The Vampire Diaries Recap - Episode 17 - Because The Night

The Vampire Diaries Season 4 Episode 17 Recap "Because The Night"

In New York, Damon (Ian Somerhalder) continues his search for the cure. He uses the trip as an excuse for Elena (Nina Dobrev) to have a good time, though later on, we learn that Elena was on to him the whole time.

In turns out that Will, the vampire Damon killed last episode, was a friend of Damon while he was in New York in the 70's. He suspects that Will was working for Katherine, so he searches Will's old apartment for clues.

Meanwhile, he needs to keep Elena distracted and entertained. At first, the explanation was that it was in New York that Damon also had his humanity turned off. Lexi visited him from Mystic Falls to save him -- and Damon was trying to do the same for Elena.

We see a series of flashbacks with Damon and Lexi, culminating with them having sex on the rooftop as Damon seemingly turned back his humanity on because of his love for her. Unfortunately, this was all a ruse to get Lexi in the sunlight when dawn broke. He had manipulated her to get her off his back. It was a decision, he would tell Elena later on the same rooftop, that he regretted and caused him to kill Lexi later when he did switch back his humanity. He could not take all the guilt. That was something he didn't want Elena to go through because he knows all the bad things the she will do with her humanity turned off.

While in the city, Damon and Elena was followed by Rebekah, who revealed to Elena that she and Damon were searching for the cure (and Katherine). Elena tells her that she knew that all along, and in fact, she was also looking for the cure and just letting Damon lead her to it. Rebekah offers to team up, but Elena rejects her. "You're too emotional," she says. Ouch.

With his real purpose revealed, Damon sets out to have fun anyway. There is a really provactive scene where Elena, Damon and Rebekah have a three-way feeding on this poor girl on the dance floor-- intercut with Damon and Lexi feeding on the same place in the 70's. That was a vampire-junkie's fantasy come true right there.

Damon eventually finds one of Katherine's many addresses in New York in Will's apartment.

Back at Mystic Falls, Stefan is trying to stop a third massacre from happening which will allow Silas to open the gates to the "other side." Caroline and Klaus helped him figure it all out. The tension between Caroline and Klaus of course was understandably high after what had happened to Tyler. But Klaus kept teasing her that the dark side is indeed alluring even if she's resisting it.

So what's this third massacre anyway? After going through some books they find out that the last two massacres -- the hybrid deaths and the town deaths -- were all orchestrated by Silas. The third one is a massacre of witches.

This brings us to Bonnie who continues to be brainwashed by Silas (in Shane's body) at her home. He convinces her that even if she kills all these people, she will still have enough power to bring them back to life. She asks her father to call her mother for help.

Asia arrives instead of Bonnie's mother to cleanse her. She brought 11 other witches with her -- exactly how Bonnie and Silas planned.

The exorcism of Bonnie begins -- but Stefan arrives to stop them. He warns Asia that Bonnie will kill them, but Asia doesn't listen and pushes Stefan away.

Klaus and Caroline arrive. Klaus is OK with Bonnie dying at the hands of the witches because this would prevent Silas from getting what he wants. Caroline meanwhile is concerned for Bonnie. When Asia lifts her knife to stab Bonnie -- Caroline rushes in and kills Asia. All the other witches connected to her die as well. Omigosh. Caroline did it!

Now that the third massacre is complete, all Silas needs is the cure.

Bonnie wakes up at Stefan's home. She doesn't remember anything. Her memory goes back to the cave on the island. Poor Stefan is now assigned to tell her the terrible news about Jeremy.

Back in New York, Damon wakes up on the rooftop alone -- Elena did what he did to Lexi! He gets a call from Elena asking about the map to Katherine's address. Elena and Rebekah had taken over his car and are going to look for Katherine themselves without Damon. Ha! That's a nice twist. An Elena-Rebekah teamup is just what the doctor ordered.

The Vampire Diaries - Season 4 Episode 17 - Recap - Because The Night 02-2013-03-24

At Mystic Falls, Klaus buries the 12 witches, and Caroline realizes that she had just killed 12 people. Klaus asks her to leave and find someone less "unpleasant" to commiserate with. Poor Caroline!

Silas visits Klaus looking for the cure. Klaus says he doesn't have it, but Silas knows that he knows who does. For good measure Silas takes out the stake he took from Rebekah. Klaus goes after Silas -- who disappears only to stab Klaus in the back! To be continued...

So everything is leading to Katherine. Everyone is after her -- but the humanity-less Elena is in the driver's seat for now (with Rebekah in tow). It looks like this Elena will kick Katherine's butt next week.