Damon and Stefan took some time off their murdering tour across America to head back to Mystic Falls on The Vampire Diaries' "The Simple Intimacy of the Near Touch." The Salvatore brothers returned home just in time for the Miss Mystic Falls pageant after Sybil called Damon demanding he bring her the part of the Maxwell bell he stole from Matt's dad. Sybil doesn't have control over Damon anymore, but he wants to get her completely out of his head. And, while some parts of his plan don't go as planned, Damon was able to turn on Sybil on The Vampire Diaries.
Damon and Stefan showed up at Miss Mystic Falls, as summoned by Sybil, but Damon wasn't going to follow her every order anymore. With Elena's necklace in his pocket, he's feeling ties to his humanity again, and even though he can't truly remember loving Elena, his connection with her gives him enough strength to fight back. Of course, nothing in Mystic Falls is ever that easy. During the Miss Mystic Falls dance, Caroline tries to give Damon a pep talk, telling him that his love for Elena was magical, and that he could fight if he held onto her. And then, Sybil cut in and teased his mind, telling him that if he did go back to his humanity, his guilt for what he's done — killing Tyler, etc. —would consume him.
In the end, humanity won, and Damon pretended to give Sybil what she wanted, and knocked her out instead. Unfortunately, Stefan arrived and took the bell part from him, but he did leave Sybil. The episode ended with Damon chaining Sybil up in what looked like the Salvatore basement. He wants payback, but it's not that easy. Sybil had one card left to play: messing with his mind. She gave him back his humanity, and the emotional weight threw Damon into a comatose state.
Damon's gonna need a lot to get himself out of this humanity-induced hole. And, short of Elena rising from the dead, it looks like Stefan is going to need to step up, ripper or not.
