The Vampire Diaries had its series finale a few weeks ago on March 10 and I’m still not over it. After eight years, it’s hard to let this show go. So I made a list of my 20 favorite TVD episodes. SPOILER ALERT.
1. Rose’s Death – Season 2 Episode 12
After Rose is bitten by a werewolf, she starts to hallucinate as her health declines and her life starts to come to an end. She begins to regret that the last 500 years of her life were spent in fear instead of living her life. In her final moments, Damon holds her as he gets inside her head to bring her to her favorite place: her original home. They sit in the field and talk to each other and Rose says that she isn’t afraid to die anymore. Damon then takes a dagger, ending her suffering and pain as a tear rolls down his face. This is Damon’s first real moment in the series that shows that he isn’t as much of a bad guy has he has been made to be.
2. Tyler’s First Transformation – Season 2 Episode 11
Tyler is terrified for the pain of his first transformation into a werewolf. Caroline makes sure to be by his side for as long as she possibly can to try and help him with his transformation mentally. It’s the beginning of their romantic relationship.
3. Stefan and Elena’s First Kiss – Season 1 Episode 2
With Sara Bareilles’ song Gravity playing in the background, Stefan recites the lines that Elena had said to him earlier: “I met a girl, we talked and it was epic. Then the sun came up and reality set in. Well, this is reality, right here.” He then leans in and they kiss.
4. Katherine’s First Appearance – Season 1 Episode 22
Probably one of the best plot twists on this show is when Katherine first shows up. Elena and Damon stand on Elena’s porch has he confesses his feelings for her and kisses her. Jenna opens the door, interrupting and telling Elena to come inside. Once inside, Elena encounters John in the kitchen. She spots the life-saving Gilbert ring on his hand, grabs a knife, slams it down onto the table where his hand is, cutting his fingers off and removing the ring from his body. He realizes in this moment, that this person is not Elena, but Katherine. She then says “Hello, John. Goodbye John,” as she plunges the knife into his stomach.
5. Damon Compels Elena – Season 2 Episode 8
Damon confesses to Elena that he loves her, but compels her to forget.
6. Damon at Alaric’s Grave – Season 4 Episode 2
Damon visits his best friend’s grave to talk to him. “You know what they are? Children. Like lighting a candle’s going to make everything OK, or even saying a prayer. Or pretending Elena’s not going to end up just like the rest of us murdering vampires. Stupid, delusional, exasperating little children. And I know what you’re going to say: ‘It makes them feel better, Damon.’ So what? For how long? A minute, a day? What difference does it make? Because in the end, when you lose somebody, every candle, every prayer is not going to make up for the fact that the only thing you have left is a hole in your life where that somebody that you cared about used to be. And a rock with a birthday carved into it that I’m pretty sure is wrong. So thanks, friend. Thanks for leaving me here to babysit, because I should be long gone by now. I didn’t get the girl, remember? I’m just stuck here fighting my brother and taking care of the kids. You owe me big.” The camera pans over to reveal Alaric’s ghost sitting beside Damon. Although Damon cannot see or hear him, Alaric responds saying, “I miss you too, buddy.”
7. Damon and Elena’s Motel Kiss – Season 3 Episode 19
Damon and Elena go to visit Jeremy to make sure he isn’t in danger. They take him to motel and after a lot of sexual tension between the two in the motel, the sneak out to kiss. And are then caught by Jeremy.
8. Elena Drowns – Season 3 Episode 22
Matt and Elena get into a car accident and drive off of Wickery Bridge, the same place Elena’s parents died. Stefan comes to save them and tries to save Elena first, but she firmly tells him no, making him save Matt instead. In a devastatingly ironic situation, Elena slowly drowns the same way her parents did. After, the scene moves to the hospital where Dr. Fell reveals to Damon that when Elena had been in the hospital earlier that day due to bleeding in her brain, Dr. Fell gave her vampire blood to heal her. This means that when Elena drowned, she had vampire blood in her system. We then see Elena’s lifeless body on a surgical table. The season ends with Elena’s eyes opening as she wakes up and gasps for air, revealing that she has been made into a vampire.
