Guide To The Vampire Diaries And The Originals

The Other Side

The Other Side

"Well, Anna said it's like being here with all of us, only we can't see her or hear her, and she can't interact with anyone. She's all alone."— Jeremy describes the Other Side.

In The Other Side: The Anchor, Doppelgängers, Hunters of the Five, Hybrids, Travelers, Vampires, Werewolves, and Witches.

The Other Side was a mysterious dimension where the spirits of dead supernatural beings resided in a state of purgatory or limbo. It was created by Qetsiyah with the intention that, should Silas end up doing what she wanted-- consume the cure for immortality (which she also created), become a witch again, and die a mortal death-- he would be forced to spend an eternity with her on the Other Side instead of crossing over to the afterlife and finding true eternal peace with his soulmate Amara.

The Other Side was first mentioned by Anna when she appeared as a ghost and talked to Jeremy Gilbert, who had recently gained the ability to see ghosts after his resurrection. Anna told him she was all alone on the "other side;" though, Anna admitted that she did not know what it was officially called. However, other residents of the supernatural dimension, such as Sheila Bennett and Esther, referred to it as "the Other Side," a name that ultimately stuck and was used by the rest of the characters. This place was ruled by the Spirits.

Jeremy has been the only person in the series consistently able to see ghosts; Matt Donovan briefly had this ability after purposely drowned himself in order to talk to his deceased sister, Vicki, but she was the only ghost with whom he could communicate, and it was an ability he eventually gave up. Typically, in order to summon a ghost from the Other Side, a living person must be thinking about the person in question at the same time the ghost is. 

Throughout The Vampire Diaries And The Originals

TVD Season One: Although the Other Side is not mentioned by name until Season Three, Bonnie has had contact with dead witches several times in the past. In Season One, Emily Bennett, Bonnie's ancestor who lived in the 19th century, contacts Bonnie in her dreams and eventually possesses her after Bonnie, Elena and Caroline summon her in a séance.

TVD Season Two: Bonnie channels the power of a hundred dead witches, first in order to kill Klaus and later to bring Jeremy back to life. The consequences of resurrecting Jeremy is that he acquires the ability to see ghosts and Bonnie loses access to the dead witches' power.

TVD Season Three: In Smells Like Teen Spirit, Vicki reveals to Matt that she had been getting help from a powerful witch on the Other Side. She claimed that the witch would help her to be able to come and go as she pleased, though she would still remain a ghost, and would only be visible to Matt. When Bonnie performed the spell to send Vicki back to the Other Side for good, she inadvertently helped Esther open the passage between the living world and the Other Side.  The breach allowed the ghosts of supernatural beings to return and fully interact with the living. In Ghost World, Sheila helped Bonnie close this passage by destroying the talisman of the Original witch in order to break her foothold in the world of the living. After Abby and Bonnie performed a spell to open Klaus' magically sealed coffin, Esther, the witch of the Original family, was revealed to be sealed inside, and was able to return to her body from the Other Side. She revealed to Elena that her witch friend, Ayana, had preserved her body with a spell after her death. With Bonnie and Abby's help, as well as the help of the entire Bennett line of witches on the Other Side, she was able to return to her body. In Heart of Darkness, Damon and Elena traveled to Denver to see Jeremy when they needed his help to contact a dead vampire, Rose. Since Jeremy had never met her, Damon, who knew her best, thought about her in order to summon her to them. She revealed that she enjoyed being on the Other Side and the freedom it granted her after spending most of her life running from Klaus.In Do Not Go Gentle, Esther explained to Elena that every time Alaric died while wearing the Gilbert ring, she spoke to him from the Other Side and encouraged his inner darkness to develop, with the intention of turning him into an enhanced Original vampirewho could kill vampires like her husband, Mikael. This was the first time the Other Side was mentioned in connection with a human's (in this case, Alaric's) death; Esther described it as "his journey into death." She also assured Elena that Jenna was not on the Other Side, but had instead found peace as a result of her pure heart at the time of her death.