The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017): Season 6, Episode 17 - A Bird in a Gilded Cage - full transcript

Elena and Damon try to save his mom. Stefan and Caroline still have no humanity and Bonnie deals with her issues with Ki.

Previously on "the vampire diaries"...
-Who are you? -Who are you?
Oh, my god. That's my mother.
Kai: There are only two prison worlds in existence,
Mine and the one created in 1903
For locking up your mom
And her closet full of crazy pants.
Tell me how to get her back!
Your mom's a ripper!
Enzo: Meet the real sarah salvatore.
I'm going to make her do things
She'd never dream of doing
Until she begs me to make her a vampire.
I'm pregnant.
-Marry me. -Yes.
Caroline: My mom is dead,
And i just need the pain to be gone.
If anyone tries to flip my humanity switch back on,
I'll become your worst nightmare.
-I like you. -Stop.
Come back.
What the hell are you doing with sarah?
I'm going to kill her.
Aah!
If stefan wants to save sarah's life,
All he has to do is shut his humanity off.
Just remember to bring me back.
Elena: Stefan, don't you dare shut it off.
[music playing]
A hard knock life, is it?
Don't walk there. Ugh!
I just washed that.
My apologies, cinderella.
What are you doing?
Stefan and i had a moment.
Things broke in the process,
And now i'm returning the scull bar to the way we found it.
Uh, the whole point of flipping your humanity switch
Is that you don't care how you leave things.
I go to school here, enzo.
I want to keep going to school here,
And the second that i draw any suspicions--
Break-ins, broken property, dead bodies--
People will try to interrupt my routine.
Then i will end up rotting in a cell somewhere instead
Of i should be doing, which is preparing
For my audition tomorrow.
You, caroline forbes, vampire without humanity,
Auditioning for the school play?
Musical.
And obviously, duh.
I'm a drama major.
And what are you doing here?
Find my phone led me here,
Though it didn't explain
Why your sticky fingers needed it last night.
Because you're the only one
With sarah salvatore's phone number.
Why'd you need sarah's number?
To use your life as leverage to convince
Stefan to shut his humanity switch off, too.
That's both clever and deeply unsettling.
Tell me she's still alive.
She's alive,
Assuming she survived any infections
Resulting from liam's amateur surgery.
Which means stefan's humanity's a thing of the past.
Like i said,
I will stop at nothing to maintain my routine,
So i suggest that you stay away.
Now if you don't mind,
I need to prepare my audition.
How was the rave?
Oh, you know, loud, lame,
Rave-like.
Anything i should know
Or anything you'd like to talk about
Bro to bro?
Where do we keep our weapons?
Pardon?
Crossbows, vervain grenades,
All that hunter crap jeremy was into?
Ah! Yes! The throne.
[grunts]
Heh heh.
Elena told on me. Shocker.
Not a good time for a humanity flip, brother.
[crack]
Agh! Ohh!
Do yourself a favor.
Stay out of my way today.
[bones cracking]
[motorcycle revving]
Jo: Whoa. Easy.
Where am i?
You're at whitmore medical center.
I'm dr. Laughlin.
Last night...
You had a little bit too much to drink.
A professor found you passed out on the quad.
I sort of remember that.
It was like a spring break kickoff rave.
I should get home.
Actually, i need you to sit tight.
We need to look after you for a while.
You lost a lot of fluids last night.
Ok?
For the record,
I am not ok with turning my hospital
Into a supernatural holding cell.
Ok. Look. It's the first day of spring break.
The campus is like a ghost town.
Besides, we need to keep her out of harm's way
Until elena's blood is out of her system
Unless of course you want to invite another
Salvatore vampire to our wedding.
I'm starting to think that eloping is the way to go.
Heh. Yeah. Yeah. Me, too.
Mmm.
Look. She's being compelled to forget last night,
And soon, she'll be back at duke,
Safe with no idea what happened
And no one the wiser.
Huh. Duke.
That's not bad.
It's a little obnoxious
But kind of in a cute way, you know?
Little duke.
Whoa. Wait.
We're thinking baby names?
-You haven't been? -No.
I have! No. I have. I totally have.
Name one.
