2×01 “The Return”
Upon returning home from the hospital, Elena finds Uncle John in the kitchen with his fingers cut off and stabbed in the abdomen. She immediately thinks of Jeremy and checks on him. She discovers he drank vampire blood and then took a lot of pills to try to die to become a vampire. Stefan quickly checks and realizes he did not take enough pills to kill himself so he is still human. At the hospital, Caroline is in critical condition after the car crash, so Damon, Bonnie and Elena decide it is a good idea to give her Damon’s blood to ensure she heals quickly. When Damon is rejected by both Katherine and Elena, he snaps Jeremy’s neck. Because Jeremy is wearing Uncle John’s ring, he comes back to life as it protects him from death by a supernatural cause. Back at the hospital, Katherine shows up and knowing she has Damon’s blood in her system, kills Caroline to cause her to transition into a vampire leaving the message “Game On” for the Salvatores with Caroline.
2×02 “Brave New World”
Since Caroline is a newly turned vampire, she wakes up in the hospital craving blood. She steals a blood bag and drinks it, completing her transition. Because she planned a carnival, she decides to check herself out of the hospital and go to the school, but not before feeding on a nurse. Tyler finds his uncle Mason searching for what he says is a family heirloom called a moonstone. Tyler finds the moonstone, but does not tell his uncle about it. The carnival goes off without a hitch, until Damon compels a carnival worker to provoke Tyler Lockwood into fighting him because Damon believes he has supernatural abilities. Mason quickly breaks up the fight, but not before showing super human qualities leaving the worker battered. When Caroline arrives at the carnival, she smells the blood and ends up draining the man of all of his blood, killing him. Bonnie finds her and decides it was Damon’s fault so she attempts to light him on fire only to be stopped by Elena. Stefan then promises Caroline he will teach her how to control herself now that she is a vampire.
2×03 “Bad Moon Rising”
In search of answers about werewolves, Damon, Elena and Alaric go to Duke University to look at Alaric’s ex-wives research. They discover that vampires and werewolves used to roam freely until a shaman placed a curse that prevents vampires from walking in the sun and werewolves were sentenced to only turn at a full moon. In Mystic Falls, Bonnie and Stefan help Caroline with her transition. Bonnie makes her a daylight ring so she can walk in the sun and Stefan teaches her how to hunt animals. Since it is a full moon, Mason transitions into a werewolf and when he doesn’t get chained up in time, encounters Stefan and Caroline in the woods. They are saved when Tyler shows up and yells at the werewolf. He later finds Mason in the woods and figures out it was him who was the werewolf. Caroline and Stefan go to a party where Caroline runs into Matt, not being able to control herself she feeds on him. When Damon, Elena and Alaric return from Duke, Damon reveals to Elena the Katherine’s given surname is Petrova.
2×04 “Memory Lane”
Alaric convinces Jenna to hold a barbecue at their house and to invite Mason Lockwood. Damon also shows up the the barbecue and stabs Mason Lockwood with a silver knife only to be told by Mason that silver hurting werewolves is a myth and that Damon just made an enemy in Mason. Katherine threatens Elena’s life if Stefan does not break up with her. Caroline also attempts to break up Stefan and Elena making them realize she is working for Katherine. Katherine flashes back to 1864 and what happened after Stefan and Damon were killed while trying to save her. It is revealed she struck a deal with George Lockwood to keep her out of the tomb when they trapped the vampires. Elena and Katherine finally meet face to face to which Katherine does not answer any of Elena’s questions but instead tells her she is “asking the wrong questions”. Elena and Stefan pose a fake break up to try to convince Katherine they are no longer together.
2×05 “Kill or Be Killed”
In true Mystic Falls fashion, a picnic with the whole town is being held to restore Wickery Bridge. At this event, Mason reveals to Sheriff Forbes that Damon and Stefan are vampires. She puts vervaine in the lemonade and watches as it affects them. Consequently, she and her deputies shoot Damon and Stefan in the woods and take them into the Lockwood’s cellar. Caroline hears this happening, so her and Elena go to find Stefan and Damon. Once they find them, Caroline kills the deputies and reveals to her mother that she is a vampire. Elena feeds Stefan her blood so he can regain his strength. Caroline then admits to Elena that she has been spying on her and Stefan because Katherine threatened to kill Matt if she didn’t. Tyler finally gives the moonstone to Mason at which point it is revealed Mason is working for Katherine and they are in a relationship.
