8. Ordinary People

Complete story — includes the ending

With help from Elena and Bonnie, Alaric tries to decipher the meaning behind his recent discovery. From the writings on the cave wall, he deciphers that Mikael is Papa Original, as Damon puts it, the father of Elijah, Rebekah and their other siblings. Elena and Rebekah engage in a mean-girl power struggle, until Rebekah reveals some of her family's ancient secrets and the violent past she shares with Klaus and Elijah. She reveals how the family became vampires. They were once neighbors to a village of werewolves and one night, Klaus and their brother, Henrik, snuck out to see the men change into wolves when it went wrong, and Henrik was killed. The family was distraught and the loss made Mikael obsessed with making the family invulnerable. His wife, a witch, the Original witch, aided them in becoming vampires but nature found ways of ensuring that they had weaknesses. Rebekah also tells Elena that it was Mikael who killed their mother when he found out about her infidelity to him but it is later on deciphered from the writings on the cave wall that it was actually the hybrid, Klaus, who killed his mother, in a fit of temper and rage. This new revelation causes Rebekah to lose faith in her brother. Damon tries a reckless new approach to make a breakthrough with Stefan by releasing him from his imprisonment and they're both surprised by an unlikely ally, Mikael, who has been freed by Katherine.