'The Vampire Diaries' Recap: 'Hell is Other People' Season 7 Episode 10, The Return

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The mid-season return of CWTV's The Vampire Diaries is here and it's pretty epic.

In "Hell is Other People," episode 10 of season seven, Damon faces some torturous visions that puts Julian's fear of being trapped in the Phoenix stone into perspective.

Damon revisits his experience serving in the Civil War and all of the death and destruction he dealt with. The only way that Damon can exit the Phoenix stone is facing some pretty strong inner demons. In the real world, Bonnie is scrambling to find a way to save Damon before he succumbs to the magic of the stone.

A few more flash-forwards give a bit more insight to what the team is going to have to del with in the future and it doesn't look good.

, Caroline and Alaric also have to deal with her pregnancy without things getting too weird while Stefan is also facing his own torture after being stabbed by Nora. Will Steroline survive?

It all begins in the Civil War and an injured Damon wakes up to dead bodies and chaos. He turns around and he sees his mother, however a blast goes off and she disappears. Another soldier calls for his help and he is able to easily lift the wagon that was trapping the soldier.

He awakes at the camp to see the man he saved and a letter from his brother.

The letter is from Stefan who is telling the story of how Valerie has left, his father is still a drunk mess and his mother is still not there.

Stefan misses him and just wants him to go home. Damon sees images of death as he walks across the camp to the Colonel. He requests two weeks leave but he is denied.

The Colonel sends Damon on a chore to arrest and bring back a group of deserters. Damon talks to the friend he saved and Henry asks him if he is certain he wants to go on the mission.

Damon says he doesn't care about the war and that he only enlisted to please his father. Damon said that the deserters made their bed and now they are the ticket home.

Damon knocks on the door of the house and asks if the woman of the house can spare some dinner. At first she refuses but he knocks again and reminds her that it is her duty. Henry decides to check the upper level as Damon explains that it is his duty to check for deserters.

He goes through his check but is ambushed by two deserters holding their guns at him. They ask him to turn around and go home and he won't have any trouble.

Meanwhile, Henry is behind the wall and comes out firing.

Both Henry and Damon end up killing everyone in the house and they are completely stunned and shocked at what they have done. There is real remorse on their faces. Damon hears something in the cellar below and when he goes to look his mother emerges from the shadows.

He knows that it's impossible to see her since she died of consumption. She tells him that she is dead and he made sure of that.

He says none of it makes sense as he begins to realize that his spirit is trapped and he is forced to face his dead mother.

He admits that what happened in the flashback really happened. She asks him if he ever took responsibility for his actions and she says it's time to give himself up. He says they were deserters and they ambushed him.

He is enraged that something so old is keeping him trapped. She tells him that the longer he keeps his trauma at arms length the harder it will be for him in the trapped hell.

She tells him it's not about remorse, it's about punishment but Damon wakes up to see Bonnie who has actually gotta the spell to wake him up right. Bonnie tells him that he has been dead for three months.

Bonnie pours Damon a drink and she asks him if he is okay. He says he is fine but then, Bonnie begins bleeding from the nose. She says that she is fine just weak.

She says that Caroline is at Whitmore, Alaric is at a lecture and Matt is on patrol.

Bonnie breaks the news that Stefan is also in his own hell and he is not happy to hear that he was pulled out first.

He runs to check on the body of Stefan but he and Bonnie realize that Stefan has been taken.

There is a big meeting and Caroline is worried that Julian is going to torch Stefan's body. Damon wants to push Bonnie but Matt and Caroline advise against it because she wasted so much energy pulling him back. Damon asks that she tries to find him and she begins her spell.

Damon hilariously offers a pregnant Caroline a drink and she tells him that she begged Bonnie to get Stefan out first but logic prevailed.

He asks her why he was pulled out before Stefan and she tells him that they were afraid he would lose his humanity. Bonnie is weakened even more but they have found Julian's location.

Caroline stays back to take care of Bonnie and Damon meets with Julian who has soaked Stefan in gasoline. He tells Damon to sit down. He and Julian sit down and Julian asks to hear all about his time in the Civil War. Julian tells his story about being trapped in the stone and killing the love of his life everyday.

He says he was in misery but Damon says he had a different experience. Julian sees that the stone did not help him and that he resisted facing the pain.

Julian burns Stefan's body and his mother shows up once again. He is still not out of the stone it was all fake. He wakes up once more to relive his personal hell all over again.

