Elena and her younger brother Jeremy were being raised by their Aunt Jenna after their parents died in a car accident. After the death of her parents, she broke up with her childhood best friend, first love and boyfriend, Matt Donovan, claiming to need some time alone when really she had just discovered that her feelings for Matt were more like a brother-sister relationship, and no longer romantic.

After the tragedy of losing both of her parents, Elena makes an attempt to start over and learn how to cope with the tragic loss and start to regain some of her happiness again, determined to make this year different. When the school year started, Elena meets Stefan Salvatore, the mysterious new boy, and is immediately and undeniably intrigued and attracted to him. Meeting Stefan immediately brought things back to normal for Elena again and she felt a connection. She later admitted to Matt that Stefan gave her a reason to want to live again, during a time when she didn't want to live anymore.

Her close friend, Caroline Forbes is jealous, due to her crush on Stefan, but her best friend Bonnie Bennett encourages Elena's feelings with Stefan at first. She learns from Damon, who she believed to be meeting for the first time, that Stefan's first love was Katherine Pierce, whom he lost in a fire. Unknown to her, she is a doppelgänger of Katherine, but no one understands how or why. It becomes clear to Elena afterwards that Damon was also in love with Katherine and she had, at one point, torn the brothers apart.

Shortly after meeting Stefan, she started to bond with him. She leaves "The Night of the Comet" party early, which upsets Stefan, but she turns up on his door where they watch the comet together and share their first kiss. Later on, she asked Stefan to escort her to the Founders' Party, but became frustrated and confused when she began to feel as though Stefan was keeping secrets from her. He was angry, believing that it was all Damon's fault for trying to come between them as a way to hurt Stefan.

Eventually, she discovered that he and Damon were vampires, causing her to become hostile and fearful towards both of them, until they gained her trust again when they saved her from being injured by Vicki Donovan, Matt's older sister and Jeremy's new girlfriend, who had just been turned into a vampire by Damon the night prior. When Vicki was turned into a vampire, Elena attempted to convince both her and Jeremy to stay away from each other, out of fear for what she could do to Jeremy. However, since Vicki's heightened feelings from being a new vampire made her volatile, she was choked and threatened by Vicki and yelled at by Jeremy, who didn't understand why she wanted to keep them apart. Stefan ultimately killed Vicki when she bit Elena, attempting to drink her blood to kill her at the school's Halloween party.

As a result of Vicki's death, Jeremy was devastated, as he had just lost another person he loved. Elena was concerned for his well-being, and asked Stefan to wipe Jeremy's memory of Vicki's death, making him believe that she had left town and he believed it was for the best, and to take away his pain. Since Stefan wasn't strong (due to his diet of animal blood), he didn't believe he could do it, and Damon agreed to take away his suffering, which helped Elena to warm up to Damon. Elena and Jenna noticed that, as a result of the compulsion, Jeremy had stopped doing drugs, started doing his homework, and began to sketch and do artwork again.

Elena was also a witness of Lexi's death at the hands of Damon, who killed her in an attempt to draw attention away from him and Stefan so they wouldn't be discovered as vampires; her death was used as a scapegoat for the recent deaths and injuries. She also witnessed the destruction of Bonnie's talisman in order to prevent Damon from freeing the vampires in the tomb, after which she told Bonnie the truth about everything.

After Elena and Stefan finally became a couple and slept together for the first time, she saw a picture of Katherine on Stefan's desk, and realized they looked exactly the same. Upset and confused that Stefan kept this from her, she left her vervain necklace on the desk and ran to her car to drive home. She got into a car accident when swerving to miss a person in the road, later discovered to be Noah, a vampire.

Noah stood up, and began setting his broken bones before running to attack Elena. Thankfully, Damon appeared just in time to save her life and freed her from the car, catching her before she fainted. When she came to, she realized she was in Damon's car, where he was taking her to Atlanta with him to get information on the tomb from an old flame, Bree. While there, the two bond, eat dinner, and drink beer and shots of whiskey as she learns about Bree, a witch, and Damon. When she goes outside to talk to Jenna on the phone, she is taken by Lee, Lexi's boyfriend, who almost kills Damon when he comes to save her, because Bree called him and told him he was there; they both wanted him dead for killing Lexi. However, Elena convinces him to spare his life, as Lexi was a good person and wouldn't have wanted Lee to kill anyone. Lee leaves, sparing Damon's life for Lexi's memory.

The night before the 50's Decade Dance, a pizza guy came and Jeremy invited him inside, unaware that he was Noah, a vampire who was trying to gain access to the Gilbert's house. He almost attacked Elena while she was getting ready for the dance, but the Gilbert Compass alerted her to his presence, and Stefan showed up just in time to scare him off. Noah showed up at the dance and threatened to kill Jeremy if she didn't leave the dance and go into the cafeteria alone. Elena ran into the hallway with Noah following her more slowly. She ran into the cafeteria and managed to fight back, stabbing him with pencils in the neck, hand, and chest, until Stefan and Damon arrived and killed him after interrogating him with a stake. He was shown to have been friends with Anna and Ben, fellow vampires, with whom he was working to open the tomb and retrieve Anna's mother. He knew Katherine and had believed he had loved her, which was why he was stalking Elena for his enjoyment, although Anna disapproved, believing it would just get in the way of their plans.

After the tomb was opened and the vampires were released, she helped Damon save Stefan from Frederick and the other tomb vampires, who had kidnapped Stefan while he was hunting, and tortured him after capturing him in the woods; they believed the Salvatore brothers were the reason why they were entombed in the first place, due to their relationship with Katherine. Elena was able to get Stefan out, while Damon and Alaric fought the rest of the vampires. Realizing the tomb vampires had disabled Damon's car, making them unable to get away, Elena gave Stefan her blood so he could heal enough to protect them both, because his injuries were extensive. That night, Vicki Donovan's body was found, and Elena went to console Matt, who hugged her right after telling Caroline he wanted to be alone, indicating he still had feelings for Elena despite his relationship with Caroline.

However, Stefan had not had human blood for decades, and became re-addicted to it after years of denying himself, as he had never learned how to control his cravings properly. He started drinking blood bags that he carelessly stole from a blood bank, putting him and Damon both at risk, as the Council was still on high alert. Elena, unaware that Stefan is still drinking human blood, asks Stefan to escort her to the Founders' Ball, and he accepts. When Damon told her what Stefan had been doing, they got into a fight, and Stefan attacked Amber, a girl in the competition for "Miss Mystic Falls," drank her blood, and almost killed her.

Because Stefan was unable to escort her, as he was feeding on Amber, Damon steps into Stefan's space and dances with her. They later find Stefan just in time to stop him from killing Amber. Elena confronted Stefan, trying to remind him of who he was, and he yelled at her to stop it, pushing her away. He then broke down, crying an apology, and hugged her. He told her he loved her so much, and Elena said the same, stabbing him with a dart full of vervain. Elena and Damon locked Stefan in the basement, and kept giving him vervain to keep him weak until they could get the human blood out of his system.

When Bonnie's grandmother died after opening the tomb, Bonnie left town for a while to stay with her dad's family. After she came back, she began to act cold and distant to Elena, Stefan and Damon. Elena finally asked her to tell her what was going on, and she explained that she blamed Stefan and Damon for her Grams' death. She told Elena she wasn't going to make her choose between her and the Salvatores, so she was ending their friendship to make things easier on her. Elena tried to fix things, but Bonnie told her there was nothing she could do, and asked her to just leave her alone. When Elena's mother came to town, Elena met with Isobel at the Mystic Grill. Afterwards, ran into Bonnie as she was crying and trying to leave, and Bonnie looked as if she wanted to help, but ended up blowing her off. The next day, she and Bonnie repaired their friendship when Bonnie arrived at her house to apologize for not being a good friend.

Elena's friendship with Bonnie did not exactly endear her to her vampire friends, however. When the Salvatores realized that John Gilbert was planning to use the Gilbert Device to kill all the vampires in Mystic Falls, and Isobel was going to go on a killing spree unless they gave her the missing piece, they knew they needed to come up with a plan. Bonnie offered to deactivate the device, so that it wouldn't work, and though Damon was skeptical, they took Bonnie's offer. Bonnie pretended to remove the spell from the device, although she knew that that Elena would never forgive her once she found out. It was eventually activated on Founders' Day by John Gilbert in Grayson Gilbert's office, and all the vampires were caught, injected with vervain, and taken to the office to be killed by fire except for Stefan, who Alaric helped hide. They realized Bonnie betrayed them and, after not being able to find Damon, went to the office to find out what happened. John stopped Elena from going with Stefan to save Damon from burning to death and warned her that he would reveal Stefan as a vampire if she went. Elena, however, told him her opinion and feelings should matter as he was her father. He seemed shocked she knew, but she admitted she wasn't certain about it until that moment. She went with Stefan, where she met up with a guilty Bonnie, who used magic to reduce the flames as much as she could until Stefan could run and get Damon out.

After Stefan and Damon stumbled out of the fire, Elena helped support Damon. Bonnie helped free him to make it up to Elena. Damon caught up with Elena at her house, after telling Jeremy about Anna's death. Damon confessed to her that he was so grateful for her help, knowing that Bonnie would not have saved him unless Elena wanted it. They shared a passionate kiss after he thanked her for deciding he was worth saving, but they were interrupted by Jenna, who seemed mad at Elena for seemingly cheating on Stefan. After Damon, clearly shocked, leaves the house, Elena shows up again, on the phone with Stefan, telling him someone stole her stuff. At this point, it is confirmed that the girl Damon kissed was in fact Katherine pretending to be Elena in an attempt to fool Damon. After entering the house, she hears a noise and heads to the kitchen, unaware that Katherine had posed as her to John and savagely stabbed him after cutting all the fingers off the hand that had his Gilbert Ring.

Elena headed towards the kitchen and was shocked to find John on the floor bleeding to death after Katherine's surprising attack, but he was all alone. She ran over to him and called an ambulance, giving them the information. John signaled to Elena that someone was behind her and Elena quickly spun around, grabbing the knife Katherine had used earlier to stab John and started walking toward the front room. She tried looking for the attacker, but Katherine sped around the house, watched her briefly, and then sped through the door before Elena could see who it was.

Elena remembered that Jeremy was home and ran upstairs to make sure he was okay. She found an unconscious Jeremy in his bed, having just taken an overdose of pain medication from Elena's car accident right after taking the vial of Anna's blood that she gave to him before her death. She shook him roughly and he awakened. After having Stefan check Jeremy out, Stefan concluded that Jeremy was still alive and not a vampire, as he didn't take enough pills to kill himself, so the blood just healed him. Stefan stayed with him while she went to the hospital to see John, where she learned that Caroline was in the hospital from the wreck. Meanwhile, Bonnie showed up at the hospital to see how Caroline was doing. When Sheriff Elizabeth Forbes tells Damon that Caroline might not make it, Damon reassures her that Caroline will be fine, and goes to Elena and Bonnie to tell them he can give Caroline his blood to heal her. While Elena thought it was too risky, Bonnie, feeling guilty that they crashed because Tyler was affected by the Gilbert Device told her that they couldn't let Caroline die and told Damon to do it. Damon reassured Elena that Caroline would be safe in the hospital and that the blood would be out of her system quickly. While Elena was alone, Damon tells her that they need to talk about the kiss they shared, which confused Elena. Before he could ask, Jenna interrupts the conversation, and Elena asks her where she's been. Jenna explains that she told Elena (but really Katherine) that she had to fill out paperwork regarding the fire. When Elena is again confused, Damon puts the pieces together and realizes that it was Katherine he kissed, not Elena. Stefan was watching Jeremy at Elena's house when Katherine arrives posing as Elena. She hugs Stefan and tries to kiss him for "comfort", but he realized it was Katherine much more quickly than Damon and tossed her aside. She retorted that "at least [she] fooled one of them." before breaking Stefan's arm and fleeing at the sound of Elena and Damon entering the house.

Damon and Elena walked in and Damon knows that Stefan had just spoken with Katherine. Stefan was shocked that Damon knew too, and then became angry when Damon revealed that he kissed Katherine whilst believing her to be Elena. Elena is shocked as well, but steps between the two when Stefan tries to attack Damon. She tells them that Katherine is trying to get between them, and that they can't let her win. Elena and Stefan then leave to visit John at the hospital and get information from him, but he refused to help. He showed much contempt and resentment towards Stefan, and sneered that Elena should have driven a stake through his heart. Elena gets offended, tells him off, and leaves, saying she doesn't want him around. Before Stefan leaves, he forces John to drink his blood and tells him that if he doesn't get out of town in 24 hours, Stefan will kill him and turn him into a vampire. Later on at the wake for the mayor, Damon asked Elena about the kiss again and asked what the surprise was; she said that it was no surprise that he would kiss her, but that it was a surprise that he thought she would kiss him back. Damon then admits he is immensely hurt at that, despite arguing that he couldn't be hurt just moments before. A panicky Bonnie then arrived and told the two that Katherine had left with Stefan.

