'The Vampire Diaries' Recap: Jesse's Fate Is Revealed In 'Dead Man On Campus'

The episode begins with the newly-resurrected Bonnie sending a video message to her mother. It's been a little strange that she hasn't spoken with her in months, but she's been on her extended "European vacation."
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Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 5, Episode 8 of The CW's "The Vampire Diaries," titled "Dead Man On Campus."

The episode begins with the newly-resurrected Bonnie sending a video message to her mother. It's been a little strange that she hasn't spoken with her in months, but she's been on her extended "European vacation" (I guess that's what the kids are calling dead and trapped in ghost world nowadays). Elena, Bonnie and Caroline are now living together in their improbably large dorm room at Whitfield and Elena and Caroline are all geared up to throw Bonnie the best "Welcome Back From The Dead" party ever.

Granted, neither of them have actually made any friends at college yet, but don't worry just shout "free booze" at college and people will come running.

Damon and Stefan are invited to the party, but Stefan is still struggling with some after-effects of being trapped in the safe all summer constantly drowning and coming back to life so he's not in much of a party mood. Damon promises to be there, however, even though Caroline is not thrilled with Damon and Elena's relationship and she is being very vocal about it. She even goes so far as to call him a monster to Elena.

We finally get to see what Dr. Wes is doing to Jesse, apparently the mad doctor is trying to destroy the need for vampires to feed on human blood and he's using Jesse as a guinea pig. During one of the tests, Jesse manages to break free and runs from the lab before Dr. Wes can hit the emergency wall switch. Jesse calls Caroline, who had been wondering where he'd disappeared to for two weeks, and she rushes over to help explain what his new life will mean with Elena's help. However, before Caroline and Elena arrive, Jesse's roommate, who just happens to be Dr. Wes' charge Aaron, arrives and Jesse feeds on him. Caroline and Elena show him how to heal Aaron with his blood though, so it's all good.

Matt still has traveler Gregor trapped in his body as a "passenger" and he seeks help from Stefan and Katherine to help rid himself of the unwelcome guest. Katherine calls back her daughter Nadia to help and they discover that Gregor's new mission, now that Silas is dead, is to kill Katherine. They manage to purge Gregor from Matt's body by stabbing him with a special knife that destroys the passenger, but leaves Matt intact.

Katherine has people coming after her again for unknown reasons and the now mortal Katherine thinks that it's just too much. Plus, with her rapid aging she only has a few months left to live anyway. Katherine leaves Nadia a heart-breaking suicide note and heads off to the Mystic Falls clock tower to jump. Luckily, Stefan reads the note before Nadia finds it and he arrives in the knick of time to save her. Katherine and Stefan share a moment and it looks like there may be some hope for that ship yet.

Since the gang now knows that Dr. Wes was experimenting on Jesse, they dispatch Damon to torture the information out of him. Damon decides to go about his questioning by injecting Dr. Wes with vials of the different diseases in the bio lab, a little rabies, a little necrotizing fasciitis, the basics.

At the party, while Jesse and Caroline are dancing, Jesse bites into Caroline's neck. The tests that Dr. Wes was performing on the poor TA seemed to have worked. He now craves vampire blood over human blood. Jesse leaves the party and makes his way to the bio lab to confront Dr. Wes. Damon tries to talk to him and Jesse attacks. Elena arrives and stakes Jesse as his has his teeth sunk deep into Damon. Caroline witnesses Elena stabbing him and tries to stop her, but it's too late. Goodbye, Jesse.

Caroline's love life is a mess, but at least Bonnie and Jeremy are together again. Unfortunately, just as the two lovebirds were about to hook up, Jesse appears needing transport to the other side. He grips Bonnie's arms and the anchor screams as he passes through her. She's absorbing the pain of all of the recently dead. Jeremy witnesses the whole scene and is horrified, but Bonnie insists that the pain is better than being dead.

Dr. Wes eventually spills and Damon realizes that he's part of the Augustine secret society. A group that Damon has some experience with since he was once one of the group's lab rats himself. Damon, however, was under the impression that the group died out 60 years ago. Dr. Wes uses that moment to get free and hit the emergency button on the wall causing a vervain mist to rain from the ceiling knocking Damon out.

Damon awakes back in his old cell. It looks like the Augustine society found a new old test subject.

"The Vampire Diaries" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

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