"Previously on The Vampire Diaries..." "Whatever's inside that vault, promise me you won't set free." "We need to know exactly what we're dealing with so we can fight it." "You can't fight it." "Do I even want to know?" "Will it deter you from going in?" "Nope." "Then, no, you don't." " I can help you." " I need you to let me go." "Dear Elena, we were so close." "Stefan and I had finally worked through our problems." "Bonnie and Enzo were on the verge of being happy." "And then it all changed." " Damon." " Elena?" " Where are you?" " Right here." "It only hurts at first." "Then after that, it's kind of fun." " I'm worried about Bonnie." " Enzo!" "She lost the two people closest to her." "And she can't even do a locator spell to find them." "Her magic never came back." "It was three months before we heard the first rumor." "A string of missing persons on the West Coast." "But then the numbers kept growing." "It's them." "I know it." "Never gets old, does it?" "Well, it sure as hell hasn't yet." "Why do you drag me to these dumb superhero movies?" "There's too many." "I can't keep track of who's who." "Their names and their outfits and who flies and who turns to ice, who poops fire... it's too much." "Well, that's why you have me." "Okay, well, now we're on overload." "I'm done." "Then I'm done with your dystopian teen crap movies." "We don't need them either." "Okay, fine, maybe I'll do one more superhero." "You know, to be honest," "I'm just glad the whole vampire craze is over." "Ugh." "Watch out!" "What the hell?" "I almost hit that guy." "What's he doing in the middle of the road?" "Look out!" "He's dead." "Oh, no... no." "First of all, let me applaud you on your quick reflexes." "The way you just whipped by me, it was impressive." "What is this?" "This is what is known as a slow night." "I thought we'd go with the old guy in the road standby, and you almost got by us." "Yeah, maybe it's time we, uh, let this one go." "It hurts." "What do you want?" "We could use a ride." "It's the least you could do." "Come on." "I'll drive." "Okay, a little backstory because it's only fair..." "My friend here, Enzo, and I are the unwilling employees..." "Not really employees." "Yeah, more like slaves, serfs, lackeys." " Renfields." " I hate that reference." "We'll just call it mind control." "Our job is to bring the worst of humanity, the dregs of life, and bring them here." "So, between the two of you, who's worse?" "Come on." "Winner gets a prize." "What's the worst thing you've ever done in your life?" "I stole makeup from a drugstore once." "Some blush and lipstick." "Try harder." "What's the worst thing you've ever done in your life?" "I slept with my best friend's boyfriend." "That's a little better." "Eight times." "You're doing something wrong, pal." "So, what's the worst thing you've ever done?" "One time, I stole all my nana's pain pills and sold them for 50 bucks a pop." "While she was dying of cancer." "I think we have a winner." "What do I win?" "You get to die the most painful, excruciating death imaginable." " And me?" " We grant you mercy." "You'll die quick." "It'll be over before you..." "I'll deal with this one." "You do the honors?" "Of course." "This way." "Come on." "No, no, no." "Easy, my friend." "Oh, God, no." "Hey." "Stay calm." "Shh." "No use in making a scene in your final moments." "I don't want to die." "Yeah, I know." "And I don't particularly want to kill you." "But sometimes we have to do things we don't like." "What's down there?" "Don't really know." "You don't have to do this." "Please." "That's where you're wrong." "I don't have a choice." "Help... help me!" "Want to watch some TV?" "Nah, I was just gonna read for a little while." "All right, night then." "Night." "Dear Elena, for the next week, you'll be reading updates from me." "Caroline, Stefan and I decided that only one person should have to write about our epic failure at a time." "Believe me, you won't want to read three versions of the same sad story when you wake up." "The search for Damon and Enzo goes on and on, and we're no closer to knowing where they are... or who, or what, took them." "We promised each other we'll find ways to steal small moments of normal every day." "That's how we'll all stay sane." "But it's just you and me talking right now, and I need to tell you:" "it's hard." "It's the hardest thing I've had to do in my whole life." "Darling, your guitar playing would send Odysseus sailing in the other direction." "No idea what that means, but screw you." "Right." "Let me save you from yourself." "I broke it." "Have you really never read The Odyssey?" "Is that the one with Helen of Troy?" "Not quite." "Thank you." "How can you love such a terrible guitar player?" "Because one day you'll play like a Siren." "And on that day, I know you'll love me forever." "Why's that?" "Only true love can make you conquer your absolute lack of skill." "Come here." "And