They found him on the Lockwood grounds recovering from a wound Katherine had given him as revenge for expressing his hate for her. That night, Elena went up to her bedroom and found Damon, who was drunk and sitting on her bed. He tried to force her to confess that she loved him, but she denied it, insisting that she cared for him a lot, but that she loves Stefan, and has always loved Stefan. Angered and heartbroken, Damon attempted to turn Jeremy and snapped his neck, much to Elena's horror, but she discovered that Jeremy was wearing the Gilbert Ring that John had given him before he left town. She later cried to Stefan that she hated Damon, and it was just easier that way as that seemed to be what he wanted. When the group had a suspicion that the Lockwood family were werewolves, Elena had to go on a road trip to Duke University with Damon and Alaric to look through Isobel's old research and learn what werewolves are. Before leaving, she kissed Stefan passionately in front of Damon, who was obviously uncomfortable. Isobel's former TA, Vanessa Monroe fires an arrow at Elena in an attempt to kill her, as she believes her to be Katherine, but Damon sped in front of her and took the arrow in his back. Elena helps him remove the arrow and convinces Damon not to kill Vanessa; he asks her why she always asks him to do things, assuming that he will only because she's the one who is asking, and Elena changes the subject. He finds a book on the Petrova family, the family Katherine was born into, and tells her that he remembers that she was from Europe (Bulgaria) originally, and that her real name was Katerina Petrova. He hopes that because he gave her the book, that she could forgive him and remain his friend; Elena tells him that she's glad that he told her the truth about not knowing Jeremy was wearing the ring, but that she can't be his friend anymore.

Angered that he was used, he says she has a lot more in Katherine than just her looks. Katherine comes back to Mystic Falls, and tells Stefan that she doesn't want him dating Elena anymore, and that if they don't break up, she will kill everyone that Elena loves in front of her, and then kill her as well. Stefan and Elena pretend to break up, but after they learn that she's looking for a moonstone, work together to find it. Damon kills Mason Lockwood, whom she had been dating/using to get the moonstone, and then calls Katherine to taunt her for it, she reveals that she's had Jenna compelled to be her spy for days, and knew that Stefan and Elena were still together. After Katherine compels Jenna to kill herself, (although she survives it) Elena breaks up with Stefan, knowing that's what Katherine wants. Damon feels terrible for riling her up, but Elena says it doesn't matter, and that Katherine won. Katherine won.

Katherine still needs the moonstone, which Damon has, and calls in a favor with a witch friend of hers to link her to Elena. So, if Stefan and Damon attempted to hurt or kill her instead of giving up the moonstone, Elena will feel the same effects. When Elena randomly starts bleeding and crying out in pain, Bonnie realizes that another witch is involved, and Jeremy runs to tell the Salvatores that they're hurting Elena by hurting Katherine right before they stake Katherine in the heart. They immediately stop, and eventually, Bonnie and Lucy, Katherine's witch, work together to take out Katherine by cursing the moonstone to incapacitate her when she touches it, and They then lock Katherine and the moonstone in the tomb, telling her that she is where she should have been this whole time. Stefan tries to kiss Elena after they learn that Katherine is not longer able to hurt them, but she rejects him, explaining that she needs to know that the people she loves are safe, and that she is safe. As she heads to her car, she is captured by a man wearing a clown mask.

She was kidnapped by a pair of vampires named Rose and Trevor, who were only interested in exchanging Elena for their freedom from a much more sinister vampire, Elijah. She learned that she must die to break the curse of the moonstone. Elijah then turned up, killed Trevor, and tried to compel Elena to tell him the position of the moonstone but failed to do so, because of her vervain necklace. He then rips the necklace from her neck and compels her to tell him where it is.

She says it is in the tomb with Katherine. Stefan and Damon then turned up and before Elijah could kill Stefan, Damon staked him. Elena returned home. There, Damon came to return her necklace which she thought she lost, but first he tells her he loves her but doesn't deserve her and instead his brother does deserve her; he then says he wishes she didn't have to forget, but compels her to forget his confession.

Elena helps Rose after she is bitten by a werewolf and reassures Damon he's not a monster after he kills Rose to put her out of her misery. Elena decides to try and keep John out of her plans with Elijah, and Elena along with Bonnie give support to Caroline after she suffered through the incident where she was tortured with wooden bullets by Tyler, Jules, Brady and the other werewolves. Elena then goes with Stefan to the Gilbert Family Lake House to get away from John and everything that was happening. They discovered a secret door containing more of Johnathan Gilbert's journals along with equipment of a vampire hunter.

After discovering the Gilbert journals Elena starts to read them and discovers that Stefan was just like Damon back then whilst Damon was the better brother. She confronts Stefan about it and he tells her the story about what he was like back then, and how Lexi was the one that changed him into a better vampire. Later, Elijah shows up at the lake house and Elena wants to renegotiate, asking him to promise not to harm anyone.

She then says that if he refuses her deal, she will let herself bleed to death so Klaus will never be able to go through with the sacrifice like Elijah wants. He calls her bluff, not believing she would kill herself for so little an issue. She stabs herself in the chest with a knife and he says she has his word if she lets him heal her. As she stumbles forward, she stabs him in the chest with the special dagger, thus killing him. He falls to the ground as Stefan feeds her his blood to cure her and Damon appears.

Elena is shocked and upset that Katherine is free from the tomb. At school, she goes to Alaric and they discuss how Jenna is asking a lot of questions about Isobel. Elena says that after they take care of Klaus they will tell her everything as it may be dangerous for her to not know anymore. Later that evening, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, and Jenna go to The Grill for a girl's night out as Caroline is upset about her break-up with Matt, Jenna is upset about her situation with Alaric, and Bonnie needs to tell Elena about her relationship with Jeremy. Jonas Martin attacks, looking for Elena but Stefan gets her out and he uses Katherine to pretend to be Elena to save her.

Elena lashes out at John for Isobel's return and the fact that he invited her into the house. Later, Elena sits down and listens to what Isobel has to say. She goes with Stefan to the Lockwood house to accept a check from the Historical Society for her mother's foundation. Katherine then kidnaps her for Isobel. At Grove Hill cemetery, Isobel takes Elena there to show her the grave that Isobel's parents made when they couldn't find Isobel body after her presumed death. Isobel then tells Elena that she is sorry that she was a disappointment to her; she removed her lapis lazuli necklace and burned to death in the sun.

Elena plans on attending the 60's decade dance with her friends and starts receiving disturbing messages from Klaus. She discovers that Bonnie might die if she channels too much power at once, which is what she will have to do if she wants to kill Klaus. Elena confronts Damon when she learns he knew Bonnie had to die and slaps him. After Damon explains what happened she apologizes to him. He then tells her that if it means Elena will be safe, he would not mind letting Bonnie die, even doing it himself, as he will always choose her. Elena, believing she can save Bonnie, sneaks down in the basement and pulls the dagger from Elijah's heart, thus reviving him.

Elena is able to strike up another deal with Elijah. Damon is very unhappy about this, but Stefan accepts that this is what Elena wants to do and decides to trust her judgement. Elijah has a special elixir that would bring Elena back from the dead after the sacrifice as a human, but no one knows if it will work because of how old it is as it was originally intended for Katherine in the 1400s. Damon asks her what she will do if it doesn't work and she concludes that she will just be dead. Upset, he storms off but she follows him. He decides he is the only one who knows how to save Elena and so forces her to drink his blood so he can be sure she will come back, even as a vampire. Elijah puts the elixir away, as it is no longer necessary, and Stefan fights Damon for feeding Elena his blood but Damon stakes Stefan in the chest.

Stefan takes Elena away for the day, and she says she never wanted to be a vampire. Elena then says goodbye to Stefan and is taken away willingly by Klaus for the sacrifice. Elena arrives at the site to find that Klaus had made some changes to the sacrifice and that Jenna was being used as the vampire, having been turned by Klaus. Jules is brought along and all three are placed in fire rings by Greta Martin, Klaus' witch. Klaus then arrives and kills Jules as the first part before adding her blood to the moonstone that has been set ablaze.

As Klaus is about to kill Jenna, Stefan arrives and asks to take Jenna's place but Klaus refuses and stabs Stefan as he says he has other plans for him. He then moves to kill Jenna but as Greta breaks the flames, Jenna runs towards her and bites her. However, Klaus gets to her and kills her before she can kill Greta. As he brings Elena out for the final part of the sacrifice, he thanks her and Elena tells him to go to Hell. He then drinks her blood and Elena dies as Stefan watches in horror, unable to move since Klaus stabbed him.

As Klaus starts to turn, Bonnie arrives and starts attacking him with her witchcraft. Damon kills Greta and retrieves Elena so as to bring her back to the witch burial site. Bonnie attacks Klaus to the point of death at which point, Elijah intervenes and goes to finish Klaus but he betrays everyone when Klaus tells him that he can help him find his siblings that Klaus had killed and supposedly buried at sea. Elijah and Klaus escape and Bonnie is unable to stop them.

At the burial site, Damon whispers to a dead Elena that if she comes back as a vampire, he himself will stake her; he tells her not to, but he will because he couldn't stand the idea of her hating him forever for turning her. Elena awakens as a human because Bonnie and John had found a spell that could return her to life as a human by binding John's life force to hers. As Elena returns to life, John dies. Before the funeral, Jeremy gives her a letter from John and his ring. In the letter, he tells her that it is hard to be an ordinary father to an extraordinary daughter and that he had failed her because of his prejudices but tells her that he will love her nonetheless, if she is reading the letter as a human or as a vampire.

He tells her that he gave his life so that she could remain human and make the choices she wanted to make about having a child and all the choices a human could make. He tells her that the reason he gave her the ring was because he wanted her to give it to her child if she ever had one and that she would therefore succeed where he had failed. Elena is seen crying for both her father, her aunt and her adoptive parents as she places roses on each of their graves.

Three months later after Stefan had left town with Klaus, in The Birthday, Elena has just turned eighteen and she is still desperately trying to find Stefan ever since he left Mystic Falls. She gets a lead from Sheriff Forbes and tells Damon. Damon goes with Alaric to Tennessee, while Elena stays with Caroline and Tyler who help plan her party. Later that night, Damon gives Elena the necklace that Stefan gave to her once, which she lost a while ago. He puts it on her, and after Elena discovers that Damon has been looking a lot more for Stefan than she thought, she confronts him about not telling her. Damon tells Elena that the victims are not Klaus', they are in fact Stefan's. Damon tells Elena that Stefan has flipped the switch and that he has become a full blown ripper. Elena continues to be in denial about this but Damon tells her to stop looking for Stefan and to stop waiting for him to come home. Damon then tells her that Stefan is gone and that he is not coming back, not in her lifetime. Devastated and crushed, Elena holds onto her necklace, which is a symbol of their love. At the end of her birthday, she gets a call from Stefan, even though he doesn't speak or say a word, Elena somehow knows that it is him on the other end of the line. Elena tells him that he will be okay, that she loves him and that he needs to hold onto that and never let that go.

In The Hybrid, Elena is as determined as ever to find Stefan and bring him back home. After unsuccessfully asking Damon for help, Elena goes and seeks help from Alaric. She then finds out information about werewolves and how certain packs could be hanging out with Tyler, specifically those packs in Tennessee. Alaric and Elena head off to the mountains, where they engage in banter, and her telling Alaric that he's not a lost cause. Damon surprises her and flings her into the lake. Alaric had sold her out, as he didn't want to take her somewhere without protection. The trio find Ray Sutton in the woods, and he attacks Damon. After bombing him with a wolfs bane grenade, they tie him up, and Elena is determined to ask him the whereabouts of Stefan. Ray starts to change into a werewolf while the sun is up. As Damon lures him away, Elena and Alaric run off to the car. Later, in her room, Damon tells Elena that he will help her search for Stefan and bring him back, but he wants her to remember that in Stefan's absence, she was worried about Damon getting hurt, and that she has to remember those feelings.

In The End of The Affair, Elena and Damon go to Chicago where they find Stefan and Klaus. They go into their apartment and she sees a list if all Stefan's victims and is in shock. Later, she hides in the closet when Stefan and Klaus enter. Stefan sees her but doesn't say anything. She gets Damon to distract Klaus so she can talk to Stefan and drug him with vervain but it doesn't work. Elena then is extremely heartbroken and hurt when Stefan tells her he doesn't want to see her again and no longer cares for her.

In Disturbing Behavior, Damon helps Elena prepare for the Lockwood party. Later, when Damon wants to go after Bill Forbes, Elena and Alaric try to stop him but Damon kills Alaric. Elena calls Caroline for help. After the fight between Damon and Caroline, she yells at Damon and asks him what's wrong with him. He tells her he is not Stefan and that she should stop trying to turn him into him.

In The Reckoning, Elena and the others plan Senior Prank Night when she walks into Klaus and he brings her into the gym. Later, she watches him turn Tyler into a hybrid. When Stefan enters, saying Elena means nothing to him, Klaus hits Elena and as she falls, Stefan attacks Klaus but gets compelled to attack Elena. When "time's up," Elena runs away but while Stefan tries to follow, Klaus makes Stefan "turn it off" and he bites Elena, attempting to drink her blood. Later, Damon saves her from the hospital and brings her to the Salvatore boarding house where she is upset about all that has happened.

