The season finale of The Vampire Diaries is quite possibly the best episode to date. It is without a doubt the episode I found myself the most wrapped up in. It’s full of laughter, extremely shocking moments one after the other, and puts a lot of our characters and pretty much everything that has happened thus far in to great perspective.
It’s Founder’s Day, the celebration of the founding families of Mystic Falls. This day means a lot more than just a chance to be nostalgic and honor the founding families. The vampires from the tomb are planning to strike revenge on the humans of the town, but particularly the descendants of the founding members of the town; the one’s that set out for the vampire’s bloodshed and stuck them in the tomb in the first place. John Gilbert has a plan of his own. Now that he has his ancestor’s device; that Damon and the others think has been rendered useless, he plans on using it. It sends out a noise only the vampires can hear, one that is nearly fatal, rendering them helpless so they can be given vervain. John is constructing a mass murder of the vampires, something he believes should have happened over a century ago.
Stefan has made it clear that he is worried about Damon’s interest in Elena and the fact that Elena cares about Damon deeply. As Damon says, it’s understandable that Stefan would be worried, “I get it; I’m the better, hotter choice”. Damon tries to step in when Elena is practically disowned by Jeremy, her attempts to fix things between them shot down. Damon interrogates and threatens him, demanding he cut Elena some slack. Stefan comes in with a gentler approach, putting the blame for everything that happened on Damon and himself (“Good cop, bad cop. I like it”). The real intrigue comes in to play when Damon and Elena share an intimate moment, which unfortunately becomes clear wasn’t quite what it seemed to be.
Jeremy has become one of my favorite characters. Sometimes he’s even more interesting than Elena as a character. I remember when the show first started I was a little disappointed that they wrote his character in to the show. He was changed from Elena’s little sister to a trouble making, drug addicted teenage brother. The character seemed a little generic at first, but has grown a lot in one season.
I realized it was really when Anna made an appearance that Jeremy became such an intriguing character. That’s when he abandoned his ways of trying to drown his sorrows, realizing that nothing was going to take away the pain he felt. This pain just grew from losing Vicki, having his mind erased, and having no answers to all of his questions. Suddenly, the notion of vampires wasn’t so crazy after all. Now he has grown to the point where it actually seems like an appealing lifestyle to him. It’s not about the power, the allure of the vampire he has fallen for, or the chance for immortal life. It’s about a chance to shut off his emotions, suffering, and loneliness by embracing an instinctual, cold nature where he doesn’t have to feel anything.
Unlike Jeremy, Bonnie’s character has gone the opposite direction. I was a little skeptical at first since they changed so many of the physical and inherited traits of the character. It was bad enough that the writers completely wrote out one of Elena’s best friends who played a significant part in fighting the evil supernatural forces taking over their town. After the first couple of episodes, there seemed to be some interesting development in Bonnie’s character, bringing history and establishing her as someone who could exert power. All that is still true, but in the last few episodes she has really become an unlikable character. Her supernatural abilities are about the only thing she has in common with the original character. The personality has been stripped completely. She has proven to be a good source of conflict, but as a dynamic, likable character there isn’t much there. At this point, I think I would rather them just make her an antagonist to Elena, Stefan, and Damon than being an extremely judgmental friend.
All of the characters are at risk in this episode either by the vampires or those hunting the vampires. It gets you to imaging the show without some of them. It is hard to imagine the show without many of them that I have grown to love throughout the episode. Caroline is one that I like, but the show really wouldn’t be compromised at all if she died. She’s not a necessary character, but unfortunately there are those that are who the show will have to go on without. I do have to appreciate that they are getting closer to revealing Tyler’s true identity and his father’s as well. They don’t appear to be vampires, but since the device affects them, they are clearly not just average Mystic Falls citizens.
There are key characters who die and a lot of other casualties. Many of these deaths were completely shocking, sudden, and cold. There were so many twists, yet they seemed like they had always been part of the bigger picture all along. It still gets you wondering what next season is going to look like. When we next come back to Mystic Falls many characters won’t be returning, many have grown closer, and many have been established as enemies; a stance that is not likely soon to be washed away. We are even surprised by one character who walks back in to the picture, clearly affecting many characters and the entire world that our characters are living in.
