Death & Afterlives · Era V, The Doppelgänger War
Hellfire
Cade's Hell has a physical anchor beneath Mystic Falls, and the Maxwell bell can pull the fire up through the town — Matt rings it eleven times and lets his dead sister Vicki, sent back by Katherine, ring the twelfth. Katherine is left standing in it. Damon takes the cure out of Stefan's blood and lives. Stefan — human only until he hands the cure on, and a vampire again the moment he does, which is what lets him compel Damon away — walks into the fire to close it, and Bonnie destroys Hell along with him.
Details
- Stefan's last conversation is with Elena, and his last act is giving Damon the human life they both spent 145 years arguing about.
- Katherine dies in a burning building for the second time, which is the show's idea of a joke and a good one.
- The Maxwell bell, rung twelve times by a Maxwell, opens the hellfire beneath the town. Matt Donovan rings eleven; Vicki, sent back from Hell by Katherine, rings the twelfth, and Matt lets her.
- Stefan is cured, then compels Damon to leave, then dies. It is the only ending the character could honestly have had.
- Bonnie channels the dead witches of her own line to redirect the fire and destroy Hell, alone, on the street.