[sighs]
Josette jr.
Get out of here.
I have rounds.
Ok.
[thud, grunting]
Damon.
What are you doing?
Looking for a...
Healthy outlet for my rage.
I haven't found it yet.
Stefan without his humanity is one artery away
From stefan the ripper,
And every day that goes by is one year
Of guilt waiting for him
On the other side.
Yeah. Well, not to add
To our growing pile of bad news,
But we didn't just lose stefan.
We lost our chance to spark caroline's humanity.
Turns out he was her emotional trigger.
No, thanks.
Well, take it away from me
Because i'm seconds away from using it on this.
Yeah.
Who is that?
This...
Is lillian salvatore.
Your mother is alive?
Yep. Turns out she's been
In a prison world snapshot of 1903 for over a century.
Your mother is alive.
Oh, yeah. Alive and well, not in the pine box
That i thought i buried her in in 1858,
And apparently, she's a vampire
And not just any kind of vampire either--
Damon, your mother is alive!
She's a ripper, elena.
Makes perfect sense.
Stefan was always such a mama's boy.
How much of a mama's boy?
He would have hanged himself
With mother's apron strings
If it meant her approval.
We both would. We loved her.
She was our world.
What?
No. No way.
This is our way to get stefan back!
You can't tell me that his mother isn't an emotional trigger.
Elena, this woman killed so many people
That an entire coven of witches built her a permanent timeout!
You don't fix one ripper problem
By unleashing another ripper.
Think about it. If this works,
We don't just get stefan and caroline back.
We get your mother back.
Aren't you even a little curious
To see her?
I might know a few witches that could help.
Bonnie: I'm not helping you.
Ow.
I hate kai, and you know that,
And the first thing you did when i got back
Was throw him in my face to fake apologize.
Yeah, and then i real apologized for being a dick.
And here you are less than 24 hours later asking me
To work with him.
Bonnie, we need kai to get to 1903,
And we need bennett blood to do the damn spell.
Listen. We go in, we grab my mom,
She flips stefan's switch,
He triggers caroline, emotional dominoes,
Heyyyy!
Everybody wins.
If i give you my blood,
Will you just get out of my face?
Probably,
Although...
I think you're gonna want to join us.
Stick with me, bonnie bennett.
I might just have the answer to all your prayers.
You want the 1903 ascendant.
Well, sure. Just let me reach in my pocket
And pull it out.
If you're sincerely looking for a way
To make up for the hell that you put me through,
This is it.
Ok. The problem is the gemini kept the existence
Of the 1903 prison world a secret
For generations,
So find the key to that particular jail cell,
I'd have to navigate ancient texts,
Undo layers of magical cloaking spells,
And...
Wait.
Oh, that's weird.
Ha ha!
It was in my pocket.
When damon told me about mama salvatore, i started looking,
And if i wanted to,
I could get her out.
Newly minted leader of the gemini coven and all,
I don't even need a celestial event to zap us there.
Ok. So what's the catch?
I'll go if you go.
Come on. It could be fun,
You know, 1903, the--the gilded age.
Didn't you ever dream about time travel?
I would rather die of cholera
Than spend an afternoon with you.
You're way more likely to die at the hands
Of your gal pal caroline.
I bet it will be over something stupid
Like she stops doing laundry,
And you make some snippy comment,
And she snips off your tongue.
I'm mean,
If only there were some way to reunite her
With her humanity.
Caroline: ♪ maybe there's somewhere ♪
♪ a lesson to learn ♪
♪ but that wouldn't change the fact ♪
♪ that wouldn't speed the time ♪
♪ once the foundation's cracked ♪
♪ and i'm ♪
♪ still hurting ♪
[music stops]
Hello? Pretty sure i crushed that.
Heh heh.
[slow clapping]
Stefan: Moving, truly,
Although it did lack a certain, um,
Authenticity.
What the hell are you doing?
That was the director!
And you are a vampire without humanity,
Singing about heartbreak.
It's a performance, stefan.
It sure is, caroline, especially
This carefully crafted good student routine,
Straight and narrow,
Anything to keep you from making a mistake
You might regret one year from now
When you flip your switch back on.