then she cut their sandwiches into the shapes of little hearts and stars." "With no crust." "That's cute." "Isn't it?" "I'm just saying, if Ric had hired the old lady nanny, then my kids wouldn't be wasting perfectly good parts of the sandwich." "Millions of people in this world go hungry every single day while our hot nanny is getting all sparkly with their food." "Sounds like you're worried she's getting "sparkly" with Ric." "Well, yeah." "He's running the Armory every minute he's away from Lizzie and Josie." "Sleeping on a futon and probably not eating full square meals." "Ooh, maybe... he's eating the sandwich crusts." "What I mean is, he's susceptible to hot nanny charms." "We need to look out for him." "You know, he's in a delicate place." "So what's on deck for today?" "Well, I'm going back over all the Central State" "Missing Person Reports for the last four weeks to see if I missed a pattern." "Great." "I will follow up with the local affiliates." "Maybe today will be better." "Yeah." "Bye." "Bye." "Stefan, they found a body." "All those people that we've been tracking, and now there's a body." "That's good, right?" "It's better than yesterday." "Daddy, when can we come to work and see your toys?" "You can come see the toys when you turn 18." "Will you put Seline on, please?" "Okay, you two, go get your swimsuits." "I blew through Caroline's Monday to-do list." "Anything else you need?" "Uh, just one more of you." "Any chance you're a doppelganger?" "Should I know what that is?" "Not even remotely." "Hey, one of my interns is summoning me." "I have to go." "Make sure no one drowns." "Got it." "You got something?" "We got something." "Come on." "Georgie and I have been playing around in the vault for a couple weeks now, trying to figure out how someone could get out of it without anyone seeing." "Now, she told me I shouldn't show you what we found until you tell us what supernatural thing escaped from it." "I told you." "It's just a theoretical exercise." "I've been running this place for only a couple months now, and I just want to know all about its nooks and crannies." "Right." "Mother of..." "Dorian, uh..." "We need to find a better signal." "Or you need to be less jumpy." "So?" "Did you spill any secrets?" "No secrets to spill." "I told you, this is just a..." "Theoretical exercise." "Yeah, got it." "So, are you ready for us to theoretically blow your mind?" "I think so." "All right, so check it." "Every little crevice in here leads nowhere, right?" "Just walls, dirt and dead-ends." "No one's getting out without a spoon and a hundred years of digging." "May I?" "So, my cousin had this thing where she lost her hearing and eyesight real young, but she became brilliant at finding her way around, because all her other senses were so heightened." "Which got me thinking." "Come this way." " There we go." " All right, now you're gonna let your fingers do the walking." "Go ahead." "Find your way out." " What is this?" " He's got it." "Yes!" "Yes!" "Dumped the girl." "Why?" "She could have been dessert." "You know the rules." "Last night was pushing it." "It wants real evil, not these lightweight losers we've been feeding it." "Yeah, you should get on that." "I'm trying." "Which is more than you're doing." "Hey, this is a really good book." "How long is this bad-guy slaughter going to last?" "How many more bodies will it take before this is over?" "It can hear you." "It can get into our minds." "It knows how I feel." "Well, there's no reason to go out of your way to aggravate it." "Do you have any control left?" "Me, I'm down to about..." "I don't know, two percent." "No free will needed." "I have flipped my switch." "Humanity off." "I'm on full cruise control." "I recommend it." "Oh, so you really have nothing left inside?" "Just my winning sense of humor and a renewed appreciation for chick-lit." "I'm sorry, did we wake you?" "When does this end?" "!" "How many more bodies till you're full?" "Yelling never gets you anything." "Try asking nicely." "Get an answer?" "Look, I know it's not much, but it's a lead." "I mean, all those missing people along the trail we've been following, and this is the first time a body has surfaced." "Probably because it has nothing to do with what we're looking for." "Yeah, well, I can't let myself think like that." "I have to treat every single clue like it's the one that's gonna lead us to them." "Stefan... every time we do this, I let myself hope a little." "And when we end up back at zero, my heart crushes in on itself a little bit more." "I don't know how much my heart has left, you know?" "Bonnie... no one..." "Not Caroline, not Elena..." "No one knows how to fight longer or harder or better than you." "If you give up," "I won't have anything left to hold on to." "Please don't give up." "Of course." "But... don't ask me to have hope." "Hope hurts." "I don't want to hurt anymore." "I can't believe