The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 11 recap: The devil comes to town

Find out what happened during Friday’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, season 8, episode 11, “You Made a Choice To Be Good.”

This week on The Vampire Diaries, the show finally ramped up the action. The cure came back into play. Cade started terrorizing Mystic Falls. There was a major death. Most importantly, The Vampire Diaries made it very clear that Bonnie will never get a happy ending.

Spoiler Warning!

Cade is now free to roam the world, and he’s not pleased with the work of his two newest servants. He frees Stefan from the basement and offers Damon a new deal. Kill 100 evil strangers by sundown, or Caroline dies.

With his humanity back on, Damon doesn’t want to kill anyone. He finds Caroline at the high school to explain what is going on and that he has a plan B. Caroline and new town sheriff Matt are tasked with keeping the people safe by getting them out of the open. Everyone was gather to watch the opening of a time capsule conveniently from 1790. Hello new mysterious Maxwell artifacts.

So Matt and Caroline take everyone to The Grill. That way Caroline can try to keep Matt safe by mixing him a drink with her blood in it. Now Matt can get angry, complain about how evil vampires are and that they ruined Mystics Falls.

While Caroline is stuck listening to Matt rant for the millionth time, Damon is putting his very stupid plan into motion. He tries to kill Cade. Only he can’t be killed and proves it by both setting himself on fire and ripping his own heart out.

Luckily, Caroline comes up with a plan to defeat Cade that is slightly less dumb: give the devil the cure. The one that’s flowing through sleeping Elena’s veins, and that Bonnie wants to give to Enzo.

Speaking of the couple, they’ve been tasked with getting the bring hell to Earth bell far away from Mystic Falls. On the way, they start talking about their happy human future. Bonnie even wants Enzo to start crossing things off his bucket list while he’s immortal. This includes driving a race car and sky diving. At this point it’s time to start worrying about Bonnie and Enzo because they are way too happy. That is never a good sign on The Vampire Diaries.

They make it to Bonnie’s safe house and Enzo can take the cure right now because this is where Elena’s body is being kept. But once Damon calls with the plan to use the cure on Cade, Bonnie has to agree that her happy human ending must take a backseat.

Back in Mystic Falls, Cade pays a visit to The Grill to check in on Damon’s progress. He must choose one way or the other because the alternative is to go straight to hell. After Cade kills three people, Damon starts bargaining for another way out. There is none because Stefan was offered the same deal.

The Salvatore brothers must choose, a hundred strangers, or his brother’s girl. Yes, humanity-less Stefan is on his way to kill Elena. So, congratulations Caroline, you will survive this episode because now the focus is all about stopping Stefan.

Earlier in the episode we see the younger Salvatore start a conversation at a gas station. Turns out she’s the real estate agent who sold Bonnie her safe house. When Bonnie ran into Cade at the coffee shop the beginning of the episode, he read her mind, gaining the location of Elena’s body.

Stefan has the real estate agent put the house in her name and then invites Stefan in, forcing Enzo out. Without another vampire in the house, it will be easier for him to kill Elena. But why exactly does Stefan want to kill Elena?

As he explains to a frantic Damon over the phone, she’s just in the way. Killing her will mean Damon will finally stop trying to turn Stefan’s humanity back on. Damon will never forgive Stefan for this, and Stefan will be free.

Stefan arrives at Bonnie’s safe house, and rips Enzo’s heart out. A horrified Bonnie breaks off a wooden peg from a coat rack to defend herself. Stefan thinks he easily has the upper hand. But Bonnie is carrying a syringe filled with the cure that was meant for Enzo. Once they realized Enzo couldn’t get in the house, the plan was to get out of dodge with the cure.

Instead, Bonnie gives the cure to Stefan. She then goes outside to cry over Enzo’s body. There’s a loud boom, and it appears Bonnie finally got her powers back. And now there are only five episodes left until the series finale.