"Previously on "The Vampire Diaries"..." " You have a mother?" " I had a mom." "She died." "We loved her." "She was our world." "Our mother faked her death, left her sons behind, started a new family, and went out of her way to forget us forever!" "Who do you think gave Kai the idea to put" "Elena in that sleeping beauty coma." " Who?" " Lily." "You chose your heretics over Stefan and me every chance you had." "Please forgive me." "You're Either a Salvatore, or you're one of us." "You are wrong, Julian." " Aah!" " Lily!" "Damon." "Say something." "You made your bed." "Have a nice nap." "All she wanted was forgiveness, and you practically spat in her face." "She didn't deserve my forgiveness." ""The Phoenix Stone gives the sword it's power against immortal foes."" "When a vampire is stabbed through the heart, the sword acts as a magical conduit, transferring their spirit into this nasty stone." "Unh!" "The purpose of the stone is to punish vampires." "Every sin you've committed goes into creating your own little personal hell." " Unh!" " Stefan!" "I don't know what your hell will be, but I hope she's there." "Did you have a nice nap?" "Mother?" "Salvatore, help me!" "Henry!" "Please!" "You must help me." "Aah!" "Come, Henry." "We are getting you out of here." "Hi there, hero." "You've been out a long time." "Mail call!" "News from home?" "My brother." "Dear Damon, they tell us to only send good news, but I cannot." "The days grow darker in Mystic Falls and my heart darker still." "Valerie left and never came back, father drinks himself to sleep nightly." "As the anniversary of Mother's death approaches," "I find myself unable to sleep, paralyzed by a waking dread that I cannot shake and dare not name." "I wish you were here, brother, to teach me how to survive these endless nights." "Colonel, sir." "Lieutenant Salvatore." "I would like to request two weeks' leave to go home, sir." "You and every man out here, Salvatore." "No." "Request denied." "I fear my brother is in a very bad way, sir." "I would not ask if I did not believe he truly needs me." "I do not wish to shirk my duties." "If there is something you need done, I shall do it." " Anything?" " Anything." "Yes, sir." "All right, then." "I've got a mission." "Honestly, it's more of a chore." "For a chance to see my brother," "I will gladly accept it." "There's a farmhouse 12 miles to the east." "Rumor is there are Union sympathizers there hiding Confederate deserters." "Now, if these rumors are true," "I need those deserters arrested and brought back to me." "Consider it done." "Thank you, sir." "Thank you, sir." "Two weeks at home?" "Can you imagine?" "How grand." "I cannot wait to see my girl Olive." "She's a real peach." "You have a sweetheart, Damon?" "No, but I have to see my brother." "Damon, are you certain about this?" " About what, Henry?" " About the mission." "These men, these deserters we are supposed to capture, they are just regular fellows who do not believe in the cause, like me, like you." "It is true." "I could give a damn about this war, Henry." "To be honest, I only enlisted to please my father." "Well, then how can you be fine with rounding up men just like you?" "It is not my fault they deserted, Henry." "They made their beds, but now they're our ticket home." "Come." "Hello, ma'am." "Could you spare some dinner for two hungry soldiers?" "No." "Sorry." "I do not need to remind you that quartering is your wartime duty, not to mention the law." "Thank you, ma'am." "Hello." "We are your surprise dinner guests." "Should I check the upstairs?" "Yes, please." "Henry here's going to freshen up." "Clean hands, clean mind." "I'm sure you're not one of those families hiding munitions from the war effort, but orders being what they are, it is my duty to check." "I'm glad to see someone takes the warning about the devil and idle hands seriously." "We have a lot of fruit." "I see that, ma'am." "No, no, no, no!" "Kindly lay your gun down." "I do not want any trouble." "If you turn around and go right now, you will find none." "All we want is is to go home." "See, that is the problem." "I want to go home, too." "Aah!" "Unh!" "Ma!" "Agh!" "Unh!" "Unh!" "Oh, God!" "Oh, God." "Oh, God." "Damon..." "What have we done?" "Wait here." "Please, enough blood has been shed." "Lay down your weapon." "Please." "Mother?" "Hello, Damon." "You cannot be here." "You died of consumption." "We buried you in Mystic Falls." "Oh, my sweet, sweet son." "I'm dead, all right." "You saw to that." "You died." "I was there." "This doesn't make any sense." "But it's starting to come back to you." "This isn't real." "Your spirit is trapped inside the Phoenix