Damon (Ian Somerhalder) is still locked up by Wes (Rick Cosnett) who wants him to be his next object of investigation since he has lost his last one.
Elena (Nina Dobrev) worries that Damon did not show up and she goes to find Aaron (Shaun Sipos) in hopes that he knows where Wes is.
He says that it is his legacy to continue what his father was trying to do, but when he tells him that his parents were killed by vampires and not animals, Aaron freaks out more.
Damon starts narrating her about what happened to him and what Augustine members did to him while the story plays out via flashbacks: Back in 1953, Joseph Salvatore (Judd Lormand) calls Damon to come home to Mystic Falls.
A man named Dr. Whitmore (Trevor St. John) appears, who informs Damon he will be his doctor from now on.
From that moment Damon becomes an object for scientific study, which means getting tortured by Dr. Whitmore in order for the humans to find out vampires' strength and abilities.
What kept him sane was another vampire who was also captured ten years before Damon, named Enzo (Michael Malarkey).
Shortly thereafter Aaron arrives in the basement to accuse Elena of killing his parents and Megan.
Damon was following through with a revenge scheme that required him to kill every member of the Whitmore family, save one from each generation.
Aaron, hearing the news about his aunt, shoots him in the head and Damon drops unconscious.
Worth watching because reveals parts of Damon's past critical to the plot line.
"[4] Thedude35 from Bitch Stole my Remote gave a good review to the episode stating: "After a season that has been surprisingly mediocre so far, ‘The Cell’ reminds me why I fell in love with this show in the first place.
"[5] Stephanie Hall of KSiteTV also gave a good review to the episode stating that the flashbacks were a nice addition to the reveal of information.
"Balancing the primary information-heavy storyline with the secondary emotional one, "The Cell" was a well-rounded hour that managed to jump start one intriguing plot and seemingly end an appropriate one.
"The Cell" perfectly set the scene for future emotional payoffs and twisted new problems.
"This was actually a fairly streamlined episode of TVD, with most of the action happening either in the dungeons of Whitmore or back at the Salvatore mansion, where Katherine and Caroline team up to attempt to cure Stefan of his PTSD issues.