2×06 “Plan B”
Stefan and Damon hold Sheriff Forbes in the basement of their house to work the vervaine out of her system so they can compel her to forget they are vampires. Though she says she accepts them, Caroline still compels her to forget. Damon abducts Mason after Bonnie gives him an aneurysm to question him about werewolves and Katherine, and to torture him. Eventually, Damon kills Mason by ripping out his heart. Bonnie has a vision of the moonstone being in a well so Stefan goes to retrieve it. Upon getting in the well, he discovers it is full of vervaine so Elena, Caroline and Bonnie save him and Elena retrieves the moonstone. Katherine compels Jenna to stab herself making Elena realize that Katherine will stop at nothing to hurt the people she loves. This realization makes her break up with Stefan because she knows Katherine will not stop until she does what Katherine wants. With Mason dead, Katerine is in need of a vampire so she compels Matt to start a fight with Tyler and not stop until Tyler kills him triggering the werewolf curse.
2×07 “Masquerade”
The Lockwoods hold a masquerade ball at which Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Jeremy, Alaric and Caroline plan to kill Katherine. A witch, Lucy, visits Katherine to help her get the moonstone back. At the ball, Matt provokes Tyler under compulsion to try to get Tyler to kill him. Caroline breaks up the fight but Sarah, who is also under compulsion, stabs Tyler and he accidentally breaks her neck triggering the werewolf curse. Damon and Stefan trap Katherine in a room and try to kill her by staking her. Jeremy then reveals that everything they are doing to Katherine is hurting Elena as well. Katherine tells them the witch Lucy cast a spell to link her to Elena. When Lucy discovers she is Bonnie’s cousin, she incapacitates Katherine for lying to her enabling Damon to trap Katherine in the tomb. When Elena leaves the party, she is abducted by a masked stranger.
2×08 “Rose”
After her abduction, Elena is taken to an abandoned house in the country by a vampire named Trevor. At the house, she meets another vampire named Rose who reveals they took her as a bargaining tool to give to Elijah, an original vampire. It is also revealed as the Petrova doppelganger, she is the key to breaking the sun and the moon curse. Elijah shows up and agrees to pardon Rose, but kills Trevor. Bonnie uses a locator spell to find where Elena has been taken to. Elena attempts to stall Elijah by telling him she knows where the moonstone is, however, he just compels her to tell him. Damon and Stefan show up to save Elena at which time they stake Elijah. Upon returning home, Damon tells Elena he loves her but he doesn’t deserve her but Stefan does, then compels her to forget what he told her then gives back her vervain necklace. Flashing back to the deserted house, we see Elijah wake up and take the stake out of his heart.
2×09 “Katerina”
In the opening scene, we see Katherine giving birth in the year 1492 and her father saying she is a disgrace to her family and taking the baby away. In present day Mystic Falls, Elena goes to Katherine in the tomb in seek of information. She trades Katherine blood for answering her questions. Katherine reveals that she was kicked out of Bulgaria at which time she went to England and met Klaus who knew she was the Petrova doppelganger. When Katherine finds out the truth about Klaus she runs away. Elijah tries to capture her at Klaus’s request, but Trevor saves her because he loves her. It is revealed Klaus wanted to do to Katherine the same thing he wants to do to Elena, sacrifice her to break the curse. Damon and Rose go to visit her friend Slater to try to get a message to Klaus. Elijah stands outside where they meet and listens to the conversation then breaks the front glass window to shake everyone up. Back at the tomb, we learn when Katherine was saved by Trevor, he took her to Rose who fed Katherine her blood to heal her. Katherine then hangs herself to become a vampire so Klaus cannot sacrifice her. She then tells Elena the reason she is in Mystic Falls is to give the moonstone to Klaus in exchange for his forgiveness so he can complete the ritual which requires a vampire, a werewolf, the doppelganger and the moonstone. Bonnie meets 2 warlocks, Luka and his father Dr. Martin and enjoys having someone to talk to who shares her gift. We then learn Luka and his father are working for Elijah. Caroline tells Tyler she is a vampire.
2×10 “The Sacrifice”
Stefan and Bonnie hatch a plan to open the tomb and cripple Katherine so Stefan can go in and get the moonstone. When Jeremy hears this, he decides to go try to get it himself. Upon entering the tomb, Katherine takes Jeremy and feeds on him. In an attempt to save Jeremy, Stefan enters the tomb and pushes him out, however, he traps himself in by doing so because vampires cannot exit the tomb. Elena and Rose go to find Slater to ask him questions, however, they find him staked in his apartment. They then use his computer to look for information. With that information Elena calls someone to tell her she is ready to turn herself over to Klaus. Elijah shows up to make sure she is safe and that she will stay safe. In anticipation of the forthcoming full moon, Caroline and Tyler find a video and diary that Mason kept of his transformation into a werewolf.