Stone." "This really happened, didn't it?" "In 1863." "I got a letter from Stefan." "He seemed hopeless." "I just wanted to go home to him." "Even though I had my doubts," "I started to round up deserters." "It all went so wrong so fast." "Did you ever take responsibility for the incident?" "What do you mean?" "You and Henry covered it up and never spoke of it again." "How do you know that?" "Maybe it's time to give yourself up." "Why?" "For what?" "They were deserters." "They ambushed us." "I didn't come here looking to kill anybody." "You had your reservations, but you still marched forward." "So hell is being raked over the coals for something I haven't thought about in 150 years?" "Sorry." "You're gonna have to do a lot better than that." "The longer you keep your trauma at arm's length, the harder this is going to be for you." "Hmm." "I see, and this PTSD puppet show wouldn't happen to be, by chance, a ploy to get me to be remorseful for your pointless death?" "Because it ain't working, Mama." "This isn't about remorse, Damon." "It's about punishment." "Damon?" "Hey." "Please tell me you know who you are." "Damon, say something." "I know who I am, Bon Bon." "Good." "Means I actually got the spell right for once." " Ohh." " How do you feel?" "Like I just spent a day in the life of young Damon Salvatore." "A day?" "Damon, you've been dead for 3 months." "You sure you're ok?" "No desire to lash out or break anything?" "Nope, but you don't look so good." "I'm fine." "Just, uh, weak." "It took 3 heretics to successfully find" "Julian's spirit in that stone, and I did it solo." "Wow!" "It's not that I was expecting a parade, but where's my parade?" "Caroline's at Whitmore," "Alaric's at a lecture, and Matt's on patrol." "I'm sorry." "It's been 3 months." "I... it's not like..." "Time stood still." "I get it." "No offense taken." "Where's Stefan?" "You're gonna need another." "Where is he, Bonnie?" "When Julian stabbed you," "Nora stabbed Stefan, and I..." "I haven't been able to bring him back yet." "You're telling me my brother's still stuck in here and you brought me out first?" "That didn't sound even like a glimmer of a thank you." "Where is he, Bonnie?" " He's in his bedroom." " We have to get him out." "I will when I can." "Damon, it took all of my magic just to pull you out." "I don't care, Bonnie." "Now!" "You store him in the closet?" "He was just in here." "Well, he's not now, Bonnie, which begs the question how do you not see an unconscious vampire walk out the front door?" "Because he didn't walk out the front door." "Someone took him." "If Julian were in Mystic Falls, I think I'd know." "Don't you think you're giving yourself a little too much credit there, Donovan." "All I'm saying is the guy's not shy about making himself known." "Matt, if Julian scorches Stefan's body, we can't get him back!" "No one's scorching anyone, not yet." "Listen." "Julian left a note." "He's clearly luring us somewhere for a reason, guys." "Could always try a locator spell." "Bonnie, no way!" "You literally just dragged Damon out of hell." "I can't even believe you're standing right now." "She wasn't talking to you, mama bear." "Think you have enough juice?" "Uh, I guess we could find out." "Bonnie, you've been exhausting yourself every day for the last few months." "At least let me check the town surveillance tapes first." "You and who else?" "Unless the Mystic Falls police department's had a hiring surge since I was out." "I didn't think so." "Can you find him?" "See what I can do." "Drink?" "I'm 28 weeks pregnant." "Was that a yes or a no?" "What is it like inside your head?" "I'm genuinely curious because it must be wonderfully liberating to only see what you want to see." "You know what I'm curious about?" " Hmm." " Why the Phoenix Stone made my mother a character in my hellscape when it had so many other options of torture to choose from." "And this is why I begged Bonnie to get Stefan out first." "Well, why didn't she?" "Because logic prevailed." "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" "Nothing." "Blondie, you do not get to make this moment the only time you ever decided to shut up." "Tell me." "What am I missing?" "Look." "Ahh." "I don't know what you've just been through or what it's like in that thing, but the longer that you are trapped, the more your humanity gets stripped away." "Well, here I am all full of emotions." "The question is, why isn't my brother?" "Because we figured if you were gone too long you would come back devoid of humanity, hell-bent on killing Bonnie to revive Elena." "God." "Bonnie?" "The spell worked." "He's on route 29." "You go." "I'll take care