In Smells Like Teen Spirit, Elena is being trained by Alaric. At their first day of senior year, Elena is upset because its her and Stefan's anniversary. Later, she meets Stefan and he tells her he's only there to watch out for her, on Klaus' command. After this, Elena, Damon and Alaric hatch a plan to capture Stefan. Elena is now on the bleachers, pretending to be drunk, and almost falls. Stefan is there as well, telling her not to be stupid. She does end up falling, and he catches her. Alaric shoots Stefan. Elena, Damon, and Alaric load Stefan's body into the car. Vicki's ghost spills some gas and throws a cigarette in it to start a fire. Elena's trapped in the car and Vicki's keeping the car locked so she can't get out. Elena wakes Stefan who kicks the back door open, and they get out just in time. Damon does some first aid on Elena before Alaric prepares to take her home. Stefan is surprised that Elena thinks his humanity can be salvaged; he calls her pathetic. In retaliation, she stabs him.

In Ordinary People, Elena, Alaric, and Damon are investigating the cave with images about the history of the original family. Elena decides to go to the source of the story: Rebekah. Elena and Rebekah have a long conversation about what happened to her family and the beginning of vampires. After discovering what had happened, Elena returns to the cave with Alaric and Bonnie. Elena learns the truth about Esther and her death. Elena returns with Rebekah, who tells her Klaus killed her mother, not Mikael.

In Homecoming, Elena neutralizes Mikael so Stefan and Rebekah can attract Klaus back to Mystic Falls. Elena and Damon make preparations for the destruction of Klaus. Damon does not trust Mikael, or Stefan, so tells Elena that has a Plan B: use Katherine to avoid putting her on the battlefield. When Matt is going to pick up Rebekah, Elena tells him that if he does not mind going with "someone" else. Eventually, Matt and Katherine, who is disguised as Elena, arrive at the party, but they learn that Klaus is planning something of his own. When Mikael comes to the celebration, he uses to Elena to attract Klaus but she is "killed" in the process. In the middle of the fight between Klaus and Damon, Katherine is revealed and attacks the hybrids with vervain bombs. Shortly after, Elena finds out what happened and tries to console a distraught Damon over losing Stefan to Klaus and not killing Klaus. Elena tells Damon that she accepts that Stefan is gone and never returning and that they will be fine without him.

Elena leaves Damon alone and goes back home. There, Alaric awakens but something was wrong with his ring. He calls the ambulance but Tony, who stands in the door, compelled them to leave. He gives Elena the option to let him in but he was then killed by Jeremy who cut his head off. She makes a deal with Klaus to get Jeremy spared. Klaus promises that he can control Rebekah and she tells him that Rebekah knows that Klaus killed her mother. Damon comes to Elena and she tells him what she did. She gets him to compel Jeremy to leave town, as he does. Elena and Damon kiss.

In Our Town, Elena is training at Alaric's. She then goes to school, informing Bonnie that Jeremy was compelled to leave town. Bonnie is not happy to hear it. Together with Bonnie and Matt, Elena prepares a party at the Forbes' House for Caroline as it is her birthday. As they see, she is not in the mood so they throw her a "funeral" at the cemetery instead. She reveals the cake and Bonnie then lights the candles herself. All four have a good time talking about Caroline's achievements and Caroline reveals she is upset because she will be seventeen forever. Bonnie then becomes angry with Elena, claiming she controls everyone's lives because she made Jeremy leave town. Bonnie leaves. Looking for Caroline after she went away with Tyler, Elena is grabbed and thus kidnapped by Stefan.

Elena is in a car with Stefan. Stefan calls Damon to inform him that he has kidnapped Elena. Stefan feeds her his blood and threatens to Klaus that he will transform her into a vampire by driving her off Wickery Bridge. Klaus agrees that he will do what Stefan wants; Stefan wants Klaus' hybrids out of town, causing Stefan to stop the car when Klaus agreed. Elena is sad and angry at Stefan and wants to know his reasons for taking her. Stefan drives off and Damon takes Elena home. They talk about the kiss. In the morning, she says goodbye to Jeremy, who is leaving. Together with Bonnie she watches until Jeremy is gone. Later, she meets Matt at Wickery Bridge, talking about how they have changed.

In The Ties That Bind, Elena was taken to the abandoned cottage by Bonnie, who showed her the coffins there. Against what Stefan wanted, she brought her there and then says that her mother could help open the coffin. Elena helps Bonnie with research, having the data of every Abby Bennett in town. Damon came and showed them the right one. Bonnie doesn't know why Damon and Elena are behaving so differently. Damon explains that they kissed. Elena goes on a trip with Bonnie to Abby's house. They are let in by Jamie who is Abby's stepson whom she raised since she left his father. Abby appears and tells Elena that she knew her adoptive mother and that she was the one who entombed Mikael in the 90's to save the doppelgänger.

Elena went outside, looking around, and suddenly Stefan appears in front of her. They talk but get interrupted by Jamie who tries to protect Elena from Stefan. Stefan compels Jamie to leave but not long after he returns with a rifle, shooting Stefan. Elena was tied up to a pole by him. Later, Elena knocks him out and helps Stefan to get the wooden bullets out. She admits that she kissed Damon but tells him she's not telling him because she's guilty it happened, instead because she feels guilty that he doesn't know. Stefan tells her that she's better than both of them were, but is clearly hurt. Stefan later punches Damon for kissing her. She later walks in the Gilbert House when Alaric and Meredith Fell were kissing.

In Bringing Out The Dead, Sheriff Forbes visits Alaric and Elena, informing them that the stake which was used on the medical examiner is one of the Gilbert arsenal. Later, she calls Damon and informs him about this while he is meeting Elijah because she suspects that Stefan has killed the medical examiner. She goes to him and they talk. Stefan suggests she should ask Damon if he recently killed someone. She meets Caroline in the hospital, visiting her father. After Caroline calls him and hears his phone ringing they find him dead, a Gilbert dagger driven through his heart; he was, however, fed vampire blood before so he awakens in transition. During the dinner with Klaus and Elijah, Elena is mentioned several times. When Elijah talks about Tatia and when Klaus thinks that Elena should grow old with Matt so they can have a children, so that every few hundred years there will be a new Petrova doppelgänger. Because it's only a matter of time before Damon and Stefan will turn her into a vampire, Klaus states that the worst thing for her was the Salvatore brothers. Elena comes home with Matt, finding Alaric bleeding to death. He wanted her to stab him because she's supernatural and he would came back to life. Rebekah threatens to kill Elena.

After Stefan has Damon distracted by temporarily breaking his neck and rendering him unconscious, Elena goes to Esther, but before she gets there she meets Elijah who asks Elena to tell him what Esther said to her. Elena says that she will find him later and goes to Esther's room. In her room, Esther explains the reason why she is really back from the dead, and she also says that she requires Elena's help to kill all of her children. Esther pricks Elena's finger and takes a few drops of blood. Esther says that she needs the Petrova doppelgänger's blood to complete a spell that will bind all the Originals as one, so if one dies, they all die. Elena goes down the stairs where she meets Elijah who asks what his mother told her, and Elena lies by saying that his mother only wanted to say sorry for trying to kill her. Later, Damon gets upset that Elena went behind his back to meet Esther, and she rejects him. After being dropped home by Stefan she tries to ask him if he felt anything. Stefan denies he feels anything and that if he let himself care, all he would feel is pain. He then leaves Elena at her doorstep in deep thought.

In All My Children, Elena tries calling both Stefan and Damon but neither of them want to listen to her. Angry, she goes to the Salvatore boarding house and sees Damon and Rebekah together, she gets upset knowing that they slept together. Angry, she leaves and goes to Caroline's house, where they try a privacy spell with Bonnie.

Later, Elijah goes to Elena's house where he requests her to join him. He brings her to the forest area correlating with the Lockwood's land, explaining his world prior to the modern change. Elena tries to compose herself, however Elijah points out he knew that she was lying the whole time. Unable to lie anymore, she confesses the truth and her guilt, expressing that she'd do anything to help. Elijah, who has planned everything, grabs her and shatters the ground, trapping her in the underground cellars. While down in the cellars, Elena realizes that Rebekah is down there with her, too.

After Damon, Stefan, Caroline, and Alaric successfully plan to and dagger Kol, Rebekah drops down, and this gives Elena time to run away. She gets to the cave under the old Lockwood property, where vampires can't enter. Getting creative, Rebekah returns with a tank of gasoline and a box of matches, more than willing to end Elena. Elena, however, stalls her under the guise that Rebekah has always wanted to see her suffer so what would it be for her if she were to end it right in the present. Elena hears the news and the price of saving her, leading her to seek Bonnie who is watching over Abby who is in transition.

Caroline asks her to leave, because even though Bonnie is alright since the goal was to save her friend it seems that Bonnie is the one who always gets hurt. Elena decides to leave but asks Caroline to tell Bonnie about her gratitude and love. Elijah leaves Elena a letter of apology saying that his actions were to preserve the one thing that matters most to him, his family. He tells Elena that her compassion is a gift and that he truly regrets what he has done.

In 1912, Elena and Matt go on a run. She's upset. He mentions he's talked to Bonnie. Abby has decided to complete the transformation and become a vampire. Caroline's going to help her through it. Damon turned her mother into a vampire to save Elena's life. She feels responsible. Elena gets a call from Elizabeth and goes to the courthouse. Damon tells Elena he plans to stay out of it. He needles her and says everything is back to normal as he is mean and she hates him. She tells him if he keeps pushing people away, he's going to end up alone. Elena goes to meet Meredith at the hospital, but Meredith doesn't want to listen to her. Matt helps Elena break into Meredith's.

Elena checks the closet and finds a secret compartment. There are boxes of files. There are files on Brian Walters, Bill, and Alaric. In Meredith's box, they find an old Gilbert journal. A country coroner's report contradicts the ME's time of death. They hear footsteps and hide in the closet. Meredith arrives home. They wait until it's quiet and open the door. Meredith is standing outside it. After being released from the Sheriff's, Matt and Elena go around the corner of the Grill and see Stefan having just drank blood. Elena is aghast and walks off. Back at Elena's, Matt doesn't understand her thing with the Salvatores. She says she felt safe with Stefan after he parents died, which she realizes sounds crazy. She knew he would never stop loving her and he would never die. Damon just snuck up on her, she says. Matt says you can't shake someone once you fall in love with them. He gives her the old Gilbert journal he swiped from Meredith. Elizabeth didn't notice he took it. Matt says it's a good thing he's the only normal person amongst vampires, as it makes him invisible. As Alaric arrives home, Elena runs to hug him. Elena reads through the old Gilbert journal. Alaric tells her he doesn't want her getting in trouble for him. She suggests they agree to take care of each other. She thought it was Johnathan Gilbert's diary, but it is actually his granddaughter, Samantha's, who went just as crazy as he did. Elena reads the journal, in which Samantha says she's losing time and doesn't feel like herself. Elena and Meredith realize that Alaric's ring makes him commit murders.

In Break On Through, Meredith and Elena are talking about Alaric's condition and how it can be cured. Elena asks Meredith when she found out Alaric was the killer and why she didn't tell anyone. Meredith then replies that she found out when Alaric told her about the ring, and it's because she's a doctor and she doesn't enjoy seeing people suffer for things that they have no control over and that it's because when she met Alaric, she knew that she just had to help him. Damon shows up at the hospital to come and get Alaric and he promises Elena that he will make sure that Alaric won't kill anyone else.

Elena is angry because Damon let Stefan feed on an innocent girl. Damon tells her that he is helping him by teaching Stefan how to control his blood lust. Elena then tells him that he is the last person who should teach Stefan about self-control. Elena arrives at the Salvatore boarding house and is surprised when she sees Stefan. Stefan tells her the story of Samantha. Elena calls Bonnie and asks if she can help Alaric.

In The Murder of One, Elena drops by Alaric's apartment and asks Damon if she can see him, but he refuses and she leaves. Later, in the woods, Elena tells Caroline that Alaric might have killed her father. Matt, Damon, and Stefan arrive. Damon and Stefan tell the others that they found more, and all of them quickly make a plan to kill the Originals. Finn and Sage arrive in the middle of town, where Caroline and Matt ask Elena to call Stefan and tell him of the Originals being in the area. Stefan comes to the Grill, where Finn and Sage are taking shots.

In Do Not Go Gentle, Elena follows Caroline's advice and asks Stefan to accompany her to the dance. She encounters Esther at the dance, and tells Jeremy to warn Stefan and Damon. Esther tells Elena that she means her no harm, but she must leave the dance and follow her, willingly or not. Elena decides to follow Esther to the site where the Originals were created. She is surprised to see Alaric there, but realizes that he is possessed by the Darkness of the Gilbert Ring. Esther informs Elena that she still plans on killing her children, and to ensure her plan a success this time, she will tap into the dark magic she used to turn her family into vampires. By turning Alaric into an Original, he will have strength and speed that surpasses her children, making him the "ultimate vampire hunter". Esther tells Elena that her blood is necessary for the spell, as Tatia's blood was used in the ritual a thousand years previously. Elena says she won't donate blood, but Esther uses a spell that draws blood from Elena's heart and makes her finger bleed. Elena's blood is added to the mixture, which Alaric drinks. Esther then stabs Alaric in the heart with the White Oak Stake. Esther tells Rebekah that when Alaric wakes up, he will be himself for some time. Elena, horrified, tells Esther her methods are despicable, since she is not only getting rid of bad vampires, but good vampires as well. Esther criticizes Elena for saying so, stating that she desires a world where mankind will no longer fall victim to vampires, and uses Jenna as an example. Elena scolds Esther, telling her not to use Jenna as an excuse for her actions. Esther tries to console Elena, informing her that Jenna isn't trapped on the Other Side like she was.

