This week's episode of The Vampire Diaries showed the fact that this series knows how to throw a party.  And like most parties in Mystic Falls, this one was full of secrets and near-death experiences.  After being undaggered and getting herself a new haircut, Esther immediately decided to throw a formal ball to introduce the Original Family to the citizens of Mystic Falls.  Three people were invited for a specific reason: (1) Klaus invited Caroline because he has a serious crush on her, (2) Rebekah invited Matt to kill him so that Elena would be upset because she's been forbidden to hurt Elena, and (3) Esther invited Elena because she needs her help.

Both Damon and Stefan decided to accompany Elena to the party in order to protect her, but she was determined to speak to Esther alone, so she asked Stefan to distract (ie. temporarily kill Damon) so she could do it.  Esther told Elena that she loved her children, but they are an abomination and since she created them, she needs to destroy them.  To do this, she used a few drops of Elena's blood to enact a spell that would join all of the Original children together.  In other words, if one died, the rest would die.  Finn is the only one of her children who seems to know the plan and has told her that he's prepared to die, and Esther seemed genuinely upset about killing Elijah because she found him to be so moral.

Meanwhile, Damon made with the big confessions and told Elena that he loved her, which she said might be a problem.  In the face of her "rejection", Damon decided to engage in a little violence and then proceeded to sleep with Rebekah.  Yikes.

The February 16 episode of The Vampire Diaries begins with Elena learned about Damon and Rebekah's recent romp in the sack.  As if her day couldn't get any worse, Elena's friends don't agree on how to handle the situation with the Original family.  Plus, is Elena in grave danger?

Updated: Vote in our poll about which man Elena wants.

Watch a trailer below for the February 16 episode of The Vampire Diaries.  You can view photos for the episode here.