- Annette Brown 2012 The CW Network. All Rights Reserved.
- “The Vampire Diaries” Season Finale “The Departed”: Paul Wesley as Stefan and Nina Dobrev as Elena.
It wouldn’t be a “Vampire Diaries” season finale without twists aplenty—and several heartbreaking deaths. Farewell, Tyler, Alaric, Human Elena, and maybe Matt as well—we’ll miss you in Season 4!
Tonight’s action is interspersed with flashbacks to a simpler time: The period just before Season 1, when Elena was a carefree cheerleader whose biggest problem was having a boyfriend (Matt) who loved her too much. We learn in these flashbacks that Elena actually met Damon right after the bonfire, and right before her parents died—but that he compelled her to forget their meeting.
Back in the present day, Elena is in the hospital with what Dr. Meredith says is a concussion. The Salvatores are busy driving off to toss Klaus’s body in the Atlantic—but when Jeremy tells them about Elena’s condition, they urge her brother to bring her back to her own house. The gang gets Elena to Casa Gilbert just in time—Ric is hot on Elena’s trail. Since he can’t nab the Doppelganger, the new immortal instead stops by the grill to make Jeremy a proposition: If he tells him where Klaus’s body is, Ric will kill all the originals, then let himself be locked up until Elena dies.
Elijah, meanwhile, has shown up at Casa Gilbert with a proposition of his own: If the Salvatores et al can get Ric’s white oak stake and give Elijah his brother’s body, the Originals will leave town—for real this time—and keep running until both Elena and Ric die. Damon is still driving with Klaus’s coffin in tow—and he’s very much against this plan. But Stefan, who has gone back to Mystic Falls to be with Elena, says the choice should be hers. She decides to take Elijah’s deal.
Caroline and Tyler learn from their mothers that Ric has outed them to the Council—and that they have to skip town if they’re going to stay alive. Caroline says that she’ll go anywhere with Tyler—all she really needs in life is him and a curling iron—but first, she has to help their friends. Tyler agrees; he’s going to meet with Bonnie, then meet her in two hours’ time so they can escape.
Bonnie, though, is with Damon in a faraway storage unit, where they’ve decided to stash Klaus for the time being. She requests some time alone with his corpse so she can savor his downfall, and Damon obliges.
Jeremy wants to take Elena out of town and away from all the vampires. But first, he has to deal with Ric. He calls his former guardian and lies that the Salvatores are burying Klaus in the woods; the team is going to try to ambush Ric. Before Stefan can head to the woods, he shares a moment with Elena… and kisses her passionately, “just in case there is no later.”
Damon waits in the storage unit for Rebekah to come and claim Klaus’s body… but before she arrives, Ric does. He wasn’t fooled by the team’s subterfuge. Ric breaks Damon’s neck and starts searching storage lockers for Klaus’s coffin. When Rebekah enters the building, he changes his tune and starts stalking her instead. Damon revives, alerts Rebekah, and almost manages to get Klaus out of the building… until Ric finds them and the coffin and stakes Klaus with the white oak. The Original’s body is consumed with flames as Rebekah sobs… but it’s no use. Klaus is gone.
Matt brings Elena a cup of tea, and as she sips, the two discuss her Salvatore problem. She tells him that Stefan makes her glad she’s alive; Damon, on the other hand, consumes her. She has no idea who she should pick… and then she blacks out. When she comes to, she discovers that she’s been drugged, and now she’s in a car. Matt and Jeremy have conspired to get Elena out of town. She’s furious, and even more upset when she learns that Klaus has been staked. Matt can either drive her to where Damon is, or take her back to Mystic Falls so that she can see Stefan. Finally, it’s time for Elena to decide which one she cares about more.
And, in the end, that person is Stefan. Elena calls Damon and tells him that Matt is taking her home. She also says that she loves Stefan, and that no matter what she feels for Damon, she’ll never be able to “un-fall” for his brother. Damon’s brokenhearted, but he says he understands. Elena says wistfully that perhaps if she’d met him first… not knowing that she did, in fact, meet Damon before Stefan saved her life. As they’re talking, Evil Alaric reappears. As soon as Damon hangs up, Ric attacks him.
Caroline rushes to the caverns after hearing the news about Klaus to find Tyler. When he learns Klaus’s fate, Tyler tells her that she’ll be fine—and asks her to tell his mom that he left town. Caroline doesn’t feel anything strange, but Tyler does. He starts collapsing and coughing. Caroline is sobbing, and says she doesn’t want to leave him—but Tyler finally forces her to go by half-changing into a wolf.
But here’s the twist: Tyler isn’t really Tyler. Bonnie has switched his body with Klaus’s in order to protect her vampire friends. So Klaus really did sire the Salvatore bloodline—which is why they’re all still alive.
Nobody else knows that this is the case. And since Rebekah and Elijah have no idea that their brother is still alive, they decide to protect themselves the only way they know how: by killing Elena so that Ric kicks the bucket as well.
And so, when Matt and Elena begin driving over the bridge where her parents died, Rebekah stands in front of their car. Matt swerves to avoid her, and the vehicle plunges into the water below. We cut back and forth between this accident and the identical accident in which Elena lost her parents. The first time, Elena’s father gestured to Stefan to save his daughter rather than himself. And this time, when Stefan dives into the water, Elena motions to him to rescue Matt first. (It’s unclear whether Matt lives, though.) She stays in the submerged car as Stefan brings Matt to the surface.
Ric is still attacking Damon… until suddenly, he grows weak. Damon knows what this means, and he desperately tries telling Ric that he’ll be fine. It’s no use, though—Ric’s ghost soon appears to Jeremy, indicating that his mortal/immortal self is dead.
But you know who isn’t dead (or, at least, completely dead)? Elena—because when she was in the hospital earlier, Dr. Meredith treated her with vampire blood so that she’d heal faster. Which means that when she drowned, there was vampire blood in her system. Which means that now… she’s about to become a vampire herself.
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