She explains that even though Jenna was turned into a vampire, she remained pure, and knows peace, which is what everybody hopes for. Esther hears sounds coming from outside, where she finds Matt and Jeremy aiming rifles at her. Just as Esther is about to kill them, Alaric awakens and stabs her from behind, killing her. Alaric informs Elena and Jeremy that he doesn't want to complete the transition and Elena and Jeremy say their goodbyes.

In Before Sunset, Elena and Jeremy repaint Alaric's bedroom. Stefan comes by to check on them, and Jeremy criticizes Stefan for not giving them a reprieve from vampires for one day. Jeremy then leaves Alaric's room. Elena tells Stefan that Jeremy didn't mean it, but Stefan disagrees. Later, Elena receives a call from Alaric's cell, and she tells them that the joke is not funny. She is startled when she hears Alaric whom she thought was dead. Alaric tells her to come to school and not inform anyone of her whereabouts, otherwise he will kill Caroline. Elena complies with his demands, and finds Caroline held captive in his classroom. Elena tells Alaric to let Caroline go, and he allows Elena to free her. However, Alaric goes against his word, berating Elena for trusting vampires. He goes on a tangent about how Elena's parents joined the Founder's council to protect the town from vampires and that Miranda and Grayson would be disappointed in her for protecting vampires instead. He hands Elena the White Oak Stake and tells her to kill Caroline or else he will and ensure Caroline a painful death. Elena pretends to stake Caroline, but attacks Alaric instead. She sees a cup filled with vervain solution sitting on his desk and splashes it all over his face, giving her enough time to free Caroline. Caroline manages to escape, but Alaric recovers, blocking the classroom door. He holds Elena against the lockers, informing her that he should kill her just as he killed Brian and Bill. Stefan and Damon arrive, trying to hold Alaric down, but he overpowers them and knocks them both out. Klaus appears out of nowhere, plunging his fist into Alaric's chest and making a connection with his bloodstream. This prompts Bonnie to commence her desiccation spell. However, Alaric overpowers Klaus, and the connection is broken. Just as Alaric is about to kill Klaus with the White Oak Stake, Elena tells him to stop, brandishing a knife and threatening to kill herself. Alaric tells Elena to put her weapon down, but Elena questions why, asking if its just because he still needs her alive. Elena figures out that when Esther turned Alaric into an Original, she didn't want him to be truly immortal. To prevent this, she linked his life to Elena. That way, he only has one lifespan to kill the other Originals. Alaric doesn't confirm this, but panics when Elena starts to pierce her neck with the knife. This gives Klaus the chance to escape, and he takes Elena with him.

Elena wakes up strapped to a chair and hooked up with IVs in Klaus' mansion. Klaus is intent on killing Elena by draining her of blood. That way, Alaric will die and his greatest threat will be gone. Elena tells Klaus that by killing her, he won't have enough blood to create a hybrid army like he wants. Klaus says whatever amount of blood he receives from her will have to suffice, and that it doesn't really matter to him because he has his family. Elena asks him that if he believes that, then why he has to take blood from her at all. She explains that Klaus wants a back-up family, since he knows his siblings will never trust him again. Klaus changes the subject to Stefan and Damon, telling Elena that Stefan blamed him for splitting him and Damon apart. He says that he's not the one responsible, but she is. He knows that once Elena chooses a Salvatore, she will break their bond. He explains that by killing her, she won't have to choose and neither brother will get hurt. He then asks her which brother she would choose, and Elena responds by telling him to go to Hell. Tyler enters the scene, shocked at the state of Elena's condition. He attempts to rescue her, but is caught by Klaus who previously asked him to leave. Klaus asks Tyler how he broke the sire bond and just as he is about to kill Tyler, Stefan and Damon arrive to save them. Stefan plunges his fist into Klaus' chest and Bonnie performs her desiccation spell. Then Damon helps Elena up. After Klaus is desiccated, Elena returns home to find the others celebrating a Klaus-free life. After the party, Elena mysteriously faints, and she begins to bleed.

In The Departed, Elena returns from Mystic Falls hospital and remembers about how her life was before vampires: she was a popular high school cheerleader and all she had to deal with was her relationship with Matt. Elena wakes up from her sleep and sees Matt watching over her, and she tells him she was sorry for leading him on. Elena remarks that she's doing the same thing with Stefan and Damon, but she knows that if she chooses a brother, she'll lose the other. Elijah visits the Gilbert house to make a deal with Elena.

Elijah requests that Elena hand Klaus over to them, and in return, promises not to awaken for the remainder of her lifetime or her children's lifetimes. Elena agrees to the deal, much to Damon's dismay. Matt and Jeremy realize that Elena's in danger because of Alaric so they plan to send Elena out of town. Matt secretly drugs Elena's tea, and Elena wakes up to find herself in Matt's car, both of them driving away from Mystic Falls. Eventually, the two find out that Klaus was killed by Alaric and that Tyler died. Matt delivers Elena an ultimatum: she can choose to head to the warehouse to be with Damon or she can return home to her friends, and Stefan. Elena chooses to head back to town, and calls Damon, informing him that she chooses Stefan. She tells him that Stefan came into her life at a time when she really needed someone, and even though she developed feelings for him, her feelings for Stefan still remained. Elena says things may be different if she had met him before Stefan. Elena tells him she'll see him soon, and Damon gives his goodbye. Damon then remembers how he had, in fact, met Elena before Stefan but had compelled her to forget. While heading back to Mystic Falls, Elena and Matt drive off Wickery Bridge when Rebekah stands in the middle of the bridge. Elena experiences flashbacks of when her parents were underwater and died in the first accident. While Stefan goes into the water, trying to save Elena first, Elena refuses and points to Matt, wanting Stefan to save him first; in the past, he tried to save Grayson first, who motioned for him to save Elena instead. During a fight between Damon and Alaric, Alaric suddenly falls onto to ground not knowing what is happening to him. Damon does, however.

Damon isn't able to believe he's dying, knowing that if Alaric is dying, then Elena must be dying. Damon then cries, repeating, "You are not dead." Later, Stefan is seen at Elena's side, mourning over her death. Damon rushes to the hospital, demanding to know where Elena is. Meredith stops him, telling him she gave Elena vampire blood earlier that day because of a cerebral hemorrhage, (bleeding of the brain) as she would have died otherwise. After that, Elena awakens as a vampire in transition.

In Growing Pains, Elena awakens on the morning after the accident to find out that she has become the thing she dreaded the most has come true- she died with Damon's blood that Dr. Meredith Fell had injected in her system. And she must go through a terrible transition to become a vampire or face certain death. Stefan promises her that he and Bonnie will exhaust every possible way out of the situation, but Damon is furious with his brother for letting her die in the first place. Damon also tells her that there is no way out of it, "You feed or you die, there is no door number three." Later Elena is checking her mouth for fangs and Jeremy walks in and Elena runs over and they start talking and Elena is constantly looking at a lamp that is making a weird noise; once Jeremy left, she goes over and clutches the bulb and smashes it.

After Stefan makes her a sandwich she can't eat it, Stefan tells her he should have saved her first instead of Matt, but Elena tells him if he did, then Matt would be dead and she couldn't handle that. When Stefan mentions her finishing the transition she tells him they'll cross that bridge when they come to it. Her statement makes her laugh uncontrollably as she slowly starts to cry too. She goes back upstairs and sees Damon, but realizes she's remembering the scene from Rose, where Damon tells her he loves her and compelled her to forget. After hearing noises downstairs she finds Stefan surrounded by deputies and Pastor. They take them to Pastor's house, after Pastor tells her about his and the council's plan, she starts to leave the house when Pastor thinks she's one of them.

After a deputy knocks her out, she wakes up in a cage with Rebekah across from her and Stefan on the other side of the wall, the cells have been intoxicated with vervain to weaken them. After, Elena tells Stefan she chose him, and that he was the main reason she was on the bridge to go back to him. Bonnie contacts Elena's spirit on the other side and tries to bring her back. But Bonnie's fails and Stefan, and Rebekah kill a guard to help Elena finish the transition. When Damon nearly kills Matt, Elena attacks Damon and saying,"Leave him alone! " She tells him she remembers everything, including the fact that she met him first. She eludes to the fact that it wouldn't change anything, but she has to take it a bit further. She asks him what he would have done if he was in Stefan's position and he tells the truth only Damon would tell: he'd let Matt die to save her because he's selfish. He's so selfish, that he'd take someone else's life to give Elena the one she wanted: a human life. And that single factor changes everything. Damon has always been selfish and destructive, but one great reason Elena's answer had to be Stefan hearkened back to the time when Damon just couldn't understand why she'd choose death over vampirism. He tells her: "I would have saved you in a heartbeat; no question. You would have gotten to grow up and had the life that you wanted, the life that you deserved. I wanted that for you, Elena, and I would have gladly given it to you and let Matt die because I AM that selfish." Now that he gets that and Elena remembers everything, the love triangle has once again found a way to ignite even further.

Stefan and Elena are last seen on the roof of the Salvatore house seeing that everything is now different and that things will change from now on due to Elena being newly turned. Stefan tries re-assure Elena that everything will be okay but Elena tells Stefan that he doesn't need to do so.

Stefan tells Elena that he wishes he could though, that he wishes that she would never experience pain, that she'll never crave blood, but that she will. That Elena craving blood will be the worst thing you will have to go through and experience and live through. Elena tells Stefan that she will get to live though, that she will be a sister, a friend and that she will be with Stefan forever. Elena then kisses Stefan and tells him that she is going to get through it, just like they get through everything. Elena tells Stefan that they should get back inside before sunrise. Stefan then gives Elena her own daylight ring that Bonnie had made for her just in case. Stefan puts the ring on Elena's finger and then tells her "One day at a time, right?" They share a romantic moment and they kiss on the rooftop as the sun comes up and they enjoy the sunrise together.

In Memorial, Stefan tries to get Elena to learn and follow the diet of drinking animal blood. In the morning, Stefan and Elena wake up together in the woods to hunt. Stefan leads Elena farther into the woods and it is there that they spot a deer eating grass. Stefan tells Elena to close her eyes so that Stefan can catch the deer so Elena can feed. Elena feeds on the deer without killing it. Although Elena is overwhelmed by her very first feed, Stefan encourages a tearful Elena that even though it was hard, she did it. Stefan encourages her that she is going to get through it and that everything will be okay. Elena walks in on Stefan and Damon having a disagreement on Elena's feeding methods and diet. Elena can see that Damon doesn't approve of Elena trying to live on an animal blood diet, not drinking human blood and feeding on innocent people from the vein. Damon lets Elena know again that she is a vampire and should act like one, which implies that Elena should treat humans as food.

Damon then insists that Elena is going to be miserable because of her vegetarian diet. Stefan and Elena are in the woods together and Stefan is trying to teach Elena methods on how to hunt for forest animals. However, Elena is distracted by Stefan's embrace and touch and her overwhelming sense of passion and desire for Stefan. Elena describes Stefan touching her as if he is literally touching every single nerve on her body, implying that she finds Stefan's touch electrifying. Stefan tells Elena that when you are a vampire, everything is heightened, including your emotions, sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Elena, overwhelmed with passion and desire, begins to passionately make out with Stefan against a tree. During the passionate make out session, Elena begins to feel sick and pushes Stefan away.

She runs away using her super speed and vomits up the animal blood. At the Grill, she asks Damon for help because she can't keep the animal blood down. He takes her to the bathroom and offers her his blood and she ultimately agrees to feed on his blood but he also tells her not to tell Stefan because it's "personal". Meanwhile, Elena joins Matt in setting up for the memorial service at the church. While they’re distributing programs, she spots April, whom she used to babysit. She goes to comfort the girl she hasn’t seen since her parents’ funeral.

When Elena touches April’s arm, however, the sensation of the girl’s pulse makes her run off to the basement bathroom to puke. It is not a cute scene, and it ends with Elena’s dress and the room being covered with blood. She calls Damon to bring her a change of clothes. Outside the church, Damon gives Elena a bag of human blood. She gulps greedily but can’t stomach that either. “What’s happening?” she asks. Damon hypothesizes that’s it’s her doppelgänger blood and that she needs to drink from the vein. She then becomes emotional and he comforts her. As they are having a very close moment, they are interrupted by the church bells and Elena tells him she has to get in the church.

Before the memorial mass starts, the Mayor invites April to speak. When the girl doesn’t approach the podium the Mayor opens the floor to anyone else who wants to say a few words. The audience is filled with family members of the dead. Yet Elena is the only one who stands up. As she starts to speak, Elena smells April’s blood. She starts to sweat. And, just as her eyes go veiny, Stefan takes her away from the podium. With the purpose of helping Elena, Matt offers his blood to feed Elena and stabilize her, as much as possible during the funeral. Meanwhile, Elena runs up the balcony to help April. The minute she sees her friend sitting in a pool of blood, however, her fangs pop out and she goes in for the kill. Fortunately, just before Elena attacks her, Caroline overpowers her and makes her stop. Then she turns it into a teaching moment and tells Elena to compel April to forget that Connor stabbed her and her former babysitter tried to kill her at her dad’s funeral.

Elena is then confronted by Stefan about feeding off of Damon and she feels guilty for doing so when she realizes how upset and distraught Stefan was. Elena then begins to feel overly emotional and tells Stefan that she feels like she is overwhelmed with so much grief, not just her own by everyone else's. Stefan then brings Elena to the school, along with Matt, Jeremy, Caroline, Bonnie and Damon, in order to finish the memorial that they didn't get to have earlier. Elena, along with everyone else, light Japanese lanterns and set them free into the sky, in memory of all of the loved ones that they have lost.

