The Rippah Diaries

As promised, we’re finally devoting an entire episode to the humanity switch. We look at all of the reasons why characters like Stefan, Damon, and Enzo turn their emotions off and how they eventually get them back on. We also realized that so many iconic moments come from a vampire’s no humanity arc, like Damon killing Matt to get Elena to turn it back on and Caroline burning the letter from Liz (we know you know the TikTok audio: BURN IT). And let’s not forget the vampire that inspired us to even do this episode: Isobel. We still can’t agree on what we make of her, but we do agree on a few things, like every humanity-less vampire will do anything to avoid getting their emotions turned back on. We also want to hear from you! Call (470) 205-4958 to share your theories and ask us questions that we’ll listen to and discuss on our next special episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For every character there is to love on The Vampire Diaries, there are a few to hate. While the list mostly includes annoying villains, useless supernaturals, and guest stars there are two characters in the main cast that are well known for annoying the fan base. You already know we’re talking about Matt Donovan and Elena Gilbert. But is Matt hated because he’s boring or because he’s a terrible boyfriend to Caroline? Is Elena hated because she’s a pick-me or because she switched from Stefan to Damon? In this special episode, we talk about the main reasons why people hate these two and whether we actually hate Matt and Elena. To be included in an upcoming special: Call (470) 205-4958 to leave a voicemail sharing your theories and ask questions for us to discuss in a call-in episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before we get into Season 3 in a few weeks, we of course have to recap Season 2! This week, we’re looking back at the main characters, the villains, and all of the great Season 2 side characters. We’re also going to talk about all of the highs of the season, like best performances, favorite songs, best three episode run, and favorite Delena and Stelena moments. We also go over a few of the lows of the season (*cough cough* the Jules/werewolves arc) and what we would do differently if we wrote Season 2. We also wrap up Season 2 like we wrap up every episode and pick the best songs, quotes, and most out of pocket moments of Season 2. This week: The Vampire Diaries Season 2 Recap Next Week: Why Do People Hate Matt Donovan? May 30th: Season 3 Episode 1 The Birthday Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Put on your PJs, grab your Brothers Bond Bourbon or your Fresh Vine Wine, and get ready to slumber it with the Rippah Girls! This week, we're having a girls night and playing TVD Trivia hosted by Producer Shea. With 90 questions created by Shea and 10 listener-submitted questions, we'll see who really knows The Vampire Diaries the best. You can even play along with us if you can pause fast enough or somehow blurt out the answers quicker than we did. With trivia categories including songs, quotes, Season 1, and Season 2, you might even want to listen to some past episodes to brush up on your trivia before listening. Join us this week for some drinks, trivia, and LOTS of laughs! Special thanks to Producer Shea for coming up with 90 trivia questions and reviewing all of your submitted questions! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s officially been one year of The Rippah Diaries, or at least it will be on April 20th. Close enough for us. This week, we’re talking about the past year of the pod, what inspired us to get started, and some of our opinions that have changed with this rewatch of Season One and Two. We’re also going to turn the mic over to you guys and read some of the comments from YouTube and talk about our favorite moments on Instagram. And of course, no episode would be complete without some laughs, so we’re going to relive some of our funniest moments. Thank you all for a great year! Hope you enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the werewolf bite getting worse, Damon is ready to give up, but of course, Stefan can’t help but try to save him. The spirits in the old witch house reveal that Klaus will have the cure, so Stefan goes to strike a bargain while Alaric watches a sickly Damon. All goes well until Sheriff Forbes shows up with absolutely no plan and lets Damon out of the cellar. He immediately goes looking for Elena at the town square Gone with the Wind screening but finds Jeremy instead. Just as the two go into the Grill, Liz comes in, guns blazing, and shoots Jeremy, killing him. Bonnie and Alaric are determined to save him, so they take Jeremy’s body back to the witch house to try a resurrection spell. With the Jeremy drama as a distraction, Damon escapes again, and as he’s wandering through the square seeing visions of Katherine in 1864, Elena finds him and helps him get back to the Salvatore house. While Damon gets worse, Stefan tries to get Klaus to hand over the cure by chugging blood bags and embracing his true rippah self. Klaus finally agrees to let Katherine take his blood to Damon, and right before she arrives with the cure, Delena have so many tender moments and share their first kiss! So much to unpack now that Damon is going to survive, Jeremy is seeing the ghosts of girlfriends past, and Klaus has revealed his storage unit full of daggered Originals. But we’ll get to that in Season 3. This week: Season 2 Episode 22 | As I Lay Dying Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that