2×11 “By the Light of the Moon”
A werewolf friend of Mason Lockwood’s, Jules, shows up to Mystic Falls looking for him. At the grill, Alaric and Damon try to trick her into having a drink with wolfsbane in it. She does not fall for it and lets Damon know he has been “marked”. With the full moon approaching rapidly, Caroline and Tyler work together to prepare Tyler for the transformation. Katherine tells Stefan he needs to talk to Isobel is order to find Klaus. The full moon arrives and both Tyler and Jules transition. Tyler locks himself in his family’s cellar while Jules goes after Damon at the Salvatore mansion. She lunges at damon but misses him and bites Rose instead.
2×12 “The Descent”
Damon tries to get Jules to tell him how to kill a werewolf bite in order to keep Rose from dying. Damon has Elena keep an eye on Rose, who becomes delirious and mistakes Elena for Katherine and tries to kill her and ends up leaving the house. Stefan tries to contact Isobel and gets ahold of John Gilbert instead, who then decides to come back to Mystic Falls. Matt and Tyler both kiss Caroline to let her know how they each feel about her. Damon finds Rose in a parking lot after she goes on a killing spree and ends up staking her to end her suffering. Jules tells Tyler she knows he and Mason are werewolves and that there are more werewolves currently en route to Mystic Falls.
2×13 “Daddy Issues”
Jenna finds out John Gilbert is Elena’s biological father. Tyler becomes aware that his Uncle Mason is dead and Caroline lied to him about it. Caroline attempts to reconcile with Tyler by having Stefan talk to him. Jules takes Caroline hostage and will only let her go in exchange for Tyler. When Stefan, Damon and Alaric show up, they are outnumbered by werewolves. Though they manage to kill most of them, they end up at a disadvantage. Jonas then shows up and incapacitates all the werewolves as part of his promise to keep Elena and all of her friends safe. He tells the werewolves to leave town. John claims he is back to protect Elena and has a way to kill an Original vampire: a dagger dipped in ash from a white oak tree that is as old as the original family. It is then revealed he is still working with Katherine and attempting to free her from the tomb.
2×14 “Crying Wolf”
Jules and her boyfriend explain the sun and the moon curse to Tyler and convince him to help them. In an attempt at enjoying a normal weekend, Stefan and Elena go to her family’s lakehouse. Bonnie tells Caroline about a plan that she has to get information out of Luka. At the grill, they sedate him and Bonnie puts him in a state of trance and begins asking him questions. He reveals he and his father are working with Elijah to kill Klaus because Klaus has his sister. They plan to kill him directly after the sacrifice, after Elena dies. Tyler steals Caroline’s phone to find out where Elena and Stefan are. He and Brady then follow them to the lakehouse. Stefan is shot with a wooden bullet and taken hostage by the werewolves. When Tyler learns they are planning on killing Elena, he lets Stefan go. Jules and Tyler leave town.
2×15 “The Dinner Party”
Damon holds a dinner party at the boarding house with himself, Alaric, John Gilbert and Elijah. Damon is planning to dagger Elijah at this party. Elena is reading her ancestors journals and discovers if a vampire uses the dagger on another vampire, they will both die. Alaric ends up stabbing Elijah, only for the body to disappear. Elijah then shows up at the lakehouse to let Elena know their arrangement is off. She tells Elijah she will kill herself and become a vampire so she is no longer of any use to him. She stabs herself and he begs her to let him heal her, she says yes but ends up daggering him again. Because Elijah is dead, his compulsion no longer affects Katherine and she is free from the tomb.
2×16 “The House Guest”
Stefan and Bonnie attempt to get Luka and Jonas to work with them, but Jonas wants Elijah undaggered. Jonas and Luka do a spell to send a spirit of Luka into the Salvatore house to undagger Elijah. Once inside, Katherine stops him but he stakes her. Damon then finds Katherine and uses a flamethrower to burn Luka. The burns kill Luka and Jonas then swears revenge by killing Elena. At the grill, Jonas shows up looking for Elena, Bonnie tries to stop him but he takes her powers away from her. Matt is wounded so Caroline feeds him her blood to heal him. At Elena’s house, Jonas shows up to attack her but it is actually Katherine. She bites and kills him, however, he gives Bonnie her powers back first.
2×17 “Know Thy Enemy”
Damon, Jeremy and Bonnie work together to try to find the spell that will allow Bonnie to channel all the power from the dead witches. Damon takes them to the spot where the witches were burned. Alaric is taken hostage by one of Klaus’ witches. Caroline tells Matt everything about the supernatural being of Mystic Falls. He then asks her to compel him to forget, after she does it is revealed he is working with the sheriff and has been drinking vervaine so he still knows everything which he in turn tells Sheriff Forbes. Isobel kidnaps Elena, and when she is told her part is done in the plan, she removes her daylight necklace and burns in the sun. It is revealed if Bonnie harnesses too much power, it will kill her. Katherine is taken by Klaus, when she awakens she sees Klaus take control of Alaric’s body.
