The Vampire Diaries S04 E23: Graduation (Or, Stop Trying To Make Both Silas and 'Shadow Self' Happen)

People scoff at 'The Vampire Diaries', but I love it! Yes, it makes no sense and it's stupidly dramatic and emotionally manipulative and cheesy, but its SO GOOD! (Not least because of Ian Somerhalder and Joseph Morgan). So I'm blogging the final episode of Season 4. Before this episode, Bonnie went power mad and died. Ghosts are roaming around Mystic Falls. Does Elena want to be with Stephan or Damon? Read on...

Ghost Drama

The episode opens with Col (who has the worst English accent I've ever heard), speaking to some random hybrids and witches amidst dramatic shots of cheerleading pompoms blowing in the wind. Col says Mystic Falls is going to become 'hell on earth'. I don't really care about Col or any of the hybrids. We cut next to someone doing some awful cheesy dancing. Who the f....Oh, it's Lexi. Yes, we get it, she's a crazy fun barrel of laughs.

Stephen is drinking whiskey from the bottle and doing some fist pumping himself. Damon walks in and Lexi grabs him round the throat and pins him against the wall. She is remarkably restrained considering Damon killed her for no reason. Stephen is being a little bitch. 'I should be upstairs grooming my hero hair'. Lol, what? Damon asks if he is drunk. 'I don't know mum, am I?' Lexi sniggers. Oh, you two. Crazy kids. Also, it's Stephen's 17th graduation? I thought he just went to high school for Elena. Apparently not, he just enjoys hanging around people 100 years younger than him (at least) doing basic level math and watching the cheer leaders in the gym. Weirdo. That's the problem with these vampire shows, however romantic you try to make a relationship between a human and a vampire, inevitably, the vampire will always be a bit of a paedophile. Logical problem number one. But let's forget and move on!

Bonnie rings Caroline and says she has hit a 'snag' fixing the ghost problem. Caroline is whining about it, as Bonnie looks miserably at her dead body on the floor.

Caroline says, 'promise me this will be a friend day'. Bonnie agrees. Erm....I don't think you have time for 'friend day', Bonnie. Jeez. Because of your psycho power trip, you are dead and there are hundreds of vengeful ghosts roaming free. 'Grams' (?) coldly says, 'I'll make sure no one finds your body'. She doesn't seem to care Bonnie is dead that much. Join the club.

We cut to Elena, Alaric and Jeremy in a grave yard with emotionally manipulative upbeat music that makes it seem the most fun thing ever. Elena is very happy, which you can hardly tell from her understated acting.

Okay, that was mean, Nina Dobrev is okay. 

She starts crying. 'I did some pretty terrible things'. Yup. Alaric is handsome as always. Connor (remember him? The hunter? Yes, but you don't really care? Same) rings Elena. He is going to blow up The Grill. Rebekah's ex boyfriend, the Scottish hunter from the medieval ages, Alexander, is adapting incredibly quickly to the modern age, as he has set up a very complex bomb. Matt is on the bomb, because apparently Matt and Rebekah are a thing now. They want Silas, and they want the cure, because 'Katzeiah' (which is a more stupid name, Katzeiah or Klaus? Close call) wants him to have it. Damon is talking to another Scottish hunter. I have no idea why they are all Scottish, but Scottish Hunter 2 has a terrible Scottish accent. He shoots Damon with bullets laced with werewolf venom. Alaric appears at The Grill and whisks Connor away before he can blow it up. Yey Alaric!

Cure Problems

Matt is still standing on the bomb and I'm finding this scene boring because I don't care about Matt or Rebekah that much and the Scottish hunter annoys me. Rebekah says, 'It's been settled. I'm going to show you life you've only dreamed of'. When was it settled? Must have missed that. Matt says 'It's a date', because he likes Rebekah now and has apparently forgot that she killed Elena and nearly killed him? 'I'm wearing the Gilbert ring, maybe if you blow me up I won't die'. Erm...I don't know if the ring can magically put together a billion pieces of your scattered body back together, Matt, but you aren't the smartest tool in the box. Somehow, Rebekah ends up on the box and everything is fine. Boring.

Katherine is with Bonnie and calls her 'BonBon' which is funny, although I think Katherine is an irritating nightmare bitch. Apparently Elena is not her doppelgänger any more, but her 'shadow self'. The writers are clearly trying to introduce a new word for it because everyone is fed up of hearing 'doppelgänger'. 'Shadow self' is even more annoying.

