The Vampire Diaries: I Carry Your Heart with Me Recap

Synopsis: Ric and Bonnie fiddle with the Phoenix Stone to resurrect Oscar, while Caroline and Stefan babysit Mary-Louise and Nora at a Heaven & Hell Halloween costume party.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Woo! Halloween in Mystic Falls!

Three years later, Ric is putting two adorable twin girls to bed! He’s suddenly interrupted by Damon, who warns Ric that even though he has everything he’s ever wanted (is Jo back???) he’s in danger if he doesn’t help Damon out.

Flash back to present day. Damon is trying to orchestrate a hostage exchange with Lily: he trades Oscar for Elena’s casket. It all seems to be going according to plan when, whoops! Damon discovers Oscar’s corpse, courtesy of Valerie.

Meanwhile, in the morgue, it’s Jo’s last day of Certified Freshness™. Ric’s super-desperate to get the Phoenix Stone working to revive her (and presumably his unborn children).

Ric recruits Bonners to figure out the witchy stuff to revive his dead wife, but she’s quickly requisitioned by Damon to revive Oscar instead. Bonnie’s on a timer, because Lily sent the Mean Girls™ to kill one Whitmore student every hour that Oscar isn’t returned.

So while Bonners is raising the dead, Stefan and Caroline distract Mary-Louise and Nora. There’s a Heaven & Hell Halloween Costume party at Whitmore, and Caroline tricks them into going. The two heretics end up having a lover’s quarrel because Nora is adjusting to 21st century life much better than Mary-Louise is.

Translation: Nora’s into the ‘flesh-trade’ of Halloween (judgy much, M-L?) and flirting up a storm while M-L stands sullen in the corner.

Both, however, refuse to siphon off the spell which prevents Caroline from touching Stefan.

Back at the heretic hovel, Enzo confronts Valerie. He knows that Val left the night of Oscar’s disappearance, and he’s trying to figure out if Val is lying to Lily and/or if she killed Oscar. Valerie ends up telling Enzo that she killed Oscar because he knew about Julian’s location.

Enzo learns about Julian and then confronts Lily about his romantic rival. After Lily all but sings her enduring love for Julian to the haunted hilltops, Enzo conspires with Valerie to make sure that Julian never returns.

Back at the party, Nora gets a taste of a pretty bartender, but she gets interrupted after M-L tears the bartender’s heart out in a fit of jealous rage. The two fight, and M-L goes to Stefan for advice. Stefan, ever the opportunist, drugs the heretic to force her into siphoning away Caroline’s vervain spell.

The siphoning works after Caroline leverages Nora’s life while Stefan threatens Mary-Louise’s. Without the spell, Caroline and Stefan rush to hook up with each other.

At the end of the episode, Bonnie successfully revives Oscar, Damon makes the trade for Elena’s coffin, and Bonnie manages to bring Jo back from the dead. No doubt with consequences to follow.