and completely conscious.
- Blood Lust: Happens to Stefan when Elena cuts herself in the kitchen. She briefly sees his vampiric face in the reflection.
- Brainwash Residue: Caroline is still confused from being under Damon's thrall and Damon manages to use this to compel her to sneak into the Salvatore mansion and free him. But she snaps out of it and runs away always immediately after freeing him.
- Fanservice Car Wash: The "Sexy Suds Car Wash" fundraiser event involves a lot of girls wearing bikinis. None of the guys go shirtless though.
- Fundraiser Carnival: The "Sexy Suds Car Wash" where the cheerleaders and football players held a car wash event to raise funds for the school.
- Honey Trap: Logan is dating Jenna so he can get his hands on the Gilbert family watch for the town council.
- Internal Reveal: Elena learns that Stefan isn't human this episode.
- Killed Off for Real: Zach is unceremoniously killed by Damon when he escapes.
- Locked in the Dungeon: Stefan locks Damon in the Salvatore's mansion dungeon after he poisoned him last episode.
- Neck Snap: Damon kills Zach this way, since he knows better than to drink his blood filled with vervain.
- Playing with Fire: When Tiki annoys her Bonnie enters a trance and manages to set a car on fire during the car wash. The fire goes away when Stefan snaps her out of it.
- Real Men Cook: Stefan cooks for Elena at her house.
- Self-Poisoning Gambit: Zach tells Damon he has been putting vervain in his coffee for years to protect himself. Subverted in that vervain's only poison for vampires, not normal humans.
- Shipper on Deck: Jeremy helps Stefan set up a surprise dinner with Elena.
- The Stoner: Vicki and all her friends that hang around the cemetery, much more than Jeremy ever was.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Jeremy becomes much nicer this episode, probably because of he and Vicki hooking up.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Tiki's grandfather who meet Stefan years ago and recognized him. Him telling Elena about him leads to her figuring out the Salvatore brother's aren't normal humans.
- Weakened by the Light: Damon can't chase Caroline outside the mansion since sunlight hurts vampires and without the Salvatore ring he isn't immune to it anymore.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Jeremy tries to convince Vicki she's better than her stoner friends but she blows him off.
