The CW’s much loved supernatural drama, The Vampire Diaries, returns tonight after a brief break with an episode called “The Cell.” If you missed the last episode don’t fret; you can get all caught up by checking out our full recap RIGHT HERE. On tonight’s episode, Stefan will continue to offer Katherine his support, all while trying to deal with his own pain, and our fun girl Caroline will show up with an unusual form of therapy that just might put everyone at ease.
Here’s the official CW synopsis of The Vampire Diaries season 5 episode 9 “The Cell”: “FLASHBACKS TO A DARK TIME IN DAMON’S LIFE – Stefan (Paul Wesley) continues to offer Katherine (Nina Dobrev) his support while trying to mask his own pain, until Caroline (Candice Accola) shows up with an unusual form of therapy. After trying to make amends with Caroline, Elena (Nina Dobrev) grows so concerned about Damon (Ian Somerhalder) that she turns to Aaron (guest star Shaun Sipos) for help. Later, when Damon tells Elena about a terrible ordeal in his past that he has kept secret for decades, she shares the disturbing information she just learned about her own family. Finally, Aaron decides on a desperate course of action after a conversation with Dr. Wes (guest star Rick Cosnett).”
We’ll be learning some interesting things on tonight’s episode, including some secrets spilling from both sides. Damon will spill the goods and Elena, after confronting her family’s past, will reveal the new piece of information she just learned. Gasp! Tune in later tonight to find out what kinds of secrets will be revealed!
Come back here later tonight at 8 PM EST for your live recap. In the meantime, hit up the comments section below and let us know your thoughts on TVD season 5. We’re loving it!
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Back in 1953, Damon comes to Mystic Falls looking for Joseph who had telegraphed him to come. Joseph says he hasn’t heard from Stefan yet. Joseph stabs Damon with a syringe of vervain and tells him the money was too good to pass up. Damon kills Joseph and a man steps out of the shadows and says he’ll be Damon’s doctor from now on. He shoves a syringe in his neck that knocks Damon out.
Now: Damon wakes in a containment cell and asks why he’s there as a captive. The doctor says he lost a test subject last night and says – you’re going to replace him.
Katherine writes in her diary that Stefan saved her from killing herself and now has her on suicide watch. She tears up the page and asks him what kind of melodramatic idiot writes their feelings down. She asks doesn’t he have something better to do than watch her journal. He says he doesn’t want to kill herself and she reminds him he’s a nutter with panic attacks after being locked in the quarry underwater for months. She tells him she heard his nightmares the night before and says if he can’t help himself, he can’t help her.
There’s a knock at the door and Caroline is there. Katherine called her to help. She brought the giant safe he was kept prisoner in with her to use on him therapeutically. He looks shocked.
Aaron answers the door and tells Elena that Jessie killed himself – says he was found by campus security. He tells her he came there for a fresh start. She says she would want to start over if she had been through what he has. She tells him her problems followed her there. He asks why she’s there and she asks about Wes Maxwell being his legal guardian. He says he has been since summer when his Aunt Sarah died.
Aaron apologizes for being so morose and she says that her boyfriend went to talk to Wes last night and now neither can be found. She asks for Aaron’s help finding his uncle and he says he thinks he knows where they can look.
Damon tells Maxwell that it didn’t turn out well for the last person who tried to experiment on him. Maxwell asks if he gave Dr. Whitmore problems and Damon says he wasn’t much for conversation. Flashback to Damon strapped to a table in a basement lab with Whitmore probing him. Damon tries to compel him to let him go but Whitmore says he’s wearing vervain. He tells Damon what he’s doing is for the advancement of science.
He says he can regenerate organs after he removes them. He stabs Damon in the eye and tells him he talks too much. Maxwell tells him that he trained Jessie to crave vampire blood instead of human and that shows that he’s taken the research to the next level.
Aaron tells Elena that he can’t believe Jessie killed himself. Elena asks isn’t it weird that two of his only friends killed themselves just as school started. Elena tells him that Megan was murdered and that Maxwell forged her death certificate. They come to the Whitmore house and she stops at the threshold but once he invites her in she steps in. He tells her the house is his and that he’s Aaron Whitmore. She’s surprised to know his family owns the school.
She sees a photo on the wall and says it’s her Dad. Maxwell comes in and says he was one of the greatest doctors the school ever had. He shoves a syringe into Elena’s back as Aaron looks on shocked. Maxwell says he’s glad her dad didn’t leave to see what she’s become.