you guys found this." "It's an optical illusion." "You can't see or hear your way out." "Your sense of touch has to be completely isolated." "Bananas, right?" "So where's the tunnel go?" "We don't know yet." "That's why you're here." "Unless you're, like... claustrophobic or something." "No." "No." "Let's just start walking." "Hey." "Hi." " Hi, girls." " Mommy!" "Hi." "Sorry we're early." "Oh, it's okay." "Oh, some guy named Pete from sound dropped this off for you a few minutes ago." " Thank you." " No problem." "You guys all good while I go grab a salad?" "Yep." "Enjoy your salad." "Bye." "She probably likes kale, too." "What's kale?" "You don't want to know." "What movie is that, Mommy?" "This is a work movie that Mommy's been waiting for." "The sound was broken, so Pete had to fix it." "All right, that is" "Aunt Bonnie's friend Enzo." "This is a movie about him trying to learn about... a magical creature." "And that is" "Princess Virginia St. John, who used to be locked in a tower." "And she's the only one in the whole kingdom who knows the secrets of the creature we're looking for." "But the princess escaped, and now no one can find her." "Now, tell me what it is." "Too loud." "Oh, yeah, sorry." "The movie's boring, Mommy." "Well, it's not boring." "It's just... broken." "What was that back there?" "I've never seen an archeologist afraid to explore a tunnel." "I am not an archeologist." "Come on." "You're practically Indiana Jones." "Yeah, that's the former me." "Before I had two daughters who expect me to come home in one piece." "Ah, the new me is an academic geek only." "Dad me." "I like to avoid dangerous situations." "Plus, you know, you've been doing this as long as I have, you learn that rarely is a secret tunnel just a tunnel." "Okay, watch your step." "Case in point." "Whoa." "What is this?" "Looks like a geek gold mine." "Excuse me." "Oh, come on." "It took me four hours to get control of the scene from the local idiots." "Now they're letting press past the tape?" "We're not press." "We're not anyone." "But tell us what you know." "Female victim, strangled, then exsanguinated, or maybe vice versa." "Brace yourselves, it ain't pretty." "We found blood on the grille, not matching her type." "Blood in the road over there, also not her type." "Her car is dented, like she hit a deer, maybe a mountain lion." "Or a person." "Teeth marks above the collarbone, ligatures on her neck from the wire." "That's not wire." "It's guitar string." "It's just a lot of empty land." "Farms." "The gas odometer only had three miles on it." "That's strange." "Maybe that means something?" "There was a news story about this area a couple months ago." "Some locals cried miracle when a nearby creek ran red with blood." "Turns out there's a slaughterhouse with a drainage issue nearby." "They closed it down." "How far from the crime scene?" "Exactly three miles." "I'll go check it out." "I'll call you back." "Tell me what it is." "Ugh, God." "Hey, I'm walking out the door right now." "Oh, no, no rush." "You're not late yet." "But have you heard from Alaric?" "His phone's been going straight to voice mail all afternoon." "I haven't, but I can try his office." "Hold on." "Is everything okay?" "Oh, yeah, fine." "The girls are playing hide and seek, only where they both hide and no one seeks." "Yeah, check their closet." "It's their go-to." "This is Brody." "Hey, Brody, it's Caroline." "I'm looking for Ric, is he around?" "Oh, wait." "Here he is." "Okay, thanks, just..." "Can you have him call me when he gets out?" " Okay, I will." " Okay, bye." "Yeah, Seline, he's okay." "He's just geeking out on the job." "That's weird." "You don't think the girls would leave the house, do you?" "Why?" "What's wrong?" "The front door just blew open." "I thought it was Ric, but..." "Caroline... someone's in the house." "Seline?" "Hi, Mommy." "Hi, babies." "Don't move, okay?" "Stay here." "Come on." "Come on!" "Good." "Dorian's bringing more work lights." "This room is wild." "I mean, anything subterranean should have evidence of erosion." "The moisture from the earth alone should have eaten through most of these artifacts, but everything is perfectly preserved." "Yeah." "Just like in the pyramids." "Oh, boy." "Except for that guy." "Whoever he was." "I wouldn't touch that." "Let's just leave everything alone." "I mean, if everything has been undisturbed for as long as I think it has," "I'd hate to expose these artifacts until we seal the space." "Your geek brain makes you super hot." "You know that?" "Uh, Georgie... don't think that I don't appreciate it, but I'm pretty much closed for business." "You know, it's just me and my kids and no distractions." "Dad you." "Yeah, yeah." "Exactly." "Well, that's a shame." "I had to try." "Sexy dark tunnel, magical room, et cetera." "Professor S, Caroline's been calling." "Says it's an emergency." "I just walked in." "They're still processing