Damon receives the letter again and is given the chance to break out of his hell again. He goes about business in mostly the same manner and asks for leave again. This time he offers to help with the deserter problem instead of being reported about it.

He clarifies the rules and then decides to go back on the mission.

Damon is starting to see things differently than he did the first time and he says that the men are his ticket out and he has to bring them back alive.

Damon bypasses all of the areas that gave him trouble the last time. He warns Henry not to go upstairs and asks the granny to put the knife down and stand by the table. Henry is not sure what Damon is doing but Damon explains to the ladies that he means no harm. Unfortunately, another shootout occurs and everyone but Damon dies.

He wakes up again and he bypasses the locator spell that Bonnie had to conduct. However, we he leaves to get Stefan back, Stefan approaches and tells him it won't be necessary. This time Stefan was pulled out first.

Stefan says that he wants to skip to the part where he and his brother get drunk and they cheers. Stefan asks what happened to Damon and he recounts the Civil War saga.

Damon denies that what happened to him actually got to him and Stefan continues to question him as to whether he felt anything.

Stefan makes sure he outlines the bleeding people in the farmhouse and Damon tells his brother he isn't real then kills him to reset the hell all over again.

The third time Damon decides that he is going to solve the puzzle. Meanwhile, everyone around Damon is still trying to get Damon up but Stefan is actually alive.

Bonnie and Stefan have a little tiff but Stefan says that Damon isn't ready to be pulled out yet.

He says the worst part about the hell is the sliver of hope that he can get out alive.

Stefan said he got out to the suffering that breaks you, however, he doesn't believe that Damon is capable of doing that and says they need to get him out.

Damon continues to go after the deserters and by now he is losing it and babbling off to Henry. Henry says maybe they should turn around but Damon realizes that his brother might be the solution for him to leave. Henry insists they head back to the camp but Damon tells him to follow his lead.

This time he asks everyone to come out of the house where Henry will watch them. He goes in alone to meet the deserters and asks them to come out or he will kill the host family.

They lay their weapons down and come out one at a time but they toss a grenade and then it all begins again.

He continues to go through the motions but every time he doesn't seem to win. He writes a letter to Stefan asking him to never write him again and is losing it even more.

He decides enough is enough and decides that he has to go straight to his brother by deserting to Mystic Falls.

He drops a bomb and takes off with his final words to Henry being, "I'm no hero." This is what Stefan was afraid of, Damon losing his humanity.

He ventures to his house but is greeted by his mother who tells him to come in because she and some other have been expecting him.

Damon walks into his home and asks where everyone is but Lily tells him to keep his voice down because she can here the confederates coming for him. She tells him to get down to the cellar if he wants to live and while there, he finds his brother. Damon tells his brother that he is the reason he took the mission to begin with.

Stefan says he always has a reason and pulls the cover off of Elena's coffin. Stefan says it's not about what he does in her name, it's about what he does in her absence.

Stefan tells him to be quiet. Damon asks what is going on but Stefan asks him if Elena's influence on him is so weak that he can't tell right from wrong. Stefan tells him he is not sure if Elena will recognize him when he wakes up.

Stefan continuously asks Damon what he wanted and tells Damon to stop lying. Damon admits that all the time he wanted his mother.

Stefan tells him it's too late and relieves the beginning of the dream but is now forced to help Lily from under the carriage.

Lily asks Damon if he can move and she begs for his help. He asks why because none of it is real. She tells him the pain is real and that she is going to die knowing her own son hates her.

She asks why and he says because she tried to take Elena away from him. She begs for his help but he just tells her that she took the one thing he cared about.

He continues to punish his mother and tells her that he hates her because she could have come up so many times but she never did.

He is upset that he always loses her and each time he loses the opportunity to tell her what he really wants to say. He tells his mother that he is so sorry and asks for a chance to make it right. He asks for a chance to let him love her but she dies in his arms. Damon is at the most emotional state he has ever been in but he wakes up and continues to say no.

He says that they weren't done and he has to get her back. Damon goes insane and attacks everyone.

He breaks Stefan's neck, stakes Caroline, takes out Matt and then takes Bonnie out. He still thought he was in the stone and is perplexed as to why nothing started over again.

"Hell is Other People" gets pretty dicey at points and for some reason things look as if they are only going to get worst on The Vampire Diaries. Having the show on a Friday night is pretty rough but hopefully fans are in tune with the new night.

We're still pulling for Steroline, but they can never catch a break. Fans who can't get enough can head over to The CWTV main page for updates and extras.