In The Rager, Elena heads out to meet Matt at their old make out spot at Mystic Falls High. After dying and coming back, Elena decided she might as well finish her senior year at school. But first she has to eat. And this is where the rendezvous with Matt comes in. Ever guilty that he survived the car crash, Matt extends his wrist to Elena for a mid-morning snack. She feeds politely, careful not to kill him. While in class, Rebekah sees this as the perfect excuse to throw a housewarming/curfew-ditch party. She invites the entire student body of Mystic Falls High — including Elena and Stefan.

But the sight of her gives Elena the full-on rage. The two vamps exchange words. Then Elena throws a pencil at Rebekah. The Original sister catches it and tosses it back, staking Elena in the shoulder. “I hate her,” Elena growls as she storms out of the room, with Stefan by her side. “I didn’t think I was capable of hate. But. I. Hate. Her. ... And I hate that I hate her.” When Elena goes to the bathroom to clean up, Rebekah sends a bleeding classmate into the ladies’ room after her. Elena doesn’t take the bait; Rebekah struts in and raises the stakes, smearing the girl’s blood all over Elena’s face. She knows this will make Elena vamp out. And, even more importantly, Rebekah knows that Connor Jordan is just down the hall. Minutes after she arrives at Rebekah's bastion of under-aged drinking, Elena again gets the rage and obsesses over Klaus’ sister.

The Original vampire knows this and plays it for laughs. Later, Elena is in Damon's room "supposedly" looking for bourbon but he knows that she is lying as she wants the white oak stake. He starts undressing in front of her(which she doesn't seem bothered by) and then asking her if she’d like to stay for the show and she walks out. At one point, she smoothly lifts Elena’s day walker ring off her finger and throws it into the garbage disposal, leaving our new vampire girl awkwardly exposed. Elena’s rage sharpens into a murderous point. Armed with the white oak dagger, she tells Stefan that she plans to kill Rebekah. Stefan responds by reminding her that taking out an Original isn’t just murdering one vampire. It is killing every bloodsucker that she sired. Thousands. Rather than attack her host, Elena does a keg stand on the way out and chugs a gut-load of beer. Rebekah watches but is distracted but the pain pulsing through her body, caused by the werewolf venom that Connor slipped into the keg.

After they leave the party, Stefan and Elena go on a motorcycle ride. Elena realizes something is wrong a few minutes later when she’s almost about to have sex with Stefan. They are just about to take things to the next level, when instead of seeing her beloved Stefan, she sees her be-lusted, Damon. Elena pushes "Damon" off of her and Stefan is bewildered and confused, wondering what is wrong. After Stefan realizes that Elena has been poisoned with the werewolf venom Connor stole from Tyler, he calls and asks Klaus to save her whom Klaus believes Elena might be worth something to him after all. But while resting she keeps hallucinating and "seeing" Damon. "Damon" said it was because she knew she was more like him than she is like Stefan as a vampire. Matt shows up at her house and Elena tells him about the rage she felt towards Rebekah, then she starts to feed from his wrist.

Only this time she doesn’t stop. She starts hurting him. He tries to pull away; she pushes him back into the cabinet and digs in deeper. Then, just as she’s about to over eat in a way that she will forever regret, Damon vamps in and pushes her off Matt. “Stop it. Stop it,” he tells her. Damon compels Matt to forget that Elena almost drank him to death. Then he turns to her and says, "You are a vampire now. You just have to learn the right way to be one. And I’m going to teach you."

In The Five, Elena makes sure to inform Stefan of her little field trip with Damon and Bonnie to Whitmore College, where Bonnie's grandmother had taught, as she doesn’t want him to misunderstand. First, she couldn't go through with it once she chose her victim in a college class after she saw a photo of the girl on her phone with her sister. Her compassion got in her way. But fortunately, there was the Murder House frat party. Going back to Elena’s learning, it’s a huge success as Damon, Bonnie, and she crashed a fraternity party that had the theme of ‘Murder House’. Decked out in costumes like the majority of the people, it was easy for Damon and Elena to blend in and feed at their leisure. Elena's first victim was a guy who roofied a girl's drink, and Damon was behind her to remind her not to kill him. But after that, she was hooked, and she felt good then hugs Damon and she tells him she wants more.

And so she and Damon took the dance floor for victims and to dance together. Elena enjoys herself as she repeatedly chooses her victims, feed, and compels them to forget the incident, and she doesn’t realize how caught up she is in it till Bonnie sees her. Bonnie gives Damon a reprimanding for letting Elena let loose like that, but Damon is anything but apologetic. He claims Elena is like him more than anything and she’s allowed to behave the way she did because she’s no longer a human, but a vampire. Damon walks away hurt and Elena begins to cry as she realizes what she has done to him. He accompanies her home and she apologizes for letting things get out of hand at the party then accidentally hurts his feelings by saying she hates thinking that he’s right about what a vampire is supposed to be. “Because you don’t want to be like me,” Damon finishes.

Damon and Elena are interrupted when Stefan opens the door and greets the both of them. Damon leaves both Stefan and Elena on the porch. Stefan asks Elena how everything went. Elena tells Stefan that she learned how to feed without hurting anyone. However, she tells Stefan that she got caught up in the blood and in the feeding and almost lost control. Stefan tries to reassure her that the feeding will get easier with time. Elena then slowly starts to break down as she confesses to Stefan that she is becoming something that she doesn't want to become; she is feeling things that she doesn't want to feel. Elena tells Stefan that she doesn't think that she is going to make it, get through it and survive being a vampire. Stefan comforts her and tells her that she will get through it and that she just as to hold on. Stefan comforts her and holds onto her affectionately as Elena tries to calm down.

In The Killer, at home, Elena is narrating a diary entry she first wrote since her change into a vampire. Apparently the side effects of newbie vampirism include hopelessness, depression, anger, and fear. "Dear diary, I know it's been a while. A long while. I haven't needed, I haven't wanted to write this stuff down. But I don't want to say it out loud either. The thing is, I'm a vampire. And I hate it." ... “But most of all I’m scared,” she writes. Damon came to see Elena because Stefan was dodging his calls. We found out Elena hadn't told Stefan about dirty dancing with Damon after she got high on blood at the Murder House Party. Damon knows she's in a shame spiral filled with newbie vampire remorse, but Elena still wouldn't admit it to anyone but her diary. When Stefan wouldn't answer a call from Elena's cell, they realized something must be wrong. Later, Damon found Alaric's map of the tunnels that conveniently provide an entrance to the Grill. Since Connor doesn't know she's a vampire yet, Elena wanted to offer to trade herself for the hostages. Damon rightfully thought that was a stupid idea because she's not ready to go up against a professional killer. A mock fight ensued that ended with Elena straddling Damon on the bed. She said Jeremy was the only thing holding her together, and he promised they'd get him out. Damon wondered why Stefan was making references to Klaus in his plan. He was going to make a move with or without Stefan, so Stefan had to vervain Damon with some of Alaric's stash. Stefan didn't tell Elena the truth—he said he was worried that Damon would get Jeremy out and then go after Connor with no regard for Matt and April's lives. Elena wanted to go with Stefan, but he told her she wouldn't be able to handle the guilt if she had to defend herself and kill Connor. Damon woke up, and she wanted him to go to the Grill, but Stefan had taken his day ring, so he couldn't. Elena decided she was going, and Damon told her to use the fact that Connor doesn't know she's a vampire to get as close as she could before making her move. Elena rushed in and pleaded with Connor to set Jeremy free since he's all the family she has left. Connor said he'd shoot Jeremy right in front of Elena on the count of three if Stefan didn't come out from hiding. He got to two and Stefan appeared. Elena tackled Connor, but he fired and it hit Jeremy in the gut. Stefan had to get falling Jeremy off the mine fast enough so he could shield them from the bomb with a table.

Elena paused her assault on Connor to ask if Jeremy was okay, and Connor was able to flip her. She held him off long enough for Stefan to get Connor off of her—and Stefan sped away with him. After Elena fed Jeremy her blood to save him, he told Elena about Connor's tattoo and that someone had compelled him to forget the day he'd spent with Connor. Connor, of course, ran into Elena in the tunnels, and she took a big bite on his neck. "Stay the hell away from my brother," she said. Connor dropped to his knees and called Elena the biggest monster Jeremy would ever meet. He tried to stake her while he talked to her. "You missed," she said, and snapped his neck. Next we saw Elena, she was digging a grave to bury Connor in the woods. She sobbed when Stefan and Damon showed up. She was angry at Stefan for lying to her. After taking a tortured shower, Elena wrote in her journal some more about how the worst feeling isn't when you lose someone, it's when you lose yourself. She started seeing drops of blood, then splotches that led her into the bathroom. Blood was everywhere.

Written on the mirror was "Killer". Elena tries to back away from the mirror, but slips on the floor because of all the blood. When Elena looks back down to the floor, she sees no blood, she gets back to her feet. She then looks at the mirror to see the message, but all she saw was her own reflection, no more blood writing.

In We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes, we opened on Elena, whose sleep was so tortured that she had to get up and go make herself a cup of something warm in the kitchen. "Can't sleep," said Connor, who appeared to her wearing a dirty, bloody tank top. "You know, it makes sense. Guilty conscience." While Elena just kept telling herself that he was a ghost, Connor asked her if a ghost could do this—and grabbed her. A struggle ensued and, as one would've predicted from the location, someone ended up with a large knife in his neck. Elena had seen Connor, but it was really Jeremy, who she'd called for. Elena had Damon come over, and he wondered why she hadn't called Stefan. It's because she doesn't trust him right now, she said. Damon argued that killing Jeremy was worse than compelling him. Enter Stefan. "P.S. I called Stefan," Damon said. Jeremy awoke after Elena headed upstairs to shower, and though Stefan followed her to talk, she was still having none of him. Elena finally got to take her shower and saw blood in the water.

She was having more visions of Connor, and when she ran to Damon, she saw Connor instead of him. She bolted the house, and Klaus grabbed her and sped off. At his mansion, Klaus showed Elena to her new bedroom. Pretty fabulous accommodations, unless you like windows. He told her that she'd want to kill herself soon enough—he had. For 52 years, four months, and nine days. He was tormented in his dreams, in his every waking moment, he said. The problem was he's an Original immortal. Elena asked Klaus how he made the torment stop. He said he didn't. It just eventually happened. Elena figured that's why Stefan had tried to keep Connor alive—so no one would feel suicidal. Chris informed Elena that she was only being kept there until Klaus figured out where to hide her long term. When he left the room, Connor appeared again. Connor made her feel guilty about the family he left behind, including his brother and parents. Then he reminded her that she was the reason her parents were on that bridge the night they died. Elena wasn't taking the bait, so he thought maybe she'd listen to someone else—and poof, there was Katherine. Katherine had tortured Elena by saying she'd end up being as bad as her. Katherine had Elena so frayed talking about how Bonnie must really hate her after all she's lost because of Elena, that Elena snapped when she saw Connor enter the room. She stabbed him with a sword and bolted again. Stefan called Damon to ask him to find Elena because she'd listen to him. Elena found herself walking to the only place she could if she was going to die (again) -- the Wickery Bridge.

She had Connor on one side and Katherine on the other. When she got to the bridge, her mother appeared and told her it was okay. She got Elena to finally say she was a monster and deserved to die. Elena took off her day ring and dropped it in the water below. When the sun comes up, she'd burn. Elena had second thoughts. She couldn't leave Jeremy. But her mother assured her that Jeremy would still have her—as a ghost that helped her, not a monster that hurt her. Anyway, Damon showed up and soon enough, He was the only one she could actually see during her hallucinations. The only one who didn't appear to her as someone else. Klaus had the perfect victim for Jeremy—Chris. Klaus let Chris think he was letting him leave, but Stefan was behind the door and staked him in the stomach so he couldn't fight back. Stefan apologized to Tyler, and then Jeremy decapitated Chris with an axe. With Jeremy being a hunter, get used to seeing that blood splatter on his face, friends! Jeremy's mark grew, and Connor disappeared. But now the sun was rising, and Elena began blistering and smoking.

She called for Damon, and he grabbed her and jumped off the bridge into the water. Elena woke up in her bed at home with the day ring back on her finger. Damon had fished it out of the river. She grabbed his hand and thanked him for saving her life. They were sitting on her bed. He could have taken advantage of her heightened sense of gratitude. But he didn't. He didn't leave go of her hand, but he told her, "I am about to take a very high, annoying road and tell you something..." He told her everything Stefan had been doing was for her, and that there may be a cure to turn her human again. Finally, we get to the breakup. Sitting on the porch, Elena asked Stefan why he'd sent Damon to her on the bridge instead of coming himself. He told her it's because lately, he seems to be the one who can reach her, the one she trusts even when she doesn't trust him.

Stefan told her after all they'd been through, she can finally admit it. She didn't say she loved Damon, but she admitted what she wants is darker now. "What you want or who you want?" Stefan asked. He understood: Her feelings for Damon are magnified. He told her understood why she wanted Damon when he was the Ripper, because he'd driven her to Damon. But now, he just can't keep doing this. Elena understands. Officially ending it for good.