the scene." "It shouldn't be much longer." "What is that?" "Looks like candle wax." "Everything okay?" "I'm on my way." "Damon." "Stefan." "Hello, brother." "What is all this?" "What are you doing?" "Daily chores." "What was in that vault, Damon?" "What has ahold of you?" "Eh, it doesn't matter what has me." "Only that I've been had." "You should be proud of me." "Killing bad people." "Where's Enzo?" "Go home, Stefan." "We're all good here." "In a slaughterhouse?" "Surrounded by death." "It's who we are, brother." "It's who we've been for 160-some years." "I know you think it's still worth the fight to live the illusion of your heroic life, but I'm officially done." "You flipped your switch, didn't you?" "Always the quick one." "I can help you get your humanity back." "I know you can, and I don't want it." "I've seen how this ends, and believe me, humanity can't save me from it." "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about hell, brother." "Not the kind of hell that traps you in a stone." "Fire and brimstone hell." "I've seen it." "I met it up close." "Tasted it, touched it." "It's beyond its reputation." "You're not making any sense." "Okay." "You need to go." "It doesn't want you yet." "Walk out of here with your hero hair intact, and never come back." "Not without you." "Okay, so obviously this is a little bit awkward, but after a good night's sleep, you should wake up none the wiser." "The girls are in the car." "After dinner, take them for ice cream." "Be gone at least two hours." "Got it?" "We'll get some hot fudge sundaes." "Yeah." "Okay." "Wake up!" "I said wake up." "You have 30 seconds to explain why you came after my kids." "And then 30 more seconds to answer a few questions about that stupid vault." "Go." "You let them open the vault." "I told you not to open it." "Yeah, well, joke's on us." "15 seconds." "It has come for them." "No, no, we are not playing this game." "What is it?" "!" "What does it want with my children?" "!" "What?" "Oh, my God." "That's your tongue." "Don't do anything you might regret." "Think about Elena." "I'm trying to explain to you, Stefan," "Elena doesn't matter to me anymore." "Why?" "Because you flipped your switch?" "I ripped the switch off the wall." "There is no switch, Stefan, because there is no hope." "Every drop of blood I ever spilled, every body I've ever drained, every bad decision I've ever made sealed my fate." "My path and Elena's path, they're not the same." "Her great beyond is a decidedly happier one than mine." "Now for the last time, go." "I said no." "Get him in the car while I find Enzo." "We have to leave." "It's not safe." "We're not leaving without Enzo." "You need to leave now, Stefan, before Damon is forced to do something no one is going to like." "Let me go, Damon!" "Go." "Fine." "Let her go, and we'll be on our way." "Till we meet again, Bon." "Enzo." "Don't you two get it?" "You think you can win against this thing?" "You can't." "My life is over." "My life has been over for a century and a half, Stefan." "Since you took it from me." "Let's get out of here." "I tried to heal her, but she just kept bleeding out until she was dead." "I couldn't even get any information out of her." "One tunnel." "I decide to go down one simple tunnel, and instead of being available for my kids who are under attack, I'm out of range." "I mean, are we doing this all wrong?" "Should we just never leave their sides for the rest of their lives?" "I don't know." "We don't know how to do it right, clearly, or someone wouldn't have tried to assassinate our nanny tonight." "It's because we're divided." "I live 30 minutes away in a crappy apartment." "We share custody." "I'm just too far away to help you out." "You want to move back into town?" "No, I want to move in here." "Ric..." "I want us to be a family and a team, yes, but, we can't live together." "Okay, I didn't say I thought you should stay." "That's crazy." "This is my childhood home!" "Where am I supposed to go?" "You know exactly where you should go." "And you've wanted to be there for months now, but out of respect for my feelings," " you haven't done it yet." " Ric..." "Caroline," "I want you to be happy." "Okay, I want our girls to be happy." "And one of these days, I plan on being happy, too." "Look... we can't escape this life, Care." "So shouldn't we make sure we're at least living it right?" "You haven't said a word." "I know that was hard." "But that wasn't Enzo." "That wasn't Damon." "They're not in control." "But all those clues..." "The guitar string and the odometer Enzo left them for me." "I know it." "He wanted us to find them." "Next time, we'll get them back from whatever it is that has ahold of them." "Not 12 hours ago, you were telling me... have hope." "You were right." "He said it was my fault." "He's said it before, so I don't know why it hurt so much." "This time, it feels like he may never forgive