It's the morning after the fateful Decade Dance, whereAlaric became Evilaric forever. Looks like these last few episodes are going totake place over a very short period of time, just like last year's season end.So much drama, so little time! Scroll down for my "Before Sunset"recap! But stop reading NOW if you have yet to watch last night's Vampire Diaries!

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Caroline and Rebekah are at the school to clean up afterthe Decade Dance. Pretty soon they’re fighting badass vamp/vamp killer Evilaric– and it seems the white oak super-stake doesn't work on him. Yikes. Rebekahbails and Evilaric braves the sun's harmful rays to bring Caroline back intothe school.

Evilaric calls Elena and tells her he’s holding Carolinehostage (with pencils jammed through her hands!) and to come to the school. Onceshe shows up, he tells her she can let Caroline go, but then changes his mind. "Howmany times do I have to tell you, Elena?" he says. "STOP TRUSTING VAMPIRES!"Classic. He wants her to kill Caroline. Yeah, that's so not going to happen.

Being that Evilaric is pretty much indestructible, Bonniecomes up with the idea to use the desiccation spell that Abby used on Mikael –but she needs everyone’s help, including Klaus’s and Abby’s. Abby tells herthat in order to do the spell, she’ll need to stop a human heart. Jeremy volunteersbecause he’s got his undead ring and because, well, he's the only human around,except Matt.

Klaus wants to leave town, but he needs Elena first.Doppelgangers: Don't Leave Home Without Them. He can't get in her house, so hestarts busting $#!% up from the outside, throwing fences through window andsuch. I love how Damon fights back while Stefan hides under the table.Revealing, much? Anyway, once Klaus finds out that Evilaric's going to killElena and Caroline, he's suddenly on Team Salvatore. He flippantly tells themthat he's the one who originated their bloodline. Wait, hang on – wasn't thatThe Big Mystery of the season?! I can't believethey just revealed that news so casually!

Team Salvatore (ie. pretty much everyone except Tyler andMatt) shows up to save Caroline and Elena and work their witchy mojo on Evilaric.They know where they are, of course, because Bonnie has AT&T. (At leastthis product placement isn't as bad as the blatant Rimmel advertisement writteninto last week's 90210.) Klaus savesCaroline and holds her and tells her to go straight home and be safe. Okay,that scene was amazing. Hot andsweet.

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Evilaric attacks Elena but at the last minute doesn’tkill her. OMG OMG OMG, does this mean that there could actually be some hopeleft for Alaric? Nope. Elena figures out that Esther linked Alaric’s life with hers.So if she dies, he dies. Ugh. That’swhy he doesn’t want her to die. There's no humanity left in there after all.Sadness.

Klaus takes Elena to drain her of her blood, because keepingher alive means keeping Evilaric alive, and well, this is the lesser of twoevils (no pun intended). Klaus thinks Elena hasn’t chosen between Damon andStefan because when she does, they’ll hate each other. But I don’t agree – Ithink those guys will stick by each other no matter what. And they just wantElena to be happy, so they’ll live with whatever choice she makes. Tyler triesto save Elena and Klaus sees. "So much for that sire bond," Klaussays. So much for that sire bond, indeed. Good job, Tyler! You did it, buddy!

There's big fight, Elena's head gets smacked against a pieceof fine antique furniture, and Stefan and Damon show up to desiccate Klaus.What the hell?! Klaus is gone now? Question: why didn't they just entomb him,like Emily did to all those vamps back in 1864? Bonnie could surely do that.

Later, Elena tells her boys, "I know it’s selfish…but if I choose one of you, then I lose the other. And I’ve lost so manypeople, I just, I can’t bear the thought of losing one of you." Ohnoooooo. She's totally going to pull a Kelly Taylor, isn't she? "I choose me." Don't do it, VD. Don't be lame. Please.

Stefan and Damon take a drive to go dump Klaus in theocean and have a nice little heart to heart in their matching leather jackets.Stefan: "If she chooses you, I’ll leave town and let you two be happy andnot be bothered by me." Damon: "Fine. If she chooses you, I’ll leavetown, too." See? What'd I tell ya? Brotherly love conquers all!

Elena, Caroline, Bonnie, Tyler, Matt, and Jeremy do shotsin the kitchen. "To a Klaus-free life!" Aw, the gang’s back togetheragain! But how is Caroline celebrating Klaus’s death right now? He saved herlife a million zillion times! That's cold. And am I the only one that sees theforeboding in this little reunion? Could this be the last time they're alltogether?

And then… supervamp Evilaric calls a freaking Councilmeeting. OMG. He tells everyone that Liz and Carol have vampire/hybridchildren and then shows them all that he's one, too. We know he's not going toturn them into vampires… so what doeshe have planned?

Later that night, as Elena is painting Alaric's roominappropriately soon after his death, she gets a crazy headache and passes out.What the hell? What's wrong with her?!

Also, it's not very important to this episode's plotline,but we FINALLY get an explanation as to why vampires can enter Stefan andDamon's house without an invite! Remember how last season they signed the deedover to Elena and then a few episodes later vampires were coming and goingwhenever they pleased again? Well, there's actually a reason for that! The sealwas broken was Elena died! Ahhh that makes total sense. I once again have faiththat the VD writers know exactly what they're doing.

And can we take a moment for when Damon says, "Oncemore with feeling" during this episode? Buffy reference, perhaps?

Here's a sneak peek at next week's season finale:

Do you think Klaus is dead for good?

Photos / video courtesy of the CW