The season finale of the Vampire Diaries delivered some twists, turns and one hell of a cliff-hanger! Yes, that means major spoilers to follow.
While in the hospital, Elena dreams of a simpler time in her life – sophomore year. Her parents and Aunt Jenna were still alive.
In the meantime, Jeremy consults with Dr. Fell on her injuries. When she asks if there is anyone he can call, he phones the Salvatore brothers to give them the update. Damon tells him to get her out of there and take her home. So Jeremy calls Caroline, Tyler and Matt. They stealthily spring her from the hospital.
Alaric waits for Dr. Fell in her office. When she arrives he makes a production out of throwing out the vampire blood. He also informs her that he has ratted out her medical practices and she will be reviewed. That’s before she swipes Elena’s chart and signs her out of the hospital as her guardian. When he goes to Elena’s room, she is already gone.
Stefan returns to Mystic Falls, while Damon continues the trek to ditch Klaus’s body. He shows up at the house just before Elijah. Elijah wants to make a deal regarding the return of Klaus’s body. Stefan leaves the decision up to Elena and she agrees with it.
Damon shows Bonnie Klaus’s body, inside a coffin, bound in chains. It is being kept inside a storage locker. She is there to supposedly make sure no other witch can ever locate him in the future. Bonnie asks for a few minutes alone with him as Klaus opens his eyes. Creepy!
While Jeremy picks up food at the Grill, Alaric approaches him about Klaus’s body. Jeremy has no idea where it is and even if he did, he doesn’t know why he would tell Alaric anyway. Alaric promises to kill all the Originals so they can live safely in a vampire-free world. With the exception of him, of course. So, he says he’ll let Jeremy hold him hostage until Elena dies. This way she can lead a “normal” life and he will die within one lifetime.
Sheriff Forbes and Carol Lockwood call their respective children home to give them fake ID, money and instructions to get out of Mystic Falls and as far away as possible. They bring them up to speed on what happened at the council meeting and how if they stick around they will die. Caroline and Tyler agree to leave. Tyler says he will pack their things, while Caroline goes to help their friends. They plan to meet back at his family dungeon in a couple of hours. Yeah, that SO doesn’t look good!
Back at the Gilbert house, Jeremy calls Alaric and tells him he knows where the body is. He gives him a fake location, as he is up to speed with Elijah’s (who has already screwed them before) plan. A few of them will jump Alaric in the woods and disarm him. Then Elijah and his family scatter to the ends of the earth. He promises not to revive Klaus in Elena’s lifetime.
Damon waits at the storage locker for Rebekah to collect Klaus’s body and is surprised by Alaric. He figured out where they were now that the local law enforcement is no longer under vampire influence. He breaks Damon’s neck and searches the lockers for the coffin.
Rebekah shows up and looks for Damon. Alaric stops searching for the coffin and stalks her. Damon pops up, covers her mouth and lets her know Alaric found them. When Alaric gets to the locker that previously held Klaus’s coffin it is empty. Rebekah and Damon rush to load it into the vehicle. He catches them and easily tosses them both out of his way so he can toast Klaus. He plunges the stake into Klaus’s chest and he goes up in flames. When he turns to Rebekah, Damon tells her to run and gets in Alaric’s way. They tussle, then Alaric takes off in pursuit.
Damon spreads the word that Klaus is dead to Stefan, who shares the information with the others. They figured if it really was Klaus who sired their line, they have about an hour to say their goodbyes. When Stefan calls Elena to tell her, she is on her way out-of-town in Matt’s truck. He drugged her after he and Jeremy decided getting her out of Mystic Falls was the safest thing they could do. She finally has to decide between Damon or Stefan when Matt tells her she can either go to one or the other. She chooses Stefan and they head back to Mystic Falls. Elena calls Damon and gives him a tearful goodbye. She tells him that she cares about him, but she loves Stefan. Maybe, if they had met before…
Caroline rushes back to the Lockwood dungeon to give Tyler the news and say goodbye. He drops to the ground and says he is in pain. When he starts to turn, he tells her to run. She doesn’t want to leave, but finally does with the promise that she will tell his mom he did leave town.
Rebekah arrives at the place in the woods and she and Elijah try to figure out why the other vampires in town aren’t dead. Both are positive it wasn’t either who is responsible for their lineage. She’s pissed that Klaus is dead and wants payback. Elijah doesn’t stop her when she goes after Elena. She stands in the middle of the road and when Matt swerves to avoid hitting her they plunge into the same water Elena’s parents died in, right by the bridge. While she is dying, she has flashbacks about when she was back in the water with them during their death. Just like he found her before, Stefan goes to pull her out of the vehicle. This time she refuses to go and insists that he save Matt.
Bonnie turns up at the Lockwood dungeon and calls Tyler out, knowing he is lurking in the shadows. When he comes out, he reveals he isn’t really Tyler. He is in fact Klaus in Tyler’s body. Bonnie did the body swapping to save her friends when she went to see Klaus earlier. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That is the worst idea EVER! Yuck, Tyler is gone and has been replaced by Klaus?! Unbelievable!
Alaric returns to kick the crap out of Damon. Damon doesn’t really fight back. While he is laying on the ground, he has a flashback to the first time he met Elena. She was alone on the road one night and had just had a fight with Matt. He thought she was Kathryn. When he realised she wasn’t he put the whammy on her so she would forget ever meeting him. Sigh! Finally, when Alaric pulls the stake on Damon, he fights back. Alaric collapses in his arms. That means Elena is dead. The ghost of Alaric pays a visit to Jeremy and promises to always watch over him.
As Stefan sobs over Elena’s corpse on the hospital gurney, Damon rushes in and is stopped by Dr. Fell. She reveals that Elena’s injuries earlier were a lot more life-threatening than she let Jeremy know. As a result, she gave her some extra help. That’s when vampire Elena awakens and gasps.
Holy crap, Elena is now also a vampire! After getting over the initial shock of that, I remembered that they hinted about turning her earlier in the season. If the intention was to turn her, it was much better that they did it in an accidental way, rather than her being bitten. Dr. Fell was just trying to heal her. Who knew her follow-up to almost being killed would actually be to get killed within 24 hours? Well, I suppose the assumption could have been made; this being Mystic Falls and all.