In My Brother's Keeper, At the pageant, Caroline made her disapproval of Elena's newbie vampire confusion of the heart known. Then, she backed off. Elena just wants time to figure out what these intensified feelings for Damon are. They got interrupted by Professor Shane, who's judging the pageant and they thinks it might be creepy that Bonnie is as obsessed with Shane-approved magic as she is. The next morning, Elena had bigger concerns at the moment, like disagreeing with Caroline over whether April should wear a safe blue dress (Caroline's pick) or a more revealing red one (Damon's choice). He remembered she'd worn blue to last year's pageant—which was sweet.

Elena agreed with Damon and he replied "And my work here is done", then walked out of the room. Caroline reminded her that she hated the red one and Elena decided it should be April's choice and ran after Damon. now it was Elena asking for Damon to wait for her there so she could tell him the reason she broke up with Stefan was because of him. Damon's surprised reaction was also sweet. Shane interrupted and Damon went off to ask him about a new hunter, but he couldn't help but look back at Elena and smile.

When the pageant began, they stared and smiled at one another. Matt realized Jeremy wasn't there to escort April as Caroline announced the contestants for the traditional dance number, so he told Elena that Jeremy had been having nightmares in which he killed her so she'd be motivated to go find him—and then he escorted April. When the dance began, Damon and Elena remembered their first dance at the pageant. Caroline ran to Elena, wanting to know where Jeremy was. Damon told her and Elena not to worry. Jeremy had probably just enjoyed the open bar—because you know how easy it is for kids to get their hands on alcohol in this town. Elena said Damon was probably right, and that set Caroline off. She reminded Elena that Damon is sneaky, manipulative, and rude—never right. Sneaky and manipulative Klaus appearing to tell Caroline she was making a scene probably didn't help Caroline's moral high ground routine.

Later, Elena saw Jeremy and chased after him. He doesn't want to stake her, only everything in his body tells him that he does. Eventually, he went for it. She thought she knocked him out, only she hadn't. He stabbed her in the neck using his stake rail-gun. Matt arrived to try to talk Jeremy out of finishing the job, but it was Stefan who finally saved Elena. Elena wanted to do the worst possible thing she could—go find Jeremy. Stefan stopped her and told her that he's beginning to think when a hunter kills, the urge just gets stronger. Elena told him she didn't want her humanity back if it meant stripping Jeremy of his, but Stefan said this was the only to "fix" her. Elena told him he doesn't have to love the new her, he just has to let the old one go. And Damon walked up, putting Elena literally in the middle of the two brothers.

That night, Elena moved out of the Gilbert's House and moved into the Salvatore Boarding House. Stefan told Elena to pick a room and he'd crash elsewhere. Meaning she is now living with Damon. Damon and Elena sitting in front of the fire and welcoming her to the whiskey club. He thought she hated whiskey. "My brother wants to kill me," she said. "Welcome to the club," he answered, clinking glasses. After she recapped how everyone else hated her at the moment, Damon told her he'd never seen her more alive. And then she told him the dance today had reminded her of their dance. She'd wanted to dance with him again. He stood up and offered her his hand. They dance—very, very slowly. And closely. Which leads them to romantically kiss and have sex for the first time in Damon's bedroom. Stefan and Caroline found out at the same time that Elena is sired to Damon.

In We'll Always Have Bourbon Street, Damon woke up and Elena quickly joined him by wearing just his shirt. She noticed a certain look on his face and he told her that he's happy then she kissed him passionately. When getting ready to leave, Damon wanted to wait a day to tell Stefan about them being a couple, and Elena, of course, eventually agreed. Stefan showed up as she was leaving Salvatore Mansion.

At school, Elena invited Bonnie and Caroline out for a girl's night at the Salvatore Mansion which they agreed to. She then saw Damon down the hall and quickly followed him. He gives her a blood bag and "I can't believe this, Damon! I don't have to hurt people anymore!" She's thrilled, Damon less so. She hugs and kisses him before going to class. During night, at Salvatore Mansion, the girls were having a dance party. Bonnie was taking videos of Elena doing vamp speed on her phone while Elena and Caroline were drinking wine. Later, they ended up in Damon's bathroom, with Elena sitting in the tub. Caroline took the opportunity to diss Damon again and call him a man slut whose tub would be filled with cooties which upset Elena. Elena admitted she'd slept with Damon and said she'd asked the girls there that night to tell them how happy she is. Elena eventually told them she thought she was falling in love with Damon, and Caroline blurted out that it wasn't love, it was a sire bond. Once Elena heard that Caroline had been talking to Stefan about this, she asked Caroline and Bonnie to leave. When she opened the door, Kim and Adrian were there and attacked the girls then took Caroline with them. Tyler took Elena with him to find Caroline and had time to tell her that the sire bond doesn't change your feelings, just your actions. They found Caroline, and Kim was ready to make her power play in front of the unsired pack. She was about to stake Caroline when Elena said to torture her instead since Klaus wants so badly to keep her alive. Kim moved toward Elena, and Tyler broke free and threatened to rip her heart out. With his hand in her body, he told her and the pack that they have to work together if they want to live freely or they'd all die. Kim apologized and the rest of the pack joined her in kneeling before Tyler, who is officially the alpha. At Salvatore Mansion, Caroline and Elena hugged it out, and Bonnie told them that Shane is teaching her "expression." Elena told Caroline she'd tell Stefan about her having slept with Damon, but she just needed to figure out some stuff first.

Damon was prepared to do it, too, when he got home, but Elena somehow knew he was about to set her free and asked him not to. She's happy, she said. That's when he said what would make him happy is knowing that all this time he was in love with her, it was real. He wasn't going to give up: He knows he's not the good guy, he's the selfish one who lies to his brother, falls in love with his girl, and doesn't do the right thing—but, he said, he has to do the right thing by her. She put his hand on her heart and asked if it felt wrong. She touched his face and asked if it felt wrong. He doesn't break up with her. The episode ends with Damon confused.

In O Come, All Ye Faithful, Damon wasn't going to release Elena from the sire bond, he did the next most decent thing: He refused to sleep with her. They woke up, fully clothed, in the same bed. He was already feeling guilty. He knows what he should have done. Instead, he got up to change his shirt. Elena insisted this feels real to her and essentially dared him to send her away. Damon said what he really wanted to do was throw her back in his bed and never let her leave. She told him to do it. Sadly, Elena's phone rang. "Saved by the cell phone," Damon said. Bonnie wanted Elena to meet her at the Gilbert family lake house, where she's trying to teach Jeremy not to kill Elena.

Elena asked Damon if he wanted to come. At the Gilbert Family Lake House, Jeremy was chopping wood and he got a little testy when Elena and Damon pulled up. He said they shouldn’t be there. But he trusts Bonnie, and she said they’re there to help him. So was 'Professor Shadypants', as Damon calls Shane. The lake house is now in Jeremy's name, so he had to invite Elena in. He did—so he could try to stake her. Elena was trying to deprogram Jeremy, it's just that she was sitting in the cabin so Shane could use the hypnotism-esque method of "persuasion" to detour Jeremy's desires to kill Elena. The plan was for Jeremy's subconscious to recognize her as someone he loves, someone he wants to protect. Then he can choose to take the detour as opposed to the conditioned response of kill. Elena had to speak to Jeremy when he was in this staid state and try to remind him that she's still herself. She told him how when their parents died, Jenna brought them to that lake house and it was like her parents were there with them. She said they'd want them to stick together now and fight for each other no matter what. Shane asked Jeremy how he felt about Elena now, and it didn't matter that the concept of "persuasion" was kinda hard to follow, because Jeremy's response was worth it: "She ruined our lives. She’s not even my real sister. She’s just the reason that everyone I’ve ever loved has died. She means nothing to me. I will kill her, even if that means I die myself." Shane snapped Jeremy out of it. "Did it work?" he asked. Not so much.

After trying to deprogram her brother, Elena told Damon how strange it was that the last time she'd been there, she was so in love with Stefan, and now that's barely a memory. Was that the sire bond's work, or her being so happy with Damon that she's forgetting about Stefan? That conversation gave Damon an idea: Professor Shane should have used someone other than the person Jeremy wants to kill to attach Jeremy's "detour feelings" to. "You. I feel that way about you," Jeremy said to Bonnie. The sweet, awkward smiles Jeremy and Bonnie shared. Outside, Shane and Elena talked about her relationship with Damon. He said he'd once loved someone too much, too—his wife and son had died and he'd been trying to figure out a way not to miss them. Damon interrupted them to threaten Shane's life (again), but Shane saved himself by saying he could lead them to the cure because he's already been there. Shane told Damon and Elena if they dig up Silas, they'll find the cure. When Jeremy's mark is complete, it will have the map that contains the spell to dig up Silas. He won't reveal Silas' location, because that's how he'll stay alive. He'll lead them there.

Shane had to do some quick thinking of his own: Damon told Elena his theory about Shane having killed the pastor and 11 others in that gas explosion. Shane said the pastor had lost his wife to cancer and sought him out for supernatural assistance. But the pastor was too far gone. Elena said she trusts Shane. That discussion got interrupted by Jeremy and Bonnie, who were ready to prove Jeremy could play nicely now. "Jeremy, remember the detour. Choose the right path," Shane said, as Jeremy walked toward Elena with a wooden stake in his hand. Damon stepped in between them, and Jeremy looked at a smiling Bonnie and handed the wood to Damon. Then he reached Elena and hugged her.

As Damon watched Elena and Jeremy decide which Christmas ornaments to bring back to their house, Damon sat outside on the deck and watched her. Elena took out plastic mistletoe and wanted a kiss, but Damon wouldn't do it. He said it was good to see her normal like that with her brother. He wants that for her. The truth is, of course, that Damon wants that with his brother, too. He misses celebrating Christmas with Stefan, which used to be their favorite holiday when they were human. Damon was ready to do the right thing: He told her she’s gonna go home. He’s gonna stay there with Jeremy and teach him how to hunt, protect himself, and kill vampires without her. "I’m setting you free Elena. This is what I want. This is what will make me happy," he said.

Later, we saw Jeremy thank Bonnie and hug her goodbye. Bonnie was going to drive Elena home. Elena told Damon she was prepared to fight him on this, but suddenly, every part of her body was telling her she needs to get in the car and leave him. She kissed him goodbye. Simple and gentle, she clearly felt the kiss, but was very confused about the intense push to leave him still. Damon was surprised by the kiss, but still saddened that he had to send her away.

In After School Special, Elena leaves Carol Lockwood's Memorial because she thought she saw Rebekah. She found a crying April in the hallway, who distracted Elena by telling her she knows she's a vampire while Rebekah snuck up and snapped Elena's neck. "Was that necessary?" April asked. "No, but it was fun," Rebekah answered, smiling. Elena wakes up in the library, where Rebekah compelled her to stay. Rebekah brings Caroline and Stefan. They'd all been compelled. The rules: they answer her questions honestly, no disobedience, and no one leaves. Rebekah needed a quick update on what she's missed. She couldn't understand why, if Stefan would do anything to save Elena, even take the cure himself so he could grow old and die with her, they were still vampires. Rebekah sensed that the reminder of Stefan's devotion to Elena made everyone comfortable, and Caroline finally blurted out that they'd broken up. This situation had to be perpetual teen Rebekah's dream. She demanded to know what had happened. "She slept with Damon," Stefan said. Elena glared at Caroline. Caroline could barely look at her.

It was Elena's turn to fire a shot at Stefan's heart when Rebekah asked her if she thought she'd slept with Damon because of the sire bond. "I didn't sleep with Damon because of the sire bond, I slept with Damon because I'm in love with him," Elena said. Later, Rebekah wanted to play a game of Truth or Dare. Elena chose dare, but Rebekah cheated: "I dare you to tell Stefan the truth about Damon." Elena said when she's with Damon, it feels unpredictable, like she's free. And when she's with Stefan? She feels like a project, a problem that needs to be fixed. "I think I make him sad, and I can't be with someone like that, because when he looks at me, all he sees is a broken toy," Elena said. She's not wrong. And she admitted that she no longer loves Stefan.

Tyler arrived, and Rebekah told them all to stay in the building and not vamp run in the hallway. She compelled Tyler to turn into a werewolf. Now that she had Shane, she didn't need them. They were just competition, and whoever finds the cure first gets to decide how to use it. When April was dying, Stefan and Elena got there in time for Stefan to feed her his blood. He told Bonnie, who felt nothing but more power doing that spell, to get April out of the school. He and Elena had to stay there because Rebekah told them not to leave. For some reason, Elena thought this was a good time for her and Stefan to talk about Damon. Stefan didn't. "How many more ways are there for you to rip my heart out?" he asked. All Elena could say was that she was sorry she hurt him. Rebekah needed cheered up so she found them. "Why are my least favorite people always the most durable?" she asked. She couldn't believe that Stefan was still protecting Elena. She said there was a solution: She could compel him to forget Elena -- erase every memory, kiss, lie, ounce of pain, bit of love. He wouldn't know Elena or the misery. "Do it," Stefan said. "Erase it all, every memory." Elena protested, but there was no need. Rebekah had no intention of making it that easy on Stefan. "I refuse to make you forget her the way Klaus made you forget me," she said. And to Elena: "But at least you know how he really feels." She told them Stefan's eternity of pain was her revenge, and they were free to go. Stefan walked out without saying a word to Elena, who had tears in her eyes. The school is where Klaus had made Stefan turn off his humanity, in front of Elena. And it's where Rebekah made him pay the ultimate price for feeling the human emotion of love for Elena.

