Tonight on the CW The Vampire Diaries starring Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley continues with an all new Thursday February 5, season 6 episode 13 called “The Day I Tried to Live,” and we have your weekly recap below. Tonight, Elena [Nina Dobrev] becomes determined to celebrate Bonnie’s [Kat Graham] birthday and tries to send her a message, but the situation turns dire when she makes an unsettling discovery.
On the last episode, when Liv (guest star Penelope Mitchell) and Luke’s (guest star Chris Brochu) father arrived to town to celebrate their birthday, they try and convinced him to let Jo (guest star Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) and Kai (guest star Chris Wood) took their place in the merge ceremony. After Tyler (Michael Trevino) found out that the merge was happening sooner than he expected, he urged Liv to let him talk to her father. Meanwhile, after Caroline’s (Candice Accola) plan to cure her mother took an unexpected and devastating turn, Elena (Nina Dobrev), Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) gathered at the hospital, while Jo attempted to save Sheriff Forbes’ (guest star Marguerite MacIntyre) life. Lastly, with the merge set to take place, Damon’s risky plan quickly sent things spiraling out of control, forcing one of the twins to took matters into their own hands. Jeffrey Hunt directed the episode written by Brett Matthews & Rebecca Sonnenshine. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the CW synopsis, “Elena becomes determined to celebrate Bonnie’s birthday and tries to send her a message, but the situation turns dire when she makes an unsettling discovery. Meanwhile, Enzo enlists Matt’s help to interfere in the life of Stefan’s great-niece; Stefan keeps a close watch on Caroline when she unconventionally attempts to cope with everything going on around her; and Jeremy contemplates leaving Mystic Falls for good.”
You’re not going to want to miss any of the action tonight, so tune in at 8PM EST to the CW to catch the latest. We’ll be live recapping the season 6 episode 11 for you right here and in the meantime, hit up our comments section and tell us your thoughts on this new season!
Bonnie is cooking breakfast in her time prison. She listens to old-school hip hop while she cooks and wishes herself a happy birthday. Jeremy is working out when Elena comes in and says they’re celebrating Bonnie’s birthday. He says it’s depressing throwing a party where the guest of honor can’t come. She asks him why she found an art school application in the trash. He says he’s only passing study hall and can’t leave until he knows about Bonnie anyway.
Caroline is making the cake and asks Stefan if the teddy bear’s eyes are following him around the room. She says she hasn’t seen the bear in 12 years. Caroline says she took the bear from her when they were kids. She says she buried the bear in the woods but then it went missing later. Caroline says the missing bear is all alone like Bonnie and says she’s going to go find the rogue bear. Stefan thinks this is misdirected grief. She says she can’t bring Bonnie back or cure her mom, so she’s going to find the bear.
Damon wishes Bonnie a quiet happy birthday when Elena comes in. She says they never talked about their kiss then says they’re really good. They kiss some more. Kai comes in and asks if he’s interrupting. He has a letter he wants them to give to Jo. He says he’s a sociopath and likes it. He says he doesn’t have guilt or love but says he absorbed Luke and now can’t stop thinking about how bad he feels about taking Luke.
He says he Googled how to get rid of guilt that recommended writing down what happened. He says he wrote it, water leaked from his eyes then he burned it but still felt bad, so he wrote another letter to Jo to explain what happened. Elena says maybe he can do something for them in exchange. Matt and Enzo are stalking Sarah Salvatore and Enzo says he has a few tasks for him and will kill him if he has to. He chokes Matt then threatens his mother.
Enzo says he needs him to get to know Sarah and explains that Damon thinks he killed her and that Stefan hasn’t ever relieved him of the guilt. Elena and Damon want Kai to help them fix the device to get Bonnie out or at least get her a message. Damon plays on Kai’s new guilt mechanism. He asks what message he wants to give her and Damon says they need to tell her where to get magic to get out of her 1990s prison.
Tyler finds Liv waiting for him. She’s distraught and asks how Luke could do this. Tyler says Kai did this, not Luke. He says she needs to pack so they can go or else Kai will kill her with the other Gemini coven. She says she should have just done the merge so she could still be with Luke. She says she’s never been apart from her brother and doesn’t know how to do this. She tells him she can’t run. She say Kai took her life and there’s nowhere she can go.
