‘Vampire Diaries’ Season 5 Spoilers: Major Death In Episode 21; What Happened In ‘Promised Land’? [RECAP]

All hands on deck! Episode 21 of “The Vampire Diaries” aired on May 8, and it was a doozy … as expected! With only one episode remaining before the Season 5 finale, the CW series pulled out all the stops for an absolutely insane episode.

“Promised Land” kicked off with Damon attempting to find Stefan and Elena -- who had been “doppel-napped” by the Travelers in episode 20. But unfortunately for Damon, the Travelers that he’s torturing don’t know and don’t care to provide him with any information.

“It doesn’t matter where Markos is,” one of them finally reveals to Damon. “Nothing you do can stop him now.”

The reason why nothing can stop Markos is that he successfully managed to drain a bucket of blood from Elena and Stefan. But even that’s not enough for the head Traveler.

“I’ll have enough when you can no longer speak,” Markos tells Elena.

The bad news for Markos is that one of his fellow Travelers is working against him -- Mary, the woman married to Julian, the passenger permanently inside Tyler’s body. She sneakily set the doppelgangers free, giving them a chance to escape Markos. But Maria has ulterior motives. Since her husband is trapped inside a hybrid’s body, his life is at risk when the Travelers end magic in Mystic Falls.

Back in Mystic Falls, Damon’s ready to strap on his “hero hair.” Thanks to a phone call from Stefan, Damon knows that he has to find and kill Markos before he strips the town of all its magic. Needless to say, ghost Enzo is not happy about Damon’s mission. With the Other Side crumbling, Enzo wants Damon’s full focus on figuring out how to bring him back from the dead -- just like Damon promised. But Damon doesn’t have time for it. Hatching a plan to bring all the Travelers abandoned bodies back to his house in order to lure Markos, he tells Enzo to pester Bonnie and Liv for help.

But as “Vampire Diaries” fans know, Liv doesn’t have a plan to bring people back from the Other Side. In fact, she’s no longer “helping” any of the Mystic Falls gang. With pressure from her Coven, Liv meets up with Luke and warns him that they only have one move left to secure their magic -- kill Stefan and Elena.

Fortunately Stefan and Elena are far away … but attempting to make their way back to Mystic Falls. After some failed attempts at hitchhiking home, Maria finds them on the side of the road and gives them a lift back to town. But by then it’s already too late.

Luke and Liv are waiting for the doppelgangers when they arrive in town and crush the car they were in … killing Maria. Confused as to what’s happening, Luke and Liv break the news to the doppelgangers that they’ve got to kill them in order to stop the Travelers. However, the Travelers are already at work on starting the spell to end the magic and restore the balance.

With doppelganger blood in their hands, the Travelers begin to chant and the magic slowly stops. Because of the spell, Luke and Liv’s magic fails. But before Stefan and Elena can fight back, their daylight rings stop working and force them to seek immediate shelter.

Little by little, the Travelers chanting begins to affect everyone. Besides the daylight ring problem, Elena starts to choke on water. Meanwhile, Stefan and Damon suffer from gunshot wounds -- the same gunshots that initially killed them when they were humans.

Running out of time, the gang unites to hatch a plan. And when Elena sees Damon, sparks fly. Grabbing her ex, the pair share a steamy kiss.

“I had a really crappy day and I needed it,” Elena says when Damon asks what the kiss was for. “I thought I’d never see you again and I couldn’t think of a worse way to die.”

But more talk on their relationship will have to wait, because they decide that their only option is to flee town. But Bonnie believes that she has a plan to bring them all back from the Other Side.

Seeking out Enzo’s help, Bonnie asks the ghost to find Maria on the Other Side and find out if she knows the spell that Markos used to come back. Maria reveals to Enzo that she does know the spell, but before she can help them, the gust of wind that took Vicki whisks her away.

As Maria gets taken away on the Other Side, the Julian possessed Tyler finds Stefan and Caroline. Asking where his wife went, Stefan breaks the devastating news. And needless to say, Julian/Tyler is very VERY upset.

Stefan tries to calm him down, but when it seems hopeless Caroline takes a different route. The blonde vamp attempts to snap Julian/Tyler’s neck … but fails. This only angers Julian/Tyler and he goes to attack Caroline. However Stefan steps in the way … and gets his heart ripped out.

“There,” Tyler/ Julian says, throwing Stefan’s heart in front of a shocked Caroline. “Dead doppelganger. Stopped the spell.”

As Caroline cries over his body and yells for help, Stefan appears in front of Bonnie.

“This can’t be happening,” she says, realizing Stefan is dead.

“Please tell me that you figured out a way to bring us all back,” Stefan begs her.

But Bonnie tells him that she lost it.

What did you think of episode 21 of “The Vampire Diaries”? Let us know in the comments section.