Is The Vampire Diaries Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Barely, 3 out of 10. It's a soap opera with fangs and a handful of jump scares.
Ruling: Fine for most teenagers who have the patience for a love triangle that runs eight seasons.
The Vampire Diaries runs eight seasons of episodes about 43 minutes each. It is set in a Virginia town called Mystic Falls, where the residents find out about the vampires and stay anyway.
The premise, briefly
Two vampire brothers are obsessed with the same teenage girl in a Virginia town, and she looks exactly like the woman they both loved in 1864.
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
Stefan gives his life to send Katherine back to hell and to turn Damon human again. Elena is woken from her curse, everyone attends Stefan's funeral, and Elena and Damon marry, live long human lives and die peacefully.
The end of season 7: Damon hears what sounds like Elena's voice inside a vault. Bonnie and Enzo warn him it is a trick, something overpowers him anyway, and it takes Enzo too. The aftermath is a time jump of three months.
No dog dies in The Vampire Diaries.
It is melodrama with a few jump scares, plenty of grief, and a lot of people coming back from the dead.
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A new student with a love life from 1864
Seventeen-year-old Elena Gilbert and her younger brother Jeremy are in denial about their parents' deaths in Mystic Falls, Virginia, when the Salvatore brothers become part of their lives. Stefan tells Elena that he and Damon both loved a woman named Katherine Pierce in 1864, and Elena looks exactly like her. Bonnie has emerging psychic abilities and tells Elena she is uneasy about Stefan. Stefan's best friend Lexi, who is 350 years old, turns up for his birthday. Alaric Saltzman arrives as the new history teacher, wearing a ring that Jeremy thinks looks familiar. The season ends at the Founders Day celebration. Elena's uncle John Gilbert, who is actually her father, switches on a device that gives off a signal vampires cannot stand. Tyler loses control of his car with Caroline in it, John kills Anna and sets fire to a crowd of the tomb vampires, and Tyler's father, Mayor Lockwood, dies with them. Katherine, pretending to be Elena, stabs John, and the season closes on her waiting in the Gilbert kitchen for the real Elena.
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A ritual that needs one vampire and one werewolf
Season 2 begins with Caroline waking up as a vampire in the hospital, craving blood. At the picnic, Mason Lockwood tells Sheriff Forbes that Stefan and Damon are vampires. Tyler turns out to be a werewolf, and Katherine returns to cause trouble for both brothers. The main threat becomes Klaus, who needs a ritual that sacrifices a vampire and a werewolf to break a curse. He succeeds in turning into a wolf, then stakes Elijah, and Damon is bitten along the way. Sheriff Forbes tries to kill Damon and shoots Jeremy instead. Bonnie begs the witches to bring him back, which they do with a warning about consequences. In season 3 Klaus tries to create hybrids, and Elena's friends learn about his family, the Originals, including Rebekah and their mother Esther. Alaric, guided by Esther, starts killing vampires. In the finale Alaric kills Klaus, Elena drowns in a car after a crash, and she wakes up as a vampire because she had vampire blood in her system.
Graduation, with a guest list of ghosts
Season 4 opens with Elena completing her transformation into a vampire. Hunter Connor Jordon starts investigating the supernatural residents of Mystic Falls, and Professor Shane leads an expedition to an island off Nova Scotia. Jeremy dies, Elena spends a while in denial, and Bonnie agrees to help Shane. By graduation, Mystic Falls is overrun with ghosts settling old scores. Bonnie gives up her own life so that Jeremy can return, Klaus gives Tyler his freedom back, and Elena makes Katherine swallow the cure. Stefan learns he is the double of Silas, who locks him in a safe and sinks him in the water. In season 5, Stefan surfaces after three months at the bottom of the quarry in that safe. Katherine is dying, and her daughter Nadia and Nadia's friend Mia plan to give Katherine permanent control of Elena's body. The season ends on the other side, where oblivion is claiming more souls. Bonnie cannot bring Damon back, so he says goodbye to Elena without her being able to hear him, and Bonnie and Damon stand holding hands in a bright white light.
The vault, and the voice that sounds like Elena
Season 6 opens four months later, with Elena at Whitmore College and struggling to cope with Damon's death. Caroline switches off her humanity. The season ends after a wedding massacre in which Jo dies and Alaric survives. Kai casts a spell linking Elena's life to Bonnie's, which leaves Elena unconscious as long as Bonnie lives, and Damon tears off Kai's head. Season 7 brings Caroline's supernatural pregnancy, with babies who siphon away her magic, and Rayna, a vampire huntress. The group tries to open the Armory. The scariest moment comes at the end of the season. Damon goes into the vault alone, and the curse on Bonnie lifts. Then he hears Elena's voice. Bonnie and Enzo tell him it is a trick. Something overpowers him anyway and takes Enzo too. Three months later, both have lost every shred of humanity and are killing for sport.
Hell has a bell, and Matt rang it eleven times
The final season opens with Damon and Enzo still killing on the orders of the vault monster, while the others try to find them. A siren named Sybil sees that both are tied to Bonnie and decides to use that. Matt tells the group that Tyler has died. Stefan ends up carrying out missions for Cade, chooses a doctor as Cade's next victim, and is later returned to being human. Matt rings a bell eleven times, and Cade shows up. Kai hands Elena to Cade. Enzo encourages Bonnie to forgive Stefan. Katherine finally reveals herself to the brothers. By the last episodes, Bonnie plans to turn the hellfire back into hell, and someone has to stay behind to make sure Katherine is there when it happens.
The ending, explained
Katherine reveals she can leave hell whenever she likes and has controlled Cade since her death. Bonnie plans to use her magic to turn the hellfire back into hell, and Damon stays in the tunnels to make sure Katherine is there. Stefan offers to take his place and Damon refuses, so Damon compels his brother to leave. Stefan has vervain in his system, ignores the compulsion, injects Damon with his own blood to make him human, and dies in his place. Both bodies are destroyed and Katherine goes down with hell. Stefan tells Elena what happened and joins Lexi in the afterlife. Bonnie breaks Elena's sleeping curse, and everyone attends Stefan's funeral. Years later the Salvatore boarding house is a school for supernatural children run by Caroline and Alaric, with Jeremy helping. Matt runs for mayor, Bonnie travels the world, and Elena becomes a doctor who married Damon. After long human lives together, they die and find peace. Elena meets her parents, John and Jenna at the Gilbert home, and Damon tearfully reunites with Stefan.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
Questions people ask at 1am
The whole plot of The Vampire Diaries is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
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