By Tegan O’Rourke

Finally after three seasons of wondering the writers and producers did it. Elena is a vampire just like in the book series.

The third season finale begins with Elena waking up in her bedroom and it’s obvious she’s different. She’s the giddy cheerleader she used to be before her parents died and vampires came to Mystic Falls. Elena goes downstairs and is greeted by the lovely and very much alive Aunt Jenna and her mother, Miranda makes her first appearance.

Next Elena wakes up in the hospital she was bleeding from the nose the night before after all.  Dr. Meredith Fell tells Jeremy all is well, just a slight concussion so he calls The Salvatore Brothers to fill them in.

The Brothers unhappy that Elena is out in the open, decide that Stefan should go back to Mystic Falls and Damon will keep heading out of Mystic Falls with Klaus’s body in the trunk.

Ric shows up at the hospital and destroys the last of Dr. Fells vampire blood and tells her Elena will be released to his custody and he’s having her medical license yanked because of her use of vampire blood on patients. What a Dic!

Caroline, Tyler and Matt take Elena home before Ric can steal her away.  As she lies on the couch she looks at an old photo of her and the gang from happier days and another flashback ensues.

Elena tries to get out of the Bonfire at school since her Aunt Jenna is visiting, Matt her then boyfriend tells her she has to go. He says goodbye and tells her he loves her, she does not respond in kind and Bonnie calls her on it, letting her know she can’t string him along.

Our favorite doppel  ganger wakes up and Matt asks her what she was dreaming about. She then tells him she is sorry she strung him along when they were together. Now she realizes she is doing the same thing to Stefan and Damon. He asks which one she will pick as Stefan comes through the front door.

Matt asks “Wouldn’t it be smarter if we just got you the hell out of town?” Smart boy.  Elena refuses she does not want to go on the run for the rest of her life. The gang is startled when Elijah shows up at the front door.

Jeremy runs into Ric at the Grille.  He wants Jer to reveal where the Salvatores are keeping Klaus’s body.  Jeremy is unsure about helping him, but Ric assures him he will kill all the Originals and then no vampires will exist plus Jer can hen lock him up and let Elena live a long healthy life, then when Elena finally dies, he’ll die. Sounds like a plan.

Elijah has his own plan, he wants the stake Ric carries and he swears he and Rebekah will take Klaus’s body and run and not revive Klaus during Elena’s or her children’s lifetimes. Damon is not eager to make the deal. But Elena agrees after Elijah tells her Klaus is his brother and they should remain together. She’s sucker for family.

Jeremy tells Matt about Ric’s plan and Matt thinks it’s a good idea. But Jer admits even if he wanted to help Ric he doesn’t know where Klaus’s body is, luckily Matt does. Jeremy calls Ric and tells him Damon is on his way to bury him in the woods off of Route 12. He hangs up and oh snap he lied, Stefan and the gang are there and they have devised a plan or so they think to fool Ric.

Tyler and Caroline meet their mom’s at the Lockwood Mansion where they are warned that Ric outed them to the Council and they need to leave town or else wind up dead. They decide to run, but first Caroline has to help her friends and get a curling iron. Tyler agrees to meet her in two hours. Caroline is so excited, she wants to call Bonnie, but Tyler tells her he will call Bonnie and Vampire Barbie smiles and runs off to help her friends.

Damon and Bonnie meet up at a Storage Facility, where he shows her one beef jerkified Original. Bonnie wants a minute alone with Klaus and Damon obliges once she reminds him of the people she loved that Klaus hurt.

She looks down into his coffin and tells him,”You should burn in hell but if you die so do my friends, so does my mother, what am I supposed to do about that?”

Elena almost tells Stefan her decision but can’t do it after all they just aren’t in enough peril yet.  Stefan kisses her just in case there is no later has he puts it. As he pulls away you can tell he knew the kiss was not the passionate foreplay they used to have.

Back at the Gilbert House, Matt drugs Elena’s tea but first finds out that Stefan makes her glad to be alive, but Damon consumes her.  Not what most guys want to hear from their ex girlfriends.

She wishes her mom was there to give her advice on whom to choose and queue another flashback to pre vamp Mystic Falls. She calls Aunt Jenna from the Bonfire and asks if her parents can pick her up. She had a fight with Matt because he was talking about college and marriage and she’s afraid she’ll lose him if she breaks things off. Her mom tells her she is not going to lose him, she is setting him free.

Jeremy gives Ric the real address of Klaus’s whereabouts. Damon thinks “Sexy Beck’s has arrived at the storage facility but it’s just crazy vampire killing Ric.  While Ric is ripping the storage facility apart Rebekah shows up to get Klaus.

