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Title: The Vampire Diaries S4.E23 “Graduation”
Released: 2013

It’s graduation day, and Kol is giving a speech to all of the newly risen people about taking back the night, but WHO CARES, because Lexi and Stefan ARE LISTENING TO BON JOVI!!! *Drink!*  Damon shows up and reminds them about the impending apocalypse, but Stefan just makes a joke about styling his hair!  And is awesome. *Drink!*

Bonnie calls Caroline and tells her she hit a snag, which Caroline has no sympathy for, because NOTHING BETTER MESS WITH GRADUATION.  This is because Bonnie does NOT tell her that that snag is that SHE DIED. (Oh Shit! +1)

Jeremy and Alaric are ADORABLE *Drink!* what with the eating and drinking during a little family bonding with Elena.  And the three of them are so happy, you guys, and I just want them to stay together forever.

Rebekah’s vampire slayer ex-boyfriend has decided that he loves modern weaponry!  And also campers, apparently.  And is making Matt and Rebekah hang out with him by making Matt stand on some sort of Wii board that’s hooked to explosives!  (Oh Shit! +2)  And Connor the vampire slayer calls Elena and threatens the entire population of the Bronze if she doesn’t get him Silas. (Oh Shit! +3)

Then Charlie Bewley shows up at the Salvatore’s and shoots Damon in the shoulder with a wooden bullet! (Oh Shit! +4)  Turns out Charlie Bewley DID starve to death in that cave, and he has a message from Katsia — kill Silas.  But then Stefan punches his heart out! (Oh Shit! +5) *Drink!*  Poor Charlie Bewley.  I’d have rather he stayed over some of the other slayers, but plot-wise, I guess he was the most expendable.  So will Stefan get haunted by the slayer curse for killing an already dead dude?  And if they die while the veil is down, do they stay dead, or can they come back again?

Alaric shows up at the Bronze to confront Connor the vampire slayer, and is awesome *Drink!* with his “This is my bar, pal,” as well as taking credit for Elena’s fighting skills.  God, I love Alaric.  But oh no! Connor the vampire slayer has a bomb strapped to himself!  But Alaric super speed walks him outside, so no one is injured when the bomb goes off.  BUT!!!  Does that mean Alaric got blown up?!! NOOOOOO!!! (Oh Shit! +6)

Matt is getting tired standing so still on the Wii Bomb — you can tell by the way his feet wiggle.  But he stays calm and commanding as he keeps Rebekah talking to help her keep her cool.  Rebekah tells him all of the awesome places she’s going to take him once this is all over and pisses off ex-boyfriend vampire slayer so he throws a knife at Matt! (Oh Shit! +7) But Rebekah catches it right before it lodges itself in his head!  But in doing so knocks into him, which makes him almost fall off of the Wii Bomb! (Oh Shit! +8)  Thankfully, Rebekah steadies him before it can go off.

Katherine threatens Elena to Bonnie a little bit (Oh Shit! +8) about the immortality spell she was supposed to get from Katsia, but Bonnie has graduation to get through, goodbyes to be said, a veil to raise, and to deal with the fact that she’s DEAD, so she doesn’t take it too kindly.

Elena shows up at the Salvatores, figuring that she and Damon need to talk, but first things first, Damon gives her the cure.  Now Elena says that she does want to take it after all, but she’s not willing to take it when all of those vampire slayers are threatening everyone in town to get it.

Meanwhile, Lexi and Stefan discuss the whole thing where now that the sire bond is gone, “what if” Elena still loves Stefan?  Of course, Stefan still loves her, but I think his plan to move to Australia is pretty good.  Even the yurt part.  Then Charlie Bewley wakes up! (Oh Shit! +9)  (But hallelujah, Alaric isn’t lost forever!)

