Rayna’s Lives
Rayna emerges from the ashes again. She returns to Mystic Falls just in time to save Matt and Penny’s lives. They have spent the last three days getting rid of vampires and flirting, but Julian’s guys have finally onto them. Rayna kills the pack of vampires trying to kill them so they owe her.
They return the favor by helping her torture vampires at the Grill. She is trying to find Stefan, but no one knows. Damon walks in and says he can help. But instead he takes her out. Matt shoots her and Damon rips out her heart while Penny looks on confused. She thought all vampires were bad, but Matt explains that some are his friends. Penny says it’s his fault that Mystic Falls is ruined. He has to pick a side.
Stefan is on the run with Valerie after leaving New Orleans. They head to a witch garden where they will find herbs to make more paste which will conceal his huntress mark. But when they get there they find the herbs are all gone. A lady with a burned face tells them someone came before and took them all. Since the herbs are dangerous to witches, they eliminated them from earth except for this stash. Now that the herbs are gone, there’s no hope of Stefan making more paste. So Stefan and Valerie go back on the run. He calls Caroline to see if she wants to join him, but she tells him Alaric needs her in Dallas.
After ripping out Rayna’s heart, Damon cuts her into pieces and tosses her down a well. He is sitting nearby when she rebirths herself. He thinks he can change her huntress nature.
Bonnie is at the Armory getting information. Alex St. John apologizes to Bonnie for what Enzo did and tells her they want to work with her. She shows her the lair where the eight shamans who took their lives for Rayna are. Bonnie points out that there are only three “Everlastings”. The rest just look dead. Enzo tells Bonnie that these represent Rayna’s live. Every time she is reborn, a shaman dies. Bonnie texts Damon this information, so Damon kills Rayna again. But as soon as Enzo sees another Shaman die he tells Bonnie that once Rayna’s last life is spent, everyone marked dies too.
Bonnie calls Damon to tell him about what she learned. Damon has buried Rayna so she would suffocate and die for the last time. He rushes back and digs her up, but she is already died. Stefan’s mark is spreading and killing him while Valerie tries to get the magic out, but it doesn’t work. Damon uses CPR and is able to revive Rayna. Rayna tells Damon she will give a head start, he wants to talk about the man in her life she had hinted at earlier. He was a vampire and she ended up staking him. She’s about to stake Damon when Armory people come and shoot her with tranquilizer darts.
Damon’s Plan
Stefan comes back to town thinking Rayna is dead, but Damon tells him that she is captured and that she can’t die because he would die too. Damon gives him a letter and decides to desiccate for the next 60 years. Stefan tries to talk him out of it, but Damon has made his mind up.
Matt tells Stefan he’s taking the town back and that all vampires need to leave. He has footage of everyone doing non-human things that he will share with the world. Stefan gets into the car and drives to Dallas and watches Caroline, Alaric and the twins looking like a nice family. He gets back into the car and leaves with Valerie.
Damon heads to Brooklyn after leaving a note for Alaric. He’s in the space with Elena about to get into his own coffin when Bonnie shows up. Enzo told her what he is doing and she is livid. She isn’t okay with his decision because if he stays in the coffin until Elena wakes, that means he is there until she dies. Bonnie is losing her best friend and he couldn’t even say it to her face. He tries to explain, but she stops him and walks away. He climbs into the coffin and closes it.
Three Years Into The Future
We see all the future clips we’ve seen over the past episodes and skip to Stefan tied up in Dallas. Rayna is there saying she is tired now that she has caught him, but she doesn’t take credit. She wants to know who he came for, Caroline or Damon. She tells Stefan there’s a Plan B. She can transfer the mark to someone more deserving. She says it should have been Damon all along. She tells Stefan to chose who dies: himself or Damon. And it all seems to be Damon’s idea.