Jenna has woken up, Elena explains to her that she’s in transition and Jenna realizes that she’s the vampire Klaus plans to sacrifice with the doppelgänger. With the addition of Jules as the werewolf, Klaus has all three goddesses needed to begin the ritual. With the sacrifice underway, Bonnie and Jeremy spend most of the night looking for a way to keep Elena human and end up binding Uncle John’s life force to Elena’s. Meanwhile, Stefan finally asks the question we’ve all been wondering: can Elijah really kill his brother? Elijah tells Stefan more Originals lore and reveals he wants revenge because Klaus threw all of his daggered siblings to sea. That’s good enough for Stefan, so the plan is on. As planned, Bonnie arrives right as Klaus becomes a true hybrid and starts a spell to weaken him just enough for Elijah to kill him. And just as Elijah gets his hand around Klaus’s heart, Klaus promises to reunite him with their siblings if Elijah doesn’t kill him. Bonnie and Stefan plead with him to go through with the plan, but Elijah chooses family above all else and leaves with Klaus. In the morning, everyone attends Jenna and John’s funeral, where Damon tells Stefan that Tyler bit him. This week: Season 2 Episode 21 | The Sun Also Rises Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s finally the full moon, which means Klaus is planning to break the sun and moon curse tonight. Elena and Stefan are willing to go along with the sacrifice and hope that Elijah’s magical elixir will bring Elena back to life, but Damon is not on board with that plan. In classic Damon fashion, he lashes out and feeds Elena his blood, almost guaranteeing that she will come back, but as a vampire that will hate him for an eternity. So Elena and Stefan go for a hike to spend one last human day together and talk about what Elena is feeling. Meanwhile, Klaus’s witches gather all the “ingredients” needed to break the curse by luring Tyler back to town and kidnapping him and Caroline. Eventually, Damon realizes how badly he messed up and spends the day trying to postpone the ritual for another month. After asking Klaus nicely if he would mind postponing, Damon moves on to Plan B: rescue Caroline and Tyler. The rescue mission is mostly a success, thanks to Matt “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” Donovan showing up, but Klaus is ten steps ahead: he knows to have a backup werewolf and vampire. So, as soon as Elena gets back from the hike, Klaus takes her to the quarry, where she finds out who the backup vampire is. Damon is confused why it isn't him until Katherine reveals that Tyler bit him during the rescue mission, so he’s as good as dead anyway. This week: Season 2 Episode 20 | The Last Day Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elena and the newly undaggered Elijah spend the day together so Elena can prove she’s trustworthy and so Elijah can tell her about the last time Klaus tried to break the sun and moon curse in the 1400s. Through flashbacks, Elijah tells the story of how he and Klaus met Katherine, and he makes three huge reveals about Klaus and the curse. We also see that Elijah has incredible chemistry with both Elena in the present day and Katherine in 1492, but I mean let’s face it, no one is surprised. Meanwhile, Jenna comes back to Mystic Falls only to find the Gilbert house is empty, and only Stefan will answer her calls. So, he comes over to fill her in on what’s been going on, only to find that Alaric/Klaus beat him there and is about to tell Jenna everything. Damon decides to go rogue while all this goes down, so he and Andie pay a little visit to Katherine, who is still trapped in Alaric’s apartment. Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, in the very last few moments of the episode, the witches put Klaus back into his body, and we get to see present-day Klaus. This week: Season 2 Episode 19 | Klaus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s time for another decade dance: the 60s. Klaus continues to possess Alaric’s body, and with help from Katherine, he is ready to act as our favorite history teacher and taunt Elena. As always, Elena tries to pretend everything is normal, which of course means she and Bonnie and Stefan are finally going to school. Klaus, teaching history as Alaric, lays eyes on his doppelgänger and uses the other students to tell Elena to save the last dance tonight. So of course, the whole squad agrees to go to the dance with the plan to use Bonnie as their not-so-secret weapon to kill Klaus. After posing as Alaric to learn all of this, Klaus plans to provoke Bonnie into using all of her magic, which will kill her. At the dance, Klaus gets Elena and Bonnie away from the others and reveals who he is. The girls get away from him and find Damon who comes up with a new plan with Bonnie. She goes to fight Klaus alone and before Elena can stop her, the lights explode and spark and Bonnie falls to the ground, not breathing. After the dance, Damon reveals that Bonnie faked her own death so she could stay in hiding and become their secret weapon again. Unwilling to let Bonnie risk her own life, Elena decides to look for another option. And what better person to help her out than Elijah? This week: Season 2 Episode 18 | The Last Dance Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After stopping by the Gilbert house to ruin Jenna and Alaric’s relationship, Isobel convinces John that she’s trying to help Elena. John is blinded by love and believes her, but Elena and Stefan are