Damon gives Elena the bottled cure. She won't take it. Sorry Elena, I forgot about a trillion people died to get the cure for you because you are such a little whiny child you couldn't handle being a vampire when every other vampire in the entire world could. I agree with Damon when he says, 'Take the damn thing'. But no, she won't. Jeremy, you died in vain. Jeremy is actually lurking in the shadows, and says, 'You're my sister and I love you'. Great, that helps no one.We are back to crazy Lexi and Stephan. They are talking about Elena. 'She will always be the great love of my life'. Eurgh no she won't. If she won't take him back, 'maybe I will move to Australia. Live in a Yurk'.

I actually like Stephan, but still. Lexi sniggers again. Damon is now grimacing in pain. 'Take off your shirt Damon'. 'Elena, there are children present'. Love the witty Damon one liners. They need Klaus's blood! No, Damon must take the cure! No, Damon decides to go dig up Silas with Scottish Hunter 2! I don't know why this is relevant. I don't know why Silas is still relevant. It baffles me. Jeremy randomly and grandly says 'It's settled, Elena. You're going to your graduation'. People can't keep 'settling' things by themselves in this town! Little dictators. Jeremy can't attend Elena's graduation. Well he can, seen as disguises do exist and he could even just wear sunglasses and people probably wouldn't recognise him because, let's face it, he only had about 3 friends when he died and they all know he is back to life as a ghost, but, no, he can't and we must accept it. 

Graduation

GRADUATION! Red robes abound. Matt tells the gang he has been 'dodging death by vampire' and no one comments on it or seems to care. Instead, 'Where's Elena?' Here she is. Group hug! Grumpy Stephen says, 'I don't hug'. Erm...

Liar.

I don't know why Stephen is being so odd in this episode. Anyway, graduation. Some very emotionally manipulative, elegiac, tragic music is playing. Bonnie graduations and has a heartfelt moment with her dad. Matt graduates and no one cares. Caroline graduates and everyone claps really loudly. Elena gets a mediocre clap. Col 'I'm meant to sound English but actually sound South African' Mikaelson is back. Basically, the graduation crowd is 'scattered with two dozen supernatural faces whose lives were sacrificed for your expression triangle'. Bonnie tells him to stop 'harassing' her. Erm, Bonnie? At least 12 of those people died because of you. I think they have a right to 'harass' you. Col wants her to keep the other side down. She says no and traps Col in an invisible box in the with room with her body, which they have both arrived at incredibly quickly, seen as in the next graduation scene the names are still being read out. 

Damon is now on a random island with Scottish Hunter 2. He gets shot with more werewolf bullets. Alaric appears and saves Damon. Alaric now has the cure! (Who honestly cares). Back at graduation, all the vampires are suddenly clutching their heads and shrieking. 

Dead witches are abound. Not for long though, because Klaus decapitates them with graduation hats. HA. 

Boss. 

Klaus is so funny and sexy. But still, we are apparently all supposed to forget he has gone from being the most evil of all vampires on earth, who killed Elena, Elena's aunt and Tyler's mum, to being a grumpy, brooding anti-hero with a massive crush on Caroline who we are all supposed to like, or at least tolerate. Anyway, he 'can do this all day', and is looking dapper in a suit. Klaus is the VD's Chuck Bass (although he is leaving, so not for long). 

Romantic Scenes With Emotionally Manipulative Music Abound

We are back at the Salvatore Mansion. Elena punches Damon. Lexi sniggers. Lexi and Alaric have a DMC about The Other Side. Lexi mentions Silas to remind us that we are supposed to care about Silas, who no one cares about. Elena and Stephen also have a DMC. She thanks him for everything he has done and gives him the cure. 'The only person worse than being a vampire than me is you'. WOAAAHHH. The vampire who has saved you, and others, COUNTLESS times?? BITCH! Stephen is a great vampire!

Klaus and Caroline are alone on the football field. Klaus makes a joke about Caroline's graduation invite being 'subtle'. Turns out he was already on his way to see her graduate. Caroline makes a joke about a mini fridge (?) Klaus says he wanted to give her a ticket to New Orleans but knew she would say no. Instead, her present is Tyler's freedom. 'He's your first love. I intend to be your last. However long it takes'. AWWWWWWWWWW. 1000 year old and 18 year old lovers woohoo!

