'The Vampire Diaries' Recap: 'I Went to the Woods' Season 7 Episode 17, Not Quite Stefan

Things are about to get really strange on CWTV's The Vampire Diaries.

In "I Went to the Woods," episode 17 or season 7, the team realizes that who they first thought was Stefan happens to be another soul that was put inside of his body when Rayna stabbed him.

Stefan gets the short end of the stick once again and is forced to come face-to-face with the damage that his brother Damon caused him. Will he be able to see past all of the damage and find his way back? Damon stumbles upon a lead and decides to explore it in hopes that it could help his brother.

Matt tells Valerie that she has to find Alaric because he will be able to help her with getting Stefan back in one piece.

Rayna comes under a threat that endangers her but needs to find Stefan before the threat does.

The episode kicked off with Stefan laying in the middle of a road in the aftermath of an accident. He can hear people burning inside of a school bus and tries his hardest to break open the door. He finally breaks the door open and begins saving each person on it one by one. The police arrive and Stefan is being tended by an EMT. She asks his name and he says he doesn't remember. She finds a nasty gash on his corroded artery. He sees a dead body role by and the EMT says that he is a hero. Suddenly he remembers his name is Stefan Salvatore. She asks him if he knows where he is and he says, "yes, I'm in Hell.

Damon and Valerie are dealing with the aftermath of the Phoenix Stone being destroyed, Nora and Mary Louise being gone and Stefan being trapped inside of it. Valerie says they didn't know that Stefan had been stabbed but Damon is short with her. He says they should get out of there but Valerie says she is not going anywhere with him because it's all his fault. Valerie has lost hope but Damon is still holding out hope that he can bring his brother back.

He says he is not ready to wallow in self-loathing pity. He tells her to try to think his way.

He asks her to do a locator spell to help him find Rayna and Valerie walks away from him. She says she will do what he says but without him. She also cloaks herself.

Meanwhile, Stefan relives being stabbed by the Phoenix Stone and the EMT thinks he is going crazy. The sheriff walks over to him and asks him if his name is Marty. Stefan humors the sheriff after being asked to walk a straight line.

Meanwhile, Rayna calls Matt for help but he refuses. She tells him that he doesn't understand, all of the souls in the Phoenix stone have escaped and is now wandering the world.

Valerie surprises her with a knife to her neck and asks her to elaborate.

Damon comes up on what looks like his brother but his brother doesn't seem to recognize him at first or remember how he ended up wandering the street. Rayna says that Stefan is free however Stefan is having problems of his own, being accused of driving under the influence.

He looks into the mirror and his facial features are complete different. Rayna tells Valeria Stefan can be anywhere and anyone.

Marty or Stefan is resisting arrest and manages to escape, however, he is handcuffed. He stumbles momentarily but gets back up and takes off. Back in Texas there are reports of the accident all over the TV where Alaric is yelling at Matt for bringing them back into the mess.

Alaric tells Matt that he and Caroline are supposed to get married.

Matt says Caroline was just bait and he sent some people his way. He hangs up on Alaric who answers the door to see Valerie and a knocked out Ray.

Valerie explains the situation to Alaric and he agrees to help. Rayna wants to hunt all of the souls down, however, but Valerie and Alaric want to find Stefan. Rayna says some of the most dangerous vampires.

Meanwhile, Damon is trying to get Stefan to remember who he is.

He hands him the diary to try to jog his memory. The man in Stefan's body notices that he is not himself, however, instead of coming clean, he just tells Damon that he is famished.

The real Stefan who is stuck in Marty's body is struggling to find a place to hide still handcuffed. He reaches what looks like an abandoned cabin and begins looking for ways to get out of the cuffs. He leaves the Cabin and moves to a a shed where he finds a vice tool to to free himself. It turns out to be much more painful than he thought.

Meanwhile, Damon and Stefan are are having a meal, however, Damon notices that Stefan is not himself, he is feeding on humans. Damon excuses himself and calls Alaric he asks him when he realized Jo wasn't Jo.

Alaric tells Damon that it's not actually Stefan in his body.

He also reveals that if the real Stefan is in a human body, he has just a couple of days to live, the same fate that the vampire who inhabited Jo's body had.

Stefan looks at himself in a mirror and all he can see staring back is Marty. He creates a makeshift cast for his hand out of duct tape and tries to get a phone to work in the cabin, however, he has no luck. He wanders outside, finds a generator, then cranks it up. He gets the TV to work and sees that Marty is a wanted man.

