Damon gets to utter last night's The Vampire Diaries episode title, "Fool Me Once," and, since he went for an over the top sotto voce delivery to the tail end of that aphorism, I'm down with that. Actually, I'm down with pretty much everything Damon does in this episode. Elena's a Little Miss Me-ffet for some of it, Bonnie and Grams team up to use super-witchy powers, and Stefan once again proves that he's the most dangerous vampire on the show. See for yourself!

Damon

Damon informs Stefan in no uncertain terms that he won't be helping Stefan track Elena down, telling him first that he hopes Elena dies and, if she still has Damon's blood in her system when she does, at least Stefan knows he'll see her again. Man, is Damon hurting. Anna tries to get Damon to work with her, which backfires because Stefan frees Elena and Bonnie (more on that in a minute) without Damon's help. Newly freed Elena convinces Damon that they all need to work together, and Damon heads down to the tomb with a blood bag for his beloved Katherine (adorable). All his searching is for naught, however, when it turns out that Katerine isn't even in there. He confronts Anna and newly-freed Pearl, who tells him that Katherine compelled a guard into letting her escape and never looked back. To add insult to injury, Anna ran into Katherine in Chicago in 1983, who knew where Damon was and didn't even care. Ouch. By episode's close, Damon's staring numbly in the fire at the Salvatore mansion with Stefan taking up quiet residence next to him. 

Elena

Elena's pretty cool for most of the episode, trying to escape twice (although neither Elena nor Bonnie think of opening the curtains with Bonnie's telekinesis or with their hands) and standing up for Damon when it turns out that Grams plans to double-cross him. She even gives the poor guy a hug when he discovers that Katherine is gone. But she also decides that it's her betrayal, not Stefan's latest, that really hurt Damon and only she can fix it. The episode bears her out, but still: Damon was obviously hurt by Stefan. 

 Bonnie and Grams

Bonnie tries to set their captor on fire (nicely done! why does it require water, though? We've seen her light candles on fire, not just puddles), and Grams does a locator spell to lead Stefan to Bonnie and Elena. Bonnie agrees to bust into the tomb if it means an end to all the Damon-drama. Grams, however, plans a double cross: they'll open the tomb, so Damon can get in but not so vampires can get out. Elena, who Damon brings along for leverage, is safe enough until Anna busts in there and tries to feed her to Pearl. Stefan runs in knowing he can't run out when he hears Elena scream, and he's enough for a reason for Bonnie decide to break that spell once and for all. For the record, Emily must have been working some serious mojo that Bonnie + Grams barely does the trick. Elena, Stefan, Damon, Anna, and Pearl all make it out, and a shakey Grams and Bonnie head safely home. But since Grams got all badass, standing up to Damon and making him feel pain with the power of her mind (take that, Jane!), we all know what that means: lady gets to die. Yup, the breaking down Emily's spell by force and bringing Bonnie through the challenge takes it out of the seriously-not-old-enough Grams, and she's dead in her bed by episode's end. It's just not Kevin Williamson without some sexism.

Stefan

Coolly staking a vampire apparently is not longer enough for our erstwhile hero. He frees Bonnie and Elena by breaking down the hotel room door and throwing open the curtains (see? obvious!), sending Ben cowering behind the bed. Stefan warns him to leave town and never look back come sundown. Ben doesn't. He later tries to use a passed out Jeremy for leverage outside the tomb, and he also claims that Stefan won't be able to beat him because 145 year-old Stefan's animal diet makes him weaker than two year-old Ben. O, foolish, foolish, Ben. You are so dead. Sure enough, Stefan vampire-speeds Jeremy away from Ben. Then Stefan immolates Ben with his flame-thrower.  Does he bat a lash at this act of violence? Of course not! Stefan is not the vampire you want to cross.

Also, Matt and Caroline are official an item, and Tyler and Jeremy continue to do a weird frenemy dance.  What happens next? Who knows! Show returns March 25.