'The Vampire Diaries' Recap 'The Downward Spiral,' Season 6 Episode 16, Caroline Minus Her Humanity

A few weeks ago "The Vampire Diaries" was shaken up by Caroline's decision to turn off her humanity.

This week in "The Downward Spiral," the sixteenth episode of the shows sixth season, the crew including Bonnie, has to cope with the aftermath.

Tonight's episode, directed by Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore), is all about Caroline's "Downward Spiral" after she threatened to shut off her humanity due to her mother's passing, while proceeding to snap Elena's neck. This week, Caroline is posing a shocking ultimatum to her friends that catches everyone off-guard. When Stefan tries to help the situation things spiral out of control and Steroline looks rockier than ever.

Bonnie broke the news to Damon that his mother is still alive, however, what he finds out is even more devastating.

Enzo is hellbent on ruining Stefan's life but something about Sarah Salvatore catches his attention. After being away from the present day for so long, Bonnie is forced to struggle with being back, especially under the crazy circumstances.

The action kicked off as Caroline looks to be having the time of her life at the bar, until she is cut off by a bartender. He offers to call her a cab and she tells him that her mother is dead, however, she doesn't seem like her, she doesn't even care that her mom is dead.

Meanwhile, Liam approaches Caroline and starts hitting on her, she actually gives in.

Liam is clearly not into Elena anymore and Caroline is taking full advantage of that. The two start engaging in some hot and heavy behavior, but then, Caroline takes a bite into his neck.

Stefan and Elena are trying to figure out where Caroline is and there is simply no trace left behind. Elena ends the call with Stefan and just then, Bonnie walks in and the two embrace each other like never before. It's good to have Bonnie back.

Damon is trying to open up his mother's coffin and Kai is a looming enigma as always. Kai tries to convince Damon that his mother is still alive but Damon doesn't believe it.

Damon is trying to revoke any thought that his mother is a vampire. He finally opens the coffin only to find that it's empty.

Meanwhile, Enzo sips tea and it looks like Sarah is admiring him from afar. Enzo approaches her and she remembers that he saved Matt with his blood. Enzo invites her for some tea and she obliges. Bonnie is still jumpy but very happy to be back home to her clothes and her friends. She and Elena toast to the good news. Bonnie says that she doesn't want Jeremy knowing that she is back and Elena is surprised.

Caroline comes in with new everything to start over fresh. She isn't the slightest bit surprised of happy to see Bonnie back. She admits to eating Liam and is not acting herself at all.

As she tells the story of chowing down on Liam's blood, she admits to not killing him. Caroline asks for a year of no pain, fear or remorse.

She wants them to leave her alone and she promises she won't kill anyone. However, if anyone tries to get her to flip her switch back, she says she will make everyone's life a living nightmare.

Things just got extremely complicated for TVD crew.

There is no way that Stefan will grant this, is there? This is a very tricky situation and a lot of people can get hurt if it's not handled, so how will Stefan balance Caroline without her emotions and finding out his mother is alive once Damon breaks the news?

Damon finally finds out that Caroline has flipped her switch and Stefan asks him to keep an eye out for anyone thats missing. Kai ridicules Damon for not telling Stefan but Damon says that he will break the news once he knows what's going on. Kai agrees to help Damon find his mother if Damon helps him meet with Bonnie and apologize for everything he's done to her.

Sarah is intrigued by Enzo and threatens him with photos of him to find out more. Enzo admits to her that she is a vampire, however, she doesn't seem surprised at all.

Caroline approaches and Sarah is sent away by Enzo. Caroline admits her humanity is off and invites Enzo to the Whitmore rave.

Stefan meets up with Liam and asks if he remembers being with Caroline. He asks if there was any biting involved and in a hilarious response Stefan has to deal with hearing that Liam and Caroline made out. Stefan asks Elena if she wants to go to a rave and she and Bonnie attend the huge Whitmore party.

They look around to try to locate Caroline who looks to be having the time of her life. When she and Elena's eyes meet, Caroline bares her teeth in a threatening manner.

Meanwhile, Bonnie is whisked away by a stranger who asks her if she wants to dance. When the stranger gets too touchy, Bonnie uses a little witchy power to scare him off.

The party rages on and Elena and Stefan are discussing Caroline's behavior. Elena is all for the behavior and says that she seems to have everything under control. However, Stefan disagrees and he is blaming himself for what happened. Elena agrees and asks him what his plan is going to be to get the old Caroline back. Stefan approaches Caroline and the two share a shot.