Damon and Elena. Big heartfelt speeches, fire lit scene, they feel 'alive' with each other, they kiss, Elena chooses Damon, emotionally manipulative music, they love each other, big kisses. It feels a bit contrived and I feel sorry for Stephen, although Damon is my favourite. I just think Damon and Elena are terrible for each other, and he isn't a very supportive or able boyfriend, as proved when he basically handed her over to Stephen when she turned her emotions off. Stephen is eavesdropping and its very sad. Stephen leaves with Silas's body and a little table.

Stephen is 'not unhappy' for Damon. So noble!

Jeremy and Bonnie are in a dramatically lit cave with more emotionally manipulative music. Jeremy left Elena a letter and won't say goodbye to her. Mean! Alaric says goodbye to Damon. 'You got the girl man'. He disappears silently mid conversation. Lexi disappears silently mid conversation, after a sweet speech about how Elena was 'The One', but 'there are actually multiple ones, especially for a vampire'. Eg. CAROLINE! Predicting that one. Stephen decides to go to Portland. Congratulations, what an incredibly boring place to pick when you could go anywhere (no offence to the people of Portland, I have only seen it on the first Twilight film so it could be the best place ever to go visit, I don't know, but still). BONNIE HAS DONE A SPELL AND JEREMY IS ALIVE! YEY!...and Bonnie is still dead. Yey! 

I'm assuming we will never know how Bonnie brought him back to life, but hey, we know that this is the most illogical show ever with a huge tendency to make up and change its own made up rules. Jeremy learns Bonnie is dead and is sad but he won't be sad for long so it's fine, because Jeremy can see ghosts so they can talk 'whenever they want'. Oh God, she hasn't left the show, has she? She wants Jeremy to tell Elena and Caroline she has left for the summer. I'm actually impressed by her selfless and noble exit, well done. 

Whaaaattt?

We are back at everyone's least favourite, and most random, couple, Matt and Rebekah. He won't let Rebekah in the house. ROMANTIC! Basically, they are travelling around the world together. Although it won't end happily because Rebekah is leaving to be in 'The Originals'. That boring scene is thankfully replaced with Katherine beating the crap out of Elena. Katherine is blaming Elena for stealing 'everything' from her, which I don't really understand...Katherine abandoned Damon and Stephen and all her friends multiple times, so she really stole 'everything' from herself from being such a evil psychopathic bitch. Whatever, she is clearly having a bad day and wants to take it out on someone. Also, Elena's really annoying, so I understand why she picks her. It's actually a really graphic and disgusting scene, ew. As Katherine has her hand in Elena's chest about to pull her heart out (ewwww), Elena shoves the cure in Katherine's mouth, smashes it, and makes her swallow it. 

I KNEW they wouldn't be brave enough to make one of the main three take it. So now Katherine is human, which means we have to tolerate both Katherine and Elena in full force next season, which is horrible. 

Stephen is at the quarry and Silas's body casket has been smashed...oh dear. Silas is apparently Elena now. 'Here's where the mystery of me comes full circle'. The boring mystery and the tedious and pointless circle are about to be revealed. I'm terrified for a moment Silas is the original Petrova doppelgänger and we will have to tolerate THREE of them next season but no thank god it's....Stephen? Whhaaat? He is Silas's 'Shadow Self', which explains why Katherine was using the word earlier. 'Hello, my Shadow Self'. THIS MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!!! AND STEPHAN IS NOW IN A BOX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LAKE! Out of all the characters, Stephen did NOT deserve this ending, poor boy. 

End

This was a very dramatically impressive finale for Season 4 which solved a lot of questions and resolved a lot of plots, but also introduced a new one...Silas-Stephen-Shadow-Self? Whhaaaattt? I DO NOT CARE ABOUT SILAS! STOP TRYING TO MAKE SILAS HAPPEN! Also, Katherine is such a non entity to be given the cure, which the entire show has revolved around for the past year. And Bonnie is not gone for good. Booooo. But, Jeremy is back, and I'm sure next season will be equally as amazing and also make equally as little sense. I'm excited to hearing the phrase 'Shadow Self' aplenty!