Oh, except the whole ruining my life part.
Well, if your humanity's off,
Then you shouldn't really care how i deal.
No, no, no. See, that's where you're wrong
Because like you, i'm prone to doing
Bad things when my humanity is off,
But unlike you, i don't have
An elaborate system to keep me in check.
Well, that's not my problem.
Well, i'm making it your problem.
If my life is gonna fall apart
When my humanity starts flooding back,
Then so is yours.
When i'm done with you,
You'll be drowning in mistakes.
This is seriously about revenge?
Yes, it is,
And this,
This is a control freak's worst nightmare.
This is me undoing your routine.
This is me...
Forcing you to let go
One day at a time
Until you break.
Kai: Damn.
Crocodile dundee called. He wants his knife back.
Yeah. You know, he's no longer a thing,
And neither is that joke.
Ouch.
Is this presentable attire by 1903 standards?
Whoa. Who said you're coming?
To meet the woman who gave birth
To the two epic loves of my life?
Heh. Me.
Powerful as i am, there's a limit
To how many people one witch can transport
With this spell.
Which is why there's two of us.
Shall we?
Fine. Let's go get mama.
Sangiema meam
Et nos mundo carcerema.
Sangiema meam
Et nos mundo carcerema.
Well, isn't this a picturesque slice of hell?
You guys go ahead.
Kai and i will start the locator spell on the ascendant.
But kai just had the ascendant.
Why do we have to find another one?
The ascendant can't travel between worlds,
Which means we got to find its mirror image
Here in 1903.
Page 10 of the world-jumping rulebook.
Shall we?
I don't want to leave you alone with him.
I'll be fine.
He's good now, remember?
New leaf.
New leaf?
You believe me.
Hell, no.
Damon and elena need to meet his mom alone.
Now shut up, and let's find the ascendant.
Caroline: Oh, shoot.
Is your bike ok?
Do you need money for the bus?
Seriously?
I just had to stuff the director's body
Into a furnace.
Do you know how hard it was to get an audition
During spring break?
Oh, come on. It was easy for you, caroline.
All you had to do was shed some tears
About your mom's funeral,
Play the cancer card,
And--boom--your precious routine is back on track.
Am i wrong?
This is your only warning.
Go away.
Neat, organized caroline,
Staying within the lines.
Good at control, terrible at revenge.
I dismantled your bike.
I tore your director's head off with my teeth.
Oh, my god. Caroline, did you literally
Just unbolt this damn thing?
I mean, it's gonna take me, what, 10 minutes
To put this back together?
You are an embarrassment to humanity-free vampires everywhere.
[cell phone ringing]
Ok. So i've got a few. You ready?
Jo: Actually, i thought about it,
And anyone named alaric should not be allowed
To name another human.
Uh, i didn't name me.
True. Ok. You can have veto power.
Good. Well, then i veto duke.
Ha ha!
[knock on door]
Uh, let me call you right back.
What are you doing here?
Really hoping you've got enough vervain
To get blondie and her cohort
From here to the salvatore cellar
Without further drama.
You do realize i'm a human, right,
Up against two vampires without remorse?
Ah. I see.
Your girl has got a bun in the oven,
And now you've gone all gun-shy.
Vamp hearing.
You know, i'd actually like my child
To grow up with a father.
Granted, a cowardly father.
Probably play catch and run from the ball
Or go fishing and flee from the fish.
I have weapons in my apartment.
Can we just take a second to acknowledge
How insane it is that we're standing
In the house that you grew up in?
Aw. Damon, you were so adorable.
Oh, thanks.
Except that's stefan.
This...
Is me.
We're not here to socialize.
We get the ascendant,
We find my mother.
After she flips stefan's switch,
I'll figure out what the hell we're gonna do with her.
You can give her another chance.
Chance to what,
Eviscerate another literal boatload of people?
Stefan was a ripper.
You never gave up on him.
And where was lily from 1858-1903?
She was blood-binging through europe
While stefan and i carried the loss.
Not exactly maternal, elena.
As far as i'm concerned, my mother died
When we buried her empty coffin.
The woman we're looking for is just a tool
To get my brother back.
Lily: Damon?
Hello, mother.