Elena phoned Damon, and told him that Stefan knew about them and hadn't taken it well. She told Damon she realized something about him today. He could say it's the sire bond, and maybe it is, but it's the most real thing she's ever felt: "I love you, Damon," she said. He was speechless. So she said it again. "I love you." He replied back saying, "Look, I'm gonna get this cure for you, and I'm gonna have to do things you're not gonna like," he said. "But listen carefully, get in your car, right now. Come to me." Because it felt real. It felt like Elena's choice.

Following in Catch Me If You Can, Elena was coming to the lake to see Damon. She arrived just in time to save Matt from another vampire and they went inside they saw the line of vampires approaching. Elena was naturally upset with Damon, but she agreed to let him stay with Jeremy and go hunting while she took Matt home. He promised to keep Jeremy safe and told Elena to trust him. Elena, who'd heard from Jeremy that Kol had Damon. She went to see Klaus to beg him to call off Kol. She convinced him that they were all on the same team to a point meaning the cure. They only differed on how to use it. Later, Damon went to see Elena and asked where Jeremy was. At the Grill, she said, checking on Matt. Damon said he should go apologize to Jeremy for being tough on him. What she didn't know is that Kol compelled Damon to kill Jeremy.

At the Grill, Jeremy senses something was up with Damon when they came eye-to-eye. He started after Jeremy, and Elena called Damon's name and he stopped -- for a second. He told Elena that Kol must have compelled him because if he finds Jeremy, he’ll kill him. Elena still needed to save Jeremy, so she called Stefan. Rebekah answered his phone, and Elena knew he'd hear her even if he wouldn't talk to her. She told him the situation and said if he cares about the cure or Jeremy, he’d come help. He wouldn't answer so she hung up on him.

Elena caught up to Damon and tried to tell him that he can resist the compulsion because she loves him, and he loves her, and he'll do anything for her. "Sorry, Elena," he said and continued the chase. When he found Jeremy, Damon again did the most decent thing he could. "Shoot now," he told Jeremy. Jeremy fired a shot, and Stefan pushed Damon out of the way. "Hey brother, long time no see," Stefan said. And he snapped his neck. Then, he looked at Elena. “You’re welcome," he added. Later, Elena wanted to see Damon and Stefan wouldn't let her because she'd let him out. She wanted to know what he was doing with Rebekah, the person who tried to kill her. Elena assumed he was trying to punish her, and she didn't know how else to apologize. He said she can do whatever she wants. He doesn't care now. She said he's lashing out because he's hurt. That's not him talking but it is. "You don't know what I look like when I'm not in love with you," he tells her. "I’ll let Damon know you stopped by," Stefan said coldly. Elena left with tears in her eyes.

Going to A View To A Kill, Elena still has her plan to kill Kol, which she informed Bonnie of over the phone. No one seems at all upset that if Kol dies, and his bloodline follows, there could be nice vamps like Stefan and Damon among that body count. Elena was stuck in the safe house with Jeremy, who insisted he’s playing video games “to train.” That was another classic Matt face when he turned around to tell Elena, “Me, too.” After Elena burned her hands trying to wash dishes, Bonnie phoned her Mayor dad so he confirm he’d done what should have been done a long time ago in Mystic Falls -- put vervain in the water supply. Elena phoned Kol and told him she wanted to call a truce in the name of Silas. She said she’d come to him, but he said he’d come to her. The doorbell rang. He was there. Elena wrote on a handy blackboard for Matt to go help Stefan find the dagger, and for Jeremy to go get Bonnie. Jeremy was the one who had to invite Kol in, so Elena said he’d do it and leave. Smart call: Kol had just got done talking about ripping Jeremy’s arms off, which would spare Kol the Hunter's curse. Kol said he’d heard vervain was back in town, so he couldn’t compel Elena. Kol entered, and Elena saw the white oak stake in his jacket pocket as he put away his iPod and asked for a drink. Kol said he ran with witches in Africa in the 14th Century, in Haiti in the 17th Century, and New Orleans in the 1900s, and they all knew about Silas. He holds witches in high regard. Silas would unleash hell on earth if risen, they told him. Kol likes the earth as is.

Elena, it turns out, had a plan. She was trying to lead Kol, a master at kicking doors, through to Jeremy’s room, where Jeremy was waiting to fire slim stakes at him. Kol caught them, one in each hand, but that meant that Elena could deliver some wooden bullets to his chest while Jeremy ran. Kol threw a stake back at Elena and hit her in the leg. He caught up to Jeremy and tossed him down the stairs. He sent a piece of wood he tore from the railing through Elena's stomach and pinned her to the wall. He had Jeremy lying restrained on the kitchen table and was holding a cleaver. He was just gonna chop off both arms, to be safe, and then he’d heal Jeremy with his blood so he wouldn’t die. Elena got there just in time to redirect the cleaver into Kol. She kept Kol busy while Jeremy grabbed the faucet hose and fired a stream of vervain water at Kol. Elena tossed Jeremy the stake, and he staked Kol. Kol burst into flames that apparently were a special kind of fire that couldn’t spread to the floor he was writhing on. Klaus had shown up, just in time to see Kol ablaze. He had tears and anger in his eyes. Elena tried to play it off like they had no choice, but Klaus knew they’d set a trap for Kol if he was even inside the house. He said he was going to set the house on fire and kill them when they fled. Jeremy said Klaus would never get the cure then for Elena to make more hybrids. Klaus let something slip: He didn’t want the cure so he could make hybrids. He wanted it so he could destroy it. He was going to kill them all as soon as he found it.

Before he could make good on his arson threat, Bonnie showed up. She crippled him, then told Jeremy to invite him in. She put up some kind of shield to keep Klaus trapped there. At Salvatore Mansion, everyone impatiently waited for Jeremy’s mark to grow, Damon was reunited with Elena now that he’s no longer compelled to kill Jeremy, and Stefan arrived home with Silas’ headstone. Bonnie said she drew on the new moon to bind the spell keeping Klaus hostage, so they had three or four days to find the cure. Elena assumed Rebekah was daggered so they just needed to get Professor Shane and they’d be set -- but Stefan said he didn’t dagger Rebekah because she’s on their side. Damon was more than happy to tell Elena that Stefan had slept with Rebekah. Elena had nothing to say until the brothers started bickering, and then she told them to stop. “Why don’t you tell her to calm down, Damon. You’ve managed to use that sire bond pretty well so far, haven’t you?” Stefan said. Damon punched Stefan and Jeremy screamed and ripped opened his shirt. The mark grew, and now they all could see it.

In Into the Wild, Rebekah gave Elena the evil eye, and Elena tried to stake her. Damon declined to tell Elena if he’d take the cure when it’s found. On the island, the hiking began. Rebekah recapped what everyone brings to the table including Elena (nothing) and Damon (“nice behind”). There are islanders who want to shoot an arrow at Jeremy. Elena shoved him out of the way, and before the islander could fire another shot, someone had thrown a hatchet into his back. Someone saved Jeremy’s life. The gang came to their camp for the night. After Shane made a comment about Damon having the most to lose when they find the cure, Elena had to assure him that her love for him won’t change. She clearly wants him to take the cure. In the morning, the group had to split up: Bonnie wanted to stay behind and try a locator spell, Shane wanted to stay with her, and Damon wanted to stay with Shane. That meant Elena got to go off with Stefan and Rebekah. Rebekah and Elena continued bickering as they walked with Stefan, and the only thing that shut them up was when Elena tripped a wire and almost got herself staked. Rebekah stopped the wood before it got to Elena. Elena genuinely thanked her, but Rebekah wouldn’t play nice: She said she didn’t care if Elena died, but if it was going to happen, it should be epic.

Later, when Damon was about to kill Shane, Elena arrived to stop him. She freed Shane and told him to stop messing with her friends. Elena follows Damon and said, ”Being human isn’t going to change my feelings for you!” she told him.“You think that you don’t deserve something, so you ruin it. I’m not going to let you pull that this time. Take the cure with me! That’s how certain I am that I’m going to love you even after this is all over. Be human with me. We can be together, grow old together. It doesn’t have to be hard anymore.”But once again, Damon shut her down. “That’s not me,” he told her. “That’s Stefan,” adding that becoming human with her would be the most miserable thing he can imagine.

Elena couldn’t find Bonnie or Shane. Shane’s things were gone. And so was the headstone. At the camp, Rebekah freaked out thinking Elena and/or Stefan had taken the headstone or was working with Shane. That makes no sense, which they were able to convince her of. Elena offered Rebekah the white oak stake as a peace-offering. Rebekah said there was no peace, they’re all screwed. That's why Elena said the three of them have to work together now. Rebekah accepted it.

In Down the Rabbit Hole,  Elena recapped everyone's whereabouts on the phone for Caroline. They saw signs of a struggle, so they assumed Damon has been taken and wasn't just off brooding. They asked Caroline to get Klaus' sword so they could translate Jeremy's tattoos via the photos Bonnie took and send them a map and directions. Elena and Stefan talked about the fact that he'd never told her he's always wanted to be human again, even before he met her. But Stefan referred to Elena as a friend, which made Elena happy and Rebekah concerned. Rebekah had sent Elena jumping first off a cliff so she could tell Stefan there was only one dose of the cure. She knew even if she gave it to him, he’d just give it to Elena. She couldn't handle two against one, so she snapped his neck which Elena saw.

Elena was on her own -- except for whoever jumped out and attacked her. Later, Stefan finally caught up to bleeding Elena, who confirmed that Katherine was there.

In Stand By Me, Stefan and Elena arrived home with Jeremy’s body. Upstairs, Elena covered Jeremy in his bed, held his hand, and waited. In the kitchen, Stefan and Caroline turned on the faucet so Elena wouldn’t hear them discuss how her denial was the only thing keeping her sane until they could get Damon back there to sire bond her through this. Elena had come downstairs and heard them though, and she’s right, she’s not in denial: Technically, Jeremy’s Hunter’s mark, the spell that opened the passage to Silas, had left his body, so maybe he wasn’t supernatural at the time of his death after all. She’s holding on to hope. Meredith did a quick examination of Jeremy as Elena babbled about Alaric having been dead for a day once and Jeremy now having died enough times that they’ll have to watch him to make sure he doesn’t go crazy like Alaric had. Meredith went into doctor mode and told her how Jeremy’s body would start to bloat if they didn’t get him to a funeral home soon. More uncomfortable tough talk. Elena shoved Meredith and started saying they needed magic. Someone had to bring her Bonnie. And then Matt arrived and started to tear up. Elena hugged him and told him Bonnie would be there and everything would be fine. She just kept repeating it.

Matt and Elena were magically composed and drinking their usual cup of Grief Tea and toasted to Damon logic (being mean to the people you care about, which means he loves Bonnie). Matt didn’t drug her this time. Then he asked her to go somewhere with him. The stoner pit at the school, where Jeremy had long ago graffiti’d about his love of Vicki. Matt’s point seemed to be that in this crazy town, it’s okay to have hope. Which was nice. But even though they didn't know Bonnie's plan, Elena's hope still involved magic and resurrecting Jeremy somehow. When Matt got to see his sister again through magic, she’d tried to kill Elena. So you know, the moral here should still be resurrection is bad. Stefan called Elena and told her Damon and Bonnie were on their way back and Bonnie has an idea. Apparently Bonnie had shared her plan with Damon on the trip home.

As Bonnie told Matt, Caroline, and Elena what she needed to do, we flashed back to Shane telling Bonnie on the island: So Qetsiyah knew Silas would want to die and be with his true love, so she created "the Other Side" -- a purgatory for all supernatural beings -- insuring that if he did die, he’d end up there forever. So Silas needs Bonnie to get rid of the Other Side. If she drops the veil, then ALL the supernatural creatures who’ve ever died since the Other Side was created will be back, including Grams and Jeremy. Shane told Bonnie she would do this. Caroline, of course, immediately said this was crazy talk, and Matt agreed. Bonnie fought with them and Elena just stared ahead. The phone rang, and it was April trying to reach Jeremy. I knew what Elena would say, that this would be the moment she admitted Jeremy was gone.“Jeremy can’t come to the phone right now, he’s not -- I’m sorry, he’s dead.”

Elena went upstairs and now smelled what everyone else had. Damon came in, and she wouldn’t listen to him. She went downstairs and asked for Bonnie. Matt was taking her home, so Elena said they’d have to do this the old-fashioned way. She wanted to burn the house down with Jeremy it. It was a good cover story. Plus, she didn’t want the memories of everyone she’s lost. She lit a match and dropped it when it started to burn her fingers. Luckily, Damon caught it. Elena collapsed to the floor and wailed. The pain hurt too much. She just wanted it to stop. Stefan told Damon to help her, and here’s what made this whole episode worth it: Damon told her to turn it off. He said it would all go away. It’s what he wanted her to do. She stared ahead. And then did it.

