In tonight's 'The Vampire Diaries' episode, 'Monster's Ball,' we return to Whitmore College three weeks after Bonnie's delayed funeral.

Elena is back at school, trying to move on from Bonnie's death the way she typically deals with the death of her loved ones: lots and lots of journaling. Caroline is pleasantly distracted by Tyler's return (let's just say that Elena is going to have to suffer through every college roommates' nightmare: The dorm sexile).

While Caroline is busy planning Tyler's class schedule and dorm assignment, Tyler doesn't seem quite as game. We find out later that Tyler still feels slighted by Klaus and Caroline's connection, and his hatred for Klaus overtakes his love for Caroline.

Sadly, it seems that Caroline will be spending the year solo... unless Jesse ends up becoming the perfect vampire boyfriend, that is. The very-creepy Dr. Maxfield is busy playing mad scientist on his research assistant, slowly turning him into a vampire in order to study him. Poor Jesse.

Meanwhile, Elena is looking for answers as to why Dr. Maxfield covered up her roommate Megan's death-by-vampire. While Dr. Maxfield is certainly the shadiest professor on campus, he's not the only one with secrets. A mysterious friend from Megan's past appears on campus, making Elena question whether he is the one who actually murdered her. It's not until later that Elena compels Aaron to tell her the real reason that he's back on campus -- just like Elena, all of the people around him seem to die. We learn later that isn't Aaron's only connection to Elena: Aaron also happens to be the black sheep son of Dr. Maxfield.

Silas is on the hunt for Katherine, or, more specifically, her immortality-curing blood. With his psychic powers fried by Katsia, Silas is rendered back to a human state – the perfect time for Damon to take advantage of him. Damon will help Silas die and drop the supernatural veil in order for Bonnie to cross back over to the land of the living. Unfortunately, Silas also has one other condition -- that Damon kill Silas' doppelgänger, Stefan. (They don't call him “the diabolical one” for nothing.)

Meanwhile, Whitmore College is having their annual Historical Ball. Elena and Damon attend as Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, while Caroline and Tyler hit the party as Bonnie and Clyde. Also showing up at the party? Katsia and Silas. And it turns out that Damon was very serious about upholding his end of the bargain – Damon snaps Stefan's neck right in front of Silas. Of course, Stefan doesn't stay dead... Luckily for the younger Salvatore, vervain was coursing through his veins. With Stefan's death, the link between Stefan and Silas has been broken, and Silas regains his psychic powers... Which he uses to seduce Katsia before tricking her into giving him information about the anchor that holds her spell over him together.

Nadia finally reveals her secret reason for her interest in Katherine. Turns out Katherine murdered her mother years earlier – which sounds very much like something Katherine would do. Nadia wants Katherine to pay for the murder. But even a human Katherine thinks on her feet, and she stakes Nadia in front of a crowd of diner-goers before heading out the door.

But Nadia doesn't die – instead, Katherine trapped her to find out the truth behind her bogus mommy sob story. Katherine knows that she couldn't have been in Paris during the time Nadia claimed her mother was killed. But Nadia does have a sob story, and it's a doozy. It turns out that Katherine did indeed kill her mother... by killing off her human self when she became a vampire. That's right: Nadia is Katherine's daughter.

And there's still more family drama brewing. When Stefan wakes from his near death experience, he attacks Damon and heads right for Katsia and Silas. He tells Katsia that Silas and Damon are working together, prompting Katsia to finally off Silas once and for all... or so it seems. Silas may be this season's baddest bad guy, but his death also means that Damon can't sacrifice the human witch version of Silas in order to bring Bonnie back.

But Damon has a Plan B. Unfortunately for Katherine, that means killing her in order to give Silas all of her blood. After a terribly distressing scene where Damon forces Katherine's bleeding neck onto a dead Silas, reviving him and turning him human, we find that Silas isn't the only one with immortality. Katherine's blood may be the cure, but it also means that she can't die. Which is good, because Katherine and Nadia have a lot of catching up to do – maybe nearly dying (again) will finally bring out some of Katherine's humanity.

More From PopCrush