Trama

When Stefan and Elena escape from Markos' control, only to find themselves Stranded in a remote location, Stefan gets philosophical with Elena about her relationship with Damon. After their attempt to protect the doppelgangers goes badly, Liv and Luke come up with a dangerous new strategy. Damon recruits Matt and Jeremy to help him set a trap for Markos, who turns out to have a devastating surprise of his own. Bonnie finally admits to Caroline that she's been keeping the truth about the Other Side from everyone. Finally, while Bonnie searches desperately for a way to stop Markos, Caroline is witness to an unthinkable act of violence by one of the Travelers.—Anonymous

Damon uses the bodies of the villagers taken over by travelers to lure Markos to the Salvatore home, with unsatisfactory result. Caroline still desperately tries to free Tyler from his possession, but even Traveler Julian who took him over may be an ally as Markos ruthlessly sacrifices his own, and his wife Maria actually helps Stefan and Elena escape. Luke and Liv, judged failures by the Elders, have new orders to save witchcraft: no longer protecting the doppelgangers but killing one so as to sabotage Markos's spell, which is already being launched by his following and expected to spread from Mystic Falls. As it breaks down the other side, Enzo overhears Bonnie admitting to Jeremy that she knows no spell to stop that, only to come up with a plan when a crucial ingredient becomes unavailable.—KGF Vissers

Damon wakes up a Traveler passengered in a guy named Sykes. Stefan and Elena are missing and Damon wants answers. If the Travelers break the witch curse so they can settle, it also reverses the witch's spell that created vampires and they all die. Damon ungags the Traveler long enough for him to say there's nothing they can do to stop Markos.

Elsewhere, Markos slowly bleeds Stefan and Elena.

Markos checks on Elena, but someone unseen goes to free Stefan, telling him to run. He finds Elena.

Stefan calls Damon from a payphone in the middle of nowhere. They've been missing for four days. Markos has enough of their blood to do who knows what.

Damon gets off the phone and gets a knife in the chest from ghost Enzo, reminding Damon to keep his promise to bring him back. Damon points out to Bonnie that he's busy with Markos, so he suggests she get Liv to include Enzo in her spell to save Bonnie from the collapse of the Other Side. Bonnie doesn't get a chance to tell her there is no such thing because Damon leaves on an errand with Jeremy.

Meanwhile, on a country road somewhere, Stefan and Elena are weak and don't know where they are. Stefan tells Elena that Damon sounded ready to save the world. When she says she likes that Damon, Stefan tells her that there are different rules for vampires and difficult relationships and if she and Damon want to be together, they should be together.

At a diner, Liv tells her brother that their coven is pissed at them for not keeping Stefan and Elena from the Travelers. They only have on option to keep their magic -- kill Stefan and Elena.

In Mystic Falls, a passegered Traveler brings a woman named Pam Douglas a vial of blood. When her husband asks why she's not herself lately, she explains she's really a guy named Karl. Then she stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors.

Stefan and Elena finally see a car coming. It's Maria, the Traveler who freed them.

Back at Casa di Salvatore, Damon oversees Matt and Jeremy carrying in "Traveler husks," the unconscious bodies of the passengered Travelers.

"Markos left them in a cave, I'm hoping he wants them back," Damon says.

When Damon is dismissive of passengered Tyler, chained up in the basement, Caroline accuses him of just being grumpy over Elena. "Keep your torture-happy hands off of Tyler until I figure something out. I don't abandon the people I love," Caroline snaps.

Maris is looking for Julian, who is permanently passengered in Tyler. She's hoping to get to him before Markos gets very far with his spell, which will strip away magic layer by layer.

Caroline talks to Julian-in-Tyler in the basement. He explains that Markos wants to destroy the witches' magic to restore the balance.

Markos goes down in the cave looking for his people and finds a note from Damon instead.

He shows up in Damon's house later.

Caroline goes to Bonnie to suggest that Tyler could hitch a ride on her spell, too. Bonnie finally fesses up that she made it up, there is no spell.

At Damon's house, Markos seems unconcerned about the fates of his people. He stabs one in the neck to prove his point, telling Damon he doesn't care if they get back in their original bodies. He explains that Travelers are everywhere and are willing to die for a better life. Markos explains that after they perform the spell and it ripples out from Mystic Falls, only Traveler magic will remain -- everywhere.

Damon tries to rush Markos and gets flipped for his troubles. Markos has transfused himself with doppleganger blood, so Damon isn't strong enough to stop him.

Chanting begins around town and passengers take out vials of blood and crush them. Maria is warning Damon and Elena to stay hidden when their truck nearly runs into Liv and Luke, standing in the street.

They use magic to fling the truck around. When Stefan and Elena stumble out of the truck, the magic twins explain one of them has to die to make the doppleganger blood useless.

Enzo confronts Bonnie about there being no way to save the Other Side. Suddenly, Maria appears in front of her. Bonnie recognizes her from the caves, where she tried to kill Jeremy. She asks Bonnie to tell her husband she tried.

At Damon's house, Julian whispers at Damon from the basement that Markos doesn't know he's there and Damon should use that.

Damon makes an excuse to go downstairs and slip Julian a key to free himself.

Liv and Luke are suddenly powerless as the Travelers converge in the town square and chant. Next, Stefan and Elena start burning in the sun as their daylight rings stop working. They run to Matt in the Grill who leads them through the caves.

As Elena is running, she starts to drown, the way she died before she turned. Stefan gets bullet wounds in his chest from his father.

In the Salvatore house, Julian attacks Markos, but Tyler's hybrid fangs disappear and Damon gets burned by the sun as the spell reaches them.

The Travelers continue chanting in the square then start dropping one by one in their passengered bodies. They begin to wake up around Damon in his house.

The spell continues to unravel spirit magic as it spreads and Damon and Tyler stumble off to try to outrun the spell.

Damon makes it to the road, where Jeremy Gilbert picks him up.

At Whitmore, Caroline and Bonnie brace for the spell to reach them. Bonnie announces she thinks she knows how to get them all back from the Other Side -- but she needs to find Enzo.

Matt gives Stefan and Elena all the blood bags he can find. Damon and Jeremy pull up and Elena runs to Damon and kisses him.

Stefan stays to wait for Bonnie and Caroline while Matt and Jeremy head back to Mystic Falls to keep an eye on things.

Meanwhile, ghost Enzo pays a visit to ghost Maria with a proposition. He wants to use the Traveler spell that they used to overwhelm the Other Side and bring Markos back, even without dozens of Travelers to sacrifice themselves. Maria is willing, but before they get anywhere, she's swallowed up by the Other Side.



Enzo finds Bonnie to break the news.

Julian finds Stefan and Caroline on the street. He does not take the news of his wife's death well. He attacks Stefan and quickly rips his heart out, announcing that a dead doppleganger stops the spell. Caroline is left there to scream over Stefan's dead body.

Ghost Stefan appears in front of Bonnie and she has to tell him she lost the way to bring him back.