Damon and Elena went to the Other Side to save Stefan, but only one came back alive on The Vampire Diaries season 5 finale “Home.”

With Stefan (Paul Wesley) dead, it was all hands on deck to find a spell that would bring Stefan, Enzo (Michael Malarkey), Bonnie (Kat Graham), and witch twin Luke (Chris Brochu) back from the Other Side.

Caroline (Candice Accola) brought Stefan’s body back to the Salvatore mansion and Elena and Damon came running back to town after hearing the news. Damon, safe to say, did not take the news of his brother’s death well, and is now hell bent on doing whatever it takes to get him back from the Other Side. He goes to try to intimidate Bonnie into somehow coming up with a plan, and Bonnie and Enzo team up with Silas, who demands to be brought back with them. Now all they need is a witch to perform the spell. Caroline and Elena stop Luke and Liv (Penelope Mitchell) from leaving town to force them to perform the spell, but they don’t want to revive Stefan because it would give the Travelers another chance to rid the world of witch magic, and their coven would kill them. Desperate times call for desperate measures, however, and Caroline wastes no time before snapping Luke’s neck. Now, Liv has to help if she ever wants to get her brother back.

Markos Kills Tyler

Markos (Raffi Barsoumian) and the Travelers are settling into Mystic Falls, and moving the town border to where the spell worked to ensure no vamps will be able to invade their new magic free town. For his first act as ruler of Mystic Falls, Markos throws Tyler (Michael Trevino), still possessed by Julian, into the magic free town and watches as he goes from Hybrid to dead human as the magic is stripped away. Sheriff Forbes (Marguerite MacIntyre) watches on in horror. Tyler goes to Bonnie and passes into the Other Side – another life Bonnie, Enzo and the gang needs to bring back.

Speaking of the Other Side, Silas taught Bonnie and Liv the spell while Stefan reunited with Lexi (Arielle Kebbel) and the two of them went off to try to find Alaric. During their journey through the Other Side, Lexi questions Stefan on why he stuck around Mystic Falls after Elena chose Damon. He uses Silas’ devilish plan as an excuse, but Lexi doesn’t buy it. After all, he could have left once Silas had been defeated, but he didn’t. She tells him it’s because of Caroline, because he wants to be with her. He laughs it off and turns the tables, asking Lexi why she is still on the Other Side, why she hadn’t found peace. Lexi tells him that, right now, she won’t find peace until Stefan comes back to life, but, if the plan fails and they are both stuck on the Other Side, they’ll find peace together.

Project Boom is in effect: Jeremy (Steven R McQueen) and Matt (Zach Roerig) will break the underground gas main and create a gas leak under the Grill, where Sheriff Forbes will gather the Travelers for a community meeting. With all the Travelers in one place, the group plans on killing them by starting an explosion at the Grill, making them the sacrifices they need to bring back their friends from the Other Side. Bonnie finds her Grams (Jasmine Guy) and tells her that she should go back to the land of the living when she gets the chance, but Grams says no. She tells Bonnie that she has done what she needs to do to ensure that Bonnie will find peace, and that Bonnie needs to remember that she loves her.

Alaric Meets Elena And Damon On The Other Side

After Silas is done teaching Bonnie and Liv the Travelers spell to bring back the dead, the Other Side is hit with the wind of oblivion, and Bonnie lets Silas get sucked out instead of helping him stay so he can be brought back to life – payback for all that he’s done. So, Bonnie and Liv are ready to start the spell, and with the gas leak already going, all Damon needed was the go ahead from Liz that the killing could begin. Damon plans on running his car into the Grill, acting as a catalyst to trigger the explosion. Once he’s on the Other Side, he will rush to pass through Bonnie and be brought back to life: simple. One problem: Elena won’t let him do it alone because she doesn’t see her future without him. The two smash into the Grill, causing the explosion and sending Markos and the other Travelers to the Other Side, along with Elena and Damon. On the Other Side, they wake up in their bodies where they died, at the Grill. Elena wakes up first, disoriented, and is greeted by Alaric (Matthew Davis), who tells her to run, find Bonnie and he will find Damon.