of her." "Heh." "Ha!" "Damon." "You're alive!" "I was half expecting the, uh, cute witch or the, uh, pregnant blond, but..." "Well, you're just gonna have to settle for the ornery brother." "Right." "What's that putrid smell?" "Ah." "That." "Yes." "See, I was at a petrol station earlier, and I got a little bit carried away with the nozzle." "I'm afraid your brother is quite soaked." "Come on." "Sit down." "If you're not gonna join me for the meal," "I suppose I could just skip forward to the after-dinner smoke." "So do you want to talk about it?" "Are we really doing this?" "Yes, we're really doing this." "You know, I've never had the opportunity to share war stories with another stone survivor." "Come on." "How'd you fare?" "Tell me everything." "Gladly." "As soon as Stefan's home, soul sucked out of that rock, we can all sit and pop open a bottle of chardonnay, chat, and eat bonbons till the sun comes up." "Heh heh." "Hmm." "Perhaps I should start." "See, upon waking up in that wretched world," "I saw your mother..." "And then I killed her." "Every day for over a century," "I watched her die." "Every day for over a century," "I had my heart torn out of my chest." "Oh, it was complete and utter misery." "I had a slightly different experience." "Overall, I give hell one star for horror and two very disappointed thumbs down for clever use of parable." "So it didn't work on you?" "It was called hell." "Let's just say I had expectations." "I think you simply resisted." "Resisted what?" "You resisted facing the pain you so naturally and willfully push away." "Ha ha!" "Damon!" "It's too late." "No, Stefan!" "Yes." "This isn't real." "The pain is real." "The feeling is real." "As soon as you figure that out, you'll be one step closer." "Closer to what?" "Hi there, hero." "You've been out a long time." "Mail call!" "News from home?" "Dear Damon, they tell us to only send good news, but I cannot." "The days grow darker in Mystic Falls and my heart darker still." "Sir, w-what would you say if I asked for two weeks' leave to go see my brother." "You and every other man out here, Salvatore." " No." " I thought so." "What if I was willing to help you with your little deserter problem, for example?" "Well, now that you mention it, there's a farmhouse about 12 miles east of here." "Rumor is there are Union sympathizers there." "I'm on it." "Just to get the rules clear..." "I bring these deserters back alive," "I go home to see my brother." "Yes." "Yes, Lieutenant." "All right, then." "Two weeks at home?" "How grand." "I cannot wait to see my girl Olive." "She's a real peach." "You have a sweetheart, Damon?" "Yes." "No." "I mean..." "I got to admit, things are a little fuzzy right now, Henry." "These men, these deserters we are supposed to capture, aren't they are just regular fellows like you and me?" "Technically, yes, but I'm starting to think they stand for something much bigger now." "Of course they do." "They are protesting on behalf of their political beliefs." "That they are, Henry, but they're my ticket out of here, and I've got to bring them back alive." "Good day, ma'am." "Could you spare some dinner for two hungry soldiers?" "And before you say no," "I'd like to remind you that quartering is the law in these parts." "I also love pie." "Thank you kindly." "I'll go check the upstairs." "Please do not." "But there could be people up there." "There aren't, Henry." "Granny, I'm gonna have to kindly ask you set that knife down and stand over here by the table, please." "Please, ma'am." "You, too, kid." "I'm going to have to ask you all to stand here together by the table." "Damon, what are you doing?" "Trust me." "I got this." "No need." "We won't get to dinner." "I know you've got two deserters in the basement." "Now, no one has to get hurt." "We are simply going to take these men to our camp, and that is that." "Don't!" "Ma!" "Agh!" "Aah!" "Agh!" "Unh!" "No." "No, no, no." "Well, that didn't go well." "Damon?" "Oh..." "Don't worry." "I know who I am." "I also know you're not real." "What is that for?" "Ugh." "I'm fine." "I'm just weak." "You know, it took 3 heretics to successfully find" "Julian's spirit in that stone." "You did it solo." "Got it." "Good news is I know where Julian's keeping Stefan's body, so you can sit back, relax, and not have to worry about that locator spell." "What are you talking about?" "Oh, right." "Spoiler alert." "When you were working on me," "Julian stole Stefan's body." "I'm gonna go get it back." "That won't be necessary." "You're not supposed to be here." "Before you say anything, please don't hold it against Caroline for pulling me out first." "Never even occurred