The Vampire Diaries Season 6 Finale Review: 100% Pure Heroine (PHOTO RECAP)

The Vampire Diaries S06E22: "I'm Thinking of You All the While"

Imagine using up every last ounce of energy in a fight for your life. You haven't eaten or slept in what feels like days; your muscles, your bones only remain in motion from adrenaline and fear. Your voice is shredded from screaming and your heart races to keep you afloat despite the tidal waves of trauma breaking in every direction. You're frazzled and sad but struggling to grasp the last shreds of goodness that haven't yet been torn away from you by this cold, cruel universe. Seriously, just imagine how tired you'd be. Now imagine feeling this way 22 times a year for six years. It's no wonder you've made a few bad decisions along the way; it's no wonder you've occasionally been foolish with other people's hearts; it's no wonder that it's time now for you to lay your head down and rest.

The thing about Elena is, she wasn't just the heroine. She was the catalyst for the entire premise of the show. If you love the Salvatore Brothers, what you love about them was actually a result of Elena's existence. If you love Caroline, guess what? She'd still be an annoying, judgmental chatterbox without Elena. Bonnie might still be accidentally setting cars on fire and Jeremy wouldn't have done nearly as many push-ups. Elena brought out the best in these characters, and her wants and needs—despite being frequently self-centered—drove an epic saga full of rich characters and thrilling twists (to say nothing of the fact that she repeatedly and frequently saved her friends' lives). Like a kid leaving home and joining the real world, The Vampire Diaries can probably survive without Elena's influence, but only because it was raised right for six years. Yes, Elena was sometimes frustrating and liked to hug herself and was possibly illiterate, but the same could be said for many of our parents. Her eventual decision to become human again involved her wish to someday become a parent; the irony was that she'd already raised an entire community.

Through the good times, bad times, good lovin', and big bads, one thing about Elena was never in question: How tremendous Nina Dobrev was. The obvious proof of her next-level talents would be her virtuosic performance as Katherine a.k.a. this show's best ever character. But there's no need to pay Dobrev the backhanded compliment of praising a side character when her work as Elena was equally impressive, if somewhat more thankless. Imagine opening a script and seeing that your character would be getting herself abducted yet again. Or would be scream-sobbing in a tomb yet again. Dobrev was the quintessential good sport and she never once phoned it in. We're talking shrieking, crying, and general trauma onscreen week after week, not to mention the fact that anytime she played both doppelgangers in the same episode it meant she had twice the number of calltimes as her co-stars. Which meant, you guessed it: No sleep. That she decided she needed a break from this madness is not surprising; that we maybe didn't appreciate all her efforts the entire time is our bad. But if her work in The Perks of Being a Wallflower or even Let's Be Cops is any indication, the silver screen is beckoning and we'll be seeing so much more of her either way. As die-hard fans of an admittedly limited-viewership CW drama, let's give Nina Dobrev to the rest of the world now. You're welcome, world.

This is just to say that Elena will be missed on TVD, but Nina Dobrev will be missed even more.

"I'm Thinking of You All the While" was a devastating, effortlessly beautiful finale, and arguably the most important and meaningful finale in TVD history. That it caps off Season 6 just cements this season's status as the best-written and most consistent TVD season yet. It was the perfect way to send Dobrev off on a high note, and it was also the perfect way to make me SO JEALOUS. Why don't *I* get to sleep for 60 years? Ugh, Elena gets all the best things.

Let's talk about this episode!

Because last week's episode ended with Elena unconscious on a ruined floor, it was safe to assume this image meant we were in a dream sequence of some kind. Plus with Damon lying in the road in the same spot where he'd first met Elena, we were probably at some undisclosed address on MEMORY LANE.

Elena knew that if they were in some kind of non-reality, then the real-reality was probably dire. And she was right!

The bride was dead. Alaric's heart was shattered and also he was going to need some Purell. Meanwhile Damon couldn't revive Elena (vampire blood no longer has a healing effect on her) and when Stefan and Caroline tried to help, a certain cloaked assh*le did THIS:

But that left the remaining Gemini Coven members, who sprung into action to try and banish Kai to a prison realm once again. Because apparently if he dies, they die. So, you guessed it: He committed suicide!

That was a twist I didn't see coming! The whole Gemini Coven dropped dead. So now that barn was covered in glass and dead bodies. Also, what a weird way to go, Kai. Giant shard of glass to the throat seems needlessly gruesome.

So yeah, overall it was not the best wedding and the guests should probably not tag photos of it on Facebook.

If we're being honest, Elena probably had the best time because now she was finally getting her Z's. She'd had a long few years! But Damon was confused because the doctors claimed there was nothing wrong with her, so her coma was definitely magic-related (or she was just super tired). What had Kai DONE?

This was cute: Stefan and Caroline woke up in the backseat of Enzo's car all snuggled up. I mean, it was weird that Enzo abducted them sorta, but I guess he had a reason: Stefan's mom was all up in the shipping yard acting a fool!

Lily was still dead-set on getting her besties back, and Stefan had to shout at her a little about how sons are more important than rando vampire vagabonds, but it was no use. Lily sucks, just gonna say it. You suck, lady.

