Strange things happen when there’s a full moon out, especially in Mystic Falls. (SPOILERS AHEAD!) This Vampire Diaries episode is the long awaited Tyler werewolf transformation. The whole affair wasn’t as isolated or painful as Mason cracked it up to be — especially with Vicki by his side. There’s also another werewolf in town, a she wolf named Jules and she’s looking for Mason. The storyline doesn’t reveal why, but it’s pretty obvious after a bar encounter with Damon and Alaric that she’s real serious about her search for Mason. She also mentions to them that they’ve been ‘marked,’ but it’s unclear what that means.

On the vamps front, Stefan is still stuck with Katherine in the tomb. In an Inception-like move, Katherine plants a dream of the two of them back together into Stefan. This prompts Stefan to demand that Katherine show him her good side if it actually exists. In response, she grudgingly advises him to recruit Isobel, Elena’s mother, to help him, Damon, and the others find Klaus.

Klaus we find out, is actually on Elijah’s shit list. Aunt Jenna invites Elijah into the home while Elena was stuck (due to a Bonnie spell). While Klaus wants the vampire spell lifted, Elijah on the other hand, likes being a vampire. He likes it so much, he makes a deal with Elena for her to not cause any trouble or attract any attention that will draw Klaus to her. In return, Elena negotiates that Elijah has his warlock friends release Stefan from the tomb.

On the witch front, Luca forgives Bonnie for nearly killing him the last time she tried to channel their witch powers to lift the tomb from the spell to rescue Jeremy. I didn’t buy this scene at all and knew that he was probably up to something. That ’something’ was fooling Bonnie into thinking they’d both channeled their powers together one night on a rooftop to destroy the moonstone. While in their witch trances, the moonstone burst into fireworks. However, later on in the episode, Luca returns the moonstone in tact, to his father.

The strange doesn’t end here as the full moon is present throughout the entire episode. Jules, the angry female werewolf from earlier, comes by the Salvatore home to swiftly take a bite out of Rose. Contrary to popular belief, a werewolf bite doesn’t kill a vampire right away. Rose’s bite wounds started to heal, then Damon and Rose start to get it on. (She wants a friends-with-benefits relationship with Damon, btw.)

What’s a Vampire Diaries episode without a twist? The twist/cliffhanger of the episode is that Rose’s werewolf bite wounds actually started to turn into festering boils. That begs the following questions — are these werewolves actually werewolves? Is Rose not a vampire, really?

And that’s the last episode before the winter break. Tune back in for Swan Diary Vampire Diaries recaps in January when the show returns January 27!