skeptical. Rightfully so, because Isobel immediately meets up with Katherine to tell her that she made a deal with Klaus to save Katherine’s life in exchange for the doppelgänger and the moonstone. Katherine is of course all in for that plan, so she goes looking for the moonstone and finds it stashed in Damon's soap. After Elena’s third kidnapping, Isobel reveals that she betrayed Katherine and that she was the doppelgänger Klaus wanted. Eventually, Elena and Isobel arrive at the cemetery where Isobel’s tombstone is and Klaus’s witch tells Isobel that her job is done and she’s free to go. Though Elena gets to go home and live her life, she and Stefan realize that Klaus is letting her live for now because he knows Elena will just go along with the sacrifice when the time comes. Not all hope is lost though: while Isobel was kidnaping Elena and betraying Katherine, Damon and Jeremy were helping Bonnie harness the power of the witches that were burned in Mystic Falls, officially making Bonnie their secret weapon to kill Klaus. This week: Season 2 Episode 17 | Know Thy Enemy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that Katherine has manipulated her way out of the tomb, she’s sticking around the Salvatore house to flirt with Stefan and Damon and antagonize Elena. And with Elijah now out of the picture, Stefan decides Team Save Elena should try to get Luka and Dr. Martin on their side, so he and Bonnie meet with the Martins at the Grill to plead their case. But Dr. Martin knows his best bet is just undaggering Elijah, so he astral projects Luka to rescue Elijah from the cellar of the Salvatore house. We all know how that tragically ends, which sends Dr. Martin on a rampage to find Elena. Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, and Jenna are having girl’s night at the Grill, where Caroline decides to pour her heart out to Matt by jumping on stage and singing with the live band. Thankfully, Caroline gets to finish her ballad before Dr. Martin comes through and nearly burns the place down. When Jonas is unable to find Elena at the Grill, he shows up at the Gilbert house and finds Katherine, which doesn’t end well for him. Later on, just when you think that’s a wild enough episode, Jenna answers a knock at the door that turns out to be none other than Isobel. This week: Season 2 Episode 16 | The House Guest Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Elena reads the Gilbert journals, she finds out about Stefan’s revenge on the founding families in 1864. Now that the truth is out, Stefan tells Elena about his ripper era and how Lexi brought him out of it. Meanwhile, Damon is desperate to get a chance to "talk" with Elijah—we all know what that really means. Andie gives Damon the perfect opportunity to “talk” by coming up with the brilliant idea that all of the adults should come over for a dinner party. This somehow comes together that night, but it does not get off to a great start: Jenna and Alaric are fighting, Damon is secretly plotting to use the dagger and white oak ash on Elijah, and Uncle John ends up crashing the "fun and games." As the dinner party is happening, Elena finds information in the Gilbert journals that throws off Damon’s plan. Eventually Alaric gets the chance to dagger Elijah, bringing the gathering to an end. Unfortunately, Elena didn’t finish reading the dagger chapter of the journal until later when she finds out it has to stay in the Original's body to be effective, which of course didn’t happen. Reawakened and furious Elijah races to find Elena to take her away, but Elena risks it all and manages to pull off daggering Elijah again herself. This week: Season 2 Episode 15 | The Dinner Party Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a rare cute Stelena episode, Stefan and Elena decide to avoid Uncle John and go spend the day at the Gilbert family lake house. While Stelena have their romantic getaway, everyone back in Mystic Falls is scheming. First we have Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy plotting to get information from Luka about the sacrifice by putting him in a witchy trance. Then we have John, whose version of scheming is just stirring the pot, which he does by hinting to Jenna that Alaric is lying to her. And of course, the werewolves are also up to no good: Jules and her pack have convinced Tyler to be on their side in the race to break the sun and moon curse. Unfortunately, the plan to break the curse entails Tyler and Brady trying to kidnap Elena while the other werewolves torture Damon to find the moonstone. Thankfully, Elijah makes another iconic entrance and saves Damon while Elena outsmarts Brady to avoid her third kidnapping. This Week: Season 2 Episode 14 | Crying Wolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a rare cute Stelena episode, Stefan and Elena decide to avoid Uncle John and go spend the day at the Gilbert family lake house. While Stelena have their romantic getaway, everyone back in Mystic Falls is scheming. First we have Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy plotting to get information from Luka about the sacrifice by putting him in a witchy trance. Then we have John, whose version of scheming is just stirring the pot, which he does by hinting to Jenna that Alaric is lying to her. And of course, the werewolves are also up to no good: Jules and her pack have convinced Tyler to be on their side in the race to break the sun and moon curse. Unfortunately, the plan to break the curse entails Tyler and Brady trying to kidnap Elena while the