'The Vampire Diaries' Recap: Ranking the Twists of 'I Could Never Love Like That'

After a long hiatus, The Vampire Diaries has returned to set the stage for what we now know will be Nina Dobrev’s exit from the series at season’s end. Let’s rank the twists of “I Could Never Love Like That” on the level of excitement they instill.

Related: 'Vampire Diaries’ Shocker: Star Nina Dobrev Exits

1. Lily is an even better actress than Damon told her to be.

Lily admitted to Damon that too much time had passed for her to feel the kind of motherly love she’d need to emote to flip Stefan’s humanity switch. And so, Damon told her to give the performance of her life. In the end, she delivered. Stefan is himself again. But Jo, who no one had bothered to text about Lily, talked to her father and got the real story: Turns out, Lily had hooked up with some ex-Gemini members who are siphons like Kai and turned them into vampires — a loop hole since we’ve always been told vampires can’t be witches. These “heretics” were on their way to the States to kill the Gemini coven when they were banished to the 1903 prison world. So imagine Kai with the bloodlust of a vampire — and make that six of him. Sounds like creepy fun. Lily has the Ascendant now. I hope she gets to use it. And if the pilot that Chris Wood (Kai) is starring in doesn’t get picked up by the CW, let’s bring him back with them.

2. Stefan will have to pretend his humanity is still off to get close enough to Caroline to flip her switch.

Truth be told, as fun as the Bonnie and Clyde routine is on paper and in the hands of Candice Accola and Paul Wesley, I’m ready for their reign of terror to end. Forcing people to listen to you karaoke Pat Benatar midday at a restaurant is acceptable, killing multiple people is not. I want to like Caroline.

She bolted when she realized what Damon and Lily were there to do: Fix Stefan so he’d fix her. As the promo for next episode suggests, Stefan will have to pretend he’s still in ripper mode so Caroline will see him. Will we get to see real Stefan kiss out-of-control Caroline? Is it true love’s kiss that will “wake her up”? Regardless of what happens, watching Stefan squirm will be entertaining.

3. Enzo, we learned, was turned by Lily.

What a small world: Enzo recognized Lily when he went to Salvatore Mansion to try to pawn Sarah off on Damon, and then Sarah heard his backstory. Lily found him dying of consumption on the street, got him onto the boat to America with her to see the ship’s worthless doctor, and turned him. She’d told him he could join her family of outcasts and then abandoned him. Enzo and Sarah have now parted ways. Can they hook up already?

Related: 'Vampire Diaries’ Cast Chronicles Nina Dobrev’s Last Week on Set

4. Elena’s probably going to get the cure.

She got jealous when she discovered Jo was pregnant, which she admitted to Damon, who still didn’t mention the cure. But he must sooner or later, right? She’ll take it and realize that if she’s ever going to be with a man who has even a chance of getting her pregnant (read: isn’t a vampire), she has to leave the Salvatore Brothers behind. Why can’t the Salvatore Brothers leave town? I’m guessing because Lily and her “new family” will be wreaking havoc there, so Damon and Stefan will have to stay and clean up that mess. (Also, those actors renewed their contracts — Dobrev didn’t.) Plus, Lily knows that Damon loves Elena, which means if Elena is human, Lily could use her as leverage.

On the one hand, if Elena wants to be a mother, she has every right to wish she could deliver it herself. On the other, has she never heard of adoption? She could still have a family as a vampire. Yes, they’d be the never-aging parents, but they could pull it off for 18 years then move to the next town when the kid goes to college. They’re going to have to move at some point anyway. It’s complicated, but if a vampire who can compel people can’t have it all, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Related: 'The Vampire Diaries’ Recap: Ranking the Twists of 'A Bird in a Gilded Cage’

5. Matt has grown a set.

Caroline planned to kill whichever of her exes, Matt or Tyler, lost a game of trivia about her. Tyler decided to fight back with a stake, and Caroline pulled Matt in front of her so Matt took it to the gut instead. Matt refused Elena’s blood at the hospital because he doesn’t want to be a hypocrite: If he doesn’t like vampires, he can’t use them when it suits him. Respectable? Yes. But kind of a buzz kill on a vampire show. Are they setting Matt up to die? To leave town, too? To stay in Mystic Falls and be miserable?

6. Damon is the worst at hiding things.

Not a twist at all, since this is the man who once hid the moonstone in his soap dish. But hiding the cure in his top drawer? Really?

The Vampire Diaries airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.