Stefan and Damon were on the road, finding victims for Cade, in The Vampire Diaries‘ “We Have History Together,” but while Damon might be getting closer to regaining his humanity, thanks to a certain necklace, Stefan headed in the opposite direction.

Here’s how Stefan went from “doing it right” when it came to dropping bodies to letting heads roll in “We Have History Together.”

The Vampire Diaries Recap: The Ripper Returns>>>

Stefan Tore Through an Anger Management Support Group …

After singling out the “worst of the worst” in the form of the guy who would gladly let everyone else there die so he could live, Damon killed him. Stefan, in the meantime, killed everyone else. That guy was Cade’s, but “these are mine,” he told his brother.

… But He Insisted He Wasn’t Going to Repeat History

No dripping blood meant no temptation, in Stefan’s mind. “I’m doing it right this time. Heads will remain intact,” he declared. Damon wasn’t sure he should test his Ripper history, but Stefan said he wouldn’t be repeating history before continuing to feed.

While Damon Was Willing to See the Possibility of Good in the Next Victim, Stefan Focused on the Pain

Stefan picked out a young brunette doctor, figuring she graduated early because she threw herself into her work, driven by something dark and painful from her past. Damon suggested she could be driven by something good. But the only way to find out was to test her, by making Damon her patient, easily done with a vervain injection and then, once he was in the hospital, a vervain IV.

The Vampire Diaries Episode 8.9 Photos: The Miss Mystic Falls Pageant>>>

Stefan Tempted Tara and She Gave In

The doctor’s parents had been killed in a car accident, but the other driver was never found. While Stefan saw that as dark, Damon argued it was just sad. She went into medicine because her parents had been organ donors and their organs had saved others.

Stefan then told Tara that his brother had made dark choices and hurt a lot of people. According to him, Damon was in the hospital for a reason, and he brought up organ donation — and one of the people at the top of the list was one of Tara’s patients, who wanted to bring clean water to developing countries. But as a doctor, Tara argued she had to see every life as important as the next.

So Stefan upped the game, by compelling her to believe that Damon was the drunk driver who killed her parents — and later suggested that giving him another chance could lead to more deaths. “I work for the devil,” he reminded his brother when Damon argued he was cheating. “I don’t have to play fair.”

Though Damon tried to first tell Tara he was never a drunk driver and then apologize and ask for a chance for redemption, the doctor had Stefan leave the room and then sped up his “death.”  

Stefan Told Damon Just Why He Chose Tara

After filling Tara in on the morality test he had put her through, Stefan revealed to Damon that he found Elena’s necklace in his pocket — and had chosen Tara because she’s a reminder of Elena: interested in medicine, brown eyes, brown hair and orphaned by tragedy. The necklace triggered Damon’s conscience, Stefan argued, and it was holding him back.

To prove his brother wrong, Damon tossed the necklace out the window of the car and then killed Tara. Stefan watched, obviously tempted by the blood.

Stefan Started with a Nurse … and Then Tore Through a Hospital

While Damon retrieved Elena’s necklace, Stefan took the “turn for the worst” that his brother feared he would, which would mean “all bets are off.” While initially Stefan just fed from a nurse, after he wiped away the blood on her neck, he went back to feeding — and then when Damon found him, Stefan had filled the hall with bodies … and heads were no longer intact.

The Vampire Diaries season 8 airs Fridays at 8/7c on the CW. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.

(Images courtesy of the CW)

Meredith Jacobs

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV

If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.