What episode did Elena turn her humanity off

She's Come Undone is the twenty-first episode of the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries and the eighty-seventh episode of the series overall.                                                  

Summary

LET'S MAKE A DEAL — Damon and Stefan try a brutal new approach to provoke Elena into turning her humanity back on, and Caroline is frustrated when her attempt to intervene backfires. When Elena figures out a way to call the Salvatore brothers' bluff, they call for backup from a surprising source. Matt gives Rebekah some unsolicited advice on her life choices, and she tries to help him in return. Caroline has a confusing and dangerous encounter with Klaus, and Katherine is suspicious when Bonnie makes her an offer that she promises will gain them both.

Plot

Elena comes to school, where Caroline is excited about graduating. Elena realizes something is off, they're in her head. The Salvatores kept her weak to bring her to high school fantasy land. Elena says it won't work. Back in the cellar, Damon lets Elena out of the safe just long enough for her to tell him off. He shoves her back in. Damon and Stefan aren't stopping until she turns her humanity switch on. "I'm going to come back for you in a couple hours, or a couple years, because all we have is time," Damon says. Caroline comes to the house. Stefan explains they're just trying to provoke any emotion at all in Elena. Caroline tries talking to her. When Stefan leaves her alone, Caroline gives Elena a little blood. She doesn't agree with the boys' approach. "This annoying clingy thing you're doing, did it ever occur to you that's why both your boyfriends skipped town?" Elena says, referring to Tyler and Klaus.

Elena mocks Caroline's enthusiasm for graduation and calls her vicious names. Elena goes after her again and Caroline snaps her neck. Caroline tells Stefan to do whatever he needs to fix Elena. Matt talks to Rebekah at the bar. She's drowning her sorrows after losing the cure and parting ways with Klaus and Elijah. She likes Elena the way she is, without humanity. Matt suggests she leave town if she's so miserable, he's failing his classes and doesn't have much choice. Caroline tries to get Bonnie to come to the Salvatore house, but Bonnie isn't ready to forgive and forget after Elena trying to kill her. Bonnie meets secretly with Katherine, saying she has an offer she can't refuse. Back at the Salvatore house, the boys put Elena in front of a curtain and take off her daylight ring. Damon is armed with a fire extinguisher. "Even if I do manage to get my emotions back, I'll remember all this and I'll hate both of you for it," she says. Damon thinks it's worth the risk. They open the curtains and let the sun burn her.

Elena is unmoved, so they go for round two. Caroline and Matt hang out outside. Rebekah drops by with food for Matt. She mentions that Matt is failing some classes. It's news to Caroline, so she goes home to get study supplies, but runs into Klaus outside. Bonnie asks Katherine for Silas' tombstone to drop the veil in two days on the full moon. "I said I'd help him and I've been hiding from him ever since, buying time," Bonnie says. She won't explain any further since Silas can read minds. Bonnie's the only one who can see his true face. Back at the house, Elena heals from her burns. Elena turns on Damon, saying being sired to him was awful and her love for him was fake. Her ropes burn off and Elena runs to the curtain and tears it down. She bursts into flames and they douse her with the extinguisher. "I'm the girl that you love, you wouldn't do anything to actually hurt me, you just proved that. So what do I have to be afraid of?" she asks. Outside, Damon and Stefan are frustrated they're not getting anywhere. Stefan suggests they get someone who really will hurt Elena: Katherine. She was just abandoned by Elijah and they think she'll enjoy the chance to torture Elena.

Caroline talks to Klaus just long enough to realize he's Silas. He grabs her by the neck and demands to know where Bonnie is. He stakes her, as a message to Bonnie. Inside, Rebekah offers to compel Matt good grades and a scholarship. She's grateful he convinced her to save April's life at prom. Katherine interrupts their moment. Matt leaves to call Caroline to tell her about the plan to let Katherine torture Elena. Caroline wakes up in the woods - the stake is gone. She races back to the house and runs into Matt, but it's just Silas again. He threatens to kill her mother unless she finds Bonnie. Caroline runs for the house, but Silas, now in the form of Klaus, stops her and throws her down the stairs. Caroline gets in her car and calls her mom, telling her to get inside and lock all the doors. Downstairs, Katherine starts things off with Elena by plunging her hand into her chest and squeezing her heart. Elena calls her a horrible person and mocks her for Elijah leaving her. Katherine throws her back in the safe, but doesn't lock it. Back upstairs, Damon talks to Katherine until Stefan announces that Elena is missing. Damon takes Matt with him to go look for her. Caroline goes home to her mom, calling her cell phone as she stands in front of her to verify it's really her.