Tyler says he’ll help her with whatever she wants to do. She says she wants to kill Kai. Elena thinks about where there might be some stored magic. Damon coaches her that she can find some on Qetsiyah’s blood. Jeremy is annoyed to find Kai there. Caroline goes digging in the woods and asks Stefan why he didn’t bring a shovel if he was going to stalk her. He asks if her finding that teddy bear will make all things right in the world.
She reminds him that he works his issues out by picking fights with strangers. He says he’s going to stay and keep an eye on her and sips coffee. Elena says they can use him to help Bonnie get out and Kai says to think of his personality tweak as Elena in reverse and reminds Jeremy that Elena went off the deep end and went dark when she turned vamp. Damon asks Kai to fix the device so they can send the message.
Liv is chanting a spell she and Luke came up with as kids to see through each others eyes. She hopes it will work now that Luke is part of Kai. It does and she sees he’s at Damon’s house chatting with him. Liv rants and Tyler says Kai is her leader and if she kills him, the whole coven will die. She says he’s going to kill them all anyway and this way she can take him with you. Tyler stops her and says he’s not going to let her hurt herself. She kisses him then whispers a chant and he collapses to sleep.
She tells him she’s sorry and leaves. Sarah is taking photos on campus while Matt watches her work. She misses a bottle toss into the recycling bin and then again. He laughs and gets it for her. He says she must not be there on a basketball scholarship. He asks her about her camera and she rattles off some facts. She tells him that’s a common pick up line when she sees the blank look on his face. She walks away. Enzo is there and tells him that he has no game.
He tells Matt to hand over his jacket, wallet and cell phone. Kai says he can do something like ghost with Bonnie being Demi Moore and the rest of them being the figurative Patrick Swayze. He repairs the device to some extent, then chants. They open their eyes and see Bonnie. Jeremy runs over to her but she can’t hear him. They are like ghosts. Damon tells Kai nice spell. She’s watching videos she shot with Damon when they were trapped there.
She pops a jug of bourbon and Damon says they made a pact that if they decided they couldn’t take it another day, they’d kill that bottle them kill themselves. Kai, Elena, Jeremy and Damon find themselves back in the now and he has a nose bleed from pulling too much magic. He says he tried to kill himself several times when he was trapped including beheading himself, but he thinks that anyone else there could die since the prison wasn’t meant for them.
Jeremy asks Kai to send just him back and Kai says he might be able to boost the spell with just one recipient. He says the worst case is that Jeremy would be stuck there indefinitely. Jeremy says either he can help her get out or die there with her. Caroline digs and digs while Stefan teases her. He says it’s pretty funny they’re digging for a teddy bear in a shallow grave she buried there when she was nine. She calls him a jerk and says he’s just sitting there mocking her.
He says the stuffed animal won’t make things better and she shoves him. He tells her to try it again harder and get it out. She whacks him with a shovel and steals his flask then he sweeps her feet and knocks her down. He asks if it felt good and she admits it did a little. Kai is sweating and chanting and Elena asks Damon about the death pact he had with Bonnie. He says he never thought she’d go through it alone. Kai is laboring to hold the spell while Jeremy lies still on the sofa.
Sarah finds Matt shivering on a campus park bench. He says his buddy bailed on him and took his phone and jacket. She says she doesn’t go to animal shelters because she likes strays. She offers him directions to a bus, coffee and a bus ticket. Elena finds Damon breaking out the suicide bourbon bottle. She grabs it and toasts Bonnie and also takes a swig. She coughs and asks if Kai is right about her. She asks if she completely changed when she became a vampire.
He tells her not to let Kai get in her head. She asks if he thinks she’d be with him if she was human. He says no and that if she was still human she would be with Stefan. He says her death put him back in the picture. She goes to check on Jeremy but then hits a magic wall. Jeremy and Kai are back in 1994 and Jeremy picks up the atlas and finds the page. It falls to the floor but open on the right page. Kai has a wound in his abdomen.