Meanwhile, Damon’s shoulder suddenly hurts!  (Oh Shit! +10) Elena checks it, and it turns out the wooden bullet was laced with werewolf venom!  (Oh Shit! +11)  Damon’s all blasé about it, in his awesome *Drink!* Damon way, but Jeremy suggests what you all predicted in last week’s comments, that hey, couldn’t he just take the cure?  Damon’s response to this is to toss the cure to Charlie Bewley and head out to find Silas.  (Oh Shit! +12)  Of course, Silas is currently at the bottom of a waterfall.  Could it be Mystic Falls?!!!  *Drink!*

Matt is so tired from standing on the Wii Bomb all night, that Rebekah is having to hold him up!  Matt suggests just letting the bomb go off on account of the fact that he’s wearing Jeremy’s ring of invincibility.  Rebekah mumbles something about doing the thing she’s most afraid of, and then leans in and kisses him! *Drink!*  And then they’re kissing!  They’re kissing and the world spins around and when they break apart, Rebekah is standing on the Wii Bomb and Matt is free!  *Drink!* He heads to graduation, and she lets it blow up.

Stefan tells Elena that Damon actually didn’t dump Silas’s body in the Mystic Falls, and he’s just stalling, so Jeremy suggests that hey, why doesn’t Elena go to graduation?  Since Jeremy has died, he’s learned not to sweat the small stuff.  Or the big stuff.

Caroline calls Klaus to ask him to save Damon, and just as she hangs up, Matt shows up!  And is awesome *drink!* With his joke about making summer plans and dodging death by vampire.  Then the whole gang is there, and they hug and joke, and Caroline starts making plans for the three girls to go to college together, but it’s really sad, because we all know that Bonnie is actually dead.  Let’s have a sad *Drink!*

Then hey!  There’s Bonnie’s nonexistent father!  Reading off the names of the graduates!  And we get to see everyone accept their diploma!  Aw!  I’m most proud of Matt.  But then Kol appears behind Bonnie in the crowd, and shows her how there’s a ton of undead supernaturals hanging about.  He wants the veil to be dropped 4EVER so he can live! (Oh Shit! +13)  Bonnie shows him her body — her dead one, not like, she flashes him or anything — and tells him she wants to live, too.  But then she does a spell that traps him down in the basement and is awesome *Drink!* with her “we don’t always get what we want.”
Damon taunts Charlie Bewley about not being able to swim, but that turns out to be not such a good idea, on account of the fact that Charlie Bewley SHOOTS him more with werewolf-laced bullets!  (Oh shit! +14)  But then Alaric (Oh hai, Alaric!) shows up and snaps Charlie Bewley’s neck and tosses him into the Mystic Falls! *Drink!* (Oh Shit! +15)  Ever notice how much more there is to *Drink!* about when Alaric is on the show?  Also, the ohshitometer seems to have to work harder.  Anyway, Alaric saved the cure. *Drink!*

But Damon won’t take the cure, even though he’s dying, so Alaric calls Stefan to see what the word is on Klaus before he force-feeds Damon the cure.  But just then everybody gets a migraine from the undead witches! (Oh Shit! +16)  But that is before Klaus decapitates the head witch using Caroline’s graduation cap as a boomerang!!!!!!!! *Drink!* (Oh Shit! +17)  And yes, he is super awesome.  So *Drink!* again.

And we have a Shirtess Salvatore, as Damon is apparently cured of the venom.  Elena asks if he’s okay, and then punches him.  Alaric is awesome *Drink!* by saying “I taught her that swing.”  Elena asks Stefan to go talk, which leaves Lexi and Alaric to hang by themselves.  They talk about finding the great peace in the hereafter, but Alaric is awesome *Drink!* and brings up a good point about how hard it is to let go and move on when all of the knuckleheads he cares about keep screwing up their lives.

Elena thanks Stefan for sticking by her and believing in her, and gives him the cure.  She figures he deserves it, and he needs it, on account of how drinking blood makes him the ripper.

