"The Return" is the premiere episode of the second season of The CW television series, The Vampire Diaries and the 23rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on September 9, 2010. The episode was written by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec and directed by J. Miller Tobin.
Plot
The episode starts from exactly where the last episode of the first season ends. Elena (Nina Dobrev) walks in the door and she hears a noise in the kitchen that makes her go check what is happening. She finds John (David Anders) lying on the floor and she immediately calls 911. Katherine is standing right behind her and John warns her about it. Elena grabs the knife and tries to see who is in the house but Katherine leaves before the two meet. Elena rushes to Jeremy's (Steven R. McQueen) and finds him unconscious in his bed.
The paramedics take John away when Stefan (Paul Wesley) arrives and checks Jeremy to see if he is a vampire. Stefan says that he is still a human and he assumes that Jeremy did not take enough pills to really kill himself and Anna's blood healed him. He warns Jeremy not to try it again since the vampire blood exits his system very quickly and he could easily end up killing himself for real.
Bonnie (Kat Graham) gets to the hospital and finds Matt (Zach Roerig) waiting outside Caroline's (Candice Accola) room. Matt tells her about the accident and how Tyler (Michael Trevino) lost control because of sound he said he was hearing. Damon (Ian Somerhalder) also arrives at the hospital and checks on Liz (Marguerite MacIntyre) who asks him to find out why Mayor Lockwood was affected by the vampire device, something that led to his death.
Elena gets to the hospital and asks Bonnie if she can do a spell to save her life but Bonnie is not trained enough to do something that difficult. Damon shows up and offers to give Caroline his blood to heal her. Elena has her doubts about it but she finally agrees after Bonnie's urge. Damon tries to bring up the kiss when he stays along with Elena but Elena has no idea what he is talking about. Jenna (Sara Canning) arrives and when Elena cannot remember talking to her either, Damon figures out that Katherine is back in town.
Katherine arrives at the Gilbert house to find Stefan who's there to keep an eye on Jeremy. She tries to kiss him but Stefan realizes that is not Elena and pushes her away. The two of them fight a little before Elena and Damon walked in and Katherine disappears. They try to figure out why Katherine is back and what she is up to and Damon also admits that he kissed Katherine thinking she was Elena, something that makes Stefan upset. Elena stops them before they get into a fight.
Mason Lockwood (Taylor Kinney) is back in town for his brother's funeral; he has been away for years. Tyler seems surprised to see him and Damon asks Liz if he is also in the council. Liz tells him that Mason is not a believer of the supernatural.
Stefan and Elena go to the hospital to talk to John and find out more about Katherine. Elena gives John his ring back and asks him about Katherine but John says that he has never talked directly to her, only via Isobel, so he doesn't know anything. He also points out that he hates the fact seeing Elena with a vampire and Elena just leaves the room telling him that his hatred will kill him. Stefan stays behind and threatens John to kill him and turn him into the thing he hates the most, a vampire (he forces him to drink his blood), if he will not leave town and get out of Elena's life within 24 hours.
Katherine arrives at the Mayor's wake and Bonnie walks right over to her. Thinking she is Elena, she tells her about Damon giving his blood to Caroline to heal her but when she touches her she realizes that she is not Elena. She walks away to call Elena but Katherine follows her and introduces herself. Bonnie try to cause her a headache using her powers but Katherine has been around for a long time and Bonnie's spell is too weak yet to work on her. Katherine attacks her and Stefan gets there asking Katherine to let her go and she does.
Stefan and Katherine talk and Stefan wants to know why she is back. The two of them get out of the house and walk away to talk alone just the moment Elena arrives with Jeremy and Jenna. Elena has a talk with Damon about "their" kiss and she says that he is hurt because he thought he kissed her but Damon does not admit it. Jeremy finds Tyler drinking and pays his respects for his father's death. The two of them share some memories of dead parents before Mason walks in and chases Jeremy out. Later, in a moment of grief, Tyler smashes his father's office and when his mother tries to stop him he attacks her. Mason gets there in time to hold him back.