Tonight’s season finale of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES brings changes that could affect next season drastically.
Caroline (Candice King), Enzo (Michael Malarkey) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) have all tried to get inside the Bennett witch’s mind to reach the real Bonnie (Kat Graham) and get her humanity to override Rayna Cruz’s huntress instinct.
Instead, Bonnie was able to inflict the “Phoenix wound” on them with her mind so she could hunt them down and kill them once she regained consciousness.
Matt (Zach Roerig) kidnapped Bonnie and was driving her away from their friends. When she came to, she choked him with the handcuffs and was able to commandeer the car.
Alaric (Matt Davis) returned to Dallas to care for the twins, while Caroline and Stefan (Paul Wesley) took off for parts unknown to draw Bonnie away from the children.
Unable to gain entry to the magically sealed Armory, Damon suggests that the twins might be able to help them break into the impenetrable building by siphoning its power. Caroline and Alaric agree to let their Gemini twins breach the vault.
Ric professes his love for Caroline, but knows that she belongs with Stefan. He thanks her for carrying Jo’s twins and for their life together, but he wants her to be happy. Regardless of what happens, Ric reassures Caroline that they always will be a family.
Bonnie uses Matt’s Sheriff’s cruiser to outrun the other traffic and hunt down Caroline and Stefan. When it appears that they will be caught in a traffic jam, Matt grabs control of the steering wheel and causes the cruiser to crash, allowing Stefan and Caroline to escape.
When he comes to, he is pinned in the Sheriff’s car. To continue her mission, Bonnie leaves him to die.
The only way to stop Bonnie’s hunting instincts and restore her normal self is to destroy the final Everlasting in the vault, so Damon and Stefan go inside the Armory and find dead bodies that have been destroyed by the creature.
Finding that the Everlasting is locked in the vault, Damon insists on breaching the vault alone, opting to do the right thing and protect his brother.
Still under Rayna’s spell, Bonnie tries to kill Enzo, shooting him in the abdomen and stabbing him in the heart. She begs him to bite her so he can escape, but he is not strong enough.
As he is on the verge of death, he professes his love for her and begs her to forget her final attack on him… to hang on to the three years they were in love and the good times they shared.
Just as she goes in for the final killing blow, Damon burns the Everlasting in the Armory and the spell is broken. Enzo and Bonnie reunite, but Bonnie loses her magic.
After Damon kills the Everlasting, he calls Bonnie and Enzo to see if Bonnie is saved. While he is on the phone, he hears Elena’s voice and turns back to save what he thinks is Elena.
Enzo, having learned what is in the vault, fears for Damon.
Bonnie and Enzo rush to the Armory to save Damon, and Enzo sneaks away from the group and goes to save Damon in the vault. When the others are able to breach the vault, it is empty and Damon and Enzo have disappeared.
To their horror, they determine that both men have been possessed by powerful evil while in the vault. The group tracks them to the West Coast by charting increased numbers of murders and disappearances.
In a peek into Season 8, it seems that Damon and Enzo have returned to their wicked… so deliciously… wicked ways.
Matt, distraught over losing Penny and his friends, leaves Mystic Falls.
Many happy returns to Candice King whose birthday falls appropriately this year on Friday 13th.
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES guest stars Ana Nogueira, Lily Rose Mumford, Tierney Mumford and Andrea Laing. Michael Allowitz directed the episode, which was written by Brian Young.
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES airs tonight on The CW at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
