Do you remember the first time? Well, do you Elena? How could you ever forget loving Damon.. Forget kissing him for the first time? The first dance? The first I love you.  I was an emotional wreck this whole episode.  The Vampire Diaries once had this allure– this great story, including the romantic turmoil between Damon and Elena during the first two seasons. That original magic hasn’t been there for awhile… until this season. Everything from Elena missing Damon, to Damon and Bonnie bonding, to that Salvatore reunion, to he best dynamic for the Damon and Elena relationship. This is what the show should always be– swoon-worthy Delena moments, laced with Steroline. 

It’s hard to comprehend that Elena would make the conscious choice of erasing Damon from her mind. Granted she was going through so much grief it was just easier to be erase it all than to feel the pain. Was it really easier though? Maybe for the time being, but definitely not now that he’s come back from the un-dead and she can’t remember a good thing about him. Despite pretending that everything is fine and that her life is totally peachy, she’s really quite upset by the fact that a huge chunk of her life is gone. She feels horrible that she cant reciprocate the love that Damon clearly has for her. When she looks into his eyes, she sees a stranger and when she thinks of him, she feels scared and angry. Definitely not the same Elena we saw sacrificing her life to hold Damon’s hand as they drove into the Mystic Grill and died together. Actually, she doesn’t even remember that moment and she’s shocked to learn that she would even consider doing something like that. Clearly, Elena with Damon was a much freer and “more alive” human being. The beginning scene with Damon just waiting, hoping for his soulmate to jump in his arms, completely broke me. Especially when she just apologized and closed the door on him. This is not what he came back for. This is not the girl he left behind!

Thankfully, he’s not one to give up so easily. He tries his best to remind Elena why she loved him during the medical ball. It’s an awkward situation considering she’s there with her new (and def not hotter than Damon) boyfriend Liam. Damon gets bit jealous seeing his girlfriend all lovey with this guy… I mean who wouldn’t be. That’s your girlfriend. Yet, she doesn’t think she is. It’s a difficult predicament, but one that doesn’t stop Damon. He compels the confident “sexy” bf to get his gf some drinks and uses the moment to ask Elena to dance. After all, the first time she fell in love with him was during the Miss Mystic Falls dance when a blood-thirsty Stefan stood her up and Damon stepped in to save her the embarrassment. Relive that epic moment right here. 

Anyways, Elena realizes his plan isn’t working. It’s great that he was romantic enough to travel through time and space for her, not to mention a good dancer and sexy as hell, but she just doesn’t remember. She wants to try at least because no matter what the situation, these two are attracted like magnets that can’t stay away from each other. She asks him to take her to the last place she told him she loved him. He takes her to the Mystic Falls border, but no luck. If she just let him kiss her I really think the memories would be restored. Finally, really pissed off,  Elena runs across the town line. All of her memories start flooding back, but she also begins drowning–imitating the way she originally died. Damon crosses to save her and explains that even though he wants her to remember, he won’t allow her to risk her life. It’s not worth it. Well, I beg to differ, but he’s right… there’s got to be another way.

Back at the dorms, she tells him she remembered bits and pieces, stars and rain, when she crossed the border, but she wants Damon to fill in the blanks. He doesn’t. Instead in a completely selfless moment- he lets her go. There’s really no better way for me to say this, so I’ll just quote Damon.

When you became a vampire part of me was thrilled, because suddenly there was this possibility that I could have you in my life forever. But then the other part of me was devastated because I realized you’d lost the life that you wanted to have. And since I’ve been gone, you’re gotten part of that life back. You’re thriving, you’re happy. Yeah sure you’d be happy if we gave it another chance but — the truth is you’re better off without me. I died, you started over. I need you to live your life, be happy. I love you, Elena…enough to let you go.

Someone please pass me a frickin tissue. I can’t even handle this right now. Damon is legit the best boyfriend, no scratch that, best human in the world. In this moment, I think Elena realized that there really was so much more to him than the just the ripper she remembered. There was a reason she forgave him and fell in love. She wanted those memories. She wanted to know what happened the night with the stars and the rain. Why did that memory stick out? Unfortunately, she might never know because all Damon told her was that it started raining, it got cold and muddy and they went home. Not really as romantic as what happened during the actual RAIN SCENE. I repeat, the rain scene that fans have been begging the writers and producers for– yes, the same rain scene the actors said wouldn’t happen. Well it did. And it was epic.