There was a time i marked days on a calendar.
I gave up after a few years,
But judging by your bizarre attire--
You've been in here for over a century.
Yeah. I would have come by sooner,
But i thought you were safe and sound
In the family crypt.
My bad.
Well, technically, i did die in 1858
After a nurse in the tb ward fed me vampire blood.
And you never thought to stop by
And clear things up?
How did you end up here...
Mrs. Salvatore?
"mrs. Salvatore"?
I don't know what to call her.
Please call me lily.
It was october 31, 1903.
I had just arrived in new york harbor.
The night sky was alive with this beautiful, shimmering light,
And out of nowhere, a coven of witches attacked,
And when i awoke, they were gone.
Everyone was gone.
That night, the sky danced with colors again,
And it's done so every night since.
It's called prison. You must have pissed off a lot of people.
That life seems like forever ago.
You on a diet?
I depleted every slaughterhouse
Within walking distance and every butcher shop
Along the hellish trek from new york
To mystic falls.
This is the last of the blood here.
Heh. Two drops a week just to stay awake.
That sounds miserable.
I manage.
I heard you and your brother turned during the war.
Mm-hmm.
Your father must have been horrified.
He was,
And then stefan ripped his throat out.
Mmm! Heh.
I apologize. That's cruel to laugh,
But good for stefan.
I truly hated that man.
Oh, i know you did,
So much so that you left your kids with him,
Faked your own death, and went out to join the ripper coalition.
Well, it's nice to see that you've grown into yourself, damon.
How's your brother?
[coins dropping]
Hello?
Is anyone there?
[coins dropping]
[thud]
Damn it, stefan! What do you want?
Oh, i brought you a little peace offering.
I figure with all that singing and furnace stuffing
You must be parched.
Unh!
See, now this is how a vampire with no humanity
Is supposed to act.
I'm inflicting actual pain.
Leave me alone.
Why? Are you thinking about giving in,
Letting go, breaking code?
Stefan, stop.
Come on, caroline.
Just let go.
I promise it will feel good.
I'm not gonna let you ruin my life.
Ok. Then i'll end it.
Agh!
Agh! Agh!
You have really nice palms.
Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras
Sequitas sanguinem.
Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras sequitas sanguinem.
Do you know why i'm here?
Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras...
Because my guilt keeps me up at night.
Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras
Sequitas sanguinem.
I don't--i don't expect you to believe me,
But i need you to give me one more chance.
Nas ex viras sequitas sanguinem.
Phesmatos tribum nas ex viras
Sequitas--
Bonnie! Listen to me!
Sorry. I-- oh, my god.
I didn't--i didn't mean to do that.
But you did it anyway
Because even if you're telling the truth,
The old you is still inside of you.
The ascendant is this way.
And you believe that i can reconnect stefan with his humanity?
The last memory stefan has of you
Is a vision of an angel telling him
That everything's gonna be ok.
So you're gonna be an angel again.
He doesn't need to know how screwed up you really are.
Of course i'll help.
I'd love nothing more than to see him again.
Pack your bags.
Wonderful. Ha.
I'll alert the others.
You'll alert who now?
You knew so much about me, i assumed you'd heard
Of my traveling companions.
What traveling companions?
Everyone...
Meet my son damon.
He's here to take us home.
There you are.
Definite role model material.
Damon really spent 5 years in a cell with you
Without killing himself?
A fellow smartass.
I can see why you're his drinking buddy,
Though you're gonna have to knock off the hard stuff
While you're breastfeeding, mate.
You know, what are you even doing here?
I thought you hated stefan.
Yeah, i do.
In fact, i have a whole elaborate
Revenge scheme against him,
But, well, unfortunately in order
To truly hurt someone, they have to care.
So you want stefan's humanity back
Just to remind him how much you two hate each other?
Games are more fun with two players.
You know, last night, an innocent girl had
An involuntary splenectomy
Because you brought her into your life.
Now if that is your idea of fun,
You need to take a long look in the mirror, pal.
And what, reevaluate my flipping disregard for human life?
No. Just confront your deep, obvious loneliness.
Oh. Got me there.
