Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The force controlling Damon and Enzo is the siren Sybil, whose sister Seline is caring for Caroline and Alaric’s twins. The sisters serve Cade, a psychic who rules Hell and demands human souls. Damon and Stefan agree to replace the twins as his servants, and Stefan switches off his humanity to collect souls faster. Enzo resists Sybil’s control and plans a human future with Bonnie, but Stefan kills him while pursuing Elena on Cade’s orders. Bonnie injects Stefan with the cure drawn from Elena’s blood, making him human.
Cade threatens to claim Stefan’s soul, then forces Damon to choose between Stefan and Elena. Damon offers himself instead; Bonnie fights Cade psychically for his soul while Stefan kills Cade with a dagger. Katherine Pierce now controls Hell. Hoping to draw her out, Stefan and Caroline hold their wedding and exchange vows, but Katherine sends Kelly Donovan to disrupt it. Kelly starts a house fire with Bonnie and the twins inside; the girls siphon Bonnie’s magic to help them escape. Vicki Donovan begins ringing the Maxwell bell to bring hellfire into town.
Enzo’s spirit encourages Bonnie to return from a brush with death. She and the Bennett witches reverse the hellfire, destroying Hell. Stefan injects Damon with his cure-bearing blood, then holds Katherine in the fire’s path and dies with her. Bonnie later breaks Elena’s sleeping curse. Elena and Damon reunite and live human lives together, while Caroline and Alaric open a school for supernatural children. Bonnie leaves to see the world. After their eventual deaths, Elena reunites with her family and Damon embraces Stefan at the Salvatore home.