me." "Maybe you were right, this morning." "No." "No, you were right." "You told me there was hope." "Now, just take a minute, pull yourself together and go find yours." "You really never read The Odyssey?" "Is that the one with Helen of Troy?" ""In the meantime, our good ship, with that friendly breeze to drive her, fast approached the Sirens' isle."" "Oh." "I think I remember this." "The Sirens lured the sailors into shore with their song before they ate them." "More importantly, this book is one of the greatest love stories of all time." "You're an incurable romantic, aren't you?" "When it comes to you, love, I would never stop fighting." "I would brave the oceans and sail past the Sirens to find my way back to you." ""Meanwhile, I took a large round of wax, cut it up small with my sharp sword," "I took all my men in turn and plugged their ears with it."" "_" ""Then they bound me hand and foot, standing me up by the step of the ship's mast and then lashing me to the mast itself."" "I am a fan of the homegrown art community." "You know, the wine is dreadful, but the people are nice." "You know, I couldn't help but notice in your work that you express a certain... inner struggle." "Darkness and light." "A burdened brain, if you will." "You really enjoy exploring themes of sin and redemption." "Hmm." "You're very astute." "Not many people in these parts get it." "True." "But you should know that there is no such thing as redemption." "Because it only takes one bad day, one bad decision, and then it doesn't matter what you do with the rest of your life, because once the devil comes a-calling you're done." "Amazing use of red, by the way." "Not every victim needs a monologue." "Well, we don't know that he's our guy yet." "It might be a misunderstanding." "See, here's the thing." "My friend here and I have a particularly innate sense of smell, not to mention an immense appreciation for blood, and we just couldn't help but notice that the red that you use, very liberally, I might add..." "Maybe a bit too on the nose..." "Has a very familiar scent." "Care to explain to my friend and I why you are indeed painting with human blood?" "And more importantly, what the hell did you do to the person you got it from?" "Go ahead." "Whisper in his ear." "What is it with Middle America and evil?" "Stay with us." "Don't say anything." "Enzo." "Little surprised by our family visit tonight." "I thought you said we were covering our tracks." "We are." "Well, then how the hell did they they find us?" "Beats me, mate." "You saw for yourself, it wants me in line, I'm in line." "It can get in your head." "And if it knows who you care about, or who you're trying to get back to, well, you know what can happen." "You may want to consider flipping your switch, because if you care for nothing, it can see nothing." "Come on, boy." "Dear Elena, it's not my turn, but I wanted you to hear it from me." "I think I've lost him." "All I can do is hope that there is one small piece of his mind tucked away someplace safe." "One final silver of humanity holding on for dear life, buried deep inside." "I know, Bonnie." "You're right." "You and my mom both are." "I just can't bring myself to tell him." "At least not tonight." "I'll call you later." "Katherine." "Um... no." "I..." "I'm Elena." "Elena." "I need you." "I don't know how much longer I can fight." "I won't give up on him." "But it's hard to hold on to hope." "Hope hurts." "Maybe tomorrow will be better." "Hey." "Hey." "Bad day?" "So, I've been thinking." "You alone in this big house." "I wonder if maybe... you'd like someone else to fill it." "That someone would be me, by the way." "Living here." "With you." "I mean, uh..." "I'm not trying to rush us, but if there's a part of you that might want that..." "He left me all these clues pointing to an old story about the Sirens." "You have a few more degrees than I do." "What do you know about them?" "There are different origin stories." "Uh, Greek, Pagan mythologies." "I mean, all the legends are based in the same idea." "Sirens use mind control to lure their victims to their death." "Some say they're messengers of the devil." "Something has control over them." "Do you think Sirens could be real?" "To be honest, Bonnie, I..." "I don't know what to think anymore." "I suppose every story has to start somewhere." ""They bewitch everybody who approaches them." ""There is no homecoming for the man who draws near them unawares." "...with their high clear song, the Sirens bewitch him..."" ""...as they sit there in a meadow piled high with the moldering skeletons of men whose withered skin still hangs upon their bones."" "How very poetic." "Not just poetic." "It's real." "The bodies I saw." "The clues Enzo left." "He wants us to know who the enemy is." "He wants us to help them fight it." "What is that?" "If I had to guess, I'd say it was singing." "Well, I guess she finally had enough to eat."