The Vampire Diaries: Founder’s Day

It’s season finale time, my friends. And what an explosive one it was. I loved the opening with our modern day Mystic Falls residents in their historic 19th century garb and then Damon and Stefan’s faces as they noticed Elena walking up looking uncannily like Katherine. What a nice way to open the show. Following this I had to prepare myself for the deaths I knew had to be coming. I wasn’t sure exactly who it would be, but this is Mystic Falls and it is the season finale, so I was just hazarding a guess about what was ahead. I was not wrong, either, so let’s get to it.

A lot happened in this hour. And by a lot, I mean a lot, a lot. Founder’s Day gets going with Stefan telling Elena before the parade that John is most likely her biological father. Gross, I know. Caroline and Elena then ride the float with their respective male escorts. Oh, to be Miss Mystic Falls! Anna and Jeremy are officially together, despite her telling him she needs to leave the town and get away. She gives him a vial of her blood and offers to turn him like he once asked her to do, but he declines. At least, for now. I think he really does love her, and not just because of her connection to vampires.

At the Founder’s Day celebration, Jeremy and Elena are fighting. Matt and Tyler are fighting. And Damon is apologizing to Bonnie and thanking her for removing the curse from the device. He even “owes her one.” What is going on here? At this point I thought Bonnie was feeling guilty about not having done what she said she would do, and that some how she would magically fix it before Mayor Lockwood and John had their way with it. I was wrong.

Remember Frederick and his unhappy vampire friends from the tomb? Well, apparently there are more we haven’t met until now who want to destroy the founding families. Enter Mike Erwin as leader of said unhappy vampires who details the plan of attack. Anyone else remember Mike as Amy’s comatose boyfriend Colin on Everwood? But back to the vampires. Anna arrives all undercover-like to find out what the big bad plan is and reports what she learns back to Damon. Side note: I would love for Damon to do that eye thing that he does to Elena to me. Just saying. Anyway, Damon is all protective of Elena’s feelings, which I think is cute. But him trying to get Jeremy to change his mind seemed kind of futile. At least Damon is trying to do the right thing here.

After Damon learns of the planned attack by the tomb vamps during the fireworks, he enlists Alaric to get the stakes and finds Stefan to get Elena out of there to save her life, but of course they instead go off to find Jeremy. Ugh, all these lives to save tonight! Speaking of which, Tyler reluctantly takes his dad’s car and drives himself and Matt and Caroline home because his dad said he had to. No reason given. But of course, as in all season finales where driving is involved, an accident occurs.

Damon, unaware the device is active, finds John to complain about what he’s doing with it. John doesn’t care and sets the device up, causing Damon and all other vampires to collapse in pain and Tyler to lose control of the car. His father also collapsed and was taken in with the other vampires. Who else knew werewolves (which we will eventually learn Tyler and Mayor Lockwood are) are affected by the device’s sound too? I thought it was only vampires. Also interesting to note – vervain has no effect on werewolf Tyler and his dad.

All the vampires are injected with vervain and put in a basement, Anna and Damon included. Unfortunately for Anna, she isn’t quite out, so John plunges a stake into her heart. What a ruthless and heartless jerk. Seriously, there is nothing good about this guy. He then proceeds to pour gas all over the vampires and light them on fire. Mayor Lockwood is up and moving since the vervain had no effect, but unfortunately Mr. Head of the Tomb Vamps gets to him and snaps his neck. That’s two dead, with more to come.

After the car accident, Caroline refuses to get checked out, insisting she’s fine. Matt goes to help Tyler and it seems their friendship is repaired slightly. Cue more drama as Caroline collapses. We don’t know if she’s okay or not. Cliffhanger #1.

Stefan hears the vampires calling about the building being on fire, so he and Elena rush to see if they can save them. Everyone’s favorite Gilbert, John, crosses their path and insists what he’s doing is the right thing. Perfect time for Elena to confront her dad, eh? They chat briefly, and then Elena quickly follows Stefan to the back of the building. Bonnie shows up to protect Elena and prevents her from going inside. Bonnie is super badass now, and I’m kind of loving it. She does her witch thing and Stefan is able to run into the fire to save Damon. And it turns out Stefan really doesn’t hate his brother after all. They truly do care about each other. Aww. I thought it was a little unmanly of Stefan afterward to need to be reassured so many times by Elena that she does in fact love HIM and not Damon, but then the end came and I reconsidered.

Note for the writers: Give Jeremy some happiness! You’ve now killed the only two girls he’s ever loved. The kid needs a break. Anyway, Damon wanted to help Anna, but he was powerless to do so because of the vervain. In an effort to do the right thing (more than once in the same episode!) Damon offers to remove Jeremy’s sadness again. He declines, but now knows that as a vampire he can cut out all his pain and not feel it if he doesn’t want to. That’s a pretty alluring prospect at this stage for him. So much so that he changes his mind and drinks Anna’s blood and then takes 20 or so pills that were prescribed to Elena and lies down on his bed. Does Jeremy die? Does someone find him in time? Cliffhanger #2. Also, anyone else notice Steven R. McQueen’s biceps as he laid down on his bed? I bet he gives really good hugs.

Bonnie threatening Stefan about Damon needing to change = super awesome scene.

Elena thinking Damon is worth saving = you know the kiss is coming = damn I wish I was Nina Dobrev.

‘You’ve gotten into my bloodstream’ song lyrics playing while Damon and Katherine as Elena makeout = LOLZ.

Now, on to the super awesome kicker of the episode. I honestly knew somehow that that Elena in the kitchen with John was in fact Katherine. You could see it in the eyes. And the fact that both characters are played by Nina, but still have something different about them is a testament to Nina’s acting skills. So, props Nina! Katherine playing with those knives was a sign of something bad to come. Hello John. Goodbye John. Death #3.

Elena walking into the house with a freshly murdered biological father and murdering vampire doppelganger in the kitchen = cliffhanger #3.

So, my dear vampire loving friends, the first season has concluded. What did you think? I, myself, was quite pleased. The writers left a few things up in the air for me to ponder and question until the show returns in September. And now that Katherine’s back, I’m seriously hooked and can’t wait to find out what happens next. I really do think Caroline will be fine. And I can’t see them turning Jeremy this early. It kind of seems too soon. I’d rather see him process the deaths of his two girlfriends and go from there. Maybe he could even be happy for more than an episode or two? I’m almost most curious to see if Damon realized who he was kissing and what his reaction will be once he does find out. It should be epic. The wait all summer for new episodes will kind of … what’s the word … suck.

Lauren Strupp is an NYU grad and New York City based television addict and media professional. She’s worked at several national magazines including Us Weekly and in broadcast news at CBS. Obsessed with television, Lauren is known as a walking IMDB.com by her friends. Not only does she love all things vampire, but she’s been following Paul Wesley’s career since his days at The Guiding Light. She is thrilled to be joining TheTelevixen.com as a reviewer!

Photo courtesy of The CW