A few days later in Bring It On, Elena plays injured in the middle of the road similar to what Damon did back in the series. A woman stopped her car to see if Elena was okay and asked if she felt any pain. "I don’t feel anything," Elena said. Eventually, she fed on her, and Damon had to ask her to show a little restraint. They'd agreed no killing. Elena reluctantly walked away with a blood-soaked chin. The next morning at the Salvatore Mansion, we learned that house has the only vervain-free water supply thanks to their fancy filter, so Caroline had come over to shower. While Elena showered, Caroline, Damon, and Stefan made their game plan: Damon would work on finding Katherine; Stefan would go talk to Sheriff Forbes, who needed to tell him that the hospital's blood supply and reserve was stolen. and Caroline would take Elena to school for some normalcy. "Sounds like fun," Elena said, not yet wearing the towel she had with it. "What, it’s nothing you guys haven’t seen before," she said to the brothers. She was fine with the school plan because she had nothing else to do. They all assumed the sire bond was working and trusted that she wouldn't feed there because Damon asked her not to.

At school, she didn't even wince at the flier on the billboard for Jeremy's memorial service. She was more interested in the one announcing a cheerleading competition. Elena then asked Caroline if she could get her back on the cheerleading squad. Caroline's the captain, so she said yes.  Caroline thought this was Elena having fun, a feeling that may encourage her to turn her feelings back on. Later, Elena was back in her old cheerleading uniform. Caroline went to stretch while Elena followed a cheerleader from another school who'd forgotten her makeup bag to her bus. She bit the girl and stole her blue hair ribbon. The girl lived, however, with a scarf around her neck. Caroline figured it out first: Elena no longer listens to Damon.  Stefan was fishing to find out if she'd stolen the blood bags.

She assured him she prefers something warmer. He tried to tell her she's better than that, that she should be afraid of becoming him in 1912. She thought maybe this was the best version of herself. It was the Mystic Falls squad's turn to go. "No way, you are not cheering," Caroline told Elena, trying to punish her. Elena wouldn't be stopped. During the routine, she let Caroline fall to the ground when she was spotting her on a toss. Stefan followed her, and he figured out she'd joined the squad so she could feed on the vervain-free victims who'd come in from out-of-town for the competition. Elena said they all want her to be okay so badly, they’ll hear whatever she wants them to. He had a trick up his sleeve though: He made her think he wanted to take her to a dive bar where she could have fun with few witnesses, but when she caught the helmet he tossed her, he shot her up with vervain.

When Elena woke up, Stefan compared Elena to Katherine when Elena changed out of her cheerleading uniform in front of him at Salvatore Mansion. Like Katherine, he said, Elena is now manipulating people with sex. Elena said she's nothing like Katherine, who's been on the run so long that she’s afraid of her own shadow. Elena's afraid of nothing now, she's shut everything off including her feelings for Stefan. He looked a little hurt, so she clarified: She looks at him and can see he's hot: "I remember our sex, and it was good sex. I just don’t feel anything about it anymore." She asked Stefan why he still cared about her, and he said because he brought this all into her life. She told him his whole world revolves around her -- so maybe he needs to turn it off, too. Stefan asked who she was texting. The answer: Everyone. If he wouldn't let her go to a party, she'd bring the party to her. She told Caroline to take him out for a spin. Then things took a turn. Liz showed up, no doubt having received complaints about the noise. Elena threatened her. Caroline separated them, then Stefan held Caroline back from going after Elena. Elena bolted. Stefan said Elena had thrown that party to distract them so she could leave. Stefan texted Damon that Elena was AWOL and he needed help. The brothers arrived just in time to save Elena from staking Caroline after a pretty badass fight sequence in the woods. Caroline is an older vampire and should be more powerful, but Elena's training with Alaric gave her the edge. Elena didn't care that she hurt Liz. She wanted Caroline to turn off her humanity, too, because then she'd stop whining about Tyler leaving her and she wouldn't have to feel guilty for having dirty Klaus thoughts. When the Salvatores stepped in, Damon noted that under other circumstances, Elena fighting another chick would be a major turn on.

In Damon's bedroom, Elena sat impatiently as he looked for something that turned out to be a picture of him and Will. Elena was annoyed that Damon of all people was judging her when he's tried to kill Stefan multiple times. She told him she doesn't care how bad he is now, and that if he were to be honest, he likes her better like this. Again I say, "I don't care how bad you are" isn't the same as "I accept how bad you are," which is what Damon is after. Next time we saw them, they were in his car on their way to New York City. Maybe Damon thinks that's where Katherine is hiding out now if Will was from there.

In Because the Night, while in New York City, Elena is happy that she can have fun, relax, and eat someone in a city that won't notice one of its millions dead. She got a new haircut which Damon thought was hot. He talked to Elena about how he used to live in New York City and got Lexi'd. Back then, Lexi had gone to find him, knowing his humanity "switch was flipped." She helped him then, and Elena guesses that Damon is intending to do that to her. Damon is also on a research trip on the hunt for Katherine and the cure, which attracts one party-crasher: Rebekah, who wants that cure too. Later, she admits to Rebekah that she doesn’t buy it. She knows Damon is only there for the cure and she has decided to find go find it herself.

Special musical guest, Dead Sara, performs while Damon, Rebekah and Elena do shots. He tells the girls that Lexi wasn’t allowed to feed with Stefan but he didn’t have that problem. We flashback to the 70’s again, this time it’s Damon and Lexi enjoying the show – same song and everything, man I bet this is taking Damon way back. In present time, Elena gets a little hungry, compelling one of the concertgoers not to scream as she feeds on her and Damon joins in on the action. He then lets Rebekah partake in the feeding as he slips quietly out the backdoor. Rebekah wants to work together with Elena. Elena basically tells her that she’s way too emotionally unstable  to be of any help. Damon finds a list of Katherine’s past addresses just before Elena comes into the room. They go back to the club where Damon tells her that Lexi used to torture him every night.  Elena asks to hear the rest of the story, as she heads to the roof of the club with Damon.

Elena tries to convince Damon that maybe there is a way to turn her emotions back on. When they’re on the rooftop she tries to seduce him and he initially rebuffs her but eventually gives in. However, when she tries to steal the information Damon got about Katherine out of his pocket, he catches on. Damon tells Elena she is going to regret everything she is doing now when she turns her humanity back on. He doesn’t want to be one of the many things she’s going to feel guilty about. He tells her the reason he killed Lexi was because when she came back to Mystic Falls all of his guilt resurfaced. They argue about her present state and about her taking the cure. Rebekah shows up and breaks Damon’s neck, and it looks like Elena has some use for her as an ally after all. They leave Damon stuck on the rooftop and take his car to go in search of Katherine and the cure.    

In American Gothic, Elena and Rebekah were having a tough time finding Katherine. Elena wanted to have a bite to eat before they drove to yet another town. She was about to feed on a woman when the would-be victim said, “Katherine, what are you doing?” Katherine had compelled the whole town to let her feed on them. Rebekah tried asking about Katherine, but then the woman didn’t know her -- Katherine had also compelled them to forget all about her unless they were talking to her. She is a clever one. Elena attempted to interrogate the woman about “her” whereabouts and friends, and the woman said they were told they could all be friends with her as long as they kept her secret. Outside the post office in the PA town, a man asked what Katherine had done with her hair -- in the last two minutes. "She" had just been there. The real Katherine snuck up on Elena and threatened her, but Rebekah knocked Katherine to the ground.

Inside a diner, Katherine expected Elena to talk about avenging Jermey’s death, and when Elena said people die and you move on, Katherine knew she’d turned off her humanity switch. Katherine doesn’t want to force-feed the cure to Klaus, she just wants to make a trade with him: the cure for her life. Rebekah is Elena’s enforcer. She put a fork in Katherine’s hand to keep her at the table and grabbed her phone, on which Elena accessed Katherine’s calendar. Elena saw that she was meeting someone at 2 p.m. named "em". Elena prepared to impersonate Katherine. She needed her jewelry, her jacket, and her shoes. While Elena waited impatiently, Rebekah and Katherine taunted each other some more as Rebekah revealed that Elena doesn’t want the cure but she does.

Elena is waiting in the quaint town square,  waiting for the mysterious “Em” to arrive. She barely manages to contain her shock with “Em” is revealed to be Elijah Mikaelson. She’s even more surprised to learn — as Elijah leans in for a deep kiss — that he and Katherine are not just in league but in some sort of love. “I missed you,” she said. “And I missed you,” he answered. He was there to get the cure from her. She told him it was in a safe place, and when she tried to say she’d go get it and bring it back, he grabbed her --- he knew it was Elena, because he noticed her daylight ring, possibly remembering it from their previous encounters.

Stefan called Elijah on Katherine’s phone, and hearing how concerned Elijah was about Katherine -- whom he was convinced Rebekah would kill the moment she ceased to be of use. Elijah said he always had a connection with her, and she phoned him when she heard about the cure and he thought they could be of mutual use to one another. Elena spoke the truth, which is that Elijah is just another man Katherine has fooled. Elijah could tell Elena wasn’t herself, and it wasn’t just her being a vamp now. He asked her why she’d turned off her emotions, and she told him it was because his girlfriend had killed her brother. Elijah hadn’t know that. Katherine hadn’t told him. Elijah and Elena’s conversation about whether men are fools to think the nice, innocent girls they fell in love with are still inside Katerina (for Elijah) and her (for the Salvatore Brothers). Katherine appeared and snapped Elena’s neck. Elena had called a meeting in the diner with Damon and Stefan to ask them whether they were going to respect her decision not to take the cure and accept who she is now. If not, there would be consequences, she said. The boys didn’t seem to hear that part. Stefan reminded her how she never gave up on him, so he’s doing the same. She asked for another refill and snapped the waitress’ neck. If they don’t let her be, they’ll have more bodies on their hands.

In Pictures of You, Elena, who's bunking with Rebekah, wanted to accompany her to make sure she passed Elijah's test because as soon as Rebekah downs the cure, no one can force it on her. When walking into the clothing store, Elena saw Caroline's dress and planned on stealing it. Elena wasn't happy to see Stefan get out of the limo that came to pick her up. She wasn't happy to see Damon either when he told her they were going to make sure she didn't eat the prom queen. The prom's theme was "Pictures of You," and the red carpet walkway was lined with large screens flashing photos (of Elena and Matt, and Elena and Jeremy) that were meant to tug at Elena's heartstrings. It started to work, so Elena moved inside. Both the Salvatores had their way of getting Elena to turn her humanity back on but they both failed. Bonnie and Matt tried to make Elena feel something next and failed. She knows Matt would have turned off his feelings if he could've after Vicki died, and Bonnie is just a walking reminder to her of the loss of Jeremy since she couldn't bring him back. Caroline finally made her entrance in a beautiful beaded gown that looked like it was from the '20s. Stefan swept Caroline away for a dance before she could really lay into Elena. She is, after all, supposed to be killing Elena with kindness, not simply killing her. Elena wasn't jealous because something else had caught her attention: Rebekah trying to convince April to name her prom queen. Elena swooped in to threaten April, who's still on vervain, and once again tell Rebekah what a horrible person she is. Elena overheard Bonnie telling the Salvatores about Silas appearing to her as Jeremy, which she deduced means he still wants Bonnie to do the spell. Elena can't have Alaric and Jeremy coming back and trying to make her flip her humanity switch. Matt and Bonnie were named Prom King and Queen -- and Rebekah's annoyance gave Elena an idea: Kill Bonnie to stop Silas.

Rebekah warned Matt that Elena was up to something. Elena followed Bonnie into a special beaded-off VIP section and prepared to bite her. But Bonnie worked her magic, bringing wind and smashing some lights. She ran out and Elena, thoroughly pissed off, took her anger out on poor April. She smacked her head into a table then bit her. April dropped. Bonnie succeeded in getting Silas gone, and then bam, Elena swooped in and bit her. But Bonnie's neck healed and Elena projectile-vomited the blood back up. Bonnie rose and started making Elena's bones break. Stefan stopped Bonnie from killing Elena. As Damon held Elena, Stefan vervained her. 

Elena was deposited in the Salvatore Cellar and the brothers decided Plan C would be to make her life a living hell since Damon had seen fear in her eyes when Bonnie was about to kill her. 

In The Originals, Damon brought a thirsty Elena a blood bag. Only it was tainted with vervain. He's trying to make her angry and scared so she'll feel something and turn on her humanity. She tried to leave, and Stefan was there. "You boys want to play games? Go ahead," she said. "Let's see who breaks first, me or you." Stefan entered the cellar and closed the door.

Elena wanders through the woods, near starvation. She lies down in front of a car, planning to attack the driver. But the car belongs to Matt. He says he knows she doesn’t want to hurt him. They are still each other’s first loves. Unmoved, she drinks from him and is about to kill him when the Salvatores arrive. Damon snaps his neck, after warning her, "Turn your emotions on right now or so help me God I will give you something to be sad about." And she thought he was bluffing. Elena is devastated until Damon reveals he is wearing Jeremy’s old ring. Matt and Damon were working together all along. She allows herself to feel relieved and all of her human emotions return. She sobs about the waitress that she killed. Stefan advises her to find the thing inside of her that makes her want to live. She decides that since she blames Katherine for all their problems, dating back to her turning the Salvatores into vampires, she has decided to make it her mission in life to kill Katherine.

In The Walking Dead, to distract Elena from her mission to kill Katherine, Stefan began to train her in how to beat a cinder block and she failed to do the number of pull-ups Stefan requested and realized he wasn't going to help her find Katherine. Caroline had everyone mailing their graduation announcements. But Matt has no loved ones left and Elena just has those family friends in Denver. 

In Graduation,