Possibly the best scene of this whole series aired on January 27, 2011 at 8:57 pm. Damon Salvatore finally admits his deepest, darkest secret of all…to an unsuspecting stranger, no less.

With an already heartbreaking episode wrapping up, Ian Somerhalder finally lays some of his best uigizaji on us thus far. All while having walking pneumonia, of course.

First I would like to say: Poor Jessica. She stops when she sees Damon lying in the middle of the road, drunk, pulls out her cell phone and prepares to call for help. Little did she know, she was alone in the middle of the night with a vampire with some serious emotional issues. I feel terrible for her because she seems like a nice girl, which as we all know, never get off alive if Damon is around.

And it doesn’t get better from there. He proceeds to spill his guts to her, telling her that he has a secret, one so buried deep inside of him that, clearly, he has never confronted until now: he misses humanity. Admitting this to himself, and consequently Jessica, finally puts him over the edge. He realizes that there is nothing zaidi that he wants in the world than to be human again. He has been forcing himself to believe that he can’t be, that he’s not supposed to be, now that he’s a vampire.

In the midst of Damon’s confession, we also get to see the side of him that is still in upendo with Elena. He tells Jessica that he can’t be “what she wants” him to be, confirming the feeling that he has no chance at winning Elena over, which only brings zaidi crying and sadness.

After admitting his secret to Jessica, he has to make his choice. He can either fight what he is now and let Jessica go free, au revert to his old ways and kill her on the spot. Things are looking up for Jessica when he decides to let her go. But, knowing full well what he is and who he is, he comes to the conclusion that he has to kill her. After all, all he’s got is trouble. (Cue Damon-trouble-music.)

I must say that I have never been zaidi impressed with the uigizaji on The Vampire Diaries until now. Ian Somerhalder knew just when to say his lines, emphasizing just the right words. It’s amazing to think that he did all of this while he was sick. Could the man be any zaidi talented? I would also like to congratulate Ahna O’Reilly on a job well done as well. This has to be the greatest scene of the series. (And a quick “nice job” to the crew for ending the episode on the line of “Who’s next” in the song playing throughout the scene, indicating that Jessica may only be the first victim in evil Damon’s return.)

While there are several other cry-worthy moments in this episode, the final scene definitely takes the cake. I would like to guarantee the writers and actors that there is no way there was a dry eye amongst the women that upendo this show. Well done, everyone.