Friday’s (December 2^nd) episode of The Vampire Diaries “Detoured on Some Random Backwoods Path to Hell”, brought Cade to Earth in some crappy backwoods motel. The episode, directed by Paul Wesley (Stefan Salvatore), not only tested the relationship between Stefan and Damon but those of Ric and Caroline, Caroline and Stefan and Ric and Damon as well.

In the last episode, Seline took the twins and headed off to summon Cade. In Friday’s episode Ric was finally able to get a hold of her. After getting nowhere with her, a violent threat seemed to be his only option. However, threating to kill Seline after he got his kids back really didn’t faze her. She does work for Satan after all. Unfortunately for Seline, Ric and Caroline weren’t the only ones hot on her trail.

Matt, Stefan, Bonnie and Enzo were all working together to find the twins and bring them home. Stefan was left behind with the ring he gave Caroline as Caroline did not want him to interfere if she was forced to kill Damon in order to save her kids. Caroline didn’t want any distractions that could cause her to lose the twins again or worse, get them killed.

Before anyone else can find the kidnapping Seline, Damon and Sybil find her and the twins in a dinner out in the middle of nowhere. It is then that we learn Seline’s plans for the twins; she wants to give them to Cade in exchange for her and Sybil’s freedom. Seline sees this as a way of atoning for her sin of making Cade bring her sister back to life and really giving her no choice but to serve him. Either she lives and is an immortal slave or she dies. Anyone would choose to live under those circumstances. No one ever really wants to die.

Well maybe except Enzo who is actually dying from the inside out via Sybil’s subconscious mind torture. Hoping to ease his pain, Bonnie asks Stefan to go into Enzo’s subconscious (something he has never done before). Inside Enzo’s mind Sybil is gutting him for breaking her hold yet again and turning back on his humanity. However, all was not lost. Thanks to Enzo, Stefan was able to see that Sybil was at a diner with Seline, The Twins and Damon. Stefan immediately calls Ric and tells him what he found. Unfortunately he can’t give him the exact location so Ric tells Stefan to go back into Enzo’s mind no matter the cost. He doesn’t care if it kills Enzo. He needs to find his kids and get them away from Seline.

Ric and Caroline had no luck in the beginning of this episode. When they finally get the location and arrive at the diner they discover that Seline, The Twins, Damon and Sybil have escaped.

As their escape vehicle barrels down the road, Damon decides that there is no better time to pick Seline’s brain. We then learn exactly what it takes to serve Cade. One must be supernatural and serve him of their own free will. Damon then criticizes Seline for taking the 4 year old twins. However, she believes she can convince them to serve Cade and save herself from rotting in hell. Apparently hell isn’t a one way ticket if you have the right exchange.

Seline’s escape is cut short when they run into a traffic stop. The officer is stopping all vehicles on the road looking for the twins. Seline uses her siren powers to trick the cop but one of the twins (Josie or Lizzie) isn’t having it. She will not be forced to sleep and she attacks Sybil raising the cop’s suspicion. This forces Sybil to attack and kill the cop to evade the groups’ capture.

A little while later the group arrives at a sketchy motel. Damon, fed up with how slow things are progressing, decides to take charge and gathers everything they need to summon Cade; a body of water and a couple human bodies. Seline is angered by this as she claims the twins won’t be ready for another decade or so. Unbeknownst to her Damon has a plan. He wants to strike a deal with Cade and asks Sybil for her help in doing so.

Stefan goes back into a now unconscious Enzo’s mind hoping to figure out where Seline went. This time Sybil is trying to kill Enzo. Stefan is forced to participate in this subconscious world and grabs Sybil by the throat. She tells him that Damon and she have an offer he can’t refuse but if he wants that offer and her to stop hurting Enzo, he has to come alone to the motel.

The only way Stefan could go to the motel alone was if he gave Ric and Caroline the wrong address. When the two arrive at the incorrect hotel it stirs up some crazy emotions from Ric. He tells Caroline that he is taking the girls away from her and everyone else. Danger and darkness follow her and he doesn’t want to subject his (and Jo’s) kids to that.

Stefan arrives at the right motel and is greeted by a trap setup by Sybil; a test to make sure he is serious about taking the deal. Sybil sirened all the motel members to attack him hoping to force him into killing one of them and make him dark. She wants to make sure Stefan has blood on his hands. That’s how Cade likes them best.

Cade arrives and Stefan is forced to kill one of the motel guests in order to save his life. As Damon watches his brother kill the man with a broken baseball bat, he tells Stefan about his deal and how he can get the twins back.

