With the phoenix stone destroyed, Stefan’s future is in limbo. Where is he and will Damon be able to get him back in The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 17, “I Went to the Woods?”
The Salvatore brothers aren’t strangers to being stabbed by the phoenix sword. If that were the only problem, it would basically just be another Tuesday for Salvatore & Co. However, when Mary Louise and Nora met their tragic end last week, they took the phoenix stone down with them. Since that’s where Stefan had been hanging out in hell at the time, the situation is slightly more problematic.
Luckily, we don’t have to question Stefan’s fate too much, as the trailer for The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 17 reveals that Stefan is doing just fine. At least his body is anyway. As for his beautiful Stefan soul (sorry for the cheese), that remains to be seen.
From the trailer, we can assume that when the phoenix stone was destroyed, all the vampire souls living inside of it were set free, including Stefan’s. Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean they went back to the correct bodies. Maybe Stefan just decided he’s had enough of being Stefan Salvatore and found a better body to hang out in (would you blame him?), but probably it was more of a random thing.
This brings up a few questions that we’re hoping will be answered in The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 17:
1. Who is this cool guy that’s inhabiting Stefan’s body? Will Damon and Valerie like him better and decide to make the switch permanent? Will they just pretend it really is Stefan to avoid having to go out and find his actual soul? Spoiler alert: no.
2. How do you find a soul? It seems like it would be way easier for them to stay put and let Stefan find them since he actually has some inkling of where to start looking. This could be a problem though if the body Stefan is stuck in is in trouble somehow and he can’t get away. Likely Valerie will use some cool witch stuff to find him. They could also just look at the episode title because apparently he went to the woods.
3. How will they reconcile Stefan with his body without the stone? When they’ve done it previously, the phoenix stone had to literally be sitting on the person’s chest. Now it doesn’t even exist! Also, Valerie is now the only witch around unless BonBon decides to help. Will she have enough power to get the job done? This will probably be a parallel problem to them trying to find Stefan’s soul.
Watch the trailer for The Vampire Diaries, season 7, episode 17, “I Went to the Woods” below.