Yeah. I'm just a sad nobody up to no good
While you're at home, ticking off your life milestones--
Girl, kid, death.
Heh. Sounds lovely.
[music playing]
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
It's called spring break.
It's called practice.
Is he ok?
He's fine.
Nice going, you jackass.
Second lesson in losing control--
No saving strangers.
Go hide in your room.
I'll deal with you later.
So to summarize...
Letting go means being an idiot,
Increasing your chances of getting caught,
And worst of all-- actively making choices--
Shh, shh.
Uh, enzo.
Bollocks.
[music playing]
These vampires have been trapped here with you
The whole time?
We went everywhere together.
They happened to be on the boat that night,
Poor souls.
These poor souls don't happen to have
The same affinity for rolling heads, do they?
On the contrary.
These people saved me from that part of myself.
I was banished here because i was a monster.
I drank with no remorse from whatever human
I could sink my teeth into,
But locked in this cage,
I was forced to confront the animal
That i had become,
And as we ran out of resources,
My friends sacrificed their rations for me,
And i knew if i drank everything,
As every bone in my body demanded,
There wouldn't be enough to wake them,
So i learned
To control my bloodlust for them.
These people made me feel human again.
I'll fetch the last of the blood so we can revive them.
Damon: Not only is she a ripper,
She's an insane ripper!
Or maybe she feels responsible for them.
What, are you kidding me?
She has a vampire dollhouse.
Damon...
Isn't this the ascendant?
Yeah.
Why isn't bonnie here?
Because bonnie's not looking for the ascendant, elena.
Spell feels stronger.
The ascendant must be around here somewhere.
Why would the ascendant be here?
I don't know. I didn't put it here.
If you don't think i'm capable of change,
Why spend an entire day with me
By bringing me out into the middle of nowhere?
I could gut you all over again.
Your friends would never even hear you scream.
Because maybe you're right.
Maybe deep down, there's a part of me
That believes there's a sliver of good in you.
Ha!
And you'd be right. Ha ha!
Looking, looking, and nope!
They didn't hide the ascendant
In a random pile of--
Ohh! Oh, god!
Ugh! Bonnie! Ohh! Ohh!
What are you doing?
Gaining your trust and stabbing you in the back.
Feels pretty sucky, doesn't it?
Bonnie, please don't.
Don't what? Don't leave you here all alone,
Drive you to the point of wanting
To end your own life?
I almost killed myself because of you!
Bonnie, please. Believe me.
I've changed.
I know.
So have i.
At least they're still breathing.
Oh. Damon must be up to something good
If he sent the "b" team.
What do you say we send him
A little message?
What are you doing?
Stopping you from leaving the cleaning staff
Two dead bodies,
Not to mention killing elena's former guardian
And your brother's best friend.
Did you like being locked up and tortured
To get your humanity back?
It must be so exhausting overthinking everything,
Denying your own urge to kill
And just be done with theme.
Back away.
Fine. If that's what you want.
Hey!
Hey! Where are you going?
[whimpering]
You think i don't know everything about you?
I taught you how to control your bloodlust, remember?
Stand still and don't scream.
What are you doing?
The thing that you keep resisting.
If you're trying to tempt me,
It's not working.
I don't have to try.
Deep down, you and i are exactly the same, caroline.
Come on. You can break routine for a second, right?
She has a really pretty neck.
[music playing]
[footsteps]
Your vampire menagerie's gonna have to take
The next train out.
We're down a witch.
You want to leave them behind?
No, damon. You-- you can't save me without saving them.
We'll come back for them, promise.
Let's go.
Elena: Damon, look outside.
Is that the aurora borealis?
Also known as our ticket out of here.
You got it?
-Yeah. -Ok.
Damon: You got to be kidding me.
Go. Start the damn spell.
I'll go get her.
Time to wake up.
No!
I said they're not coming.
What have you done?
We'll see them at the reunion. Let's go.
You don't understand, damon.
-I will not leave them. -Too bad.
They are my family.
These people are my family.
These freaks may be your family,
But stefan salvatore is mine,
And if you don't want to help him,
I will leave you here to rot.
Do you understand me?
Sangiema meam liber nos ex carcerema.
Sangiema meam liber nos ex carcerema.