Before leaving the Grill, Damon and Alaric see that Sheriff Liz never made it out of the Grill, but she’s still alive and Alaric says that she looks like she is going to be okay, so they make their way over to Bonnie. Elena, Stefan, Lexi, Tyler and Luke are all gathered with Bonnie, ready to pass through her back to life. Elena and Stefan both insist they wait for Damon, but Luke isn’t having it – his sister has started to get a nosebleed from the power of the spell – and he goes through. He tells Liv she can stop and screw the others, but Liv wants to help and keeps going with the spell.

Enzo and Tyler pass through, followed by Elena, who Bonnie tackles against her will, and a reluctant Stefan, who accidentally passes through when he touches Bonnie after she falls. He had wanted to wait for Damon, but now they just had to wait. Tyler hugs Caroline, but realize that something feels different. He reaches down and cuts his hand – it doesn’t heal. He isn’t a hybrid anymore.

On the Other Side, Bonnie reached out for Lexie, but Lexie could see that, with every soul that passed through her and came back to life, Bonnie was dying little by little. Markos, of course, doesn’t share her sentiment, and comes barreling through, but Lexie beats him and sends him into the abyss instead. Bonnie again tells her to pass through, but Lexie couldn’t be the one who killed Bonnie and prevent Damon from coming back won’t let oblivion take her; she opens her arms and finds peace.

Damon And Bonnie Stuck On The Other Side

Alaric and Damon finally made it to Bonnie and Bonnie grabbed onto Alaric first. Just when she was about to take hold of Damon, Luke forced Liv to stop her spell, worried she would die, and nothing happens when Bonnie touches Damon. Elena runs inside to find that Liv and Luke are gone. The spell is over, and it was their one shot. Elena sobs, she can’t live without Damon, who comes to see her as a ghost, even though she can’t see him. “Please don’t leave me,” Elena begged as Damon told her that she was the best thing to have ever happened to her. Meanwhile, Stefan cries on Caroline’s shoulder. He lost two of the people he cared about most in one night – Lexie and his brother.

While Damon and Elena share their goodbyes, Bonnie has one to say of her own. She calls Jeremy and tells him that she lied: she was never going to be able to find a way to get back from the Other Side. She was never going to stop being the anchor. She said she loved their last few days together, and instructed him to take care of Elena before hanging up. Of course, Jeremy came running to the woods to find Bonnie, alerting Stefan, Elena and Alaric that she was dying, but it’s too late.

Are Damon And Bonnie Dead?

On the Other Side, Bonnie and Damon stand together, watching as bright lights and strong winds come towards them, presumably destroying the Other Side. Though, as Bonnie puts it, there’s probably millions of people they’d rather be with when facing death, Bonnie grabs his hand anyways.

“Do you think it will hurt?” Bonnie asked Damon, as the light grew brighter and brighter.

“I don’t know-“ Damon got out before being cut off by blinding light.

And, that’s how season 5 of The Vampire Diaries ended.

So, here’s a quick body count: Markos, Silas, Lexie, Grams, Bonnie and Damon are all (for the purposes of this finale) seemingly dead for good, or, at least, they have all been taken away from the Other Side. Markos and Silas were whisked off into oblivion, Lexi and Grams found peace – so are theoretically in a safer or better place – and Bonnie and Damon were absorbed by a white light.

Revivals: Alaric and Tyler were brought back to life, but Tyler is now back to his original mortal status, so he and Matt are now the two humans left on the show. The CW has confirmed that Matt Davis has signed on to be a series regular for Season 6, so expect Alaric’s second life to be permanent for now. No word on Kat Graham or Ian Sommerhalder’s status going into next season, and fans will have to wait until season 6 premieres in the fall to find out Damon and Bonnie’s fate.

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