'The Vampire Diaries' Final Season Premiere Tweet-cap: Hope Hurts

Warning: This recap for the “Hello, Brother” episode of The Vampire Diaries contains spoilers.

Have a little faith in me.

On The Vampire Diaries, that’s a difficult task. As both Bonnie and Stefan say at different points, they may not be ready to give up on their loved ones — but hope… hope hurts.

The final season premiere begins pretty much where things left off: Damon and Enzo are still on the lam on a killing spree, while Stefan, Bonnie, and Caroline try to track them down. Whatever was in the vault and is now roaming free might be the scariest villain our heroes have had to face. Unfortunately, they have no idea what “it” is — or how to free Damon and Enzo from its clutches.

It’s a lot of gloom and doom — except for some sexy and sweet Steroline action — but this is The Vampire Diaries: Dead is not always dead, evil can be vanquished, and hope springs eternal.

Here’s a rundown of this week’s episode, including our live tweets.

Bad to the Bone

The episode opens with a random guy and girl driving down the road, on their way to see some “terrible” superhero movie. “To be honest, I’m just glad the whole vampire craze is over,” the guy quips. Cue our two favorite, murderous vampires — Damon and Enzo.

The terrible twosome take the couple to a warehouse full of dead bodies, then compel each one to reveal their worst misdeed. The guy “wins,” and Damon takes him to a pit full of water and blood. Why are they doing this? Damon and Enzo shrug. Hey, they’re just the lackeys for… “It.” Damon throws the guy into the pit… and the pit swallows him whole.

Back in Mystic Falls, Caroline and Stefan enjoy a romantic interlude, while Bonnie takes her turn writing to Elena in the diary. Their search has been fruitless, and she’s having a hard time keeping the faith. She remembers a tender memory with Enzo, of him changing guitar strings and teasing her about not reading The Odyssey.

Post-coitus, Caroline vents to Stefan about Alaric’s hot nanny, who makes the unforgivable move of cutting her twins’ sandwich crusts. For shame, Hot Nanny! They discuss their plans for the day — Stefan going over missing persons reports, Caroline checking in with affiliates — when she gets a text. A body has been found! It’s their first real clue in a while.

At the Armory, which Ric now oversees, an intern excitedly reports that they’ve discovered something inside the Vault. The interns, Dorian and Georgie, blindfold him and put headphones on him. Ric, using only touch, feels along the wall — and then finds a spot where he can walk right through it!

Temple of doom

Back in their warehouse of death, Enzo is frustrated. How much longer do they have to keep up this murder spree? Damon just shrugs. He’s turned off his humanity switch and no longer cares. He even pushes Enzo into the pit with a laugh (luckily, Enzo resurfaces).

Alaric and the interns continue to explore the other side of the wall. They find a tunnel, which leads to a door, which opens into a mysterious chamber. A chamber filled with crazy antiques and treasures!

At the news station, Caroline is excited because Pete the sound guy has cleaned up the video of Enzo interrogating Virginia St. John. Now, they can hear what “It” is! Unfortunately, the sound is still buzzed out, right when Virginia starts to explain. Sigh. Well, they just need to find Virginia, stat.

Stefan and Bonnie check out the crime scene with the dead corpse — which turns out to be the girl from the couple at the beginning of the episode. Bonnie realizes that she’s been strangled with a guitar string and there aren’t many miles on the car’s odometer — which means Enzo and Damon are nearby!

As Alaric and the interns continue to explore the chamber, Georgie hits on him. He is being a very sexy Indiana Jones-type right now. He turns her down, though. He’s in total dad mode and doesn’t have the headspace for a flirtation.

Caroline calls the hot nanny, Seline, to check on the girls. They’re playing hide and seek, and Ric’s been MIA all day. Then, the front door blows open. Uh oh… it’s Virginia! She slits Seline’s neck and goes hunting for the twins.

Luckily, Caroline zooms right over and knocks Virginia out. She saves Seline, then sends her home. Now, it’s time to get some answers.

The Devil You Don’t Know

Stefan explores the slaughterhouse where they’ve tracked Damon and Enzo. Damon himself pops up and greets his brother. Damon doesn’t argue with him, merely tells Stefan not to bother trying to save him. He’s done. Stefan refuses to back down, though.

Meanwhile, Caroline starts to interrogate Virginia, asking what was in the vault and what “It” wants with her kids. Virginia reminds her that she warned them not to open the vault, and then to avoid further questions, bites off her own tongue and spits it out!

Stefan continues to push Damon to come back with him. He brings up Elena, but Damon doesn’t even care about Elena anymore. So, Stefan just stabs him as Bonnie arrives. She wants to collect Enzo and go. But in a flash, Enzo punches Stefan, and Damon grabs Bonnie by the throat. Enzo warns Stefan to leave and even mouths “Go!” Stefan and Bonnie, defeated, take off.

Ric helps Caroline clean up Virginia’s dead body. They talk about how to keep their kids safe, and Ric suggests moving in. Caroline thinks that’s a bad idea, but he adds that they wouldn’t be living together. In fact, she’d move out — to live with Stefan.

Stefan drives Bonnie home, and now, he’s despondent. She reminds him that they need to keep fighting and not lose hope. When she goes inside, she again remembers Enzo reading The Odyssey to her and realizes his signs at the crime scene were telling her something related to the story.

Damon and Enzo continue on their murder spree, this time with an artist who uses human blood in his paintings. As they take him away, Damon wonders how Stefan and Bonnie tracked them down, then warns Enzo that “It” knows everything.

Stefan is writing to Elena about how hard it is to keep the faith about saving his brother when Caroline shows up. They comfort each other, and then Caroline offers to move in. Even on a terrible day like this, at least Stefan has one thing to smile about.

Bonnie calls Alaric for info on the sirens in The Odyssey. Ric recalls that they use mind control on their victims and have been called the messengers of the Devil.

When Damon and Enzo return to the slaughterhouse, they toss in the artist. But another being emerges from the bloody pool — a woman. Hello, siren.

The Vampire Diaries airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on The CW.