Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
With Elena magically asleep, Damon and Bonnie face Lily Salvatore and the Heretics. Lily’s reunion with Julian exposes his brutal history with Stefan and Valerie. Lily stakes herself hoping their linked lives will make Julian die too, unaware the link has already been broken; Julian survives. Alaric tries to resurrect Jo with the Phoenix Stone, but it puts another vampire’s soul into her body. Caroline discovers that the Gemini coven transferred Jo and Alaric’s unborn twins into her, and she gives birth to Josie and Lizzie.
The Phoenix Sword traps Damon and Stefan in the stone’s tormenting visions before they are freed. Stefan and Valerie kill Julian, but vampire hunter Rayna Cruz marks Stefan with her sword and pursues him. Damon learns that killing Rayna permanently would also kill every vampire she has marked. Stefan goes on the run; three years later, Caroline and Alaric raise the twins while Bonnie and Enzo are a couple. Pills Bonnie takes to hide from the Armory are poisoning her. Rayna gives Bonnie her remaining life to save her, but also transfers her compulsion to hunt vampires.
Damon enters the Armory vault and burns the last Everlasting’s body, breaking the link sustaining Bonnie’s curse. Freed from her hunting instinct, Bonnie reunites with Enzo. Damon then hears Elena’s voice inside the vault and follows it despite warnings; an unseen presence overpowers him and takes Enzo when he tries to help. Three months later, the vault is empty and reports link the men to a trail of missing people. Caroline and Alaric end their engagement, and Caroline reunites with Stefan, while the others search for Damon and Enzo.