This was tough:

Liv was almost dead, and Tyler was kind of dying also, so she commanded him to murder her so that he would turn into a werewolf and heal. It was very hard to watch because I really and truly liked Liv and her death was like the last sad chapter on the Gemini Coven plotline (which was a great one, and a huge reason why this season was so good). So yeah, a reluctant Tyler smothered his dying ex-girlfriend:

Aw, bye Liv! Liv was great. But the deaths kept on coming.

That's right: Kai only "committed suicide" because he'd sipped Lily Salvatore's blood beforehand. So he genocided his own family and THEN reawakened as a Heretic! (It was a particularly weird touch when he drank his father's blood to fully turn. What kind of weird hunk would do something like THAT?) So yeah, Kai was now a vampire with magical powers. GREAT.

Oh, and just to make it official, bye Jo. Jo was so nice and deserved better. So yeah, this was really tough. Alaric put a sad death shroud over the dead wife of his dead unborn children. That makes THREE dead girlfriends, right? Alaric was clearly done.

And then Alaric pulled the trigger! Which was SO DARK, even for this show. But he was out of bullets, which just made Kai LOL. And that's when a certain wolf man jumped out and bit Kai on the throat!

Nothing like a little werewolf venom to slow down a goddamn jerk! Good job, Tyler. After biting Kai's throat so much, Tyler jumped over a car and ran away.

Meanwhile Bonnie and Matt found the camcorder, and Kai had left a message on it explaining what he had done to Elena.

Basically he'd linked Elena's life force to Bonnie's, so only one of them could be awake at any given time. If they wanted to wake up Elena, Bonnie would have to die. Now, I know what you're thinking, Bonnie dies all the time, at least once a season practically. But in this case there's no Other Side anymore, so it wasn't going to be quite so easy and she was TICKED.

This was a helpful text message that Alaric sent to Damon, and the most shocking part about it was that Alaric still uses iOS 6?!?!? Also I'm disappointed we didn't get to see the previous texts that Alaric had sent Damon. Like, it should probably say something normal like "Bring ice" or "Coming out" or "10min late" and then TY WEREWOLF KAI IS A VAMPIRE in all-caps. I don't know. But update your software, guy.

Caroline decided that maybe it was a bad time to continue seeking a relationship with Stefan. He seemed bummed and kind of dazed. This was definitely not a romantic moment for either of them considering Elena was in a perma-coma next to them.

Still though! Rooting for these two.

So then Bonnie finally confronted Kai, who informed her that the spell he'd cast to bound her to Elena was rigged to kill them both if it got tampered with. Also, it was cute when he found out in this moment that werewolves existed and that he had been bitten by one, hence his hallucinations. So he simply reabsorbed the werewolf magic and healed his neck with a GLOWING THUMB.

It's honestly so rare that magic is seen visually on this show, so I nearly giggled when his thumb started glowing. But this was also bad news for Bonnie, who would now have to face down a much more powerful foe.

And yeah, he lifted her up and slammed her against a wall until she was nearly dead. That's when Damon showed up and it seemed like he was NOT going to save her life, in order for Elena to live.

God, the look on Bonnie's face was devastating. Her best friend was forsaking her! (Kat Graham was legitimately great in this episode, as she has been all season, and this scene was so powerful based mostly on her performance. So good.)

I loved that Damon walked out of the room leaving Bonnie for dead and even Kai was taken aback by the callousness. To the extent it seemed like for a second Kai was going to save her life just because he felt bad for her.

But then!

THAT'S RIGHT. Damon murdered the BIG BAD in order to save the life of his best friend BONNIE! (And not to say I told you so, but later in the episode Elena herself referred to Bonnie as Damon's best friend. Deal w/ it, haters.) This was one of my very favorite moments in all of The Vampire Diaries. Instant-classic. And makes me so, so excited to see what these two will get up to next season. We will discuss this later, but I'm hoping and praying that Season 7 becomes a small-town superhero saga, so maybe Bonnie can be the Wonder Woman to Damon's Batman? With matching uniforms and everything? A fella can dream.

So now that the Big Bad was dead and it began to dawn on the characters that Elena was going to be asleep for as long as Bonnie was alive (and that Elena would never stand for Bonnie living anything less than a long, full life), it was time to say goodbye. The mortal ones might not outlive Bonnie, so this was goodbye forever probably. (And wait, would Elena be aging in her sleep, or will she still look 19 when she wakes up? Unclear!)

I'm also not clear on how Elena was getting into everybody's heads, but I'm guessing it had something to do with being linked to Bonnie. I have no idea, and the show didn't seem particularly interested in getting into it. All I know was, everybody got a turn holding Elena's hand IRL and then enjoying a shared memory with her. Sort of a greatest hits of important scenes from the early seasons, which as a device was so, so devastating for those of anyone who remembers those seasons fondly.