Stefan actually has to worry about the cold and his substance abuse. Valerie and Alaric are listening to the broadcast at his house and Rayna asks them to turn it down.

Valerie asks Alaric for a photo of Stefan so that she can completely a locator spell.

She grabs a hold of Rayna's head and Rayna can see what Stefan has gone through. They link the tattoo that Rayna saw on his hand to Marty and realize who they need.

Alaric alerts Damon and Damon says he will be there as long as his passenger cooperates. Stefan talks to himself about the irony of being trapped into the body of an addict, while he tries to get the car started. He finally does and breathes a sigh of triumph. Meanwhile, in the car ride, Damon reveals that he knows the man in his brother's body is not Stefan.

Despite the news, the man mocks Damon by telling him that his brother really hates him. The man refuses to give up the body then asks how far it is to Memphis.

He tells Damon that when it is all over they should get together and have some fun before disappearing out of the car. Yeah, Damon has lost his brother's body.

Damon calls Alaric who can't understand how he lost him. The learn that Stefan's body is going to Memphis and Rayna recognizes the clue. Rayna says he should be staked and killed. However, when Valerie and Alaric refuses, Rayna breaks out and snaps Valerie's neck.

Alaric tries to stop her by getting to his dart gun, however, he wusses out and lets her go. The real Stefan runs into a woman on the road and asks to use her phone, however, when she reaches for it, she hears the report and fights Stefan off, before driving away.

Stefan is on the floor and sees that the weather is turning.

Damon has to compel a Sheriff into thinking that he is Matt and he is briefed on the weather situation and Marty's location. The Sheriff intends on letting the weather do it's job. Stefan is struggling to stay warm and hallucinates about his brother saving him. Stefan says if he is there then he is saved and he owes him one, however, if he is a hallucination he is in his final stages and really screwed.

He looks away and when he turns back, Damon is gone. Stefan opens the door and falls out weak and suffering. He is now laying on the road at the driver side door of the old truck he hot-wired.

The temperature is dropping fast and there is over a foot of snow int he forecast. The woman who left Stefan on the road claims to have been attacked. Damon overhears her and begins questioning her. She gives him the exact location and Damon leads the police in the opposite direction.

The woman tells Damon to let her know if they find her phone and he realizes that it must be nearby. Damon calls his brother and tells him to get up and keep moving.

Stefan says he can't feel his limbs and he isn't sure if it's his withdrawal or if he is freezing to death.

Damon says this is not the way Stefan is going to die. However, Stefan just tells Damon that the entire mess is his fault.

Stefan says his instincts are always to save someone and he asks Damon where his instincts are. Damon admits to being selfish, angry and impatient. He says before he met Elena he didn't know how to make the right decisions.

He urges Stefan to get up and come kick his ass if he is upset.

Stefan asks him if he wants to know what it's all so hard and Stefan says eventually he's not going to be able to go on. He says when that happens, he doesn't believe that Damon will be there.

Alaric and Valerie are waiting the storm out at a restaurant and Valerie accuses Alaric of being the victor if Stefan dies. Valerie says that she never fooled herself into thinking what she had with Stefan would last. However, Alaric says he proposed to Caroline and she said yes for the children. Valerie says she is hoping Alaric and Caroline make it together.

Damon and his brother are continuing their back and forth conversation as Stefan walks in the cold. They reminisce on a game of hide and seek and Stefan collapses after telling his brother that he is never going to find him.

Damon pulls up and picks his brother up.

Stefan wakes up in the car with his brother and Damon is finding it hard to believe that Marty is his brother. Damon hands over two donuts to Stefan who chows down on them. Stefan says that they still aren't all forgiven.

He begins to choke up blood and and Damon tells Stefan Marty's body won't make it.

Meanwhile, Valerie's senses trigger her to figure out that Stefan's real body is at a frat party. Alaric revisits Rayna's club about the vampire who was headed to Memphis and he is incredibly dangerous.

"I Went to the Woods" continues to set the stage for a bigger final couple of episodes for The Vampire Diaries. Paul Wesley really did a splendid job in capturing the struggles that Stefan faced, as well as his body's inhabitant.

There truly is not telling what is in store. Fans who can't get enough can head over to The CWTV main page for updates and extras.

Photos that sum up tonights episode.