Review: The Vampire Diaries 5.22 - “Home”

We’ve all experienced intense season finales of The Vampire Diaries before, but it goes without saying that this one was by far the most difficult.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

The episode opens with an incredibly distraught Caroline sitting beside the body of Stefan Salvatore waiting for Elena and Damon to show up and come up with a plan to bring him back from the other side. While their wheels spin to come up with something, Stefan is reunited with his best friend, Lexi, who has been waiting for him on the other side. Unfortunately, the other side is crumbling and taking multitudes of dead supernatural folk with it.

Back in the land of the living, or, well, the undead, Damon has devised a plan to take down Marcos and the Travelers once and for all…he is going to blow up Mystic Falls. They want to pull off the same stunt Marcos pulled to get back from the other side in the first place, walk straight through the anchor one, Bonnie Bennett. This isn’t going to be easy considering their one hope of doing such a spell was already sucked into oblivion. Not to fear, Enzo is here to save the day and has found a Traveler who knows the spell, just one trouble, said Traveler is Silas. Of course, once Silas is of no further use to her, Bonnie allows the crumbling other side to take him. Pay back’s a b***h Silas! So long you psychopath!

The gang has devised a plan to trap the Travelers at the Mystic Grille and literally blow the place up with them inside. With the help of Liz Forbes, the plan is put into motion, but the explosion must be set off by an outside source and Damon has volunteered. However, his girlfriend, Elena is not about to let him go out alone and joins him on the suicide mission with the knowledge that if it works Bonnie will be able to bring them back to the land of the living.

One by one, friends who have crossed over pass back to the other side, including Tyler, who as it turns out is no longer a hybrid. However, Damon is nowhere to be found, but Bonnie isn’t about to let Elena wait there for him. Meanwhile, Stefan inadvertently touches Bonnie forcing him back from death into being once again undead and in a true hero’s move, Lexi sacrifices herself to rid the world of Marcos once and for all.

Damon finally emerges and isn’t alone, Alaric is with him and before they lose him again, Bonnie grabs the history teacher and brings him back to life (squee!!). But, in what could quite possibly go down as the most unimaginable moment of the show’s history, the spell is stopped leaving Damon Salvatore stuck on the other side for all intents and purposes, dead.