Spoiler Alert!
Vampire Diaries is one of my all time favorite television shows. It has consumed me for all of 8 years now. 8 seasons, many characters, deaths, revivals, and just endless amounts of drama that we all loved. I remember starting Vampire Diaries like it was yesterday. I was looking for a new show as we all do and it intrigued me so I thought I’d watch the first episode. I wasn’t immediately hooked but there was something that made me want to watch more, so I did. I cannot even imagine if I hadn’t found this show. This show has taken me on an emotional roller coaster through epic loves, breakups, deaths and just the pure emotion of the characters.
On March 10, 2017 “I Was Feeling Epic” premiered on the CW. It was like any other day where I got ready to watch the show, except this would be the last time. It was the series finale and I was NOT ready. I was home on spring break with just my mother and she decided to watch it with me. “I Was Feeling Epic” is the ultimate name for the finale because this show is, if anything else, epic. There is no other way to describe Vampire Diaries. It was truly epic.
Let’s talk about the series finale and how I cried my eyes out. I feel bad for all my friends because I snapchatted them videos of the show with my heavy sobbing audible in the background. These characters have grown up so much throughout the series. A lot has happened to them and around them that alters their lives and their friends lives. It’s hard to think about the ending because the characters were all like my friends. You get so attached to them and seeing the show end, or worse, one of them dying, is hard to grasp. I’m just going to say it…Stefan didn’t deserve to die and I cry every time I think about how he sacrificed himself for Elena. He truly had a heart of gold and really cared for Elena.
Eight season ago Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore met and it was epic. That’s where the story all began and that’s where it ends. Yes, I am still crying. I was always for Elena and Damon, and I still am, but Stefan cared for Elena so much that he would sacrifice his own life to save her’s and also his brother’s happiness. Stefan is an absolutely amazing guy with an ever more pure heart. He deserved the world and at the end Caroline was his world. The last episode before the finale was Stefan and Caroline’s wedding, albeit it was sort of staged, but either way there was this moment of bliss where everything seemed hopeful and peaceful. Unfortunately, this is Vampire Diaries we’re talking about so that moment was fleeting.
Stefan meets Elena in a limbo world which of course has them in the high school together. He explains to her how he saw a side of Damon he hasn’t seen for a while and slowly Elena realizes what Stefan has done. As he walks away from her in down the hall and out the doors he enters peace. Outside leaning on his Porsche is none other than Lexi who says, “that was beautiful”, to which Stefan responds “I was feeling epic.” After Stefan died, Caroline opened the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. She got “a most impressive donor” as Alaric puts it and then states, “but that is the beginning of another story”…will we to play witness to a new story? Elena went to med-school and after graduating returned to Mystic Falls to be with the now human Damon. Bonnie decided to honor Enzo’s wishes and live life to the fullest by traveling the world. No, I swear I’m not crying while writing this. They all found peace it seems. Elena narrates the end sequence saying,“even after our long and happy life together, Damon is still worried he’ll never see Stefan again. That he’ll never find peace. But I know he’s wrong, because peace exists. It lives in everything we hold dear.” Elena then comes across her house where her mother, father and Jenna are waiting for her on the porch. The last scene is at none other than the Salvatore house where Stefan is holding his glass of whiskey by the fire when someone come stop the door. He opens it and there is Damon standing there. “Hello brother”, he says. The first words Damon spoke in the series and the last words he spoke. It all came full circle and when we began this journey none of us knew where it was going to end. The two brothers embrace as the light from the door engulfs them in a yes, peaceful white light. Elena leaves us with the words, “That is the promise of peace. That one day, after a long life, we find each other again.”
Such a pleasant note to end a long running series on. Vampire Diaries has meant a lot to me and it always will. I know it seems weird to relate so much to a vampire, supernatural show, but it really has helped me through times of heartache and loss. In the words of our friend Elena Gilbert, “And life goes on.”