Damon goes to the cemetery to drown his sorrows in a bottle of bourbon when he catches a shooting star. He remembers that night when they were star-gazing. Elena asked him to promise that this was forever and than they passionately kissed in the rain. Heart.is.melting. At that moment, drunk Damon sees Bonnie’s teddy bear in the crypt and emotionally rejoices in the fact that Bon-Bon is still alive. I don’t even know which moment was more meaningful to me. The memories of the soulmates, or the fact that Damon was so moved by a simple bear. His relationship with the witchy has truly evolved and its so good, it almost beats out anything involving Delena this week!

In other news, Enzo was able to trap Tripp with Stefan and Matt’s help. Stefan want to kill the guy, but thankfully uses some rational thinking. During his brief time in captivity, he heard Tripp talk to other Mystic Falls officers just like Matt about the vampire problem. He wants to know who else is involved in his little “catch a vamp” fun. Tripp admits that his guys are currently pursuing their next lead, Caroline Forbes. Stefan leaves to go save little Miss sunshine, whose initially not pleased with his visit, until she gets a call from her mom. Tripp’s men ran her off the road and are holding her at gunpoint, threatening to kill her if they don’t get Tripp back. Honestly, it has to be hard being the only surviving mother of a vampire child. So much danger comes along with the title… Liz needs to just pack up her things and move out of town, somewhere she can live safely with her daughter being able to enter the borders perhaps?

During the exchange, Tripp crosses the border into Mystic Falls, his neck automatically cuts and he falls to the ground, bleeding out to death. Enzo must have turned him into a vampire before the exchange happened. I know I should be mad at how irrational Enzo is, starting all this new beef with cops from MF and putting Matt in a compromising position but I’m not. Honestly, good riddance Tripp. Adios. And I hope he doesn’t now come back as a vampire because I can’t imagine how annoying he would be with everything heightened. Although that is good revenge–turning someone into the one thing they hate. He was kind of asking for it getting so close to vampires in the first place.

I love Enzo because he’s like the new season one Damon. He’s got no care in the world, he’s just effing everything up and calling everyone gorgeous. It’s great. During a heated argument surrounding Tripp, Enzo realizes Caroline hates Stefan because she has a thing for him. I don’t think this realization just hit Enzo, but he did want to mess with Stefan who was clearly oblivious to the fact. While Sheriff Forbes is getting checked out for her injuries, Stefan poses very odd question… “why did you have a thing for me?” Honestly, how does one answer that question… Because I did? Caroline however, always has the perfect answer.. he was there for her when she transitioned, her best friend gave up such a great guy, he became her bff and she trusted him. That’s why. She’s hurt by the realization that Stefan never loved her, so continues to hate him. Honestly, I think he had feelings for her too, he was just oblivious to them because he was hurt and confused and mourning his brother. Admitting to them was harder than just pretending they didn’t exist and moving on. Now that Damon is back and things are pretty much back to normal he realizes his mistakes and will probably use the rest of the season to try to win her back. I don’t think it will be that hard, but props to Car-Bear for keeping her stance and staying upset. She has every right to be.

Back in 1994, Bonnie wakes up in pain at the Salvatore mansion. Seeing that she can’t shake Kai, she stabs him “temporarily killing him” and runs to put the ascendant back together.  When she’s done she realizes she’s missing one piece.. the piece Kai is holding. She tries to escape, but he creepily/psychotically traps her in a chokehold in Damon’s old car and she kind of has no choice but to go along with her plan. Never underestimate the witch however. She puts all of her powers into her bear, so when the eclipse finally happens, the bear is transported back to MF with her magic, trapping her and Kai in the alternate universe forever with no way out. This is a really bold and brave thing to do. I’m really impressed and after all these years of seeing Bonnie as a worthless witch, she’s kind of redeeming herself in my eyes. Now that Damon has the bear and knows she’s alive, he will put all of his efforts into helping Bonnie instead of wooing Elena. This will probably become a problem as he’s keeping Bon-Bon’s existence a secret from everyone except Stefan and Elena will now want to remember more than anything, considering her relationship with Liam came to an end when he realized she was a lying about how she healed the girl from the corn-maze and her “dead” boyfriend, which he just met alive. Yeah… we’d be a little thrown off too. The realization that her fling with Liam was temporary only intensifies her need to get her memories back.

And lastly (seriously so much happened this week) Alaric was healed and enjoying the human life with his new beau Jo. She’s really great too… smart, funny and a survivor. My theory that she’s Kai sister proved to be true. She’s a non-practicing witch from the gemini coven who gave up her magic after her brother tried to kill her. This will definitely become useful to Damon when he realizes who she is. She’ll be the only one capable of saving Bonnie or even reaching that alternate universe. Plus, imagine her surprise when she finds out someones  had contact with her psychotic brother.

Check out next weeks episode of #Friendsgiving where Elena apparently tells Liam that she’s a vampire. W-T-F?