Back at the pool where Cade emerged Seline is trying to sell the idea of the twins to him. He is intrigued but gets a better deal when Sybil offers the immortal Salvatore brothers instead; in order to save the twins Stefan agreed to join Damon in serving Cade. The twins are then reunited with Caroline and Ric. Shortly after the reunion Ric apologizes to Caroline for what he said. Caroline tells him that he was right but to never throw the fact that she isn’t the twins’ biological mother in her face ever again. She then tells Ric to take the twins away from her and Mystic Falls until this is all over. That is the only way they can protect them.

Back at the Salvatore mansion Caroline gives Stefan an apology of her own. She places his ring back on her finger and learns exactly what he had to sacrifice in order to save her kids. Damon finally gave Stefan what he promised back in season one; an eternity of misery. However, Stefan struck a deal with Cade. He gets to spend his last remaining 24 hours of freedom with Caroline. Will they get married in that 24 hour period or is this the end of Steroline?

Speaking of keeping promises, Sybil finally got her revenge on Seline. Turns out the deal Sybil made only saved herself from hell not Seline. Seline will still have to suffer in hell and atone for her sins while Sybil stays out of hell, immortal and with all her powers. She isn’t finished with the game she is playing yet. Just what does this siren have in store?

At the end of the hour Matt finally decided it was time to fight back. He and Ric find Damon, shoot him and rough him up a bit before killing him. As Ric stabs Damon with a stake he says this is for Tyler.

Next Week:

A holiday dinner for the ages

Damon is alive (how?) and Stefan is dead!

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The post Cade is Summoned – ‘The Vampire Diaries’ Recap: “Detoured on Some Random Backwoods Path to Hell” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Fans who attended the panel this morning at SDCC were shown a touching tribute to the fandom by showrunners Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, along with long standing members of the cast like Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, Candice King and Kat Graham. You can watch the heartwarming tribute here:

Also announced at the panel was that co-creator Kevin Williamson would be back writing for the 8^th season. A sizzle reel of what’s to come in TVD’s final season was also shown to panel attendees. According to Deadline.com, Plec also teased a new villain for TVD, though she won’t give many details except to say it was unlike anything the show has had before. “We have a finger so far,” she joked of the character that was developed after the WBTV series found out it was coming back one more time. According to TVline.com, an intro video, featuring that creepy hand from the Season 7 finale, teased: “This season, get ready to meet evil herself.” (That’s right, herself.) Describing the new Season 8 villain as the “final bad,” Williamson noted that it’s a “cool way to infuse Mystic Falls with this ultimate evil. It’s like a cherry on top of the entire mythology of Mystic Falls. Meanwhile, Somerhalder said, we’ll see “Damon and Enzo doing some gnarly s–t,” adding that “the mind control thing is actually quite interesting. … In their minds, they’re still them. That conflict and that struggle is what we always look for.” Sadly, Bonnie is “literally at ground zero” when Season 8 begins. “A lot of last season was about the development of the relationship Bonnie had with Enzo, and obviously Bonnie and Damon,” Graham said. “You saw the crumbling of her in the finale. She also doesn’t have her magic. The thing that made her feel like herself, and also her best friends, are not there. It’s going to be really exciting to see Bonnie’s journey this season.” Poor Stefan is “just crying, constantly,” Wesley teased. “[He’s] missing his bro, his bro-ham. It’s back to the original dynamic of the brothers. The dynamic was always Damon getting in trouble and Stefan trying to save him. … We’ll see how long that lasts, but for the current time, he has a broken heart over his big bro.” Caroline is “very busy” in Season 8, trying to maintain a connection with Alaric and the twins while also “helping Stefan and Bonnie track down Damon and Enzo.” As for everyone’s favorite human, Matt Donovan “had to make the decision to let go of that love [for the vampires].” Also every Season 8 episode title will be a line of dialogue from previous seasons. Pretty cool, huh?

Will this season’s big bad be played by actress Nadine Lewington (Containment another show written and developed by Julie Plec), seen at a table read/celebration of season 8 with the rest of the cast and crew? Or will it be Kristen Gutoskie, also from Containment, who is listed as Seline in the first episode of season 8? We shall see.

There is still no word as to whether or not Dobrev will return for season 8, although Plec has previously said she would want her to return for the series finale. Season 8 is slotted to have 23 episodes and will premiere on The CW Friday October 21^st, 2016. Here’s hoping season 8 will answer all our questions, tie up loose ends, throw in some epic stories and surprises and have a satisfying ending. It’s a tall order to fill but if any cast/crew could pull it off it would be The Vampire Diaries.

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