Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
After the Other Side’s collapse, Mystic Falls remains surrounded by the Travelers’ anti-magic boundary. Elena asks Alaric to erase her memories of loving Damon, unaware that Damon and Bonnie are trapped in a prison world repeating one day in 1994. There they meet Kai Parker, a siphoner imprisoned by the Gemini coven after murdering his siblings. Damon escapes first, leaving Bonnie alone with Kai. Kai later returns, absorbs the boundary’s magic and kills his brother Luke in a merge that makes him the coven’s leader.
Bonnie eventually escapes, bringing back a cure for vampirism. Elena takes it, becoming human and recovering the memories Alaric erased. Caroline’s mother Liz dies of cancer, prompting Caroline to shut off her humanity; she forces Stefan to do the same by threatening his relative Sarah. Damon brings their mother Lily out of another prison world, hoping she can reach Stefan. Lily helps him recover his feelings, and he helps Caroline regain hers. Bonnie abandons Kai in Lily’s 1903 prison world during the rescue. Lily wants to retrieve the vampire siphoners she considers her family, who remain trapped in 1903.
Alaric and Kai’s twin Jo prepare to marry, but Kai escapes the 1903 prison world and attacks their wedding, killing Jo. He links Elena’s sleep to Bonnie’s life: Elena cannot wake while Bonnie lives, and tampering with the spell would kill both. Damon refuses to sacrifice Bonnie and decapitates Kai. The friends say goodbye to Elena, who is placed in a coffin to await Bonnie’s natural death. Lily discovers that Kai also brought her Heretic family back. A final flash-forward shows Matt patrolling a damaged Mystic Falls while Damon watches from above.