2×18 “The Last Dance”
Klaus, in Alaric’s body, compels Katherine to catch him up on the going ons in Mystic Falls. She reveals to him how the others plan to kill him. Klaus also learns that the power Bonnie obtained can kill her. Klaus begins to terrorize Elena by sending her messages via a girl at school. Damon and Stefan put the deed to their house in Elena’s name in order to keep unwelcome vampires out. n At the decade dance at school, Stefan tells Elena that Bonnie is planning to die to kill Klaus. Bonnie then fights with Klaus in the school cafeteria, and it appears to kill her. It is later revealed her death was staged so Klaus would believe she was dead. Trying to save Bonnie from dying to kill Klaus, Elena removes the dagger in Elijah to enlist his help.
2×19 “Klaus”
In flashbacks, we see when Katherine met Elijah and Klaus for the first time. It is revealed Elijah and Klaus are brothers, however, their mother had an affair so Klaus’s father is different from the rest of his family. His father was a werewolf, which makes Klaus a hybrid werewolf/vampire. It is also revealed the sun and moon curse is face, the actual curse is only on Klaus. Witches had suppressed the werewolf part of him, making him only a vampire. He wants to break it so he can change into a werewolf at will. Stefan and Alaric (who is actually Klaus) fill Aunt Jenna in about the vampires in town. Damon gives Katherine vervaine so she is protected from further compulsion by Klaus. Klaus’s witches move his spirit from Alaric’s body and back into his own.
2×20 “The Last Day”
Elijah reveals to Elena the key to breaking the curse: sacrificing a werewolf, a vampire and drinking the blood of the doppelganger to the point of death on a full moon. Klaus’s witch throws Tyler’s mom down a flight of stairs to injure her so Tyler will return home. Upon returning home, he runs into Caroline at the hospital. Klaus’s witches incapacitate both of them and takes them for the ritual. Damon feeds Elena his blood in order to save her from dying, which will turn her into a vampire if she dies. Damon then frees Caroline and Tyler in an attempt to take away Klaus’s werewolf so the ritual won’t happen. Tyler then begins to transition and ends up biting Damon, though he is not fully transformed into a wolf, the bite is still fatal. It is then revealed Klaus has a werewolf back up in Jules and he turns Jenna into a vampire to use her for the ritual. Stefan and Elena spend a romantic day in the woods to cherish Elena’s last moments as a human. It is there she reveals she does not want to become a vampire.
2×21 “The Sun Also Rises”
At the ritual site, Klaus’s witch feeds Jenna her blood to complete her transition into a vampire. Elijah reveals he wants Klaus dead because he has daggered the rest of their siblings and buried them at sea. The ritual begins with Klaus killing Jules. Stefan then shows up and offers to replace Jenna in the ritual as the vampire. Klaus refuses because he enjoys the idea of the sacrifice being of three women. Klaus then kills Jenna. Klaus then drains Elena’s blood and begins to transform into a werewolf. Bonnie then shows up and uses her powers to weaken him. Elijah then goes to rip out Klaus’s heart, however, when Klaus promises to reunite Elijah with his family, Elijah takes Klaus and runs away. It is revealed Bonnie performed a spell that can bring someone back to life but it kills someone else. Elena then comes back to life and John Gilbert dies in her place. At Jenna’s funeral, Damon reveals to Stefan that he has obtained a fatal werewolf bite.
2×22 “As I Lay Dying”
Damon attempts to kill himself because of the fatal werewolf bite that is going to kill him anyway. Stefan stops him and locks him in the basement. Stefan looks to Klaus to find out the cure. Klaus tells him that his hybrid blood can cure the bite, but it is going to come at a price. He forces Stefan to drink copious amounts of human blood in an attempt to change Stefan back into his evil alter ego, The Ripper. Klaus also forces Stefan to kill a human being, then they leave town together. Klaus gives Katherine a vial of his blood to save Damon. Sheriff Forbes tries to kill Damon, but accidentally lets him out of the cellar instead. She then finds him and attempts to kill him, but shoots Jeremy Gilbert instead, killing him. Bonnie then performs a spell to bring him back to life not knowing the consequences. Elena finds Damon and takes him home, where they share a kiss after he confesses his love for her. Katherine then arrives with the cure, telling Elena that it is okay to love both of the brothers because she did. Jeremy then begins seeing the ghosts of his 2 dead vampire girlfriends, Vicki and Anna.
