Vampire Diaries Final Episode – Founders Day
The season ending episode of the Vampire Diaries on the CW, ‘Founders Day’, starts out with what you think is a flashback, but it’s not – Stefan is dressing in period clothing and Elena is putting on her antebellum gown, both getting ready for the Founder’s Day parade. Damon meets up with Stefan, teasing him about taking Elena away from him. Stefan is not amused. They are both mesmerized when Elena walks up to them in her costume, giving them a little curtsy and looking identical to Katherine.
Anna comes to visit Jeremy in his room and she tells him that she plans to leave town now that Jeremy’s uncle has killed her mother. She gives Jeremy a vial of her blood, saying he can shut off all his sad emotions by becoming a vampire and leaving town with her. She will turn him, just like he wanted. But, this time, he declines the offer and Anna disappears from his room.
Stefan tells Elena about the connection John had to Isobel, and that he believes that John is her biological father. Elena is quite freaked that John might be her father but she is more upset by the fact that Jeremy now hates her for lying to him for so long. Stefan tells her to give him time and he will come around but Elena is not so sure. Jeremy tells her to go away every time she comes near him and, finally, he tells her it cannot be fixed so easily.
The Mystic Falls High School marching band sounds particularly good as the parade begins for Founder’s Day. Damon actually thanks Bonnie when he sees her in the crowd for taking care of` the machine that could have killed him. He does not know about her betrayal nor does anyone else…yet.
John is back in his room discussing how to use the machine with Richard Lockwood, the Mayor of Mystic Falls. He explains that it makes a high pitched noise that incapacitates the vampires and then they can inject them all with vervain, rendering them helpless. John is willing to put all the members of the Founders Day families at risk in order to have this chance to finish off the tomb vampires – once and for all.
Damon is at the grill when Elena enters and he compliments her on how she looks. He tells her that he likes her like this – dressed in modern clothes – that the period look didn’t suit her. Hmm, could have fooled me when he seemed so starstruck as she walked out in that Civil War era dress at the parade. Elena tells Damon to quit flirting with her and giving her the ‘eye thing’, Stefan is getting worried about his flirting with her and she does not like making him unhappy.
Elena tries once again to make it up with Jeremy but he is still just being rude – telling her to ‘go to hell’. Believe it or not, Damon comes to her defense, tracking down Jeremy and telling him to stop whining – which then turns into a threat. They are about to really get into it when Stefan steps in, naturally, to diffuse the situation and Damon thinks that Stefan is threatened by the fact that he is trying to help Elena.
John and Richard take their idea to kill all the vampires during the Founder’s Day festivities to the sheriff who says absolutely not to the idea of using Mystic Falls families as bait to kill the tomb vampires. She says no, she thinks it is done, but then John knocks her out and handcuffs her to a pipe because he is going to get what he wants – one way or another.
Anna finds Damon to tell him that the vampires are going to attack when the fireworks start. The vampire plan is to kill as many of the founding families as possible and they have to be stopped. Damon tells Alaric to get stakes from his car and they get ready for a fight – not knowing that their biggest problem is that Bonnie never deactivated the machine. The machine will work, taking the Salvatore brothers down as well as the tomb vampires.
Knowing what is coming, Richard makes Tyler drive Matt and Caroline away from town to safety. Anna goes to tell Jeremy to try and get him to leave as well. As the Mayor ends his Founder’s Day speech, the fireworks begin. And, as the applause starts, John cranks up the machine and all the vampires, including the good ones, fall to the ground in horrific pain. A really odd thing is that both the Mayor and his son, Tyler, are affected – they are not vampires, so what are they? Tyler wrecks the car that he is driving with Matt and Caroline inside due to his agony. Alaric helps Elena drag Stefan away from the deputies who are injecting all the incapacitated vampires with vervain but Anna is not so lucky – she is dragged out of Jeremy’s arms as he screams her name.
The vampires are all rounded up in the basement of a building in town including Anna, Damon, and the Mayor. Anna still has enough strength to grab John’s leg and he stakes her to death, as Damon watches helplessly. John pours gasoline and torches the building to kill all of the vampires. Stefan and Elena are safe with Alaric when they realize that Bonnie did not deactivate the machine.
The paramedics are on the scene of the car wreck, trying to revive Tyler. The paramedic opens his eye and a bizarre yellow eye looks back at him, freaking him out. Tyler, who appears to be dead, takes a deep breath and is suddenly alive. What is he? Stefan and Elena go and try to help the vampires in the burning building but John is out there and he threatens to kill Stefan. John lets Stefan go ahead, ‘you’ll save me the trouble of killing you later’, but he stops Elena. She tells him that since you are my father, you should let me go and – to her surprise, he does.
Just as Stefan enters the burning building, Bonnie stops Elena and completes a spell to protect Stefan so he can get Damon out of the building before he dies. The brothers live, Bonnie is forgiven, and Elena knows who her biological parents are. Elena tells Stefan that the authorities think the fire was caused by wiring. It’s a good thing they know nothing about forensics in Mystic Falls. Elena reaffirms her love for Stefan and tells him not to worry about Damon.
Damon arrives to tell Jeremy that Anna is dead and offers to erase his mind again but this time it is his choice. Jeremy refuses the offer and Damon tells him that what he did to Vicki was wrong and he wishes he had not done it. It looks like Damon is finding his humanity again. He tells Jeremy it was easier when he was a vampire who had no feelings, so of course now Jeremy wants to use the blood Anna gave him to become a vampire and stop feeling. Jeremy drinks Anna’s vial of vampire blood and kills himself with pills so he will turn. Now, we can listen to Jeremy whine for eternity.
Bonnie finds Stefan to let him know that she only saved him for Elena but then she gives him an ultimatum – Damon must change. If he kills another innocent in Mystic Falls, either he will die or both of them will die. Bonnie has the power and she knows how to use it. Elena finds Damon at her house as she comes home from the Founder’s Day carrying her dress. He opens up his heart to her, telling her that he knows it was her who decided that he was worth saving, and he thanks her with a kiss. Then it gets OH SO GOOOOD as they keep kissing. Well, it would have been good except that you next see Elena walking up to the door, wondering what happened to her dress and we realize that Damon kissed Katherine – not Elena. Katherine is in the kitchen, killing John when Elena enters the house, calling out when she hears noises coming from the kitchen. Yikes! This is a great Vampire Diaries cliffhanger.
And that ends season one for the Vampire Diaries. What a great ending with plenty of unanswered question, like any good cliffhanger. Why has Katherine come back after all this time? Will Jeremy become an interesting vampire? What kind of creature is Tyler? Will Bonnie let the power go to her head? Does Damon desire Elena above Katherine now? Vampire Diaries on the CW has been picked up for a second season, so, yay!, I hope I will get all these questions answered – plus more – in the next season.
