Previously, on The Vampire Diaries…

The Producers: Well, guys, it’s a sad day. The Martins’ contracts are up.

The Writers: You know, you could write contracts for more than five episodes. I mean, I’ve heard that other shows keep recurring characters for entire seasons, even years…

The Producers: Anyway, we want to send them off with a bang. And you know what that means…

The Writers: ?

The Producers: BAMF powers activate!

Previously, on The Vampire Diaries…

The Producers: This is fantastic! Hair flips, heart rips, torture porn… the fans are eating it up! But it feels like something’s still missing…

Ian Somerhalder: Unbuttons his shirt.

The Producers: No, that’s not what we had in mind…

Daniel Gillies: Coifs his hair.

The Producers: No, that’s not it either… hey, Matt Davis!

Matt Davis: …Urg?

The Producers: Do you remember how to say lines?

Matt Davis: Single tear.

Previously, on The Vampire Diaries…

The Producers: Last week was fantastic! Salvatore skin! Flamethrowers! Fanservice! There’s just one thing… Team Elijah is getting a bit… restless.

The Writers: Hmm…

The Producers: Also, those heart rips are really popular…

The Writers: So… Elijah, heart rips… I think we have an idea…

Previously, on The Vampire Diaries…

The Producers: So, the CW has been taking a lot of heat lately. Something about Smallville and Supernatural, and something about burning the place to the ground and salting the earth.

The Writers: Well that certainly doesn’t sound good…

The Producers: No. And we aren’t immune, either. People aren’t in love with Tyloline, they think Elena has become a little too dumb to live in a horror movie, they’re afraid that Damon is losing his edge…

The Writers: What can we do?!?

The Producers: There’s only one thing we can do. It’s something we only like to turn to as a last resort. Something we like to save for Sweeps.

The Writers: You mean…?

The Producers: Yes. Fanservice. I want Salvatore skin as far as the eye can see. I want so much Vampire on Werewolf action that the Parent’s Television Council and PETA will be pissed at us. I want Stefan to man up for a change! I want so many extras dying, flames throwing, and hearts ripping that the gods will notice us again!

The Writers: We’ll go tell Ian to have his chest waxed…

Previously, on The Vampire Diaries…

Alaric Saltzman, in one of the few moments he’s been allowed on-screen this season, shared with us the fruits of his estranged wife / current vampire / Elena Gilbert‘s mother Isobel Flemming-Saltzman. To whit: The Myans got sick of all the hot Vampire on Werewolf action, and cast the Lame Ass Curse of Mild Inconvenience. The curse limits vampires to hunting at night – you know, when humans awake and ready to defend themselves – and limits the werewolves to shifting on the full moon. The keys to this curse are a piece of Moon Rock and the blood of a European family – the Petrovas – that wouldn’t arrive in South America for several hundred years, but let’s gloss over that for now. But let’s not gloss over the fact that Elena Gilbert is a doppelganger of Katherine Pierce, who are both really Petrovas, meaning Elena’s death can free the vampires from having to wear Magic Rings of Not Exploding in the Sunlight.

If that paragraph made any sense to you: I love you, and welcome home.

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you all that The Girlfirend will no longer be joining us in our weekly Vampire Diaries recaps. But!

Previously, on The Vampire Diaries…

Tyler Lockwood (on the phone): Hey Mason, I filled up your voicemail, so now I’m leaving messages on your answering machine! Anyway, about this torture porn of you turning into a werewolf… it looks like it really hurts to turn into a werewolf, and since I’m going to turn into a werewolf tonight, I’d like to talk to another werewolf about it. Also: werewolf.

Jules: Aroof?

The Blonde Chick: I used to live in Butthole, Alaska, which, as you know, doesn’t see the sunlight for thirty days at a time. And as you also know, everyone in Butthole was killed last winter, except for me. Now, I know the official story is that a rabid polar bear ate everyone, but I’m here to tell you the real story. It was vampires. The end.

The Audience: Laughs.

The Blonde Chick: Yeah yeah, laugh it up. But I have proof! A couple of vampires always show up to these talks, so I brought some bajillion-watt tanning lamps!

The Vampires in the Audience: She’s bluffing.

The Blonde Chick: Bajillion-watt tanning lamp power activate! Literally!

The Vampires in the Audience: Burn, screech, die.

The Audience: Screams, runs, calls the police.

The Brother Strause: So every alien invasion movie I’ve ever seen has involved a cop or a soldier or a scientist or someone else how can we make out movie different?

The Other Brother Strause: We could make it revolve around an idiot rap star, his douche bag friend, his knocked-up girlfriend, and that guy from Dexter…

The Brother Strause: Brilliant!

The Brothers Strause: So yeah, it’s an alien invasion flick. You know Independence Day? Yeah, it’s nothing like that.

The Guy Who Cuts The Trailer: Independence Day? Got it.

George Clooney’s Lover: I love you George Clooney!

George Clooney: I love you to!

George Clooney’s Lover: Say, is that man with a gun trying to kill us?

George Clooney: Yep. Bang!

That Man With a Gun: Dies.

George Clooney’s Lover: That was scary!

George Clooney: Yep. Bang!

George Clooney’s Lover: Dies.

George Clooney: Hey, the Swedes found me. Again.

The Old Guy on the Phone: Dude, sucks for you. You should go hide out in Italy.

George Clooney: Arrives.

Assassin Chick: I need a gun. With bullets. And a silencer. And a box to carry it in.

George Clooney: No problem! I’ll craft the entire thing by hand, using the spare parts I take from Father Joe’s bastard son’s auto shop!

The Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Hi George Clooney! I’m naked!

The Camera: Spends the next two days lingering on her breasts.

The Hooker with a Heart of Gold: I’m in love with you, George Clooney!

George Clooney: Me too! But I don’t trust you!

George Clooney: Well, I’ve fallen in love with a hooker with a heart of gold, so I think it’s time to retire.

The Old Guy on the Phone: Okay! I’ll send over Assassin Chick to… um… debrief you.

Assassin Chick: Hi George Clooney! You may not recognize me, because I have slightly darker hair now!

George Clooney: Hi Assassin Chick! Here’s the gun I built for you by hand! Please don’t shoot me with it!

George Clooney: Here, take this giant wad of cash and meet me by the river! I have to go kill the assassin I just armed, and my old boss!

The Hooker with a Heart of Gold: …?

Assassin Chick: Hi George Clooney! Bang!

George Clooney: Ha! I knew you were going to double-cross me, so I rigged the gun to explode in your face!

Assassin Chick: Dies.

The Old Guy on the Phone: Bang!

George Clooney: Bang bang!

The Old Guy on the Phone: Dies.

The Hooker with a Heart of Gold: George Clooney! You’re here! Now we can be together forever!

The Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Sorry, babe. This is a “serious and meditative” movie, which means it has to have a depressing ending. Dies.