Stefan opens a storage locker three years from now in Brooklyn and wakes Damon from desiccation in his coffin.
In current day, Caroline is keeping a journal for Elena. She tells us that Alaric and Damon are on a bender in Europe. Bonnie is looking out for them. Matt will be Deputy Donovan next week. The town gave Caroline’s mom a bench, which is where she’s writing.
Stefan appears and tells Caroline he’s going to the hospital to investigate some missing blood bags. He suspects it’s his mother. Conversation is awkward. Stefan says he made things weird. Caroline admits he did. Stefan says he’ll let her heal and until then, they’re friends. He leaves.
Valerie, a member of Lily’s heretic family, is keeping a diary as well. While trying to figure out her cell phone, she gets hit by an SUV. The driver and passenger get out to check on her, but then take off to avoid being arrested because they’re high. After they leave, Valerie gets up and goes home.
Lily is keeping her family in an abandoned house. There’s Beau who’s a mute, Nora and Mary Louise who are lovers, and Malcolm, Lily’s “pet.” Nora and Mary Louise complain that they have to live on three sips a day like in the prison world.
Lily leaves her family members to talk to Enzo. She reminds them that they need to coexist. Valerie arrives. She complains that she had to act like roadkill when the SUV teenagers left her for dead. She wanted to fight back, but Lily wants them to coexist at all costs. Lily tells Valerie that she’s proud of her.
Valerie goes after the driver and his girlfriend. She smashes his head on the windshield of his vehicle. Nora and Mary Louise are with her. They tell the girl that she’s worse than the driver because she thought about doing the right thing and then left her there. They drink her blood and then hang her and her dead boyfriend from the ceiling.
Stefan and Matt decide to take down the heretics. They call Alaric to find out how to make a bomb. They figured out which house because the power was mysteriously turned back on after Rick’s wedding. Rick tells Stefan he’ll call him from a less populated area and stumbles up from the table. Damon and Bonnie take a sip from Rick’s glass and realize he’s been drinking tea and is just pretending to be drunk.
Rick asks a medium about a stone that he has. He asks him to communicate with Jo. He gives the medium a ring that is supposed to be Jo’s wedding ring. The medium starts to give him a reading, but Rick attacks him for preying on miserable people – the ring is a fake. He lost the real one to the first psychic he saw. Rick beats on him.
Lily meets Enzo in a bar in New York. She asks Enzo to find a stone that she’s lost. It’s the same stone Rick showed the medium. Lily won’t tell Enzo why she needs it. She says he needs to pick a side. Enzo tells her to find the rock herself.
Caroline has to deliver the bomb because the heretics know what Stefan looks like. She shows up to their house with flowers and pretends to be a human neighbor while Matt sneaks in the back and places the bomb. It goes off.
Bonnie and Damon are looking for Rick. She almost gets hit by a truck, but Damon saves her. She notices that he hesitated before moving her out of the way. She accuses him of resenting her, but tells him that he’s one of her only reminders of Elena so he’s stuck with her.
Stefan calls Lily to tell her that her family is gone and she has until tonight to get out of Mystic Falls or they’ll come for her next. She tells him that it wouldn’t have killed them and that he should run.
The heretics show up at Matt’s graduation. Stefan arrives to warn Caroline. The heretics use magic to set off the sprinklers and then set everything on fire. While everyone’s trying to escape, the heretics start feeding on and killing all of Matt’s classmates. Lily stops them. She berates her family for ruining their chances of fitting in.
Caroline and Stefan are upset over what happened. They end up evacuating everyone in Mystic Falls with a story of a mining fire under the town. They give the town to the heretics with permission to feed on trespassers. They form a truce to save the townspeople and Stefan gives the heretics the Salvatore house.
Enzo removes the plaque from Caroline’s mom’s bench. He says he’s trying to cheer Caroline up by saving it from vandals. Caroline tells him to pick a side and says that no one trusts him.
Damon and company come back to town. Stefan asks Damon not to mess anything up. Bonnie approaches Matt and says the heretics need to be stopped. Matt tells her the heretics getting loose is mostly her fault. He leaves for patrol.
Damon waits for Bonnie in her dorm room. He tells her he has nowhere else to go. She confronts him about hesitating to save her life. He tells her that she’s his best friend and if anything ever happened to her, he would lose his mind. She forgives him. They discuss how they want their town back.
Malcom attacks a homeless man. Bonnie appears and uses magic to hurt him. He starts to take her magic away and Damon rips his heart out.
Caroline tells Stefan that she thought she would heal, but she’s never going to stop missing her mom. Stefan says she needs to forgive herself for having moments of happiness during the bad parts of life. She tells him he makes her happy and kisses him.
Rick goes to the morgue and tells the examiner that he wants to see Jo. He pays him to let him in and jokingly says he plans on bringing her back to life.
Nora and Mary Louise find Malcom and bring him home. Lily comes in and sees he’s dead. She demands to know who did it.
Enzo finds Caroline journaling. He tells her about Malcom. Enzo tells her he picked a side and then jabs a needle into her neck. He says he picked Lily.
Flash forward three years again to Stefan waking Damon. Someone starts shooting arrows at them. Damon says, “She’s back!” He tells Stefan that she’s not going to stop until he’s dead.