Turns out Klaus had been on his way to Caroline’s graduation anyway, and tells her that Tyler is free to return to Mystic Falls.  He is awesome *Drink!* when he tells her that he knows Tyler’s her first love, but he intends to be her last, and he’ll wait over on his own show in New Orleans.  (Holy Shit! +18)

Damon tells Elena that he’s not sorry he almost died rather than take the cure, and then says a bunch of stuff about how he’s selfish and bad for her, and then she says that well, she’s not sorry either, because even though he always makes the wrong choices, and is a really bad person, she’s in love with him! (Oh Shit! +19)  And then they kiss! *Drink!*

But Stefan could hear the whole thing, and is having a sad. *Drink!*  Lexi comes over and rests her hand on his shoulder, and even though I’ve been annoyed with him so much this season, maybe it’s the fact that Alaric’s back, or it’s the season finale, but my heart breaks for Stefan.

Damon finds Stefan switching Silas’s body from the trunk of one car to the trunk of another, and they have a moment of brotherly love that reminds us what this show is all about.

Jeremy shows up to visit Bonnie in the basement, and tells her he’s ready to go back.  He just wanted to be with her when it happened.  He couldn’t say good bye to Elena, so he left her a note.  (And this is why you always leave a note!)

Alaric and Damon pour some scotch as they wait for the veil to be raised, and Alaric is awesome, *Drink!* with his, “You got the girl.  Now don’t screw it up.”  And then he’s gone, and has taken another piece of all of us with him.

Lexi tells Stefan that while Elena was “the ONE”, there will be others, if he can just let go and move on.

Elena arrives at the basement only to be attacked by Kol! (Oh Shit! +20) But then he disappears!  And Katherine shows up!  And throws her against a wall! (Oh Shit! +21)

Jeremy and Bonnie finally address their unfinished business of kissing, right as she finishes raising the veil.  Then Jeremy gasps in a breath, and Bonnie did it!  He’s alive!  She brought him back from the dead!  But now he can’t feel her touching him, and realizes that she’s dead, and not only that, but she wants him to tell Caroline and Elena some bullshit story about how she’s visiting her mom?!!  Because it’s not like every girl Jeremy has ever loved got killed, and now you want him to deal with losing you, and deal with it alone?  And yeah, maybe Caroline and Elena are happy now, but how much worse is it going to be when they ultimately find out?  Not cool.  But then she goes and joins Grandma Whitley and walks into the darkness.  *Pour one out.*

Rebekah shows up and Matt’s new mansion, and tells him that she understands if the kiss they shared doesn’t mean anything now.  Matt is awesome *Drink!* when he tells her that his love life needs to stay a low-vampire zone, following it up with a “What happens on the road, stays on the road” because he is totally taking her up on her offer to see the world!  *Drink!*

Katherine is totally throwing Elena around, and tells her that the reason she can’t have any happiness, is because Elena stole hers.  Elena fights back, reminding Katherine that she killed Jeremy, but for some reason, humanity-filled Elena is losing this fight! (Oh Shit! +22)  Katherine beats the crap out of her and then stakes her in the neck with a mop! (Oh Shit! +23)

Then flashback *Drink!* When Elena tries to give Stefan the cure, he refuses it, saying it was and always would be for her!  So just as Katherine reaches in to punch out her heart, Elena grabs the cure out of her pocket, and shoves it in Katherine’s mouth! (Holy Shit! +24)

Stefan goes to dump Silas (in the Mystic Falls, perchance?) but notices that something doesn’t feel right.  He just has a bag of rocks!  I hate it when that happens.  Then Silas appears as Elena and tells him that when Bonnie died, the spell that turned him to stone broke.  Then he says something I don’t understand about doppelgängers being originally created because of him, and I think for a moment that Katherine was a doppelgänger of Silas somehow, because you know, we’ve never met the original person she was the doppelgänger of, but then Silas turns into Stefan, and calls Stefan his doppelgänger?  What the What?  (Oh Shit! +25)  And then Silastefan punches a hole in Stefand locks him a safe and throws him in the water! (Oh Shit! +26)  


Say HUH?  Did you get it?

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Jenny grew up on a steady diet of Piers Anthony, Isaac Asimov and Star Wars novels. She has now expanded her tastes to include television, movies, and YA fiction.