Damon saved the day, and he did so because deep down he cares for his brother and he cares for others (especially others whose names rhyme with Schmelena). Sure, he might do that in a self-serving manner, but those are definitely some redeeming qualities. Incidentally, he's also smoking hot and hilarious. Those two might be of the "less important redeeming qualities" category, but dammit, they should still count.

Last night's drama unfolded in three separate yet important chapters. Elena, Stefan, and Damon earned a non-boring plot this week when Frederick, the d-bag vampire from the tomb, kidnapped and tortured Stefan, leaving Damon and Elena no choice but to embark on a rescue mission. Now, Elena, if Damon didn't have any redeeming qualities, why did he care so much about rescuing his brother and protecting you from being offed other vampires in the process?

What a badass rescue attempt it was -- Elena and Damon even convinced Alaric to help out (well, Damon lied and said he'd contact Alaric's wife if he tagged along). From sneaking in, stealthily staking lookout vamps, and killing most of the vampires in the house along the way, vigilante style, the trio made it look easy. Unfortunately, Frederick got out of the house and went after Stefan, forcing Elena to let Stefan feed on her blood to get enough strength to kill ol' Freddie.

As you'll recall, Stefan is a Cullen-style vegetarian, so he hasn't had people blood in a while. That seems to be for a very good reason, since he got super aggressive with Elena after sipping on her blood. Then, at the end of the episode, Damon walked in on Stefan in the middle of a shame spiral human blood binge. It was like watching a scene in a chick flick, except replace the typical depressed lady with a crazed vampire and the usual pints of Ben & Jerry's with bags of human blood. Poor Stefan. Maybe this will lead to the darker side of S that phone message promised us last week.

The Matt/Caroline romance came into play when Caroline slipped down an embankment while trying to get cell phone service (her car was stuck in the mud during a huge rainstorm) and she grabbed on to what she thought was a tree root to break her fall. It wasn't a tree root. It was a human arm. A human arm that belonged to Matt's missing sister, Vicki. When Caroline tried to comfort her new boyfriend, he blew her off, but immediately ran crying into Elena's arms when she showed up. So the Caroline/Elena jealousy is still in play, although I feel like if Caroline and Elena really had been friends for so long, Caroline should have realized by now that Elena and Matt still have that whole "first love" bond even though they're not dating anymore.

Jeremy spent the episode trying to get Anna to turn him, and Anna spent most of the episode telling him how all of his vampire facts are gleaned solely from Netflix and thus not entirely truthful. She finally relented and told Jer she'd do it when her mom forbid her to see him, but realized after Vicki's body was found that he wanted to spend eternity with Vicki, not her. Bummer.

All in all, quite the satisfying episode. And with 100 percent more Tyler Lockwood than the past, like, five episodes combined. Hooray! Now where can a girl find some Bonnie? "VD" could use a little more witchiness.

What did you think of last night's episode? Are you excited to see a darker side of Stefan? Do you miss seeing Tyler and Bonnie on a regular basis? How badass did you think the rescue mission turned out? And do you think Jeremy will continue his quest now that he knows Vicki is dead?