The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 7 recap: Not so merry Christmas

Find out what happened during The Vampire Diaries’ final midseason finale, season 8, episode 7, “The Next Time I Hurt Somebody, It Could Be You”.

It is Christmas time on The Vampire Diaries. That means it is time to spend time with family, exchange gifts, and hope no one kills you.

The episode opens with Stefan determined to make the most of his last 24 hours of freedom before the devil comes calling. Luckily, his final day also happens to be Christmas, and Stefan has a plan to make sure it goes perfectly. So, naturally, it takes about five minutes for things to go horribly wrong.

It all starts when Alaric arrives with the twins. Per the conversation he had with Caroline last week, at the end of the night, Alaric will take Josie and Lizzie away until things get a little safer. But Alaric wants to move up the timeline and get out of Mystic Falls even quicker.

He tries to explain it is because he, along with Matt, staked Damon. But before Alaric can explain everything to Caroline, Damon and Sybil walk through the door. Damon lets a shocked Alaric in on one of the perks of being Cade’s servant. The boss can bring you back from the dead.

Which is good news for Stefan because Damon thinks his brother should have some one-on-one time with Cade. So, Damon stabs Stefan with a wooden Christmas ornament, and the younger Salvatore spends the rest of his perfectly planned Christmas party dead. It isn’t really a Vampire Diaries Christmas unless a main character in mortal danger.

With Sybil at the Salvatore house, Bonnie and Enzo are staying far away. Which means they are free to look for the tuning fork to stop Sybil. But how will they find it? Caroline has that covered by spiking the siren’s eggnog. Soon enough, Sybil is spilling her guts to Caroline, and Bonnie and Enzo know where they need to go.

But Sybil’s house is not empty. Seline is their celebrating Christmas with the mind controlled family that lives there. Since Sybil cut her sister out of the deal with Cade, Seline is willing to help to try and earn some good will. But first she wants to see the twins one last time. She left a magical impression on the twins, and she is the only one who can remove it. Naturally, Alaric is unwilling to go along with this. But by the end of the episode, Alaric lets Seline see the twins one last time.

It turns out that one of the siren powers is to erase the memory that one had ever met a siren, and this connects to Stefan’s time with Cade. Because this is The Vampire Diaries, Stefan seems to always have a hidden connection to the big bad.

Before Stefan’s time as the devil’s servant officially begins, Cade shows Stefan why he his excited for this arrangement. It has to do with Stefan’s ripper days, specifically Monterey, Christmas of 1917. As the audience learned in a flashback that opened the episode, Stefan killed a whole lot of people there, including kids. Only Stefan has no recollection of this event.

This is because this was the first time Stefan crossed paths with Seline, and it set in motion everything that is happening now. Seline thought that she had found the perfect soul to deliver to Cade. But when she looked into Stefan’s mind to see how evil he was, she saw how tortured and brooding he is.

Inspired by this vampire with a conflicted soul, Seline spared Stefan’s life, and was inspired to find a way to break free from Cade. Meanwhile, Cade realized how amazing it could be to have ripper Stefan working for him.

While Stefan is reliving his Christmas past, Damon is making the present horrible for everyone but himself and Sybil. He has a gift for one luckily person, a one way ticket to hell. The rest of the night will be about determining who the lucky winner will be.

Damon is mostly focused on Matt and his father, and why Peter abandoned Matt. Sybil is also interested in something that Peter mat know. She goes digging around in his mind for this information. But before she can get anywhere, Bonnie and Enzo arrive with the tuning fork. Damon quickly gets Sybil out of the Salvatore house.

Sybil suggests that this could be the beginning of something romantic between them as Damon was worried for Sybil’s safety. He responds by giving her the gift that Caroline gave him earlier in the episode, something with a strong tie to Elena, her necklace. One look at the necklace, and all of the memories that Sybil had buried come rushing back. So as Damon puts the necklace on Sybil, while thinking only of Elena, Damon rips out the siren’s heart. He leaves Sybil on a bench with her heart next to her, and walks away.

Back to Stefan’s walk down memory lane with the devil. They are in that halls of Mystic Falls High School on the day Stefan first met Elena. Cade wants to show Stefan that even if he doesn’t become a ripper, he could be very useful to Cade. By interacting with Elena, Stefan set her down a path to hell, and that is what Cade wants him to do now. Take the souls that are head in the right direction, and steer them to Cade.

That is Stefan’s unique talent, and why Cade needs him. Otherwise, Cade can just waited around until Josie and Lizzie are old enough to serve him.

With that alternative now on the table, Stefan offers up a deal to Cade. He will become the ripper again and serve Cade for a year. At the end of that time, Stefan and Damon will be free to return to their lives. Cade happily accepts this deal because he believes Stefan will not want to come back from being the ripper.

With the deal in place, Stefan returns to the land of the living. Just on time to spend seven minutes of Christmas with Caroline. Then he leaves to start his new life as the devil’s servant with Damon. As the Salvatore brothers leave Mystic Falls, Stefan flips his humanity switch to start his year as the ripper.

Caroline still has a little more Christmas to enjoy as she watches her daughters open their presents. But then Alaric comes it to sat that they will be leaving Mystic Falls very soon,

Bonnie and Enzo are also leaving town. It is Enzo’s Christmas gift to Bonnie, a trip to Paris. Complete with a magic tuning fork to protect against unwanted siren visitor. Too bad the noise also affects Bonnie – and the twins – hinting at a connection between witches and sirens.

But those answers will have to wait until after The Vampire Diaries returns from its winter break. Starting on January 13th, it will be the final nine episodes of The Vampire Diaries.