to me." "So is this the part where we compare notes, analyze the symbolism, convince each other that we're survivors?" "Well, to be honest with you," "I just lived 168 years of mistakes, grief, and pain on a perpetual loop, so I'm down to just skip to the part where we get drunk." "Cheers." "Cheers." "Why?" "What happened to you in there?" "It was just a gruesome Civil War saga." "Confederate flags, carnage, lots of lives going kaput." "So it got to you, huh?" "Some rock's obsession with my personal accountability in a wartime tragedy?" "Not particularly." "What?" "I mean, you didn't feel anything?" "Of course." "I felt a burning desire to get home to my sad sack of a brother so I could help him get over a girl he just met." "So the part with the innocent people bleeding out all over the farmhouse floorboards, that... that did nothing for you?" "I knew it." "You knew what?" "You're not real." "Unh!" "Ugh!" "Ugh!" "Sorry, brother." "Got to hit the reset button." "Unh!" "Ohh!" "Get your gun, Henry." "W-why?" "Because I'm starting to see a pattern, and you and I are gonna solve this little puzzle." "The spell's not working." "I don't understand." "It's like the stone is hiding his spirit." "Then maybe you should take a break, all right?" "You been trying all day." "She can't." "The longer he stays in there, the more damaged he'll be when he gets out." "And whose fault is that?" "You, of all people, don't get to lecture me." "Hey, hey." "It's ok." "We're all just a little bit stressed right now." "Let's take a deep breath, and we can start again when Bonnie's ready." "I don't get it." "We pulled Stefan out no problem." "What's different now?" "Because he's not ready yet." "When I was in there, I could barely remember who I was, and then I was hit with visions and tests, but the worst part of hell isn't what you're going through." "It's the sliver hope that you can actually get out on your own." "How come we had no trouble reuniting your soul with your body?" "Because eventually I submitted to the kind of suffering that just breaks you." "Knowing Damon, he'll do anything he can to avoid that kind of pain, which means we may never be able to get him out." "Two weeks at home?" "I can't wait to see my girl Olive." "Bet she's a real peach, and, yes, Henry, I have a girl." "She's in a sleeping beauty spell." "Long story." "So here's what I'm thinking." "Why today?" "Out of all of Damon Salvatore's greatest hits, this farmhouse kerfuffle was barely a b-side, and then I realized this is where it all began." "This was the first time I ever had blood on my hands." "I took that mission." "I gave the order." "Damon, I don't think you're well." "Perhaps your fever is back." "Maybe we should turn around." "I'm not sick." "The point is is that the weeks after the farmhouse massacre when I was crushed by guilt and self-loathing, do you know the one person in the world that I wanted to talk to?" "I don't know." "My brother." "That has to be the solution to this hell puzzle, too." "We find a way to get to Stefan." "We stop reliving this day over and over and over again." "Does that make sense?" "We are returning to camp." "I insist." "You are not yourself." "Do you want leave to see your peach of a sweetheart?" "Do you, Henry?" "Then follow my lead, Wattles." "I'm gonna get this right." "Hello, beautiful." "What a great smile you have." "I'm gonna need you, your daughter, and grandma to come out here on the porch with private wattles, soldier's orders." "Come on out, ladies." "That's right." "Thank you." "Right here, just right there on the porch." "Very nice." "Stay on the porch." "It's a nice day." "I know you're down there." "I need you to toss out your weapons on the count of 3, or I will kill your host family." "One..." "Two..." "Three." "That's good." "Now come out one at a time arms raised." "Ok." "Ok." "Hi there, hero." "You've been out a long time." "Let's try this again." "Ok." "I know you have a grenade." "This time, I need you to gently slide the grenade out to me first." "Next, I want your revolvers, and I want all this on the count of 3, or I kill your host family." "One..." "Two..." "Three." "Now come out one at a time arms raised." "Arms raised." "Damon..." "Unh!" "I'm really starting to hate you three." "Hi there, hero." "You've been out a long time." "Mail call!" "News from home?" "What did you go and do that for?" "Stefan, never write me again." "Mail!" "Hi there, hero." "You've been out a long time." "And if you bring the deserters back to me, then you shall have your leave, Salvatore." "Does the offer still stand if I bring them back dead?" "Hi there, hero." "You've been out a long