'The Vampire Diaries' recap: The death count grows

“The Vampire Diaries” is not kidding around. For most of this season, we've been hearing about a sacrifice and that Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) would die. So what happened Thursday night? Klaus went through with the sacrifice and Elena died. So did a lot of other people. But unlike them, Elena came back because, well, there's no show without her. With four deaths, if we're not counting Elena, the curse broken and several juicy reveals, this was quite an action-packed episode, and it's not even the finale. Obviously, next week will deal with Damon's (Ian Somerhalder's) werewolf bite, but the real action was Thursday night. I have a feeling next week's episode will play like a coda. But before we start worrying about Damon's life, let's take some time to mourn those who died.