9. Damon and Elena’s First Encounter – Season 3 Episode 22
When Elena believes that Damon and Stefan will shortly die, she has to make the decision of which brother she is going to see and say goodbye to in the short time they have left. As she’s on the phone with Damon, she explains to him that she chooses to be with Stefan in their final moments saying, “maybe if we met first…” which leads into a flashback of the night Elena’s parents died. Damon and Elena meet as she waits for her parents to pick her up. However, he compels her to forget the moment. This reveals that Damon was the one who first met Elena. Not Stefan.
10. Isobel Compels Alaric – Season 1 Episode 21
As Isobel says goodbye to Alaric, it shows that Isobel still has some humanity left in her after all. She reveals that she wanted and needed to be a vampire but that she will regret that decision forever. “This was my mistake, not yours.” She compels him to forget this moment and to let her go.
11. Miss Mystic Falls – Season 1 Episode 19
The blood lust became too strong for Stefan, leaving him to abandon Elena at the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant, leaving her without an escort. Damon steps in at the last second to do the dance the couples have to perform.
12. Damon Dying – Season 2 Episode 22
Damon is bitten by a werewolf and knows he will die soon. Elena comforts him in his last moments and they share their first kiss. Katherine walks in soon after, giving him the cure to the bite which saves his life.
13. Stefan Calls Elena – Season 3 Episode 1
After Stefan goes rogue with Klaus, Elena refuses to give up hope for him. She receives a mysterious call the night of her birthday from Stefan. Although he never speaks, she knows it’s him and tells him he’ll be okay and “I love you, Stefan. Hold onto that. Never let that go.” Ron Pope’s A Drop in the Ocean plays in the background as Stefan cries and nods his head.
14. Klaus Saves Caroline – Season 3 Episode 11
When Caroline is bitten by a werewolf, we believe she will soon die. But Klaus shows that he has a heart, and a heart that is smitten for Caroline as he saves her life.
15. Klaus Saves Caroline (Again) – Season 4 Episode 13
This time, Klaus is the reason Caroline is dying, after he bites her. After she forces him to watch her die, he gives in and saves her again.
16. The Ghosts Come Back – Season 4 Episode 22
Bonnie unseals the veil to the other side, letting the dead supernatural roam Earth again. Lexi comes back to do what she does best: save Stefan from himself after he turned off his emotions.
17. Bonnie’s Funeral – Season 5 Episode 4
When everyone finally finds out that Bonnie has been dead the entire summer, the have a tear-jerking funeral for her in which they all leave something to remember her by. Elena sprinkles white feathers in remembrance of the time Bonnie revealed to her that she was a witch by making all of the white feathers from Elena’s pillow float around the room. Jeremy, who can speak to the dead, acts as a translator to reveal to them Bonnie’s last words as she walks among her friends who can no longer see her.
18. Klaus and Caroline Kiss – Season 5 Episode 11
While everyone is out in the woods searching for Matt, Caroline finds Klaus. Klaus says he will leave Mystic Falls and never come back if she will reveal she has feelings for him. She does, which ends in a passionate kiss as they rip each other’s clothes off.
19. Nadia Dies – Season 5 Episode 15
Katherine watches as her daughter dies from a werewolf bite. She apologizes to Nadia for not being the mother she deserved and shows Nadia an image of what their life could have been. She feels guilty that Nadia spent her whole life searching for her. Katherine tells her she loves her and Nadia dies, peacefully and happily joining the other side.
20. Stefan and Caroline’s Wedding – Season 8 Episode 15
As soon as Caroline was turned into a vampire, the chemistry behind her and Stefan was impossible to ignore. After so many seasons, they finally tie the knot in the second to last episode of the show. Their vows are the highlight of this moment: Stefan: “Caroline, you’ve been my friend, my conscious, my sounding board, my sunlight when all I saw was darkness. You saved me from despair. You told me once that I would fall in love without even realizing it and that’s what happened. Day by day, bit by bit, year by year…with you.”
Caroline: “I remember saying to you, we were dancing at my prom…funny all the things we remember as all the years go by… I remember how you told me when I was ready for you, you would be ready for me. I’m ready now. I think a part of me has been ready for this day since the moment I first saw you. The new mystery guy, in the hallway at school. I will always remember this moment. 100 years from now. I will remember this moment. For the both of us.”