time." "Mail call!" "Screw this." "Ah..." "Damon, where are you going?" "You know what the shortest distance between point "a" and point "b" is, Henry?" " What?" " A straight line." "To get out of this hell, I got to see my brother, so I'm going straight to him." "I'm deserting to Mystic Falls." "Really?" "Can I come with you?" "You know how you always say I'm a hero, Henry?" "I'm no hero." "Grenade!" "No way." "Come in." "We've been expecting you." "Well, this is different." "Where the hell is everybody?" "Keep your voice down." "I can see them coming in the distance." "Who?" "Confederates are hunting deserters." "They will kill you." "You need to hide in the cellar." "Ok." "This whole urgency thing isn't necessary because this isn't actually happening." "Damon, you are not hearing me." "They are here." "Get down to the cellar if you want to live." " Brother." " Well, well." "If it isn't the light at the end of the tunnel." "Pretty dark tunnel, this little slaughterhouse." "I can see why you never told me about it." "Was trying to protect your fragile emotions, Stefan." "You're the reason I took the mission to begin with." "You always have a reason, don't you, Damon?" "Brother, drinking buddy..." "Her." "Elena?" "You're gonna have to do a lot better than that." "Proving that I do bad things for the people that I love?" "This isn't about what you do in her name, Damon." "It's about what you do in her absence." "Shh." "Quiet." "They're here." "What the hell is going on?" "You don't get it, do you?" "You tell yourself that you're protecting Mystic Falls for Elena." "You convince yourself that you're keeping her safe by any means necessary." "You justify punishing Lily for Elena's sake." "Did you ever once think, "What would Elena do?"" "I never got a chance to ask her, thanks to Lily." "Ah, so you had to ask." "Is Elena's influence on you so weak that you can't tell right from wrong without her holding your hand?" "Where are you hiding him?" "Ooh..." "It's gonna be a long century, brother." "You know, I wonder if she'll even recognize you when she wakes up..." "What?" "The man who spit on our mother's grave, the man who lies to himself even now about what happened here today?" "What are you talking about?" "There's no one here, I promise you." "There's no one here." "Aah!" " She's gone!" " What are you doing to me?" "The mission went sideways." "Innocents died and you walking away with blood on your hands." " What did you want?" " I wanted my brother." " What did you want?" " My brother." "What did you want?" "I wanted my brother." "Stop lying to yourself." "Who did you want in that moment before you buried all your secrets, before you learned how to hide from your pain?" "I..." "I wanted..." "My mother." "Oh." "Well, it's too late." "Damon, Damon, can you move?" "Please." "Please." "You must help me." "Damon, Damon, can you move?" "Please." "Please." "You must help me." "Why?" "This isn't real." "Ohh!" "Agh!" "Pain is real." "Feeling is real." "Unh!" "Unh!" "Ha ha!" "Ha ha ha!" "You love this, don't you?" "I'm gonna die knowing my own son hates me." "Yes." "He does." "Why?" "Because you tried to take Elena away from me." "Ow!" "Aah!" "Aah!" "Oh..." "Aah!" "Why won't you help me?" "Please." "Oh!" "Ah!" "Why?" "Ah!" "Because you took the one thing that made me happy, because you weren't strong enough to leave your husband, because you got sick and left us, because you never came back." "Uh!" "Rrgh..." "I hate you because you could've come back so many times, but you never did." "I lost you the first time when father sent you away with consumption, and then we brought you back from this prison world, and then I lost you again to your other family, and now I'm losing you to death." "Three times I lost you." "Three times I had the chance to tell you everything I want to tell you, and three times I ruined it." "Oh, my... my sweet boy..." "There's still time." "Tell me." "Tell me what you want to say." "Tell me." "Mom, I'm so sorry." "I'm so sorry." "Give me a chance to make it right." "Give me a chance to let you love me, ok?" "No." "No." "No." "No." "No." "No." "No." "No." "We weren't done." "I got to get her back." "I got to get her back." "Hey, hey, hey." "Damon, Damon, Damon, Damon." "Hey, it's me." "It's me." "You're safe." "It's ok." "It's ok." "No." "No." "One more time." "One more time." "Send me back." "I know what do to now." "Damon, it's not real." "I know it's not real." "None of this is real!" "Unh!" "Unh!" "Damon!" "Damon, don't!" "Aah!" " Damon!" " Oh, no!" "Oh!" "Unh!" "Damon..." "Agh..." "I have to get back to her." "Uh..." "Why am I still here?" "It wasn't real." "This isn't real."