"Evacuate the town. Yeah, it's another gas leak." -- Sheriff Matt Donovan
This is the Mystic Falls town slogan. I would also accept, "Come for the vampires, but stay for the lies that everything is going to be okay," because nothing in Mystic Falls is ever going to be okay. This place has been haunted by vamps since the Civil War! I find it ironic that in the last episode of the series, we're going back to the old classics. Similar to the old Buffy adage, "This crime was committed by a gang on pcp." The Vampire Diaries had their share of police cover-ups. In the beginning, Sheriff Forbes and Mayor Lockwood put the town at ease by straight up lying. Vicki Donovan (sister of Matt) was bit by vampire Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) during a party in the woods, and everyone believed she was bit by an animal, another Buffy lame excuse. When in doubt, all of the vampires could glamour humans and make them believe whatever they told them in a trance-like state. It worked fine until Stefan became human again. All of his glamours became undone and the town was ready to riot before the gates of hell were being opened. Much like Buffy, TVD also has a gateway to hell lurking around their school. This is more a recent development as the "Hells Bells" came to town with TVD's siren sisters this season.  |
| Image fro GURL.com |
Multiple Dimensions, Bonnie's Deaths and "The Cure"
When a few witches created alternate dimensions to trap people {1994 for Kai Parker (Chris  |
| Bonnie and the Bennett Witches Image from Youtube |
The Big Battle- "I was Feeling Epic"
A few episodes ago, Bonnie injected some of the cure out of Elena's sleeping body so she could give it to her boyfriend, Enzo. Then sweet Stefan went evil (just like Angel lost his soul and became Angelus) because he turned off his humanity to serve the devil for a few years. Also known as "Cade", the devil made the Salvatore brother work for him collecting bad souls in exchange for not taking Caroline and Ric's twin witch toddlers, which is like a magical full house. Bonnie punished Stefan by stabbing him with the cure, and turning him human for the first time in 150 years. At this point, the cure rules become unclear. Stefan got the cure, but it's still in Elena's sleeping body. It does, however, becomes clear that doppelganger Katherine is pulling the strings in hell. Surprise! She's had Cade torturing the gang since she died a few years ago. Through Stefan and Caroline's wedding, they lure Katherine back to town. Here's the plan, trap her in the underground tunnels, and hope Bonnie can channel hellfire through the tunnels (like when an earthquake swallowed Sunnydale into the Hellmouth) to swallow Katherine back to hell and destroy the whole construct, once and for all. Stefan volunteers, he has a family to protect now. Damon volunteers, because he's done some bad stuff and has spent the last season pondering if he would ever be worthy of Elena when she wakes up. As Heath Ledger said in 10 Things I Hate About You, "Does this chick have beer flavored nipples?" The blind love and devotion for Elena is at times, completely revolting. So now Damon is going to trap Katherine in the tunnels. Psych! Stefan comes at the last minute and stabs his brother with (you guessed it) the cure, so he can also be human, and live out a human life with Elena. Stefan goes down in hellfire with Katherine as a hero. He is officially, dead. Everyone was pretty upset about it, especially his brother (after 150+ years on earth, you get attached). I was near tears when they had a "woods funeral" for Stefan, playing The Fray's Look After You. This song was significant for two reasons, it was callback to Stefan and Elena in the pilot, and Candace Accola (Caroline) actually married one of the band members. We saw Stefan pass over as he jumped into a car with his old (dead) pal, Lexie, where he proclaimed, "I was feeling epic!"
What exactly is hellfire?
Now we come back to Sheriff Matt Donovan and what he did for the town. First of all, Matt is the only character on the show that (a) did not die and (b) remained human the entire time. Secondly, he only became the Sheriff because enough people died, moved away, or quit that he was the only one dumb enough to stick around in a town that was at one time, preventing non-vampires from entering at the "welcome" sign. Does that make him a good cop? I can't say. I can say that Matt was the Mystic Falls equivalent of a Xander Harris. He had a pure heart, and he needed to do just one thing to prove he was worthy of being part of this extraordinary group.
Matt finally got parents this season, and they revealed he was from one of the founding families (he could have been Miss Mystic Falls). This means Matt wasn't the white trash he always believed he came from. The Maxwell family designed the founders' town bell, and the Bennett witches put a spell on it to drive away sirens. But a different number of rings would open the gates of hell, located just under the town square (just like the high school library). Before the grand plan to eradicate Katherine was developed, Matt agreed to ring the bell. Then his 20-years absent dad jumped in to ring it, but hey changed their minds after hearing the town would be eradicated. Then Matt's mom came back from the dead (don't feel bad, Matt didn't even know she died) and got his (also dead) sister Vicki to ring the bell, bringing hellfire. Matt and Damon tried to kill Vicki, but remember, she's been dead since about episode 5. At least by this point, the crack team had a plan in place to take down Katherine and preserve the town. The town later presented Matt with a bench (for still having a town to come back to) while the ghosts of his sister and friend Tyler watched.
