The Vampire Diaries S5, E20 Recap: “What Lies Beneath”

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

This week’s episode of “The Vampire Diaries” moves our story significantly forward as we approach the final episodes of the season.

We begin with Tyler waking up inside the travelers’ camp with a woman on top of him. When she realizes Tyler is awake, she assumes her husband, Julian, is awake inside of Tyler, and not Tyler. Tyler pretends to be Julian and lets Maria tell him Markus’ plans to move camp again and get the doppelgangers so they can complete their spell. Once Tyler learns the travelers’ plan to go after Elena and Stefan, he begins to transform into a werewolf and manages to escape from the chains he is tied to and flees the camp.

The Vampire Diaries S5, E19 Recap: “Man on Fire”

As Tyler leaves the travelers to go warn his friends about the travelers’ plans, Luke is working with Damon and Stefan to find Enzo using a locator spell. Luke is unable to locate Enzo, and Stefan tries to convince Damon that perhaps Enzo hired a witch to put a cloaking spell on him so no one can find him. Their conversation ends when Tyler arrives and tells them the travelers’ plans. Damon suggests he, Stefan, and Elena go to a secret hiding place and Luke put a spell on the doppelgangers to prevent the travelers from finding them.

Stefan, Damon, and Elena arrive at Caroline’s dad’s old cabin. Caroline watches Stefan and Elena secretly chit-chat and assumes they are flirting with one another, when in reality they are talking about keeping Enzo’s death a secret from Damon. Elena is not comfortable lying to Damon, but Stefan thinks it is better to keep it a secret for the time being. As the three of them go into the cabin, Caroline hesitates outside the front door and looks around the outside of the cabin; she senses someone is watching her, and it turns out it is Enzo but she cannot see him since he is on the other side.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Jeremy are trying to spend some time together in Bonnie’s dorm room while Elena and Caroline are away. Jeremy cannot relax because he wants to know what will happen to Bonnie if the other side falls. Bonnie lies and tells Jeremy Liv is creating a spell to keep Bonnie in their world. Jeremy seems content with this solution, and then gets a call that Tyler is back. Jeremy and Bonnie decide they need to go help Tyler, and when he goes to collect his stuff, Grams appears and tells Bonnie to stop lying to Jeremy about her impending death. When Grams approaches Bonnie, she is able to knock over a lamp, proving that spirits on the other side are able to manipulate physical objects in this world.

Back at the cabin, Stefan and Elena leave to go collect wood in the shed. Enzo is  inside the shed listening to their conversation. Stefan thinks Damon might forget about Enzo’s death and move on. When they leave the shed, Enzo hits an overhanging lamp and realizes he can move things in the real world.

While Stefan and Elena are coming back to the cabin, Caroline is getting ready to play charades while Damon watches her. Caroline tells Damon she thinks there is something going on between Stefan and Elena, and Damon realizes they were acting odd when talking about Enzo. They decide to play charades to get information out of Stefan and Elena.

Back in Mystic Falls, Matt chains Tyler to the wall inside the Lockwood mansion in preparation to draw out the traveler inside of Tyler. Tyler wants Matt and Jeremy to torture Julian with vervain and wolfsbane to get information out of Julian about Markus’ plans and where they moved their camp. Matt conjures Julian and begins to torture him but to no avail. Matt finally stabs Julian with a stake and Julian cannot take the torture anymore. He says he does not know where Markus moved the camp, but he does know where his body is being kept, and offers that information to Matt and Jeremy.

Inside the travelers’ camp, Markus is infuriated with Maria. He does not understand how she could not sense that Tyler’s consciousness was present when she was talking about their plans. Markus demands that Maria find Tyler. They want to make Julian permanently inside Tyler’s body.

Later that evening, Stefan, Damon, Elena, and Caroline play charades while Luke prepares the cloaking spell to hide the doppelgangers from the travelers. Damon suggests they start playing “Never Have I Ever”, and the game quickly gets awkward when Caroline says, “Never have I ever kissed a Salvatore brother today,” and Damon says “Never have I ever lied about Enzo’s whereabouts.” Stefan and Elena do not respond to either jab, and Elena gets upset and leaves the room.

Upstairs, Elena prepares a bath while Enzo watches her. When she gets into the tub, Enzo forces her head underwater. Since Elena is a vampire, she cannot drown, but she screams for Damon. Damon arrives and she rushes to him, telling him she felt someone push her underwater.

Disturbed by this development, Stefan calls Bonnie and asks if spirits from the other side and manipulate objects in their world. She tells Stefan that they actually can, and explains what happened with Grams. Stefan tells Bonnie he thinks Enzo is messing with them, and Caroline overhears Stefan say Enzo is dead. Stefan does not deny it, and then Damon arrives and lets them know he knows Enzo is dead; Elena told him. They consider why Enzo would try to drown Elena when he knows he cannot kill her underwater, then they realize Luke is missing and Enzo was likely trying to distract them to hide Luke.

The group splits up to search for Luke, and Damon and Stefan find Luke tied up in a shed and notice the shed is covered in gasoline. Enzo throws a lamp onto the ground to set the shed on fire, and stabs Stefan with a stake and Damon with a log to stop them from escaping. As Enzo  holds the log inside of Damon, Damon begs Enzo to stop hurting them, then explains he will find a way to bring Enzo back to life. He says they were able to bring Bonnie and Jeremy back into their world, so there are ways. As Enzo considers this, Stefan is able to take the stake out and gets Luke. Enzo lets go of the log to let Damon escape, and the three of them run from the shed seconds before it is covered in fire.

Meanwhile, Jeremy and Bonnie go looking for Julian‘s body in the cave where Julian told them it would be. They find multiple bodies in the cave, and look for a man with an eagle tattoo; that is how they will identify Julian. While they search, Maria shows up with some other travelers and they put a spell on Jeremy to choke him. While Jeremy is choking, Maria finds Julian’s body and takes it away while Bonnie begs them to stop, but Maria ignores her.

Once they have Julian’s body in the camp, the travelers begin the spell to make Julian permanently inside Tyler. Back at the Lockwood mansion, Tyler wakes up and realizes what is happening to him. Jeremy, Matt, and Bonnie helplessly watch as Julian’s consciousness takes over Tyler.

At the cabin, Caroline lets Stefan know she is upset that Stefan and Elena kept Enzo’s death a secret from her. He tells her he did not tell her because he did not want Caroline to think anything less of her, and that he tells her things he does not tell Elena. Caroline smiles as she watches Stefan leaves to go to the car, but as Stefan walks away he senses something surrounding him.

Damon and Elena are at the car, and Elena wants to apologize for lying about Enzo. Damon does not want to talk to her. As he explains why it is so hard to be around her, he suddenly kisses her. Elena asks why he did that, and he explains he had a really crappy day and needed a kiss.  As Damon goes into the cabin, Elena smiles as she watches him. Suddenly, someone comes from behind Elena and grabs her; the travelers found her and Stefan.

And with that, we begin the conclusion of the season! It looks like the last two episodes will address the spell the travelers will try, complete with the doppelganger blood, and the others will try and save Elena and Stefan before they are killed. I have to say that of all the seasons, Markus and the travelers are the least menacing villain in “The Vampire Diaries” universe. And that is saying a lot as Silas was not that threatening either. I truly hope we will be rid of the travelers after this season; after a season and a half of them being around, I do not think they are compelling by any means. Bring back villainous vampires, like Klaus, or more threatening witches. The travelers have not shown any compelling magic, with the exception of Qetsiah (who they never should have killed off). Suffice to say, I will be glad once this season is over and hopefully we can move on with a new, and more intriguing villain, next season.