Jeremy comes to back in the present and sees that Liv is there and has run her big brother through with a fireplace poker. Jeremy yells out – no, you don’t know what you’re doing. Kai stands and tells her that was harsh. She does some magic on her and he magics a fork into her neck. He throws liquor on her and threatens to burn her to death. He grabs a candle and she tells him to just kill her since he already killed her best friend. He steps closer and then his hand wavers and he asks why he can’t do it.
He cries and says he doesn’t care about her. He tries to talk himself into killing her. She throws the fork powered by magic into his chest. Jeremy stabs her in the shoulder and drags Kai to safety. He begs him to send him back but Kai says he’s half dead. He chants anyway and then Jeremy and Kai are back there. Bonnie is still working on the bourbon but is now crying. She says she has to cut herself off. She throws the bottle and then walks out of the room. Jeremy tells Kai to stay there and he follows her.
Caroline says she has had enough but then Stefan points out an ear in the ground. She goes and digs and finds Cuddles the bear. She accidentally pulls the head off the ancient bear and then giggles. She stops laughing and turns away in tears. He pulls her close for a hug while she bawls. Liv calls out for Kai and Damon says she’s right below them. He kicks the fireplace and drops the bottle of bourbon down. It causes a mini explosion that knocks Liv back and releases them from the room.
Bonnie goes out into the garage and closes the door then cranks the car. Jeremy is with her. She sits down and he tells her she doesn’t want to do this. She has the video camera and records one last message. She says to tell everyone that she’s sorry and she tried to make it work. She says she misses people, laughter, her friends. She says the loneliness is what she can’t take. She say she only knows one way to turn it off and says she’s sorry.
Jeremy touches her arm then she says to the camera that she hopes he’s living his life with no regrets. She tells him to fight for the life he wants, never give on what he wants and stay strong. She says that’s what her grams said. She coughs from the carbon monoxide and tries to stand. He tells her to give up and she says she’s not going to die there. He tries to open the garage door but can’t but then he makes contact and opens the door. The sun shines in on her and it looks like she saw him for a moment.
Elena tries to revive Jeremy while Damon gives Kai a sip of his blood to bring him back. Jeremy tells Elena that he’s okay and that he saw Bonnie and says she’s going to be okay. She smiles at Damon. Elena later cleans up from Kai and Liv’s brawl that destroyed the party prep. Jeremy says he understands why Bonnie would want to end her life. He says every day was the same and a misery. He says he’s been trapped like that too.
She says she knows what he’s going through and says he needs to save himself just like Bonnie chose to. She says to find the life that he wants and be happy and says they can help him get into art school. She says she’ll be fine and he should get out of there and never look back. Liv wakes in her bed and asks Tyler how she got back to her bed. He says he woke up on the floor, raced to the Salvatore and found her unconscious so he got Elena to give her some blood.
He says now that she’s okay, he never wants to see her again. He says he would have done anything for her and she chose death over him. He walks out. Matt gets in the car with Enzo and reports back. He asks what the point was and Enzo says it was a test to see what kind of person the last remaining Salvatore is. He says she seems to rank a 9.1 on the purity school. He plans to corrupt her utterly.
Enzo says he’s going to insinuate himself into her life and then have her do things until she begs him to make her a vampire. He says Stefan wanted to protect her and he’s going to show him he couldn’t. Damon says Elena needs to compel Jeremy a portfolio since he’s not that great. She tells him not to be mean. She tells him she’s made many mistakes in life, but he wasn’t one of them. She says the night she died, she found her way back to him and always does.
She says it doesn’t matter if she’s a vampire or lost her memories, she always come back to him. She says the human her is gone and asks him to stop living in the past. He kisses her then tumbles her onto the bed. Jeremy gets his art school application out of the trash and flattens it out then starts to complete it. Stefan fixes Caroline a drink and she guzzles it so he hands her his and she guzzles that one too. Elena looks at a sleeping Damon in her bed then cuddles up to him.
Bonnie notices the open atlas on the floor and opens it up. She sees Damon’s notes and says – Damon, you’re a genius. She grabs a bag and gets in the car to head to Nova Scotia. She pops on her sunglasses and cranks the car then flies down the driveway at top speed.
THE END!