Caroline/Rick/Stefan- One Happy Family?
Caroline and Stefan got married in the penultimate episode. I know they've been engaged all season, but something about their relationship has never won me over. Maybe I am a sucker for the chemistry Stefan first had with Elena, and that fact that they're doppelgangers, souls reborn into identical bodies over and over again. That means something! Does it mean something that Caroline was hard core hitting on Stefan in the first episode? I choose to believe it was just a way to show her personality at that time, she was a boy-crazy friend of Elena, light and airy until she (within the first half of the season) became a vampire. That being said, a more grown up Caroline was forced into this family with Ric because she was gifted with carrying his wife's mystical twins. We all remember Jo's devastating murder at the hand of her twin brother (Kai) during her wedding. She is the only mom these kids will ever know, and Ric is the dad to all of the kids in mystic falls, because they have terrible family situations. Ric almost married Elena's aunt at one point (before she died), and it turned out his first wife was Elena's biological mother. Talk about an awkward family reunion... So Caroline and Ric called off their wedding a few years ago because she was really in love with Stefan. But, I always believed Ric had fallen in love with Caroline and I wanted to see them end up together. With Stefan gone a day after he got married, I am hoping Caroline and Ric come together again, this time with love and gratitude fro what they've faced with these twin terrors (siren nannies and the like). Their last scene is opening a magic school (just like Charmed) with Elena's brother Jeremy, much like the Derek Zoolander center, except books catch on fire and there may be Harry Potter robes. I guess the idea of the school is to prevent kids from spinning out and becoming magical super villains, like Kai. Despite their generous endowment to begin the school from creepy vampire Klaus, I choose to believe Caroline and Ric are together.
Elena and Damon- Happily Ever After, or Are They Dead?
Elena and Damon are living happily as humans. I'm not happy with it, but I'm accepting it based on the circumstances. Elena writes in her journal, with a big rock on her finger, back in the graveyard again. In the first episode, she went to the cemetery to feel close to her recently deceased parents. Now, I think it's mostly for Stefan's benefit. I assumed she was writing ho him in her journal. As a typical back from the dead over-achiever, Elena completed college, med school, and actually became a doctor. I guess she handles blood well. She finished journaling and Damon met her to walk somewhere. There's a crow in the graveyard. It's another callback to the first episode. I also think Stefan's soul may be in that crow. Yes, it's a stretch, but it makes me happy.Here's where TVD lost me: the last scene. I'm going out on a LOST limb here, so bear with me. From all the interviews and pieces I have read, we are flashing forward to the end of Damon and Elena's lives. Otherwise, all of this was for nothing because it seems like we're following them into the not too distant afterlife. Elena and Damon were strolling down the street. Elena stopped at her home, (which she burned down upon becoming a vampire) and her dead parents were out on the porch. She ran up the steps, hugging them and her dead aunt, Jenna. Then her dead biological father (Uncle John) came out with a bottle of wine and hugged her. To me, one reunites with dead people when they have also crossed over. The last shot was Damon ringing the bell at the old Salvatore house, which a second ago was being converted into a magic school by Caroline and Ric. Stefan opened the door and greeted his brother home with a hug. The last words are another callback to the pilot, when Damon breezed into town to murder people. He said to Stefan, "Hello brother." If Damon was worried he would never see Stefan again, and here they are together in their home, they must be dead. If they really did destroy hell with it's own fire, they must be in heaven. So it seems like both brothers found redemption for being such vicious killers.
While that's a great note to end on, I want to believe Stefan got another shot with Elena in the afterlife. They had such a beautiful (but too short) moment saying goodbye while Elena was in her sleeping beauty coma that I can't be completely satisfied with this ending.
NOTE: A "woods funeral" is a memorial held for someone who is dead on TVD. I coined this term because it's happened multiple times, and at least a few of them were for Bonnie. I guess this group needs to say their goodbyes in private, so a real funeral may also be held. They meet in the woods near the graveyard, possibly by the Lockwood family crypt. They say some nice things and often leave tokens for the dead.
*My original intent was to call this "Twins, Doppelgangers and Time Jumps", but there was only one jump, three sets of twins and a gaggle of vampires, diaries and doppelgangers to discuss., so we paired it down.