other werewolves torture Damon to find the moonstone. Thankfully, Elijah makes another iconic entrance and saves Damon while Elena outsmarts Brady to avoid her third kidnapping. This Week: Season 2 Episode 14 | Crying Wolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All of the worst characters come out to play in this episode. Uncle John returns and immediately stirs the pot with Jenna and tries to parent Elena. Meanwhile, Tyler confronts Caroline about lying to him about how many vampires there are and who killed Mason. Trying to do damage control, Caroline sends Stefan to talk to Tyler to help him cool off. Unfortunately, Tyler can’t bear to talk to Stefan and screams “help, help” into the phone when Jules calls. Jules retaliates by kidnapping and torturing Caroline, telling Stefan he has 20 minutes to bring her Tyler. When the trade goes down, Jules reveals her whole pack is in town and they all attack Damon and Stefan. The wolves almost overpower the Salvatore brothers, but fortunately Dr. Martin shows up and saves the day because of Elijah’s deal with Elena. Uncle John also shows up later with a “peace offering” for Damon and gives him a dagger with some white oak ash—giving Damon a way to kill an Original. This week: Season 2 Episode 13 | Daddy Issues Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Rose’s werewolf bite getting worse every minute, Damon asks Elena to play nurse while he tries to get a cure from Jules. Despite Elena's do-gooder efforts Rose hallucinates, attacks her, and escapes to cause chaos at one of the town’s many events. Just to lighten things up for a minute, both Matt and Tyler kiss Caroline, setting up a classic love triangle and Stefan is completely MIA on his own mission to find Isobel. Damon eventually finds Rose at the school and takes her home to give her a final moment of peace before staking her. This of course causes Damon to spiral even though he pretends that he’s fine in an epic laying in the road existential crisis. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Jules tells Tyler that Caroline is lying about how many vampires there are and Stefan returns with Uncle John. This week: Season 2 Episode 12 | The Descent Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s finally the first full moon since Tyler became a werewolf, and he is desperate to find Mason to help him through the transition. Thankfully, Caroline steps in and comforts Tyler through the whole experience. Unfortunately, the voicemail Tyler left for Mason is overheard by our least favorite side character, Jules. When Jules gets to town and starts asking questions about Mason, Damon and Alaric scheme to find out whether she’s a werewolf. Meanwhile, Bonnie traps Elena in the Gilbert house and gets Luca to help her despell the moonstone—or so she thinks. While Elena is stuck inside, Jenna helps “an author” research Mystic Falls, who turns out to be Elijah. Elijah and Elena then decide to strike up a deal: Elijah will get Stefan out of the tomb and away from Katherine’s mind games in exchange for Elena letting Elijah use her to draw out Klaus. Things are almost looking up when Jules decides to go after Damon while she's in her werewolf form and ends up biting Rose. This week: Season 2 Episode 11 | By the Light of the Moon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Desperate to save Elena, the Salvatore brothers plan to get the moonstone from Katherine with the help of Bonnie and Jeremy—not really a dream team. Elena wants nothing to do with their terrible plan, so she convinces Rose to take her to Slater’s apartment to find out more about Klaus. At the apartment, they find a very dead Slater and Slater’s vampire-groupie girlfriend who Elena manipulates into helping them. Elena then reveals in a very Katherine Pierce way that she also used Rose and wants to surrender herself to Klaus. Rose immediately calls Damon to come stop her, and shortly after Damon arrives, Elijah returns and saves the day. While all of this is going down, Caroline and Tyler check out the Lockwood cellar in preparation for the full moon and find Mason’s journal and a video of his transformation. Back at the tomb, Jeremy tries to go rogue and get the moonstone himself and ends up being held hostage by Katherine. Stefan goes into the tomb to save Jeremy and ends up trapped with Katherine, maybe that's what she really wanted all along? This week: Season 2 Episode 10 | The Sacrifice Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After Rose tells Elena that Klaus is coming for her, Elena goes to the tomb to give Katherine blood in exchange for the truth about the sun and moon curse. Through flashbacks to 1490, Katherine tells Elena about the child who was taken away from her, how she ruined Trevor and Rose’s lives, and how she turned into a vampire. Damon and Rose also try to get to the bottom of things by visiting Rose’s friend Slater, who is an encyclopedia of all things supernatural. While Damon asks Slater if there’s any way to destroy the moonstone, Elijah makes an iconic return that nearly kills Rose and Slater. While all of this is going down, Bonnie meets the new kid in school, Luka, whose Dad is very unsubtle about the fact that he and Luka are “warlocks.” Back at the tomb, Detective Elena realizes that breaking the curse requires more than just the doppelgänger and that Katherine came back to town to give her, Tyler, Caroline, and Bonnie to Klaus for the sacrifice. This week: Season 2 Episode 9 | Katerina Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.