Elena wanders weakly through the woods. She flags down an SUV, which Matt gets out of. She vamps out and is about to attack. He tries talking to her, saying she's his oldest friend and she's the girl he's loved longer than he can remember. "Deep down, that probably does mean something, but I am really hungry," she says as she bites down on his neck. Caroline waits for Bonnie's call. Bonnie shows up on her doorstep, but Caroline won't let her in. When Sheriff Forbes walks up behind Caroline, Bonnie sees that it's actually Silas. Bonnie breaks down the door and Caroline runs to check on her real mom in the other room. She's lying on the floor. Caroline feeds her mom her blood. Bonnie promises Silas she'll help him as long as he doesn't hurt any of her friends. He warns her that her promise is binding. In the woods, as Elena goes for seconds on Matt, Stefan pulls her off. Damon holds up a weak Matt and tells her he's done playing games; either she turns her emotions back on, or he'll kill Matt right in front of her. Stefan cautions Damon to stop. Elena thinks he's bluffing. Damon snaps Matt's neck. "How about now? You feel anything now?" Damon goads her, asking if she feels sad or anything at all. Damon reveals that Matt was wearing the Gilbert ring and he's not really dead. Damon asks her if she can feel the weight lifting, which he tells her is joy.

Elena's emotions come flooding back all at once and she's overwhelmed with guilt for killing the waitress and all other bad things she's done. Stefan guides her to find the one thing inside that gives her the will to live and hold onto it. "I'm not okay, but I'll get better," she says. Back home with her mom, Caroline draws her own blood with a syringe and injects it into her mom's heart, trying to bring her back. She cries over her mom's body. Finally, Sheriff Forbes takes a breath. Matt comes back to life with a sore neck. Rebekah tells him it worked and that what he did was brave. He explains he wanted to pay Elena back for saving him at the bottom of the river. Rebekah apologizes for the part she played in that and Elena becoming a vampire. She promises to spend every day until graduation trying to pay him back. Katherine meets with Bonnie again, guessing that with Qetsiyah's blood in the tombstone, maybe she doesn't need the full moon to drop the veil. Once she drops the veil, Bonnie says she can use Qetsiyah's spell to make Katherine truly immortal - invulnerable to any weapon. Katherine agrees to give her the tombstone. Back at the house, Elena recovers from her emotional roller coaster. Then she gets angry. The one thing she focused on was hating Katherine, the cause of all their problems and the one who killed Jeremy. Elena wants to kill her.

Cast

Trivia

• Antagonists: Elena Gilbert and Silas.
• Elena is tortured for the first time in the series by Damon and Stefan. She takes everything they do to her without complaint, and doesn't break down as they had hoped.
• A glimpse of Silas' face is shown. It seems to be disfigured in some manner.
• Damon takes away Elena's daylight ring to torture her in this episode, but he gives it back to her at the end of the episode.
• Elena risks dying by the sun to prove that Damon and Stefan won't kill her to force her to get her humanity back.
• A large safe in the basement of the Salvatore Boarding House was shown.
• Elena turns her humanity back on in this episode because of Matt and Damon. The plan was created by Matt, who asked for and gained Damon's help to execute it.

Body Count

• Matt Donovan - Broken neck; killed by Damon but resurrected by the Gilbert Ring

Continuity

• Bonnie, Matt, Silas and Caroline were last seen in Pictures of You.
• Sheriff Forbes was last seen in Bring It On.

Locations

• Mystic Falls, Virginia
  • Mystic Falls High School (in Elena's dream)
  • Salvatore Boarding House
  • Mystic Grill
  • Forbes House
  • The Woods
• Diner (outside Mystic Falls)

Behind the Scenes

• Nina's mother mentioned on Twitter on March 28 that Nina was shooting a Katherine scene with Bonnie, and an Elena scene with Damon and Stefan.[1]
• This episode had about 2.17 million viewers in the USA, which was 0.07 million less than the previous episode.
• Hashtag during the airing is #Vampervention

Cultural References

• She's Come Undone is the title of the 1992 novel by Wally Lamb. It takes its name from the song "Undun" by The Guess Who; the phrase "She's come undone" refrains throughout the song.
• Both The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars' 21st episode of the fourth season is called She's Come Undone.
• In the literal sense, "come undone" refers to something becoming untied, unwrapped, unfastened, etc. In the figurative sense, it means that something has either not gone as planned,or has failed in some way. E.g. a plan can come undone meaning it hasn't worked as expected. A person can come undone meaning that they have lost their composure or self-control.

Quotes

Multimedia

Soundtrack

Pictures

Matt

Stefan and Elena

Damon and Elena

Caroline and Klaus

References

1. ↑ [1]

See also

In which episode Elena turns off humanity?

Does Elena turn off her humanity season 4?

What happens in season 4 episode 15 of Vampire Diaries?

What season does Elena turn her humanity back on?