Vampire Diaries Recap: Bite Club 

on Friday introduced a literal fight club as a means to help Damon experience pain.

Vampire Diaries: Exclusive First Look at the Show’s New Mystery Organization, ‘The Armory’

Downward spirals are hardly new territory for the professional brooder, but unlike his previous moral hiccups — and there have been far too many to count — this one is unpleasant for

. Past incarnations of his dark side have been fun and fiery.

, even. But nobody’s having fun in the wake of Damon lighting his sleeping girlfriend on fire. Well, except for that Elena wannabe who showed up to the Salvatore Mansion for a post-battle hump sesh with the victor. (Anybody else have a bad feeling about that lady, by the way? Who just shows up to a guy’s house like that?)

PHOTOSVampire Diaries Crossover Preview: Stefan and Klaus Bond Over Bourbon

Stefan, on the other hand, chose to channel his post-Elena pain into something more productive — specifically, the long-overdue staking of his wicked stepdaddy. And speaking of Stefan’s pain, I had so many conflicting emotions during his angry reaction to Elena’s “death”; it’s been so many years since the “Stelena” ‘ship was alive and well, I kind of forgot how much he must still care about her. (Also, I put quotes around “dead” because… come on.)

TWIN SNEAKS | It’s pretty cute when babies kick their mother from inside the womb. It is incredibly

cute, however, when babies syphon their mother’s magic and force her into an early desecration. Unfortunately, Caroline is experiencing

of these scenarios as she heads into the final stretch of her pregnancy — and no amount of fries, waffle or otherwise, can stop those hangry twins. (Spoiler alert: Because we’ve seen Caroline 

the twins looking healthy as horses in previous flash-forwards, we know they’ll all pull through this syphoning ordeal just fine, but I’m still curious to see where it’s leading.)

IF YOU GIVE A HUNTRESS A COOKIE | Bonnie, Nora and Mary-Louise (aka the show’s

love triangle) made tracks this week for Cincinnati, where they intended to face their evil pen pal Rayna Cruz. But the face they ultimately found was a weird, old one; she was not at all the Nina Dobrev look-alike they’d been expecting. Bonnie gave the old lady a pity cookie, and just like with the mouse from that book, it only led to more trouble. In fact, if Enzo hadn’t shown up with a well-timed arrow, Bonnie might have been lights-out for good.

Which is why I — along with Bonnie, her girlfriend and Mary-Louise — was so surprised when Enzo double-crossed them, stealing Rayna’s old body right out from under their noses. All it took was a few minutes in the spa (of fiery, burning death) to restore Rayna’s youthful glow, but I have to wonder why Enzo, a vampire, would team up with a vampire

than the gold standard “he just sucks sometimes” reason. (Also, how bummed are you that Nora didn’t end up with Bonnie?)

OFFICER DONOVAN’S NEW ‘PARTNER’ | This portion of my recap is sponsored by MatchASingle.com, which received its second shout-out in this week’s episode. But don’t bother logging on and hoping to get matched with Matty Blue — I already checked, and it’s not real. Besides, Matt seems to be pretty smitten with Penny at the moment, at least enough to share his deepest, darkest, most vampire-filled secrets with her. Of course, considering Matt’s initial flash-forward included an aside about how he

his girlfriend, I’m assuming Penny won’t prove as lucky as her name. (Since when did Matt “Human Band-Aid” Donovan have the most complicated love life on this show?!)

Your thoughts on this week’s episode? Hopes and fears for episodes still to come? Drop ’em all in a comment below.

This episode reminded me how much I like Stefan and Elena. I wish they could go back to that before the end. It was so pleasant to see Stefan have this story outside of Caroline.

This episode had hints of the old Vampire Diaries. I am a total Damon and Elena fan, but it was awesome to see Sephan’s reaction, when he found out what had happened to Elena. Glad to see Julian got his. I hope he’s gone. Hooray for the return of Enzo! Totally missed him.

Totally agree AT!! Stefan and Elena were the heart of TVD and that is what has been missing. I know Nina is gone but I’m so glad they showed Stefan emotionally distraught because she is his soulmate and he thinks he lost her. Tonight just brought back all those Stelena feelings and I loved it!

Same…this brought back s1 vibes which enjoyed greatly. I feel like the show is heading in the right direction. This was probably the best ep so far this season!

This episode was the best of season 7 so far in my opinion. I was really glad to finally see season 1 Damon again and finally see Julian get what he deserves. If they keep it like this the remainder of the season will be great.

Agree with this too, I felt like this was a turning point for tvd. The flash forwards are what keep me watching so I’m hoping they don’t let us down.

Best episode of the season! Forever love this show!

I’m gonna need more Enzo-openly-flirting-while-Bonnie-pretends-to-not-be-into-him moments.

2016 Renewal Scorecard: What\'s Coming Back? What\'s Getting Cancelled? What\'s on the Bubble?

Could Malcolm Be Arrow\'s Killer? Did Grey\'s Doc Jo Say No? Did Originals\' Newbie Vamp Do a 180? And More…

Good Wife: 11 Spinoffs We\'d Totally Watch (and Two We\'d Quickly Cancel)

1American Idol Semifinal Results Recap (Week 1): Mismatch Point242

2American Idol Semifinal Performance Recap (Night 1): Sing Something…221

3American Idol Is Taking Away Your Voting Power — and It\'s…159

4Gilmore Girls: Milo Ventimiglia Officially Back as Jess for Netflix…126

Last Man on Earth Sneak Peek: Um... Why Is Carol…

Good Wife: 11 Spinoffs We\'d Totally Watch (and…

Sleepy Hollow Recap: In Which Ichabod Busts His…

Maya Rudolph, Martin Short to Debut NBC Variety…