Bonnie receives a call from Damon and she is very happy to hear her. Bonnie seems troubled and Damon picks up on it. She asks Damon if he slipped right back into the swing of things, or if it was hard.

After they get over Bonnie's time back, Damon starts to ask her for the favor but the mention of Kai's name alone was repulsive, causing Damon to quickly retract the plan.

Damon breaks the news to Kai who actually seems pretty broken up about it. Kai threatens Damon with knowledge of his mother in exchange for helping him make amends with Bonnie.

Stefan and Caroline seem to be having fun and she knows he is there to babysit her. However, he lies and tries to deny it, however, she sees right through it. Stefan admits to actually having feelings for Caroline and that he was wrong and urges her to let her emotions back in.

She looks remorseful when Stefan begs to come back to him so he can help her, however she snaps out of it and tells him he shouldn't have done that.

She approaches Liam and asks him how good he is at surgery before whisking him away.

Enzo arrives to the party and meets up with Caroline who questions as to whether or not Sarah is coming. Caroline then devises her plan to get everyone to leave her alone, which involves Enzo. When she tries to celebrate with Enzo, he refuses saying it's not fun when she's not herself.

Damon brings Kai to the Rave to apologize to Bonnie who only remembers all of the pain he put her through while she was on the other side.

Bonnie tells Kai that if she ever sees his face again, she will melt it off.

Elena tries to get into contact with Bonnie when Stefan approaches her knowing that Caroline is still there. He begs Elena to help him get her back and before they can leave he receives a call from Enzo. That is, Caroline using Enzo's phone.

Caroline tells Stefan she is going to kill Sarah and drops the phone.

She is clearly a woman possessed and Stefan may have gone too far this time in thinking he could bring her back. Will it cost him the life of his only existing family other than Damon?

Bonnie is livid and walks into her room slamming the door. Damon walks in after her and tries to explain why he set the entire scheme up. Bonnie attacks Damon trying to make him feel what she went through at the hands of Kai. She finally loosens her spell on Damon and tells him to get out. She seems stronger than ever and now it looks like the Bamon bond is gone.

Elena and Stefan arrive to find Caroline who reveals that she compelled Liam to kill Sarah. Stefan tells Caroline that he will do anything to stop Sarah from dying.

Caroline says that if he really wants to save Sarah, he has to shut his humanity off.

She doesn't want anyone who can convince her to flip her switch back on to exist and Stefan is the only one who can do so because of his kindness and good nature.

Now he is forced to choose between having his family killed or flipping a switch that could send him back down ripper lane.

Caroline tells Liam to cut Sarah's spleen out when Stefan refuses to comply. Stefan is able to find out where Liam is and Elena rushes off to save Sarah. When Stefan tries to get to the phone Caroline tells Liam to aim for the heart. She attacks Stefan and stakes him. Meanwhile, Kai reveals to Damon that his mom is not only a vampire, she is a ripper.

She traveled to Europe to kill and continued to kill over and over again. Damon is completely broken up after hearing the mayhem his mother committed.

Bonnie calls Jeremy and leaves a message on his voicemail telling him that she isn't sure he's like the Bonnie she is now. She asked for time alone and promised to visit him later.

Elena arrives at the hospital to try to find Liam before he is able to complete the heart surgery on Sarah. Caroline has Stefan pinned down and she admits to feeling some kind of remorse seeing Stefan the way he is. Caroline orders Liam to kill Sarah.

Caroline answers the phone when Elena calls and when he has no other choice, Stefan flips his switch while telling Elena to remember to bring him back. Caroline watched it all unfold with her own eyes.

Elena walks in on Liam and is able to save Sarah.

Elena calls Stefan to tell him that Sarah is going to be okay, however, he shut his humanity off as he and Caroline now look to be a badass twosome, sharing a margarita of course.

The last couple of episodes are going to be a crazy roller coaster ride judging from tonight's episode of "The Vampire Diaries," it's not the easiest transition for Bonnie and Stefan is having a tough time with everything that is going on. "The Downward Spiral" was beautifully directed by Ian Somerhalder, he did a great job in getting the rest of the cast to invoke all of their emotion this week. While the transition isn't ideal for Bonnie, it does feel awesome to have her back on the show.

There was just a feeling that something was missing and now all the pieces are back, except for Jeremy and Sheriff Forbes that is.

Steroline was once in a place fans could appreciate but the relationship looks as if it is slipping away and all that was previewed was a sliver of hope.

Fans who can't get enough will have to tune next week to see what The CW hit has in store.