Caroline tells Stefan the best way to get past his panic attacks is to confront his fears. He reminds her he spent three months in it. He says she’s looking for a distraction to deal with the fact that Jessie is dead. She’s not happy that Elena killed Jessie and says that Damon is the cause of her bad behavior. Stefan says Elena did what she had to do. Caroline disagrees. Stefan asks how a drama major can help him with his PTSD. She says what he’s been doing isn’t working so they’re going to try it her way. She opens the door of the safe and Stefan looks unhappy.
Aaron tells his uncle what he did to Elena is kidnapping. He tells his nephew that he had to cover up Megan’s death so he could continue his work. He admits that he studies vampires and says that Elena is one. He says vampires exist and he studies them and the Whitmores have been studying them for generations. He says Aaron’s dad was the one who trained him. Aaron asks why he never told him and he says Aaron didn’t need to know until now. He says this is what the Whitmores have fought for and believed in for centuries. He says it’s his legacy.
Damon wakes Elena who is in a cell nearby. He tells her that Maxwell knocked her out with vervain. He tells her about the Whitmore’s studying and torturing vampires. He tells her he’s been there before – that he was studied by the Augustines back in the 1950s. He said he was kept in the very cell he’s in now. He says he was there for 5 years. She asks how he dealt with it and he says he made a friend.
Flashback to 1953 and there’s another vamp there when Damon is dumped in. He tells him they’ll give him one glass of blood a day to keep them alive. The guy’s name was Enzo and he was a soldier in WWI that the doctor kidnapped and sent to the states. Enzo counsels Damon that he needs to live for the future and not the day so he can get revenge on Whitmore. Damon seems to pull it together somewhat.
Elena tells Damon that Maxwell knew her dad and that they worked together. He told her that her dad was an Augustine. She says that means her dad was a vampire hunter. She can’t reconcile that he would be part of a project that would cut Damon’s eyes out. He says people surprise you. He apologizes for getting her caught up in this mess. Damon promises he’ll get her out of there. She takes his hand. He promises again.
Stefan is in the safe. He calls out to Caroline and asks if she knows what he’s doing. She flips through her textbook. Katherine comes in and asks Caroline if she and Stefan ever got busy. Caroline says no and K tells her she’s missed out because he’s great in bed. Caroline reads from the book and K argues with her. Stefan begins to panic and beat on the walls of the safe. He says he can’t breathe. K agrees with her that he needs to address the root of the issue. K tells her that Stefan is a hero and that he can come through for others. She says she has an idea.
Damon is having horrible flashbacks to when he was tortured and he says Enzo helped him hang onto his humanity. Flashback to them chatting about sports, cars and women. Enzo says he likes convertibles on a Sunday drive with a pretty girl. Damon says he was more of a horse and carriage type guy. He says he’s only had one girl and there was never another like her. He asks Enzo about his women and he says there were too many to count – but one special one named Maggie.
He says he met her in the lab – she worked for Whitmore. He says she was kind to him. Enzo said she was beautiful and had no idea about the torturous experiments. When Maggie realized what was going on, she left. Damon tells him it wouldn’t have worked anyway since vampire-human relations are doomed from the beginning. The door opens and Whitmore comes in and asks who’s next. Whitmore calls for 2051 – Damon – because he says he has more energy but then Enzo convinces the mad scientist to take him instead. Damon can hear him screaming from his cell. The lights go out.
Later, Enzo is dumped back in the cell by Whitmore. Damon wants to know why he’s doing this to them. He says he wants to understand them from a cellular level so he can put them to use.
Now – Elena is horrified at the story. She tells him that Stefan will figure it out and find them and Damon credits her optimism but says Stefan doesn’t even know about the place. He says he never told Stefan about it because he knew he would feel guilty for not saving him. He says he never told anyone before then. She asks how he escaped and he says they let them out once a year for a New Year’s Eve party where they put them on display chained up and weakened by vervain.
Whitmore let the guests drink from them after inflicting a small wound to show the power of the vamp blood. Damon says this is how Enzo came up with the plan. Flashback to him telling Damon that if one of them drinks both the daily rations of blood they will be ready to fight come New Year’s. Enzo says they just need to choose who will get the extra blood. They play a game of chance to decide and Damon wins. Enzo says Damon will lead the way. He gives Damon his blood and tells him he’s got 364 days to get ready for the escape. Elena asks if it worked and Damon says more or less. He says it wasn’t pretty but it worked.
Maxwell gives Aaron a “gift” to protect him during vampire research. It’s a watch from his great grandfather that’s a safety precaution. Aaron sees a newspaper article about his parents’ death at a campground. He sees photos in the file of their bodies and realizes it was a vampire attack. Maxwell says he continued the research because of their murder to make sure that didn’t happen again. He asks Aaron to join him in his research. Aaron punches his uncle in the face grabs some weaponry and the watch and stomps out.
