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The final season of The Vampire Diaries could never be complete without a trip down the dark side of Stefan Salvatore. So with going with tradition in most seasons, ‘The Next Time I Hurt Somebody, It Could Be You‘ starts in on one of Stefan’s Ripper flashbacks; Monterey 1917.

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After the decision to turn himself over to Cade last week, Stefan is spending his last Christmas with Caroline; well more specifically, he writes to Elena that he did what he could and that if he doesn’t make it back from this hell that he wants Elena to remind Caroline that he tried everything he could to get back to her. Yet, as Christmas’ go there’s usually a family element that causes all the problems. Problem #1: Rick decides that he’s not going to stick around for the day so that Caroline can’t really spend that much time with their girls. Problem #2: Damon is alive and well, and shows  up with his lovely Siren master. Problem #3: Caroline decides to spike all the egg nog with bourbon so that the siren sings a few of her secrets. Problem #4: Damon kills Stefan with a Christmas star so that Stefan can talk to Cade.

Well, Christmas is off to a good start. At least one couple woke up happy when Enzo surprised Bonnie with a trip to Paris, and then Caroline warn’s them of the current Christmas shenanigans and it allows them to mostly stay away. In the end, though Bonnie and Enzo decide to try and figure out a way to find the tuning fork, while Caroline distracts her guests with booze. It works in their favor as Sybil spills some details on how much she loves the houses in Mystic Falls and how luxurious they are. Now if you’re thinking what I’m thinking, and the rest of the Salvatore house is thinking, Mystic Falls isn’t that luxurious. You know with all the murder and mayhem that continually drives its citizens away and into their graves. So clearly she can only be thinking of one spot, and so Bonnie and Enzo are off the Pond Estates; Mystic Falls high-end McMansion living.

Side note:  Sybil drunk carving the turkey is pretty amusing.

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On the other side of the veil, Stefan seems to want to get out of his little deal with Cade when he realizes where he is and who he is speaking with. He tries to convince Cade that he picked the wrong person and that Stefan himself is a bad choice for collecting the evil souls of the world. However, Cade refuses to let him continue on that train of thought and lets Stefan know that he had asked for Damon to bring him to this side so that he could show him exactly why this devil thinks Stefan is perfect for Reaping. So Cade takes him back to the episodes first flashback.

Monterey didn’t fair well after Stefan’s attack, and apparently during this period of time Cade had been watching him. He decided that the younger Salvatore’s evil Ripper side was perfect for feeding him souls to his dark hell. One little catch, Stefan doesn’t remember this Ripper spree at all. His only defense is that no matter how evil he ever was, he would have never killed on Christmas. Now, the confusion is real. Why doesn’t Stefan remember this pivotal slaughter? Thankfully, the episode will clear up this confusion with our ever favorite Bonnie and Enzo.

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Since it’s Eve now Bonnie and Enzo had made their way to the Siren’s new house and upon their arrival, they run into Seline. Luckily, it seems the sister Siren is still pretty angry at Sybil and is willing to help Bonnie and Enzo with their little fork hunt. Actually, she just pulls it out of a drawer and all but hands it to them, sorta. She calls Ric and begs to be allowed to see the little girls and in turn she will just hand over the fork. She tries to defend herself and her actions by saying that she isn’t who they think she is and that all she has wanted to do was help, and that she had been protecting the girls  and giving them training, to be able to stay away from Cade (not sure how killing interns was a way of keeping Cade of the trail). But, she needs to see the girls to remove her psychic imprint off of them, so that the handsome devil can’t find them. Umm, does no one remember that she let them help her give over a soul!?

When Ric tells her to go to hell, literally, she tells the story of what happened to Stefan in Monterey. Turns out she had been watching him too. That when she had come upon the Ripper, she had followed him back to his cabin intent on eating his flesh to serve her master. However, when she looked into his mind she didn’t find a man that was evil to the core, but instead a man evil by circumstance. Instead of killing him, she decided to spare him and the reason that Stefan doesn’t remember is because she altered his memories to forget the Christmas murders. In the after Mystic Falls, Cade is telling Stefan a similar side of the story, but that this evil in him is still so useful to Cade. Turns out Stefan has been fated to be a servant to Cade for over a hundred years (well, crap). The story, though, has another motive. Seline wants redemption, and she’s terrified of Cade and eternal torture. So she hands over the fork without any real bloodshed and more with tears. She just wants to help.

Back at the Salvatore house Matt and his father decided to join the Christmas feast and Damon has decided that they need to play a game of ‘Who is the worst soul in the room.’ There are gift exchanges and a lot more drinking. Caroline has hit the bottle pretty hard, and it’s really funny as Christmas is slowly ruined around her. Of course, Damon decides to land his badgering on Peter, Matt’s father, and it’s not that hard to get him to admit the truth on why he abandoned his children; he didn’t want to be another loser “toiler-scrubber.” So Christmas is very ruined. Yet, before they decide completely that Peter will be fed to Bonnie and Enzo luckily show up with the fork.

….the fork affects Bonnie?

Wait, does Bonnie still have some of her magic? the fork affects psychic power, the area where magic comes from! Ohhhhhh!!!!!

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On a note that is not that awesome, though, Damon escapes with Sybil, and they don’t get very far. As they stroll downtown Mystic Falls and revel in the carolers and the moment Damon presents Sybil with a present (likely the one that Caroline gave him earlier in the episode). Turns out the gift is Elena’s necklace, and as he places it on her neck, even Damon can’t destroy his memories of her that much. Sybil gets her heart ripped out and hopefully this is her swan song. Even under her control, his memories of Elena in that moment allow him to walk away, with the necklace in his grasp.

The trip down memory lane with Cade has moved on to more recent events. More specifically around the time that Stefan decided to come into Elena’s life. Cade makes Stefan believe that Elena had enough tragedy in her life and that a Salvatores presence turned a once sweet girl into a perfect evil soul for Cade. That, that type of change is exactly what Cade wants Stefan to do. Now, we can all argue that she was a doppelganger, and this was going to happen anyway, but the manipulation works in Cade’s favor. Stefan makes the deal: he will work for Cade as a Ripper for a year. Then he comes back to life and says his goodbyes to Caroline.

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Seline is given her chance to release the girls from her psychic link, and Ric takes them off to who knows where. Bonnie realizes that she is connected because of her magic and that maybe it’s still around, as she and Enzo head off to Paris, and in the end, Damon pulls up alongside Stefan and offers him a ride out of Mystic Falls. Christmas hasn’t gone well for anyone, and in the last moment of the episode Stefan turns off his humanity switch and he rides off to death and destruction with his brother. Whoever said The Vampire Diaries didn’t understand holiday cheer….was completely right!

 

Till next year, TVD returns to the CW January 13, 2017, at 8/7

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Dash Wilder

Dash Wilder is a contributor at Legion of Leia and one of the crazier member of the HD1Jump team. A gaming and news community found at @HD1Jump. She games ever obsessively over Bioshock and Mass Effect during the day, and slings drinks for Geeks and Gamers at night.