The Vampire Diaries - Season 3 Episode 22 - The Departed - Recap

The most fantastic and shocking episode of the season is finally here! The Vampire Diaries season 3 finale is packed with 2 major deaths and too many shocking moments to count. Elena finally picks one of the brothers, and there is a major cliffhanger that left my jaw on the floor.

Last episode, we left Elena passed out on the ground and in serious need of assistance. Klaus is also sort of dead, in case you’ve forgotten (I haven’t…) When we first see Elena again, it’s flashback time! She kisses her now-dead mommy hello. Then it goes to present time, where she awakens attached to a machine in a hospital. Then comes The Vampire Diaries logo. Oh, this is going to be a good one.

Jeremy took her to the hospital, and Meredith claims she suffered from a “mild concussion.” Also, Evil Vampire Alaric really means business! He forces Meredith to release Elena into his custody and informs her that her license is going to be suspended for the little trickery she does healing patients with vamp blood… but when he goes to get Elena, she has already fled and is back home with her buddies. Yay! And just in time for another flashback…

Elena is dating Matt now and looking all Buffy-ish in her cheerleading uniform. She can’t make it to the bonfire that night, and she’s not in love with Matt anymore… End of flashback. When she wakes up, Matt is hovering over her and she apologizes for stringing him along like a puppet. It makes her realize she has to make a choice with the Salvatore brothers. Stefan shows up to coddle her too (aww) and then Elijah reappears out of nowhere. I love him!

Alaric coaxes Jeremy to find out where Klaus’ body is located so he can wipe out the vampire race completely and Elena can live a normal human life. Elijah wants Klaus’ body back and promises that he and the Originals won’t revive him anytime soon. How sweet, brotherly love. Since Alaric outed Tyler and Caroline to the council last episode, their parents want them to leave town with some cash so they won’t be harmed. They are going to run away together… maybe their love can work out after all!

Jeremy isn’t as stupid as I thought (yay!) and he actually tells the others about Alaric’s plans and he calls him with false info about Klaus’ body. Elena has a moment with Stefan and they kiss for the first time in forever, “just in case there is no later.” Somehow, Alaric also finds Damon, knowing he has been duped. Bonnie also does some sort of spell on Klaus' body, asking Damon to leave the room so she can have a moment alone with him. If he dies, then all of her friends die.

Matt drugs Elena with some tea, and: another flashback. Elena went to the bonfire anyway and got in a fight with Matt about her future. Her dead mom says she should set him free. In the present, she wakes up in Matt’s truck: he’s taking her out of town and out of danger. After beating the information out of Damon, Alaric searches several storage lockers to no avail. Rebekah shows up at the storage lockers, where she was supposed to meet Damon originally. She tricks Alaric and she almost gets away with transporting Klaus’ body with Damon… and then Alaric stabs Klaus with the white stake! NO! Now he’s dead for real… I think. I’m doing everything not to think about this. He can’t be gone! Damon tells Rebekah to run away, and then he makes a phone call to his brother telling him what happened with Klaus. He is afraid they are both going to die.

Thinking Klaus' bloodline might be connected to the Salvatores, Elena is finally forced to make her decision. Matt can only drive her to one person before it's too late. She can only say goodbye to one of them if they’re going to die because they’re on opposite sides of town. It's either going to be Stefan or Damon, and she has to make a snap decision. During an emotional phone call with Damon, she tells him she has to let him go because of the love she feels toward Stefan. I was hoping she would pick her true love… this is kind of amazing and yet heartbreaking at the same time. After the call, Alaric beats the living crap out of Damon. Rejected, then punched repeatedly. It's hard not to shed a tear for Damon.

When it goes back to Caroline weeping in front of Tyler, it suddenly hits me that he’s going to die. NO! He almost transforms into a wolf and it looks like he's going to die, and he makes Caroline leave. He doesn't want her to see him die. On the receiving end, Elena gets a phone call from a distraught Caroline who says Tyler is dead. As if this wasn't depressing enough, we are forced to watch Matt break down and cry. Rebekah also breaks the news to Elijah about Klaus, and they both sob into each other's arms. They may have been hostile towards each other, but clearly family meant everything to them.

Then comes a big revelation: Bonnie swapped Tyler's body with Klaus', so when Alaric staked Klaus' body, he was actually killing Tyler. So, Klaus lives on in Tyler's body and Tyler is really dead. How is this going to work with Caroline? Is he going to pretend to really be Tyler and try to woo her once more? Klaus really was the one who sired the Salvatore clan, so they all aren't going to die. Rebekah decides that she wants to take out Elena in order to kill Alaric and have her revenge for Klaus’ death, not knowing that her brother lives on in Tyler's body. Matt almost hits Rebekah and they swerve off the road into the river. I can’t handle this episode!

Alaric beating the crap out of Damon leads into another flashback: Damon actually met Elena the night of the accident with her parents, right before they picked her up from the bonfire. He made her forget everything and tells her she will find that compassionate love she has been searching her whole life for, and then she is off for that fateful car crash that started the series.

It’s a little difficult to make sense of what happens in the final moments of the episode with all the tears that were streaming down my face,  but a lot of stuff goes down in the final moments. Last time she was in an accident, her father signaled for Stefan to save Elena. This time, Elena signals for Stefan to rescue Matt. Elena appears to die in favor of Stefan rescuing Matt from the wreckage. Damon freaks out when Alaric dies in his arms as Elena's heart stops beating and she drowns. Jeremy sees Alaric as a ghost and he says goodbye to him and that he will always be there for him. Alaric is really gone now! This is almost as depressing as thinking about how we are probably never going to see Klaus in his true sexy form ever again. Alaric dies in Damon’s arms and his face as he thinks Elena is gone literally slayed me. Damon heads to the hospital, where Meredith reveals that Elena had bleeding of the brain and she treated her with vampire blood to help her heal faster.

In the final moments of the episode, Elena comes back to life. She's not dead after all! Since she's dead with vampire blood in her system, she is going to become a vampire. She's in transition now! Like, what the hell did I just watch?

I need season 4 now! The wait is going to be ridiculous, and I have so many questions! This was literally one of the best episodes of the entire series, showering us with answers and linking things all the way back to the first episode. A vampire Elena is definitely going to make season 4 interesting. What a cliffhanger! I love this show!