The girls got a nice three-way goodbye, during which Elena hilariously suggested they all keep diaries so that she can read them when she's awake. NO. Caroline's immortal, so why not just fill Elena in later? And come to think of it, don't witches age super slowly also? There were a couple of thousand-year-old witches on The Originals recently, so... Nevermind.

This was so sad: One last feather levitation for old time's sake.

Man, remember when Bonnie could only do these tiny little tricks? Lighting candles with her brain and lifting up leaves and whatnot. She's come a long way. Still though, simple pleasures.

Then Elena whisked Matt to the old Wickery Bridge where she made him wear a Sheriff's uniform (to pressure him into becoming the new sheriff). More tears were shed.

I mean, if we're being honest Matt has only ever been in danger throughout his friendship with Elena, but thanks to her he still managed to survive it all. Truly impressive.

It was a little tougher for Elena to say goodbye to Alaric in that he was still grieving super hard, but she still had words of wisdom to share with him about it. She had, of course, buried almost everyone she'd ever loved, so she definitely knew her stuff. (Also, "EverCool"!)

Haha then everybody's favorite babyhunk dreamboat arrived just in time to find his sister comatose in a casket. As Alaric had said, it was very lucky Jeremy had missed the wedding, but what WAS your excuse, young man? Off hunting vampires or something? Tae Bo? WHAT? Anyway, their goodbye was also very poignant.

And not to be left out, Tyler even got his goodbye moment. Which, of course, involved chains and a tank top.

Stefan's goodbye was especially meaningful in how it tied into the show's origins as a love story between him and Elena. Also, the old hairstyles were a nice touch.

A big thing she instructed Stefan to do was to be happy, which of course was a not so subtle way of suggesting he try and work things out with Caroline. Yeah, just a lot of heartfelt, teary goodbyes, all of them excellent. I love when this show seems to remember what made it special in the first place. While the absolute worst part of this show has always been the shippers who cannot look past their ship to enjoy the bigger picture, I think this episode provided a fond farewell not just to Elena, but to the love triangle itself. I appreciate that Elena had meaningful relationships with both brothers, but please rest in hell, love triangle. If Nina Dobrev's departure from TVD has a silver lining, it's that children will hopefully stop signing up for social media accounts to engage in shipper wars. Yeah, I said it. WAR IS OVER! (If you want it.)

Oh, but then the episode still wasn't done: A previously cloaked building reappeared after Kai was killed. But what or WHOM was inside?

The Heretics! They were finally here and Lily was stoked. This was probably not going to lead to any problems.

But Damon still had to say goodbye. The idea was that Elena was going to be sealed in the Salvatore mausoleum, which would be spelled shut in order to protect Elena from vampires seeking her cure-laced blood. This meant that she would not be accessible if somebody just wanted to hold her hand and have a chat every now and again. Luckily Damon and Elena's final moment together was excruciatingly gorgeous.

They slow-danced right there in the street. And it was intercut with the other Salvatore making babysteps toward a lasting happiness of his own.

Stefan made the case that what they had was too meaningful to let go, then he kissed her on the cheek and left. But the look on Caroline's face was priceless. Yeah, this was happening, just not yet.

Again, this coma idea was a really elegant way to get Elena out of the picture while keeping her within arm's reach. It's not clear how often, if ever, the show will try and get her back. I think at the very least she'll appear in a hypothetical series finale. But that might make it even more emotionally difficult for everyone... Elena's so close yet so far away.

And then it came to cliffhanger time. As the footage outside the tomb sped up, it became clear a lot of time was passing!

And then suddenly we saw a Mystic Falls town square we hardly recognized:

Matt was patrolling in his Sheriff's uniform looking terrified. But was the town empty? And who were those hobos eating out of the trash? But most scintillating of all was the silhouetted figure lurking on the clocktower.

It was Vampire Batman! Oh man, this teaser was exactly what we needed to get excited about a post-Dobrev TVD. Seriously, if this show relaunches as a sort of action/superhero drama, then that is a truly brilliant and inspired move. But it's foolish to ever try and predict what this show is up to at any given time. As it stands, this reveal that the world fell apart after Elena left it is a great way to honor her absence while keeping the world compelling to revisit. The Salvatore Brothers are great (although I personally tend to get more invested in the female characters and would love to see Caroline and Bonnie become more front and center) but the bros are never better than when they're heroic.

I know we're sore, we're hurting, we're confused, but I'm just going to say this right now: Bring on Season 7. I don't care. I want it. This show has earned our trust. This season was very great and the formula has just been shaken up to an extent we've never seen before. Aren't you excited to see what the future holds? Always be excited about what the future holds. It is the best way to live. Well, aside from sleeping for 60 years, which honestly sounds so great right now. But more than anyone, Elena earned that sleep. Three cheers for Elena!

Guys and friends, thank you sincerely for reading these recaps this season. It has been a tremendous pleasure to get to do these and I'm really grateful for your thoughtful comments and feedback. Please have an extraordinary summer.

ILY BYE

QUESTIONS

... Will the Heretics be British-accented jerks?

... Where will Tyler go?

... Will Matt be a better sheriff than Sheriff Forbes?

... How good does 60 years of sleep sound right now?