THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: The Departed

Wow! I have to start out by saying I had to watch this season finale twice before I attempted to write a recap. There is so much to cover! Hats off to the amazing writers on this show because every week you think they can’t top the previous episode, and every week they do. Sit back, grab a glass of wine and get ready because this was one hell of a season finale!

We begin with Elena’s alarm clock blasting Pink bright and early. She wakes up and heads downstairs for breakfast in her cheerleading uniform (obviously this is a dream because we ended last week with her bleeding and passed out on the floor) and sees Jenna (shout out to Sara Canning who I have missed). She tells Jenna how Jeremy has locked himself in the bathroom again. Her mother comes in and gives her a kiss and then she woke up in a hospital bed.

Outside Elena’s room, Dr. Fell assures Jeremy that Elena has a slight concussion but she will be fine. He calls Damon and Stefan, who are driving to get rid of Klaus’ body. They’re upset that he took Elena out of the house, because it would be easier for the Originals to find her (and they could have just given her a little vampire blood to heal her). The tell Jeremy to take her home immediately.
Of course they both want to rush to Elena’s side, but one of them has to keep Klaus’s body on the move. Since Klaus claimed that he started of their blood line, they have to keep him away from Vampire Alaric to keep themselves safe.

Dr. Fell enters her office and Vampire Ric is there. He takes out her supply of vampire blood and empties it on her files. He tells her that the Council will be contacting the medical board to have her license suspended. He also informs her that Mayor Lockwood and Sheriff Forbes are being relieved of their duties. He then demands her to release Elena in his custody. Sorry Vampire Ric, Elena is already gone.

Over at Casa de Gilbert, Elena arrives with Caroline, Tyler, and Jeremy. The guys check out the house and Caroline gets Elena settled on the couch. Elena then sees a picture of her parents and has a flashback. She’s walking with Matt and Bonnie and talking about hair and fashion. Bonnie tells her that she had a bad feeling about the bonfire scheduled for that night. Elena couldn’t go anyway because it was family night. Matt tells her to try to sneak out and then kisses her and told her he loved her. She did not respond. Bonnie notices and tells her if she isn’t feeling it anymore she shouldn’t string him along.

Elena wakes up and Matt is sitting by her. She apologizes for stringing him along back then and admits that she’s doing the same thing now with Damon and Stefan. Before she could really talk about it with Matt, Stefan entered. He insisted that she stay in the house. Matt suggested that they go out of town, but Elena doesn’t want to run for the rest of her life. She leaves the room and Stefan and Matt go back and forth about Elena making decisions for herself. They are interrupted by Elena at the front door with Elijah.

Jeremy went over to the grill to get some food to go. Vampire Ric is there and asks where Klaus’ body is and Jeremy didn’t know. If he turns over Klaus’ body, Vampire Ric will kill him and go after the rest of the Originals. Then when Vampire Ric dies, there will be no other vampires left. Jeremy says that the only way for Vampire Ric to die is for Elena to die. He then says he can be locked away long enough for her to have a happy human life and when she dies, he’ll die with her. Vampire Ric then shows him his special stake and says he’s going to get Klaus regardless.

At the Gilbert’s, Elijah promises that if they can get the special stake from Vampire Ric and get back Klaus’ body, he and his siblings will leave. Vampire Ric will follow them and Elena would be safe. Elena isn’t down for it after all they went through with Klaus. She doesn’t want to just give him to Elijah. Elijah promised that Klaus wouldn’t be revived during her or her children’s lifetimes.

Matt doesn’t think they should be trusted. Damon, who was listening in by cell phone, thinks the Originals will kill Elena as soon as they got what they wanted. Elijah guarantees that Rebekah and Kol will honor the agreement. The decision is left to Elena and she agrees to the deal.

Carol Lockwood and Sheriff Forbes break the news to Tyler and Caroline that they were outed to the council. They have to leave town immediately because, thanks to Vampire Ric, they are going to come for them. Caroline doesn’t want to leave town without making sure her friends are safe so they decide to meet at the Lockwood cell in 2 hours.

Matt and Jeremy are talking on the porch. They both want to get Elena out of town but they don’t know how. Even if Jeremy wanted to help Vampire Ric, he doesn’t know where Klaus’ body is, but Matt does. Jeremy calls Vampire Ric and tells him Damon’s taking Klaus’ body to bury in the woods off Route 12. Vampire Ric thanks him and tells him he’s doing the right thing. Jeremy knows he is, but has a different plan.

Damon and Bonnie are in a storage unit and Bonnie asks where the body is. Damon leads her to unit 1020. Damon opens the door and there is Klaus’ coffin. He opens it to see Klaus desiccated. He glares at them and Bonnie asks for a minute alone. Damon is skeptical but leaves the unit.

Back at the Gilbert’s, Stefan promises Elena he will do everything he can to bring everyone home safely. He turns to go and Elena calls after him. He kisses her (in case they don’t have another chance).

At the storage unit, Damon hears the elevator and is expecting it to be Rebekah, but unfortunately for him it was Vampire Ric. He asks where the body is and Damon suggests he start searching the storage units. Vampire Ric breaks Damon’s neck.

Matt brings Elena some tea and they start to talk. She told him how Stefan saved her life when her parents drove off the bridge. She said that after the accident, Stefan helped her want to live again. Matt asked her what the problem was, and she said Damon. She feels like when she is with Damon he “consumes” her. She then said she knows if she chooses one of them she will lose the other and she doesn’t want to lose either of them.

Elena has another flashback (since Matt spiked the tea). She’s leaving the bonfire because she and Matt got into a fight about love and marriage. She calls her mother for a ride and expresses her concerns and fear of losing Matt. He Mom reassures her that she isn’t losing him, she’s setting him free.