Katherine tells Stefan not to be mad at her. She says she got in the safe while Stefan was knocked out and let Caroline lock them in. Stefan yells for Caroline. Katherine reminds him that when he panics he rips people’s heads off and that if he doesn’t chill out he’s going to hurt her. K tells him he needs to get past the PTSD triggers or he’ll kill her. Stefan says she’s risking her life and she reminds him she’s dying anyway. She tells him to suck it up since he’s Stefan Salvatore.
Elena demands that Damon tell her how he got out so she’s ready to fight. She promises not to judge him and tells him she loves him. She says she doesn’t care what he had to do to get out.
Damon tells her the next party was in 1958. He says at the party he was much stronger than they expected. As Whitmore unlocked the cell to let Damon out so they could all drink a glass of his blood, Damon gouges his eyes out and bites him. The party guests go running and screaming. A candelabra falls over and sets the carpet on fire. Damon continues killing party guests.
Enzo calls to him to let him out. Damon tries to rip the cell bars open but they were coated with vervain. He says the fire was raging and he couldn’t get him out so he had to leave Enzo. Damon tells Enzo he’s sorry as Enzo begs for his life. He says he had to quit caring about Enzo to save himself so he clicked off his humanity switch. Damon walks out as Enzo begs him not to let him die.
Caroline asks how it’s going and Stefan is panicking. K distracts him by telling him there is truth to the doppelganger prophecy. She says he’s making himself miserable staying close to Elena and Damon. He grabs her neck and says he’ll kill her. She tells him to do it. She reminds him that he loved her once. Stefan asks why she’s having this conversation in a safe and she says she wants him to address the real issue. She says the safe isn’t the problem – it’s Elena leaving him.
Stefan is close to her neck and she asks if he’s going to feed on her. His eyes go bloodshot and she tells him to fight it. She tells him she’s there and with him. She says they’re together. They are close enough to kiss when Caroline opens the safe and says she was worried because it was so quiet. Stefan steps out and Caroline hugs him and says – you made it out alive. She hugs him and as she does, Stefan looks over her shoulder at Katherine. Hmm… Maybe he and Damon can both have a doppelganger!
Aaron comes down into the holding cell area and asks what this is. He says he didn’t know what his uncle was up to. He loads the gun and says Megan was killed by a vampire. She explains that Megan died in the Whitmore house and that she couldn’t even come in until today. Aaron yells at her that vampires killed his parents and that he wants to know why Elena was so interested in him. Damon tells him she wasn’t involved in the death of his parents – he says that was all him.
Aaron is in shock. He holds out the gun in his shaking hands. Aaron asks what he said and points the gun at Damon. Damon tells Elena he still wanted revenge after Enzo’s death. Flashback to Damon telling Enzo that he will kill all the Augustine society. Enzo says boo. Damon says that he’ll let one live long enough to breed and then will kill all but one and so on and so on. Damon says that’s exactly what he did and that since 1958 he’s killed more Whitmores than he can count. Elena asks when he killed the last one and he says last month – in Charleston – he killed one named Sarah. Elena cries and says she had no idea and is horrified since they were together at the time. Damon reminds her the story isn’t pretty. Aaron shoots him in the head and Damon collapses as Elena screams – no!
Caroline calls out for help with the safe but Stefan is nowhere to be found. He’s upstairs cleaning up the chairs he broke in a fit of rage. K tells him it was an ugly chair and he’s better off without it. He tells her she was right and that he needs to move on from his break up with Elena. She says she was right and he says he never know what she’s up to. K admits she doesn’t always know either. He tosses part of the broken chair in the fire as Katherine sidles up to him. She says right now she’s not sure what she’s doing. She runs her hand up his chest and they kiss passionately.
Caroline leaves a message for Elena telling her she’s going to stay at her mom’s that night and she’ll see her tomorrow. Caroline hears the heavy breathing and realizes Stefan is getting hot and heavy with K! She says OMG and tells Elena to call her as soon as possible.
Aaron calls Maxwell and demands to know why he hasn’t told him any of this before. Maxwell says he’s sorry. Aaron asks if people are going to come after him. Maxwell tells him just to go to school and live his life. Aaron takes out his great-grandfather’s watch and puts it on.
Damon wakes up on the floor of the cell with a headache. He says he guesses he had that coming. He calls out to Elena. She’s not there! She’s strapped to a table in the lab and hears someone humming a song. She asks what the hell is going on and turns to see a guy strapped to the table. He tells her his name is experiment 12144 – Enzo! He starts back singing walking After Midnight as Elena looks on in horror.