Fansided

The Vampire Diaries season 8, episode 14 recap: Another surprising character returns

By Leah Smith

SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 23: (L-R) Actors Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder attend the 'The Vampire Diaries' panel during Comic-Con International 2016 at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 23: (L-R) Actors Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder attend the 'The Vampire Diaries' panel during Comic-Con International 2016 at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Find out what happened during Friday’s episode of The Vampire Diaries, season 8, episode 14, “It’s Been a Hell of a Ride.”

This week on The Vampire Diaries, Stefan, Damon and Bonnie confront Cade. Alaric and Caroline deal with their daughter’s going power and their fresh-out-of-hell homicidal uncle. All leading to the surprise return of a past villain.

Spoiler Warning! Seriously, final warning if you have yet to watch the episode.

The final season of The Vampire Diaries has featured some of the most powerful villains of the entire series. But as the show reaches its final two episodes, Cade and the sirens have been dealt with. Instead, TVD is going back to its villain roots. That’s right, the one and only Katherine Pierce is back, and now she’s running hell.

It all starts when Cade pays a visit to Damon while he’s recovering in limbo from Kai syphoning off all of his magic at the end of last week’s episode. Kai, ever the opportunist, handed Elena’s coffin over to Cade in order to stay on Earth.

But he decided to keep the only weapon that will kill Cade just in case he decides to go back on their deal. Of course the devil wants the one thing that can kill him back, so that’s where Damon comes in. If he can get Cade what he wants, Damon gets Elena back.

Seeing as this is a task to save Elena, it needs both Salvatore brothers, so Damon convinces an about-to-leave-Mystic Falls Stefan into helping. First thing they must do is find Kai. Luckily, CobraKai72 is using Yelp, and is easily found at a karaoke bar. Given how well things went between Damon and Kai last week, Stefan approaches Kai this time around.

Seeing as Kai can’t stop himself from killing people, he eventually stabs Stefan with the weapon that can kill Cade. Once the knife is in Stefan’s hand, Damon swoops in and snaps Kai’s neck. They drop Kai off at the Armory and then the Salvatore brothers go off to meet Cade.

Damon’s plan is simple, give the devil what he wants so he doesn’t hurt Elena. The problem is that Stefan has a very different idea about what is about to happen. He feels responsible for Cade being free seeing as he compelled Matt to ring the bell. So, the very human Stefan, who has almost died in every episode since becoming mortal, wants to kill the devil all by himself. After all, Kai informed the Salvatore brothers that killing Cade destroys hell, so what could possibly go wrong?

For a brief moment, it seems like Stefan may actually succeed in killing Cade. Alaric is helping by ringing the bell. With Cade weakened Stefan has the upper hand. But the tables quickly turn when Alaric gets a call from his daughters.

Cade is about to beat Stefan to death when Damon walks in asking the devil to honor their original deal. But Cade has a new idea, make Damon choose between saving Stefan or Elena. Seeing as all Cade wants is a soul, Damon offers up his own to save both Elena and Stefan. So, after Cade puts out the flames engulfing Elena’s coffin, Damon stakes himself.

Luckily, Bonnie sensed something was wrong thanks to her new psychic powers and raced over to help. She arrives just in time to fight with Cade for Damon’s soul. Just as it looks like Bonnie is fading, thanks to the telltale Vampire Diaries-character-used-too-much-magic nosebleed, Stefan shows up to stab and kill a distracted Cade.

The devil explodes, Damon’s soul returns to his body and it looks like the heroes have won. But their are still a couple more episodes until the series finale, so things somehow take a turn for the even worse before the credits roll.

In a twist surprising no one, Kai lied about what happens to hell when Cade is no longer around. It doesn’t get destroyed, someone else takes over running it and it just so happens to be someone from The Vampire Diaries‘ past.

It turns out that even in death, Katherine Pierce finds a way to get ahead. And now she is the new ruler of hell.

Related Story: The Vampire Diaries: Are the books a clue to how the series will end?

Other highlights from this week’s episode of The Vampire Diaries:

  • Locking Kai up in The Armory ends up being a horrible idea as there is magic everywhere for him to feed off of. He breaks out, snaps Caroline’s neck, and then tries to kill Lizzie and Josie.
  • It’s their call about Kai that makes Alaric stop ringing the bell. He then raises back to The Armory to confront Kai. With an assist from Caroline, Alaric stops Kai.
  • But he will not be going back to hell. Instead, Bonnie, with a little help from Lizzie and Josie’s Gemini magic, lock Kai in a brand new prison world. The karaoke bar from earlier in the episode, where he will now only be able to listen to the Spin Doctors.
  • The saga of Stefan and Caroline’s engagement continues. Stefan is no longer leaving town and he proposes to Caroline all over again. She says yes and it looks like they will be walking down the aisle next week.
  • Alaric has a new career goal, to open a school for his daughters and kids so they can learn to use their magic. And he wants Caroline to help him run it. Maybe the school is what brings Alaric to The Originals. Hope was already pretty powerful as a baby so perhaps she will be one of Alaric’s students.