"Stefan, these creatures are of the darkest parts of Hell. They have the ability to control your mind, seduce your spirit. They are deadly. They must be destroyed."
Elena and Stefan search for Emily's Spellbook using the Gilbert journal.
Damon tracks down Anna with Jeremy's help.
Anna and Ben continue with their plan to free the vampire from the Tomb.
In flashbacks, we learn of how Damon and Stefan relationship first fell apart due to their close relationship with the vampires of Mystic Falls.
Tropes present in the episode:
- Abusive Dad: In the 1864 flashbacks Giuseppe Salvatore gives Damon a hard time for deserting the Confederate army.
- Bound and Gagged: Giuseppe Salvatore does this to Katherine after poisoning her with vervain.
- Bullet Catch: Stefan does it with a Wooden Stake that Alaric fires at him.
- Continuity Nod:
- The episode opens with a flashback of Katherine teaching Damon to feint being dead in a road to get the drop on their victims, a trick he uses years later in the very first scene of the show in "Pilot".
- Giuseppe Salvatore has Stefan drink vervain, since he correctly suspecting Katherine is a vampire that feeds on him. Stefan used this Self-Poisoning Gambit years later on Damon in "[1] You're Undead To Me".
- Damsel in Distress: At the end of the episode, both Ben and Anna successfully kidnap Bonnie and Elena.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Half of the episode is a Flashback showing Damon and Stefan's relationship with their father Giuseppe and how Katherine and the rest of the vampires were captured.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: Katherine, Pearl and Anna all wear these during the Flashbacks.
- Grave Robbing: Stefan has to dig up his fathers grave to get Emily's Spellbook that he buried himself with.
- Honey Trap:
- Anna plan is to have Ben try to seduce Bonnie, while she seduces Jeremy.
- In the Flashbacks, Anna's mother Pearl seduces the Sheriff to find out about the vervain the Founders Council is making to stop the vampires.
- Hostage Situation: When Stefan finds Emily's Spellbook before Damon, he holds Elena hostage, threating to turn her into a vampire if Stefan doesn't give him the book, forcing Stefan into a trade.
- Internal Reveal: Stefan learns about Alaric being a vampire hunter who's after Damon, but he keeps it a secret, knowing Damon would kill Alaric easily if he knew.
- Interrupted Intimacy:
- Damon invades Stefan's room when he and Elena are waking up in bed, startling both, who quickly try to get him to leave.
Damon: "If I see something I haven't seen before, I'll throw a dollar at it."- In a Flashback, Emily interrupts Katherine and Damon while they're in bed.
- The Leader: Pearl is the leader of the vampires of Mystic Falls in 1864.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Elena and Stefan cover themselves with one when Damon walks in on them in bed.
- Never Found the Body: Alaric says his wife's body disappeared along with Damon when he Alaric walked on Damon draining her.
- The Reveal: Anna is an older vampire than the Salvatore brothers, daughter of Pearl, a vampire who was captured and locked in the tomb along with the other vampires in 1864 and she wants to free them. She also reveals she's the vampire responsible for bringing back Logan.
- Really 700 Years Old: Damon recognizes Anna as a vampire that was part of Katherine's circle back in 1864, making her an older vampire than him and Stefan.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: When Elena pulls down Stefan under the bedsheets, the scene cuts away... to a Flashback of Katherine rising out of the sheets post-sex with Damon.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In 1864, Katherine has Damon pretends he's injured on the road to lure her feeding victims out of their carriage, asking them to help her "husband", killing them while they're distracted checking on him. She does it to teach the soon to be vampire Damon on how to feed.