Ric hears her, but luckily Damon sneaks up behind her first. Ric finds the correct locker but it’s empty. Rebekah and Damon are wheeling Klaus away when Ric sneaks up behind them and attacks them and stakes Klaus’s body. He goes up in flames, which was hard to believe. They can’t really be killing off Klaus now or can they?

Ric chases after Rebekah so Damon has time to call Stefan with the bad news. Stefan tells him he feels ok but reminds him that it took Sage an hour to get sick. They agree Damon doesn’t have enough time to get back to Mystic Falls to say goodbye to Elena.

Jeremy confesses to Stefan that Elena isn’t at home, that he and Matt got her out of town. Stefan says it will be fine Klaus was lying and they will all be ok. Elijah and Caroline show up and ask what happened, for some reason they are all in the woods when this happens.

Elena awakens in Matt’s truck; he is driving her out of town away from the vampire’s .Jer calls Matt to let him know Klaus is dead. Elena begs Matt to take her home, Matt tells her he can take her home or he can take her to Damon, she has to decide.

She calls Damon and tells him she is going home to Stefan and Tyler and Caroline.  Damon asks, since he is possibly a dead man, if it was just down to him and Stefan who would get the goodbye.

She tells him, it’s Stefan, no matter what she feels for him–she never fell out of love with Stefan. He tells her he knows it’s always going to be Stefan.

She tells Damon, “I can’t think about always all I can think about is right now and I care for you Damon which is why I have to let you go.”  She adds “Maybe if you and I had met first…. His call is cut short by Ric’s return.

Caroline in tears runs to Tyler at the Lockwood cells to tell him Klaus died. He takes it quite well for a young man now on his death bed and tells her she’s strong and has a beautiful future ahead of her. Oh and tell his mother he left town like he was supposed to. Then he starts to get all wolfy and appears to be dying. He growls at her to run or he’ll make her run.

Rebekah shows up at the cemetery to tell Elijah that Klaus is gone and there was nothing she could have done to stop it. He tells her that Tyler Lockwood is dead but since no one else is he knows something is up.   They converse about who created the bloodline, Rebekah swears it was Klaus. Elijah is curious as to why then are the Salvatores and their vamp buddies still alive.

Bonnie arrives at the Lockwood cells and Tyler appears! But Bonnie calls him Klaus. She found a way to keep him alive after all in Tyler’s body! She tells him she did it to save her friends and her mother not him. He reminds her the Spirits will not be happy with her. She responds “The Spirits don’t get to tell me what to do anymore; I’m done getting pushed around by all of you.”

Rebekah calls Stefan to tell him Matt and Elena will be arriving back in town any minute oh and her and the Original Brothers aren’t running anymore and the only way for them to survive is to kill Alaric and in turn kill Elena.

Caroline calls Elena to let her know the bad news about Tyler. Matt loses it. By the time he comes to his senses, Rebekah is standing in the middle of Wickery Bridge and Matt swerves to miss her. And thus his truck sinks into the waters of Mystic Falls which causes Elena to flashback to her parent’s car going off the bridge two years earlier.

Meanwhile Ric is kicking the crap out of Damon; he lies in his own blood and remembers himself back in Mystic Falls where he mistakes Elena for Katherine in the woods.

He approaches her as Katherine and she corrects him. Then they start conversing about her love life with Matt. She tells him she doesn’t know what she wants. He tells her that’s not true, she wants what everyone wants, a love that consumes her, then he compels her to forget they met as she goes off to meet her parents.

Damon snaps back to the present will his mojo back and he jumps back up to fight.

Elena is in two sinking cars at this point. She remembers being in the car with her parents who drowned and then flashes back to Matt where Stefan shows up and she demands he save Matt before her. Ironic since her father demanded that Stefan save her and thus he and his wife Miranda drowned.

Elena sits back in Matt’s truck and drifts off, meanwhile Ric grows weak as he fights Damon and falls to his death.

Back at the Gilbert House Jeremy runs into Ric as he is looking for Elena. He quickly realizes Ric is his old self and a ghost, which means….

Damon rushes to the hospital and asks Dr. Fell where Elena is, he is frantic. She tells him that when Elena had come in earlier her injuries were worse then she let on, Elena had a cerebral hemorrhage and she helped her, ya know what she means, Damon did and what a look of shock, it was almost as good as Elena awakening and gasping for air for the first time as a vampire!

Predictions: Next season Elena will struggle in her new life a s a vampire and all bets may be off on who she ends up with after all she has forever to decide now. Bonnie may go down the dark magic road like Willow did on Buffy. Caroline and Klaus will develop their relationship. Bonnie will definitely find a way to get him back in his own body. And I doubt Tyler is really dead.  But I can’t wait to find out.