Sangiema meam liber...
Damon!
Sangiema meam liber nos ex carcerema.
Sangiema meam liber nos ex carcerema.
Sangiema meam liber nos ex carcerema.
Bonnie!
Nice negligee.
Enzo, hey.
Um, did i call you last night?
I have a text from you to meet up,
But i don't remember ever seeing you.
Look, sarah.
It was a mistake bringing you into my life.
Then why did you?
Call it deep and obvious loneliness.
Heh heh
[sighs]
Look. The truth is you've been a pawn
In a game that i've now lost interest in playing.
You're no ordinary girl, sarah salvatore.
You deserve better.
Sarah salvatore?
Why would you call me that?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, boy.
This is bad.
What?
I'm marrying an idiot.
Ugh!
You could have died today.
As opposed to any other day?
18 years, that's how long i need you to be alive.
Help me raise this baby.
Then we can set him or her free into the world,
And you can run around with guns and vampires and be an idiot.
Ok?
Fine.
Whole world runs on those things.
Sooner you learn them, the better.
Maybe you could teach me.
That's more stefan's thing.
Maybe he can give you a tutorial
After you mother him back to sanity.
Stefan was right.
The night of my funeral,
An angel did visit him--me.
I had just turned, and...
I wanted to see my boys...
But when i leaned down to whisper into stefan's ear,
The hunger surged.
All i could hear was the pulse in his veins,
All i could smell was the blood.
So i fled
For you sake.
And no matter how deeply you felt my absence,
It is half as deep as i felt yours.
Good to know.
I'll let you get some sleep.
Damon.
Yes?
As much as i am looking forward to us
Getting to know each other again,
I fear that i--i can't truly be myself
Until we've retrieved the ones that i left behind.
Oh.
When will we be going back?
Soon, but don't worry.
Your prison world's not going anywhere.
Where do they keep the food?
Aah!
Oh, crap.
Who the hell are--
Aah!
Damon: Should probably check the inventory of the blood cooler
Before lily wakes up.
You have her eyes.
You brought that back?
It's the only baby picture of my boyfriend
In existence.
Of course, i brought it back.
Give me that.
I liked seeing that side of you today.
Disappointed and disillusioned?
You see that every day.
A mother's son.
She's just a means to get stefan back.
Look. I know that she's not the woman that you remember,
But give her some time.
You're lucky you're so adorable
Because your eternal optimism is superannoying.
Well, and i happen to know from experience
That it's never a waste of time
To look for the good in someone.
This woman left her kids to go be
A den mother to a family of vampires.
I think we're gonna be looking for quite a while.
Well, then it's a good thing we have forever.
[music playing]
That wasn't terrible.
See? Control is overrated.
I don't even remember how we got back
To my room.
Where's my shirt?
It's near the girl we left bleeding out
In the hallway.
-Heh heh. -Ha ha ha!
You were right.
Your way is much more fun.
Oh, hey, bon-bon.
Oh! Ahem.
Sorry.
Awkward timing.
No, no, no. It's fine. I, um--
I have to actually go check in on ric
To find out how things are going
With stefan and caroline,
So...
This better be good.
I just wanted to thank you
For helping me find closure today.
You know there's a crazy lady up there
That wants to open that prison world up more than anything, right?
But we're never going back there,
Right?
No, we're not.
Good.
Because i have something for you,
A gift from 1994.
I was gonna give it to you yesterday,
But then you acted like an ass,
And you didn't deserve it.
Well, i...
That's not what i think it is, is it?
If it wasn't for your notes
On the map of nova scotia,
I would have never remembered there was
Magic on that island,
And there's a good chance
That i wouldn't be here today.
So for my '94 road trip,
I got you a little something.
The cure.
The cure to vampirism.
I knew you were planning on getting it yourself.
You had the whole route mapped down to the kilometer.
Why are you giving me this?
Because my mom's surprisingly happy as a vampire,
And because i have full faith that we'll get
Caroline back to normal the old-fashioned way,
But mostly because i knew you wanted it for elena.
What if i don't want it for her now?
That's none of my business.
I'm just finishing what you started.
You can give it to her or not.
It's up to you.