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In tonight’s mid-season finale of The Vampire Diaries, the gang heads to homecoming – the perfect cover for their plot to rid Mystic Falls of Klaus for good.

Stefan (Paul Wesley) makes the phone call that Klaus (Joseph Morgan) has been waiting for for the last thousand years – Michael (Sebastian Roche) is dead.  In order to beat the compulsion, Elena is forced to actually stab Michael with a dagger covered in ash from the ancient white oak tree.  The word of Stefan and Rebekah (Claire Holt) is enough to lure Klaus home.

With Klaus on his way back to Mystic Falls, the plan is falling into place..or so it seems.  Damon (Ian Somerhalder) and Elena (Nina Dobrev) prepare for the worst, leaving nothing to chance.

Rebekah and Michael have a tear-jerking reunion.  Even though she knows the truth about her mothers death, it appears she still places the blame on her father for making them the way they are: vampires.

Stefan pushes Elena’s buttons with some witty repertoire: “If I look at your track record at high school dances it’s pretty tragic. With my luck you’ll go out and get yourself murdered by the homecoming queen.”  This scene was more than amusing.  The dynamic between Stefan, Damon, and Elena still keeps the plot interesting – even if the brothers have switched roles.

Caroline (Candice Accola) and Tyler (Michael Trevino) aren’t seeing eye to eye on the issue of blood drinking.  It might be trouble in paradise in a major way.

Elena stops by to offer Rebekah some words of encouragement, and an olive branch – her mother’s necklace.  Rebekah admits that this is her first high school dance and is a bit emotional.  She pleads with Elena to not trust Michael and is obviously torn about her role in the plot to kill her brother.  After a brief girl moment, Elena responds with a dagger in Rebekah’s back – looks like Elena’s willing to get her hands dirty if it means taking down Klaus.

Elena’s moment of bravery triggers her to question herself as the weak link in the plan.  Damon comforts her, but it looks like he might have another plan up with sleeve that would keep Elena out of the picture all together.

The dance is conveniently relocated to Tyler’s estate after a water pipe bursts in the gym.  It turns out the dance is really a wake thrown by Klaus to celebrate the demise of his greatest enemy, but his trust hasn’t improved much.  He brought along his hybrid fan club to make sure the party doesn’t turn into a dud.  When Tyler is brought into the loop, his first instinct is to get Caroline out safely and the only way he can think of – stabbing her with a vervain dart. Ouch!

When the guest of honor, Michael, shows up alive – or undead sans staked – Klaus doesn’t seem phased.

Damon already took at anyone that might be a kink including his own dear brother.  Michael compels the hybrids to stand down and the plan moves ahead.  The long awaited confrontation between Michael and Klaus is climatic, complete with tears from the estranged son.  In another twist, Michael stabs Elena following through on his threat to end the hybrid line.  But hold your tears, we have once again been doppelganged: Elena isn’t even at the party, instead Katherine pulls off another convincing act – one that Michael didn’t even see coming.

Klaus is sufficiently distracted, enough so that Damon is almost able send him packing for good.  He is interrupted by a very motivated Stefan who tackles his brother long enough for Klaus to end his own fight, taking his own personal revenge on his father once and for all.

Later we find out that Stefan interferring in the plan was all to save his brother.  Sir Stefan comes through again for big brother, and in his victory, he gains his freedom from Klaus.  But that’s not where this tale ends, Stefan decides to take his own sweet revenge for what Klaus has put him through.  When Klaus looks to leave town and reunite his family, now safe from their vampire hunter father, he comes up empty – literally.

Stefan has emptied the truck of all the coffins that contain the temporarily lifeless bodies of the original family and hidden them, sparking an anger from Klaus that we’ve never seen before.

We’ll have to wait until Thursday, January 5, 2012 to see how this new battle plays out, but I’m guessing now that the tables are turned and Stefan has himself some decent leverage, things might be more interesting this time around.

The bigger question is, now that Stefan has found his humanity lingering, how long before things start getting heated in the Stefan-Damon-Elena love triangle?

What do you think?