Rebekah arrives at the storage units and calls out for Damon. Vampire Ric hears her and gets ready to attack. Damon snatches her and covers her mouth so she won’t yell. Vampire Ric searches the units stopping in front of unit 1020 because the lock was broken. Damon and Rebekah are quietly rolling Klaus’ coffin to a hearse. Out of nowhere, Vampire Ric stops them and slams Rebekah into the hearse, knocking her out. Damon launches at Vampire Ric and he easily knocked Damon down. Vampire Ric opens the coffin and stabs the special stake into Klaus’s heart and his body scorches with flames. Rebekah screams as she sees the whole thing (and we thought Klaus was dead last week. OMG)! Vampire Ric takes the special stake and goes for Rebekah. Damon attacks him so she could escape.

Damon calls Stefan to report Klaus’ death. Now that Klaus is dead, if in fact he did start their bloodline it is the end of the road for the Salvatores and Caroline (and Tyler for sure). Damon thinks Klaus was lying and they both feel fine so he’s not worried. Stefan points out that it took Sage an hour or so to show symptoms, so if Klaus was telling the truth there is no time for Damon to get back to Mystic falls to say goodbye to Elena. They hang up and Caroline arrives and she knows something is wrong.

Elena wakes up in Matt’s truck and realizes he is taking her out of town. Jeremy calls and gives the news about Klaus. Elena insists that they go back. Matt tells her that she has a choice to go to Damon who is 100 miles out of town, or back to Stefan. She won’t be able to see both.

She calls Damon and tells him that Matt’s taking her home, but is quick to say it’s not just for Stefan, but for Caroline and Tyler too. Damon asks if it was just between the two of them who would she choose and she replied, “I love him, Damon.” Even though she has feelings for Damon she never stopped loving Stefan. She tells him that she cares for him which is why she has to let him go. Then she said, “Maybe if I’d met you first…”

In tears, Caroline rushes to Tyler (who said he was just with Bonnie) and tells him Klaus died. He tells her that he is a lost cause but she will be fine. He asks her to tell his mother that he left town like he was supposed to and they embrace. Then Tyler hunches over in pain. He tells her to leave because he doesn’t want her to watch him die (OMG! Tyler NO! I started to tear up here because the thought of no more Tyler was so sad to me! AHHH). She refused to leave him but he started to transform into a wolf and knowing the danger she faced, she left.

Caroline tells Elena about Tyler and she breaks the news to Matt. He doesn’t take it well and starts to freak out but Elena comforts him. This is not how their lives were supposed to be.

Rebekah meets Elijah in the woods and tells him there was nothing she could have done to save Klaus. Elijah tells her about Tyler, but is puzzled because everyone else is alive and well. They both are positive Klaus started their bloodline and they can’t understand why the others are still alive.

At the Lockwood cell, Tyler congratulates Bonnie on the spell (Um Did we not just see Tyler dying?). She says to “Klaus” that she did the spell to save her friends and her mother (Ok, so Tyler is now really Klaus? OMG!) Klaus/Tyler tells Bonnie that the spirits won’t be happy with her and she doesn’t care (remember when I said to get a glass of wine, if you have finished it, now is the time to refill it or just get another glass to prepare yourself for what is to come).

Rebekah calls Stefan and informs him that they have to take out Vampire Ric. She knows he will follow them and she is tired of running. So the only way to kill Vampire Ric is to kill Elena, and that is what she intends to do.

Matt and Elena are in the car and Elena wanted to call Stefan but her phone was dying. Matt reached for his and took his eyes off the road for a second and Rebekah was in the middle of the road. Matt swerved and the truck went off the Wickery Bridge and into the water.

Vampire Ric is beating the stuffing out of Damon and he isn’t fighting back one bit. Damon has a memory of lying in the middle of a road and hearing Elena talking to Bonnie on the phone about Matt. Damon goes to her and calls her Katherine. He realizes she isn’t Katherine and introduces himself. She thinks it’s weird that he’s by himself in the middle of nowhere. He points out that she is also alone and she says, “It’s Mystic Falls. Nothing bad ever happens here” (Wow she has no clue what her future holds). After they talked Damon decided he wasn’t ready for anyone to know he was back in town so he compelled her to forget their meeting. He did in fact meet her first (Aw! Poor Damon).

Flashback to the present Vampire Ric attempts to stab Damon with the special stake and Damon finally decides to fight back.

The scene flashes back between the crash with Matt, and Elena’s crash with her parents. Both times Stefan saves the day by pulling someone out of the car. In the flashback, Elena’s father directed him to save Elena first and both of her parents drowned. In the present-day crash, Elena directs him to rescue Matt first and as she waited for him to return, she took her last breath and drowned (OMG! NO).

Vampire Ric then died right in front of Damon. He knows what that means; Elena died too.

Alaric visits Jeremy and says that he will always be there to look after him; he will never be alone. Jeremy can’t figure out how he got in the house, and it hits him that Alaric is a ghost. He comes to the same realization as Damon, his sister died.

At the hospital, Damon demands that Dr. Fell take him to Elena. She admits to him that when Jeremy brought her in earlier, her injuries were much worse than she led on. She told him that she helped her by giving her vampire blood. (OH. MY. GOD. Elena is going to be a vampire)! Next we see Elena wake up with a huge gasp.

That is it folks! What a way to end Season 3! I told you to get a glass of wine! Wow! What did you guys think? What is going to happen to Tyler? What is going to happen to Bonnie with the spirits angry with her? Is Elena really going to be a vampire next season? I can’t believe that is all for this season but they definitely gave us a lot to think about over the summer. Let me know your thoughts below and we will see